Saint Albert

...with his weaker left foot.

Until August 31. Edit: I should really see what SuperSAINT has posted before hitting reply.

My guess is that the club’s transfer kitty ran empty after buying messrs. Vestergaard, Gunn, Armstrong and Moi. This deal is coming out of next year’s transfer kitty.

“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.” per Bascombe and Wilson in the Telegraph. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2018/08/09/danny-ings-completes-20m-southampton-move/

Football League clubs can sign players on loan until the end of the month according to the BBC, so that’s an option that remains open for a few Saints players, as well as Europe.

So there is a commitment to buy him for £18M plus £2M in performance clauses, and a 20% sell on fee, according to the Liverpool Echo. https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/danny-ings-leaves-liverpool-reds-15011820 It’s a huge risk to enter into this commitment based on his injury record and the club’s limited transfer budget. Hopefully we get the player that banged them in at Burnley. Liverpool at least sound genuinely sorry to see him go.

I was thinking Targett, Reed and Valery as cover for Cedric. Seems alright to me. No worse than Martina.

If the club throws away money on useless things (like Carrillo) it impacts their financial ability to improve the squad in future windows, so the price tag does have long term importance.

I imagine (but do not know) that there was interest in Ings throughout the summer, but nothing happened because of Liverpool’s well-publicized and completely unrealistic £20M price tag. The reason it got left so late is because no one would buy at the price, allowing Saints to sneak in with a late loan bid. Liverpool overplayed their hand, and Saints did OK if it is a loan move with an option to buy.

Signing Ings on a loan is more palatable considering his history of knee injuries.

Doing the club’s main business early is surely the way to do it.

Not keen on Ings. Did not do anything remarkable at Liverpool except for damaging his knees and undergoing two knee surgeries. It might be palatable as a loan deal with an option to buy but throwing any amount of decent money at Liverpool for a player they signed on a free (albeit subject to £6.5M fee assessed by a tribunal) and who never looked like making the first team during his time there, seems reckless. Reports from Liverpool are that a move to Palace fell through... https://liverpooloffside.sbnation.com/liverpool-fc-transfer-news/2018/8/9/17670808/liverpool-fc-transfer-news-danny-ings-waits-last-minute-southampton-deadline-day-deal

Count me in the decent squad poorly managed group. Competent management throughout this season ought to make a lot of difference and I am hopeful that this season at least ought to be more comfortable than last. I’m not Hughes’ number one fan but compared to Pellegrino he’s Sir Alf Ramsay. That being said, my optimism is tempered a little because I’m not sure if the club has done enough to improve the first team in this window, assuming no one else comes in. The club has hopefully improved at centre back by bringing in Vestergaard. Armstrong looks like a decent addition to the front three. Moi appears to be a Tadic replacement, but I am still concerned by Tadic’s absence. We’re down one experienced specialist RB. Perhaps Targett is intended to be Cedric’s competition, or will it be Valery? We’re stronger in goal with FF out of the picture. We look to have the same midfielders as last year. I’m not going to argue with the club filling gaps with academy players. That’s supposed to be part of the club’s identity, but I’m not sure if the club has enough assets to improve the front three unless Gallagher turns into the consistent goal scorer that we lacked last season. Scoring goals was identified as a major issue for the team last year, as exemplified by the purchase of Carrillo in the January transfer window. It may well still be an unresolved issue. Will Moi, Armstrong and Gallagher make the squad better in the final third than Tadic, Boufal and Carrillo? Will Hughes play Gabbiadini consistently? Will Austin play most of the season or will he spend too much time in the treatment room, again? Will the new attacking players learn to bring Gabbiadini into the game? If we end up starting games with Long as the sole striker again, that would be a worry. This is the area that concerns me. Given the we must sell to buy mantra that’s been going on lately and the decline in results over the last two seasons it makes me wonder exactly what level Gao was supposed to be taking Saints to when he bought the club last year.

Here’s an “exclusive” article by Football Insider linking Saints and Brighton to Valencia RB Martin Montoya... https://www.footballinsider247.com/southampton-exclusive-montoya/

Spurs bid up to £25M for Grealish... https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2018/08/07/tottenham-finally-make-bid-aston-villas-jack-grealish-worth/

Sounds about right. 22 starts under the arch-rotator Puel was a decent enough return, though. I’d be surprised if he starts at least one in two PL games under Hughes, which is a shame in my book.

All of JWP’s previous managers rated him enough to start him. His total PL appearances are listed first, with his sub appearances in parentheses, dated back to Poch’s last season: 17-18: 30 (10) 16-17: 30 (eight) 15-16: 33 (19) 14-15: 25 (9) 13-14: 34 (eighteen) Source: https://www.premierleague.com/players/4617/James-Ward-Prowse/overview

£71M for a goalkeeper. Seems bat**** crazy to me.

Scored a huge goal from the free kick away against West Brom last season. Count me in the keep JWP camp. Unfortunately I don’t think Hughes rates him enough to start.

The Sun thinks that Watford have offered us £10M for JWP... https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/football/6962681/watford-james-ward-prowse-bid-southampton-javi-gracia/ Edit: Already posted in the JWP thread.

Newcastle, Huddersfield and Cardiff, in mine.

By my count, four of the Mirror’s eleven “experts” reckon we’re going down.. https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/premier-league-predictions-wholl-win-13039210

Couldn’t agree more re Gabbiadini. I hope Hughes starts him on Sunday, and gives him a run of games to cement his understanding with Moi and Armstrong. I’m making a bit of an assumption that Moi will be starting, though.

Depends on the size of City’s buy-back clause.