trousers

Yep...I don't think there's any coincidence that the club have upped the stakes just before the January transfer window as that's when his value will be at his peak in his current contract cycle. Wait until the summer and we'd get significantly less I reckon. In other words, I wouldn't be overly surprised if we let him go in January to maximise the profit. Of course, the downside of that is that a replacement will be much harder to secure in January compared to the summer.... (having said all that, now cue Ings new contract accouncement next week!) edit: actually, has he got one or two years left on his contract next summer? If two years then maybe there won't be such a differential between January and August. (I was thinking maybe he only had a year to go after next summer)

Agree. The fact that Ralph / the club have gone high-profile public with this suggests to me that we're in last-throw-of-the-dice territory. If Ings really wanted to stay then I'm pretty convinced that a deal would have been done and dusted before it got to this stage.

I know I probably banged on too much about Salisu's whereabouts up until a month or so ago, but the one thing that is still a puzzle for me is if Salisu has a debilitating "issue" then surely Fran Castano (the chap who discovered him in Ghana and went on to be his mentor / protégé) would have alluded to it in this in-depth interview after we signed him: https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11700/12052983/mohammed-salisu-to-southampton-rapid-rise-from-ghanas-dirt-pitches. ? Indeed, whilst Castano acknowledges that Salisu is/was "very shy", he also says: "he just needs to play and be given confidence and patience". I guess Salisu's "issues" could have arisen and/or got worse since Castano gave that interview, but I still find it a bit head-scratchy that there's nothing that Castano says in August that would have led one to believe that Salisu wouldn't have featured in any Saints squad by the end of the year. That's all I'll say again at this juncture. As I conceded a month or so ago, I acknowledge the desire to protect his privacy.

Moody

https://www.skysports.com/football/news/12040/12149913/efl-bailout-premier-league-agreement-with-league-one-and-two-clubs-imminent Hope that 8 year old cesspit of a club down the road will be eternally grateful for SFCs contribution that'll help keep them afloat...

https://www.footballfancast.com/southampton-fc-news/southampton-axel-disasi-ralph-hasenhuttl-saints-mohamed-salisu

Echo

Maybe some of the risk was underwritten by various governments, give the extraordinary circumstances? (I've no idea if that would even be possible, legally or otherwise... Just me thinking out loud)

Repeats

Dave

Wood

Cod

Doughnut...

Charles Wreford-Brown

That's very convincing faux dislike to be fair

The faux dislike of Michael McIntyre, Miranda and Mrs Brown's Boys in order to appear cool on internet forums

Wetter

I guess it's a fine line between continuing with the current approach and trying something different. Given we've ended up in 6th place after 10 games, Ralph could argue that as long as our first halves are, on average, good enough to outweigh the down turn in our second halves then it's 'mission accomplished'? Who's to say that squeezing all the juice out of our best 11 players for as long as possible in any given game doesn't yield as many points as spreading the effort over inferior players in the second half? Dunno. I'm no sport scientist so will have to pass on casting an informed view on this one.

Dirty

Hopkins

Spurs playing here... #magicofthecup #marinefc