Saint Pete

I don't think Townsend is as bad as some are making out, but definitely a question mark over whether he is worth the price quoted. He's certainly not the finished article, but personally think he has shown potential to be a player than can have an impact. Needs more end product, but maybe enough there for Koeman to work with to improve him? However, if available, I would rather see us make a move for Gnabry, although that would probably only be a loan I guess. Have been impressed with him in his brief appearances for Arsenal to date. Not sure if he's injured at present though?

To improve as a squad, you need to have backup players who are good enough and feel like they are part of the squad - it's called man management. I thought the whole point of signing another keeper was to improve our options in that department, which was a problem last season. If Koeman's comments push Boruc towards the exit, I personally don't think we will be any better off than we were last season (i.e. one decent keeper but no backup) and will need to go out and recruit another keeper.

I agree. Can't help thinking the club are managing the Boruc situation badly. I don't know why Koeman had to come out so publicly at this stage making Forster his No.1 keeper and talking about Boruc contract, rather than just saying "We have 2 quality keepers now who will provide competition for places". Would have been far better for team morale in my opinion.

The club really do some hell bent on dismantling the entire successful team from last season, don't they? I fully expect Cork and Boruc (and probably Morgan) to be gone by 1st Sept.

Interesting that he describes keeping a core of disgruntled players as an "insane risk". Personally, I think selling off said players before lining up adequate replacements is an insane risk.

I've stopped listening now - nothing to hear here!

I agree. Lovren is a key signing for Liverpool as they were weak at CB last year - you would certainly expect him to get the most games of the 3. I think Lallana could do OK eventually but think he will need time to settle in, so it's a case of whether he is allowed that time.

Don't really understand the logic in signing Taider unless we are going to sell a midfielder, as we are already pretty well stacked in this department. I fear this could mean the end for Cork? (assuming Morgan is staying now).

Good post - totally agree with all of that.

But Ralph says we are going to re-invest all of our sales in the team - surely he wouldn't say something like that if it wasn't true, would he?

Unbelievable incompetence - the board just seem to have had no proper strategy throughout the whole of this summer. Unforgiveable given that everyone knew we would be targeted with bids for many of our players. It's astounding that they were taken aback by the fans reaction when it became clear they were happy to sell the entire 1st team!!

Can't listen at work - did he ask about Fonte and Cork?

Absolutely. I think I will only be confident in this "guarantee" of Morgan and Jay staying if we hear something from them confirming they are happy with this apparent "about-face". I still think it's more than likely that Morgan will be sold if he digs his heels in and says more publicly that he wants out. I just don't have confidence in our board to see this through.

This is the message that should have gone out after the sales of Lambert, Lallana and Shaw - a much more definite not for sale. However, I have zero confidence that we will stick to this based on what's happened to date. I suspect Morgan will ask to leave and then we will cave in again saying that we had no choice. I think Jay is more likely to stay but only because of his injury.

On an individual basis they can all be argued as good value deals for us (with possible exception of Lambert), but it's the cumulative effect that's the problem. I am sure we are intending to make purchases for replacements which we HOPE will be somewhere near as good in future, but there are absolutely no guarantees of that, which is why it is always more sensible to operate a policy of "evolution" of the squad rather than revolution. I simply cannot accept that selling this many of our first team in one window is a sensible policy, no matter how good the individual deals are. We are risking too much on all of the signings (assuming we make them) and/or promotions from the youth set-up working out quickly enough. You refer to Pelle being an "exciting upgrade" on Lambert for instance, but we are still replacing a proven Prem striker with an unproven one - a great record in the Dutch league is no cast iron guaranteed of success in England. It is acceptable to take 2 or 3 risks of this nature while keeping the rest of the spine of your team intact but not 6 or 7 in my opinion!

Yes, perhaps he tried and stuck to his guns for all of 5 minutes before caving in! The point is that we should have layed down the law with the players a long time before now on how many we were prepared to let go and after that put down the shutters and that's it - no more negotiation. "You are under contract - get out there and train". It's as simple as that. With a young player like Chambers, I don't buy that he has the power to force through a move just by saying he wants to go - if we told him No, for the sake of his career, he would have just got his head down and got on with it. What the club are doing gives us no power to hold on to any of our players now - it's open season.

"Determined to keep our best young players at the club". Really? Clearly not that determined that we are able to say a simple "No" to a 19 year old who has played only 25 times.

Why?

Possibly, but there will always be some players who feel not totally in tune with a particular manager - I expect it to be no different under Koeman. Players will generally not be so happy with a manager who is not picking them every week! In general, the spirit amongst the squad and the effort that they put in for the manager throughout last season was excellent and a major part of our success. Most of our players improved under MP and you have to give him some credit for that.

This is exactly the problem with the "It's OK, we are going to re-invest the proceeds in the squad" line that the club are taking with the player sales. You have to question whether the quality of player that we need to replace Lambert, Lallana, Shaw, Morgan, Lovren will now be up for joining us when they've just seen us let virtually ALL of our international class players leave? If we were just letting one or two go (say Lallana & Shaw) and then put down the shutters to everyone else under contract, then I think you could make a case to say the club were still looking to move forward to prospective quality players we want to bring in.

In my opinion, Ramirez has had enough chances to show what he can do for Saints, and one decent corner for Uruguay doesn't change anything. He clearly has some ability but is proof that ability alone is not enough to be a successful player at Premier league level, you need to show application, determination and work hard for your team as well, and this is where he has been lacking. It is quite telling that those who say we should keep faith with him refer back to one performance from a couple of years back, an indicator that he just hasn't done enough for us. Obviously it will be up to Koeman to decide, but I would far rather he put all his energies into trying to keep the players that HAVE performed consistently well for Saints rather than trying to re-mould the team to suit someone who hasn't performed.

The Comedy of Errors (Rupert Lowe's time in charge)

Joleon Lescott linked with Hull today, available on a free transfer :- http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/27888606 Would Saints be interested? Experienced Prem defender and good centre backs hard to come by, so could do a lot worse IMO.

Never a pen in a million years that.

Absolutely agree with this. It's all very easy to say "if they don't want to be here, let them go" without thinking of what the consequences will be for our team. Les Reed can talk about the legions of top quality players banging down our door, but actually signing them is a different matter, because players agents are probably hawking them around everywhere. If people think we will be able to let 6 or 7 of our first team leave and replace them with equivalent talents just like that, they are kidding themselves. We need to draw the line somewhere and sometimes it pays to stick to your guns and not just take the money - look at Suarez at Liverpool last season.