Lallana's Left Peg

For a club that was prepared to spend £10m+ on a first choice keeper it isn't half peculiar that it isn't prepared to spend a few million on a decent prospect for a backup.

Yeah I would agree with that. And I'm glad we have Koeman as well.

I think Davis was 'free' but we paid Rangers £800k for him in the end as we didn't want to go through tribunals as I think they disputed that their players could leave for free when their club folded. We have signed plenty of decent players on a free but surely the best is Dean Richards?

None of us really know what impact he is having internally, but you have to assume the owner is happy with him and that is a marker that he is doing his job to her satisfaction. All we directly see of him as fans are his public / media bits and bobs and lets be honest if it was Brendon Rodgers saying the things he does then we'd all be ****ing ourselves laughing. He gets some slack obviously as football is a new sport to him but overall he does come across as a Canadian who appears to know how to run teams in business but has no idea about football. He doesn't need an idea about football to be good at his job of course, but when he talks publicly the way he does it is cringey.

Well it is a bit of a story as none of us knew he had talks with the club until that story broke!

That is what I think myself however someone on here mentioned that Clasie has also been playing in the Davis role in training which would mean any of Davis, Romeu or JWP could play next to Wanyama as well. Personally I like the sound of Wanyama, Clasie and Davis with JWP and Romeu on the bench but as we've seen this season Koeman likes to change the balance of the midfield based on the quality of the opposition and how much of the ball he expects to see so who knows. I expect us to be better on the ball than Leicester but they are very direct and very quick so how what direction he takes will be interesting to see.

Not to discredit Leicester this season who have clearly pushed on since last season but they haven't actually beaten anyone half decent this season. Lets hope we play to our capabilities in the game and I think we should be ok. Regarding Clasie, they say never change a winning team but when VvD signed he came straight into the team off the back of a 3-0 win against Norwich so assuming Koeman rates Clasie highly we'll see who he really rates of the Davis / JWP / Romeu trio as two of them will miss out if Clasie starts (assuming Wanyama is an automatic starter).

#blameKlopp

If I was to speculate I would point to the increased physical requirements of the Premier League every year (a couple of seasons ago the Man Utd fitness coach showed a graph where the number of high intensity sprints in a game increases every season) puts the body under more strain and makes major injury more likely.

He's been their best striker this season as well, though that's not saying much

"no possibility" From the man himself.

That bridge has been burned and whilst I think we missed him at times last season and he is better than Tadic we've moved on. He plays for a bigger team and earns more money and has attempted to prove himself at a higher level (failed thus far mind you).

Not sure when it became a 'thing' but people / media referencing WhoScored as some sort of measure of good and bad is annoying. It particularly reaches peak ****ness during the transfer window when potential signings are statistically compared to existing players at the club and / or other transfer targets.

I do. Go for it.

Let me ask the question: Why would he?

The Dutch FA could make him a great offer he can't turn down, but he won't go crawling to them at the first opportunity they show any interest. He's hardly publicly positioned himself for the role over the last 12 months has he? If anything he has been very critical in a way someone can if they don't want the job. EDIT: And the current Barcelona Manager finished midtable with his previous club and got the gig.

He was a contender for the job in the summer of 2014 and the Dutch FA went in another direction. He has since improved his managerial standing with his work at Saints to the point that he is being linked with Barcelona. Whilst I think he would of course like to manage Holland the timing isn't right for him. I don't think it is a given he leaves to join them should the role be made available. In addition he has been very critical of Dutch football in general recently and he may feel he doesn't have the tools to succeed with the national team at this moment in time.

Firstly I wish your Dad all the best however whilst it would have been nice to receive a letter I don't think the club are obliged to give a refund at all therefore I would take that as a nice gesture in itself from the club.

I would not beat up Krueger (or anyone else involved) regarding the Veho deal. While it is very light income wise, it was the right fit for the club at the time - someone available at short notice, a local firm, and a step in the right direction. But right now we need to look at a deal worth £5m+ a season at least - certainly if this table is anything to go by: http://www.totalsportek.com/football/premier-league-shirt-sponsorship-deals/ That extra £4m a season would equal an extra 80k a week we can increase the wage bill by - and that is definitely very handy.

Alli has a bigger frame and is quicker / more powerful. The start to his career in the Premier League has been very good but at the same time he is also making some very wreckless and dangerous challenges which shows that he still has a long way to go. He is playing for a Manager that will give him every chance so it will be down to him, but had Spurs signed Wanyama...

He's been namechecked by Hodgson already in the past so he is already on the radar. There are others ahead of him in the queue though, however it's debatable whether or not someone with 5 appearances to his name in the Premier League should be one.

I think Les Reed said we structure the deals in such a way that the more the player on loan plays the less the club he is at pay for him. Stephens is at a good club and will have a tough time getting in that Middlesbrough team unless there are injuries. Gallagher needs to refine his craft - he is a big lad with a lot of upside but his general touch isn't great and that will really impact the degree he can influence a game. Turnbull plays all the time at Swindon but they appear to be crap this season. I'd expect several more from the U21's to go out on loan soon as well as they aren't getting too much from U21 football even if they are playing all the time.

I know the club likes to take the dignified silence route when dealing with press speculation but it does seem like the press find it remarkably easy to target the club with stories like this. Wouldn't mind seeing the club fight back a little at all if possible.

He's definitely a midfielder. I think he likes to get forward quite a bit though.

As someone who doesn't live in Southampton I rely quite heavily on Saints digital media output to see what is going on at the club and keep up to date with things. I personally think that what they do is outstanding and very well balanced all things considering. The work with the Academy and U21 news / games is brilliant and in general the features they produce every so often are of the right tone and varied enough to not become boring. The pieces are for the clubs fans and whilst they may not directly increase our revenue or fan base, they are something which keep existing fans engaged and there is a lot to be said for that. Gaining new fans isn't anything to do with the digital media output - you need other channels to introduce the club for that but there is no doubt that our media guys do a great job. It's the marketing department that needs to come up with ways to grow our fan base - the team do the business on the pitch more often than not and the media guys certainly produce enough output to keep fans engaged.