Saint86

What an idiot, no one bought lambert yet he was idiot, the fact that no one took lala or moran off our hands, by our logic, means that they aren't good enough... or that surman was better If we gave sharp a go he'd score goals. We create so many chances, and personally i doubt he will be going anywhere unless we sign another striker. I think he needs to be given a go... he helped get us here in the championship in a big way... arguably, with Lambert, Jayrod and Sharp we have the best 3 championship strikers from the last couple of seasons.

Barry, if you want to start a thread about global atrocities, be my guest.... It will probably be a good read and get quite a few posts.... but do it in the lounge or something. This was a pretty good thread until you side tracked it talking about Japanese denial about this that and the other. (From my perspective, once you go past the point of strapping kenyans to a cannon muzzel and fertilizing the field.... then you've gone to far regardless.) As for rivalries.... I want the skates to stay i business and fall out of the football league, I want them to lose the ground completely, and for it to be knocked down/fall down. And I want them to struggle along in the conference/league 2 for as long as possible. This is not out of sense of rivalry, it is because they are disgrace of a football club and fanbase, with no moral compass what so ever.... if you did you wouldn't see pompey fans moaning about tax payers money going to waste on other football clubs and they would have paid back the local businesses rather than spending money to outbid higher league clubs for players - only to ultimately get relegated. They are a disease, and should either suffer indefinitely or be wiped out. (Is that enough hate for people?) The other club that i dislike, is west ham... the arrogance of their fans in the championship really got on my nerves, compounded by the fact that they completely forgot they even did it by the time we reached the premier, like we were no longer on their radar and were far beneath them. They are a club who moan about financial fair play when they spent a fortune in the championship, were hugely in debt, and then all of a sudden, next to free 60k brand new stadium - "financial fair play, financial fair play bla bla bla".... bunch of jokers. In fairness to some of their fans however, I have met them in every city I have been in, and unlike liverpool fans etc, they actually travel across the country to go to the games. One team I dread plying is west brom.... so many times we have need to get past them and they ahve stood in the way... play offs, relegation etc... can't even remember beating them although I'm sure we must have in my lifetime???

You are aware than RVP's scoring record is comparable to Benali's?

Fixed it for you... otherwise, well said!

That it is happening.... Get with it ffs.

I don't think you can compare the landscape in english football in previous years to what it is today. This is the first time we as a club have had exposure to this level of funding. Before that, yes, it was starting to creep in at the very very top, but not to the degree that a team getting relegated could top spend what qpr did in january on remy and samba etc... The simple truth is, we won't be pinching to many players of other prem teams. If we want english players we will do what we did with clyne and jayrod or we will create our own... if we want foreigners... we will go abroad. The only real reason to buy in england is to buy home grown players.... Compare us to other clubs in the premier, i.e. swansea who didn't field a single U21 english player last season - they need to buy and keep hold of young british players... Especially for europe... we just don't have that need as we are comfortable.. Hence our millions can go on a select set of european targets to supplement the squad in areas we can't fill from the academy. I repeat, this is new territory for us.. we have not been this comfortable before financially, when we were relegated there was more towards the 50-60% british players in the prem, the money sloshing around was far far less, and there was less of a premium on domestic players... we went down, went down again, meanwhile the premier moved on.... now we are back and we have a very different set up to alot of premier teams. It bodes very well to us... but the comment about "when was the last time we poached a premier league player" is silly i feel... you are seeking a meaningful comparison between us today, and a time when the British record transfer was shearer at £15m, which was then called "buying the league" - city have spent circa £1bn and were totally out of it last year. You can no longer compare the league today with the league 10 years ago.

Very biased question in my honest opinion. When was the last time, or how often does, a league 1 or championship side buy a premier league first team standard player from a premier league team.... Because that has been our situation for nearly a decade. If anything that article makes me realise what a great future we have... it bemoans the lack of opportunities for English talent, how no english players have made transfers this summer etc etc.... Well to my mind, we got a cracking player (to be) in Jayrod last summer. We've got cork, lallana, shaw, jwp, rowe, lallana, lambert, clyne, chambers, and apparently isgrove. As far as i'm concerned, that is eight first team premier league players who are all english.... we've produced 5 of those eight, lambert has developed under us, and jayrod and cork were great buys. (not including rowe, chambers and isgrove as first teamers of course. We may not get champions league football, but when they start to tighten home grown player rules (which they honestly need to do) we will be laughing... no one has a youths et up that can match our production train. And that is no disrespect to the likes of tottenham and liverpool who play their actualy youth unlike united who fielded several million pounds worth of talent against us last year in u21s. The future is very bright for us, and our commitment to british youth is going to win us many friends and admirers. Everyone I speak to who saw us last year (opposition fans) was amazed by the number of st george's flags on our team sheet.

