Dusic

JWP isn't a #10 and our wide attacking midfielders don't score enough for this work unless we suddenly signed Harry Kane up front. All our best performances under Ralph have come with two strikers working together and when our full backs are a threat from deep combining with the midfield. Long and Ings, Ings and Adams, Brojs and Adams. Each of these partnerships are/were miles better than A.Armstrong and Aribo or S.Armstrong and Aribo will ever be. Amazed that after finally being more active in recruitment, Ralph has chosen this point to move away from his preferred formation and noy once tried it in pre season. If we wanted to play 5-3-2 we may as well have sacked him and hired Nuno Espirito Santo. Either go back to 4-2-2-2 which for all its flaws has shown it can work (and for which our recently recruited players seem ideal) or fire Ralph - rather than let him try to figure out a whole new system, that has been abject whenever tried, whilst we slip out of the PL.

We haven't got the players to play this system. Too many are in roles they aren't suited to and it totally takes away the threat we did have with a genuine front two. Hope Ralph isnt too stubborn to change. If he is then it will probably be the final nail in his coffin.

Find the reaction to pundits tipping us to get relegated rather odd. I would say its very likely we are in the bottom 6, and certainly very arguable that we will be in the relegation mix. Who do some you really think we will be finishing above? Even being optimistic I would say the only teams that can really be included are the promoted 3 plus Leeds, Everton and Brentford. Of those, Everton and Leeds have spent £30m on a player and Brentford have made decent signings under a very good manager. We may not like it, but us being in the bottom 3 is a very reasonable prediction.

Loan with option makes complete sense in that position. After the WC we might have 3 good players in that position who all want to play and if KWP doesn't go now or Jan he almost certainly will next summer so good opportunity to assess a loan player and low risk if it doesnt work out.

Colwill seemingly only going to Brighton on loan. Don't think it matters for us as if he is good then either Chelsea will keep him or he would be out of our budget anyway. Get the feeling after Broja that we aren't keen on loans without an option.

Change in approach from Ralph as he is normally quite open in talking about transfers in the media. Perhaps, £50m in, we have reached the stage where we need to sell to buy? Would not be unreasonable.

I like Adams, he has improved in each season and has the vastly under-appreciate attribute of robustness that has seen him miss very few games through injury. I also think that its totally unrealistic that we will spent £70m in this window without any major sales. So if we aren't selling JWP or KWP and nobody wants Bednarek or our fringe dross then maybe we have to sell Adams to be able to bring others in, and Ralph clearly doesn't think Adams is an x-factor striker (which lets face it he isn't). The biggest issue is that this season there aren't many genuine repegation candidates and selling him to Leeds or Forest, two teams who are, would be ludicrous unless either the fee is huge or we have an absolutely brilliant replacement lined up who is certainly a big upgrade. Both of these seem unlikely. Shame we can't get £10m for Adam Armstrong instead.

Without selling any of our CBs no chance we could have really gone for Colwill - we have already spent £50m without selling anyone and obviously still want to sign a striker. Good signing for Brighton though, and they are in a good cycle considering they will have generated £125m from White, Cucurella and Bissouma at an outlay of about 25m. Thats what we need to start doing.

https://www.skysports.com/football/story-telling/11700/12663553/ralph-hasenhuttl-exclusive-interview-southampton-manager-on-clubs-fresh-start Good interview with Ralph in which he correctly identifies that our best spell last season was when Broja was on fire and he says we need to find a striker who makes a difference in the final third. Certainly sounds like whoever comes in will be a major signing. Broja still not moved anywhere...still maintain if its affordable he should be the #1 target. Will be very interesting to see if he features in Chelsea's first few games.

Annoying that it seems Brighton will get Colwill.

If (and its a big if) there is genuine interest from KWP in the top 8 or so then seems extremely unlikely he would chose to sign a new contract with us so the reality is he will probably leave in one of the next two windows, or his value would start to decrease, and as we have seen with various others once you get to a year left you end up just getting back what you paid. For our strategy to work we do need to start selling £30m+ players again. That said, with full back being our weakest position cover wise, I can't see Saints selling now unless we got a huge offer.

Think KWP'a agent is working overtime to get him and move or a bumper new contract. Either way, Saints in a very strong position and what a success story his signing has been. From fans not being sure he was worth even signing on loan to an England call up and likely to make a huge profit on him when he does go. About the ideal Saints signing template.

Could be Doyle pro deal. Think he is 17 sometime about now so able to sign a professional contract.

