Luke SkyWalker-Peters

Shows the gulf between our team on Saturday compared to this lot. Because Wednesday are far, far better than Gillingham.

First game of the season, at Hillsborough, against a newly promoted team, full of big, experienced players, that sit deep, barely press and try to squeak out a win... We all thought this would be a tough game, so well done to the team for getting through it and getting the 3 points. Wednesday aren't a good team at the moment, but I'm certain they will cause some big upsets there this season. The corner is a shame. Personally why I want Charles to be in the team sooner rather than later (essentially an extra CB). Otherwise, completely dominant. The movement in and around the opposition penalty box needs to be worked on. Far too often we didn't have enough numbers forward and no passing options. The patterns that were obvious against Reading have seemingly disappeared. If we got a left-footed goalscorer to play on the RW (Piroe, Amad Diallo?), so that Tella could play LW cutting-in, then I think that is basically a complete team. I understand the clamour for replacements of Armstrong and Che, but I doubt we will get a better striker in. Really good start. I was worried about that game. We will get better in the months ahead. I'm sure the matches will be a better watch overall when teams start trying to take the game to us a bit more, rather than hoping for a set-piece. Delighted with the way the players saw out the win once ahead. That is a big advantage with this style that we just didn't have under Ralph. I doubt we will be leading the league in most points dropped from winning positions this season.

I had a skim through of their last preseason friendly against Luton: Play a 442/4411. Proper lower-league, direct football. They do pass it out the back a fair bit initially though, before launching it to the big target man, so we might have some turnover opportunities with our press. Bannan playing off the target man looks good. Oldest squad in the league, and they look it. Look really solid and experienced. Also look fairly slow and seemed to stop any sort of pressing after 20 minutes. If this was played in a few months on a Saturday at 3pm I'd expect us to thump them. Feels like anything could happen on the first night of the season with a full crowd at a newly promoted Hillsborough. Has a cup game feel to it. Would be a big disappointment to lose this as they have had a chaotic preseason and look a bit disorganised at times. I think our quality will be too much for them. We will have a far better team playing than we did in the League Cup game, which I didn't expect to be the case. Should be comfortable, but I don't feel very comfortable...

One of the best U21 CBs in the world, was in the German World Cup squad and Germany are hosting the Euros next summer. I would say his chances of staying are 0%. I'm sure we will make double our investment on him and he will go to a club in Europe playing Champions League. Good luck to him. Clearly a very good player still early in his career, just think he needs to fully recover from those shoulder and knee issues to stop them becoming a recurring problem.

No, he has been spot on this summer. Clearly got a contact in the club. Actually, the opposite of BS to be fair to him. For instance, he knows Tino isn't in the travelling squad, but hasn't speculated as to why. Just says what he knows. Could be getting sold, could be injured... but he's not speculating like others would to get better interactions. He has broken a number of our stories this summer. Usually just observations that certain players are/aren't in the building or travelling with the team. Seems to me that his contact is fairly low-level within Saints. Very different from the briefings that Blackmore, Alfie House and (to be fair to him) Crook get from the higher-ups. I would consider him our best insider this summer outside of the COT, obviously.

