Wes Tender

The article mentioned somebody in their academy who was even better than Mane. Why don't we sign him to our academy? But the two things that rankle in the article are the mention that he went on strike to get his move away from Salzburg and that he isn't expected to stay here very long. Of course, if he is a great success here, only then will there be the demand for his services from other top clubs, but under those circumstances the more interest he generates, the higher will be the profit we make on him.

I'm perfectly content to wait until the end of the season, before worrying about what will happen next Summer. If there is a queue of top clubs after several of our players, it will be because they have distinguished themselves. That being so, we will be in a higher league position than last season, so it will be more attractive to our players to stay with us, and we would be a more attractive proposition for any player coming in to replace those who leave. With luck, the media will not wish to look as stupid as they did this Summer predicting meltdowns and firesales, and our own fans will also be a bit more circumspect about our prospects and a bit more trusting of our board.

And I'm certain that he believes he is going to change the lives of loads of little Scouse urchins from their slums too.

Lallana spoke to Matt Le Tissier on the phone about whether he should leave Saints to play for Liverpool. I have been fortunate to have found out the gist of their conversation. AL: I have been approached by Liverpool, who want me to play for them and I was seeking your advice. MLT: Are you sure that they want you? How serious are they? AL: Well, when I was at the World Cup, Stevie Gerrard told me that they wanted me. He told me how much they would pay me and described the sort of properties that their players owned and the sort of cars that they drove. MLT: It isn't all about possessions. You have to consider other things like quality of life. You would be far, far away from your family and friends and Liverpool is a ****hole. AL: But I've always dreamed of one day playing for them in the CL. When I played there with Saints, the hairs stood up on the back of my neck. I pictured myself running out into that stadium and the Kop chanting my name. When that little scouser in Brazil asked me to sign his Liverpool shirt, I knew that very soon I'd be wearing one too. MLT: Well, it seems that you've pretty well made up your mind that you want to play for them, so I don't know what I can say that would make you change your mind. If you want to desert your friends and family, the club that developed you and made you the player you are today and lose the respect of the Saints fans that idolised you, just for personal greed and naked ambition, then go ahead. AL: Thaks, Matty. You've talked me into it *click* Lallana replaces the phone and smiles happily. *thinks* I really ought to place an article in the Echo, telling all the fans who idolised me here how much I enjoyed playing for Saints. *frowns* But then again, I really ought to tell all the Liverpool supporters how happy I am to be playing for such an illustrious club and thanks for showing their faith in me, paying so much to sign me. But I'm sure that they'll find out that I'm worth every penny.

Oh, I don't know. Several on here have laughed at you.

Does the insult aimed at Les Reed mean that you are losing the argument?

You really do come across as being bitterly disappointed that things have turned out so well and that you don't have the opportunity to tell us all that you knew best, despite your insistance that you're glad that it all turned out OK in the end. Mentioning Souness and Lawrie is harking back to another era, the Dark Ages in relative terms, as we were owned by paupers and playing in a stadium with half the capacity of St Mary's. In short, it is largely irrelevant. We have set a precedent to the predatory top clubs, that they will have to pay massively over the odds for players we wish to keep, and we have proven that potentially better players are available elsewhere for much less money, so why don't they make the effort that we do to find them, instead of being taken for patsies. The penny might also have dropped that some of our players play well because of the way that we play and because of the players around them, that work as a team. Those that left have found it difficult to adapt elsewhere, whereas having kept the core of our team intact, their replacements here have slotted in relatively easily. Although we will not wish to deliberately go down the same route next season, if we are forced to sell players again because they want to leave and ludicrously inflated fees are offered, why is it a certainty that we couldn't achieve the same outcome again? Will our scouting network not be as good? Will the board not wish to sanction the outlay? Will Koeman's wish list of players have dried up? As to why Pochettino left, I have asked myself that question. I conclude that he was enticed to join what he considers to be a bigger club, who play in Europe, albeit in the minor European league and because he is ambitious, he thought that it would be a good career move.You believe that the board "more or less" told him the plan ahead, hence why he left. What do you think they told him? Events have proven that they reinvested the bulk of the money they received in player sales, so it could not have been that they told him that money or ambition were lacking. Did he intend to leave because Cortese had left and he was only waiting for a decent offer to come his way? How many players left because Pochettino and Cortese left? Or did they just leave in reality because obscene increases in salary allied to the lure of the glory clubs seduced them? As for the Les Reed is a lying muppet comment, I supect that with the benefit of hindsight, most are prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt and accept that events changed around him which undermined the statements he made in good faith at the time. No doubt you will be able to furnish us with details of exactly where he actually did tell any lies, won't you?

So they've paid their legacy debts to those players, or presumably renogiated them, but what about the charities they robbed? Did they ever pay them? And all very well crowing about how they are run sustainably, whilst papering over the losses that had to be endured by all the local businesses who got stuffed by them over two administrations.

So show me where I have started a thread that so spectacularly backfired as badly as yours. You have been made to look like a total idiot and frankly it doesn't really surprise me that somebody capable of expressing such bile towards Les Reed is incapable of admitting that events have now proved he was wrong to do so.

OK, don't apologise for all the bile you spat in Les Reed's direction. Just admit that you got it very badly wrong and accept that if a similar scenario rears its head in the future, if you go off half-cock again your posts will be met with the derision that they deserve.

