SaintJackoInHurworth

Great to see the opinion given by Dan Morgan was based on having watched Saints play... NOT!! Does he not even realise that we are not playing in red and white stripes this season: "hoping I would see him in a Stoke shirt, but in the other red a white stripes he has failed to impress."

I don't understand those who say they like it because it is different! In what way is it different to the other million and one teams that play in red? Whatever way you look at it, it is a 1980's Nottingham Forest or Liverpool kit! If you want different, take a look at the 1980s Keegan era red and white fat stripes - that was different - and yet still a proper Saints kit. Or how about the 1970's Saints shirt with the thinner red stripes either side of each red stripe? Or the Draper shirt that some hate with the V at the top? Personally, I thought last season's kit was hard to beat - it was simple red and white stripes and yet looked somehow more stylish than other red and white striped kits. Despite its simplicity it was incredibly distinct from Exeter, Brentford, Stoke and Sunderland kits. It's a shame we couldn't have just stuck with that one. Still, there are some benefits - they sold off the old kits while I was visiting Southampton back in the spring so I got hold of a copy of last season's kit at half the usual price and so that will serve me for a few years now until they bring out another must-buy kit. The more rubbish kits they bring out, the less costly it is for me!

For those that don't think the media made much reference to Ward-Prowse on Sunday, you obviously didn't listen to the radio commentary and/or watch Match of The day. On Both of those he was singled out for particular praise. As to whether he made mistakes, etc. and whether he, Chaplow or Cork are better, I agree that he did fail to pick up Ferdinand, but also agree he will learn from that. However, I think we will probably see Adkins rotating the three of them (and Schneiderlin and Davis) to get the best from them and to ensure he doesn't overuse any players. I suspect therefore that we will start to see Cork coming back into the first team soon and Ward-Prowse becoming sub, but there will still be some matches where Adkins will give JWP a start. Over time we will have to wait and see!! The competition will do them all good!!

A few weeks ago I remember posting to the '25 man squad' thread. At that time we had a squad of exactly 25 over-21-year olds plus 7 under 21. We have now got the following squad with 22 players over 21 years old: Goalkeepers Kelvin Davis Paolo Gazzanigga (U21) Cody Cropper (U21) Right Backs Nathaniel Clyne Frazer Richardson Danny Butterfield Jack Stephens (U21) Centre Backs Maya Yoshida (Non Home-Grown) Jos Hooiveld (Non Home-Grown) Jose Fonte (Non Home-grown) Dan Seaborne Left Backs Daniel Fox Luke Shaw (U21) Central Midfield Steven Davis Jack Cork Morgan Schneiderlin James Ward-Prowse (U21) Richard Chaplow Corby Moore (U21) Attacking Midfield/Wingers Adam Lallana Gaston Ramirez (Non Home-Grown) Guly do Prado (Non Home-Grown) Steve de Ridder (Non Home-Grown) Jason Puncheon Ben Reeves (U21) Callum Chambers (U21) Strikers Rickie Lambert Tadanari Lee (Non Home-Grown) Jay Rodriguez Emmanuel Mayuka (Non Home-Grown) Sam Hoskins (U21) So, some thoughts and questions: * As we have only got 22 players aged over 21 (I’ve assumed that this should include the players who are aged 21 – i.e. Ramirez and Clyne – is that correct?) we have space for three more players. So, the question is – will we bring in any players who are without a contract or will we just keep these spaces vacant for the January transfer window? * Will any of the 22 players go out on loan to the Football League? I would personally hope that we might be able to bring someone in as cover at left back. Anyone know of any good left backs that have not yet got a club? Another centre back would also be good - shame we sent Martin out on loan instead of Seabourne, but hopefully he will return next year and stake a place in the squad. I would also expect that SDR might go out on loan and potentially a couple of the under 21 players (e.g. Sam Hoskins, Callum Chambers, Ben Reeves).

11.02 on BBC transfer day ticker: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/19422123

SORRY...! Ignore that first link - I thought it was a link to details of their first team squad, but it's not! Ramirez is still listed on their website. However, I remain reasonably confident that we will hear confirmation in the morning that he has signed - based on Ramirez's own tweet (though again I recognise as already mentioned that he jumped the gun a couple of weeks' ago too!)

