Dan Johnson

JWP & Lavia Out Gustavo Hamer, Matt Grimes, James McAtee in

He looks excellent, the kind of player I’d love to see on a saints shirt. reminds me a bit of Hammand during our promotion years but with a little more quality on the ball

100% I said to my mates, he really feels like someone you can get behind from the start. The fact Tella celebrated with him after the first goal 10 minutes into the season says allot about how the players view him. 💪

He dislocated his shoulder twice during the season so I am wondering whether he's had to have surgery on it. If he did, then that's a 4-5 months recovery. Odd we havent heard anything about him though

"The 19-year-old is a good reader of the game and is impressive technically but remains somewhat error prone." From this article... https://arsenalyouth.wordpress.com/2023/05/31/report-zach-awe-to-leave-arsenal-this-summer-in-search-of-first-team-football/ Sounds about right for us

An entertaining game in the end with lots of positives but the same old mistakes by the same players. firstly, last nights game drove home the fact I won’t be sad if any of last seasons squad moved on, even those classed as the better players of the squad make simple mistakes or look lacking in quality KWP, Adams, Lyanco, Lavia, Djenepo, McCarthy all very poor last night. Bazunu let’s it soft goals but his distribution is miles better than McCarthys so I expect Baz to be our number 1. I thought Charles looked a bit lost for the first 20 minutes but seemed to grow in to the game quickly and finished the first half strongly even before his goal. Manning looked like a player who knew the system and what was expected of him but was playing alongside players that didn’t. I think he’ll be a good signing, intelligent player but hard to show it in the shit show of the first 20 minutes. Djenepo is an enigma, can be the player that opens up defences but also so frustrating, step overs in the middle of your own half are just not needed, seems to make the wrong decisions regularly. KWP has dropped off a cliff edge, 18 months ago he’d probably moving to a top six club and was arguably our best player, can’t see anyone willing to take the risk at the moment and makes just as many mistakes as everyone else at the moment. Adams offered so little last night, I don’t think he’ll suit the way we intend to play so I expect him to move on. Smallbone… what a revelation. If there was one of our players being linked with a £40-£50m move to a top six club you’d think it was him on his last two showings. He’s going to be a massive player for us this season. From what I’ve seen so far in pre season I’ll go as far as saying he’ll be our most important player. We could have done with him last season. Tella, dangerous and direct, again why on earth did we waste £20+m on players in January when we had him on the books already. Been impressed with Armstrong in pre season, looking Sharpe. Stu came on and proved he’s still a quality player who I think has been criminally over looked by our last few managers. all in all, I think there’s a decent starting 11 who can play the system and know what’s expected of them and have the quality to get us close to the top, whether the other 11 or so fringe players we have are good enough is another question!!

He’s on a different level to half our team and it’s very clear.

You have to wonder if anyone will come in for JWP. I thought him moving to West Ham was pretty much nailed on with Rice moving. But it seems West Ham are being linked with younger players around the £40m mark. I can’t see any top 8 side coming in for him… Maybe he’ll stay 🤔

I hope he performs, we’ve spent a big fee before and they’ve not performed, if that happens it will be like history repeating…

Fantastic fee. He’s a very good defender in one on one situations but he’s not a great footballer with the ball. He’s also prone to a mistake/sloppy play. i think he’s the kind of player who has a purple patch and a great run of games where he looks like a world beater by putting in the odd eye catching tackle but for the main part in every other aspect of his game he’s very replaceable. Personally thought he was our worst performing Center back last season (admitting Lyanco) and was one of the reasons the bad run of results started. (Said so at the time to friends) I wasn’t surprised to see him dropped. We’ve been blessed with top quality CBs since our return to the prem (VVD, Lovren, Alderweireld) I was hopefully based on the first few performances we’d found another in Salisu but after a few seasons I don’t think he’s at their level and personally don’t think he’ll ever get close to it, if anything his performances have been on the decline for the last 18 months. whether that’s been due to a commitment issue to the club (or even his professionalism) or not, I don’t know. id much rather see stephens at CB than Salisu. I think Salisu offers more as an out and out defender but stephens overall game is better

https://www.westhamzone.com/players/southampton-could-re-sign-danny-ings-as-west-ham-united-exit-development-emerges/ reported here too

I rate Che and think he’s a decent player, however the weakest part of his game at prem level is his finishing. I think the term “support striker” suits him perfectly, his hold up play is exactly what’s needed to take the pressure off the defence at times and he “puts himself about a bit” He also has great positional sense which is how he seems to score most of his goals however he’s not a natural finisher. his game is more suited to the premier league in the late 90s/early 00s and is comparable to the likes of Duncan Ferguson, Heskey, I suspect they all have similar goal ratios, roughly 1 in 5. Good for 7-10 goals a season. id keep him personally, I think he’ll be a 20 goal a season striker in the championship where his physical attributes will suit the league better

Oršić leaving official https://www.southamptonfc.com/en/news/article/orsic-completes-trabzonspor-move?fbclid=IwAR03LwnVC17xIu9JIJxx2r9NPDn5xpDZVvZF1b8d_E3Zw494_Q8OfON8MUg_aem_AZXZ0ic1UcHB0TLMGIEnpxwjhV_EJFTUtqFK84d2-2lv51gpkoAnvaqFgPe3M5tD9r4

This. The fact we didnt have anyone to sell last time meant we almost went out of business!!! I never understand the attachment fans have to players, over the club, unless they've been absolute legends (Tiss, Ricky) Tino is a good player, he's played a relatively small amount for the club, we have a massive financial black hole to fill now so I'm keen to get ride of him if it helps us survive financial ruin.

