Dusic

Salisu thing is annoying and probably impacts on being able to move Vestergaard on as well. Otherwise centre mid is the only glaring area we are one short. Good to get the attackers in the goals again, hopefully no injuries during the Intls.

Ths wording is a bit vague though. It suggests the opt out is for the initial matches as a block rather than on a match by match basis. Would be silly if fans got tickets in the ballot (and given others will therefore miss out) and may not be able to go due to other commitments/stupid KO times for those of us travelling etc and then not have an option to feed them back in so someone else can take the seat. These type of situations dont matter when capacity is full but would be frustrating if its very limited. Hope its covered as you suggest.

Do people think ST holders would be able to opt out of the ballot or choose to put their ticket back in should they be successful but don't want to go/aren't able to go to that particular game? Seeing as demand will surely be higher than supply you would imagine that would be the case but its not clear from the info released so far.

Who knows? We have seen all the first team aside from Salisu, so clearly something not right with him. Good that everyone else seems fit at this stage though, lets hope it is that way in two weeks time. I doubt Salisu was being lined up to start the first game, but certainly not ideal if he cannot play a part in pre season - presumably one of the reasons we signed him early on was to be able to integrate him well. Shame not to hear anything from the club, even if via Blackmore etc.

Who knows? We have seen all the first team aside from Salisu, so clearly something not right with him. Good that everyone else seems fit at this stage though, lets hope it is that way in two weeks time. I doubt Salisu was being lined up to start the first game, but certainly not ideal if he cannot play a part in pre season - presumably one of the reasons we signed him early on was to be able to integrate him well. Shame not to hear anything from the club, even if via Blackmore etc.

Who knows? We have seen all the first team aside from Salisu, so clearly something not right with him. Good that everyone else seems fit at this stage though, lets hope it is that way in two weeks time. I doubt Salisu was being lined up to start the first game, but certainly not ideal if he cannot play a part in pre season - presumably one of the reasons we signed him early on was to be able to integrate him well. Shame not to hear anything from the club, even if via Blackmore etc.

Shame not a perm. With one year left next summer Fulham or anyone else will just end up loaning him again. They will at least pay all his wages but if a loan would rather have sent him abroad.

Ntcham seems like more of an attacking midfielder when I have seen him play. Totally different to McKennie whose main attributes are defensive ones. Not sure they are similar profile at all apart from the lazy comparisons. Unless they have bulked up Smallbone in a month, or Jankewitz is ready to potentially start 15-20 games then we 100% need a new signing (unless Reed were to suprisingly stay). We were so lucky with injuries and suspensions last season, the availability of JWP, PEH and Romeu was not normal. Also Romeu has had spells where he just needs taking out of the team and certainly needs viable competition.

Well we pretty much know we can sell Reed for £8m, which is a decent chunk of the fee and realistically we are going to end up loaning Lemina, Carillo, Hoedt etc so I don't think it makes a huge difference. If we really want McKennie and rate him then aged 21 he will increase his value anyhow as an investment and there must be a commercial upside to signing a marketable US national team player. If we really can't afford to replace PEH even after selling him then its a pretty poor state of affairs.

Most PL teams seem to have now played at least one friendly and some more. Wonder when our first one will be? I'm not buying Sheldon's COVID excuse for the lack of pics, interviews and video - all the other teams social media channels have it. There are loads of players yet to be sighted in the limited pics released. We started really well post lockdown, so have total faith in the planning of a pre season, but it is odd, especially at a time they are trying to get people excited enough about the season to review a ST. Surely if Salisu is just training on his own it doesn't take much to just arrange him to have one photo taken. FWIW he still doesn't follow any of his new team mates on social media and isnt followed by anyone apart from the official account, which is unusual unless he hasnt met any of the players yet, two weeks into pre season.

Genuine question - is it obvious that LD was a way of Gao putting extra money in? He hasnt shown any inclination to do so during this ownership. One thing is clear to me, LD was a big fuck up. It didnt look right from the start, and Semmens - otherwise logical and clear - gave very evasive answers when asked about them in the fans forums afterwards. For Semmens to basically say to Adam Blackmore that they were at a loss of how to even contact LD, is quite amazing really, if not a suprise.

