Wes Tender

Well then, we can console ourselves that it is going to take all those new additions to Liverpool's team some time to settle too, eh? Their fans must be topping themselves at the worry of how long it will be before those players start to play as a team. And thank God Lallana got injured shortly after we robbed them for him.

No they didn't. Markus declined his share in the family fortune and started his own business and made himself a multi-billionaire in his own right.

Do you really believe for one second that Pochettino would have stayed under those circumstances? Christ, you're naive. Also, did the news about us selling Lallana and Shaw precede the approach to him from Spurs? You seem very well-informed. Perhaps you'll show us the evidence. The bloke is an ambitious, greedy, egotistical bastard who moved because he saw Spurs as a step up in his career ladder. He used us as a stepping stone and he is using them as a stepping stone to Barca / Real Madrid or similar glory team. He will fail at Spurs probably and damage his reputation and it really couldn't happen to a more deserving person.

So our academy is far better than Chelsea's at identifying players at a tender age and developing them into players capable of stepping up into the first team, where they will be visible to the top clubs of England and Europe. So if the choice is to join us and follow in the footsteps of Bale, Walcott, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Shaw, Lallana, etc, or to join Chelsea and scratch your head when looking at examples of kids who have gone through that process successfully there, then I suspect that we are the better option to further their careers. Which is what I said.

We're talking academies here, not other team's U21s. By academy players, I'm talking about youngsters picked up at a very tender age who spend several years at a club, not some 17 or 18 year old bought in from some European team because they have potential. Chelsea are renowned for hoovering up these kids who show promise and then loaning them out in the hope that they develop into a player that can one day be good enough to play for them. The majority of them sink without trace. Come on, I'm still waiting for your list of Chelsea academy products who have made it into their first team, which will be the acceptable evidence that their academy is the equal of ours.

Me: Batman: Now we have some backtracking and some padding out of hidden meanings. And I await your comparable list of all the youngsters who have come through the Chelski academy recently and played in their first team. On the other thread there is some waffle about how much money they get as Chelsea academy players, but I suspect that the youngsters would rather be playing first team football and putting themselves in the shop window like Shaw did recently. Then they can earn the serious money when the World's top clubs buy them, and people never forget that they were a product of our academy. I don't hear much in the way of a player being a product of the Chelski academy and them being cited as a sensible way to produce promising English youngsters affordably.

Well, according to Batman on the other related thread, a youngster stands an equal chance of advancing his career via the Chelski academy as he does with us. So their academy must be right up there too, eh?

So we've recently produced Bale, Walcott, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Ward-Prowse, Chambers, Gallagher, Reed, etc, and had them introduced into our first team quite early on in their careers. There is the next wave just beginning to make their presence felt at the moment. I await with eager anticipation your comparable list of youngsters who have made their way into the Chelski team.

I'm not happy about that. Mind you, nothing really to worry about there, as our academy offers much more than Chelski's in terms of potential advancement into the first team and therefore a better career move.

There appears to have been a shift in the right direction if the pricing for the Bayer Leverkusen match is anything to go by. Adults for £10/£12 depending on ST holder or not, Concessions at £6/£8 and two nippers free with each adult is vary attractive pricing. Perhaps it has been realised that it is better to have a much fuller stadium, that overall more money can be generated because of merchandise and concourse sales, with the added bonus that the support is better and that the kids are potentially the next generation of fans. If we replicate this for Cup matches, then it will be a significant change of policy for the better.

Two things about this video. Firstly Van Dijk needs to keep both hands on the steering wheel and to be told that it is a punishable offence driving and using a mobile phone at the same time. He might get away with it on the road to their training camp, when all he risks is hitting a deer. but on the way to our training camp, he would be at risk of hitting an Esso petrol tanker. Secondly, it is all very well having a transaltion for the benefit of the Dutch audience. But they also need the comments from the Scots translated into English so that we can understand it too.

What a bizarre viewpoint. The more money we get for players, the more should be available to spend on other players and the less money will be available to the other club to spend on more players, because they overspent on our players. Note that I do call them our players, although you will probably correct me and point out that technically they are Katharina's players, as she owns the club.

Biggest club in the World, but they can't stop their own best players leaving for the likes of Barcelona or Real Madrid. And they finished just one place above poor old Saints last season. Shame that they now have to rely on our academy to produce players like Shaw and paid for him via shirt sales to plastics in Asia.

And the Russian mafia owned clubs might also be interested in him too apparently. He really would like to return to Italy, so we should sell him to a Russian Club.

There's a really cretinous blog article here:- http://www.givemesport.com/488442-southampton-fans-should-be-pitied-after-summer-rout?autoplay=on We should be pitied apparently, because we have a foreign owner. Like Man Utd, City, Chelsea, Liverpool, Villa, etc. We have lost some players who it will be impossible to replace, regardless of the shedloads of funds we received for them. And the loss of our manager is a disaster too, as he was also the best manager in English football, even though he was a foreigner. Oh, and our ex-Chairman single-handedly took us right up to the pinnacle and deserted us because our ignorant femail foreign owner meddled too much looking over his shoulder at how he was spending her money.

