Lallana's Left Peg

No English keeper can kick well, I've still no idea why it appears we are only after British keepers. There are loads of foreign keepers out there who fill the sweeper / distributer role very well and are good shot stoppers.

Agreed but we also have a lot of young players that have wage accelerators built into their deals which will eat into the wage space saved.

Would be a great signing for us but aside from wages being a problem the release clause of £8m means all the big boys are keeping him as their backup plan and he won't leave for a club like us (if at all) until he knows a better move won't materialise for him.

£15m for Osvaldo? Not going to happen. Plus we need to manage the wage bill properly. I can't see us being keen to spend more money to increase the wage bill from what we had last season. Doesn't seem sustainable to me.

Even then Colback is apparently on £50k+ a week and I wouldn't want to go near him if that is true.

Being present at the humiliating defeats away to both Sheffield Wednesday and Preston - getting beat so badly and in performances which appeared to lack effort and spirit that the club, hardly rolling in money, felt so bad they offered supporters who went to both games a free ticket to the Cardiff away game. We got beat in that game too, but I recall it was only by the odd goal. Ah, the days of going to away games where it felt like some sort of voluntary torture despite the feeling right before kick off of 'what if we got a point'.

Both Koeman and Tadic speak very well it must be said. Sounds like Tadic is very humble with his approach to the team as well. If he can add some Balkan spirit and grit in that part of the pitch the fans will warm to him a great deal regardless of his quality.

The appeal of the fee is tempered somewhat by the trepidation that we may not be able to replace him with someone who is as good. It's been nothing but an upward trajectory for the last 5 years where all we've ever done is replace by buying someone who is better. We may now be back at the point where that doesn't happen and as much as it always use to be the way during most of our supporting lives the idea just isn't a nice feeling.

I didn't bump / merge the thread!

Good for them. Because I reported it as news in March.

No but then the question posed is unrealistic too so if he is a Saints player then I'm damn well playing him over Yoshida and Hooiveld

Oh right - I read that as the owner spending ****loads on a new team Boruc Chambers - Fonte - Lovren - Clyne Cork - Wanyama Davis - Schneiderlin - Tadic Osvaldo Lots of 1-0 wins

Are you wanting realistic signings or teams that come from la-la land. Because if the latter why would we keep any of our existing players

Lovren is also putting Liverpool in an awkward position as we have no need for the money ourselves so can make Liverpool sweat. There will always be compromise on all sides but of all the departures that may happen getting £20m+ for Lovren would be tremendous business.

I thought the same about Steve De Ridder. And then Gaston Ramirez. Yet I still pursue the YouTube clips. Why do I do this?

What squad numbers are free?

All the people on twitter falling for the @Southamptonn account

No harm in it. We've still got Jordan Turnbull as the 5th choice centre-half, or maybe even Calum Chambers.

15m Euros on a player in the last year of his deal at Twente? Seems very steep to me but I don't know enough of the player to know if he is worth it or not. Lets hope he is.

Don't understand the clubs apparent obsession with British keepers when there appears to be a lot of keepers outside these shores who have the distribution which the modern game requires. I suppose having the English National Team coach may influence that but still.

The Board deserve the summer to do their work before we jump to conclusions but I raised concerns at the start of the summer about the structure of the Board, the footballing experience, and Les Reed. Many chose to shout me down but right now their work doesn't look too good. Time to go to work...

Whilst I do not condone his comments whatsoever, and whilst I cannot think of a way to even stop this behaviour, only a few months ago our Board said no player would be sold etc. and a few months on three have gone, one of which clearly bullied his way to his move. So therefore Lovren (and his people) probably think Saints are a soft touch. And we are.

Spent most of his days in the Youth Team as a right winger and was handy. If we went 3-5-2 next season I would see him more as central defender on the right side of the three than a wing-back.

What, they shoved him in the reserves and didn't play him to teach him a lesson?