lionsden

It wasn't his "whole 15 minutes appearance" that caught the eyes of emenalo and our scout. Believe it or not some people actually follow youth and reserve football in England unlike you.

pardon me. There I was thinking only proven, world class fullbacks commanded record/exorbitant transfer fees in the past. I wonder how much players like Lahm, Alaba, marcelo et al would go for then £100m?. football has gone mental.

Again that's not his fault. you and others should have paid more attention to the the talent he's been displaying since Forrest days. He certainly wasn't a dark horse for me and I have always seen him as the most clinical finisher in our reserve before he went on loan even ahead of Lukaku. And before anyone attacks that statement, I emphasize the word "clinical". Unfortunately hype and transfer fee is what most people use as a basis for judging a player's ability rather than tangibles such as talent, past record, consistency, current ability and form and so on.

That's what £30m gets you nowadays

I agree but only because of our abysmal record with youth and general snub for players with low transfer fees. If he was bought for £7m plus, he might have a chance here. he can win the golden boot every season he's on loan and he would still be held in lower regard to the "more expensive and more "continental" options.

Is he really a dark horse when he's been consistently banging in the goals and it was his goal scoring record for forrest that caught our scouts attention in the 1st place. What he's doing now doesn't surprise me one bit because that's what he's always done. If people choose to underrate him then that's not his fault.

Or actually use him in our team you know. something we as a club are allergic to.

Does your friend also support Liverpool by any chance?

Like a boss

it's not "continental" enough. haven't you heard.

I understand what you are saying but there's no way to justify spending that much money on 1) A fullback. How many fullbacks in history have gone for £30m plus? 2) He's nothing more than a potential and you never spend such amount on potentials. that's the type of figures established defenders who are in their prime command. Not an 18 year old. If people are that desperate for a new left back to replace Cole instead of giving PVA a chance and bringing Bertrand back and I would rather we go for Coentrao who is superior to Shaw and obviously more experienced and would cost less than £30m.

Which is my point all along. why can't PVA be the exception as well? Besides his obvious talent, he's shown tons of improvement in his game and is regarded as arguably the best defender in that league. Some people are just unnecessarily closed minded and think football is that black and white.

So the ratio of success to failure is around 1:1 then. thats good enough for me and the risk is certainly not great enough to favour Shaw over PVA.. . .the risk will have to be considerably higher for the snubbing of eredivisie talents to be justified, And if you really want to play that game for every Wayne Rooney, there's a Francis Jeffers and for every Steve Mcmanaman there's a Jermaine pennant.

And? I could also compile a list of premier league proven players that flopped and failed miserably in the same premier league even while they were still in their prime. What does the back and forth rhetoric really mean. It means, every player and situation should be judged strictly on its own merit. this isn't science fiction. It's football,it's real and it's a game full of complexities and uncertainties which renders prediction based on past results and data useless. I'm just glad players like mata, Silva, carzola, navas, ozil et al have been able to shut people up for good about the myth that players with slight frame wouldn't be able to handle "the physicality" of the premier league.

So He was able to breakthrough under Adkins who had been at So'to for 3 years. that's more stability than any of our manager has ever enjoyed during the Roman era bar Jose. and by the time of his sacking, Shaw had already established himself as a premier league left back and when pochentino came him he was given the same target and was able to build on Adkins previous youth development work with the introduction of james ward prowse this season. You can clutch at straws all you want but the truth is, Southampton are willing to give chances to its youngsters more freely than Chelsea and it's not even debatable. the result speaks for itself. There's a difference between an short/medium term target and a long term vision. and even if Cortese put the pressure on So'to's managers, the pressure and ambition is still no where near that of a big club like Chelsea. not even close.

Van nistelrooy, Suarez, Van Persie, Arjen Robben, van der sar, Jan vertonghen, Alex (ex blue) amongst host of others didn't seem to struggle that much with the transition. The automatic dismissal of eredivisie talent or players doing well in that league is getting old.

Lazy argument not surprised. One (shaw) plays for a midtable team that prioritizes in developing and producing homegrown talents and blessed with the perfect platform to achieve this objective as their chairman, shareholders and fans do not demand nor expect immediate success in the short to medium term and award the managers the freedom to bring through young players like shaw without any pressure. While the other (PVA) plays for a club that isn't renowned for its youth development and has far bigger ambition than southampton to always challenge for major honors and be as successful as possible. Also another major factor is the competition that both players had to face. I think Shaw would have found it just as difficult to break into the first team and become a regular starter ahead of one of the greatest left back in modern history, Ashley cole. Also worth noting the managerial stability shaw benefited from during his transitional period into the first team.

As oppose to shaw is a defensive juggernaut? lol. I have seen more than enough of both players to make the judgement that there's nothing between them both defensively and offensively. The epl experience is the only factor that shades it in favour of Shaw not ability. As for the point in bold. I'm actually one of Bertrand's biggest fans, I rate his defensive ability very highly however, the ability to defend is only one aspect of a fullbacks game and PVA is miles superior to him offensively. It then boils down to which aspect you rate more in a fullback taking into account the system and style of play of the team as some team's offensive strategy relies heavily on their fullbacks joining the attack to provide width and extra option.

Personally I had bring Van Anholt back and use that £30m to get either a DLP or striker in the summer. I'm yet to see what makes Shaw better than him or worth the asking price.

So we should award him another contract extension on the basis of sentimental reasons like reputation rather than current worth to the team, ability and performance?

We all know there's a clear agenda against Mikel and he's been the most divisive player on every Chelsea forum for years. His critics never miss the opportunity to lay into him and Excalibur KTBFFH snide comment reflected that. Mikel never stood a chance as It was never going to be a fair and objective comparison from the get go.

And a DLP to compliment matic

His calmness and composure on the ball is the most impressive aspect of his game for me. good all round performance.

It was only a matter of time before Mikel's name is mentioned. predictable.

has the Ivanovic skill gif been posted yet. that was the highlight of the match for me. It was like seeing an elephant perform gymnastics stunts