Ivan Katalinic's 'tache

That doesn't sound promising. I thought he was supposed to have said goodbye to all his team mates?

To the point where what he says threatens your 100% sticky record???

Excellent stuff, thanks. Assume he'll be there watching the game today?

This paragraph within the report would seem fair to me. It's near the end if the window, plans have been set & we seem likely to bring in a player or two before it shuts, anyway. The question would come and be a relevant concern, if this didn't seem to make us more financially secure, or even powerful, in future seasons.

Been and stayed or been and gone?

Good luck to the lad. Got a lot to do to progress from being Stuart Taylor's understudy.

Vietto you mean?

Celtic fan site on Twitter saying Patrick Roberts coming to us permanently rather than Celtic on loan. No idea of reliability but does have 25.5k followers so might be ok.

I now know this is definitely going to happen because your username is charliemiller, you have a Brazilian relative and, as we all know Southampton's Charles Miller gave football to Brazil and they're now going to pay us back with this Brazilian wonder kid. Marvellous!

Gabbiadini likes to play on the shoulder of centre halves, spinning off into the space behind them. For him to be effective, we need someone in the no 10 position playing those clever passes between defenders. Tadic can, but not when out wide, and Davis can, but he's playing deeper at the moment. I like JWP but he doesn't see that type of pass quickly enough & Boufal never gets enough time in that role for us to know if he could do it. Maybe if Davis pushes forward with Lemina in next to Romeu we may see Manolo get more of the service he needs. His movement seemed better than it did following his injury at the end of last season, it's just the ball never arrived when he did make a run. Maybe Vietto would be an option as the no 10 too?

Is he planning on hanging around?

Yes, I thought Boufal was much better when he came on. Tracked back & won the ball too. Hopefully he'll assert himself on games in time. It was better today though, certainly more purpose.

Same players & we play too much in front of the opposition defence at home. You need someone with pace & trickery to cause panic or open up a defence. Mane had both in bundles & spread terror with his unpredictability. I'm not sure Boufal or Redmond quite cause the same level of panic and, therefore, opportunity.

Sounds like a very positive signing. Welcome Mario! I hope someone has taken the time to introduce our manager to you...

For me, the big issue is he's forfeited the right to retain his standard VVD nickname. I think we should revert to Barry Gale's name for him: Double VD. That'll learn him.

I hope he didn't get the chance to speak to the team "captain" if he was having a medical and talks yesterday! I wonder if we'll hear an announcement today? Or does he need a work permit being Gabonese?

Makes me wonder if he signed the 6 year deal solely to increase the pay off he'd get from the longer contract if we sold him on, in the mistaken belief we'd do so without him handing in a transfer request. The statement reads like he's saying I'm going to scream & cry until I get my own way...

Sounds promising. Cheers!

Did he fly into a southern airport or one in the Midlands??

Anyone staking out wherever we do our medicals to see if he's there today??

Davy Propper close to signing for Brighton from PSV. Watched their game against Atletico Madrid from the boardroom apparently.

Thanks for your comments. So are Juve expecting him to join Saints then?

I wonder if Pellegrino is denying knowledge of Lemina because our bid has been usurped by someone else, maybe Stoke?

Hopefully just playing his cards close to his chest after we've missed out on some recent targets? Di Marzio rarely gets it wrong and he seemed pretty certain.

Doh! That was short lived. Hopefully MoPe is just playing dumb until the deal is across the line...