Lallana's Left Peg

CB is the hardest position to break through as a youth player. Very hard to ease players into the first team in that position. There are lots of players the club has high hopes for, but first team football in the Premier League is a little far away right now for most of them. I think the plan this season is to make the U21 team even younger with the U18 standouts moving up as we've taken in 11 new scholars this season for the U18's. In the future I would expect Matt Targett, Jack Stephens, Jordan Turnball, Omar Rowe, Dominic Gape, Harrison Reed, and Ryan Seager to have made professional first team appearances for us (or more than they already have in the case of Stephens). Maybe Jason McCarthy as well but I can't work him out at the moment (outstanding leadership and competitiveness, but not sure about him with the ball). That is just my opinion on watching the kids over the last few years though.

Gerrard once said Joe Cole was as good as Messi. http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010/aug/10/joe-cole-messi-gerrard-liverpool So if you don't mind I'll ignore what that plank has to say on football matters.

I am not so sure about that. Agents are important in football, I absolutely agree with that. If a club contacts them to find them a player and they do the legwork and get the ball rolling then they are fulfilled a great role. Likewise, if a club contacts the agent of one of their own players and asks him to find his client a new club they have again provided a service. But if Saints are identifying players independent of agents, and contact their club directly, what is the players agent doing for Saints that would necessitate a massive payment? The agent has provided a service to his client in wage negotiations so any payment should come from him. An agent should be able to tangibly prove what they have done for any payment and if they can then they should be able to charge a fee. To demand payment for doing nothing and be so powerful over your client that you influence whether they sign or not because you want money is ludicrous and I am pretty sure it doesn't happen in any other sport. I've no doubt we've missed out on players because of it and whilst it may seem strange at times to be so willing to pay large transfer fees and wages but not pay agents much I am not so sure Cortese will back down. We invest massive amounts of money in our scouting and network and a benefit of that is being able to manoeuvre around the market without the need to engage agents. I can understand why Cortese may refuse to pay agents money for doing nothing. They'll be a shift in where money goes in football soon. The FFP rules were generated as much to stop all the money in the game ending up in players and agents pockets as it was to safeguard the future of clubs. There will of course be those clubs who pay agents a lot (you only have to look at the published tables each year to see who they are) but there are so many players about that we aren't massively restricting our options in the market. It just means we may miss out on some players - but it happens all the time and for reasons other than agents fees as well.

Nowhere near close enough to the transfer deadline to give up on primary targets. I am genuinely not fussed other than being eager to understand who our actual targets are. I am assuming we are going after players who are better than what we have, I don't think those sort of signings happen out of the blue. I'd imagine many players wait to see if something better comes along as well which is fair enough. Unless this Nixon chap provides some insight as to what this 'inexperience' consists of I am not too bothered about what he says either, whether it is true or not. Journalists who act cryptic are annoying.

EPPP is designed to get the best talent to the best clubs as soon as possible. It hides behind a banner which claims getting the best talent to the best clubs is for the benefit of the national team, but in reality that is absolute ********. The big boys benefit and no-one else. That said, Saints also benefit by having Cat 1 and that pathway to the first team so it makes it easier for us to bring talent here but I haven't seen us raid clubs for talent too much, maybe Plymouth for Jack Stephens and Sam Gallacher in the last few years and Blackburn for Niall Mason this season gone.

I don't see those two things being opposing forces. Progression can be achieved without the degradation of tradition and history, but likewise over the course of a football clubs life things are always going to change and sometimes that touches tradition. People are biologically adverse to change and when you add that to tribalism and sense of belonging that football brings, I suppose I can see why there is so much outrage when people perceive the history and tradition of the club to be disrespected. I highly doubt the powers that be have intentionally done anything in spite nor anything that they know would damage the club. It just wouldn't do them any good. For me progression always means change - sometimes that involves history and tradition and other times not. When you take the case of Manchester United, a group of fans felt so unengaged with the club they went off and formed their own, only to face the same issues other clubs did despite a manifesto which claimed otherwise (moving their FA Cup game with Rochdale for TV was hilarious). I think it is quite clear from the soundbites we've had from Cortese over the last 4 years that he is determined for the club to be perceived differently than it had before. He seems hell bent that we will be perceived as something far more than the perennial strugglers from the South coast. Whilst the majority of that can be done with the foundation of a good team and everything that goes into that, I can only assume a part of this work is reshaping how the club is represented aesthetically in some cases - be it slogans, badges, kits, etc. But for me, they are just aesthetic things. They are the face of the club to others. For me as a supporter I care more about the other things - things like our attitude to the Academy and youth development, and our style of play. They matter more to me as a supporter and define our club more. And I am very happy with those things no matter how they are presented to me in the shapes of kits etc. The only time I'll be at a cut off point is when the club make football unaffordable for me.

First part of pre-season training will be a shock to the body in order to start conditioning it to quick recovery. However, most pre-season training these days is also less intensive than you would assume since the players will be expected to maintain fitness (if not improve) over the course of the season. If you overwork them in the summer then at the start of the season there is some early benefit but it rapidly tails off post-Christmas as the body can't take it along with the inevitable knocks that are carried by the players. So it is more about being sharp for the start of the season and fit enough to perform at a good level over the course of a season, rather than being pushed too much in the summer and then being unable to sustain a level of fitness over 9 months.

