Toon Saint

I think we will comfortably achieve our target of relegation. Joke: 12th-14th with current squad & assuming Lovren and Chambers are goners

Oh well, at least the marketing department has gone from strength to strength with some exciting new additions. Can't wait to see how they perform next season.

PM as well please Windows, you have me very intrigued.

No one bidding for them. Point is that we've shown tieing a young prospect down to a long-term contract means little apart from securing a bigger fee. The lack of guts shown by the board this summer shows that the dream of using the academy to produce a mostly home - grown first XI is dead. The academy is about producing saleable assets for the board not footballers for Southampton FC.

In terms of their intentions to keep onto the player it is not nonsense. The move is purely strategic to inflate any potential fee, nothing about player and club expressing genuine loyalty to one another.

Seriously thought he might turn out to be a more complete player than Shaw. He's intelligent and composed, real captaincy potential in him. We've just relented to the first bid for no apparent reason. He'd be worth a fortune in a season or two. Don't the board look at the fee Spurs got for Bale and think what could be if only they showed some nerve and held on for a bit longer?

Jesus, why is having strength in depth in one position an issue that is going to 'come to a head'? Doesn't seem to be an issue at Arsenal does it where Chambers will almost certainly be playing second fiddle to Debuchy? Looks like Arsenal admire his versatility as well and might play him at CB. Gosh we could do with some CB's ourselves, given that Lovren is off. If it is such a big issue having two decent right backs how about we switch Chambers to compete for CB role and save ourselves taking a punt on some cheap foreign option? Why are we willingly putting ourselves in a position where we have to gamble on talent rather than rely on what is under our very noses? Such a farce.

Best mates with Chambers as well isn't he? Hardly going to pledge loyalty to the club long-term when all his peers are off at the drop of a hat. If he plays 20 games for us Les will think he's given enough back to the club and flog him next summer and replace him with some cheap foreign option. Laughable that the board try and appease us with news like this when they've sent out the message that long-term contracts mean absolutely nothing to them once transfer offers come flooding in.

Bet Jay is rushing to sign that contract extension. It's almost impossible to imagine that our board of directors could have performed a more hapless job this summer. They think they can keep us happy by stringing out a load of contract extensions for 18-19 year olds but can't sort the very basics. A f*cking omnishambles.

Not embarrassed but completely demoralised. Sale of Chambers makes no sense given how much we have already raked in and our supposed reluctance to countenance selling any of our youngsters. Why not sell Clyne if strength in depth in one position is considered to be such a luxury? Chambers will be a better player and worth so much more in 1-2 years time. How can Reed and Krueger possibly sell this to the fans? They must accept that this summer has been an abysmal failure of epic proportions on their part, and heads should roll.

We needed a GK, replacements for Osvaldo and Guly, and short-term cover for J-Rod anyway, plus another 4 for those we haven't yet replaced. Or are we operating a strictly one-in one-out policy? I sense you're on a wind-up though Timmy so I'll leave you to finding that special someone on the interweb.

Shaw + Lallana + Lovren + Lambert + Chambers = 5 5 + Schneiderlin = 6 Have I missed one of your oblique jokes?

Oh **** off to Guardian soulmates.

Two players in, five out and soon to be six. Laughable that the board think Koeman can convince Morgan to stay after selling another player under his nose. I make that another eight signings needed over the next month. What an absolute farce. The academy reduced to a cash cow, and a truly special generation of talent tossed away to the vultures with barely a whimper. Sickening.

If the fee is £7m it is an absolute **** take as well. He'd easily be worth three times that in a couple of years. What a clueless bunch of ****tards we have in charge.

If he goes I am sorry but its an absolute ****ing disgrace. What's the point? We'd have made £70-odd million after selling Shaw, Adam, Rickie, Lovren. We don't need the money, the kid has only had a year playing first-team football for christ sake. Have we even made an effort to keep hold of him? The first we hear of it is that he is off. Unbelievable. What message does this send to the senior players that remain? What message does it send to the academy lads coming through the ranks? One half-decent season and you'll get your dream move, or that the best we can hope for as a club after spending how many millions on developing our youngsters is 20 games. Ralph said in interviews before the summer that he'd do 'all he can to keep this group together', and that he wants to be able to look us in the eye come the start of the new season. Sorry but the man has been proven as little more than a snake-oil salesmen, brought in to pull the wool over our eyes. He has failed on every count. Absolutely pathetic.

