Wes Tender

Yes you have. I know that we have had our differences, but you have been consistent in taking a fairly balanced view during the silly season.

No need to name and shame the half-wits who predicted such dire prospects for the club, they know who they are and if they have any humility they will be feeling a bit sheepish today. Hopefully lessons have been learned and the next time that there appears to be some reverse in our fortunes, they will be a bit more circumspect about how things might just change for the better as a result. But as they are the same posters every time, I very much doubt it. Things certainly looked a bit bleak when the cream of our team were seduced by the vastly increased earnings and glory attached to the top clubs, but the board had asked to be judged by the 1st September, were confident that they could bring in replacements as good or better than the players who left, and they appear to have delivered on their promises. Full credit to them. It is indeed arguable that overall the team and the squad is now stronger than that which finished last season, and that the manager is also better too. It still remains to be seen how the new players meld together as a team, but I have faith in Koeman and he clearly has firm ideas of the type of player who will adapt to the style of play that he espouses and one thing is certain, it is going to be an exciting season seeing how it all pans out.

If they had any humility, then they would have the decency to apologise for getting it so wrong, as publicly as they voiced their certainty that those players would be leaving. The ones with the most egg dripping down their faces are those who had the temerity to add "Fact" after their posts.

Well, the window has slammed shut. Wonder what transpired?

If we do manage to get both Toby A and Mane over the line today, I think that it will represent pretty good business by us. It would appear to be one in the eye for Spurs on several levels, as it was reported earlier that they were also in the driving seat over Mane and then there has been all the coverage over them coming in with a big bid for Rodriguez too. So far we have played a straight bat, stating categorically that neither Schneiderlin or Rodriguez were for sale and as previously stated also, that Townsend would not be considered as a make-weight in a deal for either of them. When it became clear that they did not wish to sell him as a stand alone deal, we have gone for the alternatives of Mane with Redmond as a back-up. We also had Van Dijk as a back-up for Toby A. It is still not over until the fat lady sings at 11pm, but as I say, if we do get our two main targets and don't lose anybody else of importance, then the board deserves a big pat on the back. Although these two players are an unknown quantity in terms of how they will play for us in the PL, on paper they would be excellent signings and judging by the calibre of rival teams that were reported to be interested in these players also, it could be argued that we have finished the window in a stronger position than we finished the last season.

According to reports, it is £14 million + Townsend for Rodriguez and therefore £26 million valuation for Rodriguez, which is deemed to be an obscene amount for a player who wouldn't pass a medical at the moment.

Neville said that we had lost 12 players.

Really? I always had you down as shaved.

This is a really naive view. Apparently if Cortese and Pochettino had stayed, all of those players would have stayed just for the camaraderie and the project, with no thought of earning two or three times as much playing for one of the top teams in World football and the attendant glory it would bring them. And if Pochettino was such a draw for them, then how come Lallana and Lovren went to Liverpool and Shaw to United? OK, we know why Lambert went to Liverpool, the attraction of that move even surpassed his love of Pochettino. And the funny thing is that the players are supposed to have believed in this plan, but most of the fans on here thought that our prospects of playing CL football was pie in the sky. The reality is much simpler. It is that we produced several players and developed them into sufficient quality that they became coveted by the big clubs. We were the victims of our own success. But having done it once, there is no reason why we cannot do it again.

But we haven't lost 12 players, have we? Losing that many players begins to look like carelessness. We sold several for good amounts of money and if he feels that we could not prevent them leaving, then he can put that spin on Shaw, Lallana, Lovren, Lambert and Chambers. As for the rest, there are players we sold because they were no longer considered good enough for our upward progression and others on your who list were players that many Saints fans won't even have heard of. The impression that the idiot Neville gave was that we were down to the bare bones squad-wise and no mention in mitigation that the main players who had left had pretty well been replaced.

I'm just loving the delicious irony of you suggesting that it is way too early to make decisions about anything positive, when you are the knee-jerk king when it comes to anything negative.

Why do they allow the thicko Neville to be a pundit? Do they reckon that just because his brother is excellent, so he will be too?

