Professor

Aston Villa’s serious financial situation strikes many chords with our fall into League 1. That they might have to sell two promising young players, Green and Davis, is reminder of our forced sales. But there’s only limited compassion in football so if the club are considering either or both it would be no surprise.

The £51m spend isn't quite what it seems. The total is offset by £10m income from selling Tadic and presumably, there is some of the Van Dijk money still left as it wasn't all spent on Carrillo. If Boufal is to go and anyone else, there should still be enough for the striker we need. We really only have two top strikers in Austin and Gabbi. After that it's Long, who is more of a support forward than a striker and Gallagher, who isn't proven at the Premier level. To make a real impact. a spend of about £20m on a quality striker would make the squad look very much stronger, in effect, the sort of player that Carrillo was thought to be. Now he's gone, surely he should be replaced.

After the close seasons when players left who we really wanted to keep, it’s odd this year that we are speculating about candidates to sell or loan out. For once, the Outs are almost as interesting as the Ins.

If the info is correct that Vestergaard has been at Staolewood and a medical has been completed the deal must be nearly done. How does this fit with the rumour that the club is about to sign Marlon as another defender? Are we going to see 6 across the back?

Good News. Sky sources say (am 11/07/18) that Liverpool are in discussion with Stoke City over the transfer of Shaqiri. May they be very happy together.

The signings made following work by Ross Wilson’s recruitment department will have been authorised by the Assistant Chairman of Football. So far, the spend is some £35m, partly offset by the £10m Tadic fee, but we have indications that one or two more signings are yet to come. Given the financial constraints facing clubs such as ours, compared to Man City spending £60m on one player and Man U £50m on another, the facts show the Southampton squad being refreshed very effectively within the budget constraints imposed by the club’s finances and FFP. Since the so-called question at the head of this thread was only asked to try to show that Les Reed sits in his office doing the crossword all day, the answer makes the questioner look rather foolish.

Let's not credit Alex Crook with this, he's only repeating what virtually every other news source is saying. He also perpetuates the myth that transfers are the personal responsibility of the manager. Media people like pretending its all done by the manager because it makes an easy way to present a story despite not being true. The recruitment of Vestergaard will have been handled by Ross Wilson, the Director of Scouting & Recruitment and his team under the direction of the Vice-Chairman of Football, Les Reed. Mark Hughes will have been consulted but he doesn't run recruitment. According to sources, the club has been after Vestergaard since before Mark Hughes came in but he may well have had a veto so that if he'd been opposed to the recruitment it probably wouldn't have gone ahead.

Looking good. Just what we need.

Fair comment because the club still hasn't got its £19m back. Even if the loan is saving all or some of Carrillo's wages, that transfer fee would be hugely useful now.

Good news that Carrillo's year-long loan to CD Leganes has been confirmed by Southampton FC. At least Pellegrino has done us a favour at last.

The pictures of the five players who were at the publicity event in the Shanghai Under Armour store tells us more about the purpose of this trip to China. Although the squad are training there, China isn't the ideal location for a pre-season camp. The heat and humidity doesn't provide good training conditions and in his interview, Højbjerg mentioned the players having to handle the jet lag. Presumably they'll have the same problem on returning to Hampshire. The club strategy of growing the Southampton 'brand' in China with FFP as the underlying purpose also appears to be linked to the choice of Under Armour as the club's kit supplier. Under Armour have been going global and have clearly made a big investment in China as shown by the Shanghai store where the event took place. That must account for why Shanghai was chosen for the first half of the China trip. I'm not suggesting there will be any adverse effects from going to China but it wouldn't have been the choice for pre-season if football training requirements had been the only factor. What this does show, in my opinion, is just how much effort the club is putting into achieving commercial growth in an area of the world that isn't yet completely dominated by the Man U, Chelsea, Liverpool, etc., brands. Other clubs will have their own plans to increase commercial revenue in order to permit more spending on the team but this is Southampton's and as fans it will be in our interests if it succeeds. We may need to be patient though, because commercial growth is likely to take time.

Although Long is sometimes played as a lone front man, he isn't really a striker in the centre forward mold. Because the squad only has Gabbiadini and Austin for that role, would be why the club is expected to buy a striker. Can't see them selling one which would rule out Gabbiadini leaving, especially with three years still to go on his contract.