Lovely header by Isgrove, nicely worked goal that with great ball by Tadic. Very impressed by Pelle's movement so far.

A sign of the madness of this transfer window that a player not making the bench for a friendly match is proof that he is gone. We might as well give up if we sell Chambers.

Exactly. Shocked into action by a bid from a top 6 club no doubt.

Funny that the recruitment department are expected to identify transfer targets independently of the manager, but with contract extensions it is only after the new manager has fully assessed them. Surely Reed, who has said that takes responsibility for all player contracts, is the one predominantly in charge of this? And surely he would have had some notion about whether to extend their contracts before even Poch left the club? Seems like a convenient excuse for me, they are both top-half Premier League players.

Fonte is 30, not nearing the end of his career. He will be our best CB once Lovren leaves so we are nowhere near a position where we can treat him as if he is expendable. I'm not personally embarrassed by the fact that Cardiff are offering him more wages, but it does seem to suggest that we don't value him very highly if a Championship club is able to offer a better wage package. That the situation has dragged on for so long is getting embarrassing. Don't think it applies to Cork either, as once again he was one of our most reliable performers last season. IMO he is our second best CM option after Morgan, no where near being 'possibly 6th choice'. Reed and JWP might usurp him at some point but it is unlikely to be next season, and even if that did happen, he is an invaluable squad member. I just think we are treating two players, who have always come across as content at the club and low-maintenance guys (a rarity these days), a bit shoddily. Both still have a lot to offer us and I think in order to prevent further unrest in the dressing room, this should have been a priority matter.

Don't know if this has been discussed elsewhere, but appears Fonte is a bit miffed with how his contract negotiations are going: Alex Goring Crook @alex_crook · 11h Think #saintsfc are gonna have an issue to confront with Fonte. Told he is unhappy about the way contract negotiations have been handled Alex Goring Crook @alex_crook · 11h Fonte has been informed he will be offered a new two-yeat deal but only by letter. Yet to speak to any #saintsfc official in person. Alex Goring Crook @alex_crook · 11h Also the wages #cardiff are willing to pay Fonte outweigh what #saints are offering. Alex Goring Crook @alex_crook · 11h The Fonte camp not the first to make mutterings about lack of communication at #saintsfc this summer clearly an issue that needs addressing Alex Goring Crook @alex_crook · 11h I hope #saintsfc can resolve any issues with Fonte and Cork. Cannot afford to lose any more big personalties from the dressing room. I have absolutely no idea why Les Reed or any of the recruitment department seem to have such difficulty speaking to the players like human beings - social anxiety issues? It might sound a bit precious on the face of it, but there has clearly been a bit of a culture shock for the players in terms of how they were dealt with before the new board were appointed, and how they are dealt with now. This time last summer we had sewn up new contracts for Davies, Schneiderlin, Lallana, Boruc, Shaw, and Chambers, yet the new board have still been unable to tie one first-team player down to a new deal. A bit embarrassing that a Championship club is offering greater wages than we are willing to give Fonte. It needs sorting fast and the board need to start digesting some of the criticism they are getting from the local media. These are loyal, low-maintenance players we are talking about! Let's hope we don't get to January and Les Reed is still talking about being 'relaxed' about the situations with Cork, Fonte, and J-Rod's contracts.

Bit more on the link to Van Dijk here (and Forster): http://talksport.com/football/martin-southampton-are-keen-signing-celtic-pair-summer-140723103455

I think we need between 6-7, but probably more likely to be 4-5. We've replaced Lallana and Lambert with Pelle and Tadic, but Shaw, J-Rod (short-term anyway), Lovren, and Osvaldo all need replacing. That is another 4 already just to provide the same depth as last season. Then we need competition for Boruc, a versatile defender who can preferably operate at centre-back and left-back (ensuring Jos is nowhere near the team), and maybe another winger who can compete with Tadic/Ramirez/McQueen/Isgrove for a place, as those last two aren't exactly first-team stalwarts.

Yep. Newcastle are nearing their seventh signing this summer already. I know we've had the disruption of having to appoint a new manager, but given how confident Les Reed was in having players desperate to join the club, our business so far has been underwhelming to say the least. Assuming no one is signed before the Bournemouth game we will have two friendly games to try and integrate up to 5 new signings. Might be some way into the season before he build up any sort of rhythm.