Lighthouse

£25m sound like a pretty decent price to me, Morgan is a decent player but nothing astonishing. Some talk as if he is the be all and end all of our team but we've had some good results without him and some poor results with him in the side. We will reinvest and move on.

5 months is plenty of time to start showing some sort of form but he didn't do it. If anything he went backwards, putting in a couple of decent performances at the start, then tailing off and looking fairly poor towards the end of the season. Koeman is not a magician and 'preseason' isn't a magic potion which turns players into world beaters. Koeman can probably get the best out of him but I think Elia's best isn't putting in Newcastle performances every game. It's like expecting Tadic to play like he did against Sunderland every game, or Kelvin like he did at Elland Road.

We more than likely started doing that a year ago. It's hardly a secret Morgan want's to leave and signing Toby permanently was never a sure bet. We've probably been negotiating with other players and their clubs for months over potential replacements. We were discussing on another thread, there isn't really much room in our squad for more attacking players. I think one more and I wouldn't waste it on a has-been like Lambert, painful though it is to say it.

Nah, I killed her and buried the body under my patio.

To me this is like a girl leaving you for a guy who is taller, richer and better looking. You can see why she did it... but she can still f**k off.

I agree, there isn't much room for others but 1 - There are normally a couple of subs used so there are only a couple missing out completely 2 - Out of 8 players, there will more often than not be one or two injured on any given match day 3 - I'd be quite surprised if nobody leaves. If we did bring another in I could see someone like Long or Davis moving on for more regular games.

With Jay Rod and Juanmi coming in and Djuricic and Elia going out, I think there is room for one more attacking player in our squad. I'm hoping some of the younger players like McQueen, Sims, Hesketh, Seager and Gallagher can come in and make an impact, especially in cup games.

We've been here before though with Whiskey George and Jermaine Wright. To a lesser extent there was also Strachan and Telfer, although Telfer was at least reliable and consistent. Koeman is a better manager than either of those two obviously but I think this is a similar situation. If Elia signed and went on to deliver then fair enough but he hasn't done it for the last 4 clubs he has been at. Saying stuff like, 'he's got the talent, Koeman clearly rates him, some people don't see what he offers' etc. is all well and good but try telling that to the team who've just mugged us 1-0 because we couldn't score.

That's pretty much what we spend on Clyne and Bertrand together. It's not an insult, for a 24 year old with a year left it's a reasonable enough price. Arsenal sold RVP for £24m because he had a year left and refused to sign. These delusions of £20m plus are a bit nuts.

There's room for someone else but I don't see why it should be someone so uninspiring as Elia. We struggled to score goals with him in the squad last season, I don't think he is the answer to anything.

We don't need a massive squad for Europe. A few extras yet but it's hardly as if we need an entire second 11 to put out on Thursday nights. I don't see the point in buying players who aren't good enough. Koeman isn't infallible and I think he is wrong on this one. Elia isn't a consistent player and never has been. I don't think it's worth signing a player for the occasional Newcastle/Old Trafford performance.

A guy I used to work with was best mates at school with Feliciano Condesso, famously part out Saints youth team along with Sparv, Gillet, Surman, McNeil and some 12 year old called Joel Speight in CM03/04. No idea where he ended up though.

Midtjylland or Brentford?

You don't get to share Van der Sar's jersey by being sh*t, so that's good enough for me. About as good a player as we were likely to get on a short term deal.

Does anyone have any pictures of what a possible stadium expansion might look like?

Lambert hasn't been consistently decent for 18 months now, I don't see any value in bringing him back here. He's older, slower and not the player he was 3 years ago. His confidence and match sharpness will be gone after last season too, it would be a complete waste of wages. I don't think anyone would argue Liverpool are a better club but I still don't think it's a sensible move. Clyne is good enough to get into the England team on merit regardless of who he plays for but if he ends up under performing in another poor Liverpool team he could lose his place altogether like Chambers. Of course it could go the other way and he will cement his place for Liverpool and England but I don't think it's the no brainier some people would have you believe. The financial benefits are obvious but the career prospects more dubious. Especially as Liverpool would be unwilling to sell him to a rival in the Chamipons League should he want out.

They could do a Newcastle and get enough points from their earlier fixtures to stay up, despite dropping like a stone at the end.

Any Saints fans interested in doing the whole weekend and camping?

Know Juanmi Knowing you Ahaaaaaaaaa

Happy anniversary Ron.

He's the Spanish, Irish, Latvian Michael Owen.

Would be nice to get one of our guaranteed defeats out the way early on.

I never got why the whole boxing day thing was so complicated. It's ALWAYS on the 26th December, as are the Boxing Day fixtures. It's only the bank holiday which changes if boxing day happens to be on a weekend, like this year when the BH will be on 28th. That's the one and only post I will make on this matter, it was bad enough last time.

I know, I was replying to a different post that the Dutch have under-performed because they haven't won a World Cup. I wouldn't really count that as a win, it's basically a lottery because you can't separate two teams after more than two hours of football. The teams we did beat weren't all that good either. That Dutch team played out a 0-0 draw with Scotland and Argentina scraped an ill-deserved draw (injury time penalty rebound converted from a blatant encroachment IIRC) against Sweden. I was being kind stopping at Euro 96, which was our last decent tournament. We didn't qualify for USA 94 and finished bottom of our group at Euro 92.

A man goes to the doctor and says, "I feel like a deck of cards!" The doctor replies, "yes, I'm afraid you have herpes."