Hi all, I've finally read through to post 7015 and thought I'd make a few comments. Firstly, for those looking for confirmation that Ramirez has signed, check out this page on the official website of Bologna FC: http://www.bolognafc.it/squadra-giovanile.asp?id=7. Ok, so it is not an official announcement, but you will note that Ramirez is not listed as a Bologna player on there. Also, just to clarify: @BolognaFC is an unofficial Twitter feed - the official Twitter feed is @BfcOfficialPage. However, it would seem fairly likely that @GastonRamirezOk is the official Twitter feed of the player. It links to his official Facebook page and the Facebook page links back to it. In addition, the official Bologna FC Twitter account follows @GastonRamirezOk, which gives further credence to it genuinely being his Twitter account. Taking these facts together with the Tweet made from the @GastonRamirezOk Twitter account retweeting the unofficial Bologna page, it looks as if this may well be a done deal. The only caveat to this being that, of course, Gaston Ramirez himself tweeted that he thought the deal was done a couple of weeks ago and the whole thing was almost blown out of the water at that time! I suspect that tomorrow's press conference will cover a number of issues: The Man Utd match and the signings of Ramirez, Yashida and Mayuka (and possibly more if we sign anyone else before 2pm tomorrow!). I hope that the official announcement of Ramirez's signing will, however, come in the morning. Finally, on the subject of Twitter, I am not a big user of it, but have begun to see its benefits within the past year. I think you will find that some of the opinions (and that is all they are!) we have found out from people like Simon Peach and Alan Nixon have mainly been offered as a result of questions that Saints fans have posed to them, so don't knock it! ...and yes I have asked them a few questions myself - though not a lot!

So - if that gives an idea of actual timescale and the medical is due to start at 3pm, then we should be looking at the medical completing by 8pm this evening, paving the way for an announcement this evening from 8.30pm onwards (if all other process is complete) or tomorrow.

That's amazing! Great news. I also notice a load more tweets on it now - including one or two by you: @jordansibley: An exciting announcement will be made at 11.30pm tonight. I think some of you can guess what it will be! @TurkishSaint: Ha - I don't believe for a minute we have signed Ramirez. If so I will strip naked and spend an evening at the @BlueOyster gay bar in the nude. @BlueOyster: You would be more than welcome to do that. @CypriotSaint: @TurkishSaint I dare you to do it if it really happens. @TurkishSaint: @CypriotSaint I have no hesitation in making this promise cos it isn't gonna happen! @reluctantnicko: The deal is done! El Banko Nacionale di Bologna has approved a loan for Bologna and the transfer will be completed within the hour. @SimonPeach: The news #Southampton fans have been waiting for should be announced VERY soon! Ramirez is 100% coming to Saints! @CypriotSaint: @TurkishSaint Mate, you know that promise you made about the @BlueOyster...? @BlueOyster: @TurkishSaint We are looking forward to welcoming you! @TurkishSaint: @CypriotSaint It's a lie and I'm never going to believe it - not even if it is on the OS.

Alan Nixon on Twitter says this is no change from a couple of hours ago: Looks to me as if Simon Peach has tweeted using the '#saintsfc' and the result has been that @backpage have truncated the quote to become: Then Sky have produced their story from that. If I understand it all correctly, we are just waiting on Bologna to tie up a deal with a financial institution to be able to accelerate the second part of the money that we will be paying them next year. Ramirez's agent and Saints are putting pressure on Bologna to hurry this process along. What I don't understand is how putting on this pressure can help - surely it is a case of Bologna being subject to however long it takes whatever financial institution they are using to accelerate the debt in this way to agree to do so. All I can guess is that by putting pressure on Bologna they put pressure on the finance provider to move quickly if they want the benefits of loaning this money themselves. However, in the current financial climate I wonder if that is appropriate.

