stevegrant

Everything I've heard for months is that those involved in the transfer are "very confident" of getting the deal done. It would appear that this is why...

His performances rather mirrored the whole team last season, excellent at the start of the season but faded badly after Christmas.

£10 a pop.

Tends to be Doctor Who enthusiasts, strangely.

Barcelona's financial reporting isn't known for its accuracy tbf In terms of this deal, I can only shrug my shoulders really. Strange one, he was a popular player and yet never had a song despite making 100+ appearances, and for me his attitude and performances in the second half of the season leave me feeling completely unbothered by his departure. Most of last summer's sales brought tinges of sadness for various reasons, but I just can't raise any particular disappointment here. Good player, certainly, but irreplaceable? Not a chance.

Reading between the lines a bit, I'm sure things were said last year along the lines of "sure, if a Champions League side comes in for you and matches our valuation of you, we'll let you leave, but you're not going to Spurs this summer". As things stand, none of the 4 clubs who qualified for the Champions League have made an offer that matches our valuation (whether that's £25m, £30m or somewhere in between, depending on who you believe) - hopefully he is a bit more measured dealing with the situation this summer, as I don't expect Man United to just hand over the asking price immediately. He's probably going to have to be very patient. In the meantime, I'd be very surprised if we weren't already setting up deals elsewhere - with the club's cashflow boosted in May with the PL prize money, it shouldn't be a case of not having the cash to do deals until we sell.

The top clubs, who are almost always the most popular...

Northants set a new record low of 79 last year, without winning a single game and only collecting 4 draws. I think even we will end up with a few more than that.

Sean Terry is our most in-form batsman. Never thought I'd ever be saying that...

That is not and has never been the way newspapers work, sub-editors have always added the headlines.

Generally, yes. He's one of the more respected journalist/pundits.

He used to use quotes taken from interviews in the Saints matchday programme and claim them as exclusives as well. Largely got away with it because hardly anyone reads the programme these days.

Ultimately if it's sent from Crook's email account with his name attached to it, he should expect to be on the receiving end of all questions regarding the quality of the work. It'll be him, through M&Y, that'll cash the cheque for it, after all...

Agreed. He's been one of our more consistent performers, which admittedly isn't actually saying much. Where's Dawson going? We really are an absolute shambles on and off the pitch at the moment

Apparently the Daily Star are the best payers for freelancers, which seems strange for a paper with such low circulation numbers. If I were them, I'd be seeking better value for money elsewhere...

Blind was already earmarked as his successor at the end of his contract after the Euros, all that will happen is that succession will be accelerated. I'm not in the slightest bit concerned.

http://www.saintsweb.co.uk/match/southampton-2-0-burnley/report-401

There's a fairly sizeable difference between liking/not liking another club and calling them strange names like a 10-year-old would.

Not sure about that. He played in the November games against Slovenia and Scotland, but there wasn't a noticeable tail-off in performance until the end of the January transfer window. All through that good run after Christmas into the New Year, his performances were good. I guess it probably started with the Palace cup game at the end of January, although fair to say our whole back 4 were terrible that afternoon. The trend had already set in before the March internationals against Lithuania and Italy, IMO - the latter of which he was particularly awful.

Perhaps, but I don't think Bertrand's contribution dropped at any stage last season. We never really played with out-and-out wingers last season (possibly on isolated occasions, but not for any prolonged period) so there was always space for both of them to get forward. I don't know whether it was a lack of confidence (seems odd given the circumstances) or not being fully focused, but there were so many games where there would be pretty much the entire right flank for Clyne to run into, but he'd never make the run, preferring instead to hold his position or if he had the ball, check back inside and give it to someone else.

Personally I don't get the fuss about Ings. Sure, he runs around a lot, but his finishing isn't up to much. I don't see how he improves under a manager who doesn't seem to have improved a single player in his three years in charge, especially when he's not going to be playing every week. Firmino should be good, but depends on how he settles and how Rodgers (ab)uses him.

Nothing other than reading between the lines - Koeman stated in various press conferences that there was a deadline of [whenever], and then when that deadline came and went, he'd then be quoted saying there was a new deadline. That doesn't suggest that the offer was rejected, just that they didn't get a response.

In terms of the actual move, I'd agree, but the effort and application he put into his performances from January onwards when it was clear he wanted to leave have been ****-poor IMO, and I suspect it's that which cost him a move to Man United and Champions League football, so he's shot himself in the foot in that regard. I guess if we're being picky, it would have been nice of him to actually grow a pair and actually tell the club he didn't want to sign a new contract rather than just refuse to respond to the offers put on the table.

The worry is throwing them in and their career gets set back years through the loss of confidence through being hit around everywhere. The Simon Kerrigan effect...

I was very surprised we apparently weren't interested in signing Kieran Trippier from Burnley, considering he had a £3.5m relegation release clause in his contract and we knew of the likelihood that Clyne would be leaving. He would have both given us options at right-back alongside Cedric Soares and helped the home-grown quota.