Nordic Saint

"Till 2022. Jeremy Wilson’s write up is clearest: Danny Ings has completed a £20 million move to Southampton, initially on a season-long loan but with a commitment for an additional three years. Ings completed a complicated switch to St Mary’s after the club’s agreed the structure of payments ahead of the close of business. Although his first year will be on loan, Southampton have committed to buy the striker on July 1, 2019. Liverpool are guaranteed £18 million, with a further £2 million based on appearances. Despite both clubs insisting his next 12 months is part of a loan deal, the 26-year-old has signed a four-year contract until 2022. Liverpool will also receive 20 per cent of any future sale of Ings." I thought that the fact it was an intial loan deal meant we had no commitment to buy the player at the end of the first year if he proved unfit to play, but the way the terms have been described it appears we do. So, it's a bit of a mystery unless it officially being called a loan deal, when it really isn't, is a way of circumventing the medical so that Liverpool's medical insurance policy still applies for the first year here. The only other obvious explanation would be that we can't afford to pay the first installment of the transfer fee yet. Any other explanations out there?

"Danny Ings, he's one of our own." Good luck to the lad. He's had a promising career blighted by serious injuries. If he can get back to his best with us and score a few goals, it would be great. The deal sounds good too. On loan to see if his kness can hold up and if they can, a permanent deal. I'm not expecting miracles but surely he has to be an improvement on Long and maybe he will even score more than Gabbiadini. Ings and Austin could be the classic little and large combination up front.

Does anyone know who does these discussions for us nowadays? Is it Ross Wilson or Mark Hughes? I think Mark Hughes would be more convincing. Lawrie McMenemy was very good at persuading big name players to come here.

A lot of pundits would have picked Tadfic out as our most creative player last season, as they often did before our televized games. Unfortunately, he was surrounded by a lot of dross. The same excuse is also trundled out by posters on here for Gabbiadini's lack of goals and assists last season. Tadic has 2 goals and 1 assist in his 3 Champions League games so far this season. Before we sold all our best players, Tadic had other good players around him so obviously he got more goals and assists. Football is a team game. Neverthless, Tadic still got 7 goals and 4 assits for us last season. He got 9 goals and 14 assists in 2015/16 because he had good players, like Mané, Pellè, Fonte, van Dijk and Wanyama, around him then.

He is a skilful player but his problem has always been his lack of goals. He improved a lot in the 2nd half of last season and started scoring a few. If he can maintain the form he showed this year in the Championship, he could be useful. We have to remember though that he never scored when he played in the Premier League before and we already have too many goal shy forwards in our squad. Traoré sets up goals with his crosses but, being realsitic, do we have anyone who can score from them?

Possibly because there was no eompetition for him so he was easier to sign. We don't seem to sign players other clubs are trying to buy as well. Vestergaard, like Carrillo, was easy to sign because nobody else wanted him and his club was happy to sell him. Borussia Mönchengldcah had one of the worst defences in the Bundesliga last season. As we saw when they played us, they seem to have solved that problem now because, as well as Ginter, Jantschke, they now have the youngsters Beyer and Mayer coming through. If we weren't prepared to compete for Gibson, we should have gone for the player who is replacing him at Boro, Dael Fry. He is the most promising young central defender in the country.

He used to be the best goalkeeper in in the country and his 70 caps testify to that. He's still only 31 so it wouldn't surprise me if Billy Mercer got him back to his best at Burnley. I remember when people laughed at Pompey signing 'Calamity' James. He was brilliant for them and it was his goalkeeping which was largely responsible for them winning the FA Cup. It will be interesting to compare Ben Gibson and Jannik Vestergaard, although both Saints and Burnley lack goal scorers so it should be one of the easiest games of the season for both of them. A truer test for them both will be when they have to face teams with good forwards.

This is a very good point. Many of our players only looked good for 70 minutes of football last season. Any more than that and they were out of it. As for hangng on for a result with 6 minutes of added time to go, no chance. One of the problems at the club seems to be laziness from top to bottom. The signing of Carrillo in January was a sign of this malaise. He was an easy signing to make and that's been the case with many other of our recent signings: nobody else wanted them. We've also signed a lot of players who had not played 90 minutes regularly in the years before we bought them. I know Cortese divided opinion but he was full of energy and didn't tolerate laziness at the club. The same, of course, applied to Pochettino. Hard work brings rewards, laziness doesn't.

A club like ours is not going to be able to buy a striker who can score a goal nearly every 2 games like the top clubs can but we should have been looking at getting one with a ratio close to 1 in 3. Instead we seem to settle for 1 in 5 strikers or worse and so struggle to score goals. This summer we should have brought in someone like Nils Petersen. He wouldn't have cost any more than Carrillo. If there is any money left, it's still not too late.

