Dusic

That team tonight is very young, and clearly some decent players in the U18s like Doyle who will take him to have an impact at U23 level. However when you think of our recent U23s who have been amongst the better prospects at one stage is it quite enlightening how many have utterly bombed in pro football. Off the top of my head: Will Ferry - L2, plays but in a dire team Jake Vokins - L1/SPL, not yet made any pro impact Jake Hesketh - National League Josh Sims - unattached Callum Slattery - SPL Tyreke Johnson - National League Marcus Barnes - Unattached Ryan Seager - Non league Alfie Jones - L1/Championship, probably the best of these Tom O'Connor - L1 Harry Lewis - hasn't played a proper mens match for about 4 years Probably 300 U23 apps between these lads and most either played for the first team or were hyped to.

Thats the thing: end of this season he could be worth £30m or £5m. Nobody wants a CB who makes big errors every 4 or 5 games. If he cuts those out (big if) and improves his weaknesses then he has a good game.

Hope we are trying to extend his contract. Regardless of what Saints do as a team this season, teams will be noticing him. As it stands, our optimal time to sell would be 2022 summer, so would be good to push that back a year and allow him to develop a little more. He could be a top CB if he improves a bit in possession and as a set piece threat.

IMO the reason he started the season ahead of Bednarek is that Salisu was going to be the no1 CB and Ralph realised that a Bednarek/Salisu partnership is fsr too limited on the ball to work. Both are decent defenders, Salisu is great 1v1 and Bednarek is generally solid. But the weakest element of both their games is on the ball, technical ability. Stephens has some pretty big flaws: concentration, aerial ability, size and ability to dominate physical opponents. But he is calm on the ball and has the ability to play passes to break the lines. He is a funny player overall, and you can imagine frustrating for Managers because if he could cut out the errors he is actually quite good, and clearly has leadership skills that are quite rare these days. But thats the thing, he will have good games but can he have 5 in a row with no big mistakes? History says no, but over to him I guess...

Well JWP hasn't trained this week due to a stomach issue so if any of our CMs miss out then it would surely be him.

Still no sign of JWP in the training pics from today. Edit: Ralph said in written press section he has had some stomach problems this week.

https://www.footballinsider247.com/sources-brighton-beat-aston-villa-and-wolves-to-signing-of-blackpool-sensation-penman/ Another young CB we have been linked with. Clearly an area we want(ed) another Academy option.

Still nothing on Seaborne? And don't even get me started on Safri - surely his deal is up by now?

Certainly seems like a player who knows how to finish. No fuss, just scores. Hammer of a right foot.

Not spotted in today's training pics: - Stuart Armstrong - JWP - Dan Seaborne - Theo Walcott

Can't see Armstrong in the latest training pictures, so maybe a longer term injury than first thought?

Definitely an element that starting Livramento makes a big impact/statement in Academy football. Probably also played a part in bring able to sign Small rather than him going to a competitor. That said, pretty clear from watching Livramento that he is going to be a monster player, and there probably isnt a big difference right now between him and KWP. Genuinely tough call, but Livramento at £5m was a no brainer and will probably be in demand next summer I would imagine.

I reckon we are hoping to sign him permanently after his loan, just judging by some of the quotes from Semmens in the fans forum just after we signed him. Hopefully he does well this season but not too well...

I don't think anyone can really give a proper rating until we have seen Lyanco play. If he is good then it could be a 7/10 window and if he is awful then its probably 4/10 as we would have weakened ourselves in the position we were already weaker in. What can be said is the profile of players we have signed is ideal for us as a club and it is great to see a bit of an actual plan/philosophy emerging again in the recruitment where it went missing at the end of the Reed era. Nice to have freshened up the squad with a good number of new faces, which in itself add a bit of intrigue.

Doubt we will be getting more than a couple of million for Obafemi seeing as his contract is up at the end of the season. Swansea have very little cash albeit just got £2m from Bournemouth for Lowe.

He is going to Burton Albion on loan so staying at Sheff Utd presumably.

Over recent years we have been one of the more active teams on deadline day. I think this will be one that we sit out in terms of incomings...and aside from missing the drama I don't think that is a massive issue seeing as the position we would seemingly be interested in is 4th choice centre mid.

We aren't suddenly going to find a spare £15m unless we sell a key player. I don't know how that isn't clear by now! Anyway, Sky saying we are probably done, with loan the only possibility for us now. In terms of incomings, I like what we have done. We needed to freshen things up and have done that. Losing Ings was a blow, not bothered about Bertrand and Vestergaard. If Lyanco turns out good then its probably been our best window for a while.

Would imagine we might leave our PL loan spot open for January as if not we surely would have very little wiggle room to do anything without selling a first team player. Would be stupid to loan in a 4th choice centre mid and then be constrained in Jan because of it. If we get anyone I expect it will be a young player like Livramento or Small. No links though at this stage, and there are less than 48hrs to go...

Whoever we sign isnt going to be a starting player I wouldn't have thought. Besides, isn't Romeu statistically one of the best ball winners in the PL? I think we are more lacking a creative passer in that area than a ball winner.

Judging by Ralph's comments in the press conference today I get the impression that he hasn't seen a huge amount of Lyanco. Not saying that is a problem at all, just an observation. He essentially said he didn't want to comment too much on his qualities as he has only done one session with half the squad so hasn't really seen yet what he can do.

I guess there are two ways to look at it. One is that the player will probably not get much league game time unless there are a lot of injuries so an established player is unlikely to want to move to us. Another is that JWP could easily go next summer so would be great to be able to test someone out as a potential replacement. Ideal IMO would be a Livramento/Small type buy.

Big game for reasons Benji says. I would bring in Redmond for Walcott as the only change.

Young, hungry and per SWF guarenteed to be shit. Welcome lad.

Interesting that two of our recent POTS's in McCarthy and Redmond are now viewed as utter dross. Overreaction? Highlighting how our squad has actually improved? Highlighting how bad it was? Or poor judgement from fans in voting for them?