david in sweden

Yes ABSOLUTELY ! ....whenever I watch (Luke) in action ..... either attacking or dropping back to defend... I have to keep reminding myself he's ONLY 17 ....What a great prospect!

Nice one Luke, Good news of course, but it makes sense on many fronts..... YES... he may /may not be sought by " big clubs " (according to which " comic " you read)...it's also a fact that he'd be spending time in their U21 side first ...and then a month or two on the bench and an occasional sub.app...... as there is little chance he'd be displacing some £10 million foreign international defender with 30+ caps, (or whatever) ..from the day he signed. Secondly, it's a tribute to the club's organisation that he wants to stay (with the likes of his pal JWP), and sees a future with Saints and not " the so-called glamour of a big club." and of course Wayne Bridge , who was already a first teamer who went before when he debuted at just 18 y.o. (1998) Finding such talent as a tender age is very exciting to watch, and Gareth Bale of course is a recent graduate of the Acaademy, as was Alex O-C, but we older fans can think back to some names in the past who " made it young " and whenever I watch Luke Shaw dribbling down the wing...my mind goes back to another young left back from the 1970's - Steve Mills. Although born in Gosport, Steve chose the better of the two local clubs, and was in Saints' youth set-up before he reached 16. Already in the Reserve side at 17, Steve made his First Division (read Prem). debut in April 1973 before he was 19 and was a regular for several seasons, and was capped for England U23 (when only 21 y.o) Sadly..a tragic car crash almost crippled him and it took a year for him to make a comeback before he was forced to quit football at aged 23. It was later discoverd that he had leukemia and he started a fund to help a research fund. Saints waded in with a special benefit game and over 20,000 fans turned out at The Dell for an emotional evening to honour Steve, and help contributions to the charity. Steve Mills eventually passed away in 1988 (aged 34). Not to take the gloss off a great news story but... am I the only "oldie " who recalls Steve Mills' no-nonsense tackling and those tremendous left-sided runs of his....all those years ago ?

there will come a time when (sadly) Rickie will play his last game by which time I hope (as do we all) that we will have a suitable replacement..... MEANTIME .....Jay Rod has had a hard time getting a regular spot, and an even harder time for " fans " who feel he should be scoring every week ...like Messi does. Considering we had next to no Prem. experience in the squad in August, Jay Rod has improved game by game and although we can say his goal at Stoke may have been a trifle fortunate (I can think that a few strikers who might have missed it)...his goal v. Chelsea was class - wasn't it ? Of course Puncheon's pass was inch perfect, but that little toe flick past the keeper showed real promise. I only hope that he gets on a scoring run for some games, and then we'll all sleep a little more soundly.

.if you consider where we were at that time, he WAS a good signing who cost next to nothing, and his 2 goals in THAT game were vital at the end of the season.....

I bet Norwich wish he'd stayed, he did really well there.......

..who was it said ? ........" the vote of confidence normally comes about two weeks before the manager is sacked ....."

no chance......the Villa owners won't let Paul Lambert spend that sort of money..... when they are about to sack him !

no! no!..... .we don't say that, we merely say ......" he's eccentric " ... like Grobelaar was ......" eccentric " .

you think that's frustrating ..when you get to my generation it feels like someone has cut short your survival time !

....so true Saint Garrett, it's nice to see some memorable Guly. There were half-a-dozen goals there that MLT would have been proud of ..hope Guly gets a goal soon, his present goal drought must be playing heavily on his mind...

....or just putting the frighteners on Bologna, so that we can go back after a few days with an increased bid ?

back in february, eh ? ....now someone tell me that was a surprise. TBH I'd be amazed if he was even back then...getting back in training .....isn't the same as being 100% match-fit. The very tone of everything since the day of the injury seemed to indicate that...but I still hope it'll be sooner..rather than later.

a fairly straight forward and easy to understand assessment tajjuk couldn't have phrased it better myself....but why .is it so difficult for people to understand. Some people seem to think that the manager should be the sole source of all signings and should walk arounfd with the cheque book in his pocket. Transfers these days ...are a minefield of; salaries, payments, agent fees, loyalty fees, bonuses and sell-on clauses. IF ANYONE knows the Italian market, it is surely him, and he makes offers they can't refuse. He (Cortese) is the person best placed to know these things......given his job CV before the takeover.....he surely knows more about such things than anyone else...certainly more than NA.

mmmmm......not a lot of experience there ...

OK then....if the captaincy is the birthday present (unless I'm mistaken? ) ..the winner is RICHARD CHAPLOW on 2nd February.

NO ...not a keeper. We had that problem when KD was captain. You need someone in the outfield who is empowered to speak to the referee without getting himself booked for argueing.

when managers play one formation and one set of players, it invariably means that some players get left out...(even good players)...Gordon Strachan did it all the time** because he didn't have an alternative game plan, ..it doesn't make them bad players...because they are sold...they just don't fit the system, and one will always be "surplus to requirements". These days they either sit on the bench and wait - or move on because they want to play. ** Anders Svensson is on record - in a Swedish TV interview - saying that Strachan told him (and Fabrice Fernandes) ...... ..." that he thought they were both good players but he could only play one of them at a time because they were too much alike in their style "

It's a tough game, players are looking forward to a rest to recover (HT) .....or the final whistle and either they try to hold onto the scoreline before the end.....or attack like crazy to try and get an advantage. Many clubs play on this and when one side tries to " shut-up-shop " they invariably fail. A quick look at the top clubs shows that they score even more goals in these periods because they have better players who can exploit the situation.

OK ..let's put it another way. Clubs with money to spend will try and get the best deal they can by buying from clubs who have financial difficulties (polite way of saying -about to go bankrupt) and will part with a player..... and be glad of the money (as were Bologna - who are still in business). Good grief ...big clubs have done it to us for decades .....it's part of the football scenario. It's not unethical - it's business, and if Cortese has lots of contacts in Italy and we get good deals for good players, then good for him (and SFC) Orthodox or not - Cortese is no walkover in transfer deals, as we saw from the valuation in the Alex OC to Arsenal deal...He signs the cheques and knows how much we have in the bank....is that a problem?

.....you forgot the horse's head in the bed, Turkish

who cares... as long as we sign a good class of player !

AT LEAST ONE.....maybe more....(no that's too much to hope for) .

I haven't read the previous 500-odd posts to see what other people thought, but the one good thing I took from that game .....was the coolness of Jay Rod's finish. He may have been a trifle lucky with his tap-in (or was it chest-in) in the Stoke game, but his goal on Saturday was real class...and what a good pass from Puncheon. Are we actually going to see an " in-form " JayRod in the coming weeks..? .(given the chance)