Alpine, why aren't you at the game? Also, lovren made the block that lead to the corner and therefore saved a certain goal... don't be too quick to assign blame.

Surprised we are being linked with a new RB (Look at the Tool thread about richards being at SMS at the moment by BJK)... I think chambers, shaw, clyne and target should be given a go. Although maybe I am more patient that NC. Looking solid so far... and the second half should see a stronger 11. Chambers is doing a good job, as are shaw and puncheon.

Congrats, you went straight on the ignore list... what a ridiculous rumour

woah guys, seemed like a legitimate request by someone for info. All so he can take his kids - definetly innocent of this forum - to see the saints.... crushing response really

An interesting derby, not yet mentioned, is Cherries VS Leeds.... no love lost there, I certainly think Bournemouth will have a score to settle, whether leeds remember why is a different story.

I know you are trying to create some reasonable discussion on here (lets face it, it is a long summer!) But you are being far too harsh on Bristol city.. describing them as a yo yo club between championship and league 1 is on a par with describing Fulham as a yo yo club to the championship. City were in the championship for a similar period of time to Fulham in the premier and almost got promoted... twice! As for rovers. They are my dads boyhood side, and since I am now living 10min down the road I will certainly be going there to scream abuse at the dirty fish scum from down the road. Both those teams are bigger than their respective divisions and only need to get on a role and get their new grounds to be championship pushing for premier. I will always be a pirate myself, no matter what league they are in vs city. As for derbies.... Lets not kid ourselves. We would all love to give Brighton a good spanking if we played them again... And a hell of a lot of saints fans don't like West Ham, so for me, that is the match that matters (small matter of the championship season arrogance and last years 4-1 to put to bed, then I can move on!) Bournemouth are like a much younger brother.. can't help but look out for them despite when they are annoying at times. And that is it for us. Portsmouth are a non entity. They got caned by Charlton the other day, don't have a training ground, and I look forward to cheering Salisbury on against them at the Ray Mac. For the premier. The ones that matter are Eve-liverpool, liverpool vs united, united vs city, spuds vs Arse, toon vs sunderland and Swans vs Cardiff. For us, its about smashing West Ham, and beating the big boys at SMS this season, the way we were brought up! I was chatting to a stoke fan, and I was explaining that when we play united at home, I expect us to give them a good battering and get a win. And that I was more interested in watching saints play well and beat a big team than do it against a medium/bottom half club. He was far more interested in watching ****e football, scraping wins against cack teams, and couldn't care less about the big boys as they were a league above and not to be competed with. We have a different mentality i think as a fan base. Perhaps because we were plucky little saints for so many years, and perhaps because we did punch above our weight with some great players! But times have changed, and we certainly appear to be going somewhere in the future. Time to carve out some new rivalries!

Don't understand the issue here. We outbid cardiff and their chairman (A.K.A. Tanny Boy) was left holding his pathetic weener in a cock fight with the Don's stallion sized equipment. After loosing (never really being in the game) to the better man he is now trying to save his blushes. I like what it says about us to be honest. We wanted to player and we pushed out our rivals... Get used to it, or would you rather sit here and have the "moral high ground" because plucky saints refused to match one of the big boys for a player? Seriously, the sooner the summer ends and the season starts the better it will be. So many bed wetter threads by far.

Are you sure? I mean, he was only our top scorer in the premier last season and the joint top scoring Englishman, despite playing for us for the first 10 games as well Interesting link, but won't happen, Lambert will be a massive part of our season again next year, barring injuries.

I assume that I would need to get to Southampton (Fro Bristol) to get any benefit of this. I feel the club need to support those with season tickets and a 100 mile journey to get to the ground as well as just those who go to the away matches. Keep dreaming i guess

People who are mentally fragile don't elbow/hit some one in the face when they get there shirt pulled and don't get stuck in and chase around like ramirez does. Ludicrous comment. If you had said he has typical south american temperament then I would have agreed. But you are just slamming a young man in a foreign country to get on the bandwagon and with no real reason!

He requested to go back up there to be nearer to home and family? We acquiesced to that request and now are fans are slamming us for treating him poorly? Seems a bit harsh on us tbh...