Ryan Fraser is a solid signing. The kind we could have done with last season

Miles better than Aribo IMHO, still not saying we should move for Barkley as he'll cost allot but he'd be decent in the Championship

Completely agree. we have been crying out to play 4-2-3-1. With the middle of the 3 being the most creative and having a drifting role (Stu or Alcaraz) with pace on the flanks, Theo, Djenepo, Sulemana, Edozie, Adam Armstrong putting in crosses for Adam’s or Tall Paul. the holding 2 of JWP and Lavia. We had 2 managers especially who tried to be too clever, went completely negative to nick a result. there’s a reason managers like Dyche, Redknapp, Alladyce, Hodgson can turn a group of underperforming players around it’s because they do the absolute basic right. Pick players who have been playing in their positions since they started playing at 5, pick your best players, if you’re not scoring, pick players who can actually be creative, score goals jones and Selles didn’t do anything of the sort

Gives us a good insight

I think he’ll leave. He’s one of the players that’s done enough to get a move and stay in the Prem, he’s probably one of only a few in the current squad I’d try and keep too.

We’ve built a team around Ward Prowse and that’s one of the reasons we’re so passive. He’ll be a better player when he moves into a team where not everything has to flow through him like it does for us. his worst 2 asset are his inability to pick a pass that unlocks defences or running at defenders with the ball, as a result the ball always goes back or sideways when he’s in possession and our attack and build up play is pedestrian as a result. in a team where you have a more creative player who can get on the ball and make those passes he’ll flourish because his biggest asset (work rate) will be better utilised we need him to move on, he needs to move on. I’m not going to lose any sleep over it

he has only scored 6 but he's been a real threat in allot of games i've seen him play in. He's definitely growing as a player and I expect him to be a 15 goal a season striker very soon.

In all honesty, I actually feel positive about it. If we hung on and survived I don't think the depth of the clear out would have been as deep as it needs to be. In 05 I was worried about us financially as we had very few saleable assets, in fact I think it was only Crouch who went for a fee in the summer after relegation? This season we could potentially pull in £200m in sales. The younger players who stay will hopefully benefit from a season in the Championship and we can change our style as the players who go a long way to dictating that style (JWP\Bednarek etc) will likely move on.

for all his excellent commitment over the years, I wont be too disappointed when he leaves. I really feel like the time has come for him to move on, for both parties sake. Having Lavia in the midfield this season and watching Harrison Reed yesterday against Leicester has really highlighted just how passive Ward-Prowse can be in comparison, we are sooo pedestrian in possession and Ward Prowse (and Hojberg when he was here) was a massive part of that. I think a move will do him good, challenge him and he'll go on and be a better player. We can get midfielders in who will change our style of play, use the ball quicker and turn defence into attack much much quicker, even if they're not as good technically.

We’ve been there, under Koeman we were sensational at times 2015/2016 we finished 6th 3 points off champions league and that was the season we had a terrible run of games too, winning 1 in 8! I suspect Brighton will be very close to Champions League this season, probably 6 points off and likely to finished 6th too That 2015/2016 side feels allot like the current Brighton side. players in there who went on to win Champions League and Premier League medals, 3 future ballon.d'or nominees (Tadic, Van Dijk, Mane) mixed with seasoned pros like Bertrand/Davis and club stewards like Fonte. I see soo many similarities in the current Brighton side to the saints era towards the end of poch and under Koeman. Brighton have the club stewards like we had in fonte, with dunk and Groß they have the seasoned pros like we had in Davis and Bertrand in players like lallana, welbeck etc then they have the future superstars in Ferguson, Caicedo, Mac Allister Mix in a succession of decent managerial appointments (potter then De Zerbi, like we had with Poch then Koeman) I really hope they can keep their group together and break into the elite but they wont, they’ll be plundered. Exactly the same as what happened to our 2015/2016 side.

Absolute amateur managerial decisions today, even at the lowly level I played at, you know just how important your forwards hold up play is when under the cosh, for everything he lacks in goal scoring ability, Che Adams hold up play is his biggest asset. How a manager can watch the first 5 minutes of that second half, away from home, 1-0 up and completely under the cosh with the pattern of play heading only in one direction and not make changes is completely beyond me, to the point of negligence. If I can see it, if other fans can see it, if commentators can see it, how the fuck can our manager not see it? I’m not saying Che Adams would have made a massive difference, he may have won us a foul or two, gave our defence the breather they needed to recover, making decisions at the correct moment in games all goes towards proving competency, an understanding of the game, momentum, when the players see Armstrong coming on instead of Che Adams they must despair inside, Jo Tessem summed it up beautifully on Solent “Adam Armstrong hasn’t had a touch in this game, in fact I don’t think he’s had a touch since Arsenal” The game was heading away from us, then Selles subs accelerated it beyond reasonable doubt. Joke of an appointment, he’s as bad as Jones