The people who are saying we will finish midtable or lower are hilariously pessimistic. We will be competing for the title this season. The Money Almost always, the team with the best players wins the league. The best players cost the most money. Almost always, the richest clubs win the league. No one likes to admit it, but the teams that have the highest wage bill in any league almost always win. Man City (with some infractions), PSG, Real/Barca, Celtic etc. It takes massive financial ineptitude, only recently seen by Man Utd and Juventus, to fuck that up. Just as the winners of those leagues are easy to predict, so is the Championship. The difference in financial resources within a long-time Premier League team and a Chamionship one is vast and increasing every year. This is not the same league when we got promoted from over a decade ago. We still have our parachute payments and are going to make some large profits on players that don't want to stay. By deadline, through transfers or loans, it would take incredible incompetence rarely seen for us not to have one of the best squads in the league through our spending power alone. TransferMarkt shouldn't be taken as gospel for specific players, but it is a good indicator of team value. Last year, Burnley: Highest value squad (almost double the highest non-relegated team). Walked the league. The year before, Fulham: Highest value squad, won the league. The year before that, Norwich: Highest value squad, won the league. etc. However, the Championship has never had three clubs relegated that dwarf the rest of the league in the manner that Southampton, Leeds and Leicester do. Our squad value is four times that of the highest non-relegated team (Norwich), Leicester three times and Leeds over double. For reference, Man city is under three times the value of Southampton. This quality of teams in the Championship is unprecedented. Yes, some of these players will certainly go (same for all three relegated teams), but Southampton are in a great position under FFP to re-invest most of that into the squad if they so choose. Leicester and Leeds are not. Leeds are in an especially bad situation with their relegation clauses. Even after removing the 10 players most likely to go (and £170m in value), that squad of 19 players (which would obviously be added to) is still double the value of Norwich. Almost always, the richest club win the league. Almost always, the richest club have the highest value team. The Squad We have a far, far better squad than Burnley did last year and they walked the league. We have a lot of good Premier League players who were horrendously mismanaged. Some were bought last summer to transition to a possession based system that we are only starting to see this year (Man City players, Aribo, Caleta-Car etc). We have returning Championship loan players, one of which was named in the league team of the season. We have Stephens back from Bournemouth. We have two quality players, Stu and Livramento, who are hopefully back from injury. We signed the best left-back in the league for nothing. We have two strikers who both scored 20+ goals when they were in the Championship. Yes Adams and Armstrong struggled in the Premier League, but they are now entering their prime years and the Championship is going to seem even slower to them now having been in the Premier League for a number of seasons. Some believe we need a better Goalkeeper to finish top half. I still believe that Bazunu's ability to keep possession will limit the amount of goals we concede (and increase the amount we score), justifying his other weaknesses. Seeing other Championship goalkeepers in preseason, he seems about an average shot-stopper at this level (Swansea's let in a hilariously bad howler vs Oxford Utd - worth a watch). He was exceptional in League One and I think with backing and confidence that he will be good at this level. However, if near the end of the window we need a goalkeeper, we have the funds to get one. "But they're too young?" you cry. Burnley had the 5th youngest team in the league. Currently, we have the 5th youngest team in the league. Ability trumps experience, and by the end of the window we should have a team that is vastly superior in ability to all but a few teams in the league. Underappreciated the quality of our academy players coming through. We must have one of the best groups of U18 and U17 players in the country, with a number likely to breakout this season. Our squad is full of players that other Championship clubs might be able to hold onto for a year or two. I don't think people appreciate the gulf in quality between us with our parachute payments and Premier League players to most of the league. The Prediction Burnley started the season slowly (16th after 5 games) before improving slightly in September, but only finding their truly dominant form in mid-October and never looking back. We will be similar while adjusting to Martin's system. It will be a slow start. We will be low in the table in September with our tough fixtures, but eventually, come October, the vastly superior quality of our team (which it is) will start rolling. We should be pushing to win the league. Anything outside the playoffs will be a sackable offence. I do think that Martin showed enough with a limited squad at Swansea (barely any transfers, tiny squad, players weren't replaced etc) that he is capable. The biggest difficultly with this season is that the quality of all the relegated teams is unprecedented. I'm predicting us to finish 2nd right now, behind Leicester. Partly that is because they are a few moves ahead of us. Leicester and Leeds are both having financial difficulties. If Wilcox and Martin are on the same page, we could very easily finish the window with the best team in the league. I do feel that the quality of the teams that will likely be relegated from the Premier League is going to be poor this season. I am almost certain that if we aren't promoted this season, we will be next. We haven't had our squads pillaged (or become old) like Norwich, Watford etc, we will be fine (and have excellent academy talents coming through). Try and enjoy the season you miserable bunch.

I suspect, given that I read on that forum that she works for the club, that this was done to get lots of #freetella posts to use as part of the announcement video. It's probably been agreed and he just needs to go for his medical etc. A fair bit of effort went into that video and looks like the club knew about it. Her dad wouldn't be sharing it if she had gone rogue.

Hilarious to be lectured on race, by someone from Burnley. I think we are a few steps ahead of you on your journey to enlightenment, but thank you for your concern.

I think Sulemana will end up the better player, but I'd rather keep Tella. His form and experience winning the Champ would be massive for us. Would be gutted if he went.

From what I've seen of Downes, he seems like a slightly worse version of what we have seen of Smallbone this preseason. In terms of experience, he has one extra year of Championship experience. I'd be pushing for Grimes, or a player of similar quality and experience. Smallbone has made Downes redundant in my opinion.

Not really. This is how almost every PL/Champ club does transfers. Wilcox will lead the search with the analysts and scouts then pitch the player to RM. RM will then decide if he is interested. If interested, will have some sort of conversation with the player presenting his vision for the player at the club. After that chat, RM will decide if the player will fit in the dressing room and give Wilcox a final yes/no.