Yoshida looked the fittest Saints player on the pitch when he came on so he is definitely ready. Gunn Targett Stephens Yoshida Bertrand Romeu Hojbjerg Armstrong Elyounoussi Austin Gabbiadini

Right now, it's the dream. In fact, realistically, it probably is a dream.

Although he was only a 2nd half sub, Yoshida was our best player today and is clearly the best central defender in our squad now. Pity we couldn't have got Ben Gibson to partner him. I think a back 2 of Yoshida and Gibson would cover as much ground and be more effective defence than a back 3 of Vestergaard, Hoedt and Bednarek.

Yes, he is and when he came on his pace transformed our defence. Before that, Borussia were outpacing our central defenders with such ease that it must have been embarrassing for whoever persuaded the club to spend so much money on Hoedt, Bednarek and Vestergaard: presumably our head of recruitment, Ross Wilson.

They lost their last game 1-0 to FC Ingolsdadt. They are an average Bundesliga team, no more, no less. They are not rich and have few top class internationals in their squad. A couple of their players today were English youngsters. I must admit though, that although their players didn't cost as much, they were better than ours in nearly every position and, as a team, clearly much better coached. But, although they are by no means superstars, how we could do with players like Jonas Hofmann Patrick Herrmann and Denis Zakaria who together cost lees than we paid for Carrillo or Hoedt or Vestergaard. A back three of Hoedt, Vestergaard and Bednarek has the ability to make any opposition attack look brilliant. It was noticeable that when Yoshida and Stephens came on, we started to look as good as Borussia, although still lacking a goal scorer up front. Perhaps if they had started, we might even have scraped a draw.

Lander Sports Development's share price fell another 4.53 % today. Ir's now fallen from a high of 21.87 yuan 3 years ago to 8.92 yuan 1 year ago to 3.37 yuan today. If it keeps falling like this, it will soon be practically worthless.

Yes, a few of our players looked stronger, more confident and more effective than before, including Ward-Prowse, Stephens and Targett.

Yes, we looked a much better team in the 2nd half. The substitutes certainly made a difference. Good to see Charlie Austin scoring again. Targett was a revelation. His loan spell at Fulham has certainly done him a lot of good. Armstrong looks useful too. Some promising signs there.

We seem to be missing a central defence. Hoedt just wanders around aimlessly and is of little use for anything whilst Vestergaard is a big unit who can knock players over but has little real effect defensively when forwards run into the penalty area, where knocking them over would just give away penalties. On this pre-season evidence, top Premier League teams would just waltz straight through them and score 4-6 goals. Of course, it is just pre-season so maybe they will look better when the league season starts and anyway it's highly unlikely that Hughes would start them both for league games. Yoshida has to be first choice but it's difficult to see who will partner him. And we still need a reliable goal scorer up front.

The theme tune from Steptoe & Son.

Excellent 2nd goal from Obfemi. As the commentator said, "Fine finish there and that may well be Southampton's name on the trophy!" This Saints team really has looked excellent: strong, fast and skilful. In contrast, Marseille have just looked dirty.

Saints looking good. Very impressed by our Austrian central defender, Christoph Klarer. He looks a great prospect.

Yes, it is the same. Lewis Hamlton would still win as he is the best driver, which is why the top teams wanted him. It's the same for the best managers and players in football. Worse ones end up with worse teams.

I remember being at Wembley to see England beat France 2-0 in 2015, when they had Manchester United's Schneiderlin in their team. He was never a top international player and wouldn't have been good enough for their current team, whichever club he played for. If he'd been good enough to keep his place at Manchester United, he might have been good enough to keep his place for France but he wasn't.

He's 34 and been playing professional football for 16 years. It's about the time that many players retire. H's had a successful career, playing more than 500 games in England & Portugal and 35 for his country, as well as winning a European Championship. He might make a good coach. Good luck to him. I remember being sad to see Terry Paine's career ending at Hereford and Cheltenham. At least he didn't go to Portsmouth, like C.B. Fry, Ivan Golac, Bobby Stokes, Mick Channon and Ron Davies did. Although, I was unhappy at the time to see Lambert and Fonte sold, it looks like we sold them at the right time. There's little sentiment shown by clubs to ageing footballers and they know it. I don't understand why some fans expect it back from the players.

Ings had an 18-month purple patch, which ended three and a half years ago in February 2015. Apart from that, he's never been much of a goal scorer throughout his career, either before or after that spell. He might be worth giving a trial on loan but no way should we risk 20 million on him. We need a goal scorer. Just look at his record: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danny_Ings