Lallana's Left Peg

I can't blame him for trying to come up with the excuses to absolve himself of any blame, but I just don't understand the hold he has over the press who continue to hold him up as some sort of good Manager.

Probably why he signed an extension

I think Forster is a bit better than Boruc now, and has the potential to be much better. Boruc is also old and we did need to bring in a new keeper. We spent a lot of money on Forster and a club like us won't spend £10m on a reserve keeper (that said we have spent £10m+ on reserve midfielders and forwards to be fair...). It was never realistic for us to hang onto Boruc once Forster was brought in. Boruc is too much of a senior player and has too much to offer to play a few games a season. We've made an investment in our GK for the foreseeable future and no-one can blame Boruc for wanting to leave and play football. Overall the conundrum is that we've spent £10m on a new keeper but with Boruc going we've not addressed depth in the position which is something that concerned us last season. However, I appreciate it's easier said that done because can anyone outside the Top 6 or so claim they have a decent backup keeper? Probably not. It's just something we need to try and manage.

I can't remember exactly - I think the family said it was based on affordability but the narrative was clearly that it was cheaper, including travel, to watch top flight football in another country than here. Obviously it meant sweet FA really but I suppose it was a story

A few years ago Sky (or maybe the BBC) did a piece on a family in the South-East who found it cheaper to get a season ticket at Lens and travel there every other week than get one at West Ham (or something like that).

Hmm not sure I agree with that. That a club makes a loss doesn't mean ticket prices should go up. Football is an expensive business to follow and its silly that the most popular league in the world does not have sold out stadiums for every single game. It clearly shows something is wrong. In a league where ticket revenue is dwarfed by TV revenue you would think clubs would come up with creative and fair ways to make watching the game accessible to all. I guess FFP has impacted that a little as well.

Would you prefer me to believe we can sustain this form and league position over the course of the season? Analyse our upcoming fixtures to understand what we'll need to do to remain in the Top 4? Last season I dared to dream because of the performance and potential of the team, and then the summer happened. So I'll not bother this time around and just be content that given the personnel turnover of the summer anything around mid-table is very good in the circumstances but nonetheless not something I am going to be particularly excited about.

They're all big periods really, I can't really put more importance on one than any other because we're not going down and we're not going to achieve anything better than we did last season. That doesn't stop us trying to be the best we can but it's hard to get too excited when it doesn't feel like a massive amount will be achieved.

Anyone know who the 'floppy haired' kid was that Les Reed referred to as likely making his first team debut this season?

If a club like us is selling a couple of good players each summer then that isn't the worse thing in the world - it means we'll always have a lot of cash to play with and that we are either recruiting well and / or continuing to produce good players via the Academy. It's very hard to continue to replace players I don't ever expect us to be better than we were last season / are thus far this season but if the club is cash rich and comfortable then I suppose under the circumstances it is the best we can hope for.

Don't like the idea of any team playing games away from the area they represent. But I suppose it is inevitable as the Premier League will always find new ways to ensure it is the richest league in the world.

Just to play Devils Advoate there is another school of thought that suggests with less than two years left on his deal if he won't sign a new one he'll be sold next summer. Clubs will take a chance on him as his fee will be lowered or they can just wait for 18+ months to sign him on a free which mitigates the risk of any transfer fee for them. Jay Rod has the power here and doesn't have much reason to sign a new deal if clubs like Spurs and Liverpool are eyeing him up. Same for Clyne too in my opinion.

I am not sure about that mate. Moneyball theory is about finding value in players and acquiring them for a price that makes them a good signing. For me, lots of factors overinflated the Long fee to the point where I don't understand where he could be considered a value signing unless the powers that be decided he's wasted his entire professional career playing up front and at £12m he is a steal on the wing. But I personally don't see it. The fee isn't Long's fault but you have to consider the cost to the club when evaluating a players contribution. Had Long arrived on a Free Transfer no-one would care. But we've spent £12m on him and there is a set of expectations that come with a signing like that for a club our size. For me Long hasn't disappointed because I always thought he was bang average. I wasn't expecting him to do much and he hasn't. But I guess he does run around a lot. Right now I'd rather the club have £12m in the bank but it is only October.

You can absolutely state what you believe a players value to the team to be though. And at £12m I do not see a player who is valuable to our team. Quite frankly we've purchased a player who runs about a lot, has poor technique and can't finish. Is that worth £12m to Southampton? I personally don't think so.

Hard to find good backup keepers who are happy to play a handful of games a season though. No teams outside top half a dozen or so have two decent keepers.

I think it's 4-3-3 with the only question being how the midfield three set-up. The two players either side of Pelle play very high up the pitch and far higher than the highest central midfield player therefore it can't really be 4-2-3-1.

Joint 2nd with Pelle

The current crop of U18's aren't very good. We had to work hard to furnish them with players from other clubs in the first half of this year. The current crop of U18's are the youngsters who were a part of the recruitment we did starting in around 2005/6 and we all know what state the club was in then (and for the next few years). So I wouldn't expect too much out of this lot and for the foreseeable. Should pick up in half a decade or so though.

Pelle. A half decent keeper would have saved Clyne's despite it being a proper hit.

Sounds like a stupid idea. We send good young players on loan to play in the Swiss 2nd Division and our benefit is first refusal on players from a club in...the Swiss 2nd Division. :lol:

Was massively underwhelmed by this signing in the summer but got to say even though it is early days he looks a very good player for us and I got it very wrong.

Will be a tough game but Spurs are very easy to 'get at' in their current guise. Think we can cause them plenty of problems in the final third however we'll have to ride out some rough moments in our own box at the same time. Feels like a good time to play them though.

They didn't really train, they just had a recovery session. Too much is being made of that. I do like the way Koeman conducts himself. There is an honesty to what he says without it giving too much away or the possibility of it being misinterpreted. He is very reassuring. Will be interesting to see how he acts when we have a bad run - I would imagine he'll be the same but you never know.

To be fair the clearest induction it wasn't Shane Long was that he scored.

Tough? Luke Shaw every day of the week ffs.