Probably overthinking it but the comment here about "a host of players signing new contracts" and Ings commenting about "everybody signing contracts" perhaps suggests there are more agreed than have been announced. All I can recall being officially confirmed this summer so far is JWP plus Smallbone and Vokins. https://www.southamptonfc.com/news/2020-08-23/danny-ings-2020-21-preview-southampton-football-club

Djenepo injury a concern. Haven't heard anything on severity which is usually not a good sign. Salisu I think did have an injury end of last season but would have thought it should have cleared up by now and there was no mention when we signed him. Presuming hr has pretty much been in a hotel room the whole time he has been in Soton. Interestingly perhaps, he doesn't follow/isn't followed by any of the squad on social media which potentially suggests he hasn't met any of them yet, and Saints media team are usually keen to show a new signing at the training ground. Also still nothing on the lad from Las Palmas, Jeremi Rodriguez, whonwas supposedly signed for u23s. I did wonder if maybe he played yesterday and they didnt want to name a lineup with a player we haven't announced has signed. Updates have been shocking really compared to other clubs. Most have announced friendlies, nothing from Saints. No retained list, a few players like Harry Lewis must have signed extensions that haven't been communicated. No player interviews about pre season etc. Not a big deal but certainly bizarre.

Like with the others that we don't want, if we fail to get a fee for him this summer then it will just be loans up until his contract finishes. Hopefully Saints are pragmatic and realise there is no chance of getting back what we paid. Surely anything around the 7m or 8m mark is a fair price?

If anyone has actually read the article it just says we had watched Jimenez but the chance of signing him was very small due to his involvement with Jorge Mendez. It doesnt suggest we signed Carillo instead of Jimenez as a conscious choice. It does say that a high profile recruiment person threatened to quit over the signing and were persuaded that Carillo would be our striker for a long time after Pellegrino would leave.

Very strange. They are normally all over pre season stuff and if you look at other clubs social media then it sticks out even more. All we have seen were a handful of pics on Tuesday. Can only assume they don't want to draw attention to something. They could easily wear training gear with no sponsor. I wonder if maybe more players are quarentined?

Did Saints ever actually confirm the released players from this summer? I see O'Driscoll has signed for Mansfield. Also the lad from Las Palmas hasn't been confirmed I don't think, nor the new Academy intake (which he would be too old for I think). McKennie a target for Villa according to The Athletic.

Tough looking December when our squad is usually stetched but otherwise balanced enough in terms of no absolute horror runs and opportunity for a decent start.

Dan Sheldon (TA) reiterated that we will have to sell before we could make a move for McKennie. Aside from the dross that we won't get fees for, the only players we have who are worth anything and aren't key first teamers would be: Vestergaard, Reed, Sims, Boufal (although he will surely end up leaving on loan if anything as only has a year left) and Gunn (who it would make far more sense to loan out). Am I missing anyone?

He was left out of their friendly today as they want to sell him to raise money and didnt want to risk him getting injured. Everton are close to signing Allan from Napoli and Doucoure from Watford so doubt they would want McKennie as well. So in theory seems promising...but Blackmore was clear we weren't in for him and most of the noise seems to be coming from the Schalke side, which no doubt suits them given their need to sell.

Hopefully Djenepo is fit for pre season, it was never really stated how severe his injury was. Can only assume that not everyone was back today otherwise Salisu and KWP would have been all over the Saints social media.

Developed into a really good, reliable central midfielder, to silemce the critics (myself included). Great that we have kept him this summer.

Those Italian Calciomercato sites are a load of dross. Probably even less reliable than the Crook. We don't need a striker and would be shocked if, as a club that prides itself on the Academy pathway and young talent, that we sold Obafemi. Only reason we would have signed a striker is if we had let Long go, or Adams, and both of those are staying.

My top 3: 1st: Ings at Spurs in the cup, absolute class counter attack goal 2nd: Redmond's vs Palace, quality strike that. 3rd Djenepo vs Sheff Utd, brilliant goal and he had endured a tough game til that point.

I guess you would have seen a fair bit of Balogun whilst watching Jankewitz in the U18s and U23s. Strengths? Weaknesses? Why don't Arsenal seem overly botheree to let him go in your view?