batterseasaint

Not sure about that. If it is true that he is ambidextrous then I would imagine he is capable of playing either side of defence. In fact, the ability to pass out with the left foot from the right defensive channel can be a significant advantage, as it opens up the angle which enables the CB to pass in front of the right back, so can often set up a quick break down that side. And quite apart from that, I don't think it is imperative to have a CB playing on the side of their strongest foot. Pretty sure VVD isn't left footed but played almost entirely on the left side for us. Personally I'd say the two most suited to playing 4 at the back would be Vestergaard and Hoedt, but if we're looking at a back 3 then Vestergaard, Bednarek and Yoshida might be better balanced. I really believe in Bednarek; his rate of improvement was phenomenal this year, even without much football, so if playing regularly I think he could be superb. And Yoshida would provide some pace to cover Vestergaard.

It is, of course, impossible to judge at the moment because each of the signings are new to the Premier League, but on the face of it we have strengthened in some of the areas we needed to. We've lacked a no10 that can score goals consistently, and Armstrong's record (assuming he has been signed to play at no10) indicates that he might be able to step up a level and score goals in the Prem too. I'm not expecting the 15 or so he scored a few seasons ago, but 7 or 8 a year would be a huge bonus. Elyounoussi looks like a 2015 vintage signing; has proven himself in Europe and has plenty of football under his belt. With Boufal not working out, he appears to be just the type of player we need; someone to open up a tight defence. Vestergaard is a hard one to judge; he is clearly enormous, and we certainly need a commanding figure at the back, but Hoedt is also not exactly small and he sometimes struggles to impose himself. Height shouldn't be taken as a guarantee that he'll be the type of player we need. I am cautiously optimistic though. As for what's next, I think it will be mostly fine-tuning of the squad; Forster out and another keeper in, a backup for Cedric (unless Harry Reed hugely impresses in China), and maybe another attacking midfielder. If we are to make any further 'big' signings then I think it will be a striker. Personally I think we are lacking a striker that is comfortable with his back to goal. I think Redmond would be a very different player now if he'd had the opportunity to play with Graziano, for example, and I suspect Elyounoussi might be a similar player who will benefit from having such a striker to run beyond. That said, I'm not sure that Hughes agrees with me on this; Carillo is possibly our most similar striker to what I describe above, so either he is very confident of securing a deal for such a player that he'd let Carillo go, or he doesn't intend to play this way. Having said all of that, Gabbiadini played superbly with his back to goal against Swansea, so maybe Hughes, who has brilliant at this himself, is confident of getting the best out of Gabbs. This could indicate why the links to Ings; Gabbiadini to hold the ball up, Ings to get in the box and put chances away. Overall, I think we'll see one more signing in each area of the pitch; goalkeeper (Gunn?), defender (right back), midfielder (someone like Joao Mario), striker (Ings?). And a few loan exits to balance up the squad (Forster, Boufal, Gallagher, Reed, and hopefully Hesketh as well so he can get some time on the pitch- I think it would be fascinating to see how he gets on in the Championship).

But then you've got the problem of trying to persuade someone to come and join us who IS good enough for the Premier League but is also prepared to sit on the bench all season in the event that Cedric doesn't get injured. I'm down with giving Reed the chance, and I suspect the club are too (with the Stephens/Bedarek options too). Otherwise it would have been much cheaper to extend Pied rather than buy a new backup.

What? It's a brilliant plan. If we ensure that Ings and Austin schedule their injuries at different times, we'll get a full season of prolific goalscoring between the two of them.

Might be an indication that we're willing to sell Steven Davis. as that would only leave us with 3 central midfielders. Also assumes that Reed isn't considered good enough, and that Hughes wouldn't want to play JWP there. Joao Mario is better than Reed and JWP (and quite possibly Lemina, Romeu and Hojbjerg as well) so would certainly improve both the squad and the team. We have bodies to fill those spots in the team, but they can definitely be improved upon.

