Ex Lion Tamer

I still think Villa are looking for a better quality of player regardless of the fact they already have good personnel in that position. I'm excited to watch Aribo and think he can come good but his stats are not that amazing in a weak league. He'll need time to up his game, like Armstrong did

Maybe he's quite good but not that good? I see him being a bit like Stuart Armstrong for us - he won't get a big move but he'll be a good player for us. Hopefully

He can't go too hard on the club because he'll lose his privileged access, it's as simple as that. Probably the same for leaking transfer stories that the club doesn't want out

I don't think it needs to be a five or ten year plan - one big sale next summer and we've paid this summer's transfer fees. Keep things rolling with investment in the right players and we're sustainable. Perhaps more interesting question is what happens if we get a really big sale. Buy more expensive youngsters or buy an established player or two?

It's been happening for as long as I've been a Saints for sure. But especially likely under a "system" manager like Ralph who needs time to embed his methods in the players

The thing is, we might consider him anonymous because he's not making key passes or goal involvements, but Ralph will be looking at his positioning and pressing and thinking this guy is playing a useful role for the team. And anonymous is better than making mistakes all over the park

Isn't the point though that we have had awful runs of form before and come back to have absolutely great ones? I don't think Ralph will ever get the team performing consistently over a whole season, but I also don't think that last season's bad run has much relevance for this one. I predict a slightly slow start as the new players get to know the system following by a brilliant one in the run up to Christmas

I expect Ralph likes his off the ball work. That's useful to have coming off the bench even if he doesn't contribute going forward as much as we'd like

We'll turn our form around by being fresh after the summer break rather than knackered after a season of high pressing

I think someone on here said he's learning Japanese. Not the actions of someone who intends to stay put in Soton

We do like a player who's going cheap for contract reasons, don't we. That's not to say he won't be a success though. One way or another, he'll entertain it looks like

Although it's a guess, I think Romeu intends to see out his contract and then leave for a new challenge

It is unfortunate that the window shuts after the start of the season, but I do think we have to be realistic that some targets simply can't be secured until later in the window. And it doesn't necessarily mean we'll be relegated if we aren't quite up to full strength for the first few games, especially as other teams will be in the same boat.

We've still got a month to go until our first game, and eight weeks until the window shuts, keep the faith

I think Marksfc's expectations are way over inflated but it surely also doesn't make sense to assess next season on the basis of something that definitely won't happen, i.e. we don't sign any more players

While I agree that we should set our expectations low, the league always looks tougher before the season starts than it turns out to be. I think Brentford will be in the relegation mix this time with the three promoted clubs. I'm not sure Everton will improve much under Lampard and Leeds are selling their two best players. And someone else may well surprise by underperforming, perhaps Palace or Brighton

Looks like he's converted to a wide midfielder now but still not exactly a great goal return

One of the most important signings of the summer if we can tie him down

It makes a lot of sense. All of these players are investments so should pay for themselves in the long run. But we need to spend up front to get the conveyor belt going

Rightly or wrongly, I can remember pretty widespread speculation on SaintsForever that he must have a clause in his contract which said he had to play every game, because it was inexplicable that he wasn't being dropped. Also his ineffective throw ins used to get absolute pelters. You're right that he wasn't totally out of his depth. But there were too many misplaced passes / soft challenges for a regular starter

He was definitely a level up from Ripley, Kenton and McCann, I'll agree with that. I rated Fernandes too.

I don't want to dump on the guy but he really was bad and I would have wanted him out of the team regardless of how much he cost

I'm not convinced he was ever offered a new contract. A lot of people making assumptions based on a few words in the PL retained list. Has been a good servant for us, wish him well

Both only had a year left on their contracts so you can pay more really