Brussels Saint

I think the plan is to play 433 next season with the flexibility to move to 442 or the diamond as and when needs must. If 433 is the route forward, I'm not sure Ricky is best suited to that, but he will contribute next season for sure. I would not be hugely surprised that through the course of the season our starting front 3 developes into Lee - Rodrigues - Guly (or new signing) It would be strange to not start with Ricky against Man City and if it was me choosing I would definitely select him, however if NA had him on the bench, I also would not be massively shocked. Long term I think we signed Rodrigues as the replacement central striker for Ricky and maybe over the season we will see that becoming clearer.

8m and chuck in Walcott and we might consider it!

Such a grand production is always not going to be to everyones taste, but I along with the vast majority loved it. I watched it in a group with 2 Brits, a Pole, a Croat & a Swede and to a person they thought it was great. The non-Brits understood what was going on, so I think we probably underestimate the appeal to those overseas. It was cool and made me proud to be British.

Enjoyed that. Certainly lots of positives. JWP, Lallana, Guly, Morgan, Clyne & Hooiveld all stood out. Bit worried about Fonte & Richardson and Lambert looked a bit off the pace. Biggest plus had to be JWP, what great movement.

Excellent! We are Southampton, we'll tap up who we want!

As I understand both Cortese and Markus when he was with us, pay for a season ticket. I'm sure I read somewhere Cortese state this as one of the first things we heard from him. He basically said everyone must pay including him. Anyone else remember that?

This is all very well, but we need to bring our level of menace up to date and reflect the true nature of the clubs ownership and our Executive Chairman. A mallet in the head? No, No No.........now we abduct them in the middle of the night, put their head in a vice, extract some teeth and finally garotte them. The decapitated head should then be sent in the post to a "fans representative" from the opposing club, decorated in a Saints wig. I doubt we would then get much problem during the following fixture. Together as one. Alternatively we could just make a banner. I'm fine with either approach.

Killer is too similar to Jos IMO, so as most have mentioned the best fit would be Mark Wright first and probably Claus 2nd.

I quite like it, but seriously how can they have no iPad support

Also wondering if they have had a look at Shaw in pre-season and think he is further along his development than originally anticipated.

Agree, most traditional fans and commentators don't like it. If we go with this next year expect to see lots of "you don't mark a zone, you mark a man ffs" type comments when we concede. I think in general a lot continental teams employ this approach, but not seen many British teams do it successfully.

An excellent signing. In terms of business the 3 we have got so far are great. 4 or 5 to go now, a GK, CB, RM, maybe a LB & LM (Buttner as an option for both?) A GK & a CB are nailed on for sure.

Its a fair point lets look at the signings: Pog V Jay = Jay longterm a better option, Pog probably better now. Guthrie V Davis = Probably on a par. Davis shades it just for me. McCleary = Not convinced he is more than a squad player Gunter = Decent, but if we do sign Clyne, we have the better option Mariappa = Not convinced he is more than a squad player Clearly we need some action soon, but my bet is once the transfer window is closed, our business will be better than Readings.

Taking a quick view of our current squad and asking the question, "do we have 2 PL level players in each position" I would argue we still need to sign a GK, RB,CB,LB,RM&LM. Even then, this would mean considering Seabourne & Chaplow as decent enough at CB & CM (probably not, but maybe good enough as 4th choice). I have not considered the likes of JWP or Shaw etc. in this. I'm suggesting we should look to move Hammond, Harding, Punch, De Ridder, Barnard, Butterfield, Forte & Dickson on, as they IMO are not good enough. Thats tough I know, especially on the first 6, who have all played to varying degrees a part in our rise to the PL. If this is done, it would mean signing 8 players during this window, which I believe is around the number Norwich signed when promoted. Not revolution for sure, but strong evolution. Lets see what NC & NA go with. My guess is we will sign 6 of the 8 and both Hammond & De Ridder will not leave and there would be no harm in that.

When I was in my 20's, my company paid me to fly business class all over the world as a Sales trainer. Stayed in fabulous hotels and visited almost every country in Europe as well as Brazil, US, India, South Africa, Bahamas, Russia, Canada, Argentina & Dubai. I had a Gold Card on BA and the top deck of a 747 was a great place to be. My job was to take a class and teach them how to sell our companies services. Often the locals would then take me partying in the evenings to show me their country and their hospitality (quite a few were very hospitable!) I remember flying back from a Sales conference in the Bahamas in 1st Class (Business was full!), staying at that big pink hotel thats in lots of movies (cant remember the name). I was there for 4 days and the only thing I did was give one 3 hour presentation (on why Europe is great to do business with!) and just thinking "they are paying me to do this!!!" I did that for 4 fabulous years and gave it all up to work in management................I know. I know.

Think that may be just a reset for the new system. I just checked Lambert & Guly for the Saints both score a 5.0

Actually as I understand it, it did not cost us anything like the original 32m if thats the correct amount. When we went into admin, I think Aviva took a substantial haircut from the Liebherr's, which when all told, has to just about make it the best value stadium anywhere in the country.

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Brussels is fairly crap outside of the main downtown sites already mentioned if you visit as a tourist and don't know where to look. Delve a little deeper however and you can find a truely energetic, modern metropolis with just about anything and everything you need. What do like doing, I'll point you in the right direction.

Its likely a great signing, giving us 2 quality left backs and Shaw pushing on. Must be the end for Harding & Dickson you imagine and in reality neither are up to PL standard. As good as it is, we do still need a GK, CB, CM, RM & RB however imo! Will we sign 7 players in the window?

All I ask for is a Saints Player that works direct on an iPad. Seriously who uses Flash these days. Any website wanting to avoid a big % of their visitors being unable to view the content, must enable it for iPads/Phone. Apple have been fairly petty in their tactics regarding this, but they will win.

Have to admit, I'm in the Spain camp on this one and love the tippy tappy pretty pattern stuff. I don't find it boring, but can understand why some do. The Germans unfortunately seem to have caught the English disease and weight of expectation is making them freeze.

Definitely me! However I still think 6m for Butland is a lot.............I'm not saying we should not sign him for that amount, I love NC's ambition, but it is a substantial punt especially on a 19 year old goalkeeper rather than an outfield player. NC has balls however and if this move does turn out to be true, clearly he's not going to mess around in the Premier League. Not too many of us predicted transfer fees being paid around the 6-7m level.

I don't disagree, but he was given a contract at Spurs whilst young and around the same age. If they did not see anything in him initially, then why sign him on professional terms at all. Granted they eventually realised he was not up to it, but my point is that Butland at 19 (or whatever he is) is a massive punt at 6m for a goalkeeper of that age.