Sunglasses Ron

Calm down guys, save some of your rage for next Saturday.

Yup, that was a good win. There was also the 1-0 win away to West Brom when Rickie Lambert got a last minute penalty the same week he scored that winner against Scotland. Those are the only 2 opening day wins this century as the one before was our 1-0 against Coventry in 1999 (when Egil scored).

Yup, we are truly dreadful on opening day. Sad that after 30 years of supporting Saints I can easily tell you what our 3 wins were, who scored and what the weather was like. FFS!

LLWLD WDWLD LDLDL DLLWD LDDLD DLLDL WLWLD DDDLL... ...our opening day record over the last 40 years. Imagine if that was over a season in a 21 team league, I make that we’d have 34 points. Crazy (and not in a good way)!

The key bit form that article is: Matt Crocker, Southampton’s director of football of operations, is believed to have been a key influence in the deal, especially having previously known the striker well from his time spent working at the FA. As some of us have previously said, you'd think that private conversations may have taken place between the club and striker / his agent a while back along the lines of "hold tight, insist that you'll only move to Saints and we'll make it happen for the right price". Maybe a generous signing on fee was provided in return.

Is £15m anywhere near a sizable transfer fee these days for a properly contracted player? Crazy to think that Alan Shearer went to Newcastle for that size fee 25 years ago now!

9/10 for class (1 point dropped for having less than 50% battery).

Haha you’re right, I forgot he went on a goal scoring mission during the 1st half of last season!

Just the one goal I recall. I expected a far greater return than that.

What’s to stop us extending it if he has a successful first year? We did something similar with VVD.

Some fairly unsaintly shenanigans afoot here for sure 👎🏻

Heard a rumour we've booked the Spinnaker Tower tomorrow to announce the Armstrong signing.

I do agree, I think this is looking at being a half-decent window (subject to final activity). In many ways, what has left is as equally (if not more) important than what has come in.

Sounds hopeful, very glad this should get done before the season kicks off (rather than 3 weeks later).

Seems pretty obvious to me, he's not for sale unless a crazy offer comes in. If Villa offered >£50m I don't think anyone could hammer the club (or Blackmore) as that would be lunacy on their behalf IMO.

I was thinking this myself. Who’s to know what talks have gone on in the background and that there isn’t some kind of agent, club, player plan afoot? All just theory of course, but dialogue could have started months ago. As you say, time will tell.

Those 9-0s will be an unwanted stain on our history for many years. However, I do agree with you, I've always wanted Saints to dine at the top table, even if it's a struggle a lot of the time. I have a mate who supports Coventry, a club that were basically our twin sister back in the 90's. They were relegated from the Prem 20 long years ago and following them has, quite frankly, been pretty dire ever since. Not looking for an argument with anyone, I just have my view and respect that others have a different one. I just think our glass is at least half full.

LOL I didn’t realise it was a crime to get a name on the back of the shirt if you’re over 13. Anyway, it was a shirt the club gave away for free after the sponsor changed and they offered free name, number, badges. No evidence he was off at that stage so went for it on the basis that I might end up framing it one day (like my Le Tissier one).

Sign up and invoice Ings for £5! You can get in the queue behind me as I foolishly got his name on my shirt earlier this year FFS.

20 years on, the seats have gone pink and those things will be dragging along the ground.

We can’t afford to take that chance surely?

One hopes that this may be a warning to others in the future. It’s not like things have turned out bad for Ings but, as you imply, I very much doubt Aston Villa was on his list of destinations.

Is it unreasonable to think that Armstrong was our target on the basis that Ings would possibly stay until the end of his contract? Am hoping we've now upgraded our search to a more substantial signing rather than assuming the worst (that we've messed the transfer up).

Will it though? By all accounts, it sounds like the 'right offer' would be a ridiculous sum (like north of £50m).

Very much agree with this. How many of us were honestly happy we had Ings just 2 years ago when his impact was pretty low in his first season IIRC.