Patches O Houlihan

Aribo and Diallo with JWP behind - have you been reading NJ's game plan for Fulham?!!

We're not the same team who played Croatia: We've four years more experience, including a Euros final + an in form Bellingham. Way more confident all round

Chelsea offered us 50m for Lavia before the summer window closed... Not saying we should sell him: We ought to be building the team around him so that he wants to stay a year longer than we might normally manage. Salisu appears to be running his contract down. Again I'd rather keep him on a new contract. Don't think he has kicked on enough for a really big move since his early promising signs. AA would sell to a Championship club - but not for lots.

Bednarek is at Villa...

I've just watched this two hour podcast in one sitting. I would wholeheartedly recommend every Saints fan watches it. Whether they are dismissive of the appointment or optimistic. We cannot know how things are going to progress for Saints over the next months (and years?) and whether this will prove to be a good appointment or not. However, watching this video will give you a genuine insight into what it is like to be a working class kid who leaves school at 16, has to work his way up from non-league, playing for two sides in Spain without a support network, and then play in a winning team in a play off final in his home city. He started coaching football when he was 18, and started recording training sessions in a journal at 26, knowing that he would never be good enough to play Premier League, but wanting to be the best coach and man manager that he could be after his playing career ended. He played professionally until he was 39. He's only 49 now, so should still relate to our young players. His lack of top level experience is obviously a key issue. But if you watch this video you'll understand why Rasmus hired him, why he could be a great fit for Saints, and will at least give you hope after we've lost again due to a poor referring decision or a jammy goal against the run of play. We could get the feel good factor we had when Ralph started, coupled with a guy who's good at managing players on a one to one level. We could see a couple of our players develop considerably. I can see why the Luton fans, and even some Stoke fans have been wishing him well. Fingers crossed we don't get smashed at Anfield this afternoon

That's my line!

Over the summer we bought in four from Manchester City, including 2 at around the same time as Oriel went to Girona and Lis went to Troyes. Troyes and Girona are both part of the Manchester City group of clubs. I don't think this was a coincidence. Without Romeu's move we may not have got Edozie & Larios.

Jack Cork

Do you ever look at yourself and think - "yes my continuous moaning about a goalkeeper left completely exposed, who was stitched up by a mishit, is really helping both his confidence and that of his 10 new, similarly young team mates when they inevitably read this thread after the game" If you can't get behind our new talented team of exciting players, stick to moaning about the standard SaintsWeb whipping boys; currently that's only Moi, as McCarthy & Redmond aren't on the pitch. My gran used to say - if you haven't got anything nice to say, then shut up... #helmetwatch

Piss off

Maybe the plan was for Simeu to be up to speed by then in order to be our 4th choice, with Lyanco as 3rd choice. But I agree I think we'd need to find another wonderkid centre back in January if that was the case. Good, older experienced centre backs are properly pricy in January.

The parent club would not be able to sell the player in the same window (although perhaps a loan with option to buy might be a thing?) The buy back clause also requires the player to be willing to move and agree terms...

Kane

When was the last time we had a player with this level of pace, power, composure in front of goal, and finishing accuracy?! The second camera angle shows just what a finish this was

Dan Sheldon is a Man U fan. Not sure whether I picked that up from the Echo, TSP or The Athletic but I've come across multiple references.

Is there a scenario where Broja returns to Chelsea and Timo Werner comes to Saints? He has a strong relationship with Hasenhuttl, and Ralph seems to know how to get the best out of him... while Chelsea don't. He's scored once in 11 games for them in the Prem this season.

Today was literally his first premier league start, and he is only 19. Yes we’ve seen him scoring for Albania as a sub, but arguably the standard is higher in the PL. Listen to his postgame BBC interview and you’ll get a proper sense of this. Broja is definitely in the ‘wonder kid’ category along with Tino and Small.