This was sweet revenge for the 3-1 tonking that they gave us up there last year. Having also only drawn 0-0 at St Mary's early last season, it could be argued that a wily old fox like Allardyce had sussed out Pochettino's tactics and knew how to deal with them. This team we put out today was a different kettle of fish and fairly comprehensively outplayed them, testament to which was borne out by the boos that echoed around the Boleyn Ground at the final whistle. We had started very well and looked a cut above them for the first 20 minutes, but typically their bogey player Noble scored on 27 minutes and one wondered whether we would get anything from the game at a ground where historically we had hardly ever won in the Premiership. Thankfully, we have players whose heads do not drop when going behind and good to see Schneiderlin the scorer just before half time,especially after all the upheaval he has endured this past month, with some of the more reactionary fans claiming that he wouldn't be here by the end of the transfer window and that therefore he wouldn't be putting himself out on our behalf. How wrong can they and the media be? Just to rub it in, he scored again to prove his worth to us and to make out a good case for Didier Deschamps to select him in the forthcoming Internationals. Just to crown a memorable match, Pelle scored his first Premiership goal to silence his own doubters, having also had a seemingly good goal disallowed by a dodgy offside decision. Two (arguably three) goals in a week for him and there are signs that he could quite possibly go on to outscore Lambert's tally last season. A good time to gain our first win under Koeman and a good place to achieve it. Now we have some breathing space with the Internationals and a chance for the team to gel further, although in this match there didn't seem to be much evidence that they were far away from clicking. Bertrand has eased himself in well with another solid performance, Tadic has been very impressive since his arrival and was once more a thorn in the side of West Ham's defence throughout, Pelle begins to shine now that he is getting the service and Long had a very good game himself. When he was substituted, it was good to see Ramirez being given a chance to make a case for himself with Koeman, although I thought Long carried more threat today. Another good tactical substitution by Koeman saw Cork come on for Ward-Prowse and Cork did very well indeed, complementing Schneiderlin as of old and helping us gain a stranglehold in midfield to prevent West Ham coming back into it. In the post match interview, Koeman praised Cork and surely it is becoming well overdue that he is awarded a new contract. There weren't really any poor performances from any of the team, who all played their parts with confidence. Forster hardly had a shot to save all match and might have done better with Noble's goal, although it is excusable because Noble's shot took a slight deflection off Yoshida. Clyne and Bertrand are arguably both playing as well as Shaw and Chambers might have. Because Schneiderlin is still here, the midfield is as strong as last, even with Wanyama on the bench and I don't miss Lallana yet with Tadic playing as he has. Davis was a real rock also, he and Cork being the reliable work-horses that make the midfield tick with their combative and determined never say die attitudes. Although still early days, on this evidence we are not far off having a very good team, but if we do manage to get extra cover at CB, a winger and further striker options to cover injuries and suspensions, we could manage the 8th we achieved last season or even a higher position , depending on who we sign.

And the badge kissing, you mustn't forget Lallana's prowess in that department.

Give up, Nick. It's a waste of time trying to argue a point with Fry. He'll just twist everything you say, take them out of context, make things up, all to make himself look superior. Have a little read of this and all will become clear why he does it:-

I agree that it is a loophole that ought to be closed reight away. The big boys always seek to find ways of circumventing the rules, so it is down to the football authorities to stop the them.

A squad can only be of a certain size with restrictions on how many imported players can be in it, and a team comprises only 11 players like everybody elses'. Therefore, when these squads have taken their pick of what they perceive to be the cream of players, then there is some respite for the teams below them and then downwards through the pyramid. Take Liverpool for example, as they were the biggest predators of our best players. As they have pretty well completed their buying, it won't be until the transfer window until they might buy again. But then they'll have to release players in order to do so, so those players are available for other clubs further down the ladder. There will always be a hierarchy in football and there is little that can be done about it because of the self-interest of the big clubs militating against changes that weaken them and the vested interests of the money producers like Sky, whose ratings benefit from the glory clubs' plastic fans putting money in their coffers. We are going about things in exactly the right way, by producing our star players through the academy and utilising money received from selling them to plug the gaps in the team until the next crop is good enough.

Well, that goal should give him a lift.

Yes, it didn't need to happen. Cortese could have been a bit more accepting that the owner ought to be allowed some say in the matter of him spending her money and stayed. Pochettino could also have stayed instead of leaving for a bigger club for more money and at least he could have been a lot more honest and not messed us about before he left, by pretending that he would sign a renewed contract at the season's end. Equally all of the players could have turned down the opportunity to play for the glory clubs that they are at now, earning 3 or 4 times what they earned here. Ironic that this comes from Lambert, who was the only one who might have been happy to stay for honourable reasons, but who was allowed to leave only because it was his boyhood club that wanted him and we allowed a bit of sentiment to influence our decision on his move

If it is indeed information obtained via an agent, then it is hardly untainted by an agenda of self-interest on behalf of the agent, is it? It wouldn't surprise me at all that agents give the pot a good stir when the situation begins to calm down, with some chinese whispers to destabilise matters. But even putting that possibility aside, the fact remains that Spurs' offer is way below the level we value him at. Currently they are about £10 million adrift. Krueger's position would be untenable if he let him go, let alone for an amount so adrift of our stated valuation of him.

We can't be far off somebody claiming that Dutch managers are crap in the PL based on these first two matches.

:lol: That was a real gem, wasn't it? Which genius came up with that little pearl of wisdom?

So we have the same points total after 2 matches as Man Utd, but at least we drew our home game. Cue Savage saying that United are in a relegation scrap, eh?

How do you know? If you do have those powers of certain foresight, perhaps you'll kindly give me the numbers for the Euro lottery. Liverpool came second last season, but changed their team as much as we have. Are they no longer in that group that could challenge to be champions this season?

Yes, you should wait until September 1st at least before making your judgement. I'll wait a little bit longer if it's OK with you. Didn't you read my post? There is no hard and fast rule as to the date that one has to make their judgements on this forum. It's just that those who make their judgements the earliest on the flimsiest of evidence are likely to be the least sensible posters.