James

Interesting timing but he had to go.

Agreed. Heads should have rolled in the summer but instead they patted themselves on the back and continue to serve up the same old **** to a long suffering fan base paying an absurd amount to watch absolute dross.

Agreed. A lot of them really don’t seem to care either. Exactly the same as last season except we might not be able to find someone as bad as Swansea to bail us out this year.

God that was absolutely pathetic. Keep up the good work on the training pitch Mark...

He took of Ings and put on the immobile Austin which killed all attacking momentum. That was a bad decision.

Poor from Hughes, Cedric and most of all Hoj. Going down on this evidence.

Nice to see him immediately berate Moi as well. He really does seem like a tit.

Hoedt with a nice sliding tackle through ball and then a woeful piece of defending from Cedric. The fact we were at one point worrying about him going to a big club is ridiculous. He’s terrible defensively .

Exactly, the myth that by playing Redmond we somehow benefit from a player with “direct running” is just garbage. The guy is a passenger.

Hoedt really is dreadful. Problem is this line up is so defensive we can’t put them under any pressure. As for Redmond, what on earth is he offering? A non entity.

Agreed. Will have to score 2 as there will be at least one clanger from these two. You’d have thought, given their respective performances in pre season, that Hughes would have seen enough.

Not really sure what Redmond has gone to deserve a start over Moi or Gabbi to be honest. Disappointed with Stephens starting as well, don’t rate the guy at all.

Some guy on Not606 saying that JWP is unhappy and wants the move so we shouldn't be surprised if he goes. Let's see. Can't imagine we'd let him go without using the proceeds elsewhere before the window closes.

Makes you wonder why, if we are so short of cash now, we spent a quarter of our budget on another keeper. Don’t get me wrong I’m pleased Gunn is here as he’s clearly highly rated but odd we made that move and now don’t have the cash for a forward player when we clearly need one.

It's a Southampton FC forum, its really not that unusual for a rumour about one of our players to be discussed (no matter how "legit"). If you don't like it I'd suggest that a forum really isn't the place for you, especially not during the transfer window...

Sky Sports are reporting that West Ham have made a bid so its not really surprising that people are discussing the possibility that we might sell Lemina...

Richarlison is 21 and Lemina is 24? Hardly "much younger"... I agree with you that I don't really mind if we sell him but only if we extract as much value as possible (as I said, shouldn't be too hard as its West Ham) and use it to reenforce the areas of the squad where we are light.

So you would deem Richarlison a player of great quality? A player who started well (like Lemina) but then failed to score from November to the end of the season. I agree that the transfer prices are crazy but given the prices we are seeing I can't see us selling Lemina for £25 million (unless, as I said, he goes full Virgil and forces our hand). If we do West Ham will have the bargain of the window.

In today's market, having paid £18m for him last summer (see here: https://www.theguardian.com/football/2017/aug/08/southampton-sign-mario-lemina-juventus), you think we would sell for a mere £7m profit? I think you're the dreamer mate. If Liverpool are demanding £20m for Ings and Leicester are paying £25m for a Championship midfielder from Norwich then I don't think its unrealistic to expect £35m for an ex-Juventus Champions League finalist, especially given the length of time he has on his contract and the fact that the club we are dealing with is a profligate West Ham. The only way we let him go as cheap as you are suggesting is if he goes full Virgil on us.

If we managed to get say £35m for him then I'm sure we could stretch to 2 permanent signings and a loan....we aren't really in the business of paying big bucks when we sign players are we?

Agreed - the stick Austin gets is completely over the top. He's a good player, knows where the net is and has never let us down. He was inspired that night against Swansea and let's not forget it was his athleticism in reaching that volley that led to Gabbi tapping in the winner. I get that he has issues with his fitness but given his background as a footballer and the fact it took him a bit longer to get to the top I'm not sure its that surprising that he doesn't appear to have the natural fitness of those who come through Premier League academies etc. Have never heard any manager of ours complain about a lack of application in training and so unless someone ITK has info on him not putting in effort in training I don't think we can criticise him for getting injured - just happens to some players more often (his recurring shoulder injuries for example will have nothing to do with training etc.)

Agree with this - the figures quoted are crazy and so if the only option is, say, Ings for £20m then I'd probably rather stick with what we have and give Gallagher some game time. Everything I've seen of him physically and in the reserves etc makes me think he's got what it takes so maybe now is the time to find out? As others have said Kane didn't exactly set the world on fire on loan in the Championship and look at him now. Not suggesting for one second Gallagher is the next Kane but a less than stellar record in the Championship doesn't necessarily rule him out as a good option for us. As for getting rid of Austin, despite his injuries, I think that would be crazy. He is by far the best striker at the club.

IMO its only crazy to consider selling Lemina if he's actually willing to knuckle down and play for us. He had some real quality games for us last season (Palace away, Man U home) but the majority of my memories from last season are of him putting in half arsed performances and appearing to have an appalling attitude (the Chelsea semi final at Wembley and the embarrassment away to Spurs stick out as particular low points). If he wants to go then we should try and get as much money out of West Ham as possible (shouldn't be hard as they throw money at basically anything) and then get a winger, a striker and a midfielder to replace him. We are desperately light up front and so I'd rather reinvest the Lemina money than have an unhappy player here (no matter how good he might be). If either Drinkwater or Loftus Cheek were available (even on loan) then so much the better.

Would be a good signing for Boro/Derby in the Champ but doesn't look as if he is a starter who will improve us.

Last season he sounded a decent replacement for an aging Steven Davis but this season, having had a bit part season in the Scottish league and as a replacement for Tadic, I think we have the right to be a little guarded. Let's see, he seems to fit the Hughes mould at least.