Son of Bob

Idiot. Cannot begrudge the man his dream move. What an amazing end to his story and a fantastic way to end his carrer. Gutted but no hard feelings here.

If we retained MP, Lallana and Shaw over the summer I would believe the hype but the sad fact is they, along with 1 or 2 other top players at the club, WILL go before next season starts.

I know what you're saying but then what happens when Targett and Reed start setting the South Coast alight? They'll be picked up by bigger clubs and we'll be back to square one. We have one of the best academies around but all it's doing is placing top players on a conveyor belt to the top 4/5 clubs with maybe one good season for us on the way.

It's not whether we try to improve, of course the club will try to improve. The problem is I can't see how we can. if we can't retain a player like Lallana after our most successful season in the modern era what hope is there? The main virtually bleeds red and white stripes yet he looks as though he is going to jump ship at the first opportunity. We've never been in a better position in the Premiership years yet we still can't retain players who show any decent level of ability.

Sadly I think we have. I reckon this season was as good as it's going to get for us. With Shaw and Lallana all but gone and a battle likely for us to retain players like Lovren and Schneiderlin it will all be downhill. If Pochettino clears his desk as well, even the glue that holds the current squad together will be gone. I suspect we will get 2nd rate replacements for our top players and finding a Manager to replace MP will be very tough. Not impossible, but very tough. The ambition that existed at the club seems to have petered out, replaced by a need to make us solid, dependable and financially viable. I was starting to think we had moved on but this summer will prove we are still an average, mid-table club who cannot retain players when they step up a level. We have punched above our weight this season due to 3 or 4 star players and once again it is sadly looking like they will jump ship to move their careers forward at bigger, better clubs. To be brutally honest I can see us really struggling next season. With the quality gone and the liklihood of decidedly average replacements I could see us 'doing a Norwich'.

MP will leave and Michael Laudrup will take over at Saints. Shaw and Lallana will also leave and Lakaku will sign for Everton.

You're totally wrong on this one 42. I cannot commit to a season ticket as my personal and family life does not allow me the freedom to go to every home game. I have however been to 8 home games this season and feel I am fully deserving of my right to be given priority for a Man Utd ticket. Why should one of your friends or family who have contributed nothing to the club this season (and probably aren't even a 'proper fan') be given priority over some one who has attended nearly half the games at St Marys this season? Your argument is 100% flawed my friend.

I think he should definitely be in there. Most deserving player of the modern era.

It's a difficult one to call with the Jack V Vic debate. There's no doubt that Cork has been playing well but then there's also no doubt that we shipped much fewer goals when Wanyama was playing. Go figure?

I had one of those too! I remember it well.

Hull will win 2-1. Shane Long will score the winner in the 81st minute.

Is the OP serious? Prior to his injury Boruc was the best performing keeper in the Premier League. He'll probably need a few games to sharpen back up but one mistake doesn't suddenly make him crap! Seriously, who would you prefer in goal?

If he does resign that will certainly put to bed any rumours of Cortese resigning to head a buy-out.

If the Manager or any of the players choose to leave the club on the back of Cortese's resignation it would show an enormous level of disrespect for the club and more importantly, the fans. I cannot believe that the likes of Luke Shaw, Ricky Lambert and Adam Lallana would turn their back on Saints purely on the basis of Cortese's departure. If anyone leaves the club citing Nicola's absence as their reason, we're better off without them. I'm sure no-one with a modicum of pride in the club would be that shallow...

I'd have Michael Svensson on that banner. One of our greatest ever defenders and a loyal servant to the club. Plus he was a general all-round nice guy to boot.

Small, cramped, out-dated but we loved it all the more for it! It was so intimate and the atmosphere could be electric at times. The Milton Terrace in the late 80's was the stuff of legends! Had more character in one seat than St Marys has in a whole stadium. Miss it terribly but we had to move on. It broke my heart seeing it torn down but we simply couldn't sustain a modern football club on 15k attendances.

It's a real shame. With all the good that's happening with the team at the moment, the fans are still apparently regarded as a necessary evil by Mr Cortese. Whilst his achievements are beyond question, his apparent contempt for the fans is saddening.

Top post - Couldn't agree more. Some of our fans are complete morons with their attitude towards Fox.

The voice of reason! I'd say you're spot on there. 8th or 9th would be a great place to finish and a positive step forward. All this talk of Champions League in nonsense.

Likewise Bridge. My attendance has steadily dropped over the last 2 years but that's nothing to do with apathy. I support and love the saints as much as ever. I just cannot justify the growing expense of a full match day on a regular basis. It's definitely become a treat for me to go these days.

I don't think it's apathy. I'd say we've just found our general attendance level now. I suspect if we had a 28,000 seater we'd sell out every week but if we had a 45,000 seater we'd still only sell around 30,000. Unless we really push on and break into the top 5/6 and start getting a new influx of 'glory seekers' not much will change. This is why a multi-million pound stadium extension would be a complete waste of time as things stand.

I disagree. If someone's got a nice fat juicy rumour that's ripe for discussion why shouldn't it have it's own thread? So many decent contributions to these 'uber-threads' are lost in the sea of the usual garbage from the usual suspects.

And for what it's worth (before this thread gets locked) I would have been more than happy to have signed Hooper. Those saying he's not a 'big enough player' for us anymore are probably the same people that were strangely absent from St Marys during our Premier League leave of absence.

It's time to put a stop to these 'under one umbrella' threads like Transfers and HCDAJFU. Most of us don't want to trawl through 125 pages of bickering, wumming, willy waving and trolling just to find one or two interesting lines of conversation. Why don't we just have one massive thread called 'Saints' and we could discuss absolutely everything related to Southampton FC in one place? That would make life easier wouldn't it?

Great news - I expect he's chuffed to bits. I bet he never thought this would ever happen when he joined us down in League 1. It really is the icing on the cake on a fantastic success story for the big man.