I was content with JWP going and getting £30m+ for him. After seeing how RM used him in the Reading game as a true box-to-box I'm less inclined to let him go. He is one of a few players we have that I trust to score goals when given the opportunity. It appears that RM will be giving him those opportunities in this system. He has averaged 9 goals per year in the PL the last few seasons when playing much deeper in the double pivot. I could see him doubling those goal numbers playing this system in the Championship. I'd be doing whatever we could to keep him. I didn't feel that way a month ago.

Bazunu was awful last season, McCarthy was worse. Bazunu is young and inexperienced. I'd like to see him given a go in the first month before the window closes at the least, because he might improve considerably with new coaches and an easier league. I firmly believe that his ball-playing will help us play the way RM wants. However, due to how bad McCarthy is, we must get a keeper that we would feel confident starting. Someone to compete with Bazunu for the shirt. We can't have another Cabarello or Harry Lewis cheerleader 3rd keeper, as sitting on the bench and never seeing the pitch should be McCarthy's job this season.

No doubt Bazunu was really poor last season, and he has had a couple of errors in these first three pre-season games, but to act like a 21 year old keeper will never improve (when keepers famously start performing their best in their late 20s and onwards) is laughable. Stat time. Bazunu had the worst post-shot expected goals (PSXG) in the top 5 European leagues last season. Essentially, was conceding goals that weren't placed in difficult areas of the net more than anyone else in a top league. Guess who was the best keeper in this stat (which best quantifies a keeper's ability to save shots) in the Championship last season? Angus Gunn. Gunn has become a good shot-stopper since leaving us, and Bazunu will become a good shot-stopper too. Will he be good enough this season? I don't know, but I think he deserves more of a chance than three pre-season games to try and iron out his inconsistencies. Swansea gave up a lot of goals from sloppy passing around the back. I think we have seen that eliminated for us so far with Gav in goal. I believe that Martin and his staff will have to calculate whether the goals we score from his build-up play and the goals we don't concede from doing it poorly, outweigh the poor saves that will inevitably happen with a young keeper. Their lack of movement for a keeper so far makes me think that, initially at least, they feel like Bazunu is a net positive to the team. We have 5 games before the window closes. If Bazunu is performing badly in that time, then I'm sure we will bring someone in, but for now he needs the support of the fans. His confidence must be very low and negativity from the fans in the stadium won't help.

Not true, he was first on those stories, by a good bit of time. He isn't a chancer, he has clearly got a source in the club. It's not as if Southampton have a massive following on Twitter, yet he Tweets about Everton (the team he supports) and Southampton. He's been very reliable, don't need people who haven't been paying attention to knock down people with proven sources.

Can't see us having Ings and his £125,000 a week contract in the Championship. Especially when he has had such a poor injury record after leaving us.

As someone who was advocating for Bazunu to be dropped before Ralph was sacked last season, I think the conversation around him has become a bit ridiculous this season. He will start, and I believe he should start. Firstly, the goal on the weekend. His positioning was good, but he anticipated a cross from a position players almost never shoot from. Such a tight angle that I thought the lad had tried to cross it but shanked it. Looks poor, but a good lesson in preseason - don't overcompensate when anticipating. People are forgetting that he was probably the best performing player on the pitch against Benfica just a few days earlier. Faultless with the ball at his feet, under a lot of pressure, and made a fantastic save on what would be expected to be a certain goal. But, the real question: Why should he start if he is inexperienced and will on occasion concede a poor goal? The answer is simple: His outstanding ability with the ball at his feet. It will be integral for Martin's system to have a GK of Bazunu's quality with the ball. Even if Bazunu's shot stopping isn't good, we will limit the amount of chances the other team gets with his quality on the ball and will score more goals with him too. He will be asked to bring the ball out and join the backline in build-up creating an 11vs10 advantage. With other keepers, the opposition will regularly get goals from pressing. With other keepers, we wouldn't be able to have the man advantage to create goals. I also think that he will have a good year shot-stopping. We have seen him do it, he has the ability. His issues last season appeared to be more mental than anything to me. Not surprising given the jump in league, being in a relegation scrap, the change of manager (twice) and the carrousel of starting defenders/midfielders in front of him. Instability created inconsistent performances. I concede that the PL was too much for him, too early. But he is clearly a talented goalkeeper and has made some fantastic saves. He just needs experience to gain consistency. I firmly believe that he will be critical to the way we play and a huge part of our promotion push. Without him, we are going to massively struggle to play Martin's system. Regardless of what people think, he will be starting this season and the fanbase needs to support the young lad. Wasn't his fault he was thrown in to the PL too early last season, but he was excellent at Portsmouth, has been excellent for Ireland and is certainly Championship quality.

