Greenridge

Back to Fonte. The options are increasingly looking pretty thin on the ground for Jose. Be interesting if he doesn't get a move whether he'll be prepared to knuckle down and contribute to the remainder of the season. We will certainly need him with our lack of depth in that department.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p04phhxn He talked for nearly four minutes about important interesting possibilities. I think.

Everyone could see we were short of quality and depth up front before the first kick of the season. I know Claude said he was happy with his squad but I think he was just towing the club line. The club is completely liable for not seeing what was around the corner and now we'll more than likely end up with a higher fee, high wages and lesser player than we could have got in the summer.

Leicester are allegedly in for Gaston Ramirez.

Payet wants to go to Marseille, just near China.

To a certain extent that was a different era / philosophy. We were buying proven players that would get us out of the league(s) and back to the Prem (Lambert, Fonte etc). There was little requirement for resale value then. It's a different model now.

Just seems such an un-Southampton-like signing. A 26 year old who's probably reached his peak potential and value and on huge wages. Would be a strange one although we of course bought Graziano in and he was no spring chicken although I think that was more of a Koeman signing than a club signing and an exception to our dealings in recent years.

What happened to this?

From SSN Transfer Centre or whatever it's called:

He was playing for France when he was regularly playing for us. He hasn't played for Utd and therefore he's not been selected for France. He hasn't become a poor player overnight so it seems right that his worth now is what it was when we sold him taking into consideration his age and contract length. It's all subjective though and in the current climate it's difficult to determine what's good value and what isn't. He'll definitely been an improvement on what Everton currently have.

It was Dappy who told Fazer to come for the crosses. Know's his football that boy. Rubbish singer though.

And, one assumes, they were still paying him.

Would be nice if Claude could find a way of letting them play a bit more. I agree, Cedric has really come on this year and dare I say it, he's a bit more 'robust' than he was last season so he's definitely coming to terms with the physicality of the Premier League. There's absolutely zero comparison to him and Cuckoo and what they bring to the team.

But it's the same old story of cutting your nose to spite your face. OK, they're not paying his salary in your example but in reality they'd rather have the £30M in the bank and buy a replacement who will contribute to the team. I'm guessing with FPP now it's even more of an issue. I get your point though and agree. Would be nice for one of the financial big boys to actually do this one day. It might make players think twice but I highly doubt it.

Nathan the Welsh boxer or Tom the footballer?

Thanks for that insight. I wasn't referring to Liverpool just us.

Apart from the first twenty minutes the team looked far more comfortable in their roles, responsibilities and the formation than previously demonstrated. The substitutions at the end disrupted us more than it did Liverpool. I appreciate he was trying the run the clock down but it got messy and this was part of the reason. Best game for me from Redmond but he needs some time with Le Tiss or someone. Those misses were, erm, not good.

Still seems a lot for a 33 year old CB. Are there any other notable cases of players of that age and position (& ability / contract length) moving for a similar amount?

Are you saying he's not doing it on purpose? It's almost like you think he's pulling squad numbers out of a hat each week. What I find difficult to understand is that managers of the calibre of Klopp, Wenger, Mourhino, Conte and Guardiola haven't latched onto Claude's innovative strategy of changing between 5 and 8 players week in week out. They're really missing out and being short-sighted.

I was thinking more up front but yes you are right. If Fonte goes then we'll have to have someone in at CB as you say it seems Gardos is not felt up to the job / fit by the club. Actually one of the Swedish posters said yesterday (I think) that he had heard Gardos has gone on loan although if that was the case you would think we would have heard officially on that score. In saying that, Gardos' whole time at Saints has been off the radar so who knows.

This year will almost certainly have to be an exception which is largely of our own doing due to our lack of recruitment in the Summer window.

That's one game. How about the rest of the season?

I see Eddie went to school on our rotation victory against them in their FA Cup game today. He even out-did Claude by changing all 11 players. Didn't end to well though.

I was comparing their relative costs and contributions to the first team. Combined fee of c£10m is not insignificant for a club like ours. I appreciate Gardos has had the injuries but the club have shown little intention of getting him back in the first team fold.

Don't think that would be a surprise to anyone. Him and Forren have been poor and expensive signings.