VectisSaint

He hasn't been paid a penny yet, what he has said is that he will donate roughly £4k to Gt Yarmouth Town FC. He is basing this on estimated nett monthly salary for an MP. Not knocking him, I detest the gammon, but fair play he has made a gesture and is sticking to his word with a promise up front to the the football club, which will help them with their finances and planning.

So is that the purpose of the new fencing?

Net of income tax as well, probably at 45% rate. GY should not hold their collective breath for any significant charity donations.

Shea Charles is English, born in Manchester. Chose to represent Norn Iron because his Mother is from there. Smallbone is also English, born Basingstoke, but represents Ireland, again through his Mother.

No idea where you get the idea that anyone is suggesting Reed instead of Downes, perhaps BangkokSaint may have hinted at it. The reason Reed is being mentioned is because LeG hinted that Lallana might not be the only returning Saints midfielder, and then hinted that Reed was the answer. Don't think there was ever a suggestion that Reed = Downes. I still think Downes will eventually show up, West Ham seem quite enthusiastic about his departure, just the fee that needs to be negotiated. Neither Charles nor Reed could fulfil Downes' role, though both may go someway as being a cover option in the event of Downes being unavailable for the odd game. Downes brings a hell of a lot more to the table than either of them.

You'd take Redmond but not Schneiderlin, Wanyama, Hojbjerg, Tadic Ox or Reed. Weird. Hopefully you get no say in upcoming transfers. We did well to offload Redmond, pity it took so long.

Just turned 33 actually, so gives Lallana a few years. Would prefer Morgan if we were going back down that route.

Harrison Reed?

Except that was the argument you responded to. Have you thought of politics as a career?

He didn't work with Bazunu previously, and for your Manning I'll raise you Downes.

I said about this before. Although everything was in place for the transfer it still isn't official until a contract is signed and the registration transferred. Transfer could not be done until 15th, and contract at Citeh would have run till end June. It was always possible that one or other teams could renege on the deal and it could have fallen through (albeit with probable legal consequences) so extremely glad to hear that it is all now signed and sealed. THB is an extremely important player for us, alongside hopefully Downes. Fully expect him to be in England squads once Southgate goes or even if he stays, hopefully that won't turn his head like has happened with others. Future Saints captain material, though he'll have to wait on Jack.

They may have been players qualified for Jamaica, but were born in England (as far as I can tell). Fact is Martin clearly prefers players from 'Britain', in the broadest sense.

Johnson going to Ipswich (had medical).

He was frozen out by Lee Bowyer who never gave him any game time when he took over shortly after Valery had joined. It was alleged that Valery said some stuff about his teammates which were not too complimentary. Not sure if the two things were related. But it's wrong to say he was woeful when he hardly played. Has been a regular with Angers, albeit in Ligure 2 last season after they were relegated.

He has boots so yes I guess he does.

All in the past. He has been on a downward spiral since his single good season with us 19/20. The reason is because he is getting older and his fitness is poor (Injuries). Just because he did it 5 years ago does not mean he can reproduce that form now. He has only scored a few goals in the last few seasons because he is no longer sharp enough or fit enough. Signing Ings now will be a big mistake, the only department that will benefit is the medical team who will have their work cut out getting him fit.

Pele (Edson Arantes do Nascimento) was quite good. Other players with a similar name not so much.

Not a loan, willing to pay up to 6m, Ings assessing all his options (Daily Fail).

No it wasn't. Still have to transfer his registration and he has to sign a contract and we have to pay a fee. Although we had an obligation to buy when could still renege (not saying we will). But it is a fact that he could not become our player until June 14 at the earliest. My only thought is that his contract at Citeh does not expire until 30 June and that's when he will actually be transferred. I don't seriously doubt it will happen, but just a little niggle in the back of my mind.

I wonder why we haven't announced Harwood-Bellis signing yet.

My bad, I thought PEH had a medal. He was in the Bayern squad when they won in 2012/13, but he didn't play any European games so he would not have qualified for a medal.

But he has less Irish, Nigerian and Northern Irish caps than they have. Actually Joe Aribo has the same number of international caps as Lallana does, but admittedly they are not English caps (he probably has more now, because his 34 were as of Feb 24).

Wasn't so long ago that we had 3 Champions League winners in the first team squad (Romeu, Bertrand and Hojbjerg I think), none of them had actually played a major part in the Final but they all had winners medals)

So are we now waiting for Ghoddos.

Maybe why they were relegated. Its the big problem with stuffing your team full of loans to get promoted. So far it looks liked we have converted 2 out of 5 (or 6). Downes is the only other one we actually want/need.