Lallana's Left Peg

Spending money does not guarantee success, but we do know to have success you need to spend money. There is always the odd challenge to this rule but that challenge is never one that repeats itself. The increased spending power that those above us have is not exclusive to them - our spending power has also increased so the basic challenge is to continue to invest our extra riches in a way that ensures the gap does not increase - and with a little luck maybe it decreases.

Positions to target: Backup keeper Centre half Right back Winger Keeper aside, I don't mind who it is as long as the approach is to buy better than we have got as first choice. Then obviously spend big on any replacements for enforced sales - potentially Mane and Wanyama.

The U21's and U18's only pressed more when we had Pochettino at the club. They did it to align with what they were seeing in the first team. Also, crucially, they did it with better players in the team. The U21's and U18's do not have the talent to do this now - they would be picked off far more easily and it would result in a lot of poor performances. I don't know of Hunter's and Fleming's past but if that is what means Fleming is now U18 Manager then I don't think it has worked out too well. The reason Man Utd's Academy is in a terrible state is in part due to their own negligence and in part due to how aggressive Man City have been. An example of the latter is that they now offer scholarships to a private school for kids who join their Academy - and they get to keep that scholarship even if they are released. And that is just an example of the sort of money they are throwing at recruiting good prospects in the area.

Some twitchy bums tight now in North London over this one I suspect.

Dodd and Williams were managing and coaching the U18's. The U21's were always Martin Hunter's. When Dodd and Williams left we appointed Anthony Limbrick as U18 Manager. He was previously U16 Manager and coach. The U18 intake the year he was appointed Manager wasn't very good (and considerably supplemented with rejects from other Academies) so the thinking that was for continuity he would step up. He was a highly thought of as a coach but not really known as a Manager. Towards the end of the season Craig Fleming came in to assist him because whilst he was a good coach there was an element of inexperience as a senior professional (or exposed to that part of the game) that he never had and it was impacting getting that age group ready mentally etc. for the professional game. Quite what made the Director of Football at Lowestoft Town suitable for U18 coaching I am not sure about but obviously the club had an idea and Fleming was an ex-pro. Then in the summer Limbrick went back to Australia and Fleming was appointed U18 Manager. Again a strange move but maybe (and this is where I am guessing) the club knew the intake (Slattery aside) wasn't up to much so no point rushing an appointment. The summer we may see some movement with the U16's having some very good players and the U18's should be a little better (but don't expect 'golden generation' type output). I think we can do better than Craig Fleming with our reputation but that may be unfair of me - lets see what happens. The club asked Dodd and Williams to move on as they wanted a slightly more modern approach to coaching and management of the players. The issue is that all the players liked Dodd and Williams. I think we have suffered at U18 level because they moved on and subsequent events as a consequence but lets not pretend that Dodd and Williams took average player and made them great. They had Stephens, Turnbull, Reed, JWP, Shaw, Chambers etc. They played their part but they were blessed with great players as well.

Yeah I would agree that signing a young player who has proved they can cope physically in the lower leagues is better than a young player from another league but I think my point still stands that if we have cash to spend on hoarding young prospects then I would rather we spent that on players who can play for our first team and have less of a risk associated with them. If Spurs purchased all three players a fair strike rate would be that one of them would 'make it' and that total £15m outlay would be worth it. But I think they have the money to invest in a different way to Saints and right now I would prefer Saints to only spend significant money on players who are better than what we have got. I am not sure we will improve otherwise.

If we had £15m to spend then I would rather we spend it on one good player than three lower league talents. Not all the lower league talents will progress like Alli and if first team football is one of the most significant contributing factors to their development then what are Spurs going to do - play Demebele in instead of Kane, Lookman instead of Eriksen and Maddison instead of Alli? Have no issues with the idea of picking up good young talent but the circumstance in which you bring them to the club has to be right and they have to be able to play for your first team. Lets put it another way - would you want to spend £15m in the summer on another three Juanmi's?

Just 20k based on what I've read.

http://www.gazettelive.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/gaston-ramirez-joins-middlesbrough-loan-10789127 In Summary: 1. Saints wanted any interested club to pay his £60k a week salary. This scared off Boro, Bologna and Swansea. 2. Ramirez's representatives then got in touch with Boro again and a 3-way compromise was made. Boro will pay him £20k a week, Saints will pay him £20k a week, and Ramirez will give up £20k a week. 3. He will sign for them later this week as his wife has just gone into labour. Saints will save £40k a week until the end of his contract which assuming it ends 30th June means they will save around ~£1m. I would imagine this has been allocated for Charlie Austin. Good work all round from Saints.