Not in the slightest. To say it another way... actually, **** it, I'll just repeat what I said: "A good manager will train his team to give Redmond a more positive outlet in that situation, rather than forcing him to go backwards or lose the ball by trying to take the man on." I'm saying he and the manager have got to find a way for him to be more positive in order to be good.

I agree. People are too quick to put him in the 'nippy winger' category, but he's not that type of player. I think this is why Pep likes him; a player who can play short, neat passes in minimal space to create openings, and when he's playing confidently he is a good finisher too. This is probably also why, at the beginning of Puel's reign, he tried to play him as a false 9. His strength is not beating a defender on his own, and I think this is why he comes in for criticism. He too often appears overly cautious, with a 'safe' pass backwards instead of taking on the defender, which he doesn't do because, simply, he knows it isn't a strength of his. A good manager will train his team to give Redmond a more positive outlet in that situation, rather than forcing him to go backwards or lose the ball by trying to take the man on. I think as soon as he has a manager that can get the best out of him, and the fans realise the type of player he is rather than expect him to be, Redmond will be seen in a much more positive light.

I can never quite understand this idea that every player that leaves must be replaced. It implies that every squad must be made up of a fixed profile, but the reality is that every manager has a different idea of how he wants his squad to be made up. Hughes' philosophy is an excellent example; we know he wants the option of playing 3 at the back, so he might want an extra centre back (and probably at least 1 of them will be a ball-playing CB) than Pellegrino, who would never have played 3 at the back. Typically, squads become unbalanced when there has been a high turnover of managers over a few years; they bring their own players in, filling gaps in order to get a first team that they want, sidelining unwanted players who still retain a place in the squad. This has happened to us. We have a slightly bloated squad of players who are unlikely to contribute much. Carillo, Boufal, Clasie, Forster, maybe even Davies and some of the youngsters who aren't so young anymore. So this summer is about re-shaping the squad and ensuring that every one of the 25 man final squad is going to be useful to Hughes. Selling Dusan might not necessarily lead to a direct replacement- instead we might buy someone with a different skillset which is more suited to Hughes' style of play. If we sell Clasie, are we going to replace him? Unlikely. He's just one of those players brought in by a former manager who then wasn't rated by subsequent managers.

Yep, you’d always hope that your first choices don’t get injured.

CB is an interesting area for us, as Hughes will clearly always want to keep the 3 at the back in his locker. Until the last few years, English clubs tended to only use it as an experiment but the last two seasons it has almost become the new trend in England. Perhaps because of Chelsea’s use of it when they won the title. I think it was Koeman who said he always wanted 2 players in his squad for every position, so this being the case and if Hughes is planning to use 3 at the back for the majority of the season, we are currently 2 CBs short. We need 6, but only have Stephens, Hoedt, Yoshida and Bednarek. Maybe we’re after both the Danish fella and Marlon. At 6”7, the Danish dude is clearly going to be a dominating CB, but from his showreel Marlon looks to be strong on the ball and keen to bring it out. As we’ve seen from England in this World Cup, 3 at the back enables one of the CBs to step out and join the midfield at times. Maybe Marlon has been identified as this player. As much as I like Yoshida, the requirement to select him so much last season was a real symptom for me of how we’ve declined. Even in our early years back in the Prem he was nothing more than backup (very useful backup though). If we are to improve, we need to get back to him being very valuable backup. Therefore, conceptually speaking at least, a back 3 of Stephens/Hoedt, Verstergaard and Marlon sounds like a pretty well-balanced defence. There’s height, strength, ball-winning and ball-keeping capabilities.

Didn't the rumour go that Hughes was happy to re-integrate him once he apologised for whatever the misdemeanour was, but the senior players said they would prefer to focus on avoiding relegation without the distraction of having Boufal involved? If so, sounds like Hughes has a situation to manage if he is to stay. Personally I'd imagine the club will sell him if a sensible offer comes in, but re-integrate if not.

His name showed up in one of those "10 best players available on a free" articles recently. Praps Les plagiarised that and changed the title to "SFC shopping list, summer 2018".

