CB Fry

The club have briefed to Sheldon and Blackmore in the last 24 hours that we would have signed a defensive midfielder if the opportunity was there. So does this mean we were prepared to go into the red, or maybe we do have £10m or so in the kitty for another signing?

Well, we have been told via Blackmore/Sheldon that we would have moved for a "number 6" (in real money a number 4 defensive midfielder) if the right opportunity came up. So I don't think its accurate that we don't have any money left, from what has been briefed out. Doesn't mean its a lot or that we will spend in Jan. But if we are 19th then I think we probably will do something. If we are 14th with no injuries probably not.

Pretty stupid comment. By the same token we could have signed a large black pudding with a face drawn on and hand tied to a broom handle as our Danny Ings replacement and some on this forum would be saying "let's give him a chance, I can't believe you people are knee jerk writing him off already without seeing him play, its a disgrace,this is exactly what happened to Mane, call yourselves a supporter etc etc etc"

I wouldn’t hold out any hope that I am ever going to read any of the old shit you post up. We all know what you think, so it makes it easy for me.

The Athletic write up is unfailingly positive this morning. "A bloody good window" indeed.

I think both things can be true. Armstrong is as good a replacement as we were ever going to get, and perfectly capable of scoring 12-15 goals and I think he will. But Ings did offer more in the way of creativity/something out of nothing which with the best will in the world Armstrong doesn't have that yet and he won't this season. In the rest of the side we have pace but not huge amounts of creativity, and with Ings gone much less creativity than last year. So I think it is fair comment to say that Armstrong is s good signing but also that we will still miss Ings ability to create something out of nothing and change games. We haven't replaced that (and I don't think anyone thought we would). Peter Crouch was a great signings and scored 16 goals and a good replacement for Beattie but that wasn't enough to keep us up. So I think S-Clarke is saying our inability (maybe impossibility) to replace that side of Ings game should have meant more focus on our other main weakness, which is in defence and conceding goals. Using the same three games we've already conceded six so it remains a significant area of concern. Bafflingly the club have not appeared to see it as a worry so did the bare minimum.

Utter bollocks generally is wrong, that's kinda the thing about utter bollocks.

To me it feels like we have done the absolute minimum and not much more. Replacing Ings and Bertrand well, and Tino is a great prospect. Beyond that we have not addressed our fundamental flaws of defensive and mental frailty and on pitch leadership. All could have been resolved by signing an appropriate front line, first choice central defender. We did it with Virgil and Lovren (and tried it with £16-8m spent on Hoedt and then Vestergaard). We brought in decent funds and cut the wage bill, so money was there. It remains baffling to me that we went for a back up rather than front line CB. Secondly if Romeu gets injured, we're fucked. Lastly the goalies are shit. So we go into this half of the season with the spine of a jellyfish from CM to GK. Armstrong is going to need to score a hell of a lot of goals to keep us up.

I have a foolproof system that tells me whether a link contains utter bollocks. If you posted it up, I know it will.

The twitter activity on Weston McKennie is all over the shop - he's going, he's definitely not going, big money move to Spurs to being offered on loan to Burnley. Mad.

Newcastle have signed a mexican kid called Santiago Munoz which is the same name as the character from the Goal! movies (about a mexican kid who signs for Newcastle). Bit mental but I like it. Its like Jedi FC signing Luke Skywalker or something.

Absolute quintessential SaintsWeb post. Bravo.

Certainly was on the "why o why o why o why didn't we sign him" list for a couple of years on here.

Certainly remember Koeman saying "we are not signing a central defender" days before we signed Toby. Who did we buy in Ralph's first summer? I think there was a surprise but I forget.

I think the point is we should have prioritised replacing our front line, clear number 1 choice CB with a first choice CB - like when we signed Van Dijk (£13m) or Lovren (£8m). What we didn't need is to sign someone who has to "prove himself" to get ahead of Jack bloody Stephens.

Ings was linked with us during that summer, although granted it went quiet for a bit before the last day. Walcott did come out of nowhere (as did Toby and Mane etc). Until Blackmore says something like "no more business" I remain stupidly hopeful (for a Danso-esque back up midfielder and Obafemi to Blackburn)

Let's give him a run of games in goal.

Exactly - plus we are no longer committed to the £20m contract (£100k a week x 4 yrs) we put on the table for Ings - there is no way we are paying Armstrong anywhere near that, so there's likely £10m there straight off. Anyone that goes on about agent fees and all these "hidden costs" never consider the hidden benefits of the departure of high earners. It's interesting that in this window the "we can only spend what we bring in" has now transformed into "we can only spend half of what we bring in".

Just seen this.

Reading that report it looks like the plan will be that a standing spot will occupy the same area as a seat. So commercially not particularly attractive as you can't use standing to fit more people in, especially as your average fan is going to expect to pay less for a standing ticket. I'm sure Saints will do it but will present no great gain in revenue or attendance. Away fans will stand as they do now regardless of whether it is designated or not.

By the same point in his Saints career as Djenepo, Sadio Mane had already been sold to Liverpool for £36m. Apart from that, your post is absolute horseshit, but help yourself to a golden greatest ever super fan crown on the way out.

You mean the management of the club who packed him off to Celtic? Is that the measure of a successful signing now? £16m to give Celtic a first team squad member for not one, but two years? I'm not entirely sure we are in the "you idiots were all proved wrong" phase just yet, somehow.

Is it a load of old bollocks that twats on Facebook share around as evidence of "I've done my own research"?

Never in doubt for me.

Shite.