FichajesEuropeos ‏@Europa_Fichajes El Southampton está cerca de cerrar el fichaje de Gaston Ramirez en £ 18M Translation: The Southampton is close to close the signing of Gaston Ramirez at £ 18M

I think that is 'unfortunately' for Bologna - not for Saints! I think the bit that has been translated 'the transfers risks unfortunately of to go in port.' means 'the chances are that the transfer will unfortunately move forwards.'

I am not sure about the Bloodzeed connection, but according to the Wiziwig page the resolution for 'RUS NTV+ Uefa' is higher resolution - 2500 Kbps rather than the 2200 Kbps offered by Bloodzeed. You might therefore be better trying that one. On the other hand if your computer's memory is limited the resolution offered by both of those may be too high for you, so try going for a connection with a lower bitrate, such as the 'Spanish Football' stream which is at 1500 kbps. Hope this helps!

I don't know if they have improved since being launched but I am having NO difficulty in viewing those pages and they look quite good! The Posh one has the boring outdated 'Home Page' on the page tab, but the Stoke City one says 'Stoke City FC Official Website'. As to the suggestion that the Coventry City one looks good, I personally think it has too much content on the one page and I prefer the other ones! Looking at the Man City website it doesn't look all that different to the other ones except that it doesn't have the annoying 'Enable cookies' page at launch and has a video instead. I would go as far as to suggest that it looks as though it has been created by the same company! I am looking forward to seeing what the new Saints website will look like. I'm not sure about black as the background colour, but at least it's not blue!!

http://www.clubcall.com/le-championnat/kana-biyik-flattered-by-interest-1448701.html - a bit more detail (but not much!). He doesn't sound that interested and is contracted until 2015 so this one looks a bit of a non-starter.

I think Saints will finish somewhere in mid table obscurity, which I will be quite happy with. Our top priority is to avoid relegation, but having achieved that I would hope we could push on to finish at least 15th! Overall, I think the Premier League will finish something like this: 1. Man Utd – They will be better this year and their experience will see them through. 2. Man City – It’s hard to win it two seasons in a row, but they will push United all the way. 3. Chelsea – better manger than last season but a big gap to catch up with the Manchester clubs. 4. Arsenal – look set to lose Van Persie but will always grind out enough results to finish in the top 5. 5. Everton – They have got to have a season when they finally start well – maybe this season will be it! 6. Fulham – Good manager with a club that are improving year-on-year. 7. Spurs – dodgy manager losing his best players! If he doesn’t get sacked by February I can’t see them being much higher than this, despite their talented squad! 8. Liverpool – Good new manager but not impressed with how he has dealt with Carroll; nor with his transfer dealings. Their squad will probably be quite depleted at the start of the season or else a number of their players will be quite tired by mid-season and prone to injuries. 9. Newcastle – I still think Pardew got a raw deal with how he was treated by Saints. He is a good manager with some good players and has made some astute purchases. However, they will not quite hit the highs of last season. 10. Sunderland – Good manager and should be able to get them to push on to a higher finish this season. 11. Southampton – I think we will surprise a few people. We have been steadily strengthening the squad in the transfer market and (as long as we can purchase an extra central defender?) we should be able to do ok. The bookies have us odds on to finish in the top half, but that may be tight. However, I would hope we can finish in at least 14th. 12. Aston Villa – great manager, but a lot to change with not very much money! 13. Reading – Good manager trying to make astute transfer purchases, but hasn’t got the same sort of budget as Saints. 14. QPR – I don’t rate Mark Hughes as a manager and I think they could struggle again. However, he has made some excellent acquisitions so far, so this should help them to stay up or do even better. 15. Stoke City – They continue to surprise everyone, but have had to release a load of players and have only brought in one youngster from Rangers so far. On paper they shouldn’t finish this high up, but somehow they keep surprising everyone! 16. Swansea – The loss of Rogers could be bad news for them. Laudrup has a good record but he seems to ready to let some of their better players leave. Nevertheless, I still think he will keep them up. 17. West Brom – I’m not sure that Steve Clarke can emulate what Hodgson did with West Brom and they may struggle this year. However, they have some good players and the purchase of Foster from Brum is not a bad one. 18. West Ham – They could finish higher than this, but if they get on a bad run Big Sam seems clueless as to how to change things. I used to like him as a manager, but now I am not so sure. Apart from Maigi (perhaps, who knows?!) their purchases seem to be distinctly average so far and they have released, sold or lost a lot of good players. The loss of Robert Green is a big disaster for them. 19. Wigan – I think this will be the season that they finally lose their fight against relegation. They were already a weak squad and have just lost Rodallega. Martinez is not a great manager either! 20. Norwich – The loss of Paul Lambert is a massive disaster for the club. Their squad is lightweight and only Lambert could achieve what he did with such a squad.

