melmacian_saint

In Portugal the manager has almost nothing to do with who is signed and who leaves. He is by all means a coach. Fonte arrived in January after cancelling his contract at another League club due to unpaid wages, and was loaned out a week later to another teamto carry on playing (the defence he left, Setubal, were amongst the best in Europe, conceeding only 6 goals in half a season). Plus Koeman was already under firefrom press, fans and the Benfica board so I don't even think he considered him, nor did he have anything to do with his signing. I think Fonte's agent (who is not Peter Kenyon's mate Jorge Mendes) just found an excellent way to ensure he got paid his wages.

Fraser Forster would be quality. However I think he's probably got better places to go to.

Osvaldo doesn't want to play for SFC. The fact that he had a manager who got the best out of him didn't help so I don't think having a complete stranger will either. I wonder if offering Fonte a new contract is dependant on Lovren staying or going, or maybe a new signing striking a partnership with Dejan (or Jose if he finally leaves)? As for Cork, he is a neat passer and technically good- but too light and slow for a CM, especially a defensive one, where you must have at least one of these. Wanyama, if fully fit, will allow him as few starts as the ones Hooiveld had this season. Irrespective of this, I think they are worthy of any PL squad, and definitely our starting 11, plus they seem to be less prone to transfer market bidding shenanigans, and considerably loyal to the club (as being honest, it's the best they can aspire to in their careers).

So this kind of confirms that Lovren (or at least his agent) wants to leave.

I somehow think that we got less than 20 million for the move.

Adam Lallana would not have been a professional footballer anywhere else in this country but at SFC. And I honestly believe this is a FACT.

Sounds like Wayne Bridge v2.0 I'm sure the likes of Agger and Skrtel can't wait to meet her.

No don't get me wrong, I quite like the Cherries and I'll be happy if it helps them remain at a good level. In fact I just hope they can take it easy from now on and level off in the CCC without overspending.

Sell Fonte and have the rest of squad not like Osvaldo and not get on with him and on top of that be angry at the board for selling the side they stood by.

Also that's Bournemouth living to fight another day without doing a Pompey.

Selling 1 out of 5 best performers is looking to improve. Selling 3 and with an outlook of at least 2 more is not quite the same.

This. He made an acceptable if not great squad look even more crap.

Osvaldo and Ramirez have given me a very poor impression of an attacking player that has any sort of Italian football experience. So I'm quite happy if we don't sign this fella.

Looks good to be honest. Better than the Pelle bloke to be honest. However I do hope that we don't restrict our signings to where our manager comes from. If one thing annoyed me from Cortese's big signings is that they were all playing in Italy, which came across as a bit lazy from him, especially when the best ones (Lovren, Steven Davis and Wanyama) came from other leagues.

I don't think he wants to be here at all.

The other reason apart from the one the media moan about for the poor level of the England team and player base is that we have stopped raising mature, level-headed players to develop egotistical, self-indulgent, headline-chasing idiots who think they are the best for doing absolutely arse all.

Good money, but bad for all parties (including Saints).

Guess it's a short enough hop to our Flybedrome for him to fly there and back a few times to bring more of his belongings.

I have a better one: Les Reed: Please write the following team onto a canvas so we can put it up in the board room. Boruc Clyne Fonte Lovren Shaw Wanyama Steven Davis Schneiderlin Lallana Lambert Rodriguez KL/Ralph Krueger: Nice team, great season! But why treat it as art? Les Reed: Well it's not going to get any better so we might as well have some nice memories around! Secretary: Sorry to interrupt, I have Arsenal FC on the phone. They say they want an urgent meeting, they don't want to dicuss any transfer matters over the phone but it's about Morgan and Dejan, and 45 mill... LR/KL/RK: SOLD!!

Could he? Or was that another rumour mill special?

Fonte will adapt to whoever comes in. He did every single time before.

Right can we stop lying about this?!?! Surman had offers, Dyer had offers, Bale, had offers, Walcott had offers, Baird had offers. And at that time they left! Adam (add Morgan into the mix for any doubts) DID NOT have any offer. He WAS NOT one of the teams best performers despite his promise. Can we get over this and accept that he is just as financially driven as any other footballer?

I already said I wish him well and understand his choice but I don't agree with your post. Adam Lallana had potential, but until the fortunes of the club turned around he looked like the sort of kid that ends up in the lower leagues, with some tricks and nice moves about him but a frustrating lack of end product and composure. To say he was so loyal when we were relegated is not really true. Had he been offered the same sort of move like the one Surman or Dyer were offered then, he would've gone, if anything to satisfy the club's desperate needs. Except this didn't happen because he wasn't performing as well as the others were. The club was VERY loyal to him. They stood by him in his condition, in his frustrating break into the first team, in his frustrating times in the starting eleven and as captain, gave him everything he needed to become a club star. He is the example of how a good youth set-up can make players good rather than just by identifying raw talent. But hey he's seen it all, heard it all about how good it is, so I hope he enjoys himself. Just hope he realises how lucky he was at age 12 when he signed for SFC rather than...well, any other club in the whole of the UK. Hope it doesn't annoy him that his new club doesn't really give a ****e about him other than what he does in 90 minutes.

The cup was previous to their latest (and largest) import session in the summer of 2013, which yes started well enough but there were far too many reports of squad bust-ups to consider it healthy.

People seem to think that buying up players from where the manager comes from/has strong connections to will solve all troubles. Last time I checked the "Spanish Swansea" experiment didn't actually go that well.