Saint Keef

OK. Now we've seen Salisu in an actual Saints shirt, but hang on a second.......he is not smiling. Something must be terribly wrong!

Good business for Fulham and good business for us I'd say. As regards Fulham - £8m for a player who will go straight into their midfield as a starter and fits into their system nicely. As regards us, £8m for a player who can't get into our first team and doesn't suit our current system. So I think both parties will be pretty happy, plus the lad gets to play regularly and presumably pockets a few quid as well.

OK - let's start the predictions. How many starts will he make for Fulham? Not including substitute appearances. My guess - 14 appearances max. Fulham will either realise he's a waster or he'll pick up a mysterious injury. Nearest guess wins a prize of a holiday for two to.........well nowhere at the moment due to Covid. I don't get to every Saints game, but I did get to see him "live" on several occasions and I honestly couldn't see what all the fuss was about him. Very frustrating player and lazy. Poor attitude. That said, the managers at the time, and style of football could hardly be described as motivational. It would have been interesting to see how he played under a manager like Ralph, not that he struck me as the sort to fit into Ralph's high press system. Obviously Ralph felt the same way.

It's only a feeling, but I think those three goals at the end of the season will make a world of difference to Adams. My feeling is....he's going to bag a few this year. If Ings carries on his form then 12-15 from Adams would be useful.

The more I see the other kits, the more I like ours.

Could have been much worse I reckon. Palace away and Spurs at home are both winnable if we play like we did at the end of the season. And PEH back at our place so soon. No doubt he'll want to make a point! Equally KWP will want to prove Spurs wrong. Follow that with Burnley away - tough, but again if we go there with the right mindset it's another winnable one. So....0-1 points from the first three games would be very poor, 2-3 would be disappointing, 4-5 points wouldn't be a complete disaster, 6-7 points would be very acceptable. 9 would be brilliant.

Of course every Saints goal is a classic......but actually when you watch that list back to back you realise just how many really high class goals we scored in the season just gone. As soon as we are back in St Mary's they'll have a whole new bunch to put on the big screens before matches and at half time etc.

VVD and Sadio Mane to Barca? Now that would be funny. I'm already laughing at the thought. That would rip Liverpool apart. Maybe Ron will arrange to meet VVD in Blackpool.

Great news this. I've always liked him, but he has definitely improved his game under Ralph. Despite always liking him I thought he was a bit weak in the tackle, but he has added a much tougher streak to his game. A bit more nasty if you like, without being over the top. And our performances with him as Captain speak for themselves. And now if any of the "bigger boys" come sniffing (which wouldn't surprise me) we can put a much higher price on him. More positive news.

Only my view, but I think they will say ownership is unaffected, because if they say anything other, and even hint that Gao needs to get out quickly, his asking price for the club will plummet and other will come around sniffing a bargain. Again, only my view but I think if Gao got offered the right price he'd be off in a flash....hopefully. From what I've seen he has zero interest in the club and any plans he may have had for developing areas around Southampton will have probably gone up in smoke in the current China v Rest of The Western World political situation. As regards new sponsorship; the way we finished the season (post Lock Down) will surely benefit us. Much better than if we'd scraped home with a Pellegrino/Hughes character at the helm.

Maybe we could be sponsored by Velcro........Oh no, that's a rip off too. Sorry! In all seriousness, who pays for the many thousands of shirts that have been manufactured that now won't be sold. No doubting it is a shambles. Many of us mere mortals smelled a rat at the time of the sponsorship deal. How come our highly paid executives and decision makers didn't. Or maybe they did and had no choice but to bite their collective lips because it was coming from the very top that this would be the deal. Maybe if/when our owner goes, the truth will be revealed in time.

Yeh, you're right, I'd particularly forgotten Wan-Bissaka. If there was a World Cup just for Right Backs, we'd probably win that! If KWP can get on a par with him and Trent Alexander, then we'll be laughing. Something for him to aim for though!

Welcome to KWP. This feels like a good signing to me. A definite upgrade on recent right backs. Possible England caps in the future too - probably part of the add-ons - obviously behind Trent Alexander at present, but who knows? A five year contract? - pure speculation, but stays with us for 3 years and moves on to "bigger things" still with 2 years on his contract and therefore possibly with a good profit as well. Time will tell...

The Loch Ness FC has to be the coolest shirt. The Inter Milan one hurts the eyes. The more I look at the Sheffield United shirt, the more I think, if a shirt determines how a season will go for a club, they are doomed. I bet their fans don't like it. Some of our designs have been dire recently but not as bad as theirs. They don't even seem to fit the chosen players properly all rucked up under the arms.

