Dusic

With this supposed stance from Liverpool that they will wait for encouragement before making a formal bid we will see how serious Reed was about not selling VVD. We knew he wanted to go, so nothing has really changed as yet. Big month ahead for Reed.

So far in pre season he has been shoved out wide right and been dire as he hasn't got any of the skills to play in that position. Would definitely accept a reasonable offer if one came in, can replace with a player who can play wide or central.

#quietsummer

We are in need of a couple of signings who will come straight into the starting team in defence and centre midfield. Everyone else is doing something and quite frankly we will just be left behind if we don't. Our squad is solid enough but the quality of our current first XI is lower (without VVD) than since our first season in the PL which is disappointing given how much money we have generated. Expectstions for the current team need to be realistic, top ten would be a superb achievement for Pellegrino given where we are now versus other sides.

The transfer ban stuff is bull****. If there was evidence for a ban they would have one by now. Saints arent stupid enough to think the interest would go away and may have encouraged it at the right price. VVD will go - it business. The **** thing is that it will be to Liverpool. The board need go stop that after VVD or they will lose the fans.

A few days ago the club would have got hammered if we sold him. Since Pellegrino's comments there are a lot more people here saying "get rid". In reality little has changed as we all knew VVD wanted to go to Liverpool since the tapping up stuff became public knowledge. Clever media strategy from the club, similar to previous sales: reduce the popularity of the player preparing fans for a sale. The "not for sale stance" is to push the price up, and it will have worked as the fee will be surely way over the £50m touted in May. But now highly likely he will go, so hopefully we do a better job replacing him than we did Fonte, Schneiderlin, Mane, Pelle, Wanyama otherwise our CB options will be weaker than for the last 4 seasons, similar to other positions like central midfield.

Like the way Pellegrino dealt with it. We will have known this would happen so will be interesting how long we will wait for his attitude to change bearing in mind that if we were to sell we need to replace VVD which wouldn't be easy towards the end of the window. With him our defensive options look good. Without him they look very ropey. Certainly hard to see much other than Yoshida and Stephens for the first few games of the season as this will likely go on til end of August. Ultimately though, sell to Liverpool and the club lose a lot of credibility. One other possibility: Pellegrino may prefer having the money to spend.

VVD nowhere to be seen in todays training video. May not fit enough to have contact with grass?

Echo says VVD unlikely to feature versus Brentford this weekend. Training for about a month but can't play 45mins of a friendly? Not buying it personally...there is clearly a problem with him. The other Echo article from today is a PR piece about how much we will be able to get by selling him due to the crazy market. Still think Liverpool or someone else will stump up the money because he is top class. We aren't in the habit of rejecting sizeable bids for players and there is no way we would turn down a genuine bid of £70m for a player who has made his feelings quite clear.

He is only 29 and has been doing well in Germany. Very good signing for West Ham IMO. Proven goalscorer. Definitely some decent buys from a few mid table clubs this summer.

We could get away with just one really quality central midfielder to play alongside Romeu. Shame in hindsight we didnt opt for Gueye when we signed Clasie - he would be ideal. Need someone in that area who is different from what we have (i.e can run) and who would go straight into our best XI.

Pretty ****ing obvious he wants to go to Liverpool.

Karamoh and Defrel on the move. Two more we were linked with, although hard to know if any truth. Wonder if the takeover is having any influence on our window strategy?

Bertrand has been injured in almost every pre season.

Only a factor if we lose VVD you wouod think. We are well stocked with CBs and thats even after we have ditched Gardos.

Jacob Murphy to Newcastle. A number of players we have been linked with have gone elsewhere. Might not have been interested in them all but strange to not have anything apart from Bednarek with not that long to go until the season starts. Esecially with a couple of glaring weaknesses in the squad. Surely we will sign at least one starting XI player?!

If we are moving back to a 4-2-3-1 then JWP will find it hard to get a game wide right. Begs the question, how will MP use him? He is still too weak and slow to play in the "2" and a non-threat no 10. How can we use his technical ability but without his poor physical ability hampering the team in either defence or attack?

In a front sweeper role? You could be onto something there. Interesting how few people have picked Austin. Really wish we would move him and Long on but their wages are probably higher than they would really be worth to anyone. Gabbiadini, Long, Austin, Gallagher isnt a top half striker pool IMO.

No. Could get better value by just taking the money. I think he will go and is obviously still pushing for it. No coincidence that that the two players heavily linked with moves away were the only two not to feature in the friendly. VVD social media stuff pretty poor and having pictures taken yesterday with Liverpool fans also quite disrespectful to fans of Southampton. We pay him a fortune and are entitled to more IMO.

Thats the näive view. He is saying he is fully fit and in full training. We are saying he isnt playing because he isn't training fully in contact aspects of the game. Interesting that the only other first team player not in the squad is Ryan Bertrand...

So he still can't have contact after a couple of weeks intense training and all his rehab? Quite a long term injury this one.

Based on what?

He is comparable with Tadic, Boufal and Redmond. Not JWP or Davis.

Mobility is severely lacking in our midfield. Romeu is slow. Clasie is slow and rarely lasts 90mins. JWP is slow. Hojbjerg is slow. Need a partner for Romeu and I would be happy if that was our only signing as long as nobody leaves.

We will have fewer season ticket holders than Brighton. Pretty poor.