verlaine1979

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).

I'd take Fraser. He can finish, still has a bit of pace and would be a decent last ten minutes option in the PL still. Not a starter though. Aribo isn't going to cut it at CM in the PL - just a bit too slow and ungainly. Smallbone could do a job, but only further forward trying to link play and get the occasional foot in as a bonus. If we get Downes we'll still need some strength alongside him. Unfortunately, the going rate for a young physical and technical DM is about 30m+ these days (going by what Everton and Forest paid for Onana and Sangare). ABK's current value as a saleable asset is much lower than we'd have to pay to bring in a player with equivalent potential. He's the most likely to step back in, and if he stayed fit could make a great partner alongside THB. Bednarek has been great this season, but he's just not a very good PL defender. I just hope we've overhauled our scouting since the last summer window. If we want to play a technical, possession game, we're going to need technical players. And since we can't afford technical, physical and PL-proven, we're going to have to scout well to find them elsewhere.

Eesh is that how long he's out for? Definitely need a starting gk then.

Loan Baz and Charles as starters in the champ, see what they're made of for a season.

THB, Downes or an equivalent, new #1 in goal, new striker to lead the line, maybe a new creative midfielder to replace Stu. Think that's the minimum to have a chance of staying up. Hope Solak has 100m+ burning a hole in his pocket.

Simply immense yesterday. Best player on the pitch by a mile.

Martin's tactics require us to play dangerous passes around our own box and safe passes around theirs. That's the wrong way round.

Even teams who excel at playing it out from the back don't pass it multiple times into the six yard box under that kind of pressure. It's not clever, it's stupid.

Brooks and Fraser crossing to Stewart would certainly be a dimension we haven't had all season.

Trading five minutes spells of dominance. But they've engineered notably better chances while on top. As usual, nobody for Saints really willing to take responsibility for creating something - just hoping that the opportunity to play a killer pass occurs organically as a result of holding onto the ball long enough.