Giordano

Impressive. Assumes VvD is up to speed but I fully agree. Its probably the best optimised Saints 11 line in the up we could put out assuming the whole squad team is at full strength and we put balance and defensive impenetrability at a premium... Romey and Wanyama in front of that back four is like a steel curtain...and Clasie will chase all day too :-)

Nice article (in Italian) on JWP in the CdS.... http://www.corrieredellosport.it/news/calcio/talent-scout/2015/08/11-3127538/ward-prowse_il_gioiello_del_southampton/ Literally translated - Ward Prowse, Southampton's jewel . Its a fluff piece but nice to see that he is recognised at 20 years old as a class act.

I personally think we will be fine ~ but as a matter of probably minor statistical / logical interest to most here its not about how well Saints reinforce or replace our squad per se- its about how well that reinforcement and replacement matches up to the other teams in the EPL. Last season Saints did it very well but it was clearly a combination of good recruitment play and a somewhat weaker EPL top 4 than we've been used to- Man city were sloppy, Man Uutd poor for a lot of the season, Liverpool were floundering and Arsenal did not really get motoring until after xmas..which meant the likes of us were top 4 a while... Like the old saying goes if you and a mate meet a bear in the woods you only have to outrun your mate, not the bear.We need to outrun the teams 8th-bottom to retain 7th this season - we don't need to beat Chelsea home and away. Given the obvious strengthening of teams like Man Utd, Liverpool and Arsenal a stronger top six might work to our benefit. Less freak results with the smaller teams winning and more conventional results should mean teams like Saints stay comfortably upper mid table. IF there is a slip up amongst the big boys then we are best placed to slip in - but so are Spurs and Everton with whom in my mind we are fighting for 5/6/7/8th with this year..

http://www.corrieredellosport.it/news/calcio/calcio-mercato/2015/07/28-2758387/mario_suarez_tifer_sempre_atletico_fiorentina_che_chance_/ That's one of my most favoured european experienced DM's gone then...Mario Suarez joining Fiorentina......I think he might have worked out well at Saints and am a bit surprised not many others felt the same way...ex Atletico Madrid DM's are usually very good....I wonder if we are still secretly still hoping for a change of heart from our Polish Seville target Grzegorz Krychowiak...surely the equal number 1 on our replace Toby list/ Morgan list with Jordy? I hope if we offer enough cash in wages and fee it can happen but you'd understand that he's a CL player and has outgrown Europa league having won the thing twice in a row...he must surely only go to a creme de la creme team...

Yup, good player and would not be mentally expensive but he is Italian and hence temperamentally suspect ;-0...and he only scored two against England under 21's so cannot be all that as i would have got a hattrick against that pony defence... anyway 26year old Axel Witsel is better. But out of our league. Would cost all the Morgan money but is an upgrade. A MASSIVE AND REAL statement of intent if he joined!!! Dream on Gio..DVD is next best for me but in my fantasy team id buy DVD, AW and Clasie...total outlay c £45M which is morgans £24 plus Clynes £11M plus £10M..plus what we spent on the others...not a mega outlay but massive upgrades...

Its Virgil Van Dyk I hope. If our MF looks a bit lightweight this recruit would balance that out ~ 6ft 4" and can run with the ball, find a pass, scores free kicks, wins headers and once he's got going has a bit of the Yaya Toure about him shrugging players off on surging runs forward ( yeah i seen the highlights videos i don't know him personally or ever seen him live) Can play English style footy as been at Celtic two seasons so he wont cry off when he gets kicked a bit. Big Vic will know him,. Fraser might know him too. We seem to do well withy Celtic players. It all looks nice. He can cover for Big Vic when hes suspended also i reckon hes that versatile. Signing him as a CB (who can play RB btw) to replace Toby would be perfect for me. Ball playing ball winning young dutch big strong wont be more than £10m whats not to like?

Les, Out of ten, with ten being "incredibly embarrassed we really ****ed up big time and I apologize on behalf of the club" and 0 being not at all, how embarrassed are you at letting a talent like Toby slip through Saints hands to join a Europa league rival team for what's reported as £11.4M (£9.4M to us..) and £50kpw on a 5 year contract - both figures obviously affordable for us?

