Lallana's Left Peg

You resent the implication he is too good for us? Deal with it. He is. We signed a great player and he is clearly destined for better things than we can ever offer him. You seem pragmatic enough to understand Saints' place in the football pyramid so what makes you think for one second we can hang onto him? The idea that we could make an example of him is laughable. I'm as gutted as anyone else about the way they are going about this but strong reports emerged at the start of the summer about how the Board were not communicating with the players about their plans etc. So the club isn't faultless as far as I am concerned. Maybe this can be a lesson to them that when they have some good players they may want to let them know what is happening otherwise they'll just up sticks and force a move. We've already had two players do it to us this summer.

Even then he had interest from Liverpool and Spurs last summer and we worked hard to bring him here. The summer before he was linked with Barcelona. Whilst I don't doubt whatsoever we took advantage of his situation after he had a poor season at Lyon it took those of us at the West Brom game about 10mins to work out he was far too good for us. I do think we could have hung onto him if we showed the ability to hang onto our players and push on. But right now he is our best player by far along with Schneiderlin and both have now seen our best players and Manager move on. I would understand them wanting to leave in this circumstance.

I appreciate your positivity but I do not blame the player whatsoever for wanting to leave now. The Manager and his best team mates have now left. Why on earth would be want to stay as well when he took a step down to join us?

Safe choice of models

I do not blame Lovren for wanting to leave. He joined us from a team better than us and clearly brought into the upward momentum we had with the other signings and our prospects. Right now we've shown we can't hang onto our Manager, two of our best players, and even our talisman. What is his motivation for staying? What message does that send him? He joined us ahead of interest from better teams and I would completely understand if he wants to leave.

Jay has been owed a new contract for a little while now - basically ever since he racked up 45 appearances for us. Maybe the injury has left doubt in the minds of Saints but really he should be given his contract in good faith.

I think Lovren is brilliant and he has made Fonte a better player but really if we are never going to be able to push on from 8th then £20m for him really is very very tempting.

I'd have as down as third choice in that race.

Rare you let a decent player run into the last 12 months of his deal without either getting him to sign a new one or selling him. Any theories on what on earth is happening with these two as I'd quite like to keep them!

Has surpassed the number of appearances (45) to be eligible for a new deal but no news on one...

That's usually good news when Saints are involved to be fair.

Adam Blackmore has suggested he spoke to Adam Lallana yesterday and the note in the paper does not reflect Adam's true feelings well enough, and that Adam's advisors have not done a good job with that note. So the note came from his advisors. Pathetic.

He joined FC Toronto for a fee of around $10m. I think he's good but his spell at Villa wasn't too impressive. That entire US team is filled with amazing athletes - wouldn't be surprised if Poch wanted a few of them at Spurs!

I think it is clear his relationship with the club broke down to the point that the club were not willing to give him a platform to say what he wanted. So doing it in the Echo is probably a reluctant act. I don't begrudge him the opportunity to earn a six-figure weekly salary, play for a better team, and further his career. The way he has manufactured it has left a sour taste in the mouth and it feels like more respect should be shown to the club and fans during that process - or rather enough respect that reflects his tenure at the club. At the end of the day he has got what he wanted and at some cost to the goodwill afforded him by the fans. I don't really care what he has to say now if I am honest.

Haha. Unfortunately not, I just think I'd rather have our Captain and one of our best players ahead of £8m we don't need and a player we don't know will be good enough or not.

I am not sure that a teams form prevents a keeper from being called up. If anything it is the one position on the pitch where your individual form can be separated from the rest of the team. Plus we called up Ben Foster ahead of John Ruddy, and WBA were garbage this year too. Just interesting that Ruddy wasn't in the England squad when his club coach is also the national coach.

Which makes sense until you release that Bournemouth get their slice. So then it is really £8m + Tadic for Lallana. I'd rather have Lallana right now.

Not sure. But the Norwich fans said Ruddy has been bad this season and not too many of them were fussed about losing Watson. That said, I think as appointments go it's a very good one so credit to Reed and the team for getting him.

Something some Norwich fans pointed out to me is that in the period Watson had been at Norwich Ruddy went from being in the England squad to not being in the England squad and all this while Watson was the England GK coach.

I presume there is a plan but on Day 1 of Pre-Season training the U18's and U21's do not have a Manager. Not ideal. And Uncle Les is looking after his chums isn't he?

I get the feeling this new kit will be so **** it'll make losing Luke Shaw and Adam Lallana look like no problem whatsoever.

Yeah I'd agree with this. I doubt the club would just spend £10m+ on a player on the recommendation of a Manager, but at the same time would want to show support for the new Manager by signing targets they both agree with. It's a decent approach in my opinion.

Right now we've got ~£52m for our first choice left-back, attacking midfielder, and striker. It is suggested that £18m of that will be spent on a new attacking midfielder and striker. There is no way we'll spend £34m on a new left back (I would suggest £5m max on one). So that would be £52m out and £23m spent. Leaving a delta of ~£29m. Remind me, what was the transfer debt going into the summer again...