Chez

Agreed, Villa have been heavily linked and the Gerrard connection would make them strong favourites. Maybe Napoli rate Bednerak much higher than we do? He's a Polish international, plenty of experience, a good age and OK with the ball. Maybe the price is right (they need to make profit on transfers this summer) and they may need to bring in a couple of CBs this summer.

I've been advocate for allowing both keepers to leave on frees, but is that actually an upgrade?

I wonder if he goes to any games or just watches videos. I wonder what manager does these days. They go on about working extremely long hours, but doing what? If they are not travelling to watch other teams and players, what fills the time.

I loved our Hummel kits first time round. The current home shirt is pretty poor IMO. I am hopeful for the second effort. There have been some nice Hummel shirts at other clubs and boy can these guys do keeper shirts:

this Brondby 2021 away kit?

not sure if these two Betis kits are genuine.

This is from 2019, but has the Air Florida design. Bold sponsorship deal that one...

while we are waiting, some other Hummel kits...

Apart from the fact swaps deals hardly ever happen, Blackburn won't be taking on Armstrong's Premiership size wages. They also could do with the money a Diaz sale might bring in, so may perhaps prefer the cash from that deal and then get a much cheaper replacement than Armstrong in.

If you are looking for a rod to beat the club with, maybe, but the other way of looking at it is we were smart enough to insist on paying in instalments based on appearances, which means if the player turns out to be shit and cant get in the side, the fee paid is lower. If this is true, and I don't have a clue one way of the other, it's possibly a good bit of business on our part as he hasn't set the world on fire, and as a result we've not needed to pay the full fee...yet.

I agree. We are not in desperate shit, as we were under Pellegrino and Hughes, but we aren't a million miles from it. It is his side, although I'm sure he'd want to have signed better players - they are his choices I assume. How much scouting he does I don't know. His failure to bring any gems with him (as Koeman did with Tadic and Pelle) was certainly disappointing and makes me wonder what he does on that side. Did he make good selections when he was at previous clubs? Again, its always hard to know how big an input the manager has these days with signings. If it was me, and buy and large you live and die by you signings, I'd want a massive say and would be going to watch players live.

Is it a lack of effort? Are players not trying? Do you see poor attitudes? When we lose a few, people immediately point to a lack of effort, poor fitness (less so these days), poor attitudes and the `dressing room has been lost'. I don't see those things personally. I see an average quality side, that needs to be firing on all cylinders for us to win any games in this league. Lose a player or two to injury, one or two low on confidence meaning they don't shoot on side or take that man on, the balance not right (between attack and defence), partnerships not working due to different selections, a side not quite functioning right, a few results going the wrong way leading to a side-wide dip in confidence and before you know it you are not creating chances, stopping goals and winning games. The manager can affect many of these things. So I am not saying Ralph isn't to blame, but I don't think its as simple as players have had enough of Ralph, so have down tools.

Don't get me wrong, I am not a Ralph apologist, but from an owners point of view, Premiership survival is not `in the doldrums'. It is likely `the target' and that target keeps being achieved. Obviously, like any other fan, I'd like to see us challenging for Europe and going toe to toe with the big sides, rather than hanging on for grim life, but as has been said by others, those seasons under Poch and Koeman are perhaps not the norm. I am not fearful of seeing if the grass is greener with a new manager. Managerial change is inevitable at some point, but I do wonder, if, like under Puel, the tactics are helping masquerade a lack of quality (especially in the final third) or are simply holding us back.

I was about to suggest Khvicha Kvaratskheli again, but when I googled him to get the spelling right, I can see has signed fo Napoli. Blast. I was going to harp on about him all summer.

that might be true, but he wasn't playing for us when he scored those goals though S_c

Ayew impressed me on Saturday playing on the wing. He was extremely quick and used that pace to gain a yard of space on both fullbacks. Perraud couldn't keep up. Not sure how much he does against other sides. Can we just buy Zaha as I suspect Adkins tried to do, back in the day?

I get the feeling his current wages are monstrous. I've seen £80k a week in The Times, but £100k a week elsewhere when he signed the original four year deal. I suspect he got a rise when it was extended by a year. After impressing at West Ham, I'd of thought he want at least that now, if not more. Doesn't feel like a Saints signing to me. I doubt his ego would permit a move to us either.

Regarding Stephens, his contract was supposedly signed in 2020, so it may have been confirmed as a transaction in the same way as McCarthy's was, but the year before, and possibly no one noticed or remarked on it. As with McCarthy, I just cant imagine the writer would write a story about a new contract if there wasn't one. No point.

Maybe just you. I've been wondering why players need an energy break 15 minutes after having a 15 minute energy break.

Certainly on here there are many that want him gone, but not sure thats the case at the game. As for saying he has lost the players, that's a bold statement. What makes you think that?

your own post seems quite emotional, which is fine. Passion about football is what its all about. I would say that he said he would "consider" retiring at the end of his contract. Not really a big deal IMO and I don't see why that has any affect on performances here and now. I'm English and my mentality would be to continue to train well, play hard and win games. I don't think our results are due to that statement. I didn't know honesty in interviews was an issue? I much prefer it to being bullshitted. I agree that he hung McCarthy out to dry. Not terribly smart, but perhaps done i the heat of the moment. I thought he apologised for it though? He admitted to his tactics at Anfield were shit. He doesn't tend to take the plaudits when he gets his tactics spot on, so I am not sure I expect him to do himself down when they are wrong. I thought that his substitutions have been OK this season. I certainly don't agree with all of them, but most make sense and he has acted a bit quicker in previous years. You might be right about hi being stubborn, but he seems to have been far more flexible this season than previous in terms of starting formations and changing formations during games.

According to The Athletic, Stephens signed a new contract some time ago https://theathletic.com/news/exclusive-jack-stephens-agrees-new-long-term-southampton-contract/bo8LfBeiblPj/