Dig Dig

Thank you sir

He's having his own little meltdown today. There isn't even a problem with our RB situation!

No worries, cheers. Shame for Villa, makes you wonder what planet some of these owners and execs are actually living on. Embarrassing.

Anything interesting if you're listening?

More likely to save a bit of face in case another deal isn't done and he ends up staying.

Doesn't have to represent a shift in policy but it could easily relate to Caulker being wanted permanently by other sides so it wouldn't be a huge surprise if he goes this window. It's not as if we actually need him.

Yes, no one would pay £16M on a loan fee alone.

He's been terrible in the most part. The Liverpool game was one of the worst CB performances you'll likely see.

Anyone would be hard pushed to find a "compariable" club as our situation over the last couple of years was fairly unique. We had 4-5 England Internationals, a strong spine of players and an attractive, energetic style of play and a rep for having the balls to play academy lads. Post this, we recouped more in transfers for a club of our size than other every has or probably ever will. If you think we've done well at taking advantage of what is probably a once in a generation situation, fair enough and good for you. However, it's pretty fair and obvious for others to at least be talking about what we have done. We have a team which is probably depreciating in value overall, don't really have a recognised style of play, crashed out of Europe at the first hurdle and were completely embarrassed in the cup and now struggling in the league. Wahhh wahhh indeed.

I never said it was. It is possible to sign better than we did though.

What's wrong with that? We'd be better of with 2-3 players who have the stamina and consistency to start each week.

Regardless as to whether you replace like for like, it doesn't mean that you go out and buy players who are too weak and/or slow for the intensisty of the premier league which the likes of Clasie, Romeu, Cedric and Juami all struggle with although they could come good with time. The less said about Martina, the better.

He was our best player IMO. Not saying he was great, which doesn't reflect well on anyone else, but he was the only one of our midfield to come out with any credit.

This is true although Koeman has been alluding to a different scenario regarding investment on a couple of occassions but against the backdrop of players sold he can still largely get away with it. Maybe it's a case that he feels that it's better to get playes he knows a bit about if he feels restricted, more likely via wages. As I've said before, our structure shouldn't be about one man, not with the merry go round of managers most clubs get through these days. The long term ramifications if the situation doesn't improve can be difficult for a club to correct.

When Mane was linked to Utd in the summer I think it was reported that he was on 25K a week. Whilst some of our top players are on wages around this figure (if true), it's easy for other clubs to double or treble their wages overnight.

We still harbour hopes of having 50% of our first team made up on academy lads so maybe this is still an aim for 2016? Or will be aiming to be the showcase club which was the justification for last years approach? Or will be just think "**** it, Ron, here is a bit a cash, go find someone who you can work with on that budget".

He'd be well out of our price range. He is one of Swansea's biggest assets so they would likely want silly money for him and would also be unwilling to sell to us from a PR perspective.

There was loads of booing of the ref in the first half and Long had to go off after gettig elbowed in the head which the ref let go, right after letting him get one in the back as well. Not sure how you can see anything differently.

Once all our players are settled in and got strong enough and quick enough for the league, we'll be fine.

The MP/Koeman comparisons are a bit nonsensical as there are too many variables over a pretty small timeframe to consider. However I do believe that over the course of their respective careers, MP will be considered to be the better and more successful manager overall.

I'm not looking to blame Uncle Les. He's done a very good job overall. He did however enjoy putting our approach to transfers and player development up on a pedestal, especially last season. You can't expect people not to scrutinise this if the evidence points to something which looks very different. Either we are overly reliant upon Koeman which insinuates that player profiling ins't bespoke or we have miscalculated what was actually needed. he player profiling is bespoke to Southampton,” says Paul Mitchell, Southampton’s head of recruitment. “Really we try to interline our recruitment with our philosophy. It’s important our players play in our system and in our style and cope with the demands of the manager and the coaching staff. Our lists aren’t endless. It’s not every player that can play in our style but we look for the best fit for us when we put together our recruitment targets. “The player profiling is bespoke to Southampton,” says Paul Mitchell, Southampton’s head of recruitment. “Really we try to interline our recruitment with our philosophy. It’s important our players play in our system and in our style and cope with the demands of the manager and the coaching staff. Our lists aren’t endless. It’s not every player that can play in our style but we look for the best fit for us when we put together our recruitment targets. “At the moment we are a very athletic team. We cover an awful lot of distance. We’ve matured a lot over the last few years in the Premier League. The attributes of a Southampton player? He has to be athletic, he has to be able to move and engage with the environment and engage with the information that Southampton give them to make them successful in their careers.” Identifying potential new signings is a collaborative effort but Southampton will already know who they want to buy next summer. Mitchell and his team work on targets for Koeman and he will make suggestions too. A lot of time is spent in that room they call the black box and the system means that Southampton were able to move quickly for Pellè and Tadic, who have both been a roaring success so far. Southampton do not want to block the path to the first team for the academy players but signing proven, experienced talent is also part of the ethos.

Yet 'the Southampton way' is supposed to prevent this. For all of the back slapping, self indulgent documentaries, interviews and articles about how we do things, we end up falling into the same traps as everyone else who we like to turn our noses up at.

The "board" is probably the wrong term to use but ultimately the technical, footballing functions are the ones which will come under scrutiny although the board are the ones who give them the budgets to work within. It's not the cost element which is the issue with Clasie and others, it just seems that as the premier league has become all about high tempo and energy, we've signed a lot of players who are either slow, weak or a combination of the two.