Saints

[empire]

hammonds been class this season,so im told.pretty pissed when he left tbh

 

[SussexSaint]

Funny really, Bale was nearly booted out of White Hart Lane as Redknapp thought he wasn't going to make it, he got in the side because of an injury to another player and now look at him (though I still dispute he should have been player of the year last season). Walcott...nobody's really sure where to play him or if he'll be the player they hoped he would. Both are good illustrations that the most brilliant of 16 year olds don't always maintain their early standards. Hopefully for Oxlade-Chamberlain he'll do better.

Yeah bale was good for us and only really stood out with his free kick taking, spurs didn't really know what to do with him at first, fortunately for him he got a chance and took it, walcott is hit and miss but still has alot of pressure on him to do well, as for chamberlain, he's shown a bit of bale and walcott in his play, he for me looks like he'll progress quicker into a future england winger.

 

[JJB]

Hammond has been in great form. He's a workhorse, puts himself about and constantly wins the ball back before distributing to cork/schneiderlin or one of the wide men. Pops up with 5-10 goals a season as well which helps.

Regarding youth players, Chelsea have been monitoring Ward-Prowse (CM) for about 3 years but he chose to sign pre-contrat with us. Arsenal have been monitoring Luke Shaw as mentioned has been on the radar of Arsenal and looks like he's going to be a good prospect. Jake Sinclair (scott's brother) looks like he could break through, quick and a good finisher. Jack Stephens, the lad we bought from Plymouth, isn't realy our product but should break through. Gerorge Mells, a 15 year old that joined us a couple of years back after leaving the Chelsea academy, looks a great prospect and has technically been likend to Lallana.

 

[Barrel of Fun]

Did Rupert Lowe build your academy? I must say, it does seem rather easy to pluck players from other clubs before they are of a certain age, if one has the facilities in place.

 

[Lady Whistledown]

Hammond has been in great form. He's a workhorse, puts himself about and constantly wins the ball back before distributing to cork/schneiderlin or one of the wide men. Pops up with 5-10 goals a season as well which helps.

Not suggesting he's no good, but I was thinking in relation to the post about Premier League clubs swiping your players in the January window. Hammond may be having a decent season but he's not the sort of player who will have half the EPL sniffing around, a la Lallana. I think, without meaning any disrespect, the same probably applies to a lot of the Saints side. Perhaps Jack Cork is one for the future, having been on loan to several hundred clubs in the past, but he's not SO good that he'll be getting massive offers to leave SFC only a few months after joining. The rest of them will only be of interest to the average EPL teams perhaps, and frankly the way Southampton are going, and with the contracts they're already on, there would be little point in a player joining, say, QPR, Sunderland or West Bromwich Albion.

Lallana is a total stand out for me, thought it last season (results backed up how important he was to the Saints side) and certainly he's showing it now.

 

[JJB]

Schneiderlin is absolute quality, on his day, our best player. Him, Cork and Lallana are probably the ones that PL clubs would look at.

 

[JJB]

Did Rupert Lowe build your academy? I must say, it does seem rather easy to pluck players from other clubs before they are of a certain age, if one has the facilities in place.

To an extent, but our quality youth system was in place before him. It was more Georges Prost and Malcolm Elias that made it what it is with a bit of help from Hew Jennings. No, we're ploughing more money than ever into it.

 

[Lady Whistledown]

Schneiderlin is absolute quality, on his day, our best player. Him, Cork and Lallana are probably the ones that PL clubs would look at.

Fair enough, to be honest I know absolutely chuff all about Schneiderlin, he's not one of the headline grabbers.

Lallana, for me, is the one who would have the top Premier League sides looking. I guess Saints probably don't need to sell him, given that finances appear to be relatively rosy, so in January it'll be a case of weighing up the ridiculous money against the potential damage to a promotion campaign (assuming you're still up there) if he's allowed to leave.

More likely to leave in the summer, I reckon.

 

[Barrel of Fun]

To an extent, but our quality youth system was in place before him. It was more Georges Prost and Malcolm Elias that made it what it is with a bit of help from Hew Jennings. No, we're ploughing more money than ever into it.

The ever keen Matt Le God has been telling all and sundry about the plans for the academy and the new buildings.

Did Lallana come from Bournemouth? Did you pay anything for him? Did you pay Swindon anything for Walcott? Just interested.

 

[Lady Whistledown]

Did Lallana come from Bournemouth?

I seem to recall that.

It becomes a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy really: find a couple of decent young players, which then gives you a reputation as a club which is great for young lads to join, then all of the decent lads from other clubs come running to sign up because of the reputation, which then gets even better by virtue of all the good players joining.

The trick is to find the decent players in the first place.

 

[JJB]

The ever keen Matt Le God has been telling all and sundry about the plans for the academy and the new buildings.

Did Lallana come from Bournemouth? Did you pay anything for him? Did you pay Swindon anything for Walcott? Just interested.

Yes, Lallana came from Bournemouth, he moved academies at 12 years old. They've got a 25% sell on clause.
Swindon got nothing as Walcott left the academy before signing for us.

 

[hypochondriac]

Fair enough, to be honest I know absolutely chuff all about Schneiderlin, he's not one of the headline grabbers.

Lallana, for me, is the one who would have the top Premier League sides looking. I guess Saints probably don't need to sell him, given that finances appear to be relatively rosy, so in January it'll be a case of weighing up the ridiculous money against the potential damage to a promotion campaign (assuming you're still up there) if he's allowed to leave.

More likely to leave in the summer, I reckon.

Nah. If we get promotion I can't see him leaving for at least a season. He is a saints fan after all.

 

[hypochondriac]

The ever keen Matt Le God has been telling all and sundry about the plans for the academy and the new buildings.

Did Lallana come from Bournemouth? Did you pay anything for him? Did you pay Swindon anything for Walcott? Just interested.

Matt Le God is borderline autistic and an embarrassment to saints fans. My advice is ignore everything he says unless you want to be bored stupid. He did come from Bournemouth and they have a 25% sell on clause so we would be better off not selling!

 

[redneb]

The good thing for us is that we now have a string of winnable away games leading into Jan - and our home games have to all be considered winnable.

Get into Jan still top and we'll be a attracting top players. We failed with quite a few targets in August but we wont in the next window if were at the top. A few quality signings and a big push to the Prem.