Tom28

Sampdoria have bid £6.0m rising to £7.5 with add ons for Jack Wilshere. Worth a bid at that value surely? There's a decent player in there somewhere and we're generally pretty good at extracting the best from players. For £7.5m it's risk free in today's market. Best case scenario, he could be a long term replacement for Steven Davis.

Said this on the match thread yesterday BEFORE VVD's social media post, but I know for a fact he is agitating for a move and that move is to Liverpool. He was talking to City and Chelsea but then he spoke to Klopp and that's where he wants to go. He's on strike. This 'not ready for full contact' is completely bogus. Hence his post yesterday. Call me a WUM or whatever, but I'm telling the truth. Time to sell and replace.

Naive

Sit tight. You'll find out soon enough.

Cedric and Redmond (and Stephens, JWP and Targett) all still on holiday. VVD is on strike. Club say he's not fit but he is; he just won't play. No conspiracy theories.

We'll be top of the league when we play Liverpool on 18th November.

Wagner.

It comes down to expectations whether you think this season has been a let down or not. My expectations are as follows: 1) I do not believe we will ever break into the 'top 6'. Utd, City, Arsenal, Liverpool, Spurs and Chelsea are now too big to catch without a step change in funding. Therefore, realistically we are playing for 7th in the league. We are 9th; I don't consider that a bad season; nor do I consider it a really good season from a league perspective. 2) I expect us to get one over some of the top 6 clubs and beat them in the matches we play against them. We haven't done that this season and so that has been a let down. 3) Given the PL title is beyond us, I'd expect the club to really go for it in the cups and have a decent cup run. We made it to Wembley this season so I'd mark that down as a good season from a cup perspective. 4) I'd expect us to be in the hunt for European qualification each season; either via the cups or sneaking in via the league in 7th. This season we got very close. Ultimately, we've failed to qualify for Europe so that is a disappointment but not disasterous. 5) I want to see good, exciting, intelligent football. I have actually found our football to be those things this season. Some people like to see a direct style; others like a more controlled, methodical approach. I'm in the latter camp but it's a question of personal preference and there's no right or wrong answer. I didn't particularly like the style of football under Koeman. Others will think I'm mad for preferring Puel's style over Koeman's but that's football; we all have different opinions. If I look at all 5 aspects, I'd call this an above average season versus my expectations. A Wembley final doesn't come around very often so that improves the season from average to above-average for me.

Unless something out of the blue occurs, he's 100% not going to either Liverpool or Everton. They're not even in the discussion as things stand.

Ask your 'someone' if they know where VVD is going after the Saints v City game on Saturday.....

I can't work out if you're being sarcastic or not? If you're not....he is not a man of his word and your post will look pretty foolish when the truth comes out.

Forster Cedric Stephens Yoshida Bertrand JEP PEH Long Tadic Redmond Gabba I think we'all struggle defensively without Romeu and Davis so I'd like to see us go with an attacking line up and try to outscore them. Subs: Hassen, Pied, Caceres, Clasie, Reed, Sims, JRod As an aside, the number of injuries and suspensions to key players is ridiculous; VVD, Romeu, Davis, Boufal, Austin (plus Bertrand and Gabba may not be fit either). We'll do well to get anything against a decent WBA side.

VVD is going. He's agreed a deal. We all know how this will go. Club says he's not for sale. Chelsea bid. We turn it down and repeat he's not for sale. VVD hands in transfer request. Chelsea up their bid. We accept. He leaves. Les Reed says "The player made it clear he no longer wanted to play for Southampton so at that point it became about getting the best possible deal for the club." Please, just let's not have a meltdown this year. We know this is coming. We'll continue on without him.

Those players have consistently played and delivered at the top level - Champions League and International level. VVD has not. Not to say he won't, but right now, I don't think anyone without red and white tinted glasses would class him above any in that top 10.

Far too much common sense and intelligence in your post for this forum.

What game did you watch where Stephens was bullied by Zlatan?! That simply did not happen.

All these idiots saying 'what was the point signing him if we aren't going to play him?'.... If Stephens and Yoshida get injured and we didn't have him, who plays CB dumbasses? He's been brought in as cover with VVD injured and Gaddis seemingly injured again. He clearly wasn't a transfer target for us, otherwise we'd have signed him in Jan. We found ourselves desperately short and so the free agent market was our only option and he was the best available free agent. Doesn't mean he should start.

Oh do **** off. Seriously? Stick or twist? Are you being serious? Just do one.

How the hell did Tadic get MOTM?!

No particular order but there is a top 10 in my opinion and he's not in it. 1. David Luiz 2. Gerard Pique 3. Sergio Ramos 4. Thiago Silva 5. Toby Alderweireld 6. Leonardo Bonucci 7. Diego Godin 8. Jerome Boateng 9. Laurent Koscielny 10. Giorgio Chiellini After that, I think you could argue a case for him to be somewhere in the next group - the likes of Umtiti, Vertonghen, Kompany, Varane, Pepe, Hummels, Barzagli etc. To say he's the best defender in the world, or even top 10, when all he's won is the Scottish Premier League and Scottish Cup (oh and player of the season at Southampton), and when he's only played a handful of games in the CL AND never appeared in a major international tournament, is a stretch IMO. Agree with you, Chelsea would be the best place for him. I also agree he could probably get into any side in the world, but not at the expense of any of the players I've just listed in top 10. Anyway, let's not argue....if he goes, which I suspect is now a given, he'll be a big miss, and to bring it back on topic, Sakho would be a downgrade, although not as big a downgrade as some make out. What it would give us though is the funds to go and get two top 30 CB's and a top defensive midfielder to play alongside Romeu.

Seriously, 'what did I say' versus 'what did you read'?! I literally wrote, "he's a great player", but he's not a complete player and he's not the best centre back in the world. He's up there; top 20 definitely but not the best. £50m would represent a great bit of business for us and like all the other great players that have left our club, he will find it tougher than people expect and will have his doubters at his new club. Only Sadio Mane I can think of that hasn't had that, but give him time....!!

Too late I reckon. Time for everyone to start adjusting to the fact he's played his last game for us. We'll replace as we always do (Lovren with TA, TA with VVD). The fee will be huge and get us 2/3 more top quality CB'S. We'll be stronger for it. As for VVD, and don't get me wrong, he's great to watch on the ball and aerially very dominant, and he is a great player, but I do think his positioning needs work and would be highlighted more at a bigger club. I think £50m would look like a very good deal for us next season, in the same way £8m for Fonte looks like daylight robbery.

The fact that Sims wasn't in the initial U20 squad is ridiculous. This is a young lad that has excelled this season in the Premier League, and ran the length of the field at Anfield in the League Cup Semi Final to assist the winning goal. He should be in the U21's, never mind being a late call up to the U20's. Tom Davies not making the U21's is a joke too.

Knobheads out in force on here today. JWP has been very good this season. Much improved on last year. Would definitely warrant a call up with Henderson out.

Though my the keeper looked decent. Solid and good with his feet. Impressed with Valery. In fact, the entire back four. Reed played well. Hesketh and Sims in spells. Boufal was dreadful and clearly not interested. JRod seemed to put the effort in and did ok but never really got any chances beside the early one he scuffed. Pretty disappointing.