Wes Tender

Funny reading Essexyids' posturing and can't help but think of CorpHo. I suppose every club has a few of these attention seekers who have to go onto other club's forums and spout forth about how great their club is. He also reminds me of The Flyer from QPR, who used to bore us with how great their team was until they went all yo-yo. But at least Essexyid has the humility to recognise that they used to be a top 5 club, but are now a top six club. They are certainly on a downward trajectory and it won't be too many years before they are a top 7 club. For all his bleating about the number of trophies they have won, most of the posters on here wouldn't have been born when they were last champions of the top division in 60/61. But it is in a way gratifying that they recognised that we are enough of an inspiration to them that they pay little old us the compliment of poaching some of our players, our manager and backroom staff.

6th. We will finish above one or other of Liverpool or Spurs.

We all know that you can't see it, but please don't try and speak for the board, as I very much doubt that you really have much idea of how they think.

As you were one of the most clueless premature ejaculators last summer, your credence on the subject is sub-zero. Just as you have not a clue as to what Markus would have spent on us in comparison to his daughter.

So Spurs historically have been a much bigger club than us, much as Arsenal have been a much bigger club than them. Who cares? Who cares what they think about us? What sort of moron goes on another club's fans forum anyway? If they want to look like prats singing our song, let them. We replaced Pochettino with a better manager, I don't know whether the replacement for Mitchell is better, because that isn't something that will be visibly evident in the short term, but I suspect that he will be. I'm confident that we will replace Alderweireld with a player as good or better, much as he was an improvement on Lovren. Life goes on and we are a star in the ascendancy, whereas their star is waning.

Just as Spurs are a selling club too when the many bigger clubs come calling for their players like Bale and Modric. We are only a little bit behind them now, so Spurs aren't seen as much of a step up to our players compared to the top four or five clubs, who could outbid them easily.

It amuses the hell out of me that they cite the example of Man Utd taking "their" Glory, glory song and claiming that it is the same thing as them adopting our song and claiming to make it better. Only an arrogant imbecile Spurs fan could fail to ignore the fact that the song is "when the SAINTS go marching in" and that we do not need to change the title to have any other British football fan know that the Saints are us. They are also stupid enough not to realise that when they sing their version at our ground, that it sounds as if the whole ground is singing our song in unison.

That Lancaster Bomber on your T-shirt probably didn't help.

In whose eyes do we look like a fool with our pants down? This bid was so well publicised that a thread was started about it because the OP hadn't even realised a bid had been made. Does the release clause reflect the going rate for a player? That is a statement of intent by a club to say that is what they want for a player, but doesn't necessarily reflect the circumstances which might change from time to time and it is surely normal practice in business to make an opening bid much lower than that which is expected in order to start the ball rolling. If we are seriously interested, then we make a subsequent higher bid, or decide to go for somebody else. This is the same tactic used by Spurs bidding for Schneiderlin and the offer is only deemed to be ridiculous if there are other suitors offering substantially more money as there is for him. Spurs managed to outsmart us for Toby for half the sum this guy is supposedly worth to his club, so as always, the players value is purely what somebody is prepared to pay for him, or what a club deems the cost would be to replace him with somebody of equal quality. After last season, our stock has risen massively as a club which is eminently capable of obtaining the best possible price when selling a player and for paying a comparatively small price for their replacements in return. We wouldn't wish to encourage the perception that just because we might get £25 million of a midfielder, that we are prepared to pay that for a replacement, would we?

Wan ker. You were overjoyed with our problems last season. Hoping for more of the same, are you?

Why don't you go and post your drivel on the Spur's forums instead of on here?

It was a perfectly reasonable point of view IMO. I don't think that many would dispute that Lloris saved them a significant number of points and that Kane in particular earned them a substantial number of points, with Eriksen chipping in with several late strikes to earn them wins instead of draws. And I dispute whether Spurs are a better team than we were last season. Luckier, maybe, to be above us with such a poor goal difference. Had Lamela's handball goal against us been disallowed for example, the gap between us would have been 1 point and there are no doubt many other occasions where such little things could have put us above them and indeed Liverpool had they gone in our favour.

I thought that he left by mutual consent.

Just like Liverpool last season, Spurs show a complete lack of imagination. Both have identified us as the biggest threat to their position in the league hierarchy, so they see this as a way of weakening a serious rival. Liverpool found out that the three players they bought from us didn't weaken us at all and they were made to look foolish when we replaced them with players at least as good, for much less money. In the case of Lovren, it became clear that he only shone because of the players around him. Spurs took the manager that had appeared to be the reason for our success and also the back-room guy credited with finding the good players. Few can argue that Koeman is an upgrade on Pochettino and I'm confident that our back-room staff are also equally or more capable too. It remains to be seen whether Alderweireld will be as effective as he was with us, but it is not inconceivable that like Lovren, he shone because of those around him. No reason to suspect that we cannot pull another rabbit out of the hat as we did with him and Lovren, and no doubt if we do, Liverpool and Spurs will be after them too.

