david in sweden

Ideal for negotiating transfer deals, then. Les... not get fooled again. WHO ?

FIVE YEARS ON ....and still going strong.

What? .....8th place only pays £82 million where are all those promises of £90 million when we got promoted .....DISGUSTING, I say !....conned again.

my thoughts too. I've watched him a number of times and he looks less than the average striker with his background, but now he's suddenly scored a few goals he suddenly he gets a multi-million pound price tag.

practically NO-ONE has named the Les Reed announcement rejecting all these claims..so perhaps it's a plot to get people throwing away more money at Paddy Power and Ladbrokes????????

Think the Posh manager was a bit cagey about playing him too much when they were going for a play-off spot, but he did finally score on Saturday. More of a future there than at SMS.

not the first time that I've seen the " Welbeck rumour " but I'm really not 100% convinced about him. Are his goal-scoring achievement s really that good ? Of course he got in (England side) because of his partnership with Rooney, when he couldn't get off the bench at Man.Utd. Whilst it would be good to have another young striker in the squad - I'd go for Ings.

Eighth is avery respecatble finish that we rarely bettered in those 27 seasons that we were previously the top division. anyone bothered enough to look at the stats. will see that we " lost" our league placement during Boruc's seven game absence ...and even if we'd had " more balanced results" - we'd be even higher. Boruc (games 1-12)....P.12 W6 D4 L2 (incl.6 clean sheets) goals conceded....8 KD / PG together... P.9 W1 D2 L7 (1 clean sheet) goals conceded ...20. since Boruc return....P14 W7 D4 L3 (7 clean sheets). goals conceded ...17 yes I know we had his poor Fred Astaire impression at Arsenal ..and that wind-blown effort at Stoke, but by and large, he's our best keeper by a country mile. Taking into account the..."stupid results"...like losing home to Villa when we had 77% possession and 21 shots to 6....and the 0-1 debacle against Cardiff at SMS...and Jay Rods injury hasn't helped either. I agree a lot depends on Pochettino staying, but judging by recent (player) interviews everyone seems to suggest it's " a happy ship." WE look to improve next season.

What? ...officially sanctioned ? He is a director of the club....I would guess it was a Board decision to have him make the statement.... if it wasn't, he'll be out of the door by Monday morning.

......and he will travel up to Old Trafford in a flying-saucer (gold-plated, of course !

yes but it was ..Charlton

.....wouldn't surprise me in the slightest, but it would put a few noses out of joint on this site - don't you think ?

with all this media gossip about (most ) of our first-teamers on the move (somewhere or other) during the summer, the one rumour I'm really concerned about is the possibility of Jack Cork leaving. Although he cost next-to-nothing in todays transfer market prices, I think he is an improving player and really should be kept on. If MP were to go, I think several of our regulars might start to look elsewhere, but if he stays then Lallana, Schneiderlin and Chambers would feel happier and be glad to carry on. But what about Jack?. Despite playing so well recently, he's clearly not MPs first choice.....Everyone says Wanyama is so good, but I'm not 100% convinced - whereas Jack is already experienced and wants regular football, too. Money already spent on the likes of Osvaldo and Ramirez still has to be paid off, and sadly it looks as though they weren't worth the investment ...and we must have a striker in place to start in August. Jay Rod's " 6 month lay-off " means he won't be available until game 7 or 8 next season, and there's no guarantee he'll be good enough to carry on where he left off before his injury - by which time we could be anywhere in the league by then unless we have another whirlwind start (as in 2013). So our first signing, must be Mauricio Pochettino ....and it looks increasingly like our first "sale " will be Luke Shaw, as £30+ million looks very attractive and would go along way to finding replacements - in several positions.

I agree, but I read quite a lot of threads (without replying to them) but it does seem that more than a few contributors consider that failing to get top 4th -5th place is some sort of failure. Try telling that to Norwich, Sunderland or Fulham fans. They think that 40 points and 17th spot is Nirvana.

almost any player you can name has poor spells and having time out for injuries doesn't help either. despite the fact that; Lovren, Wanyama and Clyne had extended periods out his season. None of them has regained their early season form. Although Lovren looked (sort of OK) after his return, neither Clyne ...or Wanyama for that matter, look a patch on their earlier performances. It takes time and games to get back upto strength. Fortunately, Chambers and Cork covered well, but without Lovren we looked quite vulnerable at the back with Hooiveld and Yoshida looking like strangers waiting to be introduced to each other. A good close season for everyone will bring them back upto pace and hope we can get an equally good start next season. At his best, Clyne is probably first choice, but he doesn't look it at the moment.

.......one can but hope ....

