Torrent Of Abuse

The starting price is £25m + 20% sell on fee + £10,000 every time Arsene Wenger farts

Would suggest that means Sinclair with Isgrove as backup? I'd be happy with that as it gives a combination of improved first team player and room for the youngster to play 10+ games too. Sad to see Punch go though.

That (if true) is a wonderful story. That transfer would have to be the gift that keeps on giving. On the one hand, we got a serious amount of money for the transfer itself. Second, we'd get a decent sum every time he played a slice of the game. Thirdly, if they limit his game time then it sends a wonderful message to young players that Southampton and not Arsenal are the home of young first-team football (thus encouraging a new generation of players to come here instead of there) and lastly, if there is a sell-on clause then we get money even if they sell him on. All it would take to make it better would be for Cortese to request Arsenal loan him back and then (due to the fine print) tell them that Arsenal also have to pay Saints £10,000 if he plays more than 20 minutes for us too.

Glad to hear so many daughters lined up to go. I'm over in Oz but my three girls will all grow up to be Saints. Especially my eldest (6) who stayed up late to watch the stream of the promotion match against Coventry the year before last. Well... Half of it anyway

Portsmouth Football Club? Who are they? exactly...

If he really is expected to get just a handful of games then yes, I can see the appeal of going out on loan but I think he's more advanced in his career than that. I'd expect him to get around the same number of games this year - more if we have a decent cup run. With that many games, he'd still develop well and I think he'd probably snub a move to a Championship club. He seems to have confidence. You only need to hear him talk about Bale wanting to stay if he was at Saints now to know he values the club pretty highly. He probably sees Saints as a big part of his England recognition too. Ambitious lad. We're lucky.

Good for Saints and England that we are giving our youngsters such important roles in the squad.

But are they new signings or old players with their names mispronounced?

I mean... Surely we're not sticking with Fox are we? Please..?

Just what I was thinking. Amongst the young players don't we have one right back and two centre backs? It might suggest that a left back is close to signing? Which seems a fairly interesting thing to me.

Can the contractor not get in trouble for using substandard building materials? Actually, come to think of it, if I had a Pompey shirt, I'd hide it away too. That's probably how he hides his kit at home when normal people come to visit. You know, people checking he's following his bail conditions and not parking the caravan too close to a school or anything.

Quite. Where you finish in 2013. Where you finished in 1984 surprisingly doesn't feature very high in most players' thinking. By "rightful level" I am referring to us as a sizeable provincial team who have a modest reputation outside of the UK having been out of the top flight for so long. I doubt we would even attract these guys in the years before we were relegated - even with money. Players like this might take one more season of improvement in the club to convince. Or a redeveloped ground. Something which says we are a top half Premier League club more than finishing a few points off the dropzone. To reach for these guys now shows ambition but also a degree of impatience. We might have to get knocked back quite a few times before we sign guys of this kind of reputation. Happy to be proven wrong though!

Probably a lot more of this kinda thing gonna go on from now on. We are looking to sign players who are far beyond what is considered our rightful level. All the money in the world won't necessarily convince more than a handful of them to sign. We have a long way to go before players even know about us, let alone want to sign for us.

I'm concerned with how we're turning into a cynical football-centred business. I long for the good old days, where we were a small family concern where you could get a room for the night and possibly a small under-cooked breakfast if you got up between 7:30 and 7:45.

If you're gonna name Mark Hughes, I'll suggest Stuart Ripley. averaged about 1 goal in 10 games in his hey day. League winner. One goal in 53 for us. And couldn't give a ****.

I think he's implying how 70 or so years ago the Germans went on a European tour - including a little stop off in Strasbourg.

So we're taking the best possible news and arguing over it now as whether it was bad PR or not? Holy ****!

I'll go for four signings in and a **** load out. The quality of the signings will of course be key and I doubt they will disappoint.

Of course, as the masses on Southsea common will attest, the only noble thing is to be there for the FA cup and fukc off when things turn bad. Best not to try to make wine with those sour grapes and just move straight on to making vinegar. Plenty of chips (particularly on shoulders) to soak it up.

Delighted it was all sorted before the pre-season. Before the last match FFS. 10 years ago, this would have been a drama that played out over the closed season while Alpine popped like popcorn in a microwave. Nice to see an overwhelmingly positive message via the official site too. Not just an "it's all ok" message but one promising much for the next few years. How unsaintly. How marvellous P.S. I appreciate MLG missed the sarcasm earlier but that's easy enough on a forum. Can we all play the ball and not the man please? It's a forum not a turkey shoot

That's what I mean - of course I want Arsenal to win so we can breathe easier but I'm just saying that even if an awful set of results came through, we still get a lifeline through other games going to the wire. I'd hate to see a rival playing QPR on the last day for instance. I'm happy that Spurs are still chasing Arsenal so they know they can't let up. If they were 3 points clear and on good goal difference they could lose to Wigan and still finish above Spurs. We all want them to keep pushing it. Win v Wigan is ideal. Draw acceptable. The game v Sunderland worries me. Just too many memories of old Saints I guess. Still, if we could come away with the result we got in 96/97(?) when we won up @ Roker...

I suppose that if Spurs win and Arsenal lose (worst case I know) at least it means both sides will be going into their last games v Newcastle and Sunderland wanting points. We may have two tough games against sides fighting relegation with us but it's just as well that the other sides around us still have games against teams with reasons to keep fighting too.

Isn't that what happened to Wayne Enterprises in the Batman movies? Surely Cortese couldn't be moonlighting as a diminutive Batman could be?

We'll play Chelsea weeks after Shaw signs a new contract as part of a deal whereby we flick two 'V' signs at them and say "Here's what you could have won".

Worst. Donkey. Ride. Ever.