Dusic

Don't offer new deal. Sell for small fee if possible. If only takers are on loan then keep and let him go free next summer. Agreed?

So he should have become an U18 assistant coach instead of winning Ligue Un with Lille? Somewhat bizarre.

It might make sense if we do re-sign Caballero as 3rd choice and given there are question marks about McCarthy longer term. Signing a GK with further potential to improve and loaning him out for a season whilst we don't need him and seeing how he develops is not terrible logic. Clearly if true we would be signing a first team squad keeper also, but not a bad thing to also be thinking a little longer term and essentially with very low risk considering no fee and likely low wages. Might even be a small profit to be made even if he didnt end up playing for us.

Livramento and Broja were/are prospects and both were in our five best players of last season. Walcott is very experienced and added little. We need quality above anything else. These lads are among the top talents of their age in the country and are exactly the types we should be targeting, alongside a couple of more experienced players.

Cole Palmer is easily on a par with Livramento talent wise. He would be a good signing as a loan but I would say zero liklihood of a permanent move as very highly rated at City. Personally more keen on Bazunu than Dragowski - sounds like he has a higher ceiling. Also, "marquee signing" is a phrase that neess putting in the bin. Meaningless drivel.

Have to assume Ralph is happy with this too as I think he would have walked otherwise. He isn't stupid. He has worked within the RB setup and knows what good coaches look like (Rohl for example). He more than anyone would have known if Davis, Watson and Fleming were good or not. He was happy to take input from Rohl, and then after his departure has seemingly preferred to go it alone. That in itself is telling. Crocker has brought in some good coaches within the academy setup and also clearly knows the needs for modern coaches. You would imagine they can collectively pick well. As an aside, I find some of the disrespect towards Ralph pretty off. Whatever we may think about him tactically at times, its a fact he has kept us up in 4 seasons where investment has been limited and also clear that he genuinely cares and puts everything into the job, in a way not all managers do. I think he now needs backing over the summer, and then its up to him to deliver a decent start with a return to our more proactive style. He has earned that chance IMO. Can he take it? Time will tell.

Sacking all the staff or sacking Ralph? Surely that depends on their review and what they feel has caused our poor form? So its not really an either/or choice. Its entirely dependent upon what they perceive the problem to be.

Two years into a four year deal and I am still not sure if he is really good enough for the PL. Probably one of the most disappointing players this season. With Romeu he is ok, with JWP it just doesnt work and assuming JWP stays that doesnt bode well for Diallo. Massive season coming up for him...if he is even still at Saints.

Hypothetical but it seems quite likely Ings will move again as Gerrard prefers Watkins and they want to sign another striker too. Would you take Ings back for a reasonable fee? Reckon he would almost be too embarassed to return? Would be a bit annoying seeing him sign for someone like Brighton! Always feel like he is a player who needs to be playing 90mins every week to be at his best.

But the wage bill linkage is also indicative of squad depth, i.e you pay more so you have more players of a certain level of quality. In a one off game, with a week to prepare and with a full strength line up we can be good and can take points of those teams. But, especially in the 2nd half of the season those conditions rarely happen and we don't have the depth of quality to easily beat the teams supposedly worse than us, or compete with those better. You only have to look at the bench at Leicester. More than half either won't be here next season or shouldn't be. We are a team that drops massively in quality if we miss one or two starting XI players.

If a top 4 club genuinely come in for JWP then he would be mad not to go. Especially to Spurs where he would have a good chance of regular minutes. That said, to Saints he is clearly worth in the £50 - £60m bracket - would anyone really pay that for him?! If he did go it would need a monumental rebuild as his output is so high in various metrics - not least goals and assists.

