DuncanRG

I don't think anyone's suggesting you're great once you go to the World Cup. You have to 'do it' there, so the thought goes, which I assume means help your team to the final or win the trophy. I certainly don't think anyone's comparing Nabil Bentaleb to Ryan Giggs. Or players like Lionel Messi, whom the 'do it at the World Cup' debate centres around.

Bloody hell

The season ended five days ago. Read Les Reed's statement again.

Wonderful company to share.

Cortese was great, the new board could yet be great but have only just started.

Forget Southampton, signing Iker Casillas would be a statement of intent for Arsenal, Chelsea or AC Milan. Never going to happen. I think Forster would be a good buy.

Edit: Beaten to it

Big clubs were looking at Shaw and Schneiderlin while Cortese was here. Others were almost certainly subject to bids, albeit smaller ones than we're talking about now. I think we all agree that Cortese got us a great deal on a player who wanted to go. If he had considered that first bid Chamberlain might have gone for £6 or £7m, who knows. I take it you don't read Rory Smith often. Try some of his other pieces.

Shaw is clearly more valuable than both because of his age, and he'll likely eclipse them all within a couple of years. Haven't seen Azpilicueta at left back for a while but it is his natural position and he's been absolutely phenomenal on the right. I'll admit Baines didn't have his best season but his contribution to goals and assists is still remarkable, and it's not like his lack of pace made Everton's defence leaky. I'd have Kolarov up among the best too, ahead of Shaw on this season's performances alone.

It's almost as if they're hundreds of individuals with different sources of information!

Baines is 29, don't be silly Not sure Azpilicueta is worth £27m either

He's not signed a contract at Leicester so you'd assume he's open to or actively seeking a move. As with Boruc, some question marks but hard to turn down on a free.

We would laugh all day at other clubs' fans if they were having chats like this. £20-25m is good money for Lallana. We shouldn't sell him for that little, but that doesn't make the offer derisory. Regarding Liverpool's needs, what they require is depth. Defence is the obvious problem area in the first XI, and I'm sure that will be addressed, but top European teams need a choice of quality players in every position. Adding Lallana to Coutinho, Sterling and Henderson would provide them with that.

She has my full support.

Not true in the slightest. Journalists are told all sorts of things off the record, even by managers and players who have just been in front of the cameras. Contacts are of course crucial and national newspapers and websites have them at most clubs, but people at Solent like Adam Blackmore have plenty at Saints and the other southern teams. They talk on the phone, via email and in person.

Our budget in League One was absolutely enormous for the division and far outstripped most if not all of our competitors. We effectively built a Championship team in L1 and that same team got us promoted in 2011/12 without many additions.

Ed Woodward on conference call to journalists: "[Transfer] deals are being done but not been done in terms of the past tense."

The only 'state of football' issue that's relevant here is player power. Clubs should be able to hold players to their contracts. I hope we exercise the power which we ultimately hold this summer.

Nobody's suggesting that clubs were afraid to make bids. What seems to be true is they thought twice before planting stories in the press and trying to unsettle people at the club. You can't deny that there is far more press noise at the moment than at any point during Cortese's reign. It helps that our players are better now but the publicity has swelled faster than their desirability. The 'meltdown/exodus' hysteria was no doubt partly down to clubs with an interest in our players seeing an opportunity to rock the boat. Some of that uncertainty is still there now, and other clubs are taking the opportunity.

The only bids we knew of. We almost certainly had more. Smith's point was that other clubs didn't plant stories and try to unsettle players when Cortese was here because they feared him. Anyone criticising the piece needs to remember that it's written for the nation, not Southampton fans. Liverpool and United fans will both be interested in reading a sharp account of how we dealt and could deal with transfer gossip and bids. That's what that is.

You do realise that they could still sell all of our players after the season has started?

Rory Smith is the best football writer in the country and he's nailed it there, as he does in everything he writes. A great read and very fair-minded. Should remind everyone that nothing is done and we only have hunches to rely on as a guide.

Do you want to reduce the deficit? Do you want poor people to have enough money to live on? Do you oppose a flat tax? You can answer no to two of these questions, but not all three.

Wilfried Zaha couldn't even get into the Cardiff team. He has an awful lot to prove before any Premier League team should even consider him as a permanent signing.

Van Gaal accepted the job weeks ago, he will have taken part in transfer dialogue.