Gorgiesaint

Just spotted this on the BBC Sportsday page Not Joseph Cala of the infamous pompey underwater casino fame? Lucky Morcambe!

Apologies, having checked, he was on the bench yesterday.

Still waiting to be part of any matchday squad though. Anyone heard any further about Bournemouth trying to get Asmir Begovic for £12m?

You can't blame Jose for wanting to get one last payday after he has found success so late in his career. He probably never expected to be as successful at the Euro's as he was, and whilst he will be well paid compared to the average man on the street, it is only natural that he tries to benefit financially from that success. Saints were never going to offer him the length of contract he wanted at the wage he wanted, and that I agree with. Saints cannot afford to have a 35 year old, who may or may not be in the team as a regular as one of the highest earners at the club. You need to make that decision on an annual basis depending on ho the individual has performed, even Chelsea with their riches do the same with Frank Lampard, John Terry, and anyone else around the 35 year old mark. That said, I'm sure West Ham wasn't what Jose intended when he handed in that transfer request but if they are prepared to pay him what he wants then so be it. It'll be interesting to review the 2018/19 season and see how many games he actually plays in. Best of luck (except against us) and thanks for the memories Jose.

BBC reporting that Stoke are now talking to Berahino. £8m up front rising to £15m with add-on's, they don't say that West Brom have agreed the deal but assume they must have if Stoke are actually talking to the striker

A And you can add National Insurance, pension contributions and bonuses to those figures as well. I would estimate the real cost of putting Fonte on that 3 year contract at £80k pw at around £30m including the loss of that £9m in sale value.

You do realise that Adam's only 17 years old and been promoted from the U18 squad as Harry Lewis has been promoted to full squad at the moment. I don't get to watch the U18/U23's having moved North, but who do we have as back up in the U23 squad?

Middlesborough agreed a fee with Chelsea for Patrick Bamford, rumoured to be £5m.

Didn't we even turn down a blank cheque signed by the late Matthew Harding of Chelsea fame for Le Tiss?

After today's result, it wouldn't surprise me if Man City put an offer in for Fonte. He could at least help get John Stones organised, and City would be able to afford to give Fonte the contract he wants.

RB Leipzig can't buy history either, but they can buy the Bundesliga. I think you'll find why they're hated more than other team in Germany.

The other issue with Fonte going to Benfica is that he'd be unlikely to get the wages he wants there. they do have some highly paid players, but according to the Mail (I know), Lindlof who he would be replacing if the Man Utd transfer goes through is only on £3.5k per week.

Just listening to Sky Sports about the latest Chinese bid to sign Diego Costa from Chelsea, rumoured £80m transfer fee and £30m pa in wages so that makes £200m cost over 4 years. Would it make sense for the Chinese to invest in a Premier League team recognised for developing young talent to become a feeder club for the Chinese market? Could it be that our business model will continue but we'll sell to the Chinese market to make money which will leave the club? or invested to make us stronger in the Premier League?

You're ignoring the fact that in the two years between selling Spider and the start of this season (the last transfer window), you've had the massive new TV deals agreed which effectively creates inflation within the game. Spider was the best defensive midfielder sold in that window at £25m, the comparison is N'Golo Kante who went at £37m in the summer. He is now the benchmark in terms of cost. (You can argue a few million about who the better player is, but I'll leave that for each to judge).

Some really good comments so far. My expectations were: top 8 in the league decent cup run hope to qualify from the EL group. Have to be honest, when I saw the draw for the Europa League, I didn't think we'd get through, but having watched the games then should have won all 6 so this was the major disappointment or the season. Done as expected in the league and cup. We have shown, in small patches, that we can play but far too often the team is happy to sit back and just try and retain possession. For me, in the second half of the season I'd like to see more tempo in are game and close down quickly for 90 minutes a game rather than just the opening 10 minutes of a game. We should do this just before the start of next season & sticky it. Would save a lot of squabbling on this forum!

Would sign Morgan just to stop Everton getting him. Mind you, if I was an Everton fan, I'd be pretty angry about swapping Barkley for Sissoko. I know Barclay's massively overrated but still, a managers job is to coach players to improve not pass the buck and swapping him for a player who only showed in the Euro's (played in his home country) and has failed at two clubs here demonstrates Koeman was not the right man for us.

Well what do you know... http://www.portsmouth.co.uk/news/crime/update-woman-arrested-after-100-pompey-shirts-stolen-in-break-in-at-club-shop-1-7742519

Oh dear. First they boo their players, and now they're arguing about the 'Shareholders' Wall... http://www.portsmouth.co.uk/sport/football/pompey/pompey-fans-anger-after-wall-of-fame-hitler-tweet-1-7740455

Oh dear indeed. Real shame for the lad as he had kept 2 clean sheets in the two previous games. At least he's been playing (think that's the last 11 he's played for Rayo) since starting the season on the bench, but Tono is out for the season. Fingers crossed a run of games will help him get some consistency.

Well we did get that upset and so 'rewarded' with Wigan away on 14th January.

I know, but it's hard not to think like that. I feel its more like an old episode of Bullseye, 'Here's what you could have won...' and Pedro Pinto wheels out a speedboat for us!

According to the BBC gossip column, a journalist confirms that Saints were one of the clubs with scouts at the Benfica v Sporting game at the weekend. Wonder who we were watching? https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CzaVoNYWEAEOTQt.jpg:large

The last time I did it was WHL for the 7-2 defeat to Spurs when Hoddle was in charge. Not a good day...

And Saints fans never, ever get tickets for an away game in the home end...

Saw Saints score seven against Schalke 04 in the Rotterdam pre-season tournament back in 1980. We won 7-2 and then beat FC Bruges 3-1 in the final the next day (sadly didn't get to this one to see us lift a trophy!). In competitive games, Milan's has been my only trip so nothing there.