Christ, you scared me enough then that I had to go look it up...3 year deal, not 4 year. 29 at the time too. If he wasn't such a crock it would probably have been about right.

Uh, so they made him and then he went back there later. Yeh I think that counts. Also nobody is saying they need to be connected to Mowbray's time at Boro, just Boro - the club he loves, is a hero at, still lives near and has many connections at.

That's exactly what people are worried about, that he is looking at Boro players again. You'd expect it would be their rejects and fringe players mostly in the cup, too.

Tbh I'd be looking for a CB we can rely on, and loaning Magloire out to League One if he has takers there. Then Carter plays as cover (4th choice unless he excels when played) until Wharton is back and we reassess in January. Ayala will get frequent injuries and Lenihan is prone to a suspension here and there, and the odd slight injury, so he should get some games for us to see how he is coming along, without having to rely on him too much.

Magloire I can understand, but Carter already had a good stint in League One recently. I don't see what he's expected to learn by going there again, and he won't be getting a loan at a higher level.

We already have an Unforgivable Curse here, called Venkys.

That one two wasn't basic, that's harsh. It was a lovely touch. Other than that I'd agree from the one game of theirs I watched.

Regardless where he plays? Are you expecting 60 goal contributions from the front three then? I think 15+ contributions from him would be fine if he is out wide. It's long since stopped mattering what his fee was, he's just another one of our players in a midtable at best side.

Hmm. An unreliable source contradicted by an unreliable source. I think I'll just wait and see what actually happens. (Not a dig at you for posting it of course)

In half a season. In a full season for Coventry he scored 20, when he was only 18 or 19 years old I think?

Huh, much better than I thought. Jars with how I thought I remembered things but fair enough. We must have just made hard work of lower league teams. That and the last two knockouts must have messed with my memory.

Can anyone confirm if we have always been knocked out by lower league clubs under him too, or if it has only been most of the time?

You've come in peace so I'll be polite and just say that you did well out of Davies and Beattie - we absolutely got our pants pulled down on both. And then again on Ostenstad. And more recently arguably again with Gallagher, although I think he may end up being worth about what we paid if used right. However Shearer does balance all that out considerably - though it was still a British record fee at the time so you didn't have your pants pulled down. Again here with Armstrong we are probably getting less than he is worth due to his contract, so you're being opportunist with it but fair play, we would do the same. Hopefully this Obafemi works out well for us if we get him.

Looks fairly bulky. Given he is supposed to be quite fast, I'm assuming that's muscle and therefore he is quite strong?

I think the issue then comes in trying to claim they're legitimately independent. Should Newcastle come wanting their share via the courts etc. But I'm only speculating.

6 mill for Gestede wasn't a good deal at the time, no. That he flopped after is irrelevant, that can happen. Wrong club, wrong manager, injury luck etc. At the time we should have been getting more for him.

A signed agreement would invalidate our attempts to avoid the Newcastle chunk. The suggestion is it technically happens as a totally separate deal. You'd think there will be a gentleman's agreement though. The issue is then whether the player actually agrees terms with us though...that wouldn't be Southampton's fault. If this is the plan I hope we are being clever about it, otherwise we could just end up losing a few million in an attempt to cheat Newcastle out of a million or so.

Villa watch can stfu. It's not expensive, it's cheap. And only possible at that price because of his contract.

If nobody paying enough for him now is a sign they don't really want him, clubs looking to get him for free want him even less if anything. The same at best.

Swansea boss thinks they were unfortunate in defeat and really dominant. Clearly TM passed him his 'possession is the only thing that matters in football' pipe before the game because they didn't deserve a thing. They were awful.

I sincerely hope we don't base the sale of our best player on whether it's getting boring.

Tbh, it's bizarre that those conversations haven't already taken place. We have to stop running in this lethargic decision making manner.

Apparently the u23s got tonked in a pre season game against Burnley u23s, 6-2. I expect having all of their best players busy with the first team didn't help, although the Burnley write up (which didn't even know who any of our scorers were, just called them 'the attacker') suggested some of theirs were with their first team too.

He has bulked up a bit, which will stand him in good stead. He is still slim, but no longer so scrawny he looks like a stiff breeze would knock him over.

Where on the site do you find bets like that btw?