But we would be unlikely to p*ss off a club by acting in the way that it appears AM did, as our board gives the appearance of comprising ethical and moral people. If AM have indeed reneged on their contractual agreements, then certainly we should go after them for the compensation. We need to prove that firstly we are not a soft touch and secondly that clubs cannot act in such a cavalier way and get away with it. Ultimately though, our best response is to identify another CB who will prove to be as good or better than Alderweireld and hope that it turns out that a large part of his success with us was because of the players beside him and in front of him, as it was with Lovren.

Because regardless of how close we were behind them, we will never ever finish above them apparently. And even if we do, they are such a big club with so much history, albeit in the ever more distant past, that no player would ever pass up the chance to play for them. And Liverpool is a much more vibrant city than Southampton. Oh, and many of his mates will already be there, so they can share a bench and reminisce about the good times they had with us. Other than that, they will earn double the money. Liverpool are feckless that way.

And this sentence is really the crux of the whole debate. Regardless of factors that conspire to place a glass ceiling over the mid-sized clubs like us compared to the glory teams, it all comes down to results over a season and the way that they can be affected by imponderables such as injuries or suspensions, refereeing decisions, but also about the tactical awareness of the manager. One team can beat another team costing twice as much because the expensive players cannot always play as well as a team, rather than a collection of individuals, or one manager can help to win the game by his tactice of which players to choose and which formation to employ. Liverpool and Spurs achieved success based largely on an individual like Suarez or Bale scoring for fun and had we had a player knocking in the goals like they did all season, then we could conceivably finish in the top four too. Arguably the chances of us being able to sign a player of such known capabilities are small, because we couldn't afford them. But equally there are players who could become capable fo such feats who we might identify early on. We then face the problem of losing them the following season, but that is the same problem that faces even the English glory teams to a lesser extent. Spurs lost Bale and Liverpool Suarez, and they both dropped significantly the following season as a result. Our main advantage is our ability to produce some of those future stars from our own academy and raise our profile in reflected glory and increase our bank balance massively when they move on to greater things. We have taken giant strides to even be looking over the shoulders of the likes of Liverpool and Spurs, but there is potential to overtake one or other of them, if not both, in the league table in the following seasons.

Maybe it is a delegate rather than a delegation. Or perhaps we have sent over the bailiffs.

Right on cue, the emergence of one of the principal bed-wetters of last summer, who having had had egg splattered all over his face, learned nothing. You didn't think that we had a plan last season either, so feel free to jump to premature conclusions based on very little evidence once more. I'll wait and see what pans out and make my judgement based firstly on who we sign as replacements for any who leave and secondly having allowed them some time playing for us before making judgements as to their abilities. By the way, it is very big of you to give Les and Ralph the benefit of the doubt. They will be so happy to hear that you are not going to condemn them out of hand.

The own goal scored by Leon Best against us when we were playing Derby in the play-offs. Amazing technique and then to miss the first penalty in the shoot-out. What a player.

When debating whether Liverpool is "better" than us, there are two yardsticks by which that judgement can be made. One is as a club and the other is as a team. Undoubtedly as a club they are way ahead of us in terms of the usual measures of historical achievements, size of ground, following and wealth. Arguably we are the better run and better managed club. In terms of which is the better team, if the gauge of that is to be solely by the criteria of which one finishes above the other, then I can foresee us being the better team next season or the one after.

I'm going for 9 assists from him. 5 in the home game against Liverpool and four in the away game against them. Added to the Clyne own goal, at St Mary's, it will be a match to remember.

Bigger, yes. More successful, yes, but the gap has narrowed recently. Richer, yes, although in terms of revenue rather than ownership. Better than Saints? In what way? At least we don't have armies of plastic fans the majority of whom have never ever seen us play live. We are arguably better run than them. The question begs to be asked that if they are so brilliant, why do they wish to buy up so many of our team? We have made them a bit of a laughing stock this past year or so and I hope that Cedric proves to be better than Clyne as well, just to continue the merriment.

I don't see much of a problem if players come here from the likes of Young Boys, VVV-Venlo, Red Bull Salzburg or even Hull and consider that joining us is a big step up in their careers.

It depends where they come from. We might be a big club compared to where they were. It is all relative.