Chez

I still get a kick out knowing we sold them David McGoldrick for a £1m and then spent that million on Sir Ricky. I remind my Forrest supporting brother law about it on a regular basis. He also thanks me for Saints sending them not one, but two limited (in his words "shit") left backs in Harding and Fox. I am not sure of Forrest's financial issues. Sky is suggesting they are up against it FFP wise, which would explain their interest in Che. Part of the problem they had last summer was that they didn't sell Johnson until after the June 30th deadline - which meant his income didn't go towards that years' finances. They argued that if they had sold early (before June 30th) they would get about £20m less, which would not be good financial sense. They lost that argument, hence the points loss, so you would imagine that £40m sale will be in the 2023/24 figures, making them fine for FFP.

As the story mentions, they need to sell players to balance their books by end if June to avoid point penalties, but we will also need to balance our books, so might not be able to spend until July 1st ourselves. I don't think anyone outside the club truly knows where we stand financially at this moment, but spending £100m in that January 2023 window, then recouping a shit load last summer and hopefully lowering the wage bill, but also missing out on about £80m or so of Prem income over the last year probably won't see us flush this month.

Nice one. Enjoy it.

I really liked Brereton when he was at Forrest. He was only about 18 then, didn't score too many goals, but had decent touch, held the ball up well and looked a threat. I had seen him him play quite a few times and suggested him on the HCDAJFU thread about five years ago. It took him quite a while before he turned his promise into goals, but in the 2021-22 season at Blackburn he scored 22 in 37 league games, 22-23 season it was 14 in 43. At Villareal last season he failed to score in 14 league games (and another 6 cup games), hence them being happy to loan hm out to Sheffield United. If he is selected for Chile (he played both games in March 2024 - coming on off the bench both times, and 10 games in 2023), they have Copa America qualifying fixtures in September, October, November and March, which might not be ideal. If Che resigns, I'm not sure we'll be looking for another striker.

Is he any good though? He had a nightmare at Liverpool. Not seen him since. Adrian at Liverpool out of contract. He's 37 though.

Evans is being offered a new deal by Man U. Dier is joining Bayern on a permanent deal, I think. Somehow, I can't see Matip or Alacantara joining Saints. They are so well known and as a result probably will get a gig at a bigger club than us on the continent. The same with Martia and Varane. Saints just doesn't have the kudos. Perisic is 35, but I suspect is still fit as a fiddle. I suspect we will go with Fraser in that position, but he could do a job for a year. Sessegnon was good when played in a winger role. The injuries have been a problem. Sort of player we might have looked a on loan last season. Would be a gamble. Tanganga has been at Millwall on loan, so if it went well they will try to sign him. Newcastle releasing Dummett, Matt Riche, Loruis Karius and Jeff Hendrick. Not exactly an inspiring list.

Not sure I really appreciated how good he was until we went down. I don't know which game it was, but he came on and injected some much needed pace into the game, having the ability to control and pass at a level (and speed) far exceeding whoever he replaced. Not sure of the outcome of that game, but it showed me the difference between a Prem player and a championship player. I am not sure he had a great season, but our midfield was pretty strong all season thanks to having players like him bolstering the squad. During the Prem years he was an enigma. His work rate and lung busting runs were a tremendous asset, however his direct dribbling and attempts to break through the lines often led to the ball being lost and our defence being left exposed. His efforts meant he also tended to run out of steam and we never seemed to get better when he went off. In the right system he was great, although he certainly had his limitations. Wish him all the best in has next endeavour. Hope we can get someone in better than him. Not sure that will be straight forward.

McCarthy can't get a game for pretty much two years and then becomes our first choice keeper in the Prem. Madness. Did we sack all the scouts and one of them wiped the black box on the way out?

West Ham linked heavily with Luis Guiherme, a midfielder from Brazil. Not sure it impacts the Downes situation a great deal though as Guiherme appears to a more attacking midfielder from the snippets I have read.

yes, according to the last set of account there is a reasonable amount of debt (the covid loan makes up a large amount of that), although it's hard for fans to know exactly where the business stands as the accounts came out in March 2024 and they show the previous year 2022-2023 up to the end of June, so they don't show the transfers that happened last summer. We won't find out until March 2025 how we look at this exact moment (June 2024) in time.

