Wes Tender

And the other good reason is that they have a big following of plastic fans all over the place, so media coverage is simply a matter of supply and demand.

Interesting article in the Bleacher Report for the benefit of West Ham, http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1732703-ricky-lamberts-england-call-gives-andy-carroll-plenty-to-ponder suggesting that Carroll's place in the England squad might be usurped if Lambert does well while he is out injured. Comparisons are made between the two players and Lambert comes out of it well. There is also a poll asking who people would prefer to see wearing the England shirt between them, which is 2 to 1 in favour of Ricky, so it seems he is the fans' popular choice too.

Despite the OP's fears of sarcastic responses, there is little in the way of those so far. Although naturally we will be biased in favour of our midfielders, there is plenty enough support for the position that we have at least as good a midfield as theirs if not better.

Oh my Lord! You're a great comedian, Barry, I'll give you that. And the comparison in the OP wasn't Carrick against Cork. It was Carrick against Schneiderlin, who you somehow fail to overlook in your comparisons. Do pay attention.

Of course, it isn't as simple as that, is it? Would a player consider playing in the Premiership as a step up from Serie A? Quite possibly, depending on the the player. If we were paying more in wages, would he consider that a step up? If a player (in general, not this one specifically) was mostly used as a bench warmer or sub, would playing every match be a step up for him? There are several other factors to be considered too, such as environment, whether the player is valued by the club (which seems to be a strong factor with Osvaldo), family circumstances, etc.

I see. So Cortese overpaying for Wanyama was a one off, not to be repeated with any other players that he might fancy having play for us. The sums touted for players like Damiao and Osvaldo are probably fictional anyway, agents' fantasies, eh? Again, we are all indebted to your valuable insights into the internal workings of the club's hierarchy, the abilities of our scouting network and your encyclopaedic knowledge of the intricacies of player purchasing from all of the European and World leagues, where any player of any aptitude can only be purchased at over-inflated prices. Apart from those stellar players picked up by Norwich, Sunderland, Swansea, whose chairmen are much more canny negotiators than ours, obviously.

Which rather holes your argument below the waterline that Cortese isn't prepared to splash the cash for certain players. How many European clubs could afford to pay that sum of money, Barry? It seems to have escaped your attention that many of them have severe financial problems.

Pay attention Barry. It isn't about which midfield is better. It is about the central midfield. Other people have argued that if the wide players are included, United has the edge, which I agree with. Or did you not consider that a midfield might include those wide players? I do consider our central midfield to be better than theirs.

We're indebted to you for your valuable insight into the minds and perceptions that foreign players have of us as a club and Southampton as a city, Barry.

As we are getting bored and tired hearing it....

No. This shows how we are perceived by a 14 year old Froggie? girl who has a pubescent crush on Oswaldo and follows Rome for some reason unknown. She isn't old enough or presumably well enough informed to know much about Geography, or football in this country compared to Italian Serie A. So excuse me if I don't consider her as any sort of barometer of how players in other countries perceive us.

But as usual, you base your arguments on sweeping generalities, instead of focussing on the title of the thread and debating that. It isn't about other teams and other players; it's about our central midfield three against United's. But I understand your opinion that you believe our fans to be delusional; some even believe that we are doomed because we haven't made better signings in their opinion than some other middling sized clubs, even though the transfer window still has some time to run. For what it's worth, I personally believe that it is indeed possible to argue with some conviction that our three might well be better than those three mentioned for United. It isn't about comparisons between the individuals, it's about the three together. In that respect, the sum of the total for me is definitely greater than the parts. In response to Lord D's question as to why if they're so good, other clubs aren't after them, to a certain extent Schneiderlin and Cork as a pairing were very effective last season, but probably slipped under the radar because they weren't playing for a glory team. I agree with him that Wanyama is still an unknown quantity in the Premiership, but if he fulfils the role that our scouts selected him for and becomes the player they think he is, then other teams will sit up and take notice of this quiet revolution that is happening here and identify our midfield as being crucial to our success in scoring goals on the one hand and instrumental in protecting our defence on the other.

Schneiderlin did exactly the right thing in my opinion. Earlier he wasn't ready, but last season he came into his own and has blossomed as a player to the extent that he has proven that he is good enough to get a starting place in most if not all of the Premier Division teams. He stats for tackles and interceptions rank him amongst the best in Europe, so how he would be fail to be a prime candidate to be picked for his National team is a mystery to me.

I'd put us above Newcastle and West Ham. Pardew has recently admitted to the horror of the Toon Army, that little ole Southampton have greater spending muscle than the mighty "big club" Magpies. And Norwich down there? Surely that can't be right? We're assured by the forum experts that their closed season purchases are much better players than those we have been looking at and that they've been getting on with it instead of p*ssing about like us.

