Lallana's Left Peg

I agree with you - he doesn't need to be as good as Shaw to get in our team and I would love for him to be good enough for us and to see us replace one Academy graduate with another would be great. The problem is people trying to say Shaw wasn't as good as he clearly was and people building up Targett to be better than he is. I know it is a case of the King is dead, long live the King but we need to be realistic here - Targett is not as good as Shaw and is the same age. I hope he gets an opportunity but I am not expecting him to be Premier League ready just yet.

It's not too early to make predictions, but it is too early to appraise our business this summer. However I'm more than comfortable in saying that thus far our actions have left me concerned. I do not think we will be in any real danger of relegation - far from it - however I do believe that we will regress this season. Here are some facts about what has happened this summer: 1. Our Manager, a key aspect of our progress the last 18 months, has left taking all his coaching staff with him. He is also known to be a Manager that the majority of players enjoyed playing for and wanted to stay. They said so publicly. 2. Our starting left-back - possible the best in the league - has left. 3. Our Captain - and best player - has left. 4. Our best striker has left. 5. Our best defender wants to leave. 6. What is now our best midfielder appears open to leave (but is being far more respectable about it) 7. One of our most in form players of last season is out until around Christmas. 8. Last seasons vice captain and starting centre-half, along with one of our more consistent midfield performers, have no signs of a new deal with less than 12 months to run on their contract - yet we know the club are capable of handing out new contracts as Jay Rodriguez has apparently received one. Now in fairness we received good money for the players who have departed. But then the Board told us repeatedly that we'd never sell any of our best players unless we wanted to. And then again, we also sold our players without signing replacements first meaning the whole world and his dog knows we're loaded and any benefit of receiving good fees is now likely wiped out by the premium we'll have to pay for new players ourselves. There is no net gain in my opinion. For example, signing a player from Holland for £11m when he just has a year left on his contract. I fully expect us to sign more players. I also fully expect the amount of change that has occurred at the club to mean we will not hit last seasons heights and we'll have a season of no excitement either end of the table. That's ok of course, but don't tell me your expectations for Saints are not different now to what they were the day after the Man Utd game last season. So if it is quite alright with you I'll express than opinion until this club can prove me wrong.

Do you believe we will match or even better last seasons finish? Now is the time to put your cards on the table. I agree with the latter statement but then I also think by now we'd have a better squad than we do.

At the end of last season it wasn't unrealistic to think we could push on even further with some astute signings and our young players continuing to make progress. I think it is safe to say any Saints fan would be happy with a Top 10 finish as it stands right now. Whilst I agree that the wages on offer from the big clubs will turn players heads regardless I do feel there was focus and momentum that we had previously which just isn't there at the moment.

It's a fair point to be honest, Sharp must have thought he'd have a chance to try and impress this summer with the change in management at a footballing and club level and yet he's being played out of position He's got a year left on his deal and I suspect another loan move beckons before we wave goodbye to him.

And voted as the best left back in the league by his fellow professionals. He's already very good and he is going to be one of the best in the world for the next decade and more. We may find an adequate replacement, but he won't be as good as Shaw, I'm 99% sure of that.

He is a different player but nowhere near as good as Luke Shaw. People pretending otherwise are being silly.

I think we'll end up 10th - 12th when it is all said and done. I think it will be a half decent season where we go through fits and spurts of form and then come the summer anyone half decent will move on. Basically, back to what we all know as Saints supporters except perhaps a more comfortable season than fighting relegation.

Lee Todd: Heinous

Mayuka is a year younger than Jay Rod. I'm not saying Mayuka will end up as good as Jay Rod but finishing ability can improve very quickly in football. Personally I don't think we can afford to develop Mayuka in the first team during a period of massive transition however I would not write him off as being the finished product, that's all.

Not going to say Mayuka is going to be as good, but I do recall a certain Jay Rod coming in for some stick for his finishing in his first season with us...

No point getting too wound up about it because if they are sensitive they are also hard to get over the line and there is every chance they won't happen. If we were clear favourites they wouldn't be so sensitive.

Maybe we were playing against a team of midgets but JWP and Chambers both looked to have grown taller this summer (not impossible at their age I suppose).

Do you honestly think Koeman will play exactly how he plans to in pre-season? When was the last Manager we had that did this? I can't remember. Games will be used for fitness and to test a few things but all of the work on how the team will play is done behind closed doors.

I think you're massively misjudging how much the players will care. They all understand and are professionals. They won't care and will get on with it.

Don't assume Cork will sign a new deal. And we're tracking midfielders because of that plus we know that there will be interest in Schneiderlin towards the end of the window when some of the big boys miss out on primary targets and start working their way down the list. The club is always scouting not just for need, but also for succession planning. Any other approach would just be negligent.

You pay a premium for players in the Premier League because they have already proven themselves at the level required. The extra value that adds to their transfer fee is clear to see. You can buy players of equal talent for much less from abroad, but what you don't have that guarantee they can perform in the Premier League. Saints have sold three players who have proved themselves in the league we play in and replaced two of them thus far with players who play in a competition far inferior. That is not to say they won't adapt and be productive, but also that is not to say that they will. No-one knows. It's impossible. We just have to hope that in addition to their talent Saints have managed to scout and assess their ability to adapt to our league - but I suspect they haven't because it's impossible.

At £40k a week he's literally taken up Lambert's old (reported) wage as well.

I hope Pelle can make the step up. Signings from Holland either go brilliantly or fail spectacularly!

He was a gun for hire who did his job well but we've moved on now and I suspect he knows that as well. Going to be hard to shift him because of his wages, and even then that it appears no other Premier League team wants him should given an indication as to his level of ability. I'm going to guess he remains with us to the end of August where he'll find a loan to a team that will only pay a certain % of his wages. At the end of the season he gets released.

That was last summer, when Norwich and Swansea both won the summer transfer window.

Headless chicken who spends more time cutting inside and hitting pearollers than he does passing it and crossing it. Appreciate he scored a winner against us last season but the amount of times he messes up Norwich attacks is baffling. If he can be coached out of it then he may be worth a punt but if he continues to play like he is thick then lets leave him alone and concentrate on buying proper footballers.

I think its a load of made up tripe. I think they randomly assign a value to the player more than anything else.

Are we really going to be upset for him tripling his salary? Would rather we focus on the players we've got than those we haven't.