Wes Tender

There is a difference between clubs talking about transfers and actually receiving offers, you know. As to whether we spend all of the funds received on replacements for the players who have left, we will have to wait and see, won't we? I presume that you base your assumption on us receiving vastly inflated fees for Lallana and Shaw and have spent just a fraction of that on Pelle and Tadic. Who is to say that the surplus won't be spent on other players to strengthen those positions that we all know we needed cover and improved quality for? As long as the incoming players are deemed to be as good as those they replace, it is largely irrelevant whether they cost less, unless of course you believe that all players of equal quality have to cost the same, regardless of where they came from? If we paid £8 million for Lovren and he then is worth £25 million a little over a year later, would you insist that we pay £25 million on his replacement, when it could be possible to pick up somebody as good for the £8 million he originally cost us?

Lovren - Liverish

I posted that link yesterday at 6.15pm. Doesn't appear to have elicited much excitement. His stats don't inspire much enthusiasm.

Well, it makes a pleasant change from all of the doom and gloom that ensued when Cortese left, when Pochettino left, when Lallana, Lambert and Shaw left. The tide began to turn with the signing of Tadic and Pelle in four days and if the momentum continues with several other decent signings, then the optimism will flourish. In the past few years of this journey we have had what were perceived to be setbacks, which turned out to be blessings in disguise, like the departures of Pardew, Adkins and now Pochettino, all being replaced by somebody better hopefully, if this trend has continued with Koeman There is no concrete evidence yet that the upwards trajectory of the past few years is at an end. We will soon have a better idea at least of how the team looks, even if we won't know how it performs until they have been together a few months.

Apparently we're after this fella Leonel Vangioni, according to Football Italia http://www.football-italia.net/52133/inter-and-fiorentina-want-saints-target

I sincerely hope that your family doesn't drive the lump of automobile ****e that is a Chevrolet. That is nothing for any Man Utd fan to be proud of, having them sponsor their team. But still, loads of money is what is important to any plastic fan.

It's all very well believing that we can't possibly be as good as last season having lost Lambert, Lallana and Shaw, suggesting that early season will be a problem bedding in their replacements, without adding some sort of balance by comparison against last season's problems. There were times when Shaw was out and players like Fox played instead. We were without Boruc for some weeks and had Gazzaniga or Kelvin between the sticks. Then Wanyama was out for some time injured and of course, so was Rodriguez at the end of the season. At other times when we played Osvaldo, he brought little to the table, neither did Hooiveld. What I'm saying, is that had we not suffered those shortfalls through injury, we could well have finished a place or two higher. That we didn't, is down to lack of depth in the squad, which is something that we can address with the abundance of funds we have received for Shaw, Lallana and Lambert. If we manage to keep Lovren, Schneiderlin, Rodriguez and Chambers, we will only be short of the three we've sold and have replaced two of them already with what seems to be be high quality players. If we do lose other players, we will at least receive vastly inflated prices for them. If Pelle and Tadic prove to be as good as Lambert and Lallana, then we will have bought them for far less than we received and can therefore afford to pay for high quality players to replace those players not good enough to keep, like Fox, Sharp. Gully, Hooiveld, etc. Although we will have to wait and see what other signings we make, I am encouraged enough by the signing of Koeman as manager and Pelle and Tadic, to be optimistic about our prospects for next season. No reason IMO why we can't achieve 6th to 8th.

We really ought to be grateful for him for all the free publicity. As a result of tw*ts like him and his counterparts in the other red-top rags like the Express and the Star, our club's profile has received an incredible boost. We received loads of mentions in the press for what a well-run club we were before the end of last season and then for having so many players either in or on the fringes of the England World Cup team. Currently, pretty well every player in the first team has been linked with a move to the top glory clubs both here and even abroad. The neutral observers are inclined to think that we are a pretty good team if so many of the glory teams covet our players. Liverpool especially will be questioned in peoples' minds for wanting quite so many of our players, leading to some wits asking why they don't just buy the entire club and have done with it. So when the journos have done us down, a selling club selling all of its star players, we will quietly rebuild, replacing those players with others as good or maybe even better and when the new season starts, we might produce some major upsets to get those same journos sitting up and taking notice anew. There is a very good reason why our first match of the new season against Liverpool is going to be televised. Apart from them being without Suarez, they want to see how our ex-players fare against us, but also how our replacement players fare in comparison against them. I do hope that we give them a hammering, so that we can see how those journos react to having egg all over their faces, but I won't hold my breath that they would have the decency to acknowledge that they can ever be wrong.

Maybe it was from one of those loan shark companies or betting companies and we didn't want to be associated with them.

That was a god awful dull article. Had he tried to be the voice of reason, he could have perhaps debated the futility of clubs like us producing good players only to have them taken away from us by the predatory big clubs. He might also have followed on with something a bit more thought-provoking about how clubs like ours with good academies could produce the players that could affect the future prospects of the national team and contrast it against how Germany have managed to develop the best team on the planet by keeping a large proportion of their best players in their own leagues. But then that would be beyond his intellect and wasted on the Mail readers.

