Dusic

Mad to think how much his level has increased between how he was when he first joined us to how he is playing now. Makes it more of a shame that we will probably just about get our money back for him and little more.

Suprised to see JWP back so soon given his England outings. He has barely had a break considering how much he played last season - presumably thats his choice. First team wise only Diallo and Djenepo missing aside from GKs and Intls. Lots of players pictured who should/could leave: Lemina, Elyounoussi, Long, Obafemi, Valery...still a lot to be done.

Well just before the end of the season they brought in Lee Skyrme from the FA as an Individual coach to work alongside Horseman so hopefully he has a positive impact. I am quite suprised how many pro deals they have handed out but even more suprised that so far there have been no signings between 16 and 20 when there is such a dearth of quality in those ages and recruitment at that level was specifically mentioned by Crocker.

I don't understand the thinking of a loan as full back cover. - If he hardly plays then he will get frustrated and probably not want to sign for us even if we want to get him permanently. - If he does really well then it will be hard to sign him permanently and Utd will ask for more than we can afford. - If there is no real view of us signing him permanently then why not get someone in who we can develop? Would be very annoying if next summer we still need to sign full back cover, for about the 6th window in a row. I also don't think we will sign a 4th full back and think they will consider Stephens, Diallo, Salisu could do a job if needed. The primary attraction of Williams seems to be that he can play both sides which makes the above more likely.

All points towards a fiasco IMO as Ings holds all the power and the club are left in a very reactive position. For me it will either be: 1. He leaves near the end of the window for a top club once they have hit dead ends with their top targets and Saints realise we cannot afford to let him run his contract down and leave for free. Saints position it that we already signed his replacement in Armstrong, who at the time of his signing was briefed to Blackmore et al as definitely not being an Ings replacement. 2. He leaves in January for an even more cut price to a 2nd tier PL side like Villa or Everton once he realises that none of the top boys are goijg to move for him. Last chance at a run for the WC squad with a club not battlingnat the wrong end. Saints realise we cannot afford to let him run his contract down and leave for free. Saints position it that we already signed his replacement in Armstrong, who at the time of his signing was briefed to Blackmore et al as definitely not being an Ings replacement.

Of course its a drop in quality, Ings is one of the best strikers in the PL! Danjuma has had a good season in the Championship but is still very much jury out at PL level. I certainly wouldnt say he is a huge upgrade on Redmond or Walcott. Reality is that without Ings goals we will be worse off. Regardless of any spin. This has been positioned as summer where we need to do a lot of business. So far we have swapped one LB for another, and most other stories have been about losing players. There is a lot to do, and almost certainly only a fraction of what is needed will be done.

Personally I am not sold on Williams: 1. Hard to judge how good he actually is 2. £65k a week for a backup full back seems mental 3. No option to buy if he does well, are we just kicking the full back cover can down the road? 4. As with Minamino, United will want him to play and you wonder what is agreed regarding that to enable these deals to happen, a bit like with Minamino who suddenly got in the team after some Liverpool officials had been in touch with Saints following a period of few minutes. Would much prefer a permanent signing that we can develop.

He would be a big loss for two main reasons: 1. His diagonal to KWP was one of our only attacking threats in the second half of the season and Bednarek nor Salisu are technically anywhere near his level to begin to replicate that. 2. He would be massively missed from set plays in both boxes, whichbwe had a good record in last season. We have very few aerial threats which is a shame given JWP delivery and JV is by miles the most threatening. Without JV and Ings near post runs we wouldn't look like scoring a header from a corner. Agree Salisu looks like he could slot in well, but he certainly won't be able to replicate #1 and havent seen much evidence of #2 either - he is a different type of defender.

Taking the emotion away from it, the worst outcome for Saints is surely to allow him to leave on a free. Considering we need to sell to buy, and have already had to replace Bertrand without receiving a fee for him, I can't see the club missing out on £20-£25m for the sake of one additional season. The problem is that we have no real bargaining power, and will need to replace him so selling at the end of the window would be awful timing as we know from experience we won't sign a replacement until Ings has actually gone. Best case would be a club comes in now with a sensible offer and it just gets done quickly. Same with Vestergaard.

