DuncanRG

It gets rejected

I was just coming in here to mention that ...and suggest that the big club who sign him may have had another target lined up who we could look at. Absolutely zero chance of Christian Benteke coming here.

Yes and yes

It'll take significantly more than £20 million. That's only £3m more than they paid for him!

I think it's fairly obvious to everyone that it will be either Yoshida or Forren, but since Forren hasn't played yet nobody really knows who would suit or who Pochettino has in mind. It's strange, because they're all new signings so you'd imagine there's plans for all three.

Which means that Bony will be worse?

I think a Markus Liebherr stand is a great idea. Perhaps next year, for the 5th anniversary?

As they should be when they're selling one of the most expensive players of all time!

We could get relegated to league 2 and Chris Rann would probably say it's a sign of our character

Now now, that will never happen at Southampton. ...Nigel?

There are examples of teams doing well without huge expenditure on players (Arsenal, Everton) and teams splashing cash and getting nowhere with it (QPR, Portsmouth). Money doesn't guarantee success, but it certainly helps.

That's a cracking t-shirt Guly's got on there.

Thank you for everything, Markus.

We'll see.

The only way to know is once the window closes and we look back at who we have and haven't bought. None of these players have signed for anyone else yet, at least.

I don't blame people for not wanting to watch it as it is - I very rarely do myself. I just dislike the commonly-held view that it cannot and will never change, that it's the way women are and the game couldn't improve dramatically with government funding and community participation. You only need to look at the success of the United States team, where womens' soccer is very popular, to know that the game can reach higher standards. I know that, like all sport, it will never be on a par with the men's game but that doesn't account for the gulf there is now. Tens of thousands of boys in this country kick a ball about at school because they idolize their heroes in the Premier League, but potential role models for girls (the likes of Faye White, Hope Powell and Alex Morgan in the US) don't have anywhere near the same visibility. If they did, more girls got involved, and had they had comprehensive advanced-level coaching then the game would improve drastically. The idea that football is a man's game is received wisdom - we believe it's the natural order because it's the way it's always been.

Old and well-fed

Sorry?

All I'll say is we watched Southampton in League One. Does my head in when people dismiss women's football.

Yeah, if we look further back than fair enough. But I can't think of a club below the very top level who only sign winners!

I think it's just admitting that in the vast majority of cases the people who do this for a living will know better. Doesn't mean they'll be right all the time, but they have a better ratio than any of us would. Have we really been hit and miss? Forren, Ramirez, Gazza and Mayuka haven't 'hit' to date but I wouldn't chalk them down as 'misses' quite yet, especially considering none were signed as short-term fixes. All the rest have been resounding successes if you ask me.

Do you think that standard of women's football would improve if it were given the same funding and coaching talent that the men's game has? I do.

Chances are they're pursuing him and Damiao as back-up in case the Gomez deal doesn't go through. Could be looking to sign two of them, mind

Maybe. Why take the chance?

Wanyama, provided we do buy another striker.