CSA96

USA won 2-1, meaning he'll stay with them until after the final, which is set for Monday, July 7

When there's only three more friendlies before the season starts. Right now they've been training for two days and don't play a game for another 10 days, so still early days. Then the latter stage of the window is once the league games have started and there's about three/four weeks until the deadline

They seem to think it's Birmingham City

He only scored 15 in League One, to be fair. He stacked up a bunch of penalties on top, fair enough because Rickie Lambert benefitted from that too, but Rickie also scored far more often from open play. All the cash for 15 open play goals in League One doesn't feel like an amazing return... even though they got the job done last season

New manager wants to keep the players under one roof and get to know them in his first week, I guess

Birmingham overpaying at their level for Stansfield to score 15 goals (excl pens) in League One doesn’t really have anything to do with £6.8m not being cheap for a second division team, though If £6.8m is the opening offer then presumably that will climb too before there’s an agreement In recent Championship seasons anything between £5m-£10m is still a significant outlay, whether Downs will prove to be worth it or not is to be seen of course

I'm not sure anyone who moves for a fee approaching £10m in the second tier is a cheap gamble, really

Starting preseason in London

I wonder how Shea Charles/Saints have been implicated by that, and whether they've met their obligations to pay whatever % of his wages was agreed in the loan deal, or whether Saints have been making up the shortfalls for Charles if he has been left high and dry in part by SWFC

But that’s also not ‘could barely get a game’ Sorry, felt a bit MLG there. Off for a cold shower

He made 25 appearances? The Austrian Bundesliga season runs for 32 games, he played in 17 of those, plus six UCL games and two domestic cup games

I'd love him to come here but I imagine he costs the best part of £30m and has his sights set higher than us

Moved to Salzburg for £10m to play for Klopp's old asst Pep Lijnders, who has since been sacked. Made 14 appearances under Klopp at Liverpool but believe his Dad (Lee Clark; ex-Newcastle and Fulham midfielder) had been suggesting that a return to the UK may be on the cards after the change of direction after Lijnders left

One we were reportedly interested in... scratch him off the list

Yeah, I thought of this Sheffield United shirt when I saw it, they've had quite a few with the black sleeves and shoulders, so I always associate that with them

Thank fuck Kingfisher are gone

Duje's brother

Solak's response to the takeover talk that was peddled by Simon Jordan: "There is no truth in that rumour. I guess somebody was interested in investing in British football. Then they probably had the idea of relegated clubs, they might be in trouble. And then Southampton is a prime place, it's a traditional great club. "They sent me a message and asked, 'Would you like to sell?' And I said, no. They said, 'But yeah, we would like to do this' - blah, blah, blah. "I told them, 'Guys, if you have anything serious, send me a letter explaining your intentions - I am not 100 per cent against having a partner'. If you share the vision, if you share the view on how we would like the club to develop, then we can allow somebody to invest alongside me. "But I just took a firm position that I'm not selling the club, and then, from there on, I never thought for a second about selling the club. "There were quite a few enquiries, and this is a good thing. Southampton is considered to be a great club and a good investment. But whatever they think of Southampton, I think five times higher. I love the club and have no intention of parting with Southampton anytime soon."

Dragan Solak on this transfer window: "We will have to try to find new homes for a number of our players. We have to size down to maybe 25 or 26 players. We are already discussing the potential of selling players, but Johannes has three positions in which he told us we need to buy immediately. "We gave him this approval and the budget to buy these before we need to sell anything, and the first addition is a defender, Joshua Quarshie. "He's now working on a striker that he wants no matter what, that should come before we sell anybody, and we are working on a creative midfielder. "Sales are a bit different. Sometimes we get a lot of calls for players, and there is always a price where we will say yes, but these guys are smart. "They are not going to come with that price straight away. They will make us a few offers we have to refuse. Johannes is very smart in negotiations."

BBC: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0ljyj8k Daily Echo: https://www.dailyecho.co.uk/sport/25246799.dragan-solak-interview-southampton-owner-opens-sale-rumours/

McCarthy had a really good game at the Hawthorns in the first leg of the semi-final, as I remember it, which involved a lot of claiming contested crosses. As we all know, Bazunu would've flapped being put under those kind of deliveries There was also a cracking reaction save at Wembley to stop Leeds equalising. So I'm not sure I particularly agree with your assessment of McCarthy's contribution to our playoff success (I'm not a McCarthy fan and feared the worst for the playoffs with him stepping in... but to rewrite history and suggest he didn't make a significant contribution to our promotion in those games is unfair)