david in sweden

when you consider the vast sums of money that clubs like (Chelsea. Man City and United) have spent over the years, you see that buying the " world's best " prospects (Ronaldo, Van Persie, Rooney) and the inumerable South-Americans who play in the Prem.) can be worthwhile, but spending " big money " for the sake of it isn't always the answer. Go back a dozen years or so and see what happened when Rupert Lowe thought he was doing the right thing when he paid out £3.5 million for Agustin Delgado. The incoming manager (Gordon Strachan) said he had no say in the matter as it was " a done deal " before he'd arrived. Strachan rarely played AG, even though the Equadorian managed to turn out for his country and even went to the World Cup and scored a goal, he never settled in at SMS. There are those today who question WHO decided to buy Ramirez? ..and precisely WHY? (as it seems it wasn't Adkins).....and although MP had Osvaldo in a former club many years ago, it was obvious the he was a " big fish out of water" in the Prem. Perhaps one day, we may buy a big name player who will become legend instead of a laughing stock, but the fact remains that the best "committee" is composed of those football scouts who can spot a talented 8 year-old ...... and picture him playing first team football 10 years later. Call it.... Academy / Youth scheme / School of Excellence ....or what you will, but those aging men with an eye for a future star who stand on touchlines on a wet Sunday mornings watching schoolboy matches are probably some of the best judges of talent than anyone on a " so-called " committee. In Saints' case, (with rare exceptions) ......the overwhelming number of club legends, top performers, goalscorers were young talents skilfully recruited from within the UK. Those " foreign " imports of greatest success were often bought for a song who " fitted in well " and then developed later within the club. The main difference nowadays is that the starting age has become considerably much lower. Our current (and probably) future crop of first team players from the Academy are evidence of that.

agree, it'll take him a game or two to get some real form back. Bad news for Jack who has been outstanding in the last month or so.....

yesterday.... 2 assists and one goal ......(that pass to Rodriguez was world class) ..... .....Who said we should sell him because he's past it?

it will be intersting to see him develop in that respect. I think JB was around 20 when he came to Saints, and then had a nightmare time for the first season or so. Remembering this (and others before), I hope that fans have a lot of patience with Sam. If he plays regularly, yet only has 2-3 goals by May, those criticial comments will be quickly be seen on this site.

there is a transitional period in every club from time to time..some people suggest that Man.Utd are going through one now. Looking at some of the " forgotten men " who suddenly pop-up as loans / free transfers.people ask themselves why they are still with the club and why they had a three year contract in the first place. Our success factor seems to have taken many " newer people " at the club by surprise (except the fans who always knew us as a Prem. League side anyway). The main " problem " was that few people expected so much quite so soon. When Nigel Adkins took over when we were in the bottom four of L1, the most important thing was to avoid relegation. But within two years ; a Wembley trophy and promotion to the Championship. Would the players we had really be good enough for the " higher division ".? There are well-known contributors on this site who doubted that the journeyman Rickie Lambert could replicate his L1 goalscoring efforts when we moved up to the higher division and guess what? ........It was then that we gave these L1 heroes contract extensions, as common sense said that it might well take another couple of seasons for us to build a team capable of getting a shot at the Prem. Inevitably, some of them fell by the wayside, and didn't make the grade, but still had their contracts which are now rapidly running out. Looking through his rose-coloured spectacles:smug:.. only Nicola Cortese saw that possibility of a higher level of football at SMS ..and guess what...we did it. This time the " Championship " heroes " were all given contract extensions ....and a pay-rise to match the " promotion clause " written in at the time. AND of course the same thing happened again. Billy Sharp was a hero, but clearly couldn't cut it in the Prem. Kelvin Davis' club record clean sheets, and who deserved much credit for his loyalty to the club when we were on the point of bankruptcy....suddenly meant nothing and he had a nightmare start to his Prem. career that you wouldn't wish on anyone. There were others too. Fox, Richardson, Hammond, Guly, Seaborne, De Ridder and Chaplow who made big contributions to that promotion but suddenly found their real level. Now we've come to the end of the line. We can feel confident in fielding a side with 3-4 of our own Academy products, but now the problem is to find the right balance of experienced international players to be alongside them in games, and mentor them on the pitch. (one might call that the Mc Menemy formula ). I don't read anything strange into this " house-cleaning " process, but merely see it as a natural progression that happens from time to time. At least now we have some real financial backing for once. IMHO ...a similar process will start to take place in the national side, but not until after the World Cup....though it may take a trifle longer with the English cricket team R.I.P.