It has to be Le Tiss scoring the last goal to beat Arsenal at the last match at the Dell. Honorable mentions to the Dellhurst experience and the 40 or so coach convoy that went up to the match against Wimbledon. Watching the video reminds me how close Wimbledon came to scoring several times before we eventually scored our two.

i've just noticed that there seems to be a Skate a little brighter than most of them, who knows the score. There he is, just to the left of BT's head, acknowledging that we have scored two goals.

Mallagroth appears to give the impression of being far more a realist than you, whilst running rings around you in the process. Weren't you the one lauding the signings of Norwich, Swansea and Sunderland? And then you decry our ambition to sign players a cut above them, although ironically it appears to those players that we are a club without enough ambition. Why would they come here? You infer that we are not a club with money, history and good European players, although our owners appear to be wealthier than some of the clubs that you would no doubt classify as bigger than us. And don't we have a couple of good European players already? Damiao isn't a European player, nor is Messi. Would they be more attracted to a club with Brazilian or Argentinan players rather than Europeans? In order to qualify to play in Europe according to you, we will have to sign 5/6 European players of quality for well over the odds to continuously attract players. Well, that presupposes that there are no players of quality out there capable of playing top quality football who as yet remain undiscovered and who can be bought more cheaply. Of course, there are numerous examples of such players historically and they are still out there now if they can be found by good scouts. It also ignores players like Shaw who is already here, or those like Bale, Walcott and Chamberlain who are of a quality to play in Europe, but didn't cost us huge extortionate fees, being products of our academy. But the point that is missed by all those who believe that we cannot sign the top players, is the fact that there are probably more top quality players out there than there are spaces available to them in the top teams. And even then, those top clubs have other top players vying for each place in the first team. So when push comes to shove, the frequency of matches they can expect to play in also becomes a significant factor. Many of the more cerebral agents will advise their players that it might be more beneficial to their players' careers to play most matches and shine as a big fish in a smaller pond, rather than warm the benches half the season and look more ordinary amongst more illustrious company playing alongside them. These are things that you don't appear to have considered.

If you mean somebody with similar views, then yes. But I'm afraid that without blowing my trumpet too much, I suspect you'll probably find that I share my views with the majority and it's you who should treasure the company of the few who find themselves agreeing with you.

I like your style Mallagroth. Not too many posts so far, but already you've sussed out who the WUMs are and how to deal with them.

Nick made a series of points, each of which was entirely valid. So what do you propose he does? Cut out half of the points and weaken his argument? Precis it to a one-liner hoping that posters with the attention span of a gnat can get the gist of what he is saying? It's a shame that when people don't agree with something posted on here, they can't debate it like adults, but have to post niggly and childish little put-downs.

And don't forget Fox too. Now that we've managed to entice Wanyama here, can't we quietly dispose of Fox now?

Well, if you can't see why many will consider negligent to be incorrect, it is going to be difficult to pursuade you otherwise, as you have already made up your mind. The fact that you do not know any more than any of us about the internal dealings at the club, or the reasons why we have so far not managed to sign a striker, ought to make your opinions more circumspect if you wished to be seen as balanced in your views. I presume that if we do manage to sign a striker of significant reputation, then you will be forced to admit that we were not over-estimating our pulling power. But as yet, some of those targets have not signed elsewhere, so the case is not proven either way. But what I find really amusing is the contention from some on here that Swansea, Norwich, Sunderland and other clubs of no particular merit that would place them higher than us for pulling power, have pulled off master stroke signings that we ought to envy. But because we seek to sign players of a higher calibre than those, we are obviously being negligent somehow. This must be one of the rarest cases of negligence where a company attempts to massively improve its product and there are no issues with the finances needed to bring it about, but that the label is applied because the company was seen to be too ambitious.

Precisely. And anyway, who is this bloke who has just started posting? He'll have to improve on that as an opening post, if he wants to avoid being labelled a Skate or a WUM. In any event, he shoots himself in the foot right away by starting his post acknowledging that the transfer window still has some time to run before closing and then wants to know where blame is to be laid for us not making more signings before now. A bad case of premature ejaculation here. Why not let's wait until the transfer window closes and then assess whether there is any need for concern?

This

Of course, they will only be good signings if they produce the goods. But when you stated that they were good, good signings and you asked whether they were going for a top 4 spot instead of us, you had included Quagliarella, who isn't their player yet. Presumably without him, their chances of a high placing in the table are diminished without him. Is Wanyama a striker? I thought he was a midfielder. And somehow I had got the impression that Jelavic was a disappointment for Everton. 7 Goals in 37 starts last season was hardly setting the world on fire, was it? Or would you be lauding Hooper's and Wolf's Winky's success too if they achieved that level of performance for Norwich?