SaintBobby

Agree with this. I think we were probably right this year to sell two players for a total of £40m and then buy 8 players for about £5m each (ok, that's an oversimplification, but broadly right) But next year, if we sell Wanyama and Mane for £40m, we really don't need 8 new £5m players - we need one or two superstars. I'm also a bit worried that the academy production line seems to have dried up a little. Harry Reid hasn't burst into the first team. And the others seems to be way off to the fringes. Ok, there's no way you can produce a Bale, Walcott or Shaw every single year. But for the first time in a long while, when I'm asked by fans of other clubs "So, who are the next 2 or 3 Saints academy players to keep an eye on?", I'm struggling for an answer.

These tables are meaningless if based just on transfer activity. A measure of what you're spending should be something like (not saying it's perfect, but it's closer to perfect): 1. Transfer fee paid divided by years of contract (so VvD counts as £2.3m a year for 5 years on cost side) 2. Player wage bill. If you sign your entire squad on free transfers, but pay them all £150,000 a week, you aren't the cheapest squad in the league 3. Transfer fees received divided by years that were left on the player's contract (so, I think that's £12m this year for Clyne, £12m this year and next year for Morgan)

Sure...if he'd done brilliantly at Liverpool, he probably wouldn't have left. For whatever reason, it didn't work out for him. He hardly played. As a back-up centre forward for Saints, he would have been relatively cheap and we could know with some confidence that he'd settle well at the club. Some players seem to click with some clubs and not others. Eg. Wilfred Zaha seems to be a one club man. Jason Puncheon seems to be very, very good as long as he isn't in a Saints shirt.

Quite apart from the bad blood, the fact that he acted like a total ***t etc, I'm not really sure he's good enough to walk into our team anyway. That said, I might have been tempted to take Rickie back as a squad player/back-up. He left on good terms, could honestly say that it just didn't work out for him at his boyhood club and would have been, at the very least, good cover for Pelle as CF.

Schlong scores v mighty Gibraltar

LOL

I've been impressed with what I've seen, but disappointed that I haven't seen much of him. Seems to be being saved for the last ten minutes rather than the last 30 minutes.

It's marginal, but I think it would be a bit more surprising if VvD didn't start.

Spurs are possibly the worst run club in the PL. That is one hell of a hurdle to clear. But I reckon they just clear it.

That's a really tasty line-up - and Jay Rod could play anywhere in the advanced four slots too. I think we now have a better squad than last season and a comparable, possibly only very marginally weaker, starting XI

Disappointed that we didn't wait an extra couple of hours to panic Celtic into dropping the price. I don't know why we are always in such a rush to complete our transfer activity so swiftly....

That open letter is ridiculous and pompous in equal measure. Hilarious though.

Given the c£30m disaster of Osvaldo and Ramirez, Mayuka often gets overlooked as a total waste of money. With the first two, I can see why we signed them though. I still don't really get why we ever got anywhere near signing Mayuka.

I can't see how that can be true. At kick off, half time, start of the 2nd half and full time, he was in the corporate seats, just behind the Saints top brass.

What's geography got to do with it? Derby and Norwich are small-ish citites with relatively large followings, largely due to a paucity of other recreational activities on offer. Southampton is a small-ish city with about an average-ish following. We must be the only club in the world which experiences a dip in attendance when a bloody boat show is on.

Was just discussing this with some fans at Soton Central station. Koeman has been so definitive that I think it's important we don't sell. There are no ifs and buts, he's ruled out a sale. If we do sell him now, it's a lot worse than if RK had been equivocal.

It's a bit like Derby. Small-ish city with a surprisingly big following. Because there is absolutely nothing to do in either Derby or Norwich other than watch football.

Sigh of relief. Important win and very good performance across the whole team. Tadic my MotM (mainly for his 1st performance rather than his 2 goals). Only note of caution for me is that Norwich were beyond dire. Truly, utterly appalling team. But you can only beat what's in front of you and we did that with ease and quite a bit of class.

Wasn't VvD cup tied in Europe anyway having played for Celtic who are now in Europa League? I guess if he's determined to play in Europa, this may incline him to stay at Celtic - but my understanding was that he wouldn't be eligible to play for Saints in that competition anyway.

It's certainly been a very poor start to the season. Worries that we are going to be involved in a relegation battle have started to enter my mind.

I'd merge the Europa League and the Champions League. You could do so by adding just one more round of games. The benefit would be that relatively smaller teams such as Saints, Fulham, West Ham etc could strive to regularly get into the top European competition. Having an A-list and a B-list competition means that middling teams can't ever really hope to get beyond the B-list. Since the European Cup became the Champions League, the UEFA/Europa League has become enormously devalued. When the European Cup just included the actual Champions, a case could be made that the UEFA Cup was actually more competitive than the European Cup. Surely, the latter included a handful of truly excellent teams. But the former included a vast swathe of very,very good teams.

I thought Everton were excellent. We were mediocre to slightly poor. If the rub of the green had gone the other way, we might have snatched something. But the truth is we were beaten by a very good team who played exceptionally.

Adequate start. We do need some better defensive players though, let's hope we get 1 or 2 in shortly.

Not worried about West Ham. They will probably lose. Even if they don't, I'm sure we will be given the nod (on 22 v 23) if that's decisive. Am worried we won't be in the top 22 though. That is a (potentially) nasty gig. And I really want group stage.

Make sure you guys can all sing your hearts out tomorrow night. Then you're allowed 2 hangovers :-)