Gorgiesaint

But then (I'm assuming) lived most or all of your life in one of the countries and so there is no language barrier for the Premier league. Trying to take it from a Brazilian neutral perspective - he has one country where the club has qualified for the Champions League, the country has a pretty similar climate to his home country and Brazilians have a consistent ability to be able to settle there, the other country has a club which finished 14th last season, it gets blooming cold in the winter (yes I know it does in Italy as well), and Brizilians have a limited history of being able to settle... but at least we've got Guly!!! Not often I agree with Turkish but he's right on this one - if the offers on the table are the same then it's no contest. However the question will be how strong are Napoli's finances compared to ours and what they can offer financially. One last thing, Damiao AND Gomez - would that work?

Whilst I would love to see Banega in a Saints shirt, Damiao would be such a statement of intent that would be noticed across Europe and South America, it would raise our profile and make future signings easier.

They won the plate competition in their age group - not the main competition. They finished 3rd in their group, having lost 2 and drawn of the group games. Good experience though.

Hmmm... Real Sociedad now have the possibility of losing Illarramendi to Real Madrid, didn't someone post about Morgan possibly going there as his replacement? And how often do teams play each other in pre-season friendlies when they've just done a deal over a player. http://www.dailystar.co.uk/football/view/324653/? Maybe putting 2 and 2 together and getting 6785 in typical SWF style, but I'd certainly feel more comfortable when we've signed another DM.

Good shout, surprised that Alvaro Negredo of Sevilla hasn't been linked with more teams as well. I know he's recently been linked with Man City but appears to be well down their list. Perhaps NC could get a discount for buying Soldado & Banega!

Malky MacKay just been 'interviewed' by Alan Brazil on Talksport - not a mention of Wanyama. Did say they had a fee agreed for Tom Ince but that he'd been on holiday so speaking to him over the next few days.

Well, that's the first positive bit of news I've heard about the new kit...

As much as I dislike Poyet as a persona (not knowing him personally), that is totally out of order by Brighton. When I posted earlier, it was because I saw the BBC website feed, and I assumed that he already knew. Going to press whilst he's on national tv is bad enough but that... well, certainly won't help them find a new manager - until next week when it will all be forgotten.

Was just going to say, that'll make an interesting half time interview!

There used to be a pub in Edinburgh that I'd pass on the way home from work everyday called 'The Vat & Fiddle'. Never once failed to make me chuckle sat on the bus catching up on the day's events on this thread.

I see that Valencia have brought in a defensive midfielder, Javi Fuego, from Rayo Vallecano. Maybe the first signs of allowing Ever Banega to move on? http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/12691/8787392/Javi-Fuego-reveals-his-excitement-at-joining-Valencia

Anthony Stokes maybe? Wanyama will have just played 2 World Cup qualifiers in early June, not sure if Kenya played any friendlies before that.

I see that having bowled Essex out for 20 in 14.2 overs, Chapple & Hogg then in their next match bowled Northants out unchanged for 62 in 29.5 overs in the first innings and had them at 22-3 in the second innings - not sure how many overs they've bowled unchanged in the County Championship but the BBC website reported it as close to 60. Must be some kind of record? Northants Chief Executive David Smith non to happy with the pitch

Remember being in Rotterdam in 1980 visiting family so got to go to the semi-final day of the Rotterdam pre-season tournament. Keegan played his second game (having debuted the previous week against Hamburg) as we beat Schalke 04, I can't remember the final score but I think it was 7-2. Feyenoord drew 3-3 with FC Bruges in the other game (with Bruges winning on penalties). Always remember the Feyenoord fans supporting Saints as the other team in red & white (not to mention we were playing the Germans!) Wasn't allowed to go to the finals, and couldn't find out what happened except that we did win the tournament. Nice to do a stadium tour of the Dell years later and see the trophy in the cabinet.

Probably one area where MP hasn't got hold of the British way of doing things where the captaincy is important. I reckon he takes the continental view where the player who's been with the club the longest is the captain, but doesn't have need to drive the team forward like our captains do - all the players are supposed to do that. Lallana would be our longest serving player in the first XI from last season?

I have to say that I think the Christmas fixtures are pretty unfair - it looks like whoever is away on Boxing Day is then also away on Saturday 28th - those at home have two home fixtures. Big advantage not to be travelling when you've got 2 fixtures in 3 days - I do feel the Saturday fixtures should have been reversed.

Knew he could play CB but thought he was right sided, no use then.... next!!!

When you've spent so many years telling porkies about the playing budgets, no wonder other Chairman find it hard to believe they're actually being honest (If they are)...

The only player we might consider is Danny Wilson, a 21 year old right back, just signed from Liverpool. Will have probably taken a £1-2k pw contract at Hearts and they can't register him so would be cheap. Not sure if he would be good enough but worth a shout value wise just to take a look as back up to Clyne. But he will probably want first team football, hence why he left Liverpool.

Haha, I'd forgotten that was him. Left the hand brake off whilst filling his car at the petrol station on the way to game and broke his leg & ankle. Perhaps offering him a driver might swing the deal!!

Okay so a couple of questions for the OP - if you're not thrilled with Lovren as a signing, who would have thrilled you as a signing? And would you realistically expected Saints to sign them?

Ignoring the fact that they're rivals and that they're in the same country for a moment, but would you buy pompey as a feeder club? Probably not, as it's a basket case of club, owning little other than what can be loosely termed 'a ground'. Welcome to Hearts - except they don't own their ground. Not sure of the status of the training ground, but if they own that (and if they do it'll mortgaged to the hilt) then it's a nice training ground. Trouble is, they is a very real chance, they won't be playing at Tynecastle in the future as the development potential of the site is worth far more than a football ground, so if you're buying then yes you will probably get the club fairly cheap but you will need £20-30m to build them a new stadium. The second point is what benefit do you get from a feeder club in Scotland, are they going to produce cultured footballers who can pass the ball? ART, have you seen any games from north of the border recently? There's more cultured football in League One (and probably League Two) So to answer the original question, no.

I've corrected that for you.

Was in the sun this morning, bid £4m - seems low even though he's only got a year left on his contract given Liverpool were supposed to have bid £8m and upwards last year http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/football/4960129/Ian-Holloway-in-4m-Crystal-Palace-bid-for-Blackpools-Tom-Ince.html

Interesting snippet, but if was a choice between the player and the manager at Benfica... well the manager isn't in a strong position to issue that demand against a quality striker. Benfica were supposed to be offering him a new contract, but given they lost the league by losing to Porto having been unbeaten all season until that last game, Portuguese cup final and Europa League final, they were rumours that he was going to be given the sack instead. Fantastic player if we could get him, but I'd be very, very surprised if he did join us - and I'd be concerned at what wages we'd be paying.