stevegrant

I'm not sure the Football League are in a position to block their parachute payments. They come directly from the Premier League, and they've already said they won't assist the Football League in collecting any fines they hand out.

£58m on transfer fees, at least the same in wages in the two-and-a-bit years in charge, recouping £25m in sales. Redknapp has done his usual trick of stockpiling players who have plenty of experience but who have very little resale value, and a load of free transfers on massive wages. Of the players he's signed, he's already sold a few on - Loic Remy (£8m, sold for £8.5m), Christopher Samba (£12.5m, sold for £12m, somehow), Jordan Mutch (£6m, sold for £4.5m) - with a whole load released on frees - Yossi Benayoun, Aaron Hughes, Stephane Mbia, Gary O'Neil, Danny Simpson, Andy Johnson, Jermaine Jenas. Those he signed who might have some resale value: Yun Suk-Young (£500k), Charlie Austin (£4m), Steven Caulker (£8m, but surely there won't be a third club willing to pay £8m for him based on the last two years' performances), Leroy Fer (£8m). Other than that, there's no long-term legacy there. If QPR go down, Austin's long gone, Fer as well, I expect, and then they've got to start again pretty much from scratch. Good luck, Tactics Tim, you're going to need it.

What has been seen cannot be unseen

I'm amazed Fernandes has got anywhere in business considering how naive and, at times, incompetent he seems to be.

FFS. I was hoping we could give him a final send-off on Saturday

GroupSave used to get you 50% off if there were 4 of you travelling, but it seems as if they've reduced that to 34% for groups of 3-9 people. A Network Railcard also entitles you to a 34% discount in the "Network South East" region (as far north as Banbury, I believe), hence why some will buy "split" tickets to Birmingham for the West Brom game. You can get the discount up to Banbury but no further. The benefit of a Network Railcard over GroupSave is that you can get the discount if there's only 1 or 2 of you travelling, and the Railcard is also valid with all operators in the region. GroupSave tickets can't be used on CrossCountry trains, which screws you for West Brom as the only way of getting from Reading to Banbury is on Cross Country. Example: Southampton Central to Shepherd's Bush on Saturday is £39.50 for a standard off-peak day return. With a Network Railcard (1-4 people) or GroupSave (3-9 people), that gets reduced to £26.05. So just to get to London, you're saving £13.45. If you make three trips to London in a year, you've made the cost of the railcard back.

Their "Premier League star" has been given an ADDITIONAL four game suspension, which makes a total of SEVEN games for his red card last week

He's a bit unfortunate that left-back is the one position where England genuinely has quality and strength in depth. Baines, Shaw, Gibbs and even Ashley Cole had he not retired would all be in with a shout of being picked, along with Bertrand.

It's the Network Railcard you're after.

Dunno, I'd assume that he'd have to undergo a routine medical as part of the permanent contract.

Has played havoc with the signing news article URL

Unlikely, we're relative small fry in terms of viewing numbers and interest. That said, with the traditional big clubs seemingly not doing anything tonight, they've got to get an angle from somewhere, I suppose.

I've not seen enough (anything at all, really) of Djuricic to know whether he's a) a good player, or b) suited to us. However, the club's track record in terms of its recruitment over the last couple of years (Osvaldo aside, I guess, although that's a personal thing rather than an ability thing - I think everyone agrees he has the ability) certainly gives them the benefit of the doubt.

Inter want to cancel the loan, but we are under no obligation to do so. Given the situation when he left, I can't imagine we'd be willing to cancel it without having already found another destination to send him to.

Based on what? Wanyama and Schneiderlin, yes, obviously. Davis doesn't play the same position, nor does Ward-Prowse. It's like saying Cork's down the pecking order because he'd rather play Dusan Tadic. Cork, when fit, is clearly still ahead of Reed at this stage.

It's not as simple as that, the "pecking order" isn't linear because it depends on a variety of combination of roles, rather than "three central midfielders". Wanyama and Schneiderlin, when available, are clearly the first-choice deep-lying midfielders, with Davis generally picked to play centrally in front of them. In a linear hierarchy, that would suggest that if Schneiderlin or Wanyama were injured, Davis would move up a step in the list and take the place of that injured player, which isn't the case. Cork would be the next cab off the rank based on the whole of this season. Reed has played in that deep role recently, but that's been because of the absence of Wanyama, Schneiderlin AND Cork. Had Cork been available for the Everton game, say, Reed may not even have been picked. Davis has only played in a deeper role when the combination has been Reed, Davis and Ward-Prowse, as his defensive game is stronger than JWP's, but each of Wanyama, Schneiderlin, Cork and even Alderweireld have stronger attributes for the deep-lying midfield position than Davis. So it's as clear as mud, other than to say that Cork isn't fifth choice in a month of Sundays.

The problem with Sneijder is that he's just not that good anymore. Only really showing flashes of inspiration every so often in a league that's relatively weak - certainly much weaker than the PL - doesn't justify such a monstrous salary for me. While Koeman will diplomatically say we can't afford him, I suspect the actual truth is that we wouldn't want him these days.

Define "obviously". If he's asking for guarantees of first-team football, we could throw as much money as we like at him and he won't sign it. We're not going to be able to guarantee him first-team football, either Wanyama and Schneiderlin stay next season (unlikely with the latter) or we sign at least one more central midfielder, or both. Either way, Cork is likely to be moving further down the pecking order rather than up.

The ever-reliable Jim White.

A lot of gun-jumping being performed by certain sections of the media, it seems. I'm led to believe we've not accepted any bid, Cork's agent hasn't been given permission to open formal discussions with any club, and they are still negotiating for a new deal to stay here. He may well end up going, but if he does, you can be damn sure we'll string it out until the deadline so he can't play against us on Sunday.

I hereby start the campaign for the monorail to be extended to block 40

Seems strange that the biggest and bestest definitely-fan-owned club wouldn't be considered for this. Perhaps the email was rejected as spam?

It's worth bearing in mind that the game could yet be moved. If Spurs get to the quarter-finals of the Europa League, they would be playing on the 23rd, which would mean they wouldn't be forced to play on the 25th. However, the Southampton Half-Marathon, which takes place on many of the roads near St Mary's, is taking place on Sunday 26th April, so I don't think the game could be moved to the Sunday. It would almost certainly have to be on the Monday night. In terms of getting tickets for the game, try emailing the ticket office (tickets@saintsfc.co.uk), explaining your situation, and they may be able to help you as an exception.

I think that photo shows the main reason, that part of the pitch probably doesn't get enough sunlight. Added to them having to train on the pitch before the new training ground was ready and prioritising getting capacity back up to 20,000 with the North Stand safety certificate rather than spending on pitch maintenance, and you have the perfect conditions for a pitch shambles.