Lallana's Left Peg

Well that list facting went well There are no facts. There are only reports which none of us can validate, hence why this thread is 30+ pages as we're all trying to work out what is going on.

Being played at St Marys. 7.35pm kick off. If you aren't going to the game then try to find a stream of Chelsea TV as it is being shown on that. Streams appear easy to come by for Chelsea TV. Another really tough game for the u21's, but after beating Liverpool they will have confidence.

He was never a bad Captain. People picked up on his indifferent form in the second half of the season (after a 9 week injury) and for some reason said he shouldn't be Captain. There may be arguments that Lambert could be a more suitable Captain at this stage, but I genuinely don't think we get any more or less out of our players whether or not they have the Captains armband. Therefore as a symbol I think giving Lallana the captaincy is a fair move from the club - he represents a lot of what the club wants to be about.

Darren Bent is having a medical at Fulham apparently, hopefully that means the end of their interest.

For those of you who recorded the ITV programme, because you had an inkling something like this may happen, you'll be wanting to skip straight to about 118mins. Absolutely delighted for him. Whatever happens in his career now, he has fulfilled most of his dreams I would imagine, and all whilst playing in League 1 or below until he was 29. Crazy.

What happens to Lambert if Osvaldo signs? Benched? Plays a Number 10 role?

More questions than answers for me this pre-season. Not that it is a bad or good thing, but some things just aren't very clear to me. I guess we'll find out a bit more this Saturday. These are the questions: 1. Who will emerge as the preferred option to play behind Lambert? Davis, Lallana, and Ramirez all offer very different options. What will suit the team best? Or will it be a circumstantial pick based on the opposition? 2. Who will partner Lovren? It looks like it may well be Hooiveld, but if the Hooiveld and Fox partnership is reignited on the left side of the defence it is really very very dangerous. 3. Will the style of play in the final third finally be established? Pochettino's style called for quick football in the final third, one or two touch stuff to take advantage of the positions we win the ball back in. But other than glimpses in fits and starts, we've moved the ball too slowly whether building up from the back or winning it high up the pitch. Will we be more incisive or will we continue to slow the game down? Does Pochettino trust his defence enough to be happy to lose the ball up the pitch playing more exciting football? Or are our personnel just not compatible with that part of his game right now? 4. Will we press all game or will it be used in select moments? Can the defence cope with the long diagonals that exposed it badly at times last season? As long as we give West Brom a decent game I'll be happy, but the defending worries me still (as a team, not individuals).

As backup left-backs go, I rate Fox better than the following: Potts (West Ham) Robinson / Flanagan (Liverpool) Duffy (Everton) Lappin (Cardiff) Bennett (Aston Villa) Plus Sunderland, Crystal Palace, and Hull who don't appear to have one from what I can tell. That doesn't mean I think Fox is good enough for a team with our aspirations, but as back-ups go the Premier League is hardly rich with talent in the left-back area. I doubt any of the above teams would like to call on their back-up left back either.

That was fun to watch but I don't think Martin Hunter will be too happy overall. However, in a league where only the top four qualify for the post-season knockout tournament it is a very important three points against one of the best teams in it, no matter how weakened they were with absentees. Plus points: 1. We compete well despite not being the biggest of teams 2. The players are getting used to adopting elements of how the first team play 3. We have great pace and movement in the front three 4. Will Britt was brilliant Things to work on: 1. Being more careful with the ball when we have men committed forward (we looked very exposed on the break) 2. Seeing the game out - we could have been a lot more professional in the last 10mins (I think these are the sorts of things Martin Hunter alludes to when he talks about the consistency and professionalism that the players need to show to go to the next level) although Matt Young's timewasting at throw-ins is a very polished routine and reminded me of Lee Dixon at his prime. 3. Being more incisive up front (sometimes it looks like we overplay) Some very good prospects in the team though and it looks to be a promising season. Will be interesting to see how the team adopt to the pressure and expectation of being one of the best in the league.

Stephens and Turnball spend 3 weeks with the senior central defenders, and then come back and play like this. Coincidence?

Our Development Squad kick off their season today with a tough game away at Liverpool. It is live on Liverpool TV which is free to air and on Sky channel 429. Last season we were dominated up there and fortunate to only lose by the odd goal. Liverpool always have good youth teams and I expect this years effort to be no different. However, we have fully loaded our u21 team this year and everyone at u18 who impressed has been promoted to the development squad regardless of age (the likes of Harrison, Seager, Rowe, Gape, etc.) All this means our u18 team this year is very young (mostly first year scholars) and they are expected to struggle a bit. Back to this match - Gape is injured and Targett is on international duty so we are missing a couple of players but I am sure it is the same as Liverpool. Should be a good match.

For those familiar with the player, what is it about him that makes the club so eager to get him? As far as I can tell he is 27 (and won't have a great resale value), will command very big wages, and has had moments of controversy in his career. I've no doubt he is considerably better than anything we've got, and the Pochettino link is significant, but considering all of the other possible targets what sets Osvaldo out from the rest of them?

Depends if they are torn, strained, bruised, tweaked, whatever. As a general rule of thumb though it would be a minimum three weeks best case, if his ligaments really have been damaged in the 'best' of ways.

Not sure if anyone else caught it on the SaintsPlayer commentary but Adam Blackmore of BBC Solent Sport said that he has been told that 'two out of three' first choice targets have been secured transfer wise and that we should expect at least one, maybe more signings before the end of the window. The maybe signing was alluded to be an attacking midfielder, whilst we all know the priority signing is a striker. No names suggested.