Good to see The Echo giving more credence to the CB and striker signings. The RB cover is interesting because Jeremy Pied's contract wasn't renewed. Might have thought he was good enough as cover for Cedric but is the reality the club want someone who might genuinely compete for the shirt? We do have other RB cover in CBs with RB experience, such as Yoshida and Stephens although the role now tends to have more focus on the attacking abilities, rather than defensive. It'll be interesting to see if The Echo is right and someone is brought in. If the end result is five new signings this close season, as well as firming up McCarthy that would look like a good window, even allowing for the departure of Tadic. No indication so far that any others will go or be lent out that the club would want to keep.

Would like to see bidding for Shaqiri by Liverpool and Man U then he could decide which bench to sit on. Over-rated in my opinion and hoping our people aren't interested.

Fingers crossed about this one. Head and shoulders above Marlon, well, half a head, anyway.

Have been seeing the suggestions that Southampton could try to hi-jack the move of Shaqiri from Stoke to Liverpool. Sincerely hope not. I'm with the Neville brothers in not rating him very highly and have my doubts about him fitting into the Saints' squad. Now the Swiss are out of the World Cup, won't mind at all if Liverpool get on with signing him.

Slightly odd how Jack Wilshire's career seems to have gone downhill. He's only 26 and should be at his peak. Seems not to have been rated by Arsenal for some time because he was loaned to Bournemouth for 2016/17, doing quite well for them, but then just a bit part player at Arsenal last season. West Ham were only prepared to offer him a one-year contract, allegedly due to doubts over his fitness. Whether the move to Fenerbahce is still on isn't clear as he was supposed to have been out there but I don't think there's been any announcement. None of this explains why he'd be in Tesco's filling station in Lodge Road but there are plenty of good reasons to come to Southampton other than football. Saints seem to have midfield well covered so doubt he was here to visit the club.

Should have mentioned in my last post that CD Leganes is the club where Pellegrino is now the manager. Reunited.

The usual way is, unfortunately, to subsidise his wages with another club. Could have to do that until the end date of his Southampton contract. There is a rumour that he may be going to Leganes in Spain, on loan for the whole of next season. CD Leganes is in La Liga, the Primera Division in Spain.

If you’ve got a player who isn’t good enough to be in the team he has to go. You don’t keep a bad buy just because of what you paid.

It's a shame when a promising teenager doesn't carry on to make the highest level but if Sheffield United want him, perhaps Sam has developed more than some of us have thought. If Sheffield United are prepared to pay money for him, he can't be far away, but not having seen him play since his time with Birmingham, not sure how we fans can tell. He will be 23 in September so if he is going to be a Premier League player, he probably should be at the level by now and we must assume the coaches have made their assessment. We'll know what it is when we see if the club lets him go or whether he's given a place in the squad.

Because he spent time as third choice behind VVD and Fonte some fans under-rated him. He's been a solid performer for us and has become our No1 He showed tremendous ability against a strong Belgian strike force and with two other world cup CBs to polay alongside him, as well as Stephens, I'm not convinced CB is an area the club should spend money.

Interesting to see the row of locals in front of the team outside the hotel entrance. Could be our new owner’s family, or the hotel staff as the hotel was heavily advertised. Wonder if it got onto local media to also advertise the team being there. Not sure how suitable the location is for training when you see how hot the players became and the fairly extreme cooling down. Whoever said this attempt to increase the revenue side for more headroom under FFP rules might just be to keep up with other clubs, rather than to get ahead, might well be right, but if you don’t at least keep up, what’s the alternative?

Even if it was us to pay £12m for them to take him it'd be tempting. For them to pay us, well...asap. OK, so it's a loss on the deal against what we paid for him, but a[part from that dribble and goal last season, he hasn't returned anything like what was expected. Someone with time on their hands might work out how much each minute of his playing time has cost us. Even that dribbled goal was an example of him not being a team player and on that rare occasion, not laying off to a team-mate happened to come off. If there is a lesson to be learned, try avoid buying a player while he is injured as you might not know what you are getting.

Good to see the welcome at the airport with Chinese Saints' fans having photos taken with players and the manager. That's what this trip is about to raise the profile of the club and over time, to boost commercial income in a new market. If Southampton FC can get a profile in China and get Chinese supporters through the Prem games that are televised there, those supporters will buy club merchandise. If income from China increases our turnover, the Financial Fair Play Rules would allow more money to be spent on the team. It's a long shot and might not work but it does show the club is trying to get to the next level.