Saint Albert

He must be wondering what he has to do to get a start. It’s a confusing team selection. Davis and Redmond out of form. Pied a natural replacement for Cedric. Boufal keeping them company.

Both Hoj and Romeu on the bench. I think that Pellegrino has been into the Christmas tipple a little early.

Boufal is on the bench. Redmond starts. No Pied at all. And no VVD. He’s not even on the bench.

According to this, LVG was Swansea’s first choice, but he turned them down... http://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2017/12/21/swanseassearch-new-manager-already-hits-major-stumbling-block/ It does not sound like their manager search is going well.

There’s a nice little interview with Lemina in the Echo... http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/sport/saints/15784847.Lemina___There_s_so_much_more_to_come_/

The VVD to City story is winding its way around the often more credible parts of the media... http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/transfers/manchester-city-transfer-new-van-dijk-sanchez-pep-guardiola-january-shortlist-target-a8122476.html http://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2017/12/21/man-city-map-transfer-plans-next-18-months-withalexis-sanchez/

I hope this happens (the doing our business first bit, not the ripping off bit)

Koeman claimed a few weeks ago that he had offers right after leaving Everton but turned them down because he was still coming to terms with getting sacked. The article also claims that he has not sold his house in England because he feels he has unfinished business in the PL: http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/axed-everton-boss-ronald-koeman-11627965

Well at a pinch, there’s plenty of options: Pellegrino, Pellegrino’s staff including that bloke who supposedly wrote a book on coaching, Krueger for being too Canadian, Les for being too old and undermining all of the club’s achievements under Cortese, the groundsman, the tea lady, the media person responsible for running player interviews, tweets and press releases, and take your pick of the players including Redmond, VVD for not caring, Bertrand for not smiling often enough, FF for resembling the less animated version of a tree, Sims and Hesketh for being far too injured this season and Hoedt for having a strop in training and on social media that may or may not have actually happened. There’s probably others.

That’s interesting, thanks. The lack of a definitive “he’s not going” statement in the lead up to the Jan transfer window, together with Pellegrino’s “it’s up to the board, not me” type comments in the media, make me think that something could be happening. Perhaps the club is looking to fund some attacking options this window.

City will probably not be going for VVD in January, if you believe the article, but see him as a summer target.

Well, he was apparently popular with his players.

From the OS, Sims on the comeback trail. Good luck to him. I’d love to see him (and his pace) back in the first team: https://southamptonfc.com/news/2017-12-19/reaction-josh-sims-southampton-reading-premier-league-2

It would not surprise me if the club sells VVD in January, especially with Pellegrino equivocating in the media when he’s asked about it. The club sold Fonte during the last January window. We’ll see how he performs on Saturday assuming he’s picked. Against Chelsea I thought that we missed his leadership defensively. He’s good at organizing the defenders around him, and there were times that it looked a little panicky. As to whether or not he can be arsed to put an effort in, there were some implications in the media that he was dropped for lack of effort but I think Pellegrino also said he was being rested.

My unfounded theory is that something has happened to convince Liverpool he’ll not be going there anytime soon, and they are laying track to ward off the inevitable over the top reaction against them from their supporters. There was something similar in the press concerning Man City’s reaction to the price tag a few weeks ago.

There were no reported bids in the summer, at least none that I was aware of.

I referred to it earlier - here’s the bit about Conte saying that the other clubs should stop City from signing VVD: https://www.standard.co.uk/sport/football/chelsea-boss-antonio-conte-clubs-must-not-allow-manchester-city-to-sign-virgil-van-dijk-a3721971.html

I agree. We’re 3 points off as we approach the halfway point in the season. It’s not too late to turn things around, but we are presently in a relegation scrap.

It would be more likely getting someone to agree to pay the club’s very high (if you believe the papers) asking price, than stoking up a bidding war. I’m not sure if bidding wars actually happen that often. VVD and his agent certainly did a pretty enthusiastic job of quashing any prospect of a bidding war last summer.

We certainly need Tadic in the team. Selling or dropping him is not something that I want to see. That being said, both Redmond and Bertrand have more assists (3) than Tadic (2) so far this season.

I read an article yesterday where Conte seemed to suggest that someone other than City should buy VVD to prevent City from stockpiling good players.

We did well under Koeman, but the 8th place finish under Puel last season was a little misleading considering it featured a drop of 17 points from the year before (63 vs 46) and a significant drop in goals scored (59 vs 41).

Redmond is perplexing. I thought that he had good moments and improved under Puel, but he has not flourished under Pellegrino. Too often he has a leaden first touch, which costs the team attacking possession and creates breaks for the opposing team. That was a very frustrating feature in the Chelsea game. For someone with pace, he rarely seems to show it convincingly on the pitch. He’s been very disappointing this season.

All I remember about Pellegrino’s CV before the announcement is that it took some effort to get excited about it at the time. He was more of a left field appointment than Puel. If the board fired Puel because of his negative style, I wonder what they are thinking now?

Kevin Palmer of the Irish Indpendent (remember him from last summer?) has another VVD piece. It claims that Liverpool will not bid for him because of the “lavish” asking price: https://www.independent.ie/sport/soccer/premier-league/liverpool/liverpool-will-not-pay-southamptons-lavish-asking-price-for-virgil-van-dijk-36414481.html