Most player have at least ONE good season before failing to make the grade and /or disappearing into obscurity. I've seen it happen in many clubs (not just Saints) over several decades, you might call it the " shooting star phenomena ".. M.O.M one week, but not even on the bench next month. There are people on this site who continually remind us that Jonno's two goal sub. appearance v MK Dons (was it ?) .... in our L1 days was fundamental in our promotion that season.....well maybe? He was the man of the moment, but it was just that ....that moment. Those of us with longer memories can recall names like ;Tony Funnell and Micky Evans who DAJFU on a couple of IMPORTANT occasions ...but very soon found their real level. I'm sure that Nigel Adkins recalls him DAJF " Scunny " .at the level they were then but (like MP's purchase of Osvaldo) ..he's hardly likely to brag about it too much in the media. .....it's obviously tough on anyone who's played league football (at any level) to go without games .....and/or a club for any length of time, and the queue at the Job Centre can be long. I hope for his sake that he can find a club where he can excel whilst he has the chance. If he saves his money till the end of his contract time (whenever that is) it might be a cushion for him when the reality of life in the football world really hits home.

well maybe?.....but you might also ask yourself the question....where would he have been ...if he was still at Argyle? and it's our Academy that have helped develop him in the recent past, otherwise he might have moved on from Plymouth to a league club in a higher division ...like Bristol City ...

It's always difficult for new YOUNG players coming in (and especially strikers) who are mainly judged by the names on the scoresheet every week. Looking back at our " greats " who started in their teens; Martin Chivers, Mick Channon, Alan Shearer and even MLT all made " explosive debuts " but took a couple of seasons before becoming regulars. Sam G. looks a very exciting prospect; a sort of Peter Crouch - but with pace. I only hope fans have a lot of patience with this 18 year old who looks good - on the basis of 2 games.

From the start, JP was an accident waiting to happen, and he had his problems even in the beginning, but somehow managed to sort himself out. His incident with the social media ....and subsequent " repatriation " by Cortese seems to have worked and he started to show some good form, and spectacular goals always seem to endear ..(even the poorest players)... to the fans, and so he qualified himself on that account with a few rather special goals - but he did seem to lack consistancy. He obviously feels better (about himself) being back in London, and I do wish him well. He was what we might always call " a bit of a character ", but I do wish him well at Palace...but it won't surprise me if he turns up with the " wrong type of headlines " at some future date. However, in the end..... I'd call it a " win-win " situation, and we did come out ahead, as I think his original fee in was around 250K ?

1) it's quite possible that the Transfer Committee also had him on their radar?... (what a stupid expression that is).....and as he'd play for MP before.... it was probably seen as a more likely connection. 2) Of course MP knew him from before, but that was some years ago and Osvaldo had obviously been exposed to the "Latin Culture" in Italy and probably wasn't the same player he remembers. Every manager likes to be able to sign one of his old players, who DAJF him before, but I think MP will take this as a warning not to be too keen to " go back and get them "....it seldom works well out. 3) Of course we won't be able field a team entirely of Academy products, but in future ... we need to be very careful who we have as a " role-model for young /up-and-coming lads " to learn from.

a likely scenario, but if they try that approach, we say NO! .....and he goes to Brazil and has a good World Cup, the price will be even higher and other clubs may come into the frame for him......

Nah, it's Jonny Depp !

let's get this right. Juve will take him off our hands for the next 4 months, AND pay his full salary......AND maybe / perhaps buy him for £15 million in May? all things considerd .......it sounds like selling him will be a better deal than buying him in the first place.

I thought that, too......and .the only player " left " who doesn't have a number is Jonno Forte. Could it be that MP is thinking of giving him ..........NO, NO... it's too silly I won't even say it .

a mix of Academy lads " who didn't become the next Luke Shaw " , and NPC / L1 players who were out of their depth after we got promotion to the Championship.....and of course Tommy Forecast!

Someone who DAJFU when needed in the Championship. He set up around a dozen " assists " in that promotion season and didn't look out of place THEN. As with several others..... he didn't make the grade to be a regular in the Prem.side where the shortcomings in his game became more obvious. Pretty sure he'll be good enough for Forest....who will probably not make it through the play-offs anyway...but good luck, anyway Danny.

