doddisalegend

In fairness I doubt he wanted to go he probably wanted a crack at the PL (I'm guessing he was promised that when he signed)...However he was told he was unlikely to get one at saints so he has made the best of what was offered to him. He is hardly likely to rock up at Forest and say "Well I don't want to be here really but it was this or not even making the bench at Saints" I always thought he was signed to get us over the line last season...but I did reckon he'd be given a chance this season. The decision to change our style of play rather rainned on Billy's parade I think.

I like red and white srtipes that is saints to me ...but as I don't were replica tops I'm not that fussed

Not saying you're lying.... but who knows if Billy embelished the story a bit. Maybe Nigel wimped out and decided to blame it on NC " look Billy I want you but the chairman doesn't" I'd hate to think the chairman is telling the manager what team to pick but this is only one story ,and only one side of it, so I'm not quite ready to storm SMS pitch fork and flaming torch in hand just yet.

Not great ...if true.

Of course it will. I'd be shocked if he would pick us over Liverpool....even more so if he considered playing football for Sydney more attractive than playing in the PL for us.

Do Arsenal play Oxo on the right side like we did? I don't fancy Fox's chances much againt either Walcott or Oxo running at him.

It's like the last few years never happened......

A source close to Del Piero told talkSPORT: "Del Piero originally ruled out a move to the Premier League as only Southampton were interested and he didn’t want to jump from Juventus to the Saints. "Then Sydney FC came in and started discussing a deal with him as Del Piero wanted a new challenge outside of top-level football. "At the last minute Liverpool came in and said 'don’t sign a deal yet as we are interested'. So he didn't want to come to the PL becuase saints was a big drop from Juve but he would play for Sydney becuase it wasn't top flight football????? weird

In fairness if we lose lots of matches we won't have to get used to it we will be back in the championship...

Weren't we one of the fitest sides in the league last season we never seemed to have trouble lasting the whole game...a lot of Nigels success seemed to be built on the fitness side of things.....It would be strange if that wasn't carried on this pre-season. Maybe we just have to work a lot harder against PL talent than we did against league 1 sides......

Bit unfair on Barney plenty of good players miss penos. The two misses where bad but at least he was getting himself in the right postions we all know Barney isn't PL maybe we should have loaned Bournemouth Sharp as well. Still can't work out how pompey can afford players like Howard and Mcleod....

Sadly I reckon Alps won't be the only one. A 12 million pound price tag is going to bring a hefty amount of expectation down on Gaston...I can see him being the next Guly for the knuckle draggers down at SMS if he doesn't get off to a good start.

Interesting piece on the BBC about the Uruguay team see our new man gets a mention The problem is that at the age of 33 Forlan is showing signs of decline. He had an unhappy, injury-hit season in Italy with Inter Milan, and has made an uncertain start with Internacional in Brazil. His first goals for his new club finally came on Sunday, when in the 4-1 win over Flamengo he looked like a class act once more. But will he still be able to hit the heights for the next two years, and if not, can he be replaced? Southampton's new signing Gaston Ramirez has been groomed for the role, but has consistently looked off the pace when given a start in the senior side - and for all his left-footed wizardry from set-pieces, the Olympics did nothing to alter this impression. I look forward to some left footed set piece wizardry be nice to get a few more goals from free kicks. http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/timvickery/2012/09/uruguay_have_cause_for_world_c.html

Taken from the BBC If a club is unable to name 25 fit, over-21 players, in their squad they will be allowed to submit a list with a number of open positions that can then be filled by free agents at any time. However, clubs who do have 25 fit and over-21 players cannot deliberately leave players off the list in order to fill them with free agents between now and January 1. So I'm guessing all the players we have have to be on the list first....I'm guessing that means people like Ryan Dickson and Danny Butterfield have to get the nod before any free agents.

No it's a clear foul if the Ref gives it ...He didn't. Jose (and Jos) seem to have more than their fair share of unfortunate incidents.... all players make mistakes our back two seem to make more than most last season they often got away with it this season they won't against better players.

Did I imagine Jose ****ing about with the ball in a stupid place before losing it and ending in a Wigan goal?

Exactley I'd rather we had 3 or 4 Southampton ways TBH ideally taliored to the opposition at hand...

Better ask whispering Dave on Solent about that one he keeps pointing out that our players tend to try and play out from the back even when it's not on hence a couple of heart in the mouth moments yesterday when Kelvin played shocking balls out to defenders.....something he did a few times last season to. Playing out from the back is preferable but not always the best option.

Wotton would have destroyed Scholes....................................................................................................................................legs just before being sent off:)

LOL my nipper has been thrashing me every day at fifa street since he got it for his birthday a couple of weeks ago

In fairness our defence looked poor againt perennial relegation fodder Wigan to........

That goes back to the OPs arguement I suppose. If Nigel is saying we looked at some quaility defenders but they cost to much so we spent 19 million on Gaston and J-rod instead you have to question that. Still until the new signings have bedded in and we can see the effect they have on the team it's to early to tell if our new signings were right or not.

Doesn't mean it will translate to English football wasn't Delgado a top international? We have no idea how Gaston will adjust to the PL one things for sure his price tag is going to put him under huge pressure from the word go.

Do we know if Gaston was an either or or situation to be able make a judgement on the OPs question? It seems there was other money to spend elsewhere. Gaston might be s hit hot and might help get us enough goals to counter act our leaky defence but as yet he hasn't kicked a ball for us so we can't really judge? As someone else pointed out the club made noises about the defence yet we didn't strengthen there as much as many of us hoped LB in particular looks very weak. I'd love to know why we didn't sign another CB and a LB while adding more attacking options and then sending Sharp out on loan but I doubt we will ever find out.