Baird of the land

Matt's obviously, a much better goal.

In hindsight wish he'd never been given the armband given the complete disgrace his actions in forcing move to Liverpool seem to have been.

Should have saved himself the money or spent it on the Liverpool echo. Insincere hollow nonsense from him now is pointless.

Bitter taste in my mouth from his behaviour. Hope he sinks like a stone at Liverpool.

Pretty sure reeds been here for Boruc, clyne, lovren, yeshiva, wanyama, Davis, Jrod etc at least. Personally I think the notion of castigating him personally for failed transfers is as silly as praising him personally for successes. Scouting is a collective process.

Mainly bad. Selling shaw so early is an especially bad sign in relation to any other good academy player we bring through. If shaw's as good as seems the money isn't great because someone else gets advantage of having superstar left back for next 15 years. Don't think lallana money meets how excellent he has been especially when take account of fact we lose 25% to another club.

If it stops now you could claim it to have degree of similarity. That would require the further exits to be just paper talk.

I'm extremely disappointed as no other side that has finished in top 8 has let themselves get gutted to this extent. Sure i expected to lose one or two but to lose 3 with no end to departures seemingly in sight is extremely galling.

Agree completely.

The better the devil you know euphemism comes to mind. I'd like an owner with Cortèse ambition but those sorts of individuals are few and far between. My problem is more with the weakness emanating from board now.

You would have thought so. Given how they didn't put foot down before 3 of our best players left & haven't made any such noises, the implication is an extremely weak board open to accepting offers.

None of that makes good reading. If Morgan's comments are true it shows how terribly weak the board are, how likely it is he will leave and the stuff about replacing first team with unproven academy kids sounds like crazy paper talk or else we've an insane board.

Agree could very well end up like that. The lack of movement on new contracts for Fonte and Cork leave me equally perturbed.

Yeah count me in the highly dubious camp. Age, lack of experience of prem and seeing Spurs gamble with similarly aged Soldado. High fee too.

Not overly enthused by the notion of Pelle. 28 yr old with no experience of premier league. Suppose he can't be much worse than the last Pele we signed though. Bendtner, odd one. Clearly got buckets of talent and on a free but at 26 & no doubt ego sized wages make it less attractive.

No faith that exodus will stop at the 3 key players we've already lost. Think losing those 3 makes it virtually impossible to maintain the level we reached this season. The more that go the more chance it will be return to trying to retain prem status.

Yeah selling 3 of our best players(best case scenario now) is a pretty clear sign we're not going to competing to emulate last season, let alone push on.

Have to laugh at Reed's comment saying that this 'sends out a clear signal to other clubs wishing to bid for our players'. Yeah it sends out the signal Saints are open for selling to accepting any bid.

Agree 100%.

Very disappointing news once again. Appears we didn't even have resolve to stick to our asking price, let alone the notion of keeping our star players. So is it Lovren or Morgan next we'll flog. Would be funny if he fails the medical though.

If that happens Then watch him waltz out the door next summer based on shaw precedent, that'll be fun.

Indeed especially ironic after Luke's comments querying why more clubs don't give youngsters a chance like saints have done. Great give players opportunity, then they dart for the exit door at the first opportunity. Hardly encouraging taking the risk in the first place if that or only keeping mediocre players is all that can be looked forward too.

Maybe you are right and the next gem we produce we will be able to keep a few years longer. That's the only way the academy approach will work in a way where we aim to have any ambition other than avoiding relegation. I'm more worried than hopeful right now.

Sure Everton could get 30m for Barkley now. My opinion is that no fee is going to cover the loss of someone so talented. Also sends really bad signal that academy players can force their way out after one good season.

Obviously can't replace shaw with anyone of same quality. Best case scenario is getting someone competent or promising and that targett is competent academy player.