DuncanRG

Give him time to bed in. He was good but not great last season.

All of the above minus Pochettino. If we buy any new attacking players they'll probably get some stick as well unless they score 30 goals in their first 10 games

Only watched the first half, sounds like I made a decent choice. Can take heart from the fact we competed with a Champions League team who are much closer to match fitness than we are.

Bloody hell Lloyd fella, what a turn of pace. Could have taken a touch or two! He's remarkably good at that, actually. Him and Clyney always find a way down the line even when it looks lost.

Are you sure you don't mean Michael Richards? Perhaps they're putting on a little Seinfeld reunion in the training camp to boost morale

Shaw looks incredibly fit for preseason.

Looking forward to this - a big test. Must remember not to panic if we get stuffed as some people did after Udinese last year.

They could offer odds on Messi leaving Barcelona, in that case!

Fascinating read.

Congratulations and good luck to Matt. Hope we can find an adequate replacement, it might be difficult.

Over 100 friends! Somebody's popular!

Damio and Osvaldo aren't comparable to Gomez or David Villa. If we signed Robin Van Persie I expect we'd turn out in our droves. Fiorentina aren't provincial either - they're a bigger and far more decorated club than Southampton and Florence is a marginally bigger city. Their attendance is smaller but that's true across Italy - you wouldn't dare to suggest we're anywhere near as big as Juventus even though our average attendance is only a few thousand short of theirs (38,472).

I expect we'll be after two more signings before the season starts, and another later on before the window closes. Most players to be sold after the season's started.

Absolutely phenomenal post

If I have to read the phrase 'pacy winger' one more time I'm gonna stick a fork in my eye.

Never heard of him. Right sided attacker is just what we need, though.

Long as he does it, I don't mind how he looks. What's a 'unit' got that Cork doesn't if both can shrug off defenders as well as he can? I doubt we would have signed Wanyama if we weren't sure he'd be able to do whatever job it is we've got in mind. He looks very fit to me.

Agreed! Are you sure you don't just mean a black man? Schneiderlin and Cork are just as strong as Diame, Mikel or Mulumbu.

We shouldn't rule out the possibility of players around the first XI leaving. It may be that after 6 months in charge Pochettino simply doesn't fancy a couple of them and would prefer to work with his own signings.

Di Santo's not proven if you ask me, not for a team with top half aspirations. I wouldn't take a single player from QPR.

He's had an epiphany after seeing Michael Owen back out on the pitch on the last day of the season. He knows he has more to offer.

Yeah he doesn't seem quite like Osvaldo, but I thought I'd throw the name in there since he looks like the more realistic target. I'd be inclined to think that, yeah, just posting the question This didn't seem like a canned 'the chairman's got a vision for this club' type interview to me, and I'm not sure what his impact on the first XI's got to do with it! If anything it's encouraging to hear these words form someone who's a little more on the fringes in footballing terms.

"José Fonte believes he has never experienced a better level of camaraderie than currently exists among the Southampton squad." This is brilliant to hear, and people often forget what effect this kind of thing can have on a team's ability to succeed. If Osvaldo and Banega really are bad apples or 'fruitcakes', is our group strong enough to handle it or would it be the cat amongst the pigeons?

The fact is that there are very few players in the world who actually play 'the Lampard role', Frank being one of them. It doesn't just mean goalscoring mid. I personally can't see why we'd waste Jay by playing him anywhere other than near the front. His awareness, creativity and pace are already good, just needs to hone his movement and finishing which is true of most young strikers coming into a tougher league.

Cork and Schneiderlin are 'lightweight' now? Maybe by comparison, but those two are tough.