Presumably Liverpool have agreed to our terms then and upped their offer to £25 million. But aren't we going to wait and see whether Chelsea will gazzump them? If they want him, I think that he ought to go there instead, even if they paid less for him.

Ten Green bottles, Saint Richmond? I'm impressed. I thought that Baa Baa Black sheep was more your level. Mind you, the rhyming bit is a fail. Take the cue from the original, where "wall" and "fall" rhyme, whereas in your version, "sold" and "door" don't, I'm afraid. Bearsy's song is much better. Perhaps he'll give you some coaching.

I agree that maybe Barca or Real Madrid might have better at the moment, but he could certainly play for any team in the PL and not look out of place, which is where I pitched him. He did get into the French side at the World CUp, didn't he? Perhaps you missed it. And he was arguably their best player in that match. It isn't his fault that Didier Deschamps is a bit of an idiot with his own favourites. I'm not bothered if we set the price at £25 million and teams thought him not to be worth it. In fact I'd be delighted.

Schneiderlin has another 11 years to become another Pirlo. How good was Pirlo at 24? Many times last season I've seen him make killer passes that have put a player through on goal, perhaps you missed them. You champion Shaw to become one of the best LBs in the World over the next decade and I'll champion Schneiderlin to become one of the best DMs in the World over the same period. OK? Schneiderlin has already produced some of the best stats in Europe for his playing position. You don't think that he will reach the heights that Shaw will, I do. We'll just have to wait a few years to see who's right.

It really isn't as simple as you infer. Current rumours have it that Arsenal are now looking at William Carvalho for £24 million. Although there is apparently a buy out clause in his contract for £35 million. Arsenal target Khedira looks likely to go to Monaco, because he might be used as a makeweight in a deal for James Rodrigues who might cost £75 million. Schneiderlin is seen as the cheap option by Arsenal, a figure of £16 million being bandied about as his value. But then a player's value isn't what some club thinks it should be, it is what the buyer is prepared to pay and the seller is prepared to accept. In the case of Scheiderlin, I'm sure that we would be entirely content to keep him, unless we are offered an eye-wateringly high premium price for him. Let Spurs and Arsenal and others try and buy Khedira instead for lower money. There is only one of him, so two or three clubs can't have him. In the same way, Liverpool could have had Kroos for less than they paid for Lallana. We did fine there to get Tadic and have lots of change in our pockets, but I don't see many names in the frame as decent replacements for Schneiderlin for much less money.

Good to hear it. But I miss his optimistic gung-ho posts.

Schneiderlin is a player of sufficient quality that he could walk into pretty well any PL team and not look out of place. During the past couple of years, he has achieved some of the best stats in Europe for his passing, interceptions, tackling, etc. He is arguably the best player in our team in terms of what makes us tick and we are always the poorer for his absence. It isn't clear as you claim why Shaw was our most valuable player by some distance. Yes, he is young, English and a very competent defender who would almost certainly get better and be one of the best in England over the next decade. But a LB is not as vital to a team as a really good commanding midfielder whose distribution can create goal scoring chances in an instant. Players like Schneiderlin are pretty rare, so his value is justified if there are several top suitors vying for his signature and we want to keep him. Schneiderlin is the sort of player that could advance the potential of clubs like Arsenal and Spurs, so his fee could be justified. But from our point of view, as we would rather keep him, the price has to be set at a heavily inflated level that could scare off bidders and has little to do at all with some notional historical value that DMs usually go for.

It really does depend on who replaces them, doesn't it? And it is no use you mentally slashing your wrists until such times as that takes place. The jury is still out on whether Cortese going was a good or bad thing. In my opinion, we have upgraded on Pochettino and quite possibly Lallana and Lambert. At the current time, it is three players gone, not five, although it might yet be five. But if their replacements are of the calibre of the two replacements brought in so far, then I for one will be perfectly content. Excuse me if I take your statement that you will join in the celebrations following these future signings with a pinch of salt. On the face of it, that just isn't you.

If Liverpool withdraw from buying Lovren because the price we want for him is too rich for them, then all of their efforts to put pressure on us through their media mates will backfire on them spectacularly. All of these reports have had him as good as sold for the past few weeks and therefore they will have egg all over their face if it doesn't come to pass. On the other hand, if they end up paying near enough what we want if we have to sell, then conversely they will also be seen as mugs, in the same way that the price they paid for Lallana is being ridiculed because he cost more than German International Tony Kroos.

Exactly as you say, two players coming out with this spiel begins to look like a tactic to reduce the price and it needs to be stamped on hard. Because we do not need to sell any players because of our financial situation, then we are in a good position to play hardball with Liverpool. There is an equal imperative for this big business to keep the price up and the simple laws of supply and demand can assist us. If there is any truth in the rumours that Chelsea want to buy him, then they can offer the £25 million and take him away from Liverpool. Or it is possible that in the devious world of football, it has been engineered that Chelsea express their interest, either to unerve Liverpool and get them to spend more of their budget, or just to annoy the hell out of them. If Chelsea do indeed want him, then we really ought to sell "my head is already at Liverpool" Lovren to them, just to put his nose out of joint. More chance of him bench-warming there too, which again would be good.