Dusic

To be fair, every PL club will owe money for transfers and I expect the majority will owe a lot more than £90m. Our two main issues are: - An Owner who bought the club to supposedly take us forward yet who doesn't provide any additional investment. - A philosophy that relies on selling players in a market where, as Steele notes, most European clubs are only interested in loaning them. Combined with having fewer quality players to sell this isn't a good combination.

The Times reporting that all PL and EFL games could be behind closed doors starting as early as tomorrow.

Obvious miss - behind Ings he is our best attacking player. Always plays 90mins as well.

Saints back in to 28/1 from 50s a couple of games ago. Newcastle 18/1 and they have 35 points currently. We would have to go some to go down but feel the Norwich and Watford games are big. Were we to lose those two then it would get pretty tense as we have some tough games to follow. Such a poor run to lose to Newcastle, Wedt Ham and Burnley. Even two points from those would have us in a position of not really bothering to look down. For now we still need those teams below us to keep losing to be totally comfortable. West Ham have a nice little run coming up soon and I think they will get themselves safe by the end. Villa look woeful and along with Bmth have tough games, but Saints seem to do better in those so I wouldn't rule out some unexpected results before the end of the season, especially if some of the bigger teams focus on Europe.

I read that as we have employed agents to get shot of the players mentioned: Carillo, Hoedt, Elyounoussi etc. Not that we are going to sell a load of the players that we want. I doubt RH would be signing a new contract if that were the case.

I would imagine the reality here is that most clubs are almost always "up for sale" for the right price. Fairly sure we have heard these stories once or twice before during Gao's tenure. Only worth thinking anything of it once there is a stated interest from a buyer, rather than a desire to sell.

Obvious post but we miss Redmond massively. He is such a key player for how RH wants us to play. Compared to Boufal its a huge difference.

Got a spare £50m to lend Gao? Doucoure FFS.

https://www.footballinsider247.com/exclusive-southampton-want-to-blow-aston-villa-out-of-water-to-sign-25-yr-old/ Jake Cooper, 25 yo Millwall CB

SWF Madness.

Ndombele is a better Clasie - can't play nearly 90mins at PL intensity and Mourinho often takes the **** out of him for it. Sissoko better further forward or out wide IMO. Hojbjerg has a lot going for him: good character, rarely injured, can play 90mins 3 times a week at high intensity, goos experience at a big club and still young. Plenty to work with and for £35m its chicken feed for the likes of Spurs or Everton, plus a double your money deal for PEH - easy to see why it appeals.

Hojbjerg played an important role in Crocker's appointment? Odd if true. As for his contract, I believe Ralph said he won't talk about it until we have 36 points but no chance that we have let PEH's contract go down to what it is and haven't at any stage in the last year discussed a new one with him. It would be neglient if true. Semantics of offered vs discussed...if you discuss it and a player says they won't commit then you probably don't bother with an official offer.

Seems the U23s and U18s get soundly beaten very often. Not great.

Sure looks like at 38-40 pts will be needed for safety. In that regard not much has changed.

Ings must have had a knock. Wasnt in the most recent training pics.

Its a defence mechansim I think. Hojbjerg is a good player, and the stats show clearly his best attributes. He has experience of playing at a massive club, with superstar players so don't think anything would bother him. If he does go, as long as its done well I would wish him success. Obviously would prefer to keep him - he would be a big loss and anyone suggesting otherwise is just wrong.

He is if the talk of Spurs, Leicester and Arsenal being interested ends up proving to be the case. Because they are better than our level.

Players don't usually change Agent for anything other than trying to get a good move. No coincidence that this change happened shortly before lots of media stories about teams interested in him. Also, can barely think of a Saints player who has signed a new contract having run it down to a year to go. Every other example like Clyne and Wanyama has seemingly been a strategy to force the club into a sale. I doubt this will be any different. Would be a big loss though, he is our captain, his style fits perfectly to Hasenhuttl's system and our recent record of replacing key players is dreadful. Also is a message to others in the squad that you can do better than Saints.

Is top flight games a requirement of a good pundit? Many of the worst have hundreds.

Well RH wants quick strikers who can run in behind, so probably yes.

Dwight McNeil isn't already better than Redmond.

There are some loons on here who don't rate Redmond.

Rolling with his bro Cedric (and Cedric's agent) up in London today.

Agree. One of the best around. Tom Heaton was on 5live last weekend in a pundit type role and was excellent as well, really helps when you have a current player - so much interesting stuff about goalkeeping that most fans would never even consider.

Without Ings we would be screwed so as well as others have done (namely JWP, PEH and Stephens) it will be Ings by a mile and deservedly so.