I've seen this " misquote " a number of times. The first time being when we loaned out our sixth string keeper Will Britt to Bognor ! The "mis quote " was taken from a longer interview that was published just a day or so after Cortese's departure..... and went along the lines of ..." no player in the squad ...whom Pochettino wanted to keep " ......otherwise why else would we want to keep players like Aaron Martin and Lee Barnard who aren't even in the 25 squad? What I want to know is WHO is going to take " Jonno" Forte on loan tomorrow ?..he's the only one left of the " forgotten men ".

I don't think we have to " compete " by spending more money than Citeh......do we ? They don't have 4 Academy players in their start side - (who cost us almost nothing in fees)... maybe that's why they've had to spend £ 000,000's on their current playing staff.

pretty good reactions for a man of his height and build.

that does sound a bit drastic. Many clubs spend several seasons trying to make it to the Premiership and then hope to survive.. and yet we did it in one. Do you really think everyone will desert the club because we didn't make it in the first season. ? Surely the quality of the football speaks for itself, and no-one could have anticipated that spate of injuries all coming at once.

we could have had 6 MOM's, but I was really impressed by Jack Cork especially in first half. Adam never looks anything but brilliant. Shaw and Chambers look like they've played for 3 seasons. Sam showed very few nerves on his " official " debut, and looked good though especially against Arsenal's defence he couldn't have expected to do much better. Must play him again on Saturday. Arsenal will count that as the hardest-fought point they've got this season.

.....though at the time few people expected us to get two promotions on the bounce quite so quickly. Had we had 2-3 seasons in the Championship BEFORE getting to the Prem. they would probably HDAJFU

well....close ! MLT scored 20 League goals plus 4 in Cup comps. and Rod Wallace 18 League + 3 in cups.

........a bit older than some people think, perhaps Steve was an associate schoolboy player in 1975 at age 14, (most people have heard the legendary Mc Menemy football boots story) and turned pro at 18 (1979) and debuted in Jan.1980 ....aged 19 when he scored as an oncoming sub. His career really took off during the next season, not unexpectedly when you consider he was playing along side Kevin Keegan and Mick Channon and he netted 58 goals in 117 games in first 4 seasons...a really excellent +/- 50% strike rate. Competetion was tough when Saints signed Joe Jordan and David Armstrong, and sadly Steve lost favour after Lawrie Mac's departure when Saints became cash-strapped and he was sold to Leicester. He deserved more credit and space in the record books where he (agonisingly) stood on ....99 goals for the club.)

well yes Kraken, it's one thing to quote stats. but quite another to analyse them. CN was signed in 1977 (when he was already 31) and then racked up 268 apps. until he left in 1983. He was (almost ever present-aside from the occasional injury) and was the only regular CB that Lawrie Mac used in this time, whilst trying to experiment with a suitable partner for Nicholl, and along the way tried to pair him up with fairly-forgettable names like; Mike Pickering, and the younger; Phillipsson-Masters, Andruszewski and Agboola but without a great deal of success, and perhaps only Malcolm Waldron came through this period with any degree of honour. During this same period, we also had a regular changing of full backs, few of whom matched Ivan Golac's service for very long. The best seasons, both points and position-wise finishing 6th twice,...(which we won't even achieve this year) ..were the couple of seasons when he was paired with England CH Dave Watson. YES - Chris did have a number of drops in form (as do many players) and got his share of criticism from the angry few who love booing almost anyone they take a dislike to... (now its Guly). CN left in 1983, (aged 37).. but only after L. Mac had signed the young Mark Wright, and started to build a defence around him instead. Looking back over more than 50 years, I'd rate Chris Nicholl amongst the best half-dozen CB's I can recall during that time. He wasn't such a bad manager either IMHO. Following on from Lawrie Mc Menemy.. was somewhat like Moyes following Ferguson... It was a very difficult period to start with and everyone knew he'd never be able to match Lawrie Mac's incredible management record. IMHO think he got the shi**y end of the stick, when the Board sacked him (and with Saints only finishing 14th) .....they sold Rod Wallace to Leeds the following day for over £1 million. With the appointment of Ian Branfoot as his successor, they surely hung their heads in shame with what followed......