Dusic

He doesn't do the basics of defending. In the Championship you need CBs who can turn in reliable performances three times a week and can hold a particular level. He can't do that.

Would be good if something comes of that, especially if its a permanent move but won't hold my breath as they won't be able to afford him. Remember at the time under Gao we were also linked with Tosin Adarabioyo and didn't want to pay £12m for him so instead bought Lyanco for £7m, beating Watford to his signing (which is enough to signal alarm bells). Couldn't speak English and had struggled in Italy. Unreliable, rash defender who tries to mask it by being overly emotional. Two years later one is being linked with a move to Inter Milan and the other with a move back to Brazil. Re Alcaraz - just like the whole squad, if he gets a sniff of a PL offer he will want to take it.

The rules should be upheld by the bodies who set them, rather than in this way. If Everton have broken the rules they should be punished accordingly. Regardless of what Everton did, Saints and the other clubs deserved to be relegated.

I don't think JWP would be seen as good enough for what Villa are trying to do and now they have Tielemans, Luiz and McGinn I don't see why they would go for him. Aside from West Ham, I wonder if someone like Brighton might come in for him if the price reduces slightly. They value good senior pros/leaders and will likely lose Caicedo. Good opportunity to play in Europe too.

Darren Mowbray is in charge of recruitment, reporting into Wilcox.

Pretty sure a lot of our fans were saying things like "no plan B" and "will be gone by christmas" about Poch when he left us for Spurs. Partly as some kind of defence mechanism as ultimately your club has been ditched in favour of another. A good number of fans are fairly clueless. There are plenty on this thread that think we have played possession football for the last few seasons, to select one example. Best thing about this appointment, in addition to Wilcox, is that it shows some joined up thinking, which has been lacking for a while.

They very well might because almost everything is stacked against them but no doubt that their data lead scouting approach has been very successful. Like with anything a strategy can be good or bad but it can also be implemented well or poorly. For people to just reduce it to data = bad is a bit ridiculous.

There is good data and bad data, and people who are good at interpreting data and people who are bad at interpreting data. If you use good data and have people who are good at interpreting that data then you can get the people who have good eyeballs to look at the range of players that the good data has suggested are worth looking at and have a better chance of spotting the ones that might be good signings quicker. These are quotes from Paul Barber, Brighton CEO from The Athletic today... Chief executive Paul Barber says: “What we don’t do, in the way that other clubs do, is charge around the world, constantly watching matches looking at players, which is like trying to find a needle in a haystack. What we try and do is focus on the areas for improvement, focus on the players that we feel can fill that gap and then send our eyes, our scouts, to look specifically at those players. “We don’t tend to do what some scouts do around the world, which is constantly circle the world looking.”

If Burnley, or any other PL side were to have an offer accepted then he would move, almost certainly. But imagine the price we are rightly quoting will make Burnley wonder if they can find better value elsewhere.

Darren Mowbray will be in charge of recruitment having been brought in as Head of Recruitment. He will report into Wilcox who has overall responsibility for the football operation.

We will need to sign at least 2 and probably 3 CMs so fairly plausible.

Judging by The Athletic article it sounds like it will be hard to keep Alcaraz, who has offers from (at least) Benfica and another CL team. Seems he may not push for a move at this stage but not overly sure he will be happy to play in the Championship if there is something firm which will give him a better stage, and expect plenty of voices will tell him the same. Feels like if he did stay he could be a massive differential at Champ level.

Yeah definitely a smokescreen and genius to get Swansea in on the plot by pretending to look for a new manager. All to help out Saints who relegated them a few years ago. As smokescreen's go its one of the smokiest I can remember.

It never does because the player will decide where he wants to go first before any official bids are made.

Never change Davie, never change. 😆

Very easy to forget its a tournament season and he has a wage cut at Saints. 99.37% he will leave.

Seems like both teams are doing what would be reasonably expected of them and Martin is in all liklihood preparing for the season as Saints manager, just like Wilcox and Crocker both leading manager recruitment whilst serving notice periods before their roles officially begin.

Would be amazed if he stayed. Has shown he can be a big PL asset immediately and has potential to further improve. At least one PL club will be keen on him and for him it would be a no brainer financially and career wise to move. Quite likely he will get in the Argentina squad if he is a PL player next season.

Alan Nixon says the reason for the delay is due to the compensation, specifically that he had a two tiered clause amount, one for a PL side and one for a Championship side - therefore the timing makes a difference to how much we pay. No issue, just timing. Imagine it will be announced fairly soon as Swansea will need to recruit and announce their replacement and its an open secret anyway.

I don't think you understand the concept of the list (which doesn't hugely suprise me). Its just to update on the status of out of contract players. Our most high profile being Walcott and Elyounoussi. We will be 'retaining' those under contract because we have to.

Adams would be an ideal player to keep. Proven in that level, generally robust to be able to play 90mins three times a week and a good character of which we seemingly have few. Unfortunately he will go because PL teams will take him and he only has a year left. As others have said though, there does appear to be some joined up thinking at last with Wilcox influential in Martin joining and obviously well versed in the possession based style, so would assume any signings would be with that style firmly in mind. Is it a risk? Yes But after 18 months being stuck in the middle of various styles I think committing to coaching and recruiting to one is a good move.

Interesting podcast covering many topics. Particularly that he has been a player (at Norwich) who has been relegated from the PL and has seen the fallout. Mentions that most players who have been relegated expect to get a move back to the PL and the dynamic is hard to get right. Another experience he has that will be useful in our situation.

I get the principle of this of course but another way of looking at it is that Martin has experience of playing and currently managing in the league we will be in, Vieira doesn't. Perhaps that experience was something that was valued highly? I suspect the ability to coach a team to play a specific style was the key reason but the experience of the Championship certainly helps, especially as so many of our players (current at least) will lack this.