Whilst those who sit and play FIFA 14 and dream of Katarina's millions going to buy in more top talent, they may have reckoned without the Finacial Fair Play ruling that Footballing authorities dreamed up a year or two ago. Presumably aimed at trying to curb the spending sprees that caused clubs like Leeds and Pompey to amount enormous debts... and then fail to deliver ......it demands a balance between income and salaries and the amounts that clubs can spend on transfer fees. The fact that the £22 million we must pay in backdated transfer payments that are due in the summer..it's not simply a case of Katarina Liebherr writing out another cheque..... (OK ..making a bank transfer, then ) .....in order to solve the problem. That would be against the new rules that favour those clubs who deal in big finances. Not such a big problem for clubs with a huge valuation..(and even huge debts)....like Chelsea, Man.City and Man.U whereas they can be allowed to spend tens of millions on new players, Saints would not be permitted to do so ....without creating income from selling players first......which as many headlines suggest is a step we must consider. Saints must sell player(s) during the summer in order to satisfy the rather twisted (and some will say UNFAIR) rules that are now in place. It may be a real challenge for the Saints Board to find away to resolve the situation without being forced to sell off some of our best players.

if this thread is about buying in top quality players and the final league position we might be able to achieve, then why not look back to those 27 seasons when we were previously in the top division. Now I can hear groans from those people who just hate "stats." and think they have no meaning at all. (Just try telling that to Man U and Liverpool fans.....they love their history). After spending 27 consecutive seasons in the top flight... we became the 8th most successful club of all time. Arsenal, incidentally have NEVER been relegated from the top level. when we got back up to the then First Division (1978/9 it took time to settle and our finishing positions were; 14th, 8th,6th, 7th,12th and 2nd best ever. . ....all this during the time that Lawrie McMenemy was buying in English internationals every season and we had Peter Shilton in goal during that time.(In McMenemy's final season we were 5th.) Chris Nicholl did his best to emulate L. Mc. but we only managed .....14th, 12th, 12th, 13th, 7th and 14th in his reign as manager. Around this time (1992/3)...Div.1 was (for some inexplicable reason) renamed Premier League (which was the kiss of death for us) as we only managed to stay up (with help of one Matthew Le Tissier) and in the following seasons finished; 18th, 18th, 10th, 17th, 16th, 12th, 17th, 15th. Things looked up a bit around the Millennium and we ended up 10th, 11th,....wait for it ....8th in 2002-03. After which things went from bad to worse again. so you see, after our recent whirlwind return, and survival last season ... 8th really is quite a respectable finish, although obviously NOT good enough for some contributors it shows real progress. Some of you will be expecting us to challenge for the League title next year whilst still regularly " blooding " teenagers from the Academy, but it will I fear ...take a bit longer than that. My own surmising is that we need to invest in AT LEAST one good striker (even two).....Retain the present midfielders, get some real cover at CB ...and get a top-rated goalie to challenge / back-up Boruc. With better luck .....and some good refereeing .... we just might just make a Euro spot next season. Beyond that is Dreamland, I fear...at least in the near future anyway.

who says I'm glad?.......it may look nice, but is b****y pointless if we can't create enough to score / win a game, and it's fairly clear that without Jay Rod - we have no real alternative strike options.

it looked like a WW2 spotter plane ........maybe trying to find Eastleigh Airport in order to land.

unless a paradigm shift is on the cards (ala Puncheon-type revelation) he'll never play for Saints again ...but longer term the size of his (reputed salary) will cost us a packet over the next THREE years -if we can't get rid of him... (e.g.) if 40K week ..that's over £2 million / year maybe good to cut our losses and get the best deal possible.

what more can you say.....if we had 99% possession ...we'd still have to score in order to get three points.....and even a stone cold penalty was denied us. Three officials on / around the pitch " didn't see it " , but tens of millions of TV viewers did ....an absolute farce:mcinnes:

and of course it always comes down to being.... the right player..... in the right club .....at the right time. Thinking back 30-odd years, I remember thinking ...how come a chubby, little short-ass like..Steve Moran could score so many goals.....(JOKE. no offence Steve) naturally... it was the players around him ....who had a couple of hundred international caps between them that made the real difference.

How right you are. I mean ......why couldn't Chelsea forsee any potential for Sturridge ?.....or Jack Cork..... if it comes to that ? It seems some clubs just run their Academies for good PR and never give their youngsters a real chance. However...as this thread is about Danny Ings.....can anyone see potential in him ...or ?

The best laid plans of mice and .....the transfer committee.....sometimes go awry. well, you can't get everything right - can you ? Think back one year...Jack Cork had one or two off games in an otherwise good season, and we planned to buy Victor Wanyama instead, and sell off Jack for a small fee?. Poor old Rickie Lambert...he's past 30 now.....we're buying a top grade Italian International striker to replace him and he will be gradually phased out:lol:..or maybe Big Sam..or Nigel will want him. Really not sure about thart Adam Lallana. Nice young man and all that, but isn't he a bit young to be captain?....Next season Gaston Ramirez will replace him as a regular and really show his class. OUCH ! ....I wonder what we'll be saying this time ......next season.?