Lallana's Left Peg

Like Chelsea last year?

A bit silly - I'd question anyone who ever wants Saints to lose a game. And Leicester - couldn't care less about them. It would be a fantastic achievement for them to finish Top 4 and unbelievable for them to win the league but whether or not they do I couldn't give a ****. Always want Saints to win.

Exactly. He will follow in the footsteps of Michael Carrick, Dimitar Berbatov, Luka Modric, Gareth Bale and club hero Sol Campbell who all shunned moves to bigger and better teams to commit their future to Spurs. They are different to other clubs.

The ticket prices are silly but conversely Man Utd have reasonably priced tickets for the game at Old Trafford and there is so little interest there is a real chance they are going to close one stand in the ground for the game.

Fair point. How about only 1 or 2 games per round are shown on TV and both are on a Sunday. That'll do. Basically make FA Cup games less accessible on TV and make it mean more to be there. That's what I want to do.

If they want the FA Cup to matter, they need to do the following: 1. Winner gets in CL 2. All games on a Saturday at 3pm apart from the semi-finals which are Saturday and then Sunday 3. No other games the weekend the FA Cup is played 4. FA Cup games on free to air TV Done.

Yep!

Was he at Newcastle or Saints when he took a clearance straight into his head and then spent the next 15mins playing at about 5% of physical and mental capacity

We'll be in the conversation for European football as long as the winners of the cups are the teams that finish above us.

I was a bit worried about our last 10 day break before the Arsenal game but we did well in that.

It's a question open for debate but it depends on whether or not you think the best football is the most effective football or the more aesthetically pleasing football (which is also open to your own view on how football should be played). For me Arsenal play the best football but it is not always the most effective.

Hopefully. I'm going to have a play next week regardless as it looks fun.

Yeah but if all those 500 players are established players then half the appeal for me would be lost as I would rather invest in relative unknowns or emerging players and wait for their big move or their profile to be raised and cash on. Otherwise you are by and large basically just predicting periods of form for known players? Fair enough - I mean short term trading rather than long term investments in prospects.

Came across this earlier today. Looks fun but limited to 500 players so presume its a lot of short selling rather than long term investments.

Centre half. He's come out of nowhere this season for the U21's much like Will Wood did in the same position last season. Right now we have a lot of young talent in that position (Stephens, Turnbull, McCarthy, Wood, Jones).

The popularity of English football within this country has nothing to do with having the best players. The popularity of English football outside this country has a bit to do with having the best players. If we lost the great players that play in England to a nation like China we'd lose income in the game but the fans wouldn't stop supporting their team so I don't really care much from a Saints perspective. Our support is not reliant on foreign fans like other clubs.

Koeman's press conference bits and bobs on the Saints twitter account says he expects a "higher level" of performance from him an I guess he can't do that unless he plays so he's starting with Long I presume.

Concentration and awareness are skills that can be developed but they aren't something guaranteed to improve if you work on them. Some players just have low concentration and awareness. Tactical nous and the ability to understand situations and what is expected of you in those circumstances are traits high up on the list that Saints (and most other clubs) look for in any new players.

No - they are not making the wrong decisions on purpose. But their human error - both in their judgement and being influenced by players - is a part of the theatre of the game. If football was a sport played without human error by the officials it wouldn't be as exciting.

I'll keep repeating myself because those moaning about the Academy need to understand how player recruitment works. We recruit players at the age of 8-10. That isn't a strict rule but that is largely when players first properly train with the Academy and the club has a proper handle on their ability. Two things impact this: 1. The quality of the scouting. 2. The quality of the recruitment. Scouting depends on being aware of young talent and (crucially) ensuring you are a part of the conversation when trying to attract them to the club. This is because other clubs will be interested in them as well. Your most important thing when scouting is to have a network. You don't need dozens and dozens of scouts employed by the club watching 8-10 year olds every week. You need half a dozen scouts watching identified talent and those scouts just as importantly need a network of contacts so they can be made aware of emerging talent. Sometimes those scouts will go to a game to watch a kid that has been recommended to them and identify someone else. Recruitment is about how you convince the talented kid and his parents that Saints is the place for him to be. It is about how you provide evidence that his on and off field development is best served at Saints as opposed any other club. There will also be personal factors at play which may or may not play to the clubs advantage but it is rare clubs can control them and they just have to deal with them. Now, good scouting requires money. Good recruitment requires money and the club being in a good state. Many of the last two years U18 intake were 8 in 2006, 2007 or 2008. Saints were not in a good shape back then. Budgets were being cut and the club was going in one direction. It affected our ability to identify talent and our ability to attract talent. So much so that for the past few years we have had to supplement our U18 intake with kids released from other Academies (Chelsea and Arsenal in particular). What you get with Academy investment is a payoff 10 years after you get it right. Conversely, if you get it wrong you get the issues 10 years later too. Right now the intakes are from a time when the club was not in good shape. It is not a reflection of the current regime in any respect. Neither, by the way (and in the interest of fairness), was/is JWP, Luke Shaw, Calum Chambers etc. They came into the club before the current takeover. We'll only know if Les Reed got recruitment right for the Academy team from 2019/20 onwards. That's how long it takes.

Exactly. People who want a fairer sport with more integrity aren't going to get it with football but don't understand why not. Lots of very fair sports are largely boring and definitely don't attract as much money invested into them. There is a direct correlation.

In my world if the system allows you to cheat then why wouldn't you? There are many parts of being a professional footballer that are entirely unprofessional. But the game allows it. Answer me this then. If other sports like Rugby have managed to introduce such a strict punishment system for abuse to officials and the players adhere to it (mostly), then why can't football? They can - make it a yellow card at the Ref's discretion for any foul and abusive language, or any view that a player has cheated or attempted to influence them. State you are going to do it and then do it - players will soon learn and stop it. But they haven't. Why is that?

Is that Patrick Kluivert's son starting for Holland?

It's a loss we can cope with which doesn't make it a great loss, but in my opinion its better the Devil you know in football when it comes to transfers. I'd prefer to keep him. Plus this sort of stupidity from him moves him further away from a club (and wage) that would make it more likely that he would leave in the first place.

We've even admitted it ourselves. I don't see why anyone would disagree. The idea that all the clubs in the world bar a handful are selling clubs is different to those clubs who purposefully invest in young players to develop them and sell them on for a profit. A "showcase" club or whatever it is that Les Reed said. Other clubs would understand they will always sell to bigger clubs but they are unlikely to admit it so easily in public.