DuncanRG

Bloody hell Adam.

Blackmore: "#saintsfc's reluctance to sell Lallana may have a lot to do with fact that actual guaranteed money offered by #lfc is well short of 25M" "#saintsfc have to give 25% to #afcb when it completes - so if guaranteed is only say 15-20, #saintsfc end up well short of their valuation" Crikey, if it's as low as £15-20m before Bournemouth's cut and Liverpool are trying to force the deal through on those terms we might just weather this fiasco. I'm guessing a few million of the add-ons would be for standard stuff like appearances, but if Lallana has to win the Champions League for us to take home £18m for him then there's no chance.

Thanks for filling us in, Guan. Interesting point about national jobs. Perhaps Koeman would fancy himself for Holland?

We can dispute definitions till the cows come home but I don't think you can deny that Gerrard, Lampard and Rooney are world class in the sense that most people use the term. Ashley Cole too. Why did Rodriguez sign a contract at Burnley, Wanyama a contract at Celtic, Lovren a contract at Lyon when they decided to come to us? Transfer fees exist because clubs have to buy out contracts. It is simply what happens. EDIT: Another thing I spotted this morning was that Man United are in for Konoplyanka, who Liverpool tried to sign in January. If they both want him there might be a bidding war which you'd have to fancy United to win. The price might not go above £25m but it could persuade Liverpool to break their valuation of Lallana by a few million if it gets a player tied down.

Perhaps an add-on if he scores at the World Cup? Mmm, I wonder if Tottenham might offer something more palatable to the board with player(s) plus cash.

Interesting. If we're after £20m after Bournemouth take their cut (as has been reported) I can't imagine we'll settle for that. Unless the add-ons are being sold as a way of avoiding a payout to Bournemouth? I expect £25m was leaked from Liverpool's end to make it seem stronger but if it's tied up in things like winner's medals then they can get stuffed.

Put it this way, it's better than silence. I don't know if you were complaining about silence when that's what we were getting, but a lot of people were.

Yeah you might be right actually. Not sure how it works at football clubs! I know! Shaw on the left, Adam on the right...and the left...

No confirmation as far as I'm aware but I'm sure they've spoken about it. I can imagine getting the inside scoop on life at a top club, from a player you grew up admiring, does make it all the more tempting.

Which report do you mean? All I'd seen is that the board weren't answering his calls without any specifics about what he was calling for. I'm guessing if Reed ignores your calls then you'd try Krueger and so on. But if your heart's set on the move and you believe you've only got a few days to sort it I suppose people do all kinds of things. His choice of tone would be significant but we'll never know. If the board aren't communicating that could rile him. I doubt it was a mistake. Leaking his will to leave puts pressure on us to accept and, I suppose, Liverpool to up their bid if necessary.

I think it's because they know Adam wants to go and they can use that to put the board under pressure. My (uninformed) impression with Lovren is that he's very happy here but might listen to offers. If Liverpool tried the same trick I imagine Lovren would shrug it off rather than go to the board looking for answers. Agree wholeheartedly with what you said about the captaincy though. Not nice.

Seems that way. If we do manage to hold firm and Liverpool don't up their offer we can't waste time congratulating ourselves though. Adam would give us his all as always but as captain he needs to have a healthy relationship with the manager and board.

Eh? He's allowed to ask for a move. He'd be a brat if he couldn't get it and didn't put the effort in for us next season. But we know that's not going to happen, he'll work hard as ever even if he stays.

If Lallana and Gaston both go (assuming Osvaldo won't come back) we are looking at having to buy a brand new front three for the start of the season. If we are confident that we can secure two or three strong signings and Gaston needs to go to pay for them then it might work out but I'd think very carefully indeed. I certainly wouldn't put him out on loan unless it's for financial reasons. He's too close to the end of his contract to be sent out somewhere to 'see if he can develop'.

Adam Blackmore tweeted a few days ago that he was unhappy the club denied him a move to West Ham. I assume that means the wheels were in motion but Liebherr stopped it when Cortese left.

Nor Van Bronkhorst, but their last few tournament squads haven't been up to much defensively. Ron Vlaar was their captain until recently! It doesn't mean those players are undesirable, just that 'Dutch international' isn't a guarantee of quality in the way a Spanish or Brazilian international would be.

Sadly Holland aren't known for their strong defences. De Vrij is hot property but I expect he'll be off somewhere bigger.

They're in the same sentence, I wouldn't read anything into it

We all agree that Alpine is a proper drone, but in fairness Lambert did want to go to West Ham in January

Steve Davis is the best choice from our current squad but I imagine one or two of our new signings would be capable.

I expect it'll go to a new signing

So long Rickie. Thanks for everything.

It's really, really not.

Yeah, I really like Sigurdsson as well. He was one of my favourite players in the league when he was at Swansea. In fact, yeah. I'd have him instead of Townsend. If Schneiderlin leaves though I'd probably leave central midfield to Wanyama and Cork and reinvest elsewhere.

And I trust Katharina Liebherr to do this no matter what.