"The primary long term determinate of a football clubs success is what it pays its players relative to its competition. Chapter Two of "Money and Football" by Stefan Szymanski demonstrates this quite clearly". As is becoming standard Redslo, that's a well reasoned thoughtful response. Thanks for your written contributions- its a pleasure to read them. What we can pay players viz the rest of the world can only go up right now under FFP because of Sky TV money for EPL teams (unless this latest change affects it..) so I look beyond our domestic league to a longer term likely scenario panning out...that scenario is one in which the disproportionately high Sky money (aka commercial revenue) that EPL teams get versus other leagues around the world will eventually, over time, all things being equal, mean that the ability of the EPl teams to pay better wages (and hence outperform other rest of the world teams) will grow. If that happens, then it should mean that EPl teams will win more European trophies. It should mean that if there is ever a European mega-league that EPl teams will dominate it. That means it is going to be very profitable to invest in an EPl club. That means that for investors staying in the EPl is the be all and end all of there strategy - and top four is frankly a bonus. For a club like Saints is there really any BIG incentive to crack top four in the EPl if you are already top ten in the world on revenues-profits and the cost to break into that top echelon is poor odds for the returns available? A good poker player always evaluates the value of any bet he is asked to make against the returns in the pot and his probability of winning it (value-betting). If the odds don't stack up he folds - and he stays a winner in the longer term. What us supporters want is irrelevant- we might want our owners to go "all-in" to continue the poker analogy or bet into poor odds - but in the longer term thats a losing strategy. Its what the investors want that counts- and that is simply a good return safely and consistently on their money. That requires value betting from Saints owners. And the value lies in doing (aka spending) the minimum required to stay in the EPl season after season. NOT putting it all in on one or two superstar players. If this hypothetical future in which EPL clubs rule happens it seems likely to me that the mainland European /rest of the world countries are not going to like it and that means influencing UEFA and FIFA to once more change the rules so that EPL teams do not dominate to that extent. Whatever the outcome of that Saints main top end objective may ostensibly be CL football but the MINIMUM objective is EPl survival, and all planning must ensure that first and everything else second.

Di Marzio is pretty reliable / good from what i've seen in the past, not prone to ridiculous made up stuff. ION. Usually (but not always) the fee is agreed after the player has said he is happy with the club and the wages. I personally don't think its the fee that is the problem. I think Tobys agent has very high aspirations for Tobys wages, and we might well have been asked for a six figure weekly salary, making Toby cost us £12M fee plus say £20M over 4 years ( assume c £110kpw) meaning its a £32M purchase/Investment will very little resale value at the end wen he is c 32+ years old - £1m for each of his years~ how apt. Its is last big contract probably. So its understandable. If we did buy Toby BUT did not make CL next year i suppose we could sell and get the money back (assuming he stays injury free and plays well/no dramatic loss of form) again) so from that pov such a big investment might still be sanctioned. But its still a big spend. The justification can only be the maintenance of EPL status (and EPL ££) which our back four/five including him should guarantee. That's it in a nutshell. That we are in the market at such big price tag levels shows how far we've come. It does look not good with Toby and Spurs now that's true but put it this way~ IF we sign Toby it will be probably break our total cost over course of contract biggest transfer fee....and if its not Toby it will very likely be someone else...so stay tuned and stay positive!

I'm not sure if this has occurred to anyone else but if anyone here knows anything about cut-throat bidding wars sometimes competitors will bid up for something ( or in this case someone) just to get a business competitor to pay up much more than they really want to - just to F8ck them up for other deals down the line. If you watch "Storage Wars" on cable quite often guys bid up stuff they don't want just to empty the other guys pockets for other deals. Maybe Spurs are doing that to make sure we pay top dollar and top wages for Toby- and then not have much left for guys like Gianni or Classie for instance..Its not inconceivable we are doing that to them as well...as I've said earlier its a dirty business...

