tajjuk

Surely can only be one or the other, would prefer Coutinho.

What is pre-activation. Is that what we call a warm up these days?

I think we owe a lot of things to Georges Prost. It is very WTF. I mean Mourinho! Third party though so that tempers it a little and it is Belague as well, who seems to have a little bit of a man crush on MP.

Really? Team all going on a trip together, looking at the ground for one of the biggest and most successful clubs in the world who we are keen on trying to emulate. How is that not team building? Imagine all the snippets we would be getting from Adkins about this, it's right up his positivity, corporate management type alley.

They have an app for this that generates these things. Player X being signed is the next Dalglish/Keegan/Souness/Hansen and is delighted to sign for the biggest club in the world. Player X not being signed is unknown/unproven/greedy/injury prone/liverpool weren't even interested/well below the calibre of player for the greatest lcub in the world.

Why not? I have an image of Cortese with a big list of all the transfer gossip and just getting on the phone to random lcubs going "I see (generic big club) have made a bid for x player, whatever they are paying we will pay £3 million more"

It's team building and it's no secret that it's the Barcelona model who we have being trying to replicate. I think it's fine.

Erm same sources that said this three days ago?

Would love to see Biglia, Coutinho and Butland (then loaned straight away to a championship club) don't think he's first team just yet but it's looking likely he could be cut price and would be worth it on potential. What a window that would be. Also don't think the Astori deal is dead, think we are playing a waiting game there and Cagliari's financial situation might force their hand close to the end of the month.

Awful just Awful.

Yes, true but we don't want to seem like we are obsessed with them down the road do we;) Reckon it will take a bid of around £15 million to get this dude (so we are looking at 17/18 million Euros I reckon) and then hope a decent wage, promise of regular football and linking up with Poch will be enough to persuade him to move. Ramirez cost £12 million from a club struggling financially, Inter have debts but with Schneider off the books they aren't desperate and want to keep him but a deecent high bid for a non-first teamer might be too much to turn down.

Allegedly Espanyol's new ground is based on St Mary's after their visit in 2001.

Don't think we will overpay in wages, our strategy seems to be paying more in transfer fees to keep the 'bigger' clubs out of the race. It's the main advantage we seem to have over Liverpool that we have a bit more cash than them, doubt we can (or are willing) to out do them in wages. Seems a more sensible strategy than QPR, taking a hit of £3-5 million on a one off transfer fee is a lot better than being stuck with an underperforming player on a 5 year contract worth £20 million.

Interesting had a feeling we might be back in for this one due to the new manager. Sounds like he doesn't want to go and Inter don't really want to sell so this may rumble on for a while. Cue loads of Liverpool fans either;- A. Say there is no way he would sign for such a small club as us. or B. Claim he's rubbish and they don't want him because such a small club like us want him.

What a silly thread, no he doesn't. One of the most gifted players of a generation who stayed at one of the smallest clubs in the league having an ego problem is absurd. Never met MLT but on SKy he just comes across as a genuine fan when tlaking about Saints.

Yep. From Wiki - and The reason both Bilbao and A.Madrid are red and white is because of us. Saints also have links with introducing football to Brazil as it was one of our players at the time that took the first footballs there.

Both have been excellent in recent weeks and a lot of our defensive stability is owed to them. Also agree Cork was maybe under par last night. Would like both of them to add a bit more to their attakcing game though.

I'm worried about the higher defensive line we tried to play, we got un-done by it in the half by Anichebe and they would have scored from this if wasn't for a very very good save from Boruc and a complete hash by Jelavic. Both chances were because we left a lot of space for the pacey Anichebe to run into and we don't have the centre backs who can get back. Fonte isn't much quicker and from what I understand neither is Forren so this high line is a big risk, especially against teams who can pick a better through ball than Everton. L Liked the extra pressing but we did burn out and we showed that we need more quality options for the front 4. Really though it was an Adkins team, playing the way we have played under him. Even MP recognised this.

Agree, my first thought after the game was that we looked "workman like" without Ramirez on the pitch. Like a slightly better version of Wolves last season. Whilst I acknowledge that having too many flair players in tough away trips might not be the right choice, we certainly missed the close control, trickery and composure that Lallana brings us in the final third last night. We also need pace IMO, compare the counter attacks by Gaston in the first half and then Jay Rod in the second, when we countered second half our players ran into blind alleys and good positions were wasted due to either a lack of pace (Puncheon, Lambert, Davis) or a lack of control/dribbling (Jay Rod, De Ridder). I also think "he sh*ts when he wants" Puncheon needs challenging for his place, he's been very good at times this season but still can be very frustrating. It's why I am hoping the club are pursuing players like Coutinho and Zarate who have both pace and dribbling ability that will turn those draws into wins. This playmaker from Espanyol (Verdu) will still be useful as Gaston can't play everygame and is still inconsistent so brings us options in the no.10 at what sounds like a cheap price, but the priority now has to be a wide man who can play either flank, has flair and pace. Such a player is worth a big fee IMO.

I see you can't man up and admit that you were very wrong about him. He showed last night and in previous games that he is the top class goalkeeper that many of us said he would be given some time. He made one world class save and one very good save and did everything else that was asked of him calmy and confidently. I'm not sure what more you expect of a keeper. it was interesting to watch Gary Neville talke about De Gea against Spurs and how his poor punch at the end undid his earlier good saves and how that a top class keeper needs to do everything right. Ours seemed to do that last night. Needs a contract extension.

Zarate or Coutinho is the type of player we need, not sure about this Fernandez guy from Malaga, not playing and seems very much a striker and at 27 doubt he will improve so would rather have Jay Rod/Mayuka as back ups options.

Does his research and seems generally honest in his opinions, not afraid to interupt the presenter either.

yes, however I want him out as soon as we can, did you see him loose and then get nowhere near Jelavic when Anichebe squared it? Lucky Jelavic is a shadow of last season.

Morgan and mentions for Rickie, Shaw, Boruc and Gaston.

Yeh but to be fair he was top class at the end of the game giving credit to Nigel for the performance.