positivepete

Thanks John Ro. Do you have any more thoughts on whether Gardos will do better than Chirich in the English league? I am sure you will be welcome on this forum, many of us on here have great memories of the tie between the two clubs. Not sure we were better than you though, we were very negative, and you had some very good technical players.

I went for a points total on this thread last season (55) so I was pretty close and that would have got us higher than 8th in a lot of seasons. This season I am going to lower the points total as I think it will take us time to settle, but I am going to go for 45 points, comfortably safe in the end.

Charles Miller made a big impact

Be happy with that, solid defensively and good on the counter attack or should I now say transition.

The kids section was in that corner of the East Stand (lower) next to the away fans. I always hoped that my kids would not understand what they were chanting. I remember some of the bolshy 8 year old giving it large to some Manc fans one year, goodness only knows what they made of it!

Yep. He was outstanding yesterday. Two superb tackles in the first half when we were about to create real goal scoring opportunities and a general authority holding together their back line. Can we sign one like him please?

I fear the change from having two defensive midfielders to one will leave us very vulnerable to a side with as much movement from deep as Liverpool. Come back soon Morgan, you are the one we are missing most of all.

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/aug/08/southampton-ronald-koeman-morgan-schneiderlin-contract Backing up some of the comments above. The club seem to be clear on this one. I hope Morgan sorts himself out, he is an outstanding player and we are be a better team with him.

In the same way as it would have weakened the clubs position if we had bought before we sold. Ah you now need to get rid of X because you have already signed his replacement, I will half the bid, you need the cash......

He had a major influence on Joe Hart's career when on loan at Birmingham, and is also credited with reviving Foster's career.

As per title, interview with Ralph

In the Brighton game we only operated with one holding midfield player, Wanyama, with Cork coming on to take his place. Davis and Ward-Prowse operated further forward with Tadic coming inside to play as a number 10 to make a diamond midfield. If this is going to be the shape going forward it will be interesting as to who will start where.

I have only been to the Brighton game, but his short passing was good, his long passing and cross field balls were excellent, his set pieces were dangerous, he scored a superb goal showing great technique and he plays with his head up. That is good enough for me to mark him as a class act at his age in his position. I will stick my neck out and say he is better than Wiltshire was at the same age.

I can't help feeling that Taider coming in means a current midfielder leaving. Last night we played Wanyama in front of the two centre backs and Prowsey and Steven Davis further forward in the middle. Cork came on for Wanyama and we still have Morgan and Read to fit in. We were effectively playing with three central midfield players, and we already have six players for those three roles, if we say that Gaston, McQueen and JayRod compete for the wide positions that Isgrove and Tadic played last night.

There was an ITV crew at Brighton last night seeking out fans for interviews. Were they included in the piece?

Spot on SaintPat

Pretty unsound thesis. Loans to equity means that the money is in equity or shares. There are two ways of getting that back, sell the club (not the players) or award a very special dividend, the second of which is highly unlikely. Again, the money for players sales stays in the legal entity, and does not go into the owners pocket.

We might want all those players this transfer window, but we do not need them all without wishing to pedantic. We certainly need a CB and LB, but Buric and Clyne are first 11 standard. I accept that we need some cover, but we might still be ok buying cover in January. Not ideal but I would not go into meltdown if we do not sign eight more players this window.

Surely we won £50m to nil

I am not sure our sales strategy will put off too many players. Any player who wants to get to an English PL club would see us as a great stepping stone, and if that is their goal then we can be sure that we will get a couple of seasons of superb performances if they want to achieve that goal. The same applies to young English players, better to get to Chelsea via Southampton than rot in the Chelsea youth system. We should be able to pick up the cream of youth players.

Does Chambers have the same agent as the players who have already left?

I seem to recall that all players coming out the academy get the same standard contract, the basic being supplemented with performance bonuses.

Caulker swap for Fonte (plus cash) ?

On sale tomorrow, I posted the link on the pre season friendly thread, thought that was the appropriate place!

Brighton tickets on sale on their web site tomorrow. http://www.seagulls.talent-sport.co.uk/PagesPublic/usercontrolled/UserDefined.aspx?page=preseasonfriendlies2014