Fitzhugh Fella

What usually happens is the owning club ask for a fee which they then return piecemeal everytime their player makes an appearance. That acts as an inducement for the loaning club to pick the player.

Hi Phil - if we get through the tunnel OK aim to be in Arnhem around 6 on the Wednesday so let's have that beer. You have my nos I believe.

Chambers would be an excellent acquisition

Just found some nice photos of him in action for Saints. He was one o0f the few players who did not want to talk to us for "All the Saints"

My brother has a mate in Arnhem who has bought 5 tickets, one for him and four for our party. They were 24 euros each so in the posh seats. He told the club that he had 4 Southampton guests coming with him and there was no problem. Looks like these seats (or three of them) will be going spare.

Sam is very much up for a loan, he sees it as a progressive move, good for his career.

All I can say is I know Sam thinks a loan move to a decent Championship team is the right move for him now. He needs decent competitive football - which a loan spell would bring - and the club are in agreement. It worked for the likes of Defoe (Bournemouth) and Beckham (Preston) and I truly believe Sam (still only 19) has what it takes. I remember watching Channon at 20/21 and he could look awful but suddenly he blossomed and I am confident Sam has true potential, he has size, presence, skill, self-belief and determination. Players like him don't come along every day, he needs nurturing and he needs to mature but those who are being a bit disdainful have unrealistic expectations. The Prem has changed a lot since the likes of Alan Shearer was able to force his way into the limelight aged 17.

I believe he likes to play down the middle but he can do a job out wide, very much a Jay-Rod type forward.

His goal in the U21 final was a stunning thing of beauty, hit with his wrong foot the ball never rose above 6 feet and it was still increasing in velocity when it hit the net, a truly great goal. His cross for Seager to score in the semi-final was also the best cross I saw at SMS last season. I think he has got it personally but what with his personal setback and then his injury a loan would be a good thing right now. I know that's what he wants, Sam is very ambitious and he has a good head on him. I will stick my neck out and say he has got what it takes.

Keep positive

PleaSE NO

Funniest post for a long time

I don't know, the Pinnacle debacle is not something I care to remind him about. He loves Saints as much as any of us and was only trying to help. Fry from Begbies also got fooled as did Leon Crouch to the tune of half a million.

Yes, I have tried to persuade David Bull to do it and he is keen writing it around Jason Dodd's biography but Jason remains to be convinced even though the club are content to let us do it subject to legal etc etc. And yes I have been thinking about trying to interview Rupert Lowe, I hold no grudges as I believe he was doing what was he though was right. As you know I started to lose faith in him when he appointed Wrigley and it went rapidly down hill from there.

I have not scarpered. Matt did not do anything like enough diligence on Pinnacle, even when I told him the weekend before the deal collapsed that they were bogus he refused to believe me. I am Matt's biggest fan but imo he was too ready to believe.

:)

You are not wrong with much of what you say and yes it has turned out beyond our wildest expectations. As has been pointed out I was never Lowe's biggest fan but he cared. In fact he cared enough to ring me up and call me a s**t which at the time I felt was a bit OTT. But it showed he had a bit of bottle and was prepared to defend himself so I have grudging respect for that. When talking in terms of how much damage he did the club, well we ended up ok but more by luck than judgement and technically one hero (MLT) potentially nearly did us more harm than anyone else by lending his name to the Pinnacle group which was damn near disastrous. Had we known at the time that Pinnacle using the oxygen of Matt's support were jeopardising the Liebherr takeover we would have all been pretty angry. We came damn close to losing Liebherr's interest and that does not bear thinking about.

With it looking likely Saints are about to bank £25+ for Schneiderlin, Rupert Lowe must be having a little ironic chuckle right now. Six years ago that amount of money would have been enough to purchase Saints out of administration, twice over. Morgan's arrival in 2009 which I believe Lowe was very instrumental in, was a strange affair because we were absolutely broke as a club and Lowe and Wilde had stated we would be running with the youngsters that season when all of a sudden £1.2m was found from somewhere to purchase Schneiderlin. There were rumours that the money had been put up by Arsenal and we were acting as a nursery club until Schneiderlin blossomed but when that happened Wenger was nowhere to be seen, so perhaps that rumour was just that. Lowe had many faults but today's fans can be very grateful for his acquisition of Schneiderlin.

Playing devil's advocate but perhaps offered more money? Both men appeared open to persuasion going by comments made by RK.

Good question

Hardly any of us will "know" what exactly happened so instead we have to read through the lines and make assumptions that may or may not be correct. But this is a forum where we put forward our views and thoughts based on what we think. Sometimes they will be praising the club and sometimes they won't be. I happen to think the club is well run and we are lucky to have a genuine owner who considers the fans and is in it for all the right reasons. However just occasionally we don't get it right and I do think the club have messed up a tad with this transfer, preferring to think they would be successful in getting TA using the legal route. That appears to have backfired despite it seems us meeting Tottenham's valuation yesterday. By then the horse had bolted. A great shame because I think TA was integral to our improvement last season and he will be sorely missed, but no one gets things 100% and if lessons are learnt so much the better.

If AM have missed triggering the £1.5m buy back clause, why are we now offering 20m euros when the original contract says we only have to offer the original 6.8m?

Spent last season in FC Twente's Reserves - will try and keep an open mind but his pedigree is certainly nothing to write home about.

I think this is a genuine question worthy of debate but Alpine's pro Cortese comment does undermine his argument, for us to be a big club like Spurs we need a bigger fan base and a bigger stadium for starters!

This has now got messy. We don't need this distraction to linger on through the summer.