saintsmike25

Why change keepers - then you'd change the shape of our whole defence. Kelvin hasn't done badly - the Man City goals he could not do too much about, and against Wigan both were great finishes. Besides he's proven in the last two seasons he is a very good shot-stopper and will save our butts ALOT this season. We should have faith in our team. Now we have ADDED pace and some extra steel at the back we should be in with a great chance of staying up.

Alpine moans EVERY transfer window. He's a moron we all know that. Good thing he doesn't manage Saints - if he did we'd be competing with Riverside Reds at Riverside Park every Saturday.

We don't need him - get us a centre back and a winger.

He's getting used to the pace of the premiership. It is true sometimes he lacks a bit of awareness and is caught out on the ball. But even Lallana/Morgan and Clyne do that. The problem with Guly is - his style of play comes across as lackadaisical.

"s reported by Gianluca Di Marzio, Gaston Ramirez is now a player of Southampton. Betancurt convinced the English club to pay 14 million for 70% of the card of the player. The deal apparently already closed. Ramirez during the day tomorrow will be in Rome for the visa, as immigrant. The Bologna still loses a key player and is a candidate to be one of the teams most at risk in the fight against relegation."

Yes please. I have a feeling he'll be superb. I mean he's kept out by Pique and Puyol and kept on at the club he must be pretty good.

Last week everyone was so positive after the Man City display but against teams who sit back and catch us on the break we will struggle unless we have pace. I'm sure we're trying to rectify that. Wigan aren't a bad side and will easily finish above the drop zone.

If we get relegated as long as we gave it out best shot I'm happy.

We can beat other teams and raise our game. You forget we were 2-1 up against Man City. It was a poor poor performance. We can play ALOT better, Adkins knows what the problem is, pace. That will be sorted by the end of the transfer window.

Wigan were very good against Chelsea and had lots of chances. In this game we were undone by the fact we don't move the ball quick enough, we let defences get set. The only players coming out of this game with credit are Lallana, Morgan and Clyne. Our set pieces should be much better. We need a CB (we already knew that) Jay Rod needs more time and Billy Sharp should start ahead of him. I don't like to slate Guly but he looked very average today. We need to get in behind teams, we need a winger desperately. Defensivily we're being undone by quick passing. The second goal shouldn't have counted. We will get better as the season goes on. What we don't need is knee-jerk reactions, this was always going to be a banana skin. Just a game we earmarked ourselves as winning but Wigan deserved all 3 points and we need to be able to learn from the way they played.

I'm watching on Fox and they've already said "They're probably just looking forward to swapping shirts".

Lambert has clearly been off-the-pace in pre-season and hasn't put as much hard-work in as the rest of the team. So why should Adkins pick him, he needs to send a message out that no player is above being dropped. Also I'd much rather Adkins dropped Lambert for an almost unwinnable game than one where we REALLY need a fired-up Rickie Lambert. Good management in my opinion.

"They're just a small south coast club, and for so long they've had to play second fiddle to Portsmouth."

Sad news, RIP. Always was the first one in Jaks, and the bravest soul to dance to any of the awful music in there.

The guy is class. Not a surprise. Still think we can get an equaliser and turn this friendly around. I wouldn't mind us getting beaten badly in a friendly if it means we can push forward any bids for a CB.

EDIT - delete my post. Didn't realise someone has already posted the same thing.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2186703/Blackpool-report-Southampton-illegal-approach-Matt-Phillips.html Some activity is better than no activity. More to the point if THIS is true, how many of our other targets are we currently speaking to? Maybe that's why things are quiet.

Ah damn I meant to say 'too' instead of 'to'. I'm the biggest hypocrite that ever lived. On-topic, we will sign a couple of players next week. Heard a rumor that we will bring in a centre back on loan and a winger next week. My source wouldn't reveal any names, and can usually be wrong on these things. I'm more worried about Rickie Lambert's fitness for the new season.

Just a small request but try spelling boring correctly without the a, and use the word 'too' instead of too, oh and it's to not 'do'. Otherwise, top post.

