Mowgli

Im not going to argue - statistically you may well be right. Certainly he came good right at the end of the season. But over the season I would say Long was our best attacker (I'm partly influenced by his all round play and work rate)

I love the way people dramatically say we sold our best players. Mane and Wanyama were not our best players. By Christmas most expected Mane and Wanyama to leave in the summer. Mane went through a dry spell showing we could survive without him and Wanyama increasingly became a yellow car liability. Our best players were, without doubt, Forster, VVD, Davis and Long. Haven't responded to the Les Reead lies comment as I have no idea what that is about (unless you are still harping on about the time Poch left....)

Wouldn't you just love him to be proved wrong though? ;-)

Apologies I wasn't necessarily disagreeing with you. Just making the point that your thinking must surely be along the lines of discussions in the club. Despite a small minority suggesting people at there club are only interested in making money they are clearly wanting to do well on the domestic and Euro front. League and cups. So they want to get it right. I wasn't suggesting Leicester did not spend - just that it was fairly modest - as ours was - and neither of us did too badly. You're right. I didnt dwell too much on the new TV money which frankly just seems obscene to me.

Somehow I can't help feeling that this debate has already taken place within the club and if they are going to rely on youth then presumably they have the same confidence in them delivering as they did in recruiting unknown quantities like Mane, Tadic, Clasie and Cedric. Untruth, I doubt they will rely totally on the youth and we will see one or maybe two new faces before the season starts. I do love the way fans like spending other peoples money though - '£15m is nothing really....' '...having a net spend is embarrassing...'. Surely we've realised by now (e.g. Leicester) that spending power has very little to do with success. That said I do smile at the hypocrisy of demanding £30m for Mane and then complaining when all the other fees being quoted to us are similarly inflated. It's a crazy crazy world thats for sure. I almost want the financial bubble to burst so we can go back to how things were!

Cedric is only average because saints fans have high expectations. Statistically he was one of the best right backs in the league last season. RK only preferred Martina when the opposition set up for the counter attack as Martina tended to play a better game in that situation. Portugal my have had two fairly slow CBs but I was very impressed when Fonte chased Bale to stop the cross albeit at the expense of a corner

I believe they are planning a gold star just above the club crest..

Think RK forgot the old school motto - Praise in pubic, criticise in private.

No offence but any idea why the retro kit that you describe is not selling that well in the mega store?

Actually he was faster when he came back last season (club timed him).

Good analysis from VectisSaint but one thing I would like to challenge is the view on Sam Gallagher. He was close to first team football a couple of seasons back and then suffered number of setbacks including injury and 'growing to quick' He has now come back really strong and looked fantastic for the U21s toward the end of the season. I really would not be surprised to see him get a breakthrough in pre season and put himself in the reckoning. A sort of Pelle with pace...

Firstly Koeman did not rubbish the academy. He simply pointed out that there were only one or two (at the time of the interview) that were ready for the first team. The problem was that the bar had been raised and that the opportunities for a pathway to the first team was becoming blocked by a bigger squad of older (and very talented) players. Koeman was happy with that. The club less so. I think this season, with seven players on the bench there is absolutely no reason why at least one youngster could not be included and played when it is safe to do so. You can watch a player all you like in training and U21 games but nothing replicates how they perform on the pitch with first team players in a competitive game.

Probably because the overwhelming fan choice has been to get back to stripes which got a positive response. It would be a brave board that moved away from stripes again. The Patrick kit was one of my all time favourites too but I wouldn't want to see it replacing stripes now. Saints ARE stripes.

At last! Someone with a reasonable understanding of the female anatomy!!

Probably because they know it's only a small minority that cry (out). The biggest reaction they have experienced is the support for going back to stripes so they would be mad to ignore that.

Having seen it on the video I really like the short sleeve version

Koeman is already getting a bit of stick over the Stek signing. Sammy would not help him off to the best of starts.....

And how would you deal with the rest of the squad seeking parity....?

Best wishes from the club so clearly no animosity there

Not a bad prediction but not VVD.

Yes but the scouts need a system to input their data into...

Whatever your views, they are largely irrelevant until we see how the performances and results pan out once the season starts. Even Koeman knew we would lose Mane and Wanyama and declared a little turnover is a good thing. Potential signings will no doubt see this as a club where you can really make a name for yourself and will be attracted to come here if only for three or four years. And it is now seeming likely that RK was suppressing our youth conveyor belt so no great loss.

I think the the away kit may well have a green trim on the black and grey so will not clash.

I think the Mane thing could go either way. One set of rumours suggest he is happy here and more likely to stay now RK has left. The other suggests he will swap European football for a higher wage packet at Liverpool. If the former is true he will sign a new contract and he will become a legend at SMS. If the latter is true then frankly we are well rid. These comparisons with Vardy though are laughable. A 29 year old smoker who hit the big time very late on is more comparable with Rickie Lambert than Mane. Although we loved him, would we really have broken the bank to stop him going to Liverpool?

Don't disagree with anything you say. But muscling the midfield, as JWP discovered last season, is less about height and bulk (though it helps) and more about simply growing a set of balls. Reed still looks to me like a young Billy Bremner style of footballer. What we would give to have someone like that in midfield eh? Agree that Clasie looks the most lightweight of that bunch though clearly it is an aspect of his game that the backroom boys are working on.