Will find out soon enough as if there is interest from both sides then a firm bid will surely follow. Not unexpected though, he has been consistently good for 2 years and we have a long history of selling at the first signs of sizeable cash. For that reason, if the cash is right we will sell again as we cannog compete financially on fees or wages with Villa and JWP of course knows this. I mean, its a nice thing to stay at one club all your career but surely he must have an interest in trying to better himself, and an eye on the WC squad too.

Heard anything more about the Argentinian lad, Fizzy?

FWIW Nixon says its not true, and he usually has good links with Blackburn. Suprised and disappointed that MLG would post something without knowing the true source. Slipping standards from the lad, thought he was better than that.

Very interesting that all 10 are internal and none of have been signed from elsewhere. Usually we have brought in 3 or 4 from other clubs (often with no real success). Ralph and Crocker have both mentioned a need to improve academy recruitment so that did slightly suprise me. Of course, they could still sign players for the U18s and U23s. Good that Doyle signed. Someone here mentioned he had a few looking at taking him from us.

Yeah of course, every club has those. But the high profile players they have sold they have got big money for because they were protected by long contracts. Chilwell signed a new contract shortly before moving to Chelsea, Maddison already done similar hence the ludicrous fee quoted for him. Same with Grealish. Closer to home I think Callum Wilson signed a new contract every yeat at Bmth for about 4yrs in a row and same with Dunk at Brighton. No easy answer, just an observation seeing as our last few sales and likely ones this summer are for players with just one year left - leaving us with no real power.

Thats true, but if you are confident that you are recruiting the right players then 5 is clearly better than 4, especially for the younger players. For example, Daka and Soumare both signed 5 yrs for Leicester, meaning they have no pressure of needing to think about selling for 3 years, and the players values will be at their highest then. For us, someone like Salisu now has 3 years left, his optimal sale time would be at the end of this season, which is really his first full season. I guess a way around it is to look to extend after a year if these guys do well...but there is little incentive for the player to do that unless the pay rise is significant. Just seems silly as a club that relies on sales so heavily to get backed into a corner so often and end up selling players for less than they are worth when they get to one year remaining. Appreciate in this case it is very premature to think of it, but 4yrs seems to have become a norm at Saints for these type of sjgnings, probably for the reason you say.

Looks good. Slightly suprised its a 4yr deal not 5 though. We seem to frequently get into the issue of them only having a year left and being forced to sell for less than you would ideally like, i.e Clyne, Wanyama, Hojbjerg, Vestergaard, Ings.

https://www.standard.co.uk/sport/football/tottenham-transfer-news-takehiro-tomiyasu-b943652.html Suggests we had an interest in this lad, but seemingly no longer. RB/CB would have been an option to replace JV and provide RB cover I guess.

Ricardo Pereira, Timothy Castagne, James Justin, Ryan Bertrand. Proper cover and quality in the full back positions. Leicester are the best team for recruitment in the PL IMO. No real talk, just effective action at sensible prices, usually with huge sell on potential.

Hopefully we can £5m or so for him and both parties can move on, he obviously doesn't have a future at Saints and another loan does no favours.

Tella is definitely seen as a striker. Armstrong is definitely a striker primarily. Would be shocked if we signed him and then intended to play him as a #10.

Disagree re striker. I mean Ings will likely go anyway, in which case his replacement is the most importsnt decision to get right this summer, quite likely with many targets having already moved by the time his situation evolves. Even if he does stay we need one. Reasons: 1. Ings does tend to pick up injuries 2. Tella totally unproven in terms of actually scoring goals 3. Long, Obafemi, N'Lundulu should all be elsewhere this season 4. Walcott and Redmond can do a job if needed but aren't really a goal threat. A player like Armstrong (genuine striker, natural finisher) would add a good option, from the bench initially. Also takes the pressure off slightly if Ings were to leave in Jan or on a free.

Indeed. Considering our signing will need to start pretty much every game when fit due to lack of cover I am happier to bring in Perraud who comes off the back of two seasons playing lots of games rather than someone who hasn't had regular minutes.

https://www.footballinsider247.com/southampton-set-to-beat-leeds-united-to-perraud-signing/ Tier 1 confirmation from the peerless Wayne Veysey.

Yep, wouldn't send a good message. Villa are persistent and that must be having had at least some sign of interest from ESR.

Thanks Marco - how would you describe his game? Strengths/weaknesses etc.