Pulisic has been poor, but worse, often unavailable. An injury plagued, poor performing player earning £150,000 a week, on the last year of his contract is going to require a smaller transfer fee than a player who earns £100,000 a week, is a club captain, is never injured or needing rest, has consistently played at a good level and has multiple years left on their contract - even with the age difference. The last year of contract is obviously the biggest factor and its tiring seeing people quoting the Maddison or Pulisic transfers, who had one year left on their contract, to what we want for JWP.

There is a difference between allowing a player to go if the right offer comes in (JWP) and actively being desperate to sell them (Pulisic).

My guess is Dom Ballard. England shirts (in other pics) and their numbers look right for his appearances. Painting on the wall of him walking to Wembley is likely just inspiration. New place after the new contract or perhaps a loan move? He hasn't been seen for a little while...

From the clips I've seen, he seems to be exactly what we need. 6'3" DM that has the athletic ability to stop a counterattack and is good on the ball. We have been too lightweight for too long. I feel we could have been found out a bit in the Champ with some direct balls and set-pieces, but having him sitting in front of the defence should alleviate that somewhat. I'm all for playing a version of Guardiola ball where we get these incredibly talented kids for cheap. Looking at our signings last summer, it seems like it was the eventual plan all along... which makes the mid-season Nathan Jones appointment all the more bizarre.

Meghoma is one of the two players (along with Amo-Ameyaw) that we pinched from Spurs academy at 16 last summer. Forced them to change their pay structure this year to avoid the same again. I believe Levy got us done for tapping them up and a slap on the wrist. Not that he'd ever do such a thing... I watched some of the England U17 games at the Euros and can honestly say that he was one of the best players on the pitch most games, which says a lot. He has only just turned 17, so might not feature much this season, but he seems to have all the technical, mental and physical tools. He started most games, but came on late against Switzerland for their World Cup Qualifier match having already been knocked out of the tournament. He had a huge influence, and from being 1-2 down, he helped them get a 4-2 win. Here is his super sub performance in that game: Amo-Ameyaw did get his debut against Liverpool. Meghoma and Dibling were not available for that match as they were at the Euros with England U17. He certainly looks lively and played very well for the B team last season. Dibling hasn't kicked on as I suspect Southampton have hoped, but there are games where he looks dominant (Aston Villa in the FA Youth Cup last season as an example). I don't think his "preseason" with Chelsea did him any good. He is a big lad for a winger, must be at least 6ft, so it isn't a surprise that he has struggled while he is 16/17 as he will still be growing and filling out the frame.

Helps draw out the opposition press to allow easier passing through it. Brighton's great season and England's U21 Euro winning tournament was built around Levi Colwill doing this.

19/20 FA Rules From section 6.6 (pg21): "If the original Loan agreement contains a pre-agreed recall clause, a Player may be recalled by the loaning Club submitting written confirmation to the borrowing Club, the Competition and The FA. Where no pre-agreed recall clause exists, the cancellation must be agreed between the loaning Club, the borrowing Club and the Player." We don't know if there was a recall clause. If there was then neither Burnley nor Tella could stop us recalling him. If there wasn't, and we did try and recall him, then either Burnely or Tella could have blocked it. I assume, given the quotes from Kompany in late December, such as: "I think you enter these deals with an understanding of what has been agreed, we know what has been agreed and a deal is a deal." That we did have a recall clause and he was hoping that we wouldn't use it - "a deal is a deal", to me implies they agreed to loan him for the season and that's what they wanted. If we didn't have a recall clause, then Burnley would have certainly blocked any attempted recall as he has been vital for their promotion push and it certainly wasn't wrapped up back in January. I doubt it ever got to the stage where anyone asked Tella's opinion. Either, with a recall clause or not, we chose not to bring him back, or Burnley blocked it.

Not sure which CBs will be available. I'd like the same shape, we need a win not a draw and we created chances with the 4222: Bazunu KWP ? Salisu Perraud JWP Lavia Stu Alcaraz Walcott Adams With Sulemana and Mara coming off the bench, where they had an impact last match against tired legs.