Dusic

Giggs would be a terrible appointment. Devoid of personality, managerial experience and coached United in their worst spell of my lifetime. No thanks.

Happy coincidence that we continually monitor Managers and then when we need one, our preferred guys are out of contract! Adkins would be the last Manager we directly took from another team and that was from a much smaller club.

Is the De Boer scepticism based on his short spell at basket case Inter after their takeover, or his time at Ajax where he won four successive titles? Or both? On paper, he seems a good fit for us without looking deeply into it. Certainly would be someone who players would respect you would imagine. Not sure if he still has Bergkamp in his team but that would potentially provide a lift too, and PL experience.

Why's that, pal?

They will be keen to downplay Tuchel a bit unless it is definitely him, otherwise no other candidates will stand a chance with the fans...

Feel for Clode as seemed an honest guy but right decision. Les and Willo need to make a better decision than last time. Pressure is on them.

Given regular games he would score more than Long IMO.

Would imagine if we weren't keen on Tuchel one of the usual mouthpieces would have ruled him out to avoid any alternative candidate being seen as a failure. But still wouldn't suprise me if there is another left field candidate. We are clearly waiting for something to fall into place otherwise we would have announced that Clode is leaving by now.

I would say he doesn't use his speed enough actually. Good first touch, excellent in tight areas but not direct enough at times. Pretty much the opposite of what you described.

In L2 and L1 where the role of a full back is slightly different to the PL. Not every player will make PL standard and we will have watched plenty of the player during his loan spells. In the youth setup here we were converting him into a CB but his loan football as mostly been at right back which is where he wants to play - perhaps we don't see him in that position long term?

Very different scenario surely? Ultimately we will sack Puel and pay him compensation because we don't want him to be our Manager anymore. Koeman we wanted to stay but only if he was committed for the longer term which he refused to do. IMO there is no way back for Puel now, his position is completely untenable as we have clesrly been looking at new Manager's and everyone knows about it. He would have zero respect from players, fans or the club if he were to remain. Can only assume we are working behind the scenes, just hopefully in a better way than the Fonte scenario in January.

They have all summer yet I guess so plenty more legs in this story...

Telling for me has been the improvement we have clearly seen when Bertrand has been injured and then has come back into the side. He is quietly one of the most allround full backs in the PL and a couple of levels above Targett and McQueen. Hence he is wanted by City and Chelsea...

£13m for Tadic would be an absolute steal for the buying club. Yes can be a bit inconsistent but proven PL player in his prime who unquestionably creates lots of chances. Certainly would cost more than that to replace him successfully.

Schmidt to Watford fell apart due to his wage demands...presumably knowing that he had a mega deal from China on the table. Could be similar with Palace and Saints if there had been any interest from either club.

Puel is clearly a goner. Why haven't we just announced it? Don't understand how that really benefits anyone, it just makes us look heartless and snakey.

Pep Clotet

So the last paragraph of The Times article suggests the PL have specifically looked to change the rules as a reult of not being legally able to block our takeover. Under the proposed new rules they would not have allowed Gao Jisheng to own a UK football team. Great...

Even if there is no announcement tomorrow it appears more and more likely that there will be soon, especially since the PL have seemingly closed the loopholes that prevented them being able to effectively challenge this takeover. That doesn't exactly inspire confidence in Lander. Clearly KL won't be investing further (Saints alone makes up two-thirds of her business portfolio) so we definitely need investment but surely there are less risky ways of obtaining that than something like this? PR wise alone we will take a battering if this goes through and surely it violates many of the principles that Markus Liebherr stood for. Very few recent Asian based takeovers have been anything short of an absolute fiasco, so confidence will be low with a minimal benefit being that our existing management team seem likely to be retained. Could signal some volatile times ahead... #quietsummer #beltandroad

http://www.przegladsportowy.pl/pilka-nozna/transfery,jan-bednarek-moze-trafic-do-southampton-za-rekordowe-pieniadze-transfery,artykul,790344,1,970.html Says he is in the Poland squad for the U21 WC so they are in no rush to agree a deal as he might generate more interest if he plays well, including against England.

CB aside our weakest position is central midfield, particularly the total absence of anyone with remotely similar attributes to Romeu.

Good to see us standing up for ourselves on this one. Long time overdue.

Interesting bit on 5live a couple of nights ago from Rafa Honigstein about why Tuchel left Dortmund. Essentially said he was a very abrasive character and rubbed too many people up the wrong way, particularly a lot of non playing club staff at various levels who he was quite rude to and a lot of people lost respect for him. Lots of his relationships broke down because of this, ultimately leading to his departure despite good results on the pitch. The captain Marcel Schmelzer got involved as he felt the squad were also losing faith in the man management style of Tuchel and this allied to the way he dealt with staff at the club was his downfall. Considering the Club like operate as a "family" and Krueger has clearly outlined our differential as "the way we treat people" then I imagine the above doesn't really match up well to what we want. Not saying we shouldn't go for Tuchel if we could get him, or that he isn't a good Manager. Just interesting background.

Players tend to get what they want in the end. Can't recall many times where a player moves to a club that isn't his preferred choice just because another club offer more money to the selling party. Unfortunately we know how it will end. Its all just posturing, we will reluctantly sell him to Liverpool, proving beyond all doubt that new contracts for players are simply a way to get more money when they leave (which we already knew).

Virgil's new Agent earning his money. Strange timing to change Agent shortly after signing a big new contract.