It would be easier for me to answer that if I had any idea why you are so upset about the change in kit layout. It is because stripes is all you've known for the majority of your sporting life? Or is it something else? Because if it is something else and you are using the kit as a vehicle to rant about 'modern football' then you've completely missed the point and you should have boycotted the club or some nonsense like that the moment we got promoted to the Premier League. Personally I have a preference for stripes as I am familiar with them and that are what I associate with Saints. But it is just a preference and it does not impact how I support the club or my view of it. The welfare of the club is the most important thing. Aesthetics like the kit don't really matter and the fact we've got such an emotive response to the new kit suggests to me that there is nothing else to moan about right now which is absolutely brilliant as far as I am concerned.

I don't remember this fuss over the anniversary kit a few years ago. I think that was because it was a nice kit that no-one else had.

Will still buy it anyway but looks like the sort of shirt a Sunday League team would consider. I like the gold though and if the away shirt is black and gold I think that will be good.

And his agents want £1m+ that should read!

I don't think this is dead by any means, but I think it will have a way to run. It is pretty clear Wanyama wants to leave and in order to do so Celtic must receive a bid of £12m with payment terms they accept and Wanyama's wage requirements must be met AND his agents will want £12m+. Interestingly, since the Saints stuff came out it is only Cardiff who have subsequently been linked and reports suggest they can't even agree a fee with Celtic. No-one else has reportedly swooped in so Wanyama is a little stuck at the moment and may be ask exactly what his agents are doing for him if he has to turn up to pre-season training in Glasgow in a few weeks...

Well how about this for tenuous. If you look at these twitter accounts: https://twitter.com/oustudentvicky https://twitter.com/romseysquib It appears to either be two people on a windup (maybe) or two people conversing about picking up a player (or agent?) from London after a flight to Glasgow and dropping them off at a hotel in the New Forest. One of the tweets suggests surprise that he is English and not Scottish so at a guess I may think it is Gary Hooper. They reference a flight number that is this flight: http://info.flightmapper.net/flight/Flybe_BE_895 Something to get stuck into I suppose

Getting a bit bored of the Wanyama stuff so looking at other transfer rumours etc. Saw some stuff on twitter over the weekend around Saints and Claudemir de Souza (Brazilian midfielder for FC Copenhagen). No idea if true or not but anyone know what sort of player he is? Also the Banega stuff has gone very quiet hasn't it?

I understand the need for agents but if you are a buying club and didn't use the agent to find you a player then the agent has done very little and cannot really command a big fee for his role in the deal. That is where this is different to the recruitment example used earlier. Recruitment agencies get a fee because they go out and find people for their clients. But if a company approached you directly would they also expect to have to pay an agency a fee? I don't think so. If there is another club out there that wants to pay £10m+ for Wanyama and pay the agent £1m+ then that is fair enough. I'd rather we didn't become a club who will throw millions at agents no matter who the player is or how much we're interested. I think Wanyama would make us better, but he isn't a 'must have'.

Those quotes (if true) sort of suggest that Wanyama wants his agent significantly compensated, and we know Cortese doesn't like to pay agents that much. However, given the player doesn't seem too bothered about coming here, I am not sure there is any leverage for Cortese in making the deal happen unless he compromises and I am not sure he is one to do that.

I don't see what is so funny about this. Oh, hang on, yes I do :lol: :lol: :lol: The best thing of all, near the end of the show he confirmed he will be appealing so he can try to continue to be Brighton Manager. So in May he says he won't be working on the retained list as he isn't sure he will still be at the club, then a few months later when no other club wants him he gets sacked and now has to go through the legal system to understand if he has any possibility of getting his own job back despite the fact his employers don't want him now either What a *****

JWP starts this evening - kick off at 7pm. Live on Eurosport.

Doesn't really sit well with me to have a player acknowledge that a bid has been accepted and then declare he won't be doing anything for three weeks as he is on holiday. You are either happy to join a club or you aren't. If you want to hedge your bets and wait for better then that is fair enough but I don't think we should be too accommodating after he has gone public with this.

I would be very surprised to see all three start a game. Does not reflect the way Pochettino likes to play and Davis played further forward when Cork and Schneiderlin also started so if Wanyama took his place then at least one of them would need to be further forward which isn't a natural position for any of them. Plus if all three played that means Ramirez out on the wing (no thanks). Not saying by any stretch of the imagination that Cork won't get plenty of games but all things being equal I see him being replaced by Wanyama if he signs. Unless there is a formation change of course.

We must be sure of him wanting to join if we are going to all this trouble. If he is going to be guaranteed first team football, that is Cork out of the team unless we're going to play a different formation.

I don't know much about Osvaldo, but were the character 'issues' also present during his time at Espanyol under Pochettino?

I'm not sure about that. He may not be a natural carrier of the ball nor a dribbler, but he does power forward with it in a pretty effortless manner whilst anyone challenging him just bounces off him.

It's gone a bit quiet the past few days...which means something is isn't too far away from happening in my experience.

The Kinnear interview was absolutely epic. He also claimed James Perch was still at the club from his time there. Perch was signed two years after he left. I genuinely think Kinnear has a problem - he appears to be a serial liar.