I think that now we have signed a couple more and things have changed a bit, it might be worth looking at this again... So, what is the situation now with our squad bearing in mind the purchases of Rodriguez, Davis, Clyne and Gazzanigga? Who will be in the 25 and who won't make it? Or with the number of youngsters we have got who don't need to count in the 25, will this make no difference to our squad? Taking the list previously listed, I think we now have a squad of 24 over-21-year olds plus 9 who are under 21: Goalkeepers Kelvin Davis Paolo Gazzanigga (Non Home Grown) (U21) Right Backs Nathaniel Clyne (U21) Frazer Richardson Danny Butterfield Jack Stephens (U21) Centre Backs Jose Fonte (Non Home-grown) Jos Hooiveld (Non Home-Grown) Dan Seaborne Left Backs Daniel Fox Luke Shaw (U21) Dan Harding Ryan Dickson Central Midfield Morgan Schneiderlin Dean Hammond Richard Chaplow Jack Cork Steve Davis James Ward-Prowse (U21) Corby Moore (U21) Attacking Midfield/Wingers Guly do Prado (Non Home-Grown) Adam Lallana Steve de Ridder (Non Home-Grown) Jason Puncheon Callum Chambers RW (U21) Ben Reeves LW (U21) Strikers Rickie Lambert Tadanari Lee (Non Home-Grown) Jay Rodriguez Billy Sharp Lee Barnard Jonathan Forte Sam Hoskins (U21) So, what next? Who will be leaving? Who will be staying? Who will get one of the 25 places for over-21s? Players In Clearly we remain weak in central defence so we must surely be on the lookout for someone in that area, though strangely I don't recall much in the way of strong rumours for this position. I would personally anticipate at least one signing in this area, though I was surprised that it was Martin and not Seaborne that was sent out on loan. We are also rumoured to be looking to sign Lens, a winger. Clearly, De Ridder has not yet delivered and Puncheon's ego will probably prevent him ever living up to his full potential. I hadn't noticed before, but I can see now that we are quite weak in the area of wide/attacking midfielders, notwithstanding the fact that Rodriguez can play on the wing. Lallana would clearly be a leading light in this area followed by Do Prado who I have placed in this position as I can't see him getting a striker role now. Finally we were previously rumoured to be in the market to buy a right back, but this has now seemingly faded into nothing, so we shall have to watch and see if anything happens in this area or whether Shaw steps up to a bigger role. Players Out Dickson? Forte? - There is probably little chance of them getting into the 25 now. There have certainly been rumours that Dickson is unhappy. Barnard? Puncheon? De Ridder? - It may depend on how many more players we sign who are over 25. Barnard has been rumoured to be leaving. I could imagine Puncheon and De Ridder hanging around in the hope of first team football but finding themselves being little more than bit part players if they manage to get a squad number even. Finally, what about Seaborne, Harding and Butterfield? Perhaps there is still a role for these three, though as I have already stated I don't quite get how we have kept Seaborne but let Martin go out on loan, unless the thinking is that it is now too late for Seaborne to go on loan and develop in any beneficial way, whereas Martin still has time and the right attitude to benefit from a loan. I can see Harding's role becoming less and he could leave in January.

I felt he was playing within himself too, but that may reflect the role he was asked to play. It looked to me as if he had been encouraged to sit back and not push forward. I also felt that the way that Pearce had the side set up meant that the players were too close to each other meaning that Cork did not have much more to do than some short passes. That having been said he made a couple of telling passes including one out wide which nearly led to a goal.

