well said Nick, the voice of reason, to hopefully calm the bed wetters

I'm not usually a "Yes, but" person but we all know that players heads are turned when they think there's a golden purse to be had. I'm also sure RK will endeavour to maintain a positive and disciplined changing room but even he cannot prevent players leaving if they do not want to stay. It is inevitable as we've seen with so many rumours coming to fruition in the past couple of transfer windows. It is dispiriting when you look forward so much to the new season and hope and expect your team to do well and then see the wheels coming off due to outside agencies and the greed which pervades English football today. A couple of positive signings would go some way to alleviate the dejection. After all, we have the money.

What is your opinion of the comments allegedly attributed to Vic saying he is not happy and wants to go? Just press speculation?

The two main media centres in England are London and Manchester, therefore the likelihood is that at least some of the rumours are created or fuelled by journalists who support London or Manchester-based teams, perhaps with the aim of unsettling players and their agents. In a perfect world, fans and players would ignore all these rumours but they never will. It's another way that the top clubs keep power.

On the other side of things, the 'panic' and 'bedwetting' that some Saints fans experience over players being linked away is a reasonable response to the fact that pretty much all of our best players who have been linked with top 6 clubs have been sold to these clubs over the last year or so. In short, the club has previous form for selling players at their highest market price and it isn't unreasonable for us to expect the club to do it again.

In this instance I believe Koeman when he says we won't sell Mane or Vic this transfer window. It would be suicidal to sell our most promising attacker and both of our DMs from last season. I think I'm right in saying that Vic has 2 years left on his contract (and I doubt he'll sign an extension), so we're going to be in same situation as with Clyne - selling him next year at some point for a lower fee. I'd rather do this than sell now

I think we could have approached this transfer window a lot better. If we decided to strengthen and splash the cash on the likes of Austin, Shaqiri, Payet, N'Zonzi, Toby, we could've really pushed on all fronts and possibly achieved a top 6 finish this season. I still have faith we have signed some good players and we will still be fine this season, but if we had the ambition we could have really cemented ourselves as a top team this season.

Victor or someone around him does seem to be saying these things (remember the Arsenal comments a while back), he clearly sees himself moving to 'bigger things' and is probably worried that his star will shine far less brightly now the more gifted MS has gone.

I think the middle paragraph of DPeps' post sums up the reason for the fan anxiety. The players know that if they make it clear they want to go and they find a top six club who wants them then that's it. Even MS having to wait a year could be put down to him not being assertive enough in joining the queue.

I actually am more sad and disillusioned than anxious. Elites, whether political, economic or football (and they are all the same in the end) have power and they use that power, sometimes brutally but always with impunity, to maintain their elite status.

Good try Nick! Maybe not 'in meltdown' but this is consecutive summers where we've lost the 'guts' of our team and now they are rumouring more? OK if true, the club must surely hold firm now (at whatever cost) but the damage may be done! I take it on board because of (a) the precedent, and (b) the player's perspective... Our best players have been sold again, their mates? have gone, replaced by cheap options. Would you be happy? It ain't rocket science! It will continue to happen until we move up a notch on spending and ambitions.
In the short term we should at least be more pro-active. OK this time we were unfortunate that both NC and MS's moves out were protracted and now we've got the Van Dijk situation the other way (I hope). I just hope in future that they make every effort to do their business earlier. It may be a more expensive strategy to buy before you sell but at least it would demonstrate ambition to the players we want to keep.

Incidentally, my doctor recommended that I give up the beer when I complained about my bedwetting. It reduced the volume but not the frequency. Closure may come when the transfer window shuts.

There is a lot of nervousness from us Saints fans at the moment.

You read other blog sites (Daily Echo in particular) and there are a lot of hysterical people. But a lot of it isn't totally unreasonable. Whilst disproportionate reactions continue, it is the case that Saints have lost a large amount of players and this makes the Media sense that SFC is an 'easy target' for rumours. At the end of the day, they need to generate hype from scraps and then maintain it. Fans often link what happened last season (rumour, followed by denial, followed by actual loss of players) and immediately assume the worst whenever the Media gather pace with another 'story'.

Most media are ignoring reporting RK's comments that nobody is for sale. The others are reporting it, but then discarding it straight away to concentrate on 'when' Man Utd/Spurs will get their men. It's a simple truth: why let facts get in the way of a story? Trouble is, this means that Fans can also lose sight of the messages coming directly from RK. I saw one comment the other day from a Saints Fan who basically did not believe a word RK was saying!

SFC now find themselves at a bit of a crossroads. The transfer activity of last year, combined with the (unexpected) success last season, has meant that the Media feel SFC are 'fair game' for speculation. SFC don't comment on speculation (quite rightly) and so it is a bit of one way traffic at the moment.

And the current transfer window has enabled the Media to continue. Yes, we couldn't hold on to NC - but that was expected given his contract situation - and we all knew MS was going if a big club came in. But this just helps to fuel the Media to look for signs that the exodus will continue.

I think the Alderwiereld saga has caused the most amount of perceived 'damage' with SFC Fans. If we had secured that one, most of the nerves would have been put to bed. We didn't and many fans blame Les Reed for that - which just helps to whip up nervousness.

I also think it's largely irrelevant that we've had so-so start to the season (no real change from this time last year) but, because we haven't, it just helps to fuel nervousness.

All in all, it is a bit of 'perfect storm' at the moment. However, whilst not unreasonable, the nervousness is hopefully misconceived. Perhaps all it will take is one week of good news: a good result in the EL, a home win in PL and us securing a good Centre Back (hopefully from Celtic) and for Transfer window to have closed and we can all get back to business!

Frankly if Wanyama's distribution doesn't improve we might be pleased to see him move on. Think he Has had a number of poor games where he has missed tackles and passed erratically. If he carries on like this no one will want him.

What Koeman actually said was "Nobody will leave... in mine opinion" and those last three words are the most telling. In the end it is only his preference, sadly if the club decides otherwise for financial reasons then the players will go.

If there is genuine interest from a top six club then they'll be gone as soon as they can engineer a way out. It's pretty obvious from Reed's dealings over the last two years that money NOW is king especially where he sees no hope of getting players to sign a new contract here... ever. Most of them couldn't give a monkey's about sitting on benches or playing as long as they're getting £100k a week just to train.

Of course the reality of our situation is now unfolding in all its ugliness and there is nothing seemingly that any of us can do about it, the minute Saints get hold of a player of some quality be it from within the Academy system or from elsewhere through superior scouting, we'll lose them the following year. The big clubs can sit back, let us do all the hard work of training and scouting and refining and then plunder ready made stars from what to them must seem much like a bargain boot sale.

There may be many other reasons why players don't want to stay here but the lure of money is surely the main one, otherwise why would they come here in the first place. OK its not London but preferring to live in Liverpool? Champions League Football? Playing with World Class players? Do me a favour!

I dislike some fans using derogatory and infantile descriptions of the reactions of other fans to our plight as "BW", it is likely we are of one accord on this. We can do nothing except watch our famous old club being raped repeatedly, all our worst fears have come to fruition within two years and it seems unlikely we will ever again be able to assemble a team of the quality of the past two years.
Right now seems to becoming the worst of times for many.

Fans can't and don't just walk away, supporting their team is not an option or a hobby it is a part of their way of life. In any case what would a boycott achieve except to damage our club even more?

Wouldn't it be nice if all these players who "want a club with ambition" actually showed some ambition themselves? To be The Man who helped a small team upset the applecart of the big teams instead of skiving off to ride the coattails of better players on a rich team?

Nick, sorry to be a nag, but I'm still waiting for some big signing who "dreamed of the Europa League".