Lallana's Left Peg

I reckon player wages and transfer fees alone would gobble up 70 - 80% of that. Could easily see how it is done.

I think we need to wait until 1st September before we draw any conclusions.

I think you can read between the lines to see what the Board want the future of the club to be - they want to retain an identity but we must be sustainable i.e. not be reliant on cash injections from the owner. The first part of that appears to be ensuring we maintain what we've got but that appears to be linked with increasing commercial revenue.

Hard to know what state the books are in but I think an 8th place finish this season results in around £80m of revenue from the Premier League. That is around £35m more than we got last season. To be honest assuming other revenue streams remained the same as last season I could quite easily see that £35m being gobbled up every quickly by the new contracts, signings, and transfer fees from last season and the first payments for the signings paid this season. Then also consider the £25m+ training ground for which we apparently took out a loan and you can quite easily see why we aren't that comfortable...

Fans generally exaggerate the size of the club they support - its understandable. I don't know where we stand but I've always thought considering our catchment area for support and the for the size of the city itself that our home support was below average in terms of numbers. There are clubs with smaller urban areas that have better relative attendances and many are clubs that we think are smaller than ours. Of course you have to factor in success and ticket prices into that but even then I still think that. However, one thing that is unequivocal is our great youth production and that helps our standing in the game and certainly our profile as well.

The U21's have been using a fluid formation in the final third all season. Sometimes they even play a DM as an AM. McQueen is usually a winger but he has the frame and presence to play centre-forward so he has been getting games there. Seager is usually a centre-forward but has been playing more often as a winger for the U21's. It's all a part of their development I would imagine although always interesting to see what position players settle on in senior football.

It is definitely something worth considering. I am not sure of Chambers defensive instincts at centre-back but as you say he definitely has the physique and aerial ability for it. If he proves good enough there then that wold allow one of Hooiveld or Yoshida to move on in the summer if we need to drop the wage bill a little. He's a very very young age to be getting games at centre-back in the Premier League though.

Chambers starts at Centre Back for the U21's against Fulham this afternoon. McCarthy is playing right-back, but he can also play centre-half. Therefore we're playing Chambers there out of choice rather than necessity.

Now there is a player I regret getting away from us. Heavily rumoured to be joining us around the same time Ostendstad did I think and at the bargain fee of £800k. Was absolutely gutted when I saw how well he played for Chelsea

http://www.standard.co.uk/sport/football/arsenal-want-10m-southampton-ace-chambers-as-sagna-is-set-to-reject-new-deal-9201412.html Not the first time he's been linked in the Press however the report seems to think he can be signed for £10m

ZlatSam

I do wonder where a Sporting Director fits in with the role Les Reed is fulfilling. I heard somewhere that most football based departments report to Reed - medical, Academy, scouting and so on. Naturally they would then fall under the remit of the Sporting Director, in fact I am pretty sure Reed fulfils that role now. Bit weird for Krueger to talk about that role and not mention Reed. Maybe I am reading too much into it. But it doesn't seem to be a role that could be distinguished from what Reed is doing now. And it is also a role that will heavily influence whether or not Pochettino will want to hang around. I was hoping that him getting on with Krueger would be important but maybe it is far more important he gets on with the Sporting Director now.

I like that he is saying the right things without giving timescales etc. which gives others the ammo to go after him. He's made an encouraging start (as much as you can do after a week) and I like that he knows ultimately it is what happens on the pitch that influences supporters moods. Time to convince Pochettino now because if what I am told is correct the Board have already made up their mind about him and the ball is in his court

Our record against Top 10 sides isn't an issue for me. Whilst it is unusual for a team in our position not to have more top half wins (and conversely not to have more bottom half losses) I don't think it is an issue or tells us much. We've been competitive in most of the games against the Top 6 but usually lost out on grounds of quality of squad depth - hardly something that is unacceptable. Also it is interesting to see that despite a general view that we struggle against teams that sit back, that no longer appears to be the case either and we're finding a way to beat them.

As has been mentioned, centre-half is probably the single hardest position on the pitch to make a breakthrough in the Premier League. That said, Stephens is 20 now so we're coming up to the point where we must surely know whether or not he is going to be good enough for our first team squad. My perceived depth chart and contract expiry dates: 1. Dejan Lovren (24 years old, contract expires Summer 2017 when he will be 27) 2. Jose Fonte (30 years old, contract expires Summer 2015 when he will be 31) 3. Maya Yoshida (25 years old, contract expires Summer 2015 when he will be a few months short of 27) 4. Jos Hooiveld (30 years old, contract expires Summer 2015 when he will be 32) Jack Stephens (20 years old, contract expires Summer 2017 when he will be 23) Jordan Turnbull (19 years old. contract expires Summer 2016 when he will be 21) So it is too early to say what the future of Turnbull or Stephens will be until we see what happens this summer with Fonte, Yoshida, and Hooiveld who will all only have a year left on their deals. We may see Stephens and Turnbull as suitable backups rather than first choice? We do know that they both went to Spain in the summer in Pre-Season so they aren't too far away from Pochettino's thoughts, and we do know that Josh Debayo has recently been bumped up to a few U21 squads - and that is usually preparation for making the step up full time the following season. We also know that Jason McCarthy is a centre-half by trade and he has been playing at right-back for the U21's however he filled the gap left by Stephens in the game against Wolves on Friday. So Turnbull and Stephens making the step up doesn't cause issues for the U21's as they have natural successors. Stephens and Turnbull were both brilliant in the U21 win away to Man City, if I had to guess right now they will at the very least be seen as first team squad players come Summer 2015. I think Turnbull is slightly better from what I've seen but they both look decent.

