Lallana's Left Peg

The damage was already done by the time he left, no post-move niceties would have changed peoples minds about his conduct that summer. Maybe he felt like he needed to behave like that to get his move, or maybe he lacked the nous to understand how his actions would reflect on him to the Saints fans.

They had to pay the fee (which is the loan fee Saints paid in August) in order to stop Saints being able to buy him for £6.8m. So they have exercised that right. It's an open playing field when it comes to signing Toby, the best way we should look at it is that we had him on loan for free for a season, excluding wages.

So did Kelvin by the looks of it #BANTS

I am not speculating about structure of the deal in terms of add-ons, but more the term in which Man Utd will pay the base transfer fee. They are cash rich and FFP makes it more attractive to them to spend their money rather than hoard it, especially in a year where big wages like Falcao have come off the wage bill. They are an attractive club to sell to as they do not spread their transfer fees out over many years (or rather, historically haven't).

£24m feels light but Man Utd will pay a lot of that up front. And a deal relatively early means we can move onto our replacement targets and / or make use of the money for targets in other positions. One impact of the Imbula to Porto deal may be that Marseille seek to replace him with Gueye, another reported target.

For every good player signed on a four year deal, there is an Osvaldo. A four year deal is in effect a two year deal, as a club should be reopening contract negotiations with a player as they enter the last 24 months of their deal. Five years feels like a good max to offer a young player we already know, with four years offered to new signings.

I agree Liverpool's form picked up with him in the team but I think that is more to having a proper defensive shield in midfield as much as it is that Lucas is good. I rate Wanyama as much better anyway, and I think there are better options for us out there in the market. As for his injuries, I don't know if this is true or not but he does seem to be out for long periods: http://www.transfermarkt.com/lucas-leiva/verletzungen/spieler/41414 That said, so are the likes of Morgan and Toby.

Keeps getting injured and isn't that mobile. I wouldn't be keen.

I think Ings is ok but I am not sure he is going to develop much playing 10 games a season as a bit part player for Liverpool.

So we don't really have an issue here, but we need to carefully manage new signings if any more HG players leave?

As far as I am aware we're in good shape for the 25 man registration? Non-HG and needs to be registered Soares Yoshida Schneiderlin's replacement Gardos Fonte Mane Tadic Wanyama Pelle Mayuka Gazzaniga Stekelenburg Juanmi TOTAL: 13 HG and needs to be registered Davis Long Davis Rodriguez Bertrand Forster Isgrove Stephens TOTAL: 8 Under 21 and do not need to be registered Ward-Prowse Reed McCarthy Targett Turnbull TOTAL: Doesn't matter!

He's only been here 3 years and he's not done anything disrespectful - I suspect a fairly pleasant but short statement will be released.

It's very very hard to do and maintain your league position and / or progress. History says you can't, so it is a valid question.

From the sounds of it Saints are pushing the sales of Clyne and Schneiderlin forward (as they have declared their intention to leave) so they have the funds to acquire top targets early in the summer rather than deal with the frantic nature of the last few weeks of August.

I don't think anyone knows who made the decision. He was certainly a part of the picture under Koeman. Some rumours suggested Ramirez himself wanted to be first choice somewhere and Koeman couldn't guarantee him that, while others say it was a squad juggling decision made by the club as freeing up his wages allowed us to get Toby in etc.

It makes no sense to have a £15m centre back and play him at right back when our first choice right-back is injured and he doesn't have any backup. It significantly weakens our team.

If we're going to push the boat out and sign a centre back for £15m I'd be banging my head against a table if he played right-back for us. If we sign Toby and he is fit, lets play him at centre back please, no matter what.

On one hand I think we should be a little proud that we develop players to the point that one of the biggest clubs in the world want to sign them as they can't develop their own talent. But on the other there likely isn't a bigger club in the world that is becoming increasingly irrelevant both domestically and in Europe so maybe my first point isn't that great. The best part of this is the fans who shallowly chose to follow them because they were good and won trophies and now they aren't good nor win trophies they have no idea how to react. Liverpool are on the verge of losing their best player for the second season in a row, that usually doesn't happen to them but that shows where they are in the pecking order. Of course, you can lose your best player each summer and get better as Saints have shown, but Liverpool are handicapped by their fanbase and 'history' and thus there is no long term planning at the club and they'll always suffer from that. All of the players that left Saints for Liverpool will earn more money, and that in itself is justification for moving. No issues from me there. Some handled it better than others, but that is usually down to the quality of person that the footballer is.

Interesting that the Echo is suggesting Saints may not dip back into the market for another right-back. That would be a big mistake for me.

Nah - we sorted it out at the last minute. Cortese was quite good at avoiding court based situations at the last minute... http://www.sportsmole.co.uk/football/southampton/transfer-talk/news/saints-palace-agree-comp-for-clyne_36422.html

£3.5m a year for Song doesn't seem too bad with no transfer fee to consider?

Google reckons Watford want them both

Seems a peculiar fee for a promoted club to pay for a left-back who is still learning the game. I can't see him being a difference maker despite an argument that his signing is relatively low risk as a bad season won't impact his value by more than a few million. I guess his wages will be cheap too.