As research has suggested, the biggest link to league position is spend on wages. As you can see here, our wage position (2021) is 14th and our final league position was 15th. In previous years its been our turn to defy the odds, as the likes of Brentford and Brighton did this season. Clearly our run since March is unacceptable, but ultimately we have finished about where our financial power says we should. Is it really realistic to expected that next season we should be finishing above any/many of the likes of Villa, Wolves, Leicester, Everton, West Ham or Newcastle? I think the answer to that is no given what they spend compared to us. The fact three of those teams are considering paying James Tarkowski over 100k a week highlights the gulf. So essentially we will be competing with Brighton (huge net spend since promotion to PL), Palace, Brentford and possibly Leeds, plus the three promoted teams. (Incidentally Leeds are already about to spend £28m on a player). Of course we all want to see progress, but so do other teams, and many of those actually spend to get that progress up the table. Questions: - Should we feel entitled to more than a lower mid table finish? - Is it a fair statement to say that a top 10 finish now is far, far harder than when we did it under Poch and Koeman? - Is it getting to a stage where the PL is largely too rich for us?

Sorry but he is obviously not as good as Salisu or Bednarek (even despite his drop off this season) and we all know Stephens isnt good enough but I don't see Lyanco is any better than him at all. It was a stupid signing, buying a backup player who can't speak English when we needed someone to put pressure on Salisu. By all accounts we picked him ahead of Worrall and I know who I would rather have now...not Lyanco.

He is easily the worst senior CB we have. And the one we signed most recently, which is stupid.

Good socials but awful player. Poor signing. Had all the red flags at the time: no English, in and out of a poor team, erratic playing style. For an extra £5m we could probably have signed Tosin Adarabioyo, so he was clearly a cheap option.

Cue JWP in August: "Yeah obviously I'm good friends with Frase and he only had good things to say about the club." 😉

Still have no idea why Saints and Hasenhuttl haven't dealt with his departure better. Obvious as soon as we signed up McCarthy that he wouldnt be offered anything with us. Why say he is injured when he is leaving as everyone knows anyway?

Why do we do this odd stuff? He has been at the club 7 or 8 years and despite all the stuff going on has never publically said a bad word. Why not release a statement saying he isnt being offered a new deal and thanking him for his service? Seems on the face of it such an easy and obvious way to handle it.

Surely if JWP is ever going to move then this summer would be the one? Great personal season in a poor team, WC on the horizon and will be 28 in November so in the prime of his career whilst still giving a buyer enough good years to make it worthwhile for them.

Regarding the UEFA Youth league whilst I'm sure great to be a part of it suits clubs like City and Chelsea who have stacks of players in each age group. For an Academy like Saints with smaller squads I'm not sure it would be as beneficial as lots of midweek games and some travel would mean players unavailable for U23 games and a lack of consistency in the team selection. Will be interesting to see which of these players push into the 23s full time next season and how they do. Also further reason to sell the likes of N'Lundulu, Vokins, Ramsay etc this summer.

This is a good post. Strangely for a Manager who in the early days was criticised for being too rigid tactically I think he has gone too often away from what makes us good. We are awful when we sit back as haven't got good enough 1v1 defenders and aren't a team that is secure in possession. I can barely think of a time we have played the 3 CBs and actually looked good. I get that players go in and out of form but not sure why Adams has been so out of favour of late. He should be a regular starter and his partnership with Broja was a massive factor in our best spell. If his teams don't press then they are essentially pointless and maybe those big defeats and a lack of trust in some players has caused him to lose a bit of his spark. I really like him because he genuinely cares and think he will probably get the start of the season but we really need to freshen his staff and have a strong window else he won't last beyond October.

Ballard missing with injury. Armitage also injured hence why he hasnt played for a while. https://www.dailyecho.co.uk/sport/20146556.saints-u18s-hoping-take-manchester-city-playoff/

I think for the likes of Djenepo, Walcott and Elyounoussi their book values are very low as their contracts are running down so anything is a bonus for them. Bednarek might be worth £10m or so as has solid Intl pedigree. Clearly only JWP, KWP or Salisu would generate big cash.

As ever, a big summer coming up. Need to get the majority right and bring in at least 3 that go straight into the team at GK, CB and striker. Otherwise a poor start will do for Ralph and it could be a very tough season. Still carrying too many who aren't good enough, can we find buyers for the likes of Bednarek, Stephens, Lyanco, Walcott, Elyounoussi and Djenepo? Will anyone put up the cash for JWP or KWP? Lots of things to happen.

Having dusted off my FA level one manual, I would suggest Ralph goes for FR as a front sweeper for this one.