Don't know how they got there

You are setting your sites at the wrong level here. Arsenal - They have done nothing yet with which you could base an opinion. On the one had they have stability and a young squad that will improve. On the other hand Chelsea and city have already spent big and have appointed good managers. Man Utd look set to make some waves as well this summmer. And Tottenham have only strengthened. Villa - Young team that got to grips with the league last year, more signings in a similar vein. Expect them to improve. Cardiff - Get the impression they will be similar to us in terms of level... but with less style Chelsea - Improve in the league massively, them or city to win it for me. Crystal palace - Little to spend, but a manager who knows how to scrap. Think they are doomed sadly. Everton - Marginal improvement expected for me... The Martinez effect is yet to be felt so tactically they will be at an unknown level with those players. They have strengthened the squad however and more importantly not sold any key players. Fulham - So far they have been treading water, possibly due to Khan's takeover. Khan talks the talk but I don't think they will do much improving, in fact I expect them to go backwards relative to other mid-to bottom half clubs. Hull - Bruce can scrap, they will be there or there abouts at the end of the season. I'm expecting them to be dipping in and out of the relegation zone if I am honest. Liverpool - well, as usual, they have spent a fortune.... how many of there players would we take? Perhaps mignolet? (Not convinced), as for Aspas and co, I think we would all rather spend that money in other areas. I suspect they will improve marginally in relative standards, but not by much, and I think we will be fighting it out with them this year (good start and injury free season permitting). Man City - Considering what their squad is worth, they would be hard pushed to do worse in my honest opinion.. I think there transfers could be better, as with last year, but even so there is scope to improve them massively just through adjusting the tactics and getting them playing. United - Moyes is a good manager for sure, but he is not used to having money, not being at the centre of the media storms and mindgames at the level he will be this year. Talks of rooney out, cesc in... will it happen? Personally I didn't think that the united team was that good last year, and that it showed SAF's abilities once again to win the league the way they did. Under moyes, I expect a downgrade in position, perhaps scrapping for 3rd or 4th. Newcastle - Honestly, at the moment I think they will be struggling.. No good buys in, management in turmoil, fans angry at the hole debacle and no quality buys of the level they need to "improve" - I don't think they will be any better than last year and be bottom half and towards the relegation zone. Norwich - they have bought well, solid team last season and will remain so, perhaps with extra bite. I have them down to improve - comfortable mid table position? The Saints - Looks promising so far. Rock solid midfield, defence is better, and our first 11 line ups look pretty damn good. Get in a quality striker and a good winger and I really think we can look towards the heights of 6/7th with an injury free season. We shall see. Sunderland - God only knows, di canio is an unknown for me, based on swindon and some of his results at the end of last season, I think they will get better as a team but finish only a couple of places above the relegation zone, maybe. Definite consideration for the drop as the overall standard this year has improved at the bottom end. Swansea - Bony will be quality for me, and I think swansea will be one of our major rivals for final position this season, i have them down to improve once again. Tottenham - Marginal improvement in quality relative to last seasons top 4, I think some of the chasing pack are catching up on 3rd and 4th positions. if they don't get any strikers, or if bale get injures then I think we can have them though ';.;' West Brom - The player who were so deadly against us have gone and they are looking pace free at the moment... Don't think there usual counter attack yawn football will work on us or other teams next season and we will finish above them. Definite a declining team this year. West Ham - They have stood still next to those around them, therefore a declining position. We will devastate them with Wanyama - they won't understand what to do when they jump on someone and bounce off.

What will happen, is the club will be at pains to point out that the construction is not in line with the design, nor as the club wanted. The contractor will be forced to make right the construction at cost to no-one but themselves.. and the god help the fools who did it. Would imagine if it goes that far, which the club have the right to do, then they will face a substantial law suit.

Only one of those payers is Belgian? and we won't be signing Astori now, so no point imagining that. I do agree that the future is looking bright.

Lol, genuinely funny, keep it coming you two!

I really hope we don't sign him, he sounds far from a consumate professional and we don't need a pre-Madonna on the books, certainly not one who will throw a wobbly when lambert gets a game before him, or who is likely to punch lallanaby in the face for not passing the ball... Sounds like a great team player that will fit in with our well bonded and hard working team... nice quality guy. Also, he doesn't want to be here, and he is 27.... please tell me we are not spending nearly £20m on this guy... I can't believe it and I hope it isn't true!

Well it will keep JWP happy, he's in the news, and being confused with a better player Not that he is in anyway not a promising quality little player!