ScepticalStan

Do you seriously mean to tell me that we were in the running to sign a then 23-year-old Brazilian international striker who had scored consistently in the Champions League and Serie A and in competitive international matches, who played for one of the world's most glamourous clubs... ...in 2013 ...after one season in the Premiership?

Ha! Kerlon...good grief that takes me right the way back to the days of watching 240p YouTube compilations at school! Still, Pato was a little bit above that. The guy's got 10 goals in 27 appearances for the senior Brazil side. He's scored goals with a fair bit of regularity in the Serie A and the CL with Milan and has scored about 1 in 2 for Sao Paulo. When he's fit the goals haven't really dried up. Granted the wages will be high but the transfer fee should be knock-down cheap. Makes a statement too. Sells a few shirts, puts our name on the map a bit especially with playing in Europe, generates a bit of interest and hopefully could attract higher calibre players in the future. Brazil's international team are in a complete mess at the moment and getting his foot back in the door there should be an achievable target. And if he turns out to be lazy, crippled or both, we've still got the more industrious, hard-working strikers like J Rod and Paddy Long as options off the bench. All in all it wouldn't be that much of a gamble.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-3167985/Alexandre-Pato-heading-Premier-League.html Worth a punt? The talent is obviously there and if anyone can re-invigorate his career and get the most out of a player with a point to prove it'd be Koeman. The guy is only 25 and could well look towards building a solid few years in a top European League in order to get back into the Brazil side for 2018.

https://www.facebook.com/uniladmag/videos/vb.146505212039213/1532325163457204/?type=2&theater 2 million views on Facebook today alone.

True, a million times worse was an exaggeration. However, as an attacking midfielder, playing in a number 10 position with creative responsibility, he scored less goals than Morgan (who played in a defensive midfield position) despite being presented with far, far more shooting opportunities than him including several memorable ****-ups against the likes of West Ham and Liverpool as well as three woeful attempts against Tottenham when most competent attacking players in the Premiership would have effortlessly plundered a hat-trick. To say he's a million times worse than Morgan was ridiculous though. I stand corrected.

As with most conspiracy theories it all falls down on the number of people that would have to be able to flawlessly keep secrets, even when they're in a position with nothing to lose. We've seen players come out with stories about spot-fixing in both football and cricket as well as seen lower-league players busted for getting deliberate yellow cards etc. so the idea that something as elaborate as actually fixing a specific result takes place seems well beyond belief. There's neither the means nor motivation to do it.

Steven Davis is a million times worse.

Cedric scoring goals even if he hasn't done much to prevent them. I must say this game is very, very pedestrian. The goal looked like the sort of thing you see in Sunday League matches up and down the country. Its just a bit of a casual run-around.

Wow that was easy.

Really not convinced by Van Dijk, he's not been at all tested at any decent standard of football.

I'm at work so I haven't been able to watch the presser. I wasn't disbelieving him necessarily, I just wondered what his source was.

Psh, not sure I wouldn't rather have a tough start to the season with games we were going to lose anyway. Having a bad start to the season despite a relatively easy run of fixtures is what will put us in trouble.

1) How do you know and 2) Why has he needed surgery on both knees?

In terms of feeling sick I'd have to go for the Van Persie goals. Revolting. Utterly revolting.

I still don't understand why this is. We're happy to sell for £25Mn. United and Arsenal are happy to buy for £25Mn. We know he wants to leave, and we've prepared for his departure. Why arse around haggling for chump change? Lets get this done and move on to building a squad.

Kamil Glik is an utter monster from set-pieces. Some of the defending in this video is pretty woeful but you can still see how well the guy can thump his head through the ball even well up in the air in a contested header. Scored against England too a while back. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPBoko00XOw Not sure about his defensive abilities, but he's a first-choice CB for Torino and they're a decent, top-half side...so, might be an idea. We'll definitely need to look around assuming we lose Toby.

There's a degree of truth to this. A lot of United fans were happy to overpay for Di Maria just to prove that they were still a massive club who could make massive signings even in their season outside the Champions League. The transfer market has a strong element of *****-waving to it these days.

One of those players who was damn-near top-notch both for club and country whose form then utterly nosedived for damn near no reason whatsoever. Fingers crossed Koeman can get him back to his former glory.

Great job on the map! Would make a good Sporcle quiz!

This. The simple fact is that you pay a massive premium for English players (look at the rumours of Harry Kane being worth £40 million or so if anyone wants to buy him this summer) As such, we can sell the likes of Shaw and Lallana for damn near double what they're worth and laugh our way to the bank, whilst getting the likes of Cedric, Mane, Pelle and Tadic in relatively cheaply as perfectly competent replacements. Its simply the economics of modern football. I do sympathise though. A team comprised primarily of academy/predominantly English players has a nice traditional feel to it, whilst at the same time actually making the smattering of foreigners (Jose/Boruc/Yoshida for example) easier to appreciate for bringing a bit of variety and adding a few eccentric 'characters' to the side. A team comprised almost entirely of foreign players (who, with the best will in the world, probably don't care any more about Southampton than they would about any other similarly-sized Premiership team who'd have signed them) feels like a team of mercenaries at worst and employees at best. Not to be xenophobic in any way, its more just the cold hard reality that kids in Italy, Spain, Uruguay, Japan or wherever don't grow up dreaming of playing for Southampton and I'm afraid, probably don't really know much about the history and character of the club either.

Rioting migrants yesterday- Calais to Dover port

Beat me to it! And yeah this 'candyman' fella is taking after this guy, Dan Bilzerian, the original self-proclaimed 'king of instagram' https://instagram.com/danbilzerian/ Am I jealous? Yeah, sure, and not remotely ashamed to admit it. Whether he's living through ill-gotten gains or not, the man has an objectively better life than any of us, whether or not one is secure enough to say so.

Why is the use of the word 'terrorist' to describe a suicide bomber the main thing you take issue and felt the need to comment on? Forgive the directness of my question but I do find it somewhat curious that you prioritised that as the main issue of discussion.

Just as laughably ineffective for them as he has been for us.

Fonte's done great for us this season but its more than a little hard to believe that he'll attract the interest of the bigger clubs. Still, at 31 you'd imagine he sees Euro 2016 as probably his one big chance for a serious tournament with the Portuguese national side. As such, being able to start regularly for a big club could be what it takes to give him that boost. Still, I can't see Fonte starting for any bigger clubs than us. Especially at his age. I don't mean to put a downer on things, but, lets face it, he's not thatgood.