The difference is that he has now shown he cuts the mustard against a team of real undisputed quality. That will increase his value no question.

Seems realistic - but it would leave 6 gaps in the squad. Would we really buy 6 more players or would we not fill our quota of 25? While they may leave as I previously mentioned, I could see Puncheon, Seaborne and Barnard staying (or a couple of them at least). This would give us (at least) three squad places to fill - probably with a keeper and two centre backs.

I was going to start a new thread on this topic but then remembered this one from a few weeks back. So, what is the situation now with our squad bearing in mind the purchases of Rodriguez and Davis and the expected completion of the Buttner deal? Who will be in the 25 and who won't make it? Or with the number of youngsters we have got who don't need to count in the 25, will this make no difference to our squad? Taking the list previously listed we now have a squad of exactly 25 over-21-year olds plus 7 who are under 21: Goalkeepers Kelvin Davis Tommy Forecast Right Backs Frazer Richardson Danny Butterfield Centre Backs Jose Fonte (Non Home-grown) Jos Hooiveld (Non Home-Grown) Dan Seaborne Left Backs Daniel Fox Dan Harding Ryan Dickson (rumoured to want to leave) Alexander Buttner Central Midfield Morgan Schneiderlin Dean Hammond Richard Chaplow Jack Cork Attacking Midfield/Wingers Guly do Prado (Non Home-Grown) Adam Lallana Steve de Ridder (Non Home-Grown) Jason Puncheon Strikers Rickie Lambert Tadanari Lee (Non Home-Grown) Jay Rodriguez Billy Sharp Lee Barnard Jonathan Forte Under 21 yr-olds RB Jack Stephens LB Luke Shaw CMF Corby Moore, James Ward-Prowse RW Callum Chambers LW Ben Reeves Str Sam Hoskins So, some questions: * Is this our final squad? (I don't think so personally) * If we sign some more players over 21 years old, who will drop out of the 25? I would expect Dickson and Forecast to drop out plus possibly Forte. There may also be question marks over Lee Barnard, Jason Puncheon, Steve De Ridder(??), Dan Seaborne, Dan Harding and Danny Butterfield. * So how many more will we purchase? I can't see us signing 9 more players, so some of these players will probably get a place in the squad IMO. What do you think?

Sorry - I meant to say that was in reference to the main poster with the diamond of hundreds of players, etc.

I haven't quite worked out what picture you are talking about unless it's one on Saints Player to which I do not subscribe. However, I am slightly concerned at the appearance of John Hartson in a Saints kit on the left hand side, over Guly's right shoulder!!

So pleased I bought last season's kit in the sale - I will wear that with pride next season happy to be wearing a proper Saints kit rather than this rubbish! I'm not a Liverpool fan and don't wish us to play in Liverpool colours thank you very much!!!

That looks like you have put as many foreign players as you can remember and assumed that Le Tissier is the best English player we have ever had. Let me put forward a few suggestions per country rather than per position (just as a start not an exhaustive list!): England: Le Tissier, Shearer, Keegan, Shilton, Channon, Payne, Osgood, Ball, Case Wales: Bale, R. Davies, Rodrigues, Paul Jones France: Fernandes, Colleter, Schneiderlin, Bernard Republic of Ireland: Kenna, Connolly Sweden: M.Svensson, A.Svensson, Norway: Lundekvam, Tessem, Ostenstad Yugoslavia (Croatia): Golac, Katalinic Latvia: Pahars Brazil: Guly Trinidad & Tobago: Kenwyne Jones N.Ireland: Nicholl, Baird, Clarke, Dowie, Magilton Poland: Rasiak, Saganowski, Andruszewski Senegal: Waigo Japan: Lee Romania: Petrescu Ecuador: Delgado, Chala Portugal: Fonte Holland: Hooiveld, Monkou Finland: Niemi Czechoslovakia/Czech Republic: Rudi Skacel Scotland: McCalliog, MacDougall Nigeria: Agboola Denmark: Ekelund Morocco: Kachloul I particularly want to highlight the English players. My heart says Le Tissier as well, but many people would argue that you cannot put him ahead of Keegan, Ball, etc.