Sidney Fudpucker the 3rd

Have we? Who? I don't think we have. Nobody had linked us with Romeu. I check Sky sports and the BBC websites on a daily basis and we're one of the least mentioned teams on there. Sure, if you look at transfer rumour websites then I'm sure we're mentioned on a regular basis but those sites are a load of ********. I'm sure they simply create rumours in the hope that a percentage of them will come good. Clubs like Stoke, Villa, Palace, Newcastle seemed to be mentioned on the SKY site every day and with every player that's available. Even if you look at the regional papers round-up on the SKY sports page there is rarely anything about Saints in there. There's often more from the likes of Reading, Bolton and Derby than Saints.

It's funny, I had a feeling last night that a signing might be announced today. This looks like a good bit of business and further more, it demonstrates how the club conduct their business behind the scenes and out of the eyes of the press. Log onto the Sky website and you'll see pretty much every club in the Premiership linked with different players on a daily basis, but Saints are the one club that you don't tend to hear too many rumours about. This is another fine example of this. I don't think we've been linked with Romeu in any press articles? The first we've heard of this is on the day that he's having a medical and is set to sign. This also demonstrates how we shouldn't get all panicky when every other club is being linked with players and we're not. Just because we're not on the back pages being linked with players doesn't mean that we're not working behind the scenes to bring people in.

Assuming that Caulker is going to get regular football and the fact that this guy can play at CB if required, I'm not sure we'll go for VvD. As things stand there's a few clubs interested in Virgil and Celtic will hold out for the highest bidder. I could see a price war between Sunderland, Newcastle, Everton and ourselves and we've never been a club to get involved in that nonsense. We'll have a figure that we're prepared to go to but will walk away if it all starts to get out of hand.

We have, but we also lost some better full internationals. Our competitors have certainly closed the gap. Last year I would have said we were a better side than the likes of WHU, Swansea, Palace, Newcastle, Stoke, WBA & Villa. I now think there's little between us and all of those teams. Hopefully Ronald and the boys will prove me wrong.

Exactly!

I'll reserve judgement until I've seen who else we bring in. As things stand I think we're in worse shape than we were last season. We lost 50% of our back 4 and a defensive midfielder who is pretty much irreplaceable. Our back 4 undoubtedly played a massive part in achieving the position that we did. Has it improved? No. Whilst I think Caulker is a good signing, he's not in the same league as Alderwiereld. Our performance against Newcastle demonstrated exactly what we need. 2 quality additions.

We need to sign 2 players, preferably this week. Yes, we look like we're a threat up front but we've got to tighten up at the back. It's where we excelled last year and we won't finish top 10 with performances like today. Bertrand coming back will help but we desperately need a quality CB and another defensive midfield player. Until that happens I'd be inclined to bring in Caulker & play Yoshida at LB. Targett looked like out worst player today. Newcastle are average. A decent team would have put 3 or 4 past us today and that's worrying.

Great couple of days in Amsterdam. Bumped into a few Saints fans but not as many as I thought I would. The highlight was seeing the Rapid Vienna fans getting a police escort through the centre of town on Tuesday evening. Great atmosphere. Amazing support. A real example of how to make your make your presence felt when you're playing away in Europe.

Champions - Man Utd although I fancy Liverpool could be a good outside shout. Saints to finish 14th. Everton to narrowly avoid relegation.

I think it's the best away kit we've ever had.

Dutch press are reporting that Celtic have rejected our bid and value him at €15m!!!

I think it'll be more interesting to see how Jay-Rod and Juanmi link up.

Not particularly bothered by it. I'm convinced it will only have a negative effect on our league form as it has every other English club who've played in it. I also believe that football should be played at 3pm on a Saturday afternoon. Having to move games to a Sunday as a result of playing in the Europa league doesn't work. You can't take two young children to an away game at the other end of the country with a 4pm kick off on a Sunday when they've got to be in school on Monday morning.

Just watched this again. You don't think the cheeky grin was because it's Lovren coming back on loan?

I didn't see this but on Monday a mate said 'you're getting two defenders this week, one on loan and one permanent'. I thought he was taking the ****... and then Caulker signed. Lucky guess I'd say. We're very good at keeping our transfer dealings very quiet these days.

Early reports suggest he'll be out of action for 2 -3 months.

I'd start Jay-Rod.

Out for 8-12 weeks. ;-)

He's going to WBA.

I totally agree. Caulker on loan for a season with an option to buy seems like a far better business decision than James Chester for £8m. If anyone can get his career back on track it's Koeman. I can remember talking to some Spurs fans who thought letting him go to Cardiff was a crazy decision.

Sign him up!

Funny, last season people were quite keen for him to come to us. Different story this season after his woeful season at QPR but if anyone can get the best out of him and get him back on track it's RK. He was strongly linked with Liverpool only a couple of season ago. I was beginning to think he was out to try and beat Nigel Quashie's record for being relegated with different clubs. ;-)

You could well be right about the 2 extra fixtures but we'll have to wait and see. Sorry, but I don't see us finishing top 10 at all. We did incredibly well given the departures last season but I think the loss of MS, NC & TA will prove far more costly that that of RL, DL, CC & AL. A number of teams seem to have strengthened well. We've replaced but I don't believe we've strengthened. Of course there's still time for this to change and other teams signings may not prove to be the instant success they hoped for. We'll have to see how things unfold but I'm expecting the likes of Newcastle, Stoke, Palace & WBA all to be far stronger this term. I would love to be proved wrong but think we're in for a bit of a rough ride this time.

I think we'll finish somewhere around 14th. We've lost too much quality this time and with the added fixtures I feel it's going to be a long hard season. I'm sure we are trying very hard to bring somebody in. If we were genuinely in for Chester then it's very disappointing that he's chosen WBA over Saints.

Anyone else heard we're about to make a move for Martins Indi? The only things I can find are rumours from the January transfer window.