This has already been debated on the Lovren thread, I think it was. The general ire at the oaf Samuels, is because of his definition of a selling club. In his eyes, we are the paupers of the Lowe era, that had to sell to keep afloat. He doesn't appear to realise that we no longer have to sell and had in fact stated that we wished to keep all of our best players and add to the squad. So we are not a selling club by his definition. But all clubs in this country are selling clubs in that they cannot keep players who want to leave, like Bale, Ronaldo and now Suarez. But I don't see him labelling Liverpool, Man Utd, Arsenal or Spurs as selling clubs. And if we have drawn a line under any further sales, will he now conclude that Saints are now no longer a selling club?

I think that it was already on the Lovren thread earlier on.

This is the same article covered elsewhere under a different title.

Nobody knows until they have played. But on paper they do look as if they are at least comparable. And of course Lallana and Lambert might also not have played as well for us this season had they remained and might not do so well at Liverpool either. I'm entirely content with both of these signings and very much look forward to seeing how they get on. I trust Koeman's judgement, just as I trusted Pochettino's judgement when he brought in Osvaldo.

How did this oaf get the Sports writer of the year award? By stagnation, presumably he means that we could achieve eighth again. So we lost key elements of the team. But we received massively inflated fees for them and it doesn't seem to have occurred to him that if we use that money wisely, there is the possibility that we can actually replace them with better players for less money and then spend the surplus on other players to strengthen the squad still further. So it will be a massive achievement for Koeman if he can take us forward, but then there is the presumption that what Pochettino did, Koeman cannot improve upon if those players are adequately replaced. Likely managed decline? Well, let's wait and see. Samuels needs some assistance in understanding the meaning of the statement that we are no longer a selling club. It means that we do not need to sell players to balance the books. He seems to be too used to the idea from the Lowe days and it hasn't penetrated yet that we have wealthy owners. Also, although he seems to have realised that "having cashed in" (as if that was a necessity) on those players, we have a huge sum of money at Koeman's disposal, so that is why he emphasises that we are not a selling club. But then of course, every English club is a selling club from the perspective that none of them can keep a player that wishes to leave. Perhaps the oaf should have accused Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal of being selling clubs too when their star players left.

Typical response from somebody who has had their argument depth-charged; a bit of puerility. If I make any predictions, they are usually moderated with ifs and maybes, so I cover myself for eventualities that might occur to derail my prediction. You ought to try that yourself sometimes. It will make you look a more balanced poster.

Oh, so Liverpool can't be cited as an example of a team who will be introducing more new players than us into their team, because they're an exception and don't suit your argument, eh? And if a player comes from another Premiership team, they are a dead cert to fit in right away, just like that ex-Liverpool player Torres did when he went to Chelsea. Presumably a player in the team of the year will also play brilliantly wherever he goes and will not have any probelms settling in right away, either. Right, so we are only allowed to use Stoke, Newcastle, Swansea or Palace in our arguments, is that it? Any more exceptions?

No, the default view is that on paper these look like signings that appear to be as good as those who have left in their corresponding positions. The default view is that we will have to wait and see. I realise that your position is that those players are irreplaceable, no team ever has lost as many star players and their star manager in one go, we are doomed to failure without them, we will do well to avoid relegation / make top half, etc, etc. You make your prediction, so please kindly allow others to make their predictions too without sneering at them.

Seems to me that Liverpool are going to have at least as many unknowns as us, if not more. Or are the players that they have bought in from us not classified as unknowns, because you know them, so they don't count amongst the others that they will buy?

Considering the diversity of opinions on here, I think that it is arrogant for anybody to believe for one second that they speak for the whole forum. It isn't as if you don't have previous in twisting the opinions of others either.

Pell leh I would think. La on the end usually denotes a feminine connotation. Perhaps Suewhistle or any other Italian speakers can bear me out on this.

Personally, from what I saw of their performances in the World Cup against top opposition, I'd happily take the entire Costa Rica defence and their Goalkeeper. In my opinion it was the best defence collectively in the World Cup.

A very good read Chris. I enjoy your blogs too. I know the Isle of Wight very well, went to school there in the early to mid 60s and go there annually on business, so I understand where you're coming from. And the carpet warehouse is still there on the Carisbrooke Ind Est, isn't it?

Above 17th miraculous? You're having a laugh, aren't you? The current squad is only short of a replacement for Shaw from last time around unless it comes to pass that Pelle and Tadic are nowhere near as good as Lallana and Lambert. Although Lovren and Schneiderlin might yet leave, then of course we will sign replacements for them too. Again, whether they are better or not remains to be seen, but I really do wonder why certain people conclude that they couldn't possibly be, even before they have kicked a ball for us. The implication is that you believe they can't be, otherwise logically if they were, then they ought to be able to achieve a similar league position (unless of course our manager isn't as good as Pochettino, which I very much doubt)

And now our manager is one of the all time great defenders in World football. I'm not worried myself about how our defence is going to turn out, even if we are without Shaw and Lovren. We are sometimes going to outscore better sides