SWLondon Saint

Ipswich have been terrible, Kyogo excellent. Tbh he's been the difference.

Ipswich also look well off the pace, but not sure Brum can keep running at the pace they're going. Now expect Wrexham to come out and run like nutters the first 20 mins, hopefully we can get a few of them booked to calm things down.

Anyone else get deja vu when Brum gave it away edge of their own box?! 😅 Though that's the difference Champ to PL, guaranteed that ends up in the back of the net in the Prem.

He's clearly still holding on for a top league transfer, I'd still be very surprised if we got him, not least because of the likely logistical issues with Russian clubs being banned, sanctions and whatnot.

You can get Wrexham to win at better than 4:1 if you're that sure! I'm looking at Ipswich at 2:1 to win though, can't believe Birmingham are favoured to win that 🤔

Guardian interview with him today: https://www.theguardian.com/football/2025/aug/08/southamptons-will-still-ive-always-stuck-out-footballs-helped-me-integrate Doesn't say that much really, a few interesting bits about his life story, - football-wise he mentions he wants to replicate the Poch era here.

Agree completely. Any prediction table that doesn't have Ipswich as clear favourites to win it is total shite imo. Same manager, but better team with more depth than 2 years ago when they got 96 points = 3rd place??? 🥴

Obviously pure speculation, but the new GK coach worked with Still at Reims and has huge experience, especially with young players - Spain U21 and their winning Olympic team in 2024. Still has already said 'Ruben knows his stuff' and clearly has faith in him, so it could be that he's said Baz can make it and they're going with that?

Not necessarily. If he stays and we get promoted after he tears up the league, there'll be a bidding war and we'd probably still get Jobe Bellingham-ish money with just a year remaining.

He's German isn't he? Great when you're in a meeting with Americans with all their corporate BS and then the Germans come in totally the opposite!

Did you copy paste that from the Everton forum post about Dibling? 😂

Well exactly. People on here can get excited about Rudoni as a replacement, but the fact is he was their player of the season last year and they'll only let him go to a rival if they absolutely pull our pants down on the price. And knowing we're trying to get £50m for Dibling, they'll be thinking they should get most of that for Rudoni, which I don't think makes much sense for us.

I'd say we're roughly similar. Swap Adams for Archer, both great in the champ. Bednarek for Quarshie - different strengths. Stu Armstrong I'd say we miss, and KWP. But we have a much better version of Charles than last time, and Edwards. Also Jay Robinson and Sesay look promising. Add Sugawara and Welington and you've got a decent number of options at least.

Mm. Yes, Rudoni looks decent, but I would guess Coventry would want at least £25-30 million for him so I don't see it happening unless they're in financial distress.

I'm in the same boat as S-Clarke above - great move financially of course, but for football development - not sure. Moyes is a good manager, but this is totally different to say, Rooney who came through under him. The £45m+ pricetag puts big pressure on straightaway, people expect the goods every week, and his game still needs quite a lot of work from the looks of it. He probably needs more games but with less pressure and that's pretty much the opposite of the mid/lower PL. The benefit of somewhere like Dortmund or Leipzig is they dominate games anyway so it's easier for a young player. We would too, in the Champ, but obviously a lower level.

Most likely yes, he'll go somewhere in between their last offer and the £50m we want. I do agree with Willo above that expectations would probably be unreasonably high if he moves with that kind of price tag as he'd be the 2nd most expensive teenager in PL history after....Romeo Lavia.

Yeah, it's absolutely daft some of the stockpiling of talent and the money they're on. Everton aren't gonna want to spend £15+m just on his wages for 1 year. TD looks like a bloody bargain at £45m compared to that! 😂

The problem is those players are always incredibly overvalued and I reckon it'd be incredibly hard to stay up buying top Championship talent. Look at how much Leeds' players went for last season after we beat them, and sure, some of them are young, but if we'd added any of, say, Gray £25-30m, Rutter £40m, or Summerville £25m we'd have gotten absolutely nowhere fast.

This kind of ties in with what I was saying - £15m to £20m is a absolute ton of money in the championship and you're paying it for an 'established championship player' so the price is massively inflated.

Well, we don't know what Fellows ceiling is, but no PL club has decided to take a punt yet, which says they don't think so, and if his price really is £15m+ he would be one of the most expensive in-Championship transfers which shows a great deal of confidence he is PL quality. No-one is suggesting we go in with a squad full of unknown gambles, but the fact is we already have a bunch of 'established and proven' championship level quality players. So it probably does make sense for us to be a bit riskier.

Yes, but 'proven and established' in the championship means players like THB, Downes, Manning, Armstrong, Archer, BBD - who may not be able to make the step up to the PL. Isn't it better to swing for the fences on less known talent than take established talent with a lower ceiling?

This is the thing that gives me some confidence in what's going on at least. Part of the reason Martin was so infuriating was that he had his favourites and they could basically do no wrong - Baz among them. Still says if he keeps performing as he has done so far, he'll be fine, otherwise he'll be on the bench. Very different. Also I think Still has a different GK coach now compared to the last 2 seasons, who he hopefully trusts.

OK, definitely smaller fanbase than us, happy? 😂

Pretty sure that is what we'd want hence he's going nowhere fast. I agree he's a tough one to judge, in a dominant team that has the ball all the time he'd probably look the business as he can definitely pick a pass. But he doesn't have that yard of pass he needs to make up for when he gets caught out, not does he make up for it positionally.

Yep, no point people griping about 'size of club' and all that, look at Bournemouth - tiny ground, probably smaller fanbase, but they're in the Prem and if they coughed up the £45m he'd be going there.