Teamsaint1

Thought he did quite well in very difficult circumstances at the back end of last season, but we’d be mad to turn this sort of money down when half of the fee should he able to secure a top championship quality replacement.

Beth Gibbons was very good I thought.

With Mbeumo seemingly valued at around £60/65 m, I wonder if transfer fees may be at a bit of a ( possibly temporary) plateau. I would have thought that he might have been valued somewhat higher ?

A couple of properly senior pros ( late 20's early 30s) are always useful for younger players to learn from. Fraser might be useful for this as I think he want to go into coaching (?) but I would say we are a bit lacking in that regard. But doubtless the priority will be the three new players they want to bring in and shifting surplus squad players.

I was at the jnfamous “Tear Gassed in Turin” game against Belgium in 1980 My only trip abroad to watch England.Got out of Turin the following day. We were used to trouble at games in those days, but I had seen enough. Great goal by Ray Wilkins though.

When we bought him back we blew a big chunk of money that we received as an option on potential building land Jackson’s Farm at Hedge End I think. I wonder what happened to that land as a Saints asset ?

Seems like a very good plan for our best players. Lavia is the benchmark. We would be mad to take a penny under £50m net for him, and I think we can get more. He is the finished article.

We’d be out of our minds to take £30m. With a 4 year contract and at his age the bidding starts at £50m I would say. And he can get an established PL slot as a starter, and likely a top 6 ( or whatever it is now) and European football. He has a lot of admirers. The only issue would be a low release clause and no bidding war, but can’t see that happening.

I agree We should fight tooth and nail to keep him, which we are going to have to with any of our better players. He'll be pretty much the best CM in the Championship, and we will be very lucky to get anything like his quality for much short of £10m I should think. And we really don't want him going to a rival club either.I wouldn't be surprised if some lower end PL clubs come in for him. The new manager needs to get him onside as a top priority.

The lesson of this season is surely that in order to get back to and thrive in the PL we have to win promotion with a much stronger structure and squad in place. We can't afford to gamble next season away, and in any case , who knows how the league will shape up next season. ( could be another 2X 100 point teams other than us) but if getting things restructured from the current shambles takes more than one year, then that is how it needs to be. Some decisions will need to be taken with a two year view, EG getting some younger players experience at top end Championship level

A repeat of 1974 would do me.

I agree. the playoffs have more plusses than minuses, ( the Championship promotion race would have been finished months ago without them, which is tough on Sheff Utd of course) but they should definitely be rebalanced in favour of the best placed sides. other non league divisions do variations on this.

What , the Steve Cooper we could probably have for the asking ?!

Charlie Taylor. anybody know what is going on?

So many times this season, after well over 50 years since my first game, I have wished that I didn’t care any more. That Saturday afternoons didn’t give me three hours of shredded nerves, more lows than highs ( it seems) . Can’t give it up though. And yep, today, despite all of it, despite the crapness of achieving only being the second worst PL team ever ( can we yet be the third worst ?) that point was really worth celebrating. Not like we celebrated in May ( and the pain of this season has been worth the joy of Wembley) , but still a good day. I’m starting to look forward to a decent campaign next season. Could be the year we win a league. You never know. Just can’t give it up…..

And in any case you would imagine that he has a release clause. Lets Hope Fernandes doesn't .

We could do with replicating the result from the final day of that season.

I don’t suppose there is any chance we can get Les for next season ? I wonder, even assuming he was prepared to play ithe Championship, what his price might be ? £20m ? anyway, sounds like a decent effort today. This is what we should have been doing all season. Just do whatever it takes to stay in games .

1 train per hour ( AFAICS) from Salisbury/ Romsey. So unless SWR have decided to put on unusually long trains they are going to be rammed. edit. SWR tell me on X that the 17.38 is planned to be two carriages. No comment.

He also has very few quality senior pros( esp forward players) to learn from, which is always a problem.

Much as we need to bounce back next season if possible, we also need to have a 2 year parachute- payment plan, to totally reset the club, which will take more than 10/12 weeks ,and make brave decisions, EG trusting some young ,hungry ,talented and potential PL players . AFCB failed, just , first time round, and they have done so well despite that. incidentally, just watching a long interview with Chris Wilder……seems to have an actual plan , based in the real world, and born out of adversity for competing and improving. That would be nice…..

Yep. They might do the things that poor teams need to do in order to occasionally beat better teams. simple tactics, settled back four, play to what few strengths you have, keep every game as tight as possible for as long as possible. The skate bishop ( sorry) put it well last week when he said that they back themselves to force the other team to make mistakes. I mean, we shouldn’t be taking lessons from them obviously, but his point was a good one.

You mean the way lower league teams do in cup games against higher level opposition , and where, EG, Exeter ( even when down to 10 men) v Forest recently ?! who knew there was a way to play against markedly better opposition.?

Unbelievably stupid from Manning.

The annoying ones are where it is left and up, right next to first. Very unsound positioning. Much like our defence much of the time this season.