david in sweden

it hardly sounds like his fault. In interview, he said that he was keen to come to SMS from Day 1, seems a lot of " interference " from outside.

plus of course this goes back to a time when we were still in the Prem...and under different ownership and none of the "named players " are still with the club ! where's the news ?

whether anyone reading this site has seen him play is fairly immaterial - isn't it? If Saints have bid (anything like ) the £3 million being quoted, then he must have abit of class about him ....

very funny ...HAW, HAW !

thats sounds like BAAAAAAAAAD news to me !

As I recall Alan Shearer was a goalie at U12 stage when we signed him and Newcastle failed to see his potential as a future England striker!

been playing scrabble ...or word feud perhaps, .....this looks more like an anagram of someone ?

my thoughts , too Mullet. typical of greedy agents -isn't it ? Let's not pretend that they do everything for the player's best interests. I recall the sad case of Hassan Katchloul's departure.

I really wish that items like this didn't appear so often. I prefer to recall Claus as a brave and fearless defender who spilt blood for the cause - on more than one occasion. What he may have lacked in pace, he made up for in courage and rarely let the side down. Signed by Graham Souness for £400K as a left back in summer 1996, he converted to CB and successively played alongside Ken Monkou, Dean Richards, Paul Williams and later with Michael Svensson to form ...what was probably one of the best central partnerships in the last generation. He is the only foreign player to have made over 400 apps. for Saints (which puts him in the top 12 of all timers,) and was a model pro. on the pitch. Sadly, he made more human mistakes off it, but he's not alone there, and I for one am sorry that his name only appears in a negative context nowadays. Remembering him as a loyal Saints player, he'd be in my all-time squad every time.

I agree. I was trying to think of an even stronger superlative !

OK if that works, he'd be the no.3 keeper, but who will be is Davis' "shadow" as no.2 ?

Something which I'd pointed out some time ago on another thread, but sadly after his return he wasn't a shadow of his former self. Let's hope that he has a good pre-season and has a chance to be part of the 25 squad.

Agree with just about everyone EXCEPT Hammond. We need "cover " for every position and although he may not be Prem.class on first viewing he deserves a chance (like everyone else) and will surely be needed at some stage in the season. Chaplow and Puncheon may disappear in part-ex. / loan deals before the season starts.

good explanation Steve, but as we are hardly likely to move (again), any extension...(however expensive ) seems like a cheap option to re-vamping the present arena.

don't know if anyone has highlighted this in the earlier posts, but Zaha (born in Ivory Coast 1992) is still only 20 and has spent 3 years with Palace. That would qualify him to be " home-grown ", and need not be in a Prem. " 25 squad " - (not this season at least). ALSO, having played for England at U21 doesn't mean that he can't (eventually) be capped by his country of birth... He may progress well in the Prem. (if the deal comes off), but it seems unlikely that he'll get capped by England, (too much competition) ..BUT he may turn up in the Ivory Coast squad for WC2014. (provided they qualify).

nice one sport... sorry about the cricket, though ! England are fireproof just now .......

well.....gender issues aside ....can they play football?

of course you're right Turkish. sometimes deals take months to set-up and complete...whilst with others..... the guy may come to SMS with a pen in his hand .. I'm pretty sure we've got another 3-4 potential signings on the go, and that may involve 6-8 " targets ", not all of whom may be suitable.

there's room for a few part-ex's to any potential deal ..like Puncheon and Barnard for example.....

which sounds great....... providing he hasn't peaked already !

* Of course, he's having to kick-start his career in a new club, he's bound to have had " a sweetner " when he signed, as there was no % of a transfer fee. ** There's the start of an interesting thread on Hammond just below this one.if you want to contribute. ***Cortese comes from a business area where secrecy and confidentiality are the most important factors. I agree it's a bit frustrating not having club gossip to mull over, but I also appreciate his tight-lipped manner is a part of the man's persona. ****This is a two-edged sword - isn't it?. By not confirming-or denying - interest in a player we are keeping everyone guessing and maybe distracting attention from other " real targets " ....whereas going out to the media and discussing interest when it isn't even a done deal is alerting other clubs to players that we might lose if " big name " clubs suddenly come into the equation. The background to the deal for T. Lee proved that our "tight-lipped " approach does work. Very few people knew anything about it beforehand. Whereas a Bristol City director was quoted as saying they'd had NO OFFERS for Maynard from Saints, or anyone else (despite media madness on the subject) - prior to WHam buying him, which was a good one to leave alone, as his over-priced move to Upton Park proved him to be a " fairly ordinary " striker - on last seasons showing. As for the Elliott Ward "non deal " ... I suspect that there was some "personal factor " about the player that didn't fit our "model ". Anyway he (Ward) didn't seem to have distinguished himself much last season...so maybe... it was good outcome anyway.

there are a lot of IF's here, but ...with his previous record of U16 - U21 apps.... Jack would have been a natural candidate for the full E. squad had it not been for the likes of established players like Gerrard, Lampard and Terry in the team.... PLUS naturally his lack of games at Prem level was the real factor. ....but as the England side is in transition at the moment, I fully expect to see Roy Hodgson watching every match.. and IF...Jack gets in a few good games and Team GB do well, we might see more of him in the future squads, especially if Saints are performing well next season ...IF ......