The market seems pretty tangled up right now, based on nothing but inclination I can't see Saints getting anything done until the last week of the window (unless they are holding something up their sleeves for tonight or tomorrow). If we don't spend big on a striker it will be interesting to see who we do end up going for - I'm pretty sure we won't be going into the new season with just three senior strikers in the squad, one of which is 30+, one unproven and looks uncomfortable up top on his own, and another who appears guarantee to start deeper on the left (Rodriguez).

He has been fighting a hip injury at the latter end of every season ever since the League 1 promotion campaign. Attempting to carry it and compensate for it this season has also caused some back injuries. He isn't alone at the club or within football in general in terms of players who have to nurse recurring injuries at the end of long seasons. Fox and Lallana with their groins for example spring to mind.

I'm very interested in the use of statistics in football and my general position is that I like them to assess teams but not to assess players. In football I think more meaningful stats need to be found that take into account circumstance, but even then they have a long way to go as you need to work out the difference between a habit a player has and what he has been asked to do. There are so many variables in football that affect what a player does (habit, ability, form, tactics, fitness, game circumstance, and other players just for starters) that I think it would be very easy to mislead people based on only being able to measure end results without knowing the full circumstance of why something happened. But in terms of teams, I find statistics to have slightly more value right now. However I still think nothing can beat the naked eye for being able to conclude more appropriately. Best leave it there before I bore everyone.

What category do I fall into then? I like our squad, like our signings, am genuinely happy and proud that we're giving youth team players a chance etc. however I've heard and read players and Staff talk about Europe and think we're a mile away from that. Can I both be happy with the squad and yet underwhelmed if I am to take noise about European football seriously? If they said European football in five years I doubt we'd have any of this concern but it has been mentioned too many times for this season to go un-noticed by fans. Their fault, they volunteered this - the fans did not put words in their mouths. I appreciate there is a month to go in the transfer window and that perhaps the majority of deals for players are done in this time, but right now we're on course for a mid-table finish in my opinion (something I would be happy about) however that isn't European qualification. Unless someone wants to genuinely state the current squad is good enough for a Top 6 finish? A single striker won't make a massive difference either. I'd rather we slowly build up the club now (in all respects) however if the club are going to talk about European football then they either perceive the quality of the existing squad differently to me or they need to start showing some more intent in the market.

But it is also worth noting that Pochettino had different pressures at Espanyol. His accelerated blooding of kids and the revolving door of players was done through financial necessity. It was pretty much an annual thing of selling the better players and replacing them with 'moneyball' type signings and kids from the Academy. It worked very well for a while however there are now new pressures at Saints - no players sold and an expectation that we improve each year. Where there is some confusion is what the club has a realistic ambition for and in what timescales. Publicly, from players and staff I've read Top Half and Top 6. It's a mixed message and even if something like Top 6 was said to show ambition it can mislead and set expectations - so what happens is when people are assessing our transfer business they do so with what they interpret the club has stated as the ambition. Therefore I think it is perfectly understandable that when fans read Top 6 coming out of the mouths of the club they seem to think we've not done enough in the transfer market (thus far) to justify that. I don't think we have the depth or know-how to achieve that personally. However, if you were to remove those stated objectives from the criteria for assessing the transfer business then we've had a good summer thus far and ignoring European football etc., I'm happy as a fan. But people are absolutely right to question transfer business if the club are going to come out with statements that they believe they can improve 10 league positions in one season.

Sow is an absolute beast of a player in terms of presence and power, I don't know how attainable he is though - they pay players a lot in Turkey due to favourable tax laws. Actually, just found this: Either way he'll need paying a lot even if he can be purchased for 'just' £15m - and then he needs to be interested in joining us from a Champions League club.

I can't help but feel that if the club hadn't been making noises about European football that our perspective would be greatly different. Personally I am happy with our activity, and pragmatically I know where are quite some way from European football. Now we're back in the Premier League I am quite happy to give this current side some time to grow until we know what the limits are, as well as continuing to see young players being given a chance. It's everything I wanted this time four years ago. However, with players and Management talking about Europe publicly (their fault, no-one forced them) then it shifts expectations. Certainly the immediate response is that it would take a lot of money to get there (more than spent) so that creates one stream of panic. The other one it creates is an alternative view that maybe the powers that be think the current squad is up to it - I'm all for positivity but you've got to be pragmatic. I just hope whatever striker we end up buying by the end of the month is one who is better than we've got and a primary target, not some £5m+ fallback target who won't get games and will be a waste of time.

From what I've seen of Mayuka, he needs a lot of seasoning and he won't get much of that training with Saints and not playing. There is only so much work you can do with a player on the training ground - perhaps improving his tactical awareness and mentality, but he really needs a lot of game time to progress at this stage I think. If we are to let him go on loan, then I think we'd be buying another striker one way or another. I just hope it is a genuine target rather than a £5m+ 'stop gap' signing.

We know we're in the market for another striker, just have to hope one comes along before the end of the deadline. If we had a bit more incisiveness in the final third that would have gone down as a great performance. Players are looking fit and hopefully it comes together in the next couple of weeks. This game was definitely a step back to when Pochettino first arrived with regards the pressure and hunting in packs. The back four was very high up the pitch. Nearly got caught out a few times but not enough to stop doing it against Vigo, especially as we won the ball back in some dangerous positions too.

Did your contact give you a feel for the move in terms of confidence? I can't help but feel regardless of our level of interest that Spurs may be back in the game with the Bale cash available.