I think that's the number 1 issue but just to inject a bit of second guessing here.... Toby originally came to Saints to play every week Plus the RK factor Plus (IMO) he was essentially putting himself in the shop window for this and future seasons career decisions by joining Saints. It worked. He done great. His stock has soared as they say. WP Toby. And thank you from every Saints fan. So, today his agent will be saying that his wages need be higher than last year to reflect his excellent debut EPL season. Toby will just say he's loved playing here in UK and would love to do it again. His agent will say that IF Toby was on (say) £68K pw last season at little but perfect for Toby Southampton then he cannot get less now from the likes of Spurs - and surely more, much more. I'm not sure AM want to pay EPL wages to a guy they did'nt use last year, and forego a big fee, so for me he is going to be sold this time. When his value should be at its theoretical highest. IF as a consequence of all that Spurs head negotiator Levy says he will give Toby £100k pw to play at WHL then his agent will tell Saints that's what his player has been offered...and if we don't react in the right way then the agent is oblige to put pressure on AM to sell him to Spurs. Of course if Spurs say they will pay bigger wages to turn Toby's head but then only want top pay peanuts to AM for him as a transfer fee - (a common ploy) then the player might start getting antsy. A bit of Adam Lallana perhaps creeps in. A significant factor in all this is, and this worries both Saints and Spurs (or others) is Toby has little resale value (hes 26+ years old as it is and a 5 year deal makes him over 31). If we agree to pay AM MORE than Spurs as a fee but don't pay Toby quite as much in wages then there is a stand-off between AM and Toby's agent and a little bit of natural resentment from Toby as well to be fair. That Toby enjoyed his season here, he was already settled etc is like having a bird in the hand, that he likes RK and our style of play ditto but that only counts for so much. If Toby believes in the "project" as Saints that helps too but there cannot be too wide a gap between what we pay him in wages (and Join fee) compared to what the likes of Spurs or others will no matter what transfer fee is agreed. I can see a "sensible" fee being agreed that's undisclosed because Toby gets a big golden hullo from saints out of it plus a good salary increase. Everyone happy and he goes on to become a legend. Or we get a £2m refund from AM and he joins Spurs. As a normal Saints fan that would leave a bad taste in the mouth and a bit of despondency. Losing a World class player like that would be a hard pill to swallow. We will survive though. :-)

Forgot to add that Osvaldo may be within his rights to refuse unless he gets his reputed £50kpw for remainder of his current contract so a "compromise" exit strategy agreement might happen- ie we effectively pay off part of his contract if he accepts a lower weekly wage somewhere else as part of a sale. He could get a £1M bung basically from Saints - so we'd need sell him for £3m, give him a compromise £1m to eff off and he accepts £30k pw somewhere else...its dirty work...

Osvaldo's loan spell to Boca officially finishes today (30-6-15). Presumably, in the absence of official "stay away" request we would normally be returning to Saints for pre-season training today or tomorrow. Its fairly obvious that he will not be allowed to return to skipper Jose Fontes squad pre-season so I fully expect a gardening leave type of situation in which he stays away until his agents and saints have found an exit strategy either permanent or another loan. Given his track record at disaffecting team mates is so high I fear his extreme level of toxicity will make him almost unsellable unless at a very cut price rate, hence loans and eventually a (high-ish) pay as you go deal for him as a free agent in the future i reckon. I personally would prefer to sell him for £2M and get him off the books than another "free" loan with the other club paying his (reduced) wages. I reckon he's had 3 pay cuts since leaving saints and lost every commercial sponsor or down to bare bones...he took a big wage cut to join Juve, would not have got a pay rise at Inter and boca cant afford his EPL wages either...consequently for £2m and maybe £25-30K/pw someone desperate might take a chance- a newly promoted Italian Serie A team or a lower level Serie A is my bet for his best outcome hoping to redeem himself in Italy but I've got a sneaky feeling he may also go turkey... Basically if Inter and Juve and Roma don't want him then the lower orders might in Italy...

The same paper also mentions we are keen on Italian under 21 midfielder Benassi- who might be lining up aganst JWP tonight...I watched him playing against portugal and thought he did well. Unlikely but just adding it in there for you... http://www.corrieredellosport.it/news/calcio/calcio-mercato/2015/06/24-1926571/torino_che_rebus_benassi_southampton_sullo_sfondo/

Its in the corriere dello Sport...He was offered a pay cut at Boca but his agent wants him in Italy with either Lazio or Fiorentina. http://www.corrieredellosport.it/news/calcio/calcio-mercato/2015/06/24-1922270/osvaldo_offerto_alla_lazio_fiorentina_in_seconda_fila/

Does anyone think we might be offering Mayuka or Osvaldo or Ramirez or the loan of one of our younger strikers as part of a package deal to QPR? I don't think the new QPR regime would want Osvaldo but its not inconceivable that if offered £10M plus Mayuka and/or a youth team loan they might say yes for instance in a way in which just paying cash might not. The same with Atletico with Toby- would they fancy trying out Osvaldo as a back up CF seeing as they just got rid of one or perhaps fancy a free punt on Ramirez / Mayuka as a sweetener for our purchase of Toby? Doubtful but i'm fairly sure we would have considered offering them even if the answer was NO straight away. Mayuka might score for fun in the Championship for example. Just different ways to skin the cat.