Yeah I agree the NFL fanbase isn't as tribal - in fact I think US sports fans are more passionate and tribal when it comes to College Sports. Either the College they went to or their nearest 'big' College that represents the area / State they grew up in. But I still definitely think it is worth a shot for us - if we feel we have something that differentiates us then why not give it a go. Given how closely commercial revenue now impacts how much you can grow the wage bill then I think it is vital for us. Even if it were to only maintain the status quo. I wouldn't mind betting we've got several players under contract right now that if they were to join us tomorrow they would be asking for far more money. So the window is closing on how quickly we need to improve revenue to keep what we've got.

It's the dynasties in US sports that creates popularity. Winning a lot over a short period of time. When you look at the big NFL teams over there it is those who have won a lot in short periods. It is also reflected in the most popular NFL teams in the UK. The best example are the New England Patriots. No-one over here gave them two thoughts until they won a few SB's and now there are loads of Patriots fans. Kruger's approach is quite pragmatic - if we can't attain popularity via winning things then we need to try and do it another way. Luckily we have an identity as a club / team and the principle thing behind that is our youth system (or rather, giving youth a chance) and right now it is having an English core as well. So we may as well use that to differentiate ourselves. We won't get much luck by just saying 'we're another Premier League club, look at us'. But by having something that we can use to promote ourselves it at least differentiates us from around 14+ other Premier League clubs as I am not sure what other clubs could use as a vehicle to differentiate themselves. Last October NBC wrote a big long article previewing Southampton for their US audience. In a way NBC tried to differentiate each club from each other to establish an identity for them for the US audience. This is the link: http://prosoccertalk.nbcsports.com/2013/10/18/premier-league-supporters-the-dramatic-rise-of-southampton-fc-and-their-fans/ The article is laden with a narrative of what Kruger was getting at in his interview. There are things about our club that perhaps we can promote in a commercial capacity which brings in revenue and could help us to sustain our position. It's worth a shot, no matter what anyone says. I think it will be harder to do anything in Asia where they are a very fickle audience and just want success and big clubs and big players. But now with our links to North America perhaps there is a small piece of the pie out there for us, and a small piece in a market that size could be very lucrative indeed. Good luck to them I say.

JWP had an up and down game it is fair to say but hard to come into the team when you haven't started a game for a while. Still plenty more to come from him and it isn't unusual to have bad games at his age. Been around a while but still only 19 remember.

I interpreted it differently (hence my response) - I can find some regret this season with the Sunderland game in the FA Cup as I felt we didn't put our best foot forward and without good reason, but in terms of the rest of the season I'm delighted, which is why I took exception to a view that this season could be viewed with any form of sadness at all (if that is what was meant - it's just how I interpreted it). It's taken a long time to get back to this point for the club and I don't know how old most are on here but in terms of our modern history I can't remember when we've had it so good therefore the mind boggles a bit when I see people behave so negatively. I know the usual culprits like to wind-up and prod and poke and from time to time I'll get involved but I'll take this place for what it is and by and large I like just to share views with other fans and see what people think. Right now I think we're heading into a really tough stage where the growth starts to tail off and we have to fight against complacency and see what marginal gains we can make to keep going. Fans will also be challenged because many are on a drip feed of Saints being great for five straight years and now we have to realise it may be a challenge to stand still as much as it is to keep getting better. I dread to think what reactions will be if we have a slow start to next season

As a fan yes, but the club I think still has plenty to fight for - and I think we'll see that reflected in the last set of games. Most of all with the players we have fighting for World Cup spots it bodes well for effort and potential for good results.

I understand your perspective about expectations changing and I definitely thought the club was acting a little bit silly when it was talking about Champions League but given our relatively easy start to the season and the fixtures to come in the winter I think we all knew that come January that is probably a fair representation of where we'd be, and I think that has proven to be true. I don't think the start we made to the season can be held against the club at all as a 'this is the standard that we must assume is the norm' way. There is no big prize for us to fight for, there is nothing tangible left to achieve this season, but I still think there are small things that the club will want to achieve which means on the pitch we'll get nothing but 100% effort. Maybe it isn't as exciting for the fans, but when the season goes in the record books it would be nice to have a few footnotes of what has been achieved this season - be it equalling (or bettering) our best ever Premier League finish and / or points total, or sending a record number of players to the World Cup etc. But I'll stand by my point that there is nothing sad about this season.

Absolutely nothing You don't think trying to finish with a record points total in our history in the Premier League is worth going for? Same as league position?

I said Premier League in my original post

It's what is left to play for on the face of it but there is far more to it than that. As a club we're fighting for a record points haul - worth going for, no? As a club the players are fighting to go to the World Cup - more than worth their effort, no? But even then I don't have an issue with the principle that realistically 8th or 9th is where we'll finish when it is all said and done. I do have an issue with the notion of 'sadly' added to the end of it. Is it so sad? Is there a negative to be taken from it at all? 8th would be a fantastic season on the face of it, and if you also look under the covers to see the football we've played and the progress of the players I can't really find a negative in it that wouldn't be entirely understandable (e.g like squad depth being an issue - well we knew that at the start of the season so for me that is not an issue with this season).

I know, what a bloody disgrace! Fighting to finish as high as we can in the Premier League, fighting for a record Premier League points haul in our history despite having one of the youngest teams, fighting to ensure we have a greater representation than we've ever had at a World Cup and that includes potentially 4+ players in the English squad. It's been awful and I regret every second of it - bring back last season when we were fighting relegation I say!