They story of a swap is probably rubbish, but I would suggest Sky also have an interest in promoting their own story of him going to Newcastle or Watford (not to mention the action they will see on SkyBet as a consequence).

He only signed for Palermo in the summer. I've never heard of him. Central-midfielder though?

Losing habits do not concern me as much as a lack of talent. Lots of other clubs spend more on their Academies - particularly the purchase of talent. Our talent is usually sourced through our recruitment rather than scouting of other clubs talent and buying them. There aren't too many we buy. Stephens, Gallagher and Johnson spring to mind. Ignore the U18's for now - they miss Slattery (done for the season I believe) and they just aren't very good - their recruitment was at a time when the club wasn't in a good place. I believe there was a recent article in the media that suggested the club is going to start to buy some players for the Academy due to the delta that exists with talent at the moment. We're doing really well in the U16' downwards in terms of talent it's just this little phase that we need to understand will be dry - and that will be highlighted more by the big numbers we had only a few years ago.

Huddersfield are a big, strong and quick team. At this level it makes a big difference. But it is no indicator of how good a player is in the grand scheme of things - when smaller and lighter players mature physically then it is technical ability that comes to the fore. I don't want to take anything away from Huddersfield as they are playing well and are by far the better team, but I'm not quick to judge our kids when they play against bigger teams (as they often do). I was at Blackburn last season for the first leg of the final for this cup and I saw them kick lumps out of us at times and their team was made up of big lads - the likes of Hesketh was a child among giants and struggled to make an impression. That said, the balance of our team is rubbish tonight. Sims and Gallagher not offering much and distribution from the back is poor. Stephens looking a bit shaky to me, which is uncharacteristic for him.

Does anyone know the last time we won a league game and Steve Davis didn't feature at all? Probably more recent than I think it was but I can't think of when it may be.

Rickie Lambert

This all makes a lot of sense.

There aren't too many examples in history of Managers going into the last year of their deal and the team performing well are there? Even Fergie didn't announce his retirement until March I think. And it didn't go well when Strachan said he was off. Koeman going into the last year of his deal is going to cause lots of unrest and speculation which will be distracting. Even Man City gave Pellegrini - a dead man walking - a new deal to stop the speculation even though everyone knows he is off this summer. Be interesting to see what the club does. I think they'll want Koeman to commit one way or another.

That is a fair point about pressing but I suppose my definition is a set of players who are expected to contribute significantly in defending when we don't have the ball. I don't expect the strikers to do that much beyond a press and not making it easy to pass out of defence and we know Mane switches off defensively as I said. I like Mane centrally but behind a striker and not behind two as defensively I think we leave ourselves very exposed.

He'll work hard in his part of the pitch. But when the other team are attacking he's not a part of the play when he starts as a striker. He's not tracking runners, he's not goal side of the ball, he's not a part of the defensive unit that works off the ball. He'll defend as much as a striker does.

He probably thinks, as do I, that having three players on the pitch who contribute nothing defensively is a little risky when playing away at the team 5th in the table. We know Mane doesn't do much defensively to the point Koeman plays Yoshida at right back when Mane plays wide. And we know that two forwards don't defend (because they shouldn't). I can't remember the last time we started three players on the pitch who don't help out defensively. I am sure someone can enlighten me, but I am fairly sure we don't do it much and certainly not away from home.

Almost certain those quotes came from Les Reed back in August. And he only has 18 months left on his deal. I slightly dubious about that article as a consequence.

Whilst it may seem fun to ban a journalist who fabricates stories (or, if not fabricated, is very uninformed - just as bad for a journalist) about Saints I can understand the club letting him get on with it and allowing the public to make up their own mind about his record. Ultimately the more he gets wrong the more he'll be ridiculed by fans. He'll get paid no matter what so I don't imagine he cares.

Sign him for his name alone. And his hair.

1 question but asked 17 times until he says something in his answer the press can use to take out of context.

If you want to focus on production then other clubs will match us in terms of first team players in the Premier League. If you want to focus on how many Academy players play for top half (or maybe Top 6) teams in the Premier League then very few will match us. If you want to focus on sale value of those players then no-one is close to us. Depends what metric you want to use to define success.