Cabrone

Damn shame, great player and best of luck to him. Yes we got the money but I'd rather have kept Luke TBH, that cash could easily be spent on failed signings whereas Luke was guaranteed class. Looks like we flew a bit too close to the sun last season and now we are getting a beating from the top 4, albeit with a pile of cash. There is little real competition in this league, wish the top 4 would join up with a super european league and then maybe we could have some real competition.

Suarez's dad?

They both got offers that they felt they couldn't refuse and left. Happens every day in workplaces up and down the country. Football is no different an getting all wound up over it isn't going to make a scrap of difference. I'd like to thank Poch and especially Ricky for their fantastic service whilst in employment at the club.

It's basically a friendly now so we might as well try out some new faces. This is the first game of the campaign for 2016, let's blood in the youth starting now.

They say that the biggest difference between a championship team and a prem one is the finishing, a championship club can often match a premiership one in defence and midfield but will generally lose because the premiership team has strikers that need less chances. The same applies at international level, we played Italy and when Balotelli got his one good chance he buried it. England had several decent chances and spurned them, Rooney missing a particularly good opportunity. Against Uruguay Suarez got a couple of opportunities and buried them, Rooney had a header infront of the goal and hit the post. That's the difference between losing and drawing\winning. We never go far because we never have the absolute cutting edge that the top teams do, Van Persie and Robben are banging them in for the Dutch, Suarez we all know about, Messi is putting his chances away, Muller has been on target whilst England spurn their opportunities. You can argue about tactics all day long but if you don't have a razor sharp striker up front and the other lot do the chance are that you will lose. When you need several opportunities to score they just need one. IMO we've never really had that special striker, Owen was probably the closest, Lineker was very good and Shearer whilst magnificent in the prem was a bit subdued at international level. Until we get one we'll always get outdone by the best.

The UK has got a good flag but a crap national anthem, it's just so boring and uninspiring. I'd rather have one of 'Land of hope and glory', 'Jerusalem' or 'I vow to thee my country', much better tunes. However the football England should have their own separate anthem - .

Been watching England in their last 9 world cups and it's always the same script, fans gnash their teeth over penalties, unlucky free kicks, sendings off, dodgy goal line decisions, bad ref decisions, formations etc etc but the real truth is England just aren't good enough and never have been. We don't pass the ball quick enough, we don't close down quick enough, we have always been suspect to defensive lapses and we have always lacked a top quality striker - yes we've had good strikers but never a Suarez. Rooney needs a load of chances to convert, Suarez needs 1. Unlike 2010 at least the team gave it their best but it's not good enough to trouble any of the top teams. For a country that has one of the, if not the most moneyed leagues on the planet you'd have thought we could produce players that can really compete but we never can, are they coached to death? Are young English players being pushed aside for cheaper imports or are we for some reason simply unable to find players that can really do it? Sometimes I wonder if we shouldn't just merge England, Scotland, Wales and N.Ireland to team UK to see if we had a better chance. At the moment there is only 1 genuine world class player of British origin and he's Welsh and will never play in a world cup as it is. He's the kind of player that could have made a difference last night but he's probably sitting on a beach somewhere.

Suarez is a beast, took us to the cleaners on scraps. That was the difference, they have a top draw striker - we don't. Thank god all the wailing and gnashing of teeth that accompany England can be put to bed for at least 2 more years. We always delude ourselves that they are OK but we all know deep down that they aren't really all that. Now, what about our opening day fixture and is big Ron going to sign Pelle or what?

Really pleased with this appointment, should stem the tide of players leaving. Welcome aboard Ron manager, jumpers for goalposts...................marvellous. Fingers crossed he can get Graziano Pellè , the guy looks like he'd make a really decent replacement for Ricky and you'd assume that big Ron might command some loyalty with him.

Didn't think that England played too bad atall, loved the attacking intent with players not scared to shoot if a chance came up. This was light years ahead of the dross served up in 2010. Sterling looked a real live wire, and Sturridge took his one big chance well. Rooney played the pass but overall was pretty subdued, if you are going to play him play him where he's at his best. Johnson as usual got stuck in no man's land a few times, in one Italian attack the Italian player was already ahead of him yet he just jogged back like he didn't have a care in the world. He's not good enough. Maybe my expectations are low but all I wanted was for England to go out ad give it a real go and they did. It was a tight match which could have gone either way so I'm not too dissappointed. Hopefully Uruguay play against us as bad as they did yesterday and England can get some points on the board.