I think if we bought Austin and kept Pelle that's good business. But you'd be naive if you thought that Pelle would be delighted seeing a similar to him kind of player joining on a big fee and wages...He's been picked again for the Italian squad so who knows what tapping up is going on there. The chance to "finally" prove himself in Italy might be hard to resist- particularly if it was at a prestigious Italian club steeped in history. All the big Italian teams are looking for marquee strikers at low cost - he would fit the bill nicely at Lazio, Roma, Inter and Milan for instance, even Napoli if they ditch Higuain - if they could afford the wages that is, which they might do if he was a low fee....so be prepared if we buy Austin we might see Pelle move on. If not - well ~ We have Sam G coming back this season as well which gives another big guy option up front plus the return of Jrod, the workrate reliability of Shane Long and possibly Ryan Seager's goal scoring will get a chance as well. Sadio Mane will be our most feared forward next season so perming three from them means we should have enough including the additional EL matches.

Bilel Mohsni, ex Rangers player. Tunisian hardman CB. After seeing what he did to that Motherwell forward i reckon he would be great for Saints. Big Radhi would sort him out. And a match up between the two would be a sellout. Think Moshni would win as he is currently fitter and obviously a bit younger but if Radhi could get him on the floor and use his weight then that could swing it. I'm not talking footy btw, cage fighting is for that guy i think. That SO reminded me of my Sunday league playing days. Back then the kind of push in the back that Mohsni got from Lee Erwin would instantly get EXACTLY the sort of attack that Mohsni put in on him. then the add-ons from everyone else. And to think that's Scottish Premier League play-off match. Sunday league football discipline. Still, got to hand it to Moshni- he does not get pushed around by anyone. Right foot left hand, nice combo. Might not have much of a football career ahead of him, but no-one pushes him around. Maybe he could fight Osvaldo in pre-season to see if he up to coming back or not? :-)

Bilel Mohsni, ex Rangers player. Tunisian hardman CB. After seeing what he did to that Rangers forward i reckon he would be great for Saints. Big Radhi would sort him out. And a match up between the two would be a sellout. Think Moshni would win as he is currently fitter and obviously a bit younger but if Radhi could get him on the floor and use his weight then that could swing it. I'm not talking footy btw, cage fighting is for that guy i think. That SO reminded me of my Sunday league playing days. Back then the kind of push in the back that Mohsni got from Lee Erwin would instantly get EXACTLY the sort of attack that Mohsni put in on him. then the add-ons from everyone else. And to think that's Scottish Premier League play-off match. Sunday league football discipline. Still, got to hand it to Moshni- he does not get pushed around by anyone. Right foot left hand, nice combo. Might not have much of a football career ahead of him, but no-one pushes him around. Maybe he could fight Osvaldo in pre-season to see if he up to coming back or not? :-)

I had to respond when i saw your opening line "Aside from an extra £20k a week or so,"... In the real world that means over £1,000,000 a year MORE per year - for probably 3-5 years, so possibly £5,000,000.00 more than he gets now. That's a winning the lottery amount of money. That's a retire in luxury for life amount of money. What person in their right mind turns that down? I appreciate that after a certain amount ££££££ pw it's not about the money but, seriously? He may be Saints player but he is still a human being. I know money is not everything to everyone. But turning down being set up for life? Doubt many would resist. Sorry for being realistic!

Gonzalo Higuain.27. He is a little bit expensive ( hes on about £65-70k/wk plus a fee but was happy to join going the Napoli "project" who will now be lucky to get CL next season. He would undoubtedly prefer a CL or famous name old team but seeing as there's very few of those who can afford him we would be next best i'd say (or close to it). Why not join the Southampton project if no-one else comes in with a big enough bid for him. I think that is the new level of quality Saints should be looking at. That and Cech on loan. Both stupid ideas and not happening but both the right standard of player.

I don't care if we are ready or not cos is we qualify then i'm going. Already told my gf that holidays are booked from August/September 2015 onwards until we win or get knocked out = city break to wherever it is we going for preliminary round, next round, group stages next round etc......I'm likely in Poland mid sept anyway so would love a wisla krakow tie or similar. Like the others above who have been to the swedish preseasons and Bucharest etc for me watching Saints overseas is 100X more fun than going to Palace away or at SMS for a match versus Everton...its no pressure no expectation just enjoying being there..If we qualify- people who post on this forum should be traveling in their droves..

Gardos, at 6ft 4" weighs 10stone 10lbs (68kgs) according to official site. He is NOT in the top four.

Should i tell you how many you got right or how many you got right and in the right order - or would that make it too easy?

I was honestly very surprised at the results when accidentally checking out these useless facts of no interest to anyone but a saints fan with an interest in the fitness statistics of the team he supports. I don't think anybody will get the top four in correct order without cheating but am prepared to offer a no-prize if you get the top four in any order. According to official site details that is. Have fun. Its Friday afternoon after all.