Would be an amazing signing but it will never happen. Maybe we did inquire, although Southampton will never pay over £40,000 a week towards any player with our current wage structure. This is what is pricing us out of getting many good players. It's a wise move though, we shouldn't pay beyond our means, and we should focus on developing our youngsters and keep with the mentality that we're building here. I'm hoping we don't get Scott Dann and focus on using our scouting network to get a strong centre back from Europe. Much like Fonte and Jos who were bargains.(Although Fonte & Jos weren't bought from European clubs)

I just love a good hypocrite.

How does that make him a bad player? I believe what makes a player is touch, technique, footballing brain, passing, shooting, speed of thought, positional play. Would you say any of those assets of his are "over-rated" as you put in your post. Someone who lit up the final of Euro 2012, and scored the winning goal in the World Cup 2010, while also achieving countless La Liga titles and Champion League medals cannot be called "over-rated". There's a reason why Spain are based on the backbone of him and Xavi dominating the midfield. As for tika-taka, it can be a bit tedious to watch as it isn't the fast-paced attacking football that we British are accustomed to and in many cases prefer. If you're looking at results, Spain's style has had no effective opposition because technically NO team can touch them. If Saints played the same type of football with the same caliber of players and were getting results consistently would you really be complaining calling us "boring". No you'd be delighted. For what Spain do, they do magnificently, it's bad because it makes the game that one sided that don't seem to have any vulnerabilities, this makes most games against Spain one-sided, thus all this nit-picking regarding their style. As neutrals we all prefer a game that hangs in the balance, rather than one which is so one-sided you can't help but feel sorry for the opposition. (EDIT, failed at the quote the first time)

How does that make him a bad player? I believe what makes a player is touch, technique, footballing brain, passing, shooting, speed of thought, positional play. Would you say any of those assets of his are "over-rated" as you put in your post. Someone who lit up the final of Euro 2012, and scored the winning goal in the World Cup 2010, while also achieving countless La Liga titles and Champion League medals cannot be called "over-rated". There's a reason why Spain are based on the backbone of him and Xavi dominating the midfield. As for tika-taka, it can be a bit tedious to watch as it isn't the fast-paced attacking football that we British are accustomed to and in many cases prefer. If you're looking at results, Spain's style has had no effective opposition because technically NO team can touch them. If Saints played the same type of football with the same caliber of players and were getting results consistently would you really be complaining calling us "boring". No you'd be delighted. For what Spain do, they do magnificently, it's bad because it makes the game that one sided that don't seem to have any vulnerabilities, this makes most games against Spain one-sided, thus all this nit-picking regarding their style. As neutrals we all prefer a game that hangs in the balance, rather than one which is so one-sided you can't help but feel sorry for the opposition.

We already have a really solid central midfielder who dictates the pace in Spiderman. However what i think we want is a defensive midfielder, someone whose athletic ability and tackling can stamp some authority on a game.

Jack Cork really isn't as useful as Morgan. Comparing the two is stupid, talent wise it's like comparing Frankie Coccoza to Frank Sinatra. Morgan suits our style more with his long raking passes that are reminiscent of Xabi Alonso. The fact that Morgan often doesn't score does seem to grate on a few fans, but his long-range shooting is actually pretty accurate. I think he's one of those players that just prefers looking for the pass. My only problem with Morgan is that he's often too quick for those around him and when he has the ball the team have to be ready to make runs because he will find that pin-point pass. Sometimes our style of play means Morgan can look a bit casual, (when we play it out from Davies to Fonte). Morgan can improve, and yes he could be on the fringes of the French team if he has a good season. What we want from him this season is to calm the game down and give us an advantage when under-pressure from faster sides, his reading of the game is his most underrated asset. There have been countless times this season where he's been the man from midfield getting back to help the defense by making that all important last-ditch challenge. Frankly Jack Cork towards the end of last season was quite poor and seemed to be out of form, and would often make bad decisions. There is room for another midfielder, someone with a bit of experience and added 'bite' as people point out. But it has to be one who is mobile, big and with a fairly good touch. Not some journeyman who will be no better than Dean Hammond. Looking at Euro 2012, someone in the mold of the Ukrainian Anatoliy Tymoshchuk.