Interestingly, Pochettino has indirectly handed us the psychological advantage before the game has even started. He may be attempting to pre-empt the result and is making excuses for himself in advance if they lose, but no Spurs fan will feel that they should lose to us at home. I hope that he is beginning to realise the level of expectation there. When we lost there last year, there was disappointment, but if they lose on Sunday, there will be anger from many of their fans.

Unbelievable Jeff appears somehow to have missed your sage comment on Bertrand's loan signing . "Rubbish signing" or words to that effect if I recall correctly. The intelligent way to go about expressing an opinion about a signing is to by all means express disappointment or misgivings, but to cover your arse with caveats like we'll have to wait and see how he fits into the team/see how he plays for us. Then when it is shown that he has been a really good addition to the team, you are able to say something along the lines of you had your doubts, but you are delighted that they were unfounded, instead of being reminded about how wrong knee-jerk decisions can turn out to be and how idiotic they look in retrospect. At the time of his signing, despite the outward appearance of a desperate situation, some thought had to be given to why Bertrand was selected as Shaw's replacement and unless one knew his thinking on it, some benefit of the doubt had to be given to Reed, because events have proved his decision to be sound.

Mine too. Incredible how it has survived for 2000 years and even now remains the largest unreinforced concrete dome in the World

I'm with CEC and don't think it looks that bad. It is student accomodation and should be judged as such. What was stupid was labelling it as the Gateway to Southampton, which was pretentious. There are several arterial roads that lead into the City, the main one being the Avenue, which is quite a pretty approach from the M3. The approaches from the Windhover roundabout or from the M271 are nowhere near as nice and the Airport junction leading to Thomas Lewis Way is just another route into the City. Mentions of the Spinnaker as some sort of comparison as to what Portsmouth has is laughable. How many students stay in that? Their student accomodation near their Polytechnic University isn't that great architecturally. But for comparisons to their "gateway" architecture on their main arterial route into the City, you would have the monstrosities of that long line of flats opposite the Ferry terminal. or that office tower block that they have never ever filled since it was built. For better images of how it looks, there are several on this website, which recorded its development. http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=1590677 It is clear from that site that the green and blue buildings are on the interior of the site. As for Brer Rabbit's claim to be an expert in what constitutes good taste in architectural aesthetics, that whole premise is called into question by his use of orange as a colour for his posts.

I won't be as upset if Cortese inserted a sell-on fee into his contract. Did he?

Radliffe's obviously a greedy, egotistical, plastic glory hunter. He could have stayed here all his career and become a Saints legend, but he'll find that the expectations at Man Utd will be so much higher and if another physio comes along with greater ability in treating Galacticos injuries, then they'll just ditch him. Come on Matty, there's still time for you to broadcast your opinion in the media that the grass isn't always greener and who knows, you might pursuade him to stay. If he does go, when the Mancs play here, a concerted chorus of "Judas" should erupt form the Northam when he comes onto the pitch if any of their precious players breaks a fingernail and goes down writhing in agony.

Grammar, vocabulary, content and diction all far superior to Redknapp's. (senior and junior)

An article in the Guardian, fair enough, but who wants to read about Lallana's excitement playing for Scousehampton in the Champions League? The only response the article elicited was a series of yawns and comments that we have replaced him with Tadic who we consider to be the better player. I hope that the Echo gets the message and realises that we really couldn't care a fig about how Lallana is realising his childhood dreams.

Maybe, but how many of those penalties were awarded just because of the shirt he wears and the venue? And even if we got more penalties, we have lost our master-blaster penalty taker, so not even worthwhile bringing him in to coach diving.

No truth in this rumor, as Young lacks honor and valor and would not light up the theater of dreams that is St Mary's.

Somebody posted that we hate them. I'm not sure that's entirely right now. After all, we have to be extremely grateful that they were so profligate with their cash and massively overpaid for those players who we replaced with better alternatives. And now they have their hearts set on another four or five of them. As one wag said, why don't they just take over the club and have done with it? One morning if this continues, they might wake up and realise that the one individual we possess who would make the most positive difference to their fortunes, is not one of our players, but our manager.

As the title says. We have free admission to the under 21 match against Norwich. A good move by the club to encourage attendances and get some atmosphere behind our team.

Exactly. I made the same point on the match thread. Look at how many English players there were in the Arsenal team, they said, not noticing that Arsenal had three of our academy players in their team now, (although Walcott is still out for a little longer), and not having enough brain cells to realise that Ramsey is Welsh. And look at how Oxlade-Chamberlain and Chambers have struck up and understanding after so few games together they said, ignoring that they spent years together at our academy. And as mentioned earlier, just as the thicker Neville brother started to say a few words about us, Lineker interrupted him and changed the subject. I'm boyctting his potato crisps in protest.

I much prefer having players who want to be here, a board and owner that engages with the past and our fans, and a manager who has a less remote, more open and warm manner.

So the gormless Neville brother drones on about what an understanding Chambers and Oxlade-Chamberlain seem to have together. Of course they bloody do. They were together at Southampton in the academy. And then he comments on how many English players they had on the pitch, yes, including those two from us. And isn't Ramsey Welsh?