Chez

Absolutely. However, I thought Bednarek move would have been done considering he was reported to have a relegation release clause of just £6m. I thought also that Forest or whoever would be bidding for Fernandes by now. Maybe they already have and we said we want a lot more. I thought Ramsdale would have got a move by now also. All out of our hands, I realise that.

The bigger the gap between PL and Championship, the harder it is to get players to drop down. I guess larger PL squads put paid to that many years ago. Same for everyone I guess. Hence all we can do is take punts on 22 year olds with potential. I know there are many weeks to go, but I was hoping there might be a little more turnover of players and we could reshape the squad a bit more, especially adding some attacking talent and dribblers like Chakvetadze at Watford. Edozie may have to be that man. Hmm.

I see my suggestion of Andrija Maksimovic has joined RB Leipzig. I knew he was good, but we have no chance of competing with that kind of club, especially in the championship. Sainz obviously got a move to Porto, and Bindon joined Sheff United on loan. Pretty sure we wont be signing any of the others, so I'll need to come up with a new list.

There was some hopeful posts on his thread early on that we might get Evan Ferguson on loan, but Brighton and Roma are in talks. Getting decent players that can't get a game in the PL to drop down to the championship is almost impossible. Far more attractive options abroad.

as per the 96/97 shirt, fucking dreadful. Blue and yellow...and black. What a terrible colour combination.

The fact Sheff United lost faith in him during the final stretch of the season is a slight concern for me.

He was with us in the championship. I thought we bought him in January but it was a loan. I dint really have a point to my post, other than to see if we bought players in the championship promotion season and then immediately offloaded in the summer prior to the PL season. We didn't, although clearly the manager did recognise that three of the signings we not up to it, so didn't get a chance to play. We clearly couldn't offload them, and if we do the same - buy championship players this summer, we will be stuck with them for three years.

I thought I'd look back to 2011/12 - our first season back in the championship - to see if we signed players to take us up and then were happy to part ways once we did. In the summer we signed Fox, Cork and de Ridder, then Tadanari Lee and Sharp followed. A year later (having got promoted), we didn't release any of them. Whether that was because we wanted them in the squad, no one wanted them or they didn't want to go, I don't know. But only Cork and Fox started a PL game that season, so three of the five signings were deemed not up to it right from the off.

These are two different classifications of players, aren't they? In Solomon, you are talking about a player that Leeds loaned from Spurs and would perhaps be interested in signing at the right price, not a player Leeds are offloading because they don't see them as being good enough for the PL. I don't want Leeds cast offs. They are not fringe PL players, they are championship at best players. Brooks was a finge PL player (maybe better than that) as apposed to a player a newly promoted side immediately discarded.

Not many sides get better after relegation. We have lost KWP, Onuachu, Sulemana and Lumley. Downs and Quarshie have come the other way. Is the squad strengthened? difficult to know until we see those two players play a few games. I think it's fair to say we will lose a couple of our `wanted' and better quality players (let's say Ramsdale and Fernandes for argument's sake). So, to stand still (in terms of squad quality) we need to find two players as good as those, which is very unlikely. We then need to see maybe 6 more players depart (let's say ABK, Taylor, BBD, Armstrong, Bednarek and Edwards) and then bring in, maybe, 3 to replace them. All three replacements will need to be improvements for the squad to be strengthened. In reality, the quality is not going to increase. We might be stay about the same, if we are lucky, and that would be a win.

I guess that depends if we want to keep players like BBD, Armstrong, Bednarek, ABK, Taylor, Edozie, Fraser, Edwards... all of which could possibly move.

Do we really want to bring in players that Leeds and Burnley are sure are not good for the PL? I don't see the point in that. We are talking about players that are not even considered `fringe PL players, they are considered 'championship at best'. We have plenty of those.

Whether Gibbs-White goes or not Fernandes seems to be very much on their radar.

he's still with us because he's under contract and not yet left because our asking price for him is probably massive, so PL clubs may want to see a bit more before making such a big financial outlay. He has no control over the actions of buying teams, but just because there isn't a buyer right now, that doesn't mean he has no choice but to sign a new contract with us. A buyer could emerge at any point between now and the end of his contract in 2027. I am pretty sure his agent will have been contacted by a host of teams, so will be fully aware that Saints are not the only team that rate him. He's not signed a new contract with us because: a) we have not offered him as much as he thinks he's worth b) we are in the championship and he wants to play in the PL c) he doesn't have to sign a new contract if he doesn't want to d) waiting before signing a new contract gives him much more flexibility and negotiating strength

https://foot-africa.com/en/news/southampton-want-to-sign-morlaye-sylla-will-the-deal-go-through-799436/

Sheff Wed's Gassama has joined Rangers. I thought he looked a real talent and the sort of wide player we need. Less chance of Fraser going there now, if there ever was.

I am starting to think that it's probably only Only Connect contestants that have the brains to get your jokes.

When I assess him, and come to the conclusion that he was poor last season, I don't even factor in the handballs. His basic control of a football was appalling in the games I saw him play. Not sure he looked terribly good in either defence or attack. There was a couple of decent early crosses, in the West Ham game possibly, but other than that, there was absolutely nothing to applaud him for. Dropping down a division will give him much more time, thus his touch wont need to be top notch. Opponents wont be as good both defensively and offensively, so he may look OK in both areas. I am crossing my fingers that he finds his feet in the second season, which was often the case for overseas players coming into our league.

He's still only 20 and with the injuries ruining a couple of seasons you almost need to think of him as a 18 year old - and thus a little more time for him to show what he can do. I don't see the physical traits needed - pace and power, but he is an instinctive finisher and that can carry you a long way. Not sure the club will extend his contract. They could loan him out and then extend at Xmas if he has scored some goals?

Won't the agent get paid whether he stays or goes in the form of a percentage of the player's wages and/or signing on fees?

Dibling was given a 3.5 year deal almost immediately after his first first team game - so we did tie him down to a decent length contract before he was "let loose".

In: Downs, Quarshie Return from loans: BBD, Armstrong, Edwards, Charles, Edozie, Matsuki Out: Samuel Amo-Ameyaw, Onuachu, Sulemana, KWP, Lumley, Lallana (retired) Ugochukwu and Gronbaek return to their parent clubs Larios (on loan)

No arguments with the reasons why we conceded a lot of goals, and yes, THB and Bednarek did pretty well, but they were at fault for goals too. Superb is not the word I'd use. Very good might be a better fit. They were far from perfect. They made an awful lot of mistakes (that you may or may not not have noticed) that thankfully weren't punished. The championship was pretty average and it was only when we came up against some decent outfits that our CBs were tested and showed their limitations.

Bet his wages are sizeable, although a relegation reduction helps from a buyers point of view.

Plenty of footage of him here. At Wolfsberger he looks like he plays off the striker and makes a lot of very good runs into the box in an effort to score goals. A few headed goals too I notice.