Chez

Leicester won the blooming league. Forrest beat Liverpool next week and they are challenging for the title. You can always dream...

is that something he has said?

Delap, Sara and Asprilla were possibly the championship guys to go for, but it's really hard to know if they will work out and perhaps just as importantly, almost immediately make an impact. Not sure Eze and Olise were amazing straight away for Palace. Downes was tremendous for us last season. We really had to bring him back.

Good news for the lad. Despite him not being a fans favourite, it's better having him fit than not. It's now up to the manager to make the right choices in terms of keeper selection/retention.

Thanks. Strange then that we stockpiled CBs if none are out of contract in the summer.

No. As I have said previously, I don't see any point in bringing anyone in this window. We are just too far adrift. £2m goes a lot further in the championship.

Still hopeful he can develop into a top player. The Blackpool loan didn't seem to go well terribly well if judged on goals, so not sure how far off he is being good enough for the Championship next year.

£2m would pay for a Banza season loan that might give us some firepower up front. Champ change.

Is Jack Stephens out of contract this summer or next? On page 1 of this thread it says 2026, but transfermarkt has him out of contract in 2025. In 2023 he signed a new two year deal: https://www.southamptonfc.com/en/news/article/stephens-signs-new-two-year-contract did he sign a one year extension at some point?

Yeah, 11 in 15 league games. Really not sure if goals in the Turkish league means a lot. He went on loan. I think Trabzonspor paid a €2m loan fee for the pleasure. Not sure he's good enough/physical enough to play on his own up front in the Prem, but he couldn't have been much worse than BBD, Archer, Armstrong and Onuachu. Maybe we offload Onuachu to Trabzonspor next summer and bring Banza here? The Championship might be a hard sell, but we have to try to find a striker that can make the leap from Championship to Prem. If not him, then someone else. Maybe break the bank getting Awoniyi from Forest? Yeah, that ain't happening either.

I thought Juric might have waited until after this cup game to see what Edwards was like, but maybe he saw enough on the training pitch. Martin obviously didnt think he was ready. Hopefully he does well in the championship and then we can reap the rewards next summer - although there will still be lots of other CBs under contract. Personally, I've not been as impressed with Wood as others so far. Some of the issues he had at Swansea seem to be there in terms of poor decision making when he has the ball - by that I mean putting teamates in deep shit with the wrong pass. Perhaps he needs more time to settle in and gain confidence - which may help him make better choices. That doesn't mean he won't be a good signing for us over the long term, but he makes me nervous. He does have the physical attributes, but I dont see any of our CBs as powerful dominating players. We saw how Awoniyo bullied ABK two seasons ago and I wonder how we will fair against him and Chris Wood in a week or two. If I was ABKs agent, I'd be trying to find him a new home too.

it's only the tickets that are free.

...in the Gene Kelly stand...and unsurprisingly we got wet. Brilliant end to the season though.

I think we are signing Danni Shittu, Stefan Kuntz or Josh Windass...but don't post it elsewhere on this forum in bold font or caps

I am now slightly less excited by the prospect of a "French youth international" signing for us. Good luck to the lad.

I heard Martin banned Rothmans and running. He made the players smoke Players Navy Cut and sit in deck chairs throughout training so they could watch him and the other coaches have a kick about. A fit player means a mobile player with the potential for forward passes. He wasn't having that.

...and Diallo.

and Mara had impressed when playing senior football in Ligue 1. Christophe posted that this kid has struggled with the physicality of Ligue 3. Good luck marking someone like Chris Wood. Realistically, he's going to be in the U21s so surprising that he appears in the first team squad on the official website.

Eight first team CBs (if you include Taylor) now. Are we looking for another Prem record or have Chelsea cornered the market on having the most players in one position? £5m isn't peanuts for a youngster, but certainly doesn't guarantee future success, as we saw with Small. Signing a French youth international sounds exciting to me. Let's hope he has similar success at Saints to Schneiderlin.

https://www.dailyecho.co.uk/sport/24842286.southamptons-taylor-lack-minutes-potential-january-exit/ Sounds like Charlie Taylor won't be departing in this window, although I guess there is still time for the manager to decide he isn't his man.

Actually no, it was the 2009 game I was referring to. We were 2-0 down (a little unfortunate to be so) and then in the second half we absolutely marmalised them. Antonio came on and ran riot. Sr Ricky got at least one of the goals, possibly both and we created loads of chances and somehow didn't get the winner. We had the whole side stand and the noise we made was excellent. I went to the 0-2 game too, which was good, but I think we were in charge of that game throughout, so didn't quite have that great come back feel to it that is always enjoyable. Although I don't want to drop down to that level again, it was fun being the big fish and having a side that was better than most teams and made you feel like you were always capable of winning, even if you went behind.

Ipswich lost £18m in the league 1 season. The Championship season accounts will be out in March 2025.

Gotcha. Not sure that means our scouting department has been gutted though. If a scout watches a game/player and provides a report back to three SR clubs, how are we losing out? If it means we have 9 scouts rather than 5, that seems like a good thing to me. If many are always looking at players well below the standard we require, that's an issue I guess.

Agree. There was mention on here of (if you ignore the financial aspect and focus on football reasons only) Dibling being better to stay here than to go to a big club and be sent out on loan. But you can't ignore the financial aspect. Put bluntly, going to Liverpool means you get paid whether you play for them or not and also gives you another level of publicity. If the move fails, you have all of Europe and beyond aware of you and usually a decent move is available to you when the times comes. I don't know why we can't attract genuine talent in the striker position. Chelsea and United seem to have struggled to get their man too. Maybe there just aren't the numbers of strikers as there used to be (with teams playing one up front) or the big teams have hoarded them all?

We have gutted our scouting department? Can you expand? I am not sure how accurate Transfermarkt is in terms of staffing, but they have a list of 9 scouts, 7 or those appointed since SR took over.