S-Clarke

This is something that's still going on. I watch my brother who is part of a youth team and I went to a tournament at Totton a few weekends back, one of the guys in one of the teams had real skil - used the ball well and had really nice technique and skill to get out of situations, as a coach you'd think we'd want to encourage that. but no, I heard the coach say to him ''Stop farting about with the ball and all the fancy things, just get it up there''. If that's the mentality at that level then we haven't got a chance.

To be fair, that was better than I and most probably expected. We look very, very hard to beat and you can see us frustrating many teams. The french had a funny set up though, for Benzema being the striker he spent more time outside of the box than inside and that's why you often had them hitting pot shots, so in that sense I think they made it easy for us to defend but we still did it pretty well. We did carry a threat, albeit a slim one. Milner didn't effect the game in any way and Chamberlain didn't get enough of the ball, but when he did have it he was easily our dynamic and exciting player. Welbeck work his arse off I thought, not much quality but worked hard. Parker was the best player for us though, awesome shift int he middle. He was the reason we were so hard to play through. We will cause Sweden and Ukrane problems, but I think every game will be pretty tight.

Seems like the media are already blaming the 'heat' for us dropping back. Errr, don't the french have to deal with it too??

Milner just has to be the most predictable winger I have ever seen. When full backs see him on the oppo side, they know they can have an easy afternoon. I personally think he'll turn into a CM in time, but he's just too predictable that it's painful at times.

Remember that game at Wembley a year or so ago? they took us apart for 90mins, the gulf was embarrasing.

I still think Chambo is the better player.

I'm more confident now I've seen the team, nice to see a bit of real pace through the heart of that team with Welbeck, Chambo and Young - although I'm not a huge fan of Welbeck. I think most peoples optimism grew the moment they saw Downing was a sub..!!!

They'd have to change it to 6 aside or something then.

In his breakthrough season he made lots of sub appearances, only scored a couple of goals but that was still enough for him to get young player of the year. Was only 18 at that point I think

We want him, that seems to be well documented in most places. Guess we're sounding it out, but it fits what we do in the market. I can't say I've seen a great deal of him but for all the interest and talk he's quite clearly got something about him. You don't get called up to a Euro squad if you're rubbish (ok, maybe that argument falls a bit flat with Downing, but that's another debate).

Davies is exactly the sort of player I can imagine we'd be after. Alan Nixon is a Bolton fan and he said Davies isn't leaving this year for any fee...so make of that what you will. Seems a bit random seeing as they'd lose him for zilch if they don't go up. (or maybe even if they do)

Every team has a dip in the season, that's either caused by a succession of injuries, suspension or fitness issues. It happens. It happened to Man City, Man Utd, Chelsea...etc etc. Overall though last season was amazing, there's no criticisms from how we went about things in the pre-season or the January window. We knew we wanted, we did it and when it didn't quite come off...we didn't panic and we still sorted it. We'll probably get a spate of injuries next year, where the likes of Lallana and Lambert aren't available for a few games. Our form will dip. That's not because we're poorly prepared, it's because 2 of our best players are missing and you cannot pre-empt that sort of thing by signing 'backup' with equal ability, that isn't how it works.

It's refreshing to see how we are these days. Cortese is backing this club to the hilt, that's for all to see. Truly grateful for that.

It's an interesting debate. Good players win you games, it doesn't matter if they have 'premiership' experience or not in my opinion. Momentum is also very important for a newly promoted team. When we were in the premiership (or the championship for that matter) I always wanted to avoid newly promoted teams in the first few games, because you know they'll carry on with a 'bounce' from the season before and you take advantage of that 'bounce'' effect by keeping the squad similar, no wholesale changes. The thing I love about our squad is that it's young, hungry and motivated. There aren't any prima-dona guys in the squad, there aren't any former premiership players on mega-bucks - none of that. We've got players like Morgan, Lallana, Rodriguez, Cork...etc etc. All young and talented enough to make the step up without much of a problem in my opinion, and I'd hate to disrupt that group by signing 'premiership experience' on wages that would most likely be more than those guys are on. It didn't exactly go to plan for QPR at the end of the day. I like our transfer policy as it's quite clearly about building a spine of young players who can play together for years to come, that's why I can never see us signing players like Owen or Yakubu - I'm not saying they're bad players, they just don't fit what we're trying to do at Southampton.

Thanks Yep, I've been a long-term admirer, going back seasons. Always had something top class about him. Glad he's ours..!

A load of waffle.

I also doubt it's all £6m up front either, I just think it's what you have to pay for top young players now. I'm for one chuffed we're in the market for them. Butland next...

Can't believe Sunderland fans, laughing at us for spending £7m on him ''WHO?'' etc. Errr, didn't they spend £6m on Kenwyne Jones, and 12m on Wikcham? Hardly ones to scream. I still don't get all the rubbish about this being too much. He's English, young and incredibly talented. People saying it's an embarrassing fee are ignorant to anything outside of the PL.

http://www.premierleague.com/en-gb.html Top story on the premier league home page, nice.

Would prefer Trippier for RB if I'm honest, but he's staying at Burnley afaik.

He's got a great eye for a striker. He signed Hooper, Martin Patterson, Sharp first time at Scunny IIRC, Paul Hayes who did v well for them at the time...then got a big move to PNE.

He's not got ''out and out'' pace, but he has a nice turn of pace on him. Great on the deck with a lovely touch, great agility and he has terrific movement off the ball. Should be perfect and add more mobility to our front line. He's much more than just a striker, which is why I've always wanted him here.

The following statement has been issued by the Burnley Football Club Board of Directors, following the confirmation of the sale of Jay Rodriguez to Southampton Football Club. "Burnley Football Club has a renowned tradition of producing talented young players, who have come through our youth system over many years. "Jay Rodriguez started his career with Burnley at a very young age and, throughout his time here, he has been a great player and excellent ambassador for the football club. "However, ambitious and talented young footballers want to play in the Premier League and we wish Jay every success in his career. "His rise in prominence is evidence that here at Turf Moor, the investment in our Youth academy provides a pipeline for players to the first team. "We have already seen the current youth team achieve tremendous success by reaching the FA Youth Cup semi finals this year, and through the club's ongoing commitment to youth development we hope this will help to produce more players like Jay Rodriguez."

We have the 2 strikers from last year's team of the year at our club now, impressive.

So much waffle on twitter. ''If he's worth £7m, I'm worth £3m'' ''He's not even worth half that'' ''Jay..who? They paid £7m for who...?" So many ignorant idiots out there. I doubt they've ever watched him play.