I have lost count of the number of English clubs over the last decade that have been acquired by very rich owners, had significant investment to get into the Premier League, with no doubt a clear determination to 'break the top 6'... but then reality kicks in, along with the realisation that big investment does not even necessarily guarantee Premier League survival. Chelsea and Man City are the ONLY teams to break the Top 6 in the last decade, and both achieved it on the premise that money is no object. Outside of the top 6, anyone can go down, regardless of the money they spend. Money cannot possibly be a substitute for running the club well; good coaching, good scouting, an innovative approach to the transfer market are required. Wolves might do OK, but there's no guarantee. They're clearly able to pick players from Mendes' stable, but this in itself indicates that their scouting and recruitment might have some limitations. Overall I think Wolves are well-placed currently to establish themselves in the Premier League, but beyond that they will not have the investment required to go any further than that.

The last time there was a story about a Saints player having a release clause was VVD, and I believe the figure quoted was 30m. That didn’t really turn out to be particularly true. Suspect it is the same with Dusan. All we’ve had are a load of stories from the Ajax end, who seem to be bragging to everyone about how he is all but signed. I’m guessing they’ve by now got round to asking Saints whether they can have him, but if our track record of dealing with similar situations is anything to go by, they’re not going to be met with open arms. I would say there’s a long way to go in this saga. If Ajax are willing to stump up then they’ll probably get their man, but seeing as their record transfer fee paid is 16m euros and that was back in 2008, they’re going to have to break the bank to do so.

What makes you think that? We haven’t sold anyone, and the only real rumour was from Ajax effectively admitting that they’ve tapped up Dusan.

It will always be this way. Personally I’m heartened to see the club still trying to do things their way; find value in the market and back the manager and coaches to improve them. It worked brilliantly with the likes of Mane, vvd, Wanyama, Bertrand, Cedric, Clyne etc, and I’m convinced it will work with Hojbjerg, Lemina, maybe even Hoedt. If it weren’t for poor coaches, it wouldn’t surprise me if we were fending off offers for Lemina and Hojbjerg now. But that will have to wait for another year. The same could apply for Armstrong, Gunn, Gibson, whoever we sign. The problem recently hasn’t been our recruitment; we have brought in good players who I’m convinced will prove themselves under the right manager. The issue has been the inability of Pellegrino and Puel to improve them and get the best out of them. Get the manager right, and all the other good stuff the club do will also come to the fore.

There is no benefit in selling him now, as it is unlikely he will lose value for the next few years. I assume we don’t need the 10m, so if he really wants out, and Fulham want him, then he can go on loan again. Great deal for all parties, especially us if he comes back with a year of Prem experience.

Of course it's natural that he'll want to go. After 4 years, he'll feel he has made a success of playing in the Premier League. He can bank that and be proud of it for the rest of his life. But realistically he is not going to achieve much more now; he won't get a move to a big club, and he's not going to achieve anything more with Saints that he hasn't achieved already. A cup final, an FA Cup semi, European football. He virtually grew up in Holland as a young player, so of course he will be attracted by an offer from their biggest club. When he was at Groningen and Twente, he would have dreamed of getting a move to Ajax. Now he can make it reality, and with it will come a few years of Champions League football. The perfect way to crown a reasonably successful career. Good luck to him; it is an excellent move for him. We just need to get a replacement first.

I think the Tadic sale is one where we HAVE to adjust the model and buy before we sell. They won't have planned to buy a replacement for him this summer, as they would have been planning for him to stay. So they need to fire up the black box, be quite open with Dusan and tell him that he can have his move, but only once we have a replacement in the bag. Who knows; that could be a simple deal to solve, with Ziyech coming to us, though I suspect this is unlikely. For all the talk, I don't think he has ever actually been linked to us, which tends to indicate he isn't someone on our radar. Personally I don't have any problem with us selling Dusan- his resale value is dropping fast due to his contract length and his age- and I certainly think he can be improved upon. But only if the circumstances are right for Saints; ie. we have a replacement signed up who has a higher ceiling than Dusan.