You'll never know until you try, at least he might be a big enough name to stem any exodous. Besides which if he comes we'll have incharge. Jumpers for goal posts, rolling the ball into dung and then going for the header,mmm? Marvellous. Now that's the kind of team talk that should do it.

Olic is more of a relic, way too old for our youth focus.

I think this one is going to be a low scoring draw or a tight Italian win. Either way I cannot see it being anything other than a fairly dull encounter, neither team will want to lose and fear will rule over ambition.

For me 3 players completely stand out. No 1 has to be Le Tiss as he took every one of his penalties in the top flight, 2nd is Ricky Lambert with his 100% record for us and 3rd is Beattie who scored 16 from 17 in the prem league (and I think had a 100% rate for us?). We've been very blessed with the quality of our penalty takers over the last 25 years.

England aren't good but they are not bad too, they could go either way in this tournament depending on whether 1. They become proficient at keeping the ball under pressure, as they are going to have to do against a lot of teams esp S.American ones. 2. They get ruthless infront of the goal, they won't get many chances and they have to bury them, Sturridge has to deliver. 3. They all play with real hunger and a willingless to go the extra mile. Equador's 2nd was because the England defence failed to close the scorer down, the goal was not down to a lack of ability moreso a lack of enough hunger and determination to make sure that the striker was never going to get the chance in the first place. We need a bit of the 'do or die' about us. If they can do this then I don't see why they can't have a good tournament, if they can't then it's back home after 2 weeks. Personally I wish for once that England go out and have a bloody good tear up, take it to the opposition and even if they go down they go down all guns blazing. I'd be OK with that.

If he comes from the Dutch league let's hope he's more Bergkamp than Van Wolfswinkel. His record in Italy was nothing special but he does seem to have thrived in the Eredvisie, maybe he's more suited to faster paced football in which case he could be a good buy, he certainly plays in the role we need.

Best of luck Rickie, you've been brilliant for this club and £4M for a 32 y.o isn't too shabby in all honesty. As one of the biggest reasons for our rapid ascendency back to the prem you can leave with your head held high. I'll be giving you a round of applause if I see you again. This is one of those transfers you can't really begrudge, the player has totally earned it.

There's going to be a lot of gutted younger fans this weekend, their hero has just left. As an older fan I've seen it all before, every dog has his day but I would like to say best of luck Rickie, you've been bloody awesome for SFC over the last 5 years. You've earned everything the hard way through putting in a real shift and you'll always get a good reception at SMS. No histrionics, tantrums or diva'ness, just talent and graft. If any aspiring kids out there want a role model then look no further than Rickie Lambert, Southampton goal machine.

The only way I can see him playing is if the new manager is Osvaldo's girlfriend (and even then I'm not too sure).

Rhodes, Ings or Austin are English strikers that wouldn't break the bank, untested at prem level but then again neither was Ricky and he did OK. We also still have the Osvaldo option if needed. Another possible (?) name is Konstantinos Mitroglou at Fulham, didn't really feature for them last season due to injury but could be a cheap'ish option.

Very strange move if true, why would Pool who I presume are going for the title next year be looking at a player at the end of his career? Still if true then all the best to Rickie, been one of our best signings ever - couldn't begrudge him a final pay day and he'll get a warm welcome at SMS whatever happens. So that would leave us with what, a crocked player, a kid and a want-away Italian? Are we doing a total football 4-6-0 formation?

Not atall surprised 'Pool would want the spine of our team, our midfield is one of the best in the league and our first defence is solid, the weak spots are GK when Artur is out and the strikers. Keep what we've got, get another decent GK, a top class finisher and a decent CB and we are well in the hunt for a European place. I'm not atall surprised top 4 clubs are very interested in our midfield, it's top class.

Clive Woodward

Would be a decent signing but why would he come here to compete with Artur when he's already got Prem football lined up at Leicester? If we could get him though I'd welcome it.

Gordon Strachan