Donatello

Isn't it City who are favourites (from an English club perspective) for Pogba? He'll likely end up at PSG though. Reference Schneiderlin, I'm pleased to hear that he has effectively ruled out a move to Spurs - that would've been hard to swallow. Hopefully the club will hold him to such statements (i.e. use it 'against' him) if a move to a Champions League club fails to materialise. Does anyone here know about Juve? Have they been making noises about Morgan? Or is it all wishing thinking on our part? P.S Is it petty that the idea of Schneiderlin snubbing (the possibility of Spurs) draws a smile from me? I mean, we're losing our best player (imo) here. Bittersweet, I guess.

Toure is staying, supposedly. Where's Gundogan (purportedly) off to? I could Google of course, but I'm interested to hear what you've heard/read. United? Wherever Klopp ends up?

That's unlikely. Come January, foreign clubs can sign him on a pre-contract for free (unless compensation agreements apply on account of his age, which I doubt).

So you're suggesting that Koeman allowed Ramirez to dictate to him where he was playing this season? :S To be honest, I find the two facets of your first paragraph to be incongruous...Koeman wanted to utilise/play him...but he wanted first team football...eh? Entirely different matter if he wanted to start, of course, but that says more about Ramirez's character/self-belief, I.e. That he didn't believe he could supplant Steven Davis/Tadic/Mane.

The problem with that being that Gaston's contract expires next summer. He's had three years, it hasn't worked, to Hell with having to absorb a £12m transfer fee in its entirety, recoup what we can (even if it's as little as a quarter).

The talk at the time was that he was earning (approximately) £60,000 gross (so FM is probably accurate). If he was 'only' earning half of that (gross), I'd still want him off of the wage bill. Sell, sell, sell. I can't imagine Hull covered his entire salary either

Am I missing something? It quite clearly states 16

For anyone who wishes/cares to know/thinks it's relevant, Pelle has scored a (Prem) goal every 273 minutes, compared to Austin's rate of a goal every 170 minutes. To put that into a more understandable concept, Pelle has scored one goal every three league games, Austin one goal in every two (well, just under).

(Probably) Double wage bill for 4 extra points - 'result'. Furthermore, he's subjected to another season of a competition he's evidently allergic to. Oh, the ignominy.

Duly noted. On that point though, isn't Vardy more of a wide forward\channel runner anyway? (rather than the tip of the spear) Well, he plays in a front two at Leicester...but wouldn't transitioning to a wide-forward role suit him better than a similar move to (sole) target man? P.S My perception of Vardy is that he runs behind players, not at them (unless pressing).

Where the fig do you do your reading?

Is that to say you rate Vardy above Rooney? Note: I have no issue with Vardy's call up...but I did double-take...more than once

Fair enough, of course. I think you're broadly correct, he's a better defender than attacker. But again, he's 19, I'd rather a defender learn to perfect defending at an early age\first (rather than attacking). The first part of your paragraph does seem to be a common issue, doesn't it?! No doubt I've been guilty of it too. Ultimately, not all of the academy graduates making 1st team appearances are going to valued by other clubs at ~£20m...which means we might have a better chance of keeping them

I don't know of many 19 year old defenders who can supplant an established Prem-level defender with over 200 professional caps under his belt, but if that's your standard for comparison, so be it P.S More importantly, a big thank you to SaintArmstrong for his\her contribution. Top work.

He's 19. Employ a little perspective.

I'm going to wait until the end of the season before updating, but thanks for the thought anyway

That'd be a much broader subject (u21/youth representation), fo' sure (and equally interesting). Although Gazzaniga is now 23. When did that happen?!

Gazzaniga is excempt for reasons stated (criteria clearly stated at top). I'll adjust Seager's name - hopefully you'll now be able to sleep at night Edit: Said in jest, obviously. I'm always happy to be corrected

I've seen £70m mentioned on regular basis. Realistically, they'll probably get £55m+. There's also talk of City part exchanging. Either way, they're going to end up with a big lump of funds being made available to them, so £25m is more than obtainable (from our perspective) for Morgan, I'd have thought.

Much obliged! Thanks for finding. That's as good as settled then (as far as I'm concerned).

All right, cheers. There doesn't seem to be anything concrete anywhere (although there rarely is), but 9\10 would be a lil' steep admittedly. All depends on whether he's impressed RK sufiiciently in training. As an aside, I think Ramirez is as good as gone. Edit: VectisSaint kindly found an article

They'll certainly have the funds available after selling Pogba - ka-ching!

http://www.saintsweb.co.uk/showthread.php?54139-Youth-Academy-Representation-14-15-Season#.VVpMa3pwbqA I'll update after the season has finished, naturally.