DuncanRG

You can't get too much done before the window opens, and it normally takes a week or so for clubs to sound out who's available, etc.

Me too. It's amazing how effectively clubs conceal the day-to-day details though - thousands of journalists cover our league and we hardly know anything about what happens between matches. There are one or two around here who have some knowledge but that's it.

I did always wonder why Cortese was on holiday every time we signed a British player, promoted a youth player or Lambert scored a goal.

All you can ask of them is to improve until they hit peak age, as most players do, and of course you can call on more players as they start to arrive at the right level. If Cortese can access the funds we'll spend well every summer for the next few years though. When the plan is to have a team of mostly academy graduates, you have to spend to keep the team competitive while that generation comes through. That won't happen for a good five or six years at least. As for the viability of that plan, we'll find out in time. It's going very well so far. Young players now know this is the place to be if they want top class development and Premier League game time. Some may wish to go to bigger clubs and some deals may go through despite our strong financial position, but only Oxlade-Chamberlain has left under Cortese and there's no sign of anyone else going yet. Somebody who was naive about football as a whole, rather than something specific like whether you can reach Europe with an academy team, wouldn't have achieved what he has already.

I could be misremembering completely but I think we may have done that with one of Guly and Hooiveld

There's no reason the two can't coexist. That's one of the best things about the current Southampton setup.

I'm unsure about Ramirez for this one. He does need game time but what he's lacking is chemistry and understanding of the first team players' passing and movement. Besides fitness I don't know how much he'd get from playing with a weaker team.

The definitive answer.

I think net spend is kind of important. We could sell our entire first XI and spend £80m+ rebuilding it but that wouldn't really be 'spending' in the sense of improving the team, would it!

Take out obvious non-starters (Wenger and Rodgers) and teams who have already installed new managers this season (City, Chelsea, Everton, Tottenham, Man Utd, Stoke, West Brom, Fulham, Cardiff, Crystal Palace and Sunderland) and I'm pretty happy to be 4th favourite.

Most teams in the bottom half, if I'm honest. It's far easier to tell with your own club, who you follow every day, but most teams have dodgy players in reserve. You've got to try and improve if you want to move up to the higher reaches but it really ain't the end of the world. I can guarantee that nobody considering a transfer to Southampton is arsed about the reserve left back.

Besides the several who are already here, you mean.

Southampton are on course for their highest league finish in 11 years, possibly even 20-odd years, and their fourth successive season of climbing the pyramid. I'm quite pleased personally

No, we've spent it already but we're not going to sit back, spend no more and hope that puts us into Europe four years in a row. This summer's investment was for this season, a first push for the top half/8/maybe Europe. There'll be another push next summer, then the next then the next and eventually, we hope, we might get there.

We aren't trying to achieve that with £50 million though - if we make it once then frequent investment will follow for frequent qualification.

He's highly competent and can play at this level but most clubs in the division have someone better

Hahahaha fantastic

As I see it there are two reasons why Lambert's seen as a club legend and Lallana's not (yet): 1. He's a striker, and he scores bloody loads. Most 'club legends' are either long-term captains or hugely prolific goalscorers 2. He's coming closer to the end of his career after a Roy of the Rovers story, while the best is yet to come from Lallana

Spot on! Also nice to hear him say Pochettino will take the FA cup seriously. We'll see about that one though

The guy was suggesting he's fit again but can't get back in the team because Dante and Boateng have formed such a good partnership, which is why he wants to move. Won't be to us but I'd love to see him in England

Interesting question - maybe not. To be honest I didn't even notice Kelvin was captain but it's nice to see Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

This is why I don't want him to leave. There's nothing more satisfying than turning a player from elsewhere into a southampton man. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

The bloke next to me at Goodison was telling me Holger Badstuber's looking for a move and we're interested. I know it'll never happen in a million years but has anyone seen that published anywhere? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Mourinho still doesn't know what his first choice back four is but having Ivanovic and Luiz out forces his hand. Does anyone know how competent Azpilicueta is at right back? Lampard will always be a miss for them, pleased he's out.

The point being that Lambert *did* get a lot better after 28...