Lighthouse

Jay was 23 years old and playing his first ever season in the Premier League. Even so, there were doubts over his £7m price tag. Shane is 27 years old, has already played 3 season in the Premier League and proven himself to be distinctly average in all of them.

Bull sh*t

I find 'scapegoat' is usually a term applied to players who consistently fail to perform but because a large majority of people notice he isn't performing, that somehow makes him a scapegoat. Other scapegoats include Jermaine Wright, Chris Makin and Jason Euell.

That is a very poor representation of the two players merits. Lallana's strength was never banging in 20 goals a season, he was a creative player who could create chances in ways few others in the Premier League are capable. Those numbers are also skewed by how poor Lallana was 2 years ago and only scored 3 goals. Long scored 7 and 8 goals in his last 2 Premier League seasons. I would rather take a punt on an unproven foreigner than someone like Long, who has 'proven' himself to be a distinctively average player.

Really? So the club is printing it's own money now, I never knew. I always assumed the money came from people like me paying £40 to sit in a seat for 2 hours, or buying a cheap polyester t-shirt for £50, or paying £60 a month for the privilege of watching my own television. If money is nothing then why not go the whole hog and spend £15m on Kieron Richardson, Darren Bent for £10m and John O'Shea for £9m. Then we can have a squad full of overpriced mediocrity but it doesn't matter because apparently it's not my money.

Shane Long is worth £6m not £12m. If we end up paying that I will feel worse than any of the departures. At least we did the best thing possible with them, however £12m for a striker who scored 7 goals last season is just ludicrous.

In your opinion, which isn't one everybody shares. I don't get exactly what a laughing stock is personally. Will I get random Villa, Port Vale and Middlesboro fans phoning me up in the evening and laughing because there is a mixed section at St Marys? Football is the only sport I know of where different supporters are segregated from each other, it doesn't make all the other sports a laughing stock. If you don't want to sit in a 'neutral section' then don't (not that there is going to be one), I fail to see the issue.

It would only work at games where neither the home end nor the away end is sold out. Which isn't very often.

I think people underestimate just how astonishingly bad you have to be to get relegated. In 2005 we had a team with Bernard, Delap, Lundekvam and Davenport in the back four and still came within 30 minutes of staying up. I'm not sure why Yoshida has suddenly been branded crap just because Lovren replaced him. He was a very competent centre half in our first season up, probably the best of the three and easily better than Claus or Davenport were. I can't really put forward an argument for this team being worse than the one that finished 14th in our first season. Shaw and Chambers weren't ready then and Lallana was ineffective. Bertrand is stronger than Fox and now we have Wanyama and Forster.

So basically you have no idea what's going to happen but you're going to assume it will go horribly wrong. FWIW the bookies have us down as being around 9th http://www.justbookies.com/premier-league-odds/?gclid=CMWz7qKei8ACFSTMtAodNEsAsg

So who, in your opinion, is the only team in the Premier League worse than us?

We aren't as good as last year yet but 18th? We are far stronger between the posts. Unless Boruc and Forster both get injured at the same time, we will not have to sit through another Gazza performance this season. I've no idea what's going on with Morgan but as far as I can tell he is a Saints player and will feature next season. I don't see why Lambert vs Pelle is a facepalm. Lambert needed replacing anyway and put in some terrible performances last year when he just looked knackered. I can't where you got Lallana vs. Isgrove from. He wont be starting ahead of either JWP or Taider.

What if he is another Suarez or Van Nistelrooy? Why assume all our signings will be crap and everyone else's will be good?

How did you work that out? I would say our squad is marginally weaker than last year, simply because we haven't replaced Lovren yet. You have a very pessimistic view on our new signings if you think signing four more will still make us weaker than last year. How many of the people predicting relegation would honestly swap our squad for Burnley, QPR, West Brom, Leicester, Sunderland, Palace, Villa or Swansea?

I'd say 10th-15th

An area where people could sit with mates who support the away team could work, if the people in there knew the deal and accepted there could be a bloke sat next to them in a Liverpool shirt, cheering when they scored. It would be more of a 'mixed' area than a neutral area. However, since the ground is usually almost full I can't see a lot of point to it.

This is the kind of fixture Francis Jeffers used to start for Arsenal. I wouldn't get too excited.

So back then Arsenal was seen as a better bet but now it isn't?

Cortese would never sell one of our young English players to Arsenal for £16m! Sack the board FFS!

You have no idea how long any of these deals have taken, Liverpool could have been after Lovren since Christmas for all you know. The fact that we have waited until players were sold before signing a replacement is neither foolish, shocking nor unique to Saints. I still think we are a CB, striker and creative midfielder away from the squad we need but we haven't exactly been idle in signing players. Back on topic - This is an excellent signing. We now look good in an area we badly lacked depth last season. Boruc and Forster will push each other very hard for that #1 spot.

I thought he was a Pokemon.

It's a little bit Wile E. Coyote you have to say. I can't shake the image of a giraffe being launched into the bridge by an ACME catapult.

Because they retired years ago. We're talking about players we've sold who are still playing, i.e. the team we could have had if nobody had left.

I very much doubt it would have won the Champions League but Wenger was obviously being tongue in cheek. Would have been one heck of a team, with Fonte, Cork, Rodriguez, S. Davis, Crouch and Chamberlain on the bench too.

Boruc Clyne Chambers Lovren Shaw Morgan Wanyama Walcott Lallana Bale Lambert Sort of has a point don't you think?