Patches O Houlihan

But did he look like that across multiple games played the month before we signed him?

Jander born 23/3/2003 so he's 22 Quashie has been with the German under 20s or on the bench for the German under 21s this year. Born 26/7/2004 so 21 currently. Quashie is in the U21s squad: The full squad: Keepers: Mio Backhaus, Dennis Seimen, Max Weiß Defenders: Elias Baum, Hendry Blank, Linus Gechter, Finn Jeltsch, Leandro Morgalla, Joshua Quarshie, Tom Rothe, Lukas Ullrich Midfielders: Noël Aséko Nkili, Muhammed Damar, Said El Mala, Brajan Gruda, Anton Kade, Aljoscha Kemlein, Mert Kömür, Umut Tohumcu Forwards: Ilyas Ansah, Dzenan Pejcinovic, Nicolo Tresoldi, Nelson Weiper

Well done for mopping up an AI mess. Very pleased to hear that the bulk of the group will be staying to work out a 4 at the back system and gain some familiarity.

I asked AI who would be available to train for an extended period prior to pompey. At the bottom I have highlighted players staying who could potentially form the basis of the starting 11 in a new formation. International Call-Ups Full Senior International Duty Gavin Bazunu (Republic of Ireland) Ryan Manning (Republic of Ireland) Joe Aribo (Nigeria) Elias Jelert (Denmark) Finn Azaz (Israel) Shea Charles (Northern Ireland) Age Group International Duty Taylor Harwood-Bellis (England U21) Nathan Wood (England U21) Kuryu Matsuki (Japan U20/U21) Sam Edozie (England U21) Moses Sesay (England U20/U21, likely on standby) Training Days with Will Still & Staff Key Facts International matches run until 10 September. Players involved return late 10th or 11th. Portsmouth game is 14 September, so internationals get only 1-2 training days with Will Still. Players not on international duty get the entire break—around 10-11 days of uninterrupted tactical work. Players Available for Extended Preparation vs Portsmouth Not On International Duty (Full Preparation: ~10 days) Alex McCarthy George Long Dylan Moody Mads Roerslev Jack Stephens Joshua Quarshie Ronnie Edwards Welington Flynn Downes Caspar Jander Tom Fellows Ryan Fraser Ross Stewart Damion Downs Adam Armstrong Jay Robinson Leo Scienza

Watching that I almost feel sorry for the rest of the division! I think we're going to be on tele plenty this year.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qIV9MH0BkA He's clearly in great form right now. There was that free kick in the Bundesliga (23/8/25) and then the two here and the Beckhamesque lob (admittedly this game is a cup game against lower opposition (16/8/25) (Link won't embed but worth watching)

Scienza delivering under massive pressure. I like this guy

Robinson is going to learn so much playing with Scienza, Azaz & Fellows.

His playing career has had an odd trajectory - there might be a Ricky Lambert-esque story to enjoy there. Lets hope he smashes it

You could argue the derby is a test of nerve and innate natural instinctive ability under pressure. There won't have been time for the players to have absorbed much - certainly in attacking areas. They'll be making it up as they go along and reacting instinctively. Let's hope the on paper quality shows up. Azaz was put in that position against Watford and certainly acquitted himself pretty well (despite the error). 🤞

Maybe the feeling is that you can train good positioning and agility in a goalkeeper easier than you can train good footballing skills. He has already played way more minutes than most young keepers his age. Goalies tend to improve with age, and so you could argue his keeping will mature earlier, giving him a longer career at the top level and saving Saints money in the long term if he stays. He wasn't ready in 22/23 or 23/24. He was rightfully not exposed in 24/25. So far he has been a little better than usual but I still have questions. McCarthy can clearly still make saves, so even though he appears to be the most relaxed reserve keeper I guess there has to still be a little competition there. It would be great if the club was proved right, but I'm not seeing it myself. Maybe Rambo will get recalled in January?

If I've got one criticism of the Saints media team it is the crazy banal questions new signings get asked. Would be lovely to hear something about what makes that player special or individual or different. But there's a difference between answering banal questions sensibly on the day you join a new club and being coached to do it.

I assume you'd be smashing it in your 3rd or 4th language?

It was on Question of Sport years back

fucking twitter

I don't think we would have got as good a price as we did for Dibling and Fernandes if we had sold them early. Our start is pretty much par with teams relegated from the PL over the last few seasons. 2 months ago we were most worried about Ipswich. We'll want to do well in the next four games though otherwise we really will have created a mountain to climb.

Jelert played a bit in midfield 2 seasons back too. Edwards only played DM twice for QPR.

Bearing in mind the change in atmosphere that we have had since Dragan took over the running of things and since Spors showed up maybe there has been some thinking over a longer time period than just the next season: Let's assume that PSR would make it hard financially for us to do a Forest and sign a whole new team assuming we were promoted to the PL. We'll have enough funds to bring in some good signings - but not enough for a whole team. So what is the answer? Well Strikers are the most expensive position and the most difficult to land for Southampton. No chance we're going to get a PL worthy striker in this window. Jan window seems unlikely. Most likely is next summer assuming we were promoted. If you were an aspiring high quality striker willing to join a newly promoted team you'd want to see that the club you were joining were going to provide you with the chances to make you look good. So in order to sign that player next summer we have to deliver an establish creative attacking force that can deliver those chances - hence that's where we've spent our money, gambling that our existing defenders and strikers will do what need them to do to achieve promotion. The alternative is to sign an expensive striker now who isn't good enough next year and be short of funds when we really need to go hard at the market. We have loaned out Rambo so that the goalkeeper situation should be sorted if we are promoted. So we would just need to buy a few defenders and midfielders. Thought on this? Assuming we get our Brazilian I'm going for a 7 - having been impressed with the last few days, and also the shifting of Sulemana and Onuachu early for good money.

Have you only just started watching football? That's not how a transfer window works out - even if you are f**king Liverpool

My dog is called Flynn and I just fed him chicken livers 🤪 True Story

They don't have saucy nuns as cabin crew 😉

Get your relegation money on them right now 😉