Lallana's Left Peg

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.

The table is comparative results against the same opposition, not comparative results for the first five fixtures.

Why was Bony behaving like a moron? Were Fonte and Yoshida winding him up or something?

I read a few years ago that as Lyon are listed on the French Stock Exchange they are not allowed to make an operating loss each year. This constraint after a poor season on the pitch led them to sell Lovren fairly cheaply to us and they also had to sell a really good prospect to Monaco for just £5m as they had to balance the books ahead of June 30th or something like that.

He's not going to lose his quality but he is going to have to find a way to play in a team where there are a lot of players who demand the ball and want to do things with it. No doubt he was the focus of our play at Saints but at Liverpool you've got Sturridge, Sterling, Gerrard, and Coutinho (maybe others I've missed too) who all want the ball and to do things with it regardless of where they play on the pitch. His biggest challenge will be the change he has to have in mentality as a player more than anything else. Was surprised to see him come off ahead of Markovic but as it was his first game this season maybe it was a sensible thing to do. Personally think teams will see the left hand side of Liverpool's team very easy to attack if they continue to play Lallana and Moreno there.

As a general rule I don't like loan deals. I know transfers can go wrong (e.g. Osvaldo) and you are saddled with the player and the financial commitment, but really with proper planning a club shouldn't need to loan players. Absolute best case scenario is the loan player does really well AND wants to stay, but given both our loan players are owned by far bigger and better clubs I would suggest that isn't likely for us. So the next best scenario is that they do really well and leave at the end of the season. We're then left with a couple of holes to fill and nothing earned from those who departed to spend. However I can understand why Saints made some loans given the amount of change this summer, but I wouldn't like to think it'll be a regular part of our transfer strategy. There is no long term future in it for a club like us.

He casts a white shadow

I don't think this years team gets 8th or near the same points total as last year. Would love to be proved wrong of course.

Any excuse to post this:

My general concern with loans is that even if it works out the player leaves and then you have a gap to fill and no funds to replace them in the team. In the short-term you get benefit but in the long-term I don't think it is a clever strategy. I can see why we did it this summer with such a large transition in players, but ideally I wouldn't like to think loaning players (and making them better) factors into our long term strategy for being a successful club. On the other hand you can agree a fee up front but that means nothing unless the player wants to stay. Plus if the loan isn't successful we get to offload them at no cost beyond their wages and loan fee however it also means they've likely had no benefit to the team in the short-term as well.

Something is going to have to give at CB. As Turkish says, it pretty much seems Alderweireld has been promised a start. So who partners him - our Captain, our £6m signing, or Yoshida. Well probably not Yoshida, but I can't see Gardos or Fonte being too happy with a place on the bench.

Square peg, round hole. Just do not get it.

Man City can offer him wages we could never dream of offering. We've reportedly offered him two deals to sign while he has been injured and he has chosen not to sign either. I suspect he has far more reasons to join Man City than to stay at Saints. If he gets a move to Man City, Liverpool, or Spurs then he will deem his move to Saints the right move for him at that stage of his career. Staying at Saints isn't really an option for any player when a bigger club comes in for them.