Bobbyboy

Meantime Liverpool have also bid for Clyne, Cork, Rodriguez and Lovren. Fonte, Schneiderlin and JWP off to Arsenal. Boruc, Shaw and Lallana going to Spurs with MoPo and Chambers, Davis (S), Wanyama and Reed going to Man U. Stoke are coming in for Davis (K) and Yoshida. Ramirez and Osvaldo off to Luton Town, with Mayuka going to Eastleigh despite strong interest from Salisbury. Les Reed has been sold off for spare parts, Jos has been melted down for glue and the stadium has been sold off to Veho to use as a giant test centre. No news yet on Staplewood but Pompey are interested in turning it into a Tescos or something. No bids yet for Gazzaniga.

On the fence right now. Been there for a while and it's starting to hurt a little. Since Cortese left we haven't signed anyone (January or now) or even really had much speculation about it, just had a bunch of press-related turmoil about players leaving, Dodd and Williams removed and now the manager walk out on us with all his coaching staff. There hasn't actually been anything positive yet other than board appointments. So I'm waiting to see what they're going to do and what kind of expectations we should have as fans. Big crossroads moment, investment to push on from where we are or attempting to consolidate? I'm sure something positive WILL happen sometime, but to me it's a question not so much of WHEN they will give us something positive (new manager, signings, targets) but how ambitious they're going to be. Until then we're just sitting and waiting to see what kind of expectation level we're going to have for the next few years. Pivotal moment.

Adam Lallana. That way he'd stay.

I think part of the issue is not that he will leave so much as the fact that we have just had a really good season, some really good performances and what is our reward? Big clubs sniffing around and cherry picking what they want from our squad like it's their right to do so. It proves that it's not possible to break up the monopoly at the top of the Prem and it proves how the bullies always win. For Adam himself I'm sure it's a great move financially and professionally but it's the way it's all come about is what hurts. It means the rest of English football will now only ever be a feeding zone for the biggest fish, and nobody in the game seems to care.

I don't want to get into the Fonte/vision debate but in terms of 'bankrolling' in L1 or Champ, we did something that sides with money do tend to do. What we did in L1 was to say "who is the best striker in the division? whoever it is, buy him." It was Rickie. Sure we got lucky in that he's much better than probably anyone realized at the time and he's done well with our coaches, managers etc BUT the point is, it's a known way for clubs to 'buy' success... Blackburn did it when they won the Prem - both in the Perm itself (Alan Shearer) but also when they were getting promoted to the Prem: David Speedie (seriously) and Duncan Shearer. As soon as they got to the Prem they dumped them. We did the same with Billy Sharp at that level. (Of course we then didn't buy Suarez and Van Persie, so my argument and parallels totally fall apart here). Just saying it's a known, established way to get up the divisions when you have a little money and we're not the first team to do it, and to some extent you COULD call it bankrolling.

Compared to the prize money from the PL and TV revenue etc this isn't as much as we're getting for finishing 8th. What was that, like 80-odd million? Is it just me or is there about to be some serious, crazy, heavy inflation in the prices of Prem footballers? And can we hold on to Shaw and Lallana until the bubble truly is afloat?

He said: "This message is hidden because Barry Sanchez is on your ignore list. View Post. Remove user from ignore list" Doesn't seem to say anything else these days.

Harsh on Cork. Seems very defensive even without him.

Just remembered, it was for diluting CVA1 without asking all the creditors, so it was for something specific.

What was the one last season when they had points deducted despite being already relegated so it meant nothing? So many insolvency events I can't remember them all. Was that a general financial misconduct one?

He also got one against Hart in the April 2005 match which finished 1-1.

Is he still the 87th best player in the world?

This poll already has a 'North Korea' feel to the results. UN are going to want to send in observers unless we're careful about this.

soo... 5pm... anything happened?

I hear Wotton is back playing every week for them now.

After Jack's goal for the U21s the other day I thought he might be due a call-up.

Yes I would, and that's from where we are now in sunny Louisiana. There's no rational reason for it, just feels like home. Would take surroundings also (see some nice 6 million pound homes for sale in New Forest sometimes) but yes.

There was also that stat so much of the first part of the season about us having the best defence in Europe (statistically) for a few weeks. How did we do that? All down to Lovren and Wanyama?? This thread reminded me that the whole 'best defence' thing seems such a long time ago now.

United want Reed? How much of this is just "he's from Southampton, he must be good"? Reminds me of Nick Hornby's piece on Gus Caeser at Arsenal - England U21 purely on basis of club he played for. Not that Reed is Gus Caeser by any means, in fact he's looked pretty useful every time I've seen him. Just made me think of Fever Pitch.

Was really pleased to see Sam come on today, esp as he's only so recently back from injury. Definite bright spot in the day.

Was that last couple of mins the first time Cork and Wanyama have played together?

I understand about first choice etc but sheesh that's tough on Cork. He's be MOM or close to for the last few games. I guess this is final proof that MoPo stands by what he said, they can't both play in the same team.

Is that next season's kit?

Still struggling to believe how bad Fulham were in the reverse encounter. I think there was a spell where our full-backs took smoking breaks and let the midfielders cover their slots, and nobody really noticed. Fulham were shocking that day.

The encouraging thing is that even though (like a few posters on here) I still think we'll lose, and lose comfortably, the performance HAS been pretty good. So, here we go....