Lallana's Left Peg

That doesn't mean they need to play elsewhere whilst the work is done though.

Where did I say they wouldn't sign players in the summer? They will need to decide what approach they take in the summer - to buy some experience and potentially disrupt the team a little, or buy young players who haven't played at that level before. The risk to the former is disrupting what has got them performing greater than the sum of their parts this season, the risk to the latter is that the league is a big step up over the course of the season and it could go very wrong without any nous.

I think it's good that another new team get a slice of the Premier League money. Who knows how they will do - there is still a lot of gunk at the bottom of the league and they will need to decide what financial approach they will take to it. The only thing that is a guarantee is that having a Manager and entire squad (bar the current keeper) that is new to the Premier League is a risk.

I doubt Ramirez is going to extend his contract and so with him entering the last year of his deal I suspect, regardless of how much intrigue I have to see if Koeman could find a productive role for him, the club will seek to move him on. Personally would like to see him stay if we make Europe - I think a team with a few kids and Gaston in playing in European games would be fun to watch.

I'm not against keeping him but not at anything more than £5m.

Alderweireld - do as much as we can to make it happen. Elia - if the rumoured fee is around £3-4m then it makes it more tempting. Wages of around £40k a week? I don't think he is blocking the pathway of a younger player. I wouldn't be unhappy if we made a move for him - wingers are inconsistent by nature, but I don't think he's a player to take us to the next level. Djuricic - if the fee is £9m or so as rumoured then leave well alone.

To be fair there is time for things to change. Van Gaal also ended up changing his mind about Fellani. Would love to sign Hernandez but wouldn't want us to be a team he reluctantly settled on.

22/22 At the age of 34, that lot were in the prime of my sticker collecting in my youth and I'd have been disappointed with anything else. In fact I knew the answer for 90% of them without seeing the options.

More importantly, if he is fit, will he play in midfield?

Pompey may be able to pay Cook more to be fair.

You are absolutely right. Would rather we have all this grief with our £10-12m signings a few years into their contract than be where we are with Ramirez and Osvaldo. The challenge for our club is to inch closer each season to being better and maybe, one day, in a position to keep our rising stars. Difficult I know, but that is the challenge.

I didn't say it was. I said it was disrespectful behaviour in line with what we've experienced in the last 12 months.

No. Are you saying that the behaviour of those players prior to joining Saints is fine then? Unless we want to come up with some sort of official SaintsWeb acceptable player behaviour charter when they are positioning themselves for a move.

And just to be contrarian, would you also sell Tadic, Mane, and Pelle who all showed somewhat disrespectful behaviour (in line with the above) at their previous clubs in order to Saints? Tadic refusing to sign a new deal, Mane refusing to travel for a game, Pelle telling Feyenoord he wants to leave them for Saints. And what about Tonny Vilhena, who has allegedly already been at St Marys for one reason or another and has just handed in a transfer request? Will you welcome him to Saints? I'm not saying that the behaviour is particularly nice, but we benefit as much as we have it at the receiving end.

If he's an attacking midfielder rather than central midfielder then that is fair enough. I just recall the stuff in January about him being Cork's replacement, so presumed he was a central midfielder in that style.

Well they can't want and sign both Wanyama and Schneiderlin.

Understood but am I to believe that the Manager of Feyenoord prefers Karim El Ahmadi to a goalscoring / assist making left footed midfielder with a lot of potential? As I said I don't know much about the player but I am familiar with Karim El Ahmadi, and so I do wonder how good he is.

FFP means lowering ticket prices doesn't make sense. We have £50m of 'soft' debt as a club (to our owner). I would suggest ticket prices won't lower until we have a stadium we can't fill at a high percentage. Until we expand, it makes sense to push the prices up as far as the fanbase will tolerate.

I know nothing about the player and I know Koeman has worked with the player before and is keen on a left footed central midfielder but I am curious as to how good he is if he can't get in the Feyenoord team ahead of Karim El Ahmadi.

He did, and it's very feasible that they have if you look at who left and who we signed.

West Ham are doing that because of their relocation to a stadium they won't be able to fill, not because of any other reason.

It's a lovely thought but lets not forget that we forced Schneiderlin to stay (either through necessity or lack of suitable offer) and he has been one of our best players this season and a key contributor. So really, the approach of letting anyone go who wants to doesn't really be at St Marys doesn't really work unless we think we can replace them and receive a huge offer. But then, that approach wouldn't be novel, it's just sensible and normal.

Well if any player is likely to do something outside what they have been asked to tactically and structurally, then it's Mane. But I don't think that is cause for suggesting he can't play in the same team as Pelle. We need that I think. Someone to break up the oppositions defence or be unpredictable and keep people guessing. He'll frustrate at times and obviously have some stinkers of a game, but there will also be the brilliance that helps us win games - we have to take the rough with the smooth with these players at our level.

Mane is a bit of a free spirit but that has produced many of his goals and assists this season. He has enormous upside and with good coaching could be a very very good player. Pelle is a different sort of player and if we had to sell one it surely has to be him. As for understanding, they are different types of player and I don't think the blame can be attributed to anyone or anything in particular.

To be fair it's a fairly important metric to judge attacking players on.