The Lyanco signing last summer was a big mistake, especially as a permanent. We already had Stephens who was a back-up player and now essentially have three CBs in Lyanco, Stephens and Valery that are never going to become regulars starters. In hindsight it would have been better to get someone on loan last year if they were only going to be bit part as now are stuck with him for another 3 years.

Surely we can't even consider Colwill until we get rid of two of Lyanco, Stephens, Bednarek and Valery?

I think we have done enough business numbers wise that we can afford now to wait and see what develops towards the end of the window which is always when the bulk of transfers happen. Full back cover is arguably less of an urgent priority now that we will almost certainly play with wing backs in the first few games which will probably see Djenepo start at least the first game (not sure Perraud is really a wing back in the Ralph mould either tbh). At centre back we already have one too many anyway so surely need to lose two before we bring another in? Also seems Colwill will be included in any deal for Fofana so hopefully that doesnt happen. Striker wise all teams are searching for good ones. Will be interesting to see what happens as its not certain that Adams and Armstrong will be here next season and clearly Mara will take time to have an impact. Seems likely Stu will be used off a striker to start with as Ralph doesn't like the Adams/Armstrong partnership. In this position we obviously have targets and quite possibly it will go to the last days of the window to get one of them. In an ideal world we would get a new #10 too but I don't think that will happen as we havent been linked to any this summer and aside from Aribo and Armstrong we still have on the books Djenepo, Elyounoussi, Tella and Walcott so surely would need to get shot of 2 or 3 of them before bringing in anyone else. Personally think Tella needs a loan move to the Championship. He has some good attributes but not sure he will ever have the first touch and composure to be a successful PL attacker. Also...assuming we sign a striker for at least £10m, surely we need to do some balancing of the books given what we have already spent? We have a lot of players who are never going to be regular starters and a few could leave (perm or loan) and it would barely make a difference: Lis, Lyanco, Stephens, Valery, Diallo, Redmond, Elyounoussi, Djenepo, Walcott, Tella

The fee is a nonsense, but no sign of a new contract and there is definitely something RH isnt sure about as he fell out of favour end of last season and hasnt figured in pre season very much alongside the seemingly preferred XI. Would be stupid to sell to a relegation rival, but wouldn't suprise me all that much if he did go somewhere. Surely we can't spend £60m+ without any major sales?

Agree to a point but with so many new players they don't really have any experience of the 4-2-2-2. Also think it would really suit all of them. As we have seen under Ralph, when its played well it is a formation that can attack really well. I think he has lost confidence in our ability to defend and wants the extra CB but in the PL we could defend brilliantly and still concede twice because most teams have quality attackers. We will always need to be a threat to get results and I think this formation takes too much of that away personally. Unless we sign a quality striker who transforms the attack...

Bit of a shame considering the new additions to go through all of pre season without trying the 4-2-2-2. Obvious we will play 3CBs for the first few games. Personally still not keen on it as we are a better team when we play with two genuine strikers and in a 3CB system usually one of them at least has to have some composure on the ball. Still lacking up top and at CB to be genuinely optimistic about our chances this season IMO. We are likely to be in the bottom 6 come the end of the season, and almost certain to be after the first 5 or 6 games.

Fofana signed a new contract fairly recently and is extremely highly rated. I think Leicester would want mega money (£70m+)to sell him, even with Colwill in exchange. Can't see it myself this late on, but maybe Leicester would see itbas a way to spend without investing anything perhaps - think they are the only PL side not to have signed anyone so far. Re Colwill, surely we have to sell a defender or even two to create a space for him (probably Bednarek, Lyanco or Stephens) as already have six senior CBs given the emergence of Valery as a CB in a 3 and there are currently no strong links at all.

https://bit.ly/3zDoqHw #saintsy

If we are going with 3 CBs then I would say Valery is seen as the backup RCB, and is ahead of Stephens and Lyanco in that position.

Agree that if anything were close he wouldn't be posting that. Doesn't mean we won't go for or get him, but we currently have too many CBs as it is. Secret Scout also playing it down as a family thing.

Reported, not by anyone overly reliable. The tweet at the start of this thread says "preparing a bid" - hardly comcrete. Hard to obviously know the exact timings of these things but interesting that we accelerated on Mara at the same time it came out that City have no intention of selling Delap permanently. Both are tall central strikers, good technically and in the air. Sure we will get another striker but not sure our intention is or ever has been to get Mara and Delap. We will see of course, although if they really don't want to sell then not much we can do.

In Mara quite possibly we already have. They seem similar in profile and RH mentioned that we moved quickly as the opportunity came up, presumably after it became clear Delap is unobtainable.