Lallana's Left Peg

Spurs transfer policy now matches ours. Levy told supporters groups towards the end of last season that he was done spending £20m+ on players and would instead focus on the ~£10m signings where the player had development and potential scope.

The vision remains, but the game doesn't allow it to happen. Lallana, Shaw, and Chambers all wanted to leave. In an alternative world we have those three in our first team and the squad also includes Reed, JWP, Targett etc. It is not our vision that should be questioned, but rather whether the game will allow it to happen.

Fonte has been making noises since the summer about other clubs etc. I doubt the club are looking to sell him but we do know the current regime aren't against selling players whilst they still have resale value.

Stekelenburg looks very good to me, I think he's just about the best we could do under the circumstances.

To be fair, when you sell one player in a position and then buy another player who plays in the same position, he is the replacement.

The other thing that is a strength of the club is scouting and our youth policy, therefore it is fair to assume that 'big name' signings are not so much of a requirement for us given we think we can find value in the market and can also call on the Academy.

They'll be plenty of injuries this season!

Spurs are good at it too.

I agree. For what it is worth I can see a team going down with a record points total this season and the league being won by a team in the low 80's or so. Everything is getting very congested in the league!

Don't disagree with the sentiment of the article but one important thing to remember which isn't considered - we've just sold two of our first teamers (one of which is probably our best player) and lost another first choice central defender whilst Stoke and Palace haven't lost any first team player. So the concern from fans is that other teams are catching up and Saints have to work hard to stand still. Of course, it'll happen to Stoke and Palace too if they have a season like we did but those teams will have a net spend this summer and Saints will do well if we spend what we earn (and even then, we seem to have a policy of having wages of new signings covered by transfer fees as well). EDIT: Stoke lost N'Zonzi to be fair.

Reed drops down the pecking order a bit but the number of games we get hopefully means he should still get enough games to continue developing.

Tall but not overly strong, uses his body well to protect and win the ball, not quick but uses ball well, very one footed. It's like he is almost a carbon copy.

The Cork replacement. Plays like him in exactly the same way as far as I can see.

Only if he picks up an injury that has the potential to affect his body long-term after recovery. Medicals are 95% nothing to do with injury status.

Last time I lumped on a transfer was when we signed Osvaldo - if I did the same here will I be a happy man?

He got injured in the U21's. It's a ligaments in his knee from the looks of it as a player rolled into his standing leg and his foot stayed planted and his knee twisted a little. Think back to Lallana against Reading at home in our first season back in the Premier League.

Hard to tell one way or another given that his statement was nothing to do with the unfortunate injury. And if he was injured, why would be admitted it on Twitter?

It's delicate. The transfer of VvD to any team depends on how Celtic get on in CL qualification, and even then there will likely be players other than Saints so absolutely no need for any comments on the matter to come out of the club. We've already had Koeman publicly state things about Alderweireld and other incomings that haven't turned out to be a good look for us so best to keep it quiet. The club sound like they are active.

We're nothing but victims of our own success. Had players left for sideways moves then we could question things. Slightly disappointed that all our signings have their wages covered by incoming transfer fees as well, but I am not sure if that is club policy now or something we have to do because of FFP and / or lack of commercial income.

He probably (and quite fairly) expected his keeper to come and claim for a cross that was so high it touched the moon and landed 4 yards from goal.

Man City player went down and collided into Clasie. Clasie was standing as the player rolled into him and it was his planted leg that got caught and his foot remained planted and his leg buckled a bit. It's a ligament type injury but could just have been a stretch / tweak. Alternatively it is the sort of injury like Lallana had in our first season back in the Premier League that had him out for weeks. Clasie is still on the bench so I would assume he is ok (I hope).

The question is whether or not fewer appearances than in previous seasons is significant enough for all to see if he will progress to the potential people think he has.

From that video, I like the way he looks to attack the moment he wins the ball, rather than dump it off somewhere.

Had Clasie been fit you would have seen a different set-up, with Davis further forward and Jay Rod or Tadic dropping to the bench. My theory is that with a weakened defence, instead of trying to give them more protection and taking away strengths we have elsewhere Koeman decided to go 'all out' and see what happened. It nearly worked I suppose, though I don't really like it when Saints don't have control of the ball as the balance of the team is off.

It's our passing that is off, we're just not on it for whatever reason. However, very happy that we can grind out results during off days, especially considering the personnel we had available and that we played on Thursday.