Lallana's Left Peg

Caulker is a bomb scare. We don't play three at the back any more and we're not in Europe. No need to pay him £30k+ to be on the bench every other game when we could have an England U21 international doing it on a third of the salary. Is Stephens better than Caulker? Probably not. Is either going to play much? Probably not. Is it sensible to save the club money rather than having it padded out with players eating up money doing nothing. I think so.

Aren't they only signing him on loan with a fee of £16.2m agreed if they want to sign him permanently in the summer?

Koeman treats them all as mature people and doesn't treat them like kids. By and large the players respond well to this and also his coaching from what I can tell. Unfortunately some misguided individuals take advantage of this and it's causing issues with those who act properly within the group. They want to see the club (if not Koeman himself) drive out this behaviour in the first place as it isn't helping matters at all. Think we all recognise we're a momentum team that relies on spirit and collectiveness but you've got players acting inappropriately who aren't receiving due punishment which in turn is hacking off senior professionals seeking to set an example and do things the right way. Then cliques start forming and it's a bit downhill from there. Maybe winning games means these things don't matter as much but when you aren't winning these things come to the forefront a little more. I do feel sorry for Koeman a little in this scenario as certain players have been told and yet continue to act in their best interests in order to get what they want. Unfortunately these individuals are too important to the team so with no alternative the whole team / club suffers if a zero tolerance policy is adopted. However I think it has now got to a point where something has got to change one way or another (and I don't mean Koeman leaving, I mean either things are tightened up and they fall in line or they leave). But Koeman must instigate it as he is the leader of the players. My gut feeling is that things will tighten up but there will be some casualties.

Hopefully we get rid of Caulker now and it's a move in the right direction.

This hasn't come out of the club to me but I know someone who works in football where I live (Manchester) and he hears bits and bobs over the course of his job. Dismiss it as nonsense if you like but he told me that he's heard the players like Koeman but the senior players want him to get more of a grip on the squad and establish more discipline as certain players aren't behaving appropriately and Koeman appears to let them get away with it. It's also creating cliques in the group which isn't doing team spirit any good. No individuals named but I would imagine we can all probably guess.

The challenge is that every single team other team in the league spent money in the summer in order to try and make their first team better. Some get it right, some don't. Some spend a lot doing it, some don't. But unless you try then it won't happen. We spent this summer trying to fill three holes and ending up not getting anywhere near as good in any of them (though I do like the VvD signing), and then on top of that signing squad players who are third / fourth / fifth choice. The approach doesn't make sense and it questions how we spent our money. It's also then even harder if you are content to just spend money you receive on transfer fees on new players.

FFP means that if our wage bill is over £52m a year (last summer it was) then we can only increase it by £4m that season. The only other additional way it can be increased is via commercial revenue but our club is way behind on that so basically the wage bill could only increase by say around £5m last summer. That is probably why we got rid of Osvaldo. Signing Stek and Caulker didn't help as they were loan cover for players already at the club and being paid. That's why I didn't like our 'padding out' of the squad. Juanmi contributed the square root of **** all eating up 30-40k a week probably. Caulker the same. Don't sign them and it's 80k we could have used towards wages for better players elsewhere. Mind boggling.

Twente owe us after Martina as well.

Yeah Clasie has looked great hasn't he. Can't last 90mins, bullied off the ball when we play against energetic sides and looked his best when we've played four central midfielders in a 4-4-2 just to stop us being carved open so easily. Lets not talk about the way he was done for the goal on Saturday either. Turning circle of an oil tanker. He is a million miles away from being anywhere near as effective as Morgan for us. He's an £8m player and it shows.

£5m. But no-one knew how good he would be. He was a prospect signing and it is paying dividends already. He also wasn't signed to immediately replace anybody or plug a hole in the team. If your argument is that you don't have to spend much to buy a good player then it only serves to highlight how poor our summer was in the transfer market where we didn't spend much on some not very good players. Generally speaking, the more you spend the better calibre of player you get. There are of course exceptions and spending lots guarantees nothing. But it usually guarantees more than spending not much.

Would be mad to sell for £30m. That isn't going to go very far this summer in this sort of market - especially for a domestic transfer.

I don't want the club to sign a £25m player as it isn't realistic. But a £12m player in the centre of the park - it's vital. Lets not forget when we already had Morgan we added Wanyama. Now we've lost Morgan and we replaced him with Clasie or Romeu and neither are anywhere near as effective for us and we're suffering all over the pitch because of it. I think we also stopped doing it in the centre of the park. Morgan went for £25m and his replacements are £8m and £5m respectively. And it shows.

It's not my job to identify players. But I don't think you have to be a brain surgeon to know that if you sell a right back for £11m and replace him with one for £3m, and replace a £25m central midfielder with a £5m player and a £8m player then you are probably get players 25-33% as good. And that is what has happened. We replaced Toby properly and whilst VvD isn't as good he is clearly in the right bracket of calibre of player we needed to address the departures. Look at our better players in the summer of 2014 and see how much they cost. Bertrand - £10m. Mane - £10m. Tadic - £10m. Forster - £10m. Pretty much our sweet spot for good players who can contribute tangibly but still have some growth in them. Don't know why we stopped doing that this summer.

None of those clubs will be immune to selling their best players in the summer. But I reckon if they sell a player for £20-25m they won't be replacing them with a player who costs 25% as much. And that is the difference for me with what we did last summer.

Yes - refused to travel for their CL qualifier in Sweden ahead of his move here. But it's ok cause he did that to join us and not leave us. Obviously.

Maybe he doesn't rate the players on his bench as much as he does the ones on the pitch, even if it isn't going their way? Quite clear our supposed strength in depth view isn't shared by our Manager. If we had more difference makers on the bench I think he'd turn to it more. The only player I ever think he actually makes an early sub for is Long to come on. Beyond that I don't think he really rates anyone on the bench.

I'm not really worried. Just gutted that at the end of last season we lost three of our better players (one was out of our control) and we served up *that* transfer window. Was a rather meek resignation to going back to being in the position we're in now. I just hope no-one at the club is surprised.

Well they both know it's easy to get a move away from this club so the club must take a little of the blame. They both been lining up moves since the summer.

We were crying out for a proper finisher in the summer. As our team gets better we require a striker who is less well rounded in other areas and more of a proper finisher given the service.

So what are we 'showcasing' right now then? VvD aside, none of the players signed in the summer are going onto better things because they are all showing that we are at a stretch the best they can probably do.

Wanyama has just a year left on his deal come this summer. He's sat on a new deal for at least 6 months with no intention to sign it. The club won't make an example of him at all - he will get what he wants and that is a move elsewhere. Probably Spurs but people tell me we won't deal with them. He will go make no mistake about it.

Be interesting to see if Koeman throws Wanyama and Mane under the bus or if he (and the club) still have ambition to keep them in the summer and try to protect them a bit. Probably need them to secure the points we need to avoid being relegated at this rate.

Careful, question the ambition of the club and people will round on you. However, I would suggest that if the ambition remains then the decision making for the last 12 months has been awful. Either way, it's not good.

Another poor game from Saints. Rubbish at both ends of the pitch and a lack of belief in what we're doing and quality to address it. What needs to change and what will realistically change?

Well I'll take Mane in iffy form in our side ahead of everyone I've just mentioned there. Every time. Not that I disagree with dropping him due to discipline, but Mane had to come on and had to come on early as our team is suffering from a lack of belief and a lack of quality.