verlaine1979

Taking on the PL with the much-feared Blackburn Rovers 2018-2021 attack. Who dared to dream, eh? Seriously though, BBD looks like good business at that money.

Yes, and they haven't qualified for the knockout since 2012, whereas Atalanta have done it twice in the last 8 years and won another European competition. I'm not saying O'Riley won't choose us - there's definitely a financial upside to playing in the PL, even if you're at one of the bottom clubs. But unless he absolutely backs himself to tear up the league, he'd probably be better off taking the next step in his career at a stable European club with a reputation for playing excellent football than foraging for scraps at the lower end of the PL getting dicked every week. In short, let's hope his agent and everyone around him don't have his best interests at heart and push him to make a purely financial decision.

I'm not sure two seasons fighting relegation with Saints is quite the shop window you think it is, vs. winning the Europa League and regularly qualifying for the CL knockout rounds (which Celtic haven't done in over a decade). It's not as if Atalanta haven't sold plenty of players to the likes of Spurs, Man United, Juventus and the two Milan clubs in recent years. I seem to recall we were interested in Koopmeiners the summer he joined Atalanta. Based on his career since (and the transfer interest in him right now), you'd have a hard time saying he made the wrong choice.

Smallbone has a decent eye for a pass and a knack of arriving in the box to nab the odd goal. Should be competing with O'Riley/a.n.other for the AM role. But if he plays DM or CM in the premier League he's going to get stomped by just about everyone he comes up against.

Still think we need someone of substance to play alongside Downes. Whatever the configuration of midfielders you pick from our current squad, it looks lightweight.

Just watched BBD's goals for Sheffield. Some good movement and sharp finishing. Promising.

Dallinga's price tag seemed pretty reasonable for his scoring record. I suspect even if we'd been in for him, the example of Zirkzee probably makes comfortable mid-table with Bologna seem a much more attractive career step.

Dibling is the one who looked like he really deserved more minutes. Seemed physically up to the challenge and demonstrated great technique. Will be very disappointed if we end up letting him go having seen a grand total of 2 minutes in league football. Especially with Sulemana failing to score or assist in the latter half of last season.

I liked Steven Davis more.

Did this post time travel from 2005?

Barring us signing someone unambiguously great in attacking midfield, I hope we keep Alcaraz. We're not going to dominate possession in the PL, so having someone who can carry the ball forward at pace through the middle is going to be vital. If we're slow as well as static next year, we're going to get killed.

We did get relegated though, right? So there probably were a few windows in recent years where the likes of Bournemouth/Fulham/Forest etc. had better windows than us. Currently the squad from fullback on is as weak as piss. Lots of work to do before we can roll our eyes at anyone looking enviously at other clubs' transfer activity.

Have there been any links to DM/CM players in addition to Downes (other than speculating that Reed might be the ex-player alluded to?) Even with Downes in the side, our midfield gets walked through in the PL unless we sign someone with strength and bite to play alongside him.

Considering he'd signed for Real Madrid six months later, I suspect neither us nor Leics were ever really in the running.

God, I really hope Che doesn't rejoin. Take a punt on someone new, even if they don't work out. At least give us the dream of competence rather than the certainty of mediocrity.

At the moment, there's no indication that Saints are a good stepping stone club for young players. You really have to walk the walk there, as Dortmund and a few others have, giving 16 and 17 year old players significant game time. Obvs no one is saying that our crop are as good as Pulisic, Reyna, Sancho and Bellingham (and accepting that the latter two were transfers into the first team squad) but we're not playing at as high a level as Dortmund either (especially last season). Dibling in particular did enough in his few cameos to earn more minutes than he got, and we didn't give them to him. As others have said, why not go to an elite academy, get the best training, compensation and education and then get loaned out to a club with a decent reputation. You'll be playing first team football at a good level as quickly if not quicker than you would for Saints based on recent history.

O'Riley and O'Hare look like they'd complement each other pretty well.

Are you sure he hasn't just spent a year playing against shitty strikers rather than getting too tight being turned over and over by PL quality attackers?

Solanke is a good example of someone who looked like a failed experiment at PL level until he didn't. Averaged 3 per season from his first three attempts at the PL, interspersed with decent promotion winning performances in the champ. Now, with 19 in the PL last season he's probably a 60-70m striker for anyone that wants him.

Not sure fourth and play-offs counts as "some ease".

Alcaraz is good at carrying the ball forward. We're going to need players who can do that whether RM likes it or not. Our squad is too technically limited as it stands to consistently pass our way around the press of 90% of PL teams. We're going to need to adapt to be able to play effectively on the break and turnover, even if it's just to give ourselves time to reset. As it stands, Downes was our most effective player at running the ball through the middle last year, and he's not even ours.

Good weight of pass and more inclined to look for the through ball than JWP typically was while he was here. Get in Downes and a genuine DM so that Smallbone never has to play deep and I think he'll be a useful part of the squad next year.

I watched the likes of Bournemouth and Forest play a few times last season, and came away fairly convinced that the level of Premier League also-rans is higher than it's ever been, unfortunately. There are plenty of ropey defenses still, but lots of these lower half teams now have real power, pace and technique in the middle of the pitch, which we've lacked pretty much since the Wanyama/Morgan pairing.

Has anyone like Swiss Ramble taken a punt at working out what we could potentially spend this summer? I know our last published accounts showed a loss of about 87m but that wouldn't have included the Lavia/Tino/JWP/Tella money (which I think ended up being about 150m?)

Hah, from bitter experience, you're not getting a lot of change out of a grand (though that was a lost house key rather than a car door).