DuncanRG

Does that mean all the other staff should have been sacked? Some kind of disagreement there.

Even in a worse case scenario they'll only **** away one year of work. If they ****ed away five years of work we'd be back in League One!

Bloody hell, this should be interesting. Let's hope Smith gives him a thorough questioning. Cortese is a powerful contact to have but goodness knows if he'll ever make sport headlines after this. Ruffling his feathers a little - once he's told his side of the departure in full - would best serve the story.

Ranieri's been sacked from Monaco. Wonder whether Spurs might be interested...

Adam Blackmore confirms it's Dodd and Williams

There's probably as much communication as you'd expect. The issue is that players and fans expect more than is ultimately necessary when they see media discussing from outside. That's why stories are planted to unsettle players. That's how they manifest themselves. An unsettled player expects more from the club than they would if there was no media attention.

1. Yes 2. British 3. 2 (3 if you include Osvaldo) 4. 4

Are you joking

Trying to impress anybody. I very much doubt he's going out there with a job at Southampton in mind.

I can guarantee you that Liverpool will buy at least one attacker. They're going to have several targets.

This is a very, very good point.

Didn't listen but that sounds poor. Is it the panel selection you have an issue with though? They've invited prominent figures and balanced the parties in accordance with the (very strict) election impartiality rules the BBC has to follow. Ultimately it's not the BBC's fault if the other parties choose to attack Ukip

Doesn't bother me!

Agger's one of their highest earners, so I assume if they do want to move him on that'll be part of the reason. Doubt we could afford his wages and he wouldn't want to come here anyway. I personally can't see Lovren moving on after one season in England. Moves are always rumoured when players come over and make an instant impact at a smaller club but they almost always stay past the first season. Benteke's a good example.

A great servant who will be missed. Best of luck to him

Crikey. That would be investment and a half. £57m put into the squad wisely and we're laughing. Very sceptical but let's hope there's some truth to it. Don't recognise Tony Banks' name. Any Saints stories in the past?

Can anyone think of an example of 'mass exodus' or a 'domino effect' at a football club which hasn't been relegated?

You're absolutely right that some journalism - particularly political broadcast interviewing - has become too adversarial. Too often it's about throwing politicians to the hounds instead of enlightening debate but there are hypocrisies in Ukip's associations vs their public image. It's important they're exposed and O'Brien's done so here. In fact, one of the topics covered was Ukip's association with some (not all) of Europe's extreme right parties.

"I'm going to Spurs, darling. Sorry, but I can't leave the house."

God, way to get our hopes up... If he signs an extension I can't imagine it will be broken before the official announcement. They'll have an uber-strict embargo in place.

Yeah I agree, though I do also think the World Cup is the pinnacle. Having one chance every four years and taking it - particularly if you do so more than once - is as good as it gets for me and I think most players would agree.

It would, but that doesn't mean they've stopped pursuing Lallana. All clubs have a number of targets in the positions they want to strengthen. Lallana is one of their top targets as things stand. They might well be looking to buy two or three midfielders, anyway.

By dodging questions and answering with half-truths? I think you would. He got a tougher ride than a lot of politicians do (which isn't always the case) but the tactics are exactly the same. The sloganeering is a little more subtle but other than that, he handles things in much the same way. You have to with today's media, sadly. That was a terrific interview. The issue in terms of not giving him time to answer is that Farage was never half way through a good answer when O'Brien intervened. O'Brien only stepped in when he made another evasive move, told a lie/half-truth or contradicted himself. When he's having to to defend the indefensible (especially Ukip's connections to the European far right), that tends to happen a lot. You can't think he was half way to making a sensible point on the questions put to him about English speaking schoolchildren, the Romanian neighbour comments or the European far right. You just can't. Other issues are more slippery, particularly the bit on bigoted members in his ranks.

Lallana could play Champions League with Southampton. Maaaaaaaybe. If everything goes perfectly and we defy all the odds, that might happen. Probably not. If it did he would probably be 28 or 29. Or he could move and play in the Champions League next season. Assuming troll, anyway

Lovren's step-over at Old Trafford.