jayrivers

Looks nice! In cycling they put loads of money into the coach because then the cyclists will recover quickly so they have loads of luxeries on there. Guess the same theory would apply to footballers. If you can begin recovering on the journey home them you should be fitter for training the following week!

So with Team sky announcing this years squad I think they are looking pretty strong... http://www.teamsky.com/article/0,27290,29112_8785078,00.html Chris Froome Richie Porte Edvald Boasson Hagen Peter Kennaugh Vasil Kiryienka David López Kanstantsin Siutsou Ian Stannard Geraint Thomas Thought there may have been a place for Uran and Christian Knees. But guess they have a hard Giro and maybe thought it be best to go with potentially fresher riders. It does show what depth Team Sky have at their disposal! Not one rider who rode in the Giro there and I still think that's a pretty impressive squad! Also good to see 4 British riders going.

think we could play something like this - or at least have the option to go between this and a 4-2-3-1. Would def give us some more options! -------------Boruc------------- Clyne--Lovren--Forren--Shaw ----------Wanyama------------ ----Schneiderlin--Cork-------- Ramierez--------------Lallana -----Lambert/Rodriguez------

Hopefully Team Sky will announce their squad soon though, although the bulk of the team is pretty obvious. This is my guess to whom they'll line up with 1) Chris Froome 2) Ritchie Porte 3) Edvald Boasson Hagen 4) Geraint Thomas 5) Bernhard Eisel 6) Ian Stannard 7) Peter Kennaugh Rigoberto Urán 9) Christian Knees There are a couple of names that might change. They might not take Eisel and might not see Peter Kennaugh as being ready. They could also pass on Stannard which means they could take Sergio Henao, Vasil Kiryienka, and/or David López. All of whom probably deserve a place. It's going to be a tough call as all those riders are capable. i think it will be between those 12 riders?

Building works are going to cost us our spot in the Premier League this year! How can we be concentrating on building works and signing players at the same time! How can they say this is more important than signing players!

This

I can't see past Froome for the Tour tbh. Unless Contador was hiding something last week... I can see Sky pulling off another 1-2 with Froome and Porte. They are going to have a good team built around winning it. They will want to do what they did last year and keep two riders in the hunt, and Porte is capable of doing that. He will be playing the role that Wiggo would have been if he was riding. They won't want to put all their eggs in one basket after what happened in 2011!

Yep i remember reading something along those lines...

I take that as they are changing how day to day it's run? Maybe they genuinly weren't happy with how business has been conducted over the last couple of years?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/22510420 "He is thought to be seeking guarantees over his future amid concerns that the Liebherr trust is contemplating a change to the way the club is run." Maybe they want more of a say in the way the club is ran? Or want a new structure and don't want him having the final say in everything?

That was our first home game after it happened. Southend were already relegated and was a really good atmosphere for such a game!

Sums it up for me. Never been that big on international football and even less so now....

Especially if you are keen enough!

Yeh - Thanks!!!!

Well the wage thing is interesting though? Clubs whose total wage bill is more than £52m will only be allowed to increase their wages by £4m per season for the next three years, but the cap does not cover extra money coming in from increases in commercial or matchday income. The ceiling when the wage increase restrictions kick in will be £52m next season, £56m the following year and £60m in 2015-16. Only seven of the current top-flight clubs would be under that ceiling at the moment. Taken from here http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/11700/8630495/Premier-League-Clubs-will-be-asked-to-ratify-plans-for-Financial-Fair-Play So I take that to mean you can't keep buying players on high wages and retaining them. £4m a year amounts to one player on £75,000 a week? To chelsea wouldn't be able to buy 3 super stars each year without selling some players on?

Maybe they would know - http://www.beerintheevening.com/pubs/s/11/11998/Black_Bear/Moreton_in_Marsh

The more you secure it against the lower the interest rate. Take for example. If you buy a house that's worth 200k and take a mortage of 160k that could be a risk. But if you're only taking a mortgage of 50k against a house that's worth 200k then the rate of interest will be significantly lower as it presents much less of a risk. So by securing it against all of the tv money, the bank would have a pretty good chance of getting their money back if we didn't pay.

The figures here are the first half of the season (first 6 months back in the prem) - so my assumption is the loan of £3.8m is the BVI loan which seems it was taken for the extra work for the training ground. Imo of course...

Didn't the 12 million come from peoples assumption it was being used for the Ramirez signing? I can't remember seeing anything more concrete, but i could be wrong. It might not all be financed by the loan. They said that more work was needed to be done because of having to pull down the dome. So maybe they just needed some extra for that as they hadn't set enough aside at the time?

Strachan: My Life in Football

Wasn't there a stat about him putting in the most number of tackles? A fairer comparisson would be something like yellow cards per tackle?

Simon Peach ‏@SimonPeach There are unlikely to be any news faces in at #SaintsFC before the month is out, but could be one or two heading out.

Wasn't that ony becuse it was mentioned in the press conference though? Edit - Here is the tweet - Southampton FC ‏@SouthamptonFC The gaffer said yesterday that Adam Lallana could be involved tomorrow – here he is in full training... #saintsfc

I think I would rather not panic in January and get some proper quality in the summer. We have aquired several players in January windows that smack of panic buy rather than full quality. Feels we should be identifying targets for the summer based on second half of the season and being prepared as we'll know way ahead of time what we will need and who is coming up from the youth. Obivious I know!

Southampton FC ‏@SouthamptonFC Pochettino: "After working with the players, I think they are talented and skilful. It's not a priority for us to sign anyone." #saintsfc