Dman

I saw a stat, on twitter so a massive pinch of salt needed, that since his return to the dutch league, Tadic has won player of the season every single year. There were genuinely idiots that support our club who didn't rate him.

He's clearly having second thoughts and this 'contract' is just a smokescreen. No way would Swansea be arseholes like this, especially when a championship powerhouse like us come knocking. Stinks of Leicester tapping him up imo.

Dawson is incredible at holding down an end. Certainly not the best spinner in the world, but a 7/10 every time he bowls. I wonder if he'll get a sniff in the ashes squad now that Leach is out, for that very reason...

As far as 'stripes' go, this is probably just about perfect. Always preferred when we've used white as the base with red stripes, rather than red with white.. if that makes sense.

They can't play at a club who's not had an offer accepted though, can they. Naive to think someone would demand to only play for the might Saints.

I was hopeful that us being utter shite on the pitch would lead to a bit of hostility in the crowd, like the 'glory' days of Championship relegation, which would lead to a few of these muppets getting a clobbering.

What will be the result when we go hand in cup back to Swansea trying to sign Grimes and Piroe? If I was them, I'd tell us to get stuffed and only sell them to a Leicester or Leeds.

You'd be surprised. I'm hearing that Ankerson's spreadsheet suggests that players who live within the SO post code have 0.00000000001% increase in performance.

what an absolute pleb, that Andrew is. He's coming from Swansea, which is a 3 hour drive away, not fucking Sao Paulo. Even if he doesn't want to move his family down just yet (which is more than understandable), he could literally come down, take some photos holding a shirt, do a 20 minute interview and fuck off back home. All in one day... Crazy. These Twitter bods that follow the club really are a bunch of clowns.

Which leaves us without a manager (I know hes not yet technically our manager yet). Cutting off your nose to spite your face imo. I'd rather we walk away, but that's my heart speaking over my head as I don't think Martin is the right man for us. It's not the sensible thing to do though if we've highlighted him as the man to take us forward.

Looks like Adam Lallana (off wish), over his left shoulder...

Lets start with the obvious.. "“My future is not in my hands, we don’t know what the future holds. " I mean the future couldn't be anymore in his hands. He obviously wants to go, if he can.

Why would we walk away over peanuts. Martin is clearly the bloke we want, he wants to come here - everything is agreed other than a minor sticking point between the 2 clubs. Unless someone better (in the clubs view - thinking Potter or that chap from City) suddenly become available, walking away would be a stupid idea. Again, Swansea know that. Our hand isn't very strong in these negotiations.

In that case it would be one for the lawyers to resolve, I'd imagine. It would open up a huge can of worms around tapping up and all that jazz, as well.

If reports are to be believed, the initial approach / agreement was made before the Liverpool game, when there was absolutely no doubt we were (or at least pretended to be) a PL club.

Not arrogant, just stupid.

The clause is in place for a reason, to cover the selling team. Why would they just disregard it? you're spouting nonsense. If it was just 'Swansea being dicks' then we'd have signed and announced him already - the fact we haven't goes to show that legally this is tricky ground.

Good fighter, injuries have prevented more fights but he's still young(ish). A few Southampton lads on the circuit at the minute. Lewie & Ryan Garner have the best chance at winning a title (Ryan was a fantastic amateur - like Lewie injuries have prevented him having enough pro fights to be in contention for a title at this stage), then you have Joe Pigford - main support on the Billiam-Smith show Saturday, but came up short suffering his first loss. All saints 'fans' and have followed the club home and away at various stages.

I would be interested to hear from Surman if in hindsight, he'd wished he had stayed at the club, given the success of Lallana, morgan etc. who flourished from dropping down a level and getting real opportunities. Appreciate financially it helped us out and we were in a slightly different situation, when we sold Surman. But from a pure footballing perspective.

Agreed. Genuinely, him dropping down to the championship for a season would be the best thing he could ever do for his career, imo. The only thing is, he'd need to drop down and have the desire to play at that level and prove himself. I don't think he's that sort of character, but we'll see! Alcaraz is a gem. One of the most exciting players we've had for a really long time. One of maybe 2 or 3 who actually deserve a move off the back of this season. Agreed he'd rip up the championship and seems to have a good head on his shoulders.

Can you let me know when your house is up for sale, please. Easy pickings as a seller with this mentality.

In theory its a sensible solution, but why would Swansea agree to that. If the clause is £2m for a PL club, which we still are technically, then we pay the £2m or wait until we're technically not. We'll agree in the middle in the next week or 2, without a doubt imo.

Unfortunately we've plenty of noddies that support this football club, as you'll probably find out next season. I think most sensible fans / posters on here can see that its a little bit of 6 of 1, half a dozen of the other. You want X we want to pay Z and in a week or 2 and we'll agree Y. They're is no rush right now, the players aren't back for a few weeks and both sides know that. Standard negotiations when there is no time pressure at the minute. My concern is if we piss you guys off for haggling over peanuts now, will that impact the likelihood of you selling your best players to us in a months time...?

I'm not sure on the mechanics of how it works, but I would assume so. Its basically a subscription package through the EFL (maybe clubs in the EFL), which shows every league game. What that means is that it is easy to find 'alternative' streams, if you don't want to pay...

Lavia isn't playing in the championship. Especially not in a season where there is a euro's at the end of it. Its why JWP wont stay either.