melmacian_saint

Now they know our situation prepare to lash out some 20 mill on him.

I don't think the WC has done Lovren any favours, at least not to big clubs in Europe.

Well that we can complete the plans with no money worries. (some sarcasm is included too)

Hindsight is pretty but I can't help to think that under NC we would have sold only one player this season (Shaw), perhaps two given Lambert's transfer was more sentimental than anything else.

At least we will definitely finish off the Academy now!

Well it's not like the other two have done terribly is it?

Irrespective of my opinion of Schneiderlin himself, breaking up the "League One Five" of him, Fonte, Lallana, Lambert and K.Davis (even if in a less playing role, he is the club captain) is perhaps the biggest damage these transfers will do to our club. In that sense, the spinal cord of the team will have been broken and we will never find a set of players who together can improve no matter what division we are in.

He comes across as outrageously dumb IMO.

Schneiderlin is a very good player and tactically extremely astute but hardly irreplaceable. And I insist that a CM that isn't able to get a decent shot on goal (and goal) will never be a star, so if a bigger fish is convinced he is all that then I won't be angry if they take him for good money.

If I could ask Adam some questions, I would ask him this: Do you think you would've been given 3 years to settle in a first team anywhere else? Do you think any other club would've made you captain despite the presence of other senior members and you not being the best performer, in such a crucial season like the first one back in the PL after a long time? Do you think any other club (especially a recently-promoted, non-top club) would've allowed you to have the freedom to play in at least two different positions, sometimes in the same match/half, and let you play your game without overloading you with tactical obligations? Who knows what his answer would be, but my answer to these questions is quite clearly NO. Lallana had potential, but it was never the sort of Walcott/Bale/Ox/Shaw door-smashing story. He was a player that we put our heart on developing, and very, very, very few players around the world get the approach towards their development Adam got from us. Anywhere else he would've been a talented kid with no confidence who could make a living as a footballer but never a PL highlight. He is now and I dare to say it's more to do with us than him. I wish you well Adam, but don't be surprised if another club doesn't understand or care about you as much as Saints did.

Blame a tramp called Mark Bosman. Thanks to him we have clubs chasing staff and not the opposite, as it happens in ALMOST every other sector of professional activity.

Did he? Or was that some sort of "added value" from the journalists that read the original post in this forum?

Seems like we couldn't afford a return ticket, and had to sell ourselves off to pay for our flight back!

Except he was never interested. Some weirdo here found a link between the guy and the area, wrote up a post, the moronic oversupply of sports journalists we have in this country came across it and wrote about it while playing Monopoly in the office.

History does repeat itself you know...

One excellent season but to be honest he will never be given the patience he was given here anywhere. Nor the confidence.

It is crazy money but I feel the best thing for Luke would've been to stay with us for another year as regular starter, to keep improving particularly with his crossing and backtracking. At United it'll be like starting from scratch with much less patience.

Chambers will become a good PL defender for us. Shaw however has everything to become the kind of player young kinds will have heard about in 20 years time.

Right is it just me or after years of acting with discretion our club has all of a sudden become extremely prone to any sort of movement with regards to players/coaches/negotiations being leaked to the press prior to being completely confirmed a few hours later?!?!

So I guess the Lambert transfer was just a kind of bigger picture, negotiation red herring?

Oh, I'm not so sure about that being good.

If the fee is 8 million then I can't complain. To get that for a 32-year old striker, who might be an England international and top English scorer in the Prem (last year at least?) but is at the end of his career is great. Plus it's his boyhood club so I'm sure he'd do everything for a move. Thank you Rickie, it's been amazing and I wish you well back home!

A LB will not go for more than 30 mil ish regardless of tomorrow or in 5 years. If he does then it means we are in a position where we can keep him.

Very true. And even though people may argue it's harder to do it today, Strachan's squad was comparatively weaker. At least I get that feeling.

Recent events seem to tell me that Cortese seems very happy to talk to people about his time and things at Saints, and not just media friends. I think I may add football clubs, chairmen, agents, directors...