BBC Sport website showing lots of the new kits. Hope this link works. If not, go to BBC Sports Football page. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/53388384 Two comments, Ours gets an honourable 4th place and actually doesn't look too bad against some of the others. And oh dear, what have Adidas done to Sheffield United? Remind you of anything? Looks like they can't make their minds up between a Fulham and Sheffield United kit.

£12m for KWP and £20m for PEH. If these figures are correct, I can't help thinking we've come out of this pretty well. Based upon what we've seen since lockdown I think KWP could be the best right-back we've had for years. Just think.....a right back who can cross the ball accurately. Whatever next?

Steady on......Hoedt must have improved since I saw him. Like watching Bambi on ice.

Absolutely deserved. I'm pleased for him. I think he has worked bloody hard to turn this team around and to get them to buy into his style. It was never going to be an over night thing. The way I feel at the moment is we are very lucky to have him.

Yeh - accepted - I didn't see it, but followed it on here and remember the comments were pretty scathing in the first half. Improved greatly in the 2nd half didn't it? In quite a few games we were better in the 2nd half and I think a lot of that was fitness - we seemed to come back from lock down, fitter than almost all the other teams I watched over that period. Credit to all the staff and players who obviously worked hard on fitness in lock down. That's why we were still scoring in the 106th and 110th minutes of games. Anyway I've digressed from the PEH topic - apologies.

Maybe Ralph could work wonders with him - and what an absolute bonus that would be. Get him into the closing down, harrying, chasing down mindset.......but I really can't see him buying into that. Unfortunately my abiding memory of watching him play was "lazy - with a half-arsed, can't be bothered" attitude. I accept he may have had some good days (unfortunately I missed those) but when I watched him, it's sad to say, I really couldn't see what all the fuss was about.

There is no denying, in the past few weeks, we played some of the best football we have seen in (3 or is it 4 +) years. And it has coincided in PEH not being in the team. I accept there may be other factors as well, however, coincidentally or not, the one game since lock down where it didn't work, where we seemed to lack ambition and a forward drive, and a momentum, was against Arsenal in which PEH played a significant part. And it could be argued that PEH was partly culpable for one of Arsenal's two goals with his loose passing back to Jack Stephens. (Wasn't PEH involved in the first goal somehow as well - although I know it was ultimately Alex McCarthy's error). I don't dislike PEH, I'm not out to batter him, he always put a lot of effort in, chasing down, breaking up attacks but I found his distribution was very poor (unless passing back) and he was very hot-headed, clumsy and rash in some of his tackling on many occasions. I often came away from games feeling that he had flattered to deceive. Tried very hard for the team, but just not quite up to it......maybe a lack of composure on the ball. I know Romeu isn't to everyone's taste, but lately I've been really impressed with his composure on the ball and distribution, a whole new side to his game.. Obviously Jose knows a bit more about football than I, and obviously sees something in PEH that he likes. I don't wish PEH any ill, but I'd really be interested to see if he can sustain a place in a fully firing Tottenham first team. Haha.....Everton on the other hand. Now that's a whole different ball game. Could Harrison Reid do the job? He certainly looks like he's come on - good luck to him tonight by the way, but I think I'd like to see Brentford come up.

Makes a mockery of the whole medal thing and surely devalues the medals of those who played a significant part in the match/tournament. They'll issue them to the ball-boy and the programme seller next (not that there are any of those around at the moment). Oh well, Cedric can add that to his Portugal Euro Winners medal on his mantle piece and tell his grandchildren he scored the winners (bullet headers no less) in both finals. No one will know.

I have no sympathy for Chelsea at all.....for anything......ever...... but the sending off decision today was appalling. For a long time I have felt Anthony Taylor is not up to the job of refereeing top-flight matches and today proved the point. He gets a lot of "big" decisions wrong. He has been "corrected" by VAR a number of times. But he is not the only one, overall the standard of premiership referees is very poor and in my opinion, getting worse. They are ruining a number of matches with bad decisions. With 11 on the pitch the last half hour of today's final could have been really interesting but it knocked the stuffing out of Chelsea.

Romeo is back to his best. Broke up a lot, last ditch tackle was superb and distribution better than PEH by a mile. Romeo also looks the fittest he has looked for a season or more.Having him back in this form is like a new signing in itself. Very pleased for Che, (Looks like we have another goalscorer in the team) but Romeo MoTM for me today. McCarthy was close, but for his brain fade pass to a Sheff Utd player when Romeo made that tackle. Really proud to be a Saint these past few weeks. Well done Ralph and the lads. (ps....get KWP signed)

Vest is obviously in the shop window.........unfortunately it's the charity shop. KWP not having his finest hour either so far. McCarthy brilliant so far - it would have been 0-3 without him.