DuncanRG

The stats are provided by Opta and here is Bloomberg's method for assessing who the best players are. Take issue with one or both of those, not the fact there's only one Saints player because that is only a result of the system. Nothing to do with Talksport whatsoever! It is odd that Schneiderlin's not in there though, considering all the Opta analysis we've been presented with this season has ranked him very highly. Just goes to show that you can bend the figures in many different ways and that they may well have been interpreted to make him look better at some points, as well as worse.

How will we know? Even if he signs we can never know for sure what's been said is 100% correct - equally, if he doesn't, the journalism could still be perfectly sound but we'll never know what happened. Things change in football but very few people will go on the record about deals and negotiations, so they are hard to verify for readers.

Could have massive repercussions if they're found guilty. Would most likely prompt investigations from authorities across Europe, and if they started digging you would be surprised if he was the only high-earning footballer to cook the books. We'll see how it pans out, could be nothing.

To be honest I don't know what the requirements are for coaching at that level...but he seems like the right character and would play very differently to Pearce.

Clyne's been better than a couple of those full backs (Johnson!) but not Rafael, not by a long shot

Hmm, I've done some digging and got some clarification on this 50% stat. It seems to be that they want 50% of academy players to progress to the first team, rather than 50% of the first team being academy graduates. I don't know how many players go through our youth system but I can't imagine any top flight clubs get half of their academy into the first team.

The fact that we've had them for the majority of his time here. I also seem to remember that the press release for this season's kit mentioned that it was a special kit to commemorate our return to the top flight, something like that. So it might yet be a one-off, we'll have to wait and see.

It takes many more parties to come to a transfer agreement. Cagliari are getting the best deal they can and playing the press an awful lot to get a good enough price

So Fabregas is top target according to him, then.

If Evra leaves they'll get Baines, and Buttner's their man for young competition. Ludicrous to suggest Shaw's good enough to be their new first choice

To be fair those are the clubs most people want to hear about.

Norwich have more, plus a couple of Scots and Irish. Not sure how many others. Which we probably will do - I think the European press quite likes to link players with moves to the Premier League and foreign press is where we get half our rumours from. The vast majority of gossip from all clubs concerns foreign clubs and players but it doesn't always work out like that when they actually sign them.

A bit tinfoil hat to decide that all of our players feed into a plan for world domination but yes, we are working hard to build international recognition and support.

Erm, does nobody remember Cortese's aim of academy graduates making up 50% of the team? Eight of our starting XI were British on the last day of the season. There is a problem going on in the Premier League and everyone's aware of it but we're absolutely nowhere near ending up like City or Chelsea. We're one of the better clubs for promoting homegrown talent.

It's pretty impressive for a 21 year-old at a top 6 club, especially a centre half. It's very rare for young, English centre halves to get a chance at most big clubs. In fact I'd go so far as to say all of them - Man Utd's injuries have led to a fair amount of appearances for their young defenders but even Phil Jones can hardly get a game in the centre. I can remember Caulker starting alongside Dawson as well, with Vertonghen on the bench. As far as I'm aware Vertonghen was never injured, which would suggest that it's just good rotation.

Is this the same Steven Caulker who made 28 appearances for Spurs this season, starting against City, Utd, Chelsea etc?

I was just thinking about the debate over what our CB pairing will be next season, with two newish signings (Forren and Yoshida) presumably in our plans and at least one more to come in. Considering nobody has really been able to think of players with both quality and the willingness to play second fiddle to Shaw, would it not make sense to bring in a centre half who is competent on the left? Think Jan Vertonghen but a bit worse. For what it's worth I expect us to sign a full back who is genuine competition for Shaw rather than a concrete second choice, but it's still a thought.

What about the Champions League?

'We're considering putting a bid in for this Ramirez fella' 'I wouldn't be so sure. Have you seen what's been on SaintsWeb lately?'

1. Man City 3-2, Davis's goal - totally surreal 2. Coventry 4-0 though I very sadly couldn't be there! 3. Liverpool 3-1, Rodriguez's goal. That's when I thought we'd be safe 4. Kelvin at Elland Road. Unreal 5. 2-1 Brighton Honourable mention to the 4-4 against the Posh. Not quite the same elation but what a game!

Indeed. Maybe once we've got an MLS franchise, won the Champions League and launched our own brand of perfume

I'd be very surprised (but pleased) if we managed to get them into shops outside the UK. The most we can probably hope for is UK distribution but was there not already an announcement about them keeping it to club outlets next season? Or did I imagine that

If we could bring his wages down I'd consider it but it would seem kind of odd.

Sorry to hear about this. Please try and sort it with the club first though, because chances are they'll have it fixed as soon as somebody realises what's happened. If they really won't do a thing to help, then by all means tell the media

Did Chris Baird get a Europa League runners-up medal?