Read my original post. It is very close to impossible for a club like us to buy our first choices early. We are in a market where there will be competition for every player we approach, which plays into the hands of the selling club and the player, who have very little motivation to get things done early. We can be as decisive as we like but it won't make a jot of difference if either the selling club or the player want to hold on and see what other opportunities come along. You cannot be indecisive if the decision is not yours to make. Based on the rumours we are hearing, we have made concrete offers for at least Maddison and Gibson, and possibly others. That doesn't seem like indecision to me. If we were still weighing up whether to make an offer for Maddison or Wilshere or Haidara while each of them moved elsewhere then that would be indecision. But that has very evidently not happened here.

Well, as I said in my post above, Proper Planning and Preparation does not necessarily mean buying early. The fine balance that Ross Wilson and Les Reed have to find is the decision between, say, settling for Ben Gibson now or holding out to the end of the window for the opportunity to sign another Toby. Their job is to give the manager the best possible team for the season, NOT just to get bodies in to start pre-season. Put simply, if we had the choice between signing all of our 2nd choices today, or all our 1st choices on August 8th, it is a total no-brainer for me. No amount of pre-seasons will turn, say, Jack Stephens into Virgil Van Dijk. Of the players signed by other (similar) clubs to us, which would improve us? Is Issa Diop definitely better than Lemina? Ryan Fredericks vs Cedric? Rui Patrizio or Fabianski vs Alex McCarthy?

I never quite understand why people say things like this. Of course it would be beneficial, and I'm fairly sure the club have thought of that. But the buying club very rarely holds the trump card when negotiating a transfer. It is almost always in the selling club's best interests to hold out for as long as possible in the hope that either another interested party comes along, or the buying club get desperate and concede to all demands. Equally, it is generally in the player's best financial interests to hold out; other offers from bigger clubs, for more money, have more chance of coming along if they wait until the end of the window. Ben Gibson, for example, could be 2nd or 3rd choice for Everton and they are currently focusing on getting a deal done for their first choice. If that doesn't happen, Everton may come in for him later in the window. If you look at the business done so far, it is generally either big clubs getting their first choice targets done (of course they can... a player isn't going to hold out for a better offer if they already have an offer from City, United or Liverpool), or it is the smaller clubs filling gaps in their squads with relatively unknown players who may not get another opportunity to play in the Premier League. We find ourselves somewhere in between those two markets; generally players who have already made a name for themselves somewhere, and might reasonably expect a bigger club to show interest once they get wind of the fact that Saints are looking. For a club like us to improve our squad, it is next to impossible to get our business done early. Equally, it can work in our favour. By holding our nerve until the end of the window, we were able to bring in Toby Alderweireld, a player who would never have considered joining us at the beginning of the summer. I would guess that it was a similar story with Lemina last summer, who didn't sign until well into August. It is also a fact that some players only become available towards the end of the summer, once other clubs have been able to secure their targets. If we make an offer for Promes now, then the answer will probably be no, which might change to a yes in a month or so after Spartak have been able to secure someone else in his place. It really isn't a simple market place and while this is frustrating for us fans, it is something that we need to accept. Of all the signings made by other clubs so far, there are not many that I feel even remotely envious of. Good players who can make a difference to us are not moving yet.

Pelle.

No10 in the modern world is a little different to the traditional no10, who was more of a second striker who's role was more of a playmaker, loading the bullets for the no9. Nowadays the no10 operates between the midfield and defensive line of the opposition, trying to find space to create for the one or two strikers ahead of him. In Poche and Koeman's 4-2-3-1, he is the central of the 3 behind Rickie/Pelle. In Puel's diamond, he is at the tip. Dusan, so far. Main role is to create for Long and Redmond. Le Tiss would have been a perfect no10 in the modern world but he played in an era when 442 was the only option. So he got shunted between wing and up front, until Bally put him in central midfield and sacrificed the workload. It was only when Hoddle took over that we really started to use 4-5-1, or 4-2-3-1 as it now seems to be called, but that was too late for Matt.

He was there, he posed for a photo with my daughter.