Lallana's Left Peg

Plus are we saying that the teams in the league this year are exactly as good as the teams in the league that year?

I don't believe a player sold on 2nd June was authorised for sale by a Manager appointed on 16th June.

But it also becomes harder to do when you sell all of your best and marketable players...

I was particularly impressed by his declaration that no player would be sold without input from the new Manager and then Lambert leaving two days later when we had no Manager. That was a great start to the summer.

Thus far his track record suggests what he says and what is delivered are two different things. It is for him to prove something rather than for us to blindly believe. He had that opportunity back in May and it turned out he was talking crap.

But that doesn't tie into Katharina offering Cortese a lucrative contract to stay at the club. His value was clear to her and whilst she wanted more Governance at a corporate level he clearly brought something to the table which she wanted to keep.

Let the rumours begin!

On many of the UEFA Pro Licence courses they talk about the future of the game and 2-8 formations are talked about - game is becoming so fluid and tactically advanced that the idea of set positions are being phased out and you'll have a group of players moving up and down the pitch together!

I agree with this. I think Ramirez has a real chance to shine this season if one of the midfield three plays a little forward and with less defensive responsibility. And it might be one of those seasons where we huff and puff through many games and need to rely on individual quality to make something happen for us rather than dominate teams and score goals via sheer pressure and possession.

This is a position of strength for us and one where Koeman has a dilemma. I don't know enough about his system to be aware of the role of each central midfielder, but it is clear thus far that we will play with three central midfielders in his formation. So who gets the nod assuming we start the season with these players available: Wanyama Schneiderlin Cork Davis Ward-Prowse Reed Taidar Wanyama and Schneiderlin must start you would assume. When Cork also played with these two towards the end of last season we were impressive defensively but had nothing going forward. Davis has been a great player for us and can operate a little further forward as well but can he create enough himself? Ward-Prowse seems to be primed to have a break-out season but will he start enough? And I assume Taidar won't be joining to warm the bench. All will get games as the season wears on due to injury and suspension and it is a nice problem to have but who do we think Koeman will give the nod to?

I don't believe our signings thus far match the noises from the club about pushing on and doing even better however the club were hardly going to say anything else to be fair to them. I don't like the idea of loaning players as it reeks of short-term fixes. Pelle and Tadic seem good replacements for Lambert and Lallana thus far. The team will be different, I have no fears about going down but the club really do need to show some muscle in the market.

Have you been given a sneak preview yet of FM15 and do you have any view on how FFP works in it?

Fonte needs a leader next to him. Fonte plays to the level of his partner. It's vital we get the right sort of CB for Fonte to also perform as he did last season.

It's an interesting blog - I am not sure our transfer activities this summer have been planned nor do I think that we would be seeking ways to increase our wage budget via loans however as a theory I can see some sense in it.

We really didn't need him though, can't say I am bothered whatsoever about this.

Absolutely correct and whilst in the modern game player behaviour makes it hard to build something and there are some things you can't control the way we've timidly accepted it and allowed ourselves to get in this situation really annoys me as a supporter.

Man City have done well there. Rodwell gets injured all the time and has really lost his way.

We're short in areas but many teams in the bottom half are. I think we're in better shape than we were two summers ago. I've been very scathing of our summer thus far but I am not too worried about relegation. I am just concerned about our prospects beyond middling as a lower half team that festers away just happy to exist and be a part of the party.

Current squad is good enough to stay up but falls well short of clubs stated ambitions.

Maybe they recommended him after our esteemed DoF failed to strike a deal to sign the first 17 strikers on the list despite having a net transfer kitty of £75m?

You don't know that. You have no idea whether or not we are. You choose to focus on the spin from the club and make excuses when it doesn't happen. I prefer to focus on what we're told and whether or not it is delivered. There could be any number of reasons why deals haven't happened, and they either could be in our control or out of our control. I have never complained about a lack of communication from the club regarding transfers but I do choose to listen to what the club say publicly and then see if they can deliver. Right now we are clearly struggling - we've sold most of our best players and the rebuild of the team is clearly not going to plan. You can piece together all manner of information to come to that conclusion. The club have a month to try and patch it up and fix it but as of right now this summer has been a complete balls up. Anyone who thinks differently has got the blinkers on.

But we set expectations that we hoped to sign 2-3. Not just 1. We hoped to do something and didn't manage it. So we failed at what we attempted to do. With the club in such a state of flux and fans rightly concerned at what is happening to extend that level of hope to the fans and then not deliver is a little naïve.

Yes he said he hoped to get 2-3 players in over the weekend. We got none. We failed.

Our new Manager did on Thursday night. He may have just been putting pressure on the Board to get deals done to be fair. They may even have them done and be waiting until today to announce them. But at the end of the day if you had told Saints fans at the start of summer that we'd be linked to Samaras the response would be 'meh'. Then if you had told them we'd be linked to him on a free after selling nearly £100m worth of talent they'd be angry. Not sure why we shouldn't be angry now.

If they were good enough for the level of the club they were at then they would play. That isn't the question we should be asking though, it is whether or not they are good enough for the level that we play at and more importantly what their motivation would be to join us from a better club who are paying them more. We've not exactly had a great record signing players from clubs equal or better than us - all of our best signings have come from players joining us a step up (or rather, a stepping stone...).