One year left of his contract at West Ham. His current wages are going to be out of our league, so not sure we are ever going to be in for him on a permanent move (as we'd have to match his current wage, at least for a year). A loan might be an option, but West Ham are perhaps more likely to keep him as a squad player than loan him out paying `half' his wages.

Good point. I think it's safe to assume that, at best, we will be just outside the bottom three come January, so it won't be a surprise and signings made in absolute desperation.

I don't think we will get more than about £8m for Onuachu. We are going to need two Turkish sides to want him, otherwise clubs know he is very much surplus to requirements and might just offer another loan. We will get buttons for Perraud. He couldn't get a game all season at Nice and is out of contract in a year. We will be lucky to get a loan that pays all his wages. We will get nothing for Lyanco, also out of contract in a year's time. I can see clubs only being interested in loaning ABK, Alcaraz and Sulemena, as per last year. Their stock may well have gone down over the last 12 months. So, if the DCC move is actually £3m, my low is £11m in, plus maybe a loan fee here and there.

I don't. I was probably crying in my beer by that time. It was a pretty painful summer football wise.

Tell me how the conversation between Reed and Lallana might have gone then. Because Reed telling him "We are are not selling you this summer" and Lallana replying "I'll never play for the club again" seems extremely plausible. I wasn't there, I dont know, but explain the send off on the Saints website to me. I'm more than happy to listen to other arguements and to change my mind. But for me it simply does not stack up that all parties acted appropriately and then SFC decided to throw Lallana under the bus to avoid fan criticism. IMO they were annoyed at Lallana and thus they gave him the short news announcement on the website as they had no inclination to sing his praises. What makes Lallana more reliable than Reed by the way? Was Reed caught lying about other stuff?

I can't remember, but it was discussed at considerable length at the time and the conclusion I came to was it was more likely he made the rant/threat than the counter theory that the club put out fake news to make them look better in fans eyes. Les Reed said shortly before that "Lallana needed to stay a little longer" (they had lost Shaw and didn't want a mass exodus) - basically one more year. They didn't want to sell him that summer. Lallana could see his dream move disappearing so forced the issue. In an interview, Lallana denied it happened. If that's the case, why the curt announcement on the saints website? If everyone was happy, why didn't Saints give him a nice send off? He was absolutely brilliant for us. Signing a long term contract when we went down (all be it for big money) when he could have moved to Wolves was the start of everything good during that period. In my eyes he was close to legendary status.

Wilcox was the academy director before he joined us. He wasn't making big financial decisions on sensor players. We are not losing some DoF tighten. We have financial directors and football management that can fill the void I'm sure.

he played a total of 81 minutes as the manager favoured Muniz, who was on fire. Doesn't necessarily mean Broja is washed up. If there is a better option, lets sign him, but if we get the player I saw run rings around some top class defenders, then we have chance to survive next year.

this "being found out" thing is bollocks. He wasn't `found out', he was completely starved of service. As a side we were utter shit. I'd be surprised if he had a handful of chances in the last ten games. I guess he must shoulder his share of blame as he was a member of the side not functioning, but him not looking as good/effective was not in isolation.

Isn't KWP too old for Chelsea?

He was of little use last season and that was in the Championship. In the Prem he will have less time, space and room for error. If we could find a buyer, we should sell Charles and use the money to get a player RM trusts. Realistically, no one is spending £10-15m to recoup our outlay on him at this moment in time, so we either loan him or hope he makes great strides over the next six months so that we can use him when Downes is tired/injured. Really he needs to be playing week in week out next season to aid his development - so a loan might be the best plan.

I'd like to get excited, but yeah, a 23 year old who scored 26 goals for Feyenord lat season and played and will play in the CL ain't joining relegation candidates Saints. Pity.

see page 5

What a fantastic goal. Obviously some fans are not keen on the slow possession based game, don't like the `risky' passing in and out of our box, and in general want to see us get forward far quicker more often...and their are merits to their arguments, but when a passing move from back to front comes off, it sure looks pretty.

Wilcox himself had to pick it up. For all we know he might not have been very good at it.