david in sweden

some good points.... Lighthouse, but it's really down to the Chairman and the (respective club's) economy at the time -isn't it? Like someone saying ..we got him but he cost us £20 million, alternatively " we got him and he only cost us £20 million ". But many players are judged by the standard /strength of the league they're coming from rather than personal performance in a good side. Hooper (for example) did very well for Celtic, where many SPL teams are merely cannon-fodder for the top two, but would he fare as well in the Prem.? One of the biggest price hikes must be the Torres /Carroll deals. Neither player did much last season, and the clubs must be hoping they'll deliver next season. So far at least Saints have made it to the Prem. without having to spend like a man with 6 arms...or a billion pound bank account. The key question now is how much must we spend to stay there.....and perhaps become a top six side?

to be fair, £6 million sounds a better deal than.. £7 million. Nice one Nicola.

we can tell you that by the end of April 2013.

apparantly, his Dad advised him to sign for Sunderland... in preference to Saints.

if loyalty was the only criteria, we'd have a real shock to see a team made up purely of such players. I think KD has done a great job, and been loyal, too but this is the Premier League and many clubs have two international goalies on their books and no-one has a guarantee of top spot. Loyal or not, if KD flops .....or gets injured - we need a quality alternative. Green would provide that. It's not so long ago we had both Paul Jones AND Antti Niemi on the books - they got along OK ...and we changed them about from time to time.

unfortunate that someof these old gems, show us on the losing end, but younger fans (to whom most of these guys are only names of old men) can see the quality that they could produce. Even seeing the late George Best on song doesn't hurt QUITE so much, he really was a one-off talent. and great to see Jimmy Gabriel in a couple of clips, he really was a versatile player, and played in 5 different positions during one season, including emergency goalie on one occasion, when there was only 1 sub. allowed on the bench.

Yes -.. to some extent, but any sensibly-minded player surely doesn't expect to be on the same salary level as an England 'keeper !

People are talking about 1st and 2nd choice. We are talking Premier League. Most Prem.clubs have one, if not two international goalies, and with the exception of Joe Hart at Man.City many of them get dropped or changed out a lot of the time - even clubs in the top six. Logically, we are all thinking that KD will carry on as before, have another season with 17 clean sheets and be hard to replace. But what if he doesn't have a good start, say we lose 3 or 4 games early season ..or worse...he gets injured...what are the options? I'm not completely sure I warm to the idea of Green as alternative (not a no.2 ), at least it's someone on a par with, or better ? ..than KD, and even as England no. 2 ...he's not bad. However, I think the story....is probably just The Star trying to get a hit before the weekend rumour mill starts up.

me too.

THX...Ron Manager ...some really great memories. I recall a few of those other games, too. There must be a huge source of old videoed games out there.... just waiting to be aired.

perfect timing. His 20 odd prev-appearances (included a couple of goals) were spread out over two seasons. He undoubtedly has talent, but it would have been unwise to have thrown him in at the deep end and maybe ruined his career. A season at Palace,(not a bad side either) will give him much needed games and stengthen his claim to a first team place with Saints the year after.

OOPS! someone else posted it 1 minute before you .

I can agree with that Turkish, but it also means that we'll be signing TWO CB's instead of one.

well it seems we're still a long way from signing Butland, but maybe we could seal the deal with a player-exchange...if / when we sign him. Maybe Birmingham haven't heard, but we have another goalie named Tommy Forecast. He was once tipped as a future England 'keeper, too... and perhaps they might want to consider........?....just maybe. Ssssssh... don't say the obvious, it might be our only chance to get rid of...

to say that bringing in a new manager is a sign for the team to fail is often true, but of course we can recall that both Pardew and Adkins did work a few miracles in their first seasons with SFC, as did Gordon Strachan. However, I do go along with that theory, and it takes a pretty strong personality to dictate to a team of seasoned professionals especially if the club happens to be Liverpool, or even Chelsea (as their recent managerial upheaval shows). It seems that players often pay more respect to a former player with a good reputation, than a great tactician before they get to fall in line. Perhaps our most successful manager, Lawrie McMenemy actually managed a relegation in his first season, whereas people like Chris Nicholl and Gordon Strachan (both players with impecable League and International backgrounds fared better) won players' respect- as did Glenn Hoddle in his brief stay. Back to next seasons Prem. There are a number of sides achieved what they have purely because of their managers, and not the strength of their squad. I think of Martinez at Wigan (who saved themselves at the death) and even Norwich with Paul Lambert. Swansea were promoted on the strength of their 6th place play-off win. and Brendan Rodgers. I don't expect them to show up much in the coming year. Mark Hughes' QPR were just plain lucky, but I won't harp on that as we survived the last day nightmares a few times ourselves in the late 1990's. I admire all the above-mentioned managers for what they achieved in their respective former clubs, but fear that they may all be in danger of a quick exit if things don't start well. Can ANYONE imagine seeing Liverpool... in the bottom half of the Prem. next seasosn ..who knows?

well I see your point, but eventually he may want to stay. It still takes a lot to get into the Chelsea side, let alone become a regular (see Jack Cork's case) - and he hasn't turned out too badly.

-or even as much as £6,999,993

I haven't been counting, but we must have been linked with about 20 or more players since the end of the season. Everyone's quick to blame agents, and empty-headed journo's without a storyline to print, and not without reason - but give a thought to the bookies.. They have most to gain by spreading / creating rumours and then taking bets on it. I've yet to meet anyone who'd taken the bookies to the cleaners on a regular basis, and lesser still ..seen a poor bookie !

++++++

OK ..you take the other view (as Jimbo Jones 10 wrote on #47 )....said he wasn't any better than what we had already. Personally, I haven't seen him play, and so it was just an observation on my part.

very interesting Patred 44, The Scottish side looked pretty good with the talented John White and the young Denis Law and a tough midfield ; Baxter, McNeill and Grieg. Two years before the 1966 World Cup and there were a few changes after this game. Here we see...No Stiles, or Jack Charlton yet. Geoff Hurst would later come in for Byrne at CF (thank goodness he did)... and there no place for the elegant passing game of George Eastham, but Alf Ramsey chose Martin Peters instead. ¨ Terry Paine played in the opening Qual. WC game as I recall, but got concussed early on and Ramsey was afraid to use him afterwards in case he hadn't recovered and chose ....Alan Ball instead...the rest, as they say ..is history.

Agreed. We have to say that IF he was that good, surely a Prem. club would have picked him up already. Interesting though how a thread like this can be started and have such diverse opinions from fans. Rather like those " Back from the Match " threads after every game, when one person says that so-and-so was s*it , and someone else say he was Man of the Match ? I only hope NA gets it right ...regardless of whether he signs the guy, or not.

I agree totally St Marco, but in truth a third choice keeper rarely gets a place on the bench, but perhaps like Theo Walcott in the 2006 World Cup, "going along for the ride" is a good way to introduce someone to the bigtime, without having to rely on his skill (or lack of it) at international level.