CSA96

Thought today's press conference interesting when RM made a point of elaborating and highlighting that he was appreciative that the ownership completed the deals for Manning and Charles 'when we reached a point where we had to move' - sounds like we have irons in the fire but are having to stall things because we need to get people moving out of the club first. RM said a few times that the squad is huge and even training the group is troublesome - especially when he wants to integrate academy lads - and he seems to be very aware that having a large squad is a recipe for continuing disharmony behind the scenes. Presumably we reached a stage where Manning's camp and Man City were going to have to push things along with another club and so Solak had to sign off on just getting them in immediately to avoid losing out. Makes sense, given Manning was a free agent but still missed the first week or so of preseason.

It’s totally off. Flying back to England apparently.

The problem with his medical being that they couldn't find any sign of a brain, presumably?

Abu is a U21 squad signing, as the club made clear at the time. So far they've signed a 27 YO left back and spent £10.5m (£15m poss) on a Lavia replacement with similar pedigree and age profile.

Yeah, that's not unfair. Would've been far more interested to see a piece where Wilcox sat down with some of the beat reporters or with a panel.

First official interview now available to watch via the OS: https://www.southamptonfc.com/en/video/interview-director-of-football-jason-wilcox

We've not managed to put the likes of Sulemana, Tella, Alcaraz, Adams all on the pitch together for a sustained time yet (as mentioned by Saint86 we've just cycled through random combos like Djenepo, Aribo, Amo-Ameyaw) so I'm not too concerned. But yes we definitely do need better goalscoring options and we also need another midfielder who is minded to look for the forward pass (like Charly is).

Noooooooooooooo

Praise be!

I always think the Saints crest looks absolute cack on the knock-offs. Still looks terrible this time around. Maybe 2024 will be the year they finally master it

Sounds like Liverpool are about to come into a lot of money and lose Henderson and Fabinho to Saudi...

Sounds like Liverpool is the likely destination. Either that, or getting them to bid will smoke out a competitor

The fact The Sun had an on-the-record denial from 'the victim' and their legal team and totally omitted it from the article is astonishingly stupid/dangerous. For the police to then take over the BBC investigation and rule that nothing unlawful occurred is.... pretty troubling for them. Adult pays adult for amateur porn videos not really the story that the rag was trying to paint.

Would be an interesting precedent if every married man who was viewing/paying for legal, consenting adult porn behind his wife's back got publicly decried and hounded out of work

Southampton manager Russell Martin said: "Shea is a very talented, intelligent and mature young player with great potential to develop his game with us. “He has been well schooled at Manchester City, coming through an elite Academy all the way to the first team. We’ve watched him closely and we’re confident he’s got the right attributes to help us in the way we’re going to play." Shea Charles said: "I feel like the way the manager’s going to play will really suit me, and obviously some of the players that I know (from City) have done very well here last season in the Premier League, so there’s no reason why I can’t come in and do similar things. "He (Russell Martin) called me the other night, explaining that it will be good for me with the possession-based football that he looks to play, and I just can’t wait. "I feel like the main thing is promotion for this club, because we belong in the Premier League. I can’t wait to start pre-season and get into the Championship games."

Official.