Saint Mikey

11 minutes ago, Dusic said:

We don't need a striker but Richard Kone has been mentioned on here a few times. Seems to be heading to Swansea for about £4.5m.

Interesting story, fair play to him: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Kone

18 minutes ago, hypochondriac said:

Why shouldn't we look at Russian players? It's not their fault. 

Agreed. I'd be happy to kit the entire team out with Ruskies or players from Russian teams - if it got us promotion and kept us up.

Side point: We've been here before with a player we tried to sign from Dnipro - he was supposed to be quality but we couldn't get a work permit. Anyone remember who that was? It was under Nichol and (maybe) before we signed Cherednik and Gotsmanov. 

14 minutes ago, trousers said:

Anyone know the calibre of Espanyol's starting 11?

 

Number 3. Rubio has a heart of glass and is always hanging on the telephone. 😉

Paul Allen

Micky Adam(s)

Ian Andrew(s)

Alan Curtis

4 minutes ago, lumuah said:

Any stable rumours?

We keep falling at the last hurdle.

47 minutes ago, Chez said:

Likewise.
You are probably a good man to ask for the best (valuable)/biggest named players to stay with a relegated club?  Sander Berge, KWP in recent times. Going back there was Barton/Kevin Nolan/Alan Smith at Newcastle, and further back Michael Carrick/Defoe (for half a season). Not too many player 'easily good enough for the Prem' seem to stick around.

That Newcastle team also kept hold of Colloccini who was a current Argentinean international - which I though was mental at the time. Leicester kept hold of Vardy, but age played a big part there. 

Can't think of too many other examples though.

1 hour ago, revolution saint said:

Cheers, yeah that makes sense.  Can't be bothered to work it out but I'm guessing his PSR value to us should be pretty low.  Clearly no premier league cub is going to come in for him so that'll lower his price but a 28 year old with his record in the championship should attract the more ambitious championship clubs.  Maybe Brum, Wrexham or Ipswich?  8-10M kind of price I reckon should do it.

I don't know if Wikipedia is right, but it reckons 4 year deal in Aug 2021 for a reported £15m. Then a further 3 years from Aug 2024. So would be something like: £2.5m in value on the books, which would represent some profit depending on the fee we would get.

33 minutes ago, revolution saint said:

I'm ambivalent about selling or keeping Armstrong and can see both sides.  Leaving aside the various merits of whether we should keep or sell, I'd be interested to know what the club value him at. 

Does anyone know where we stand from a PSR point of view?  Now that he's completed his initial contract does anything we get for him become pure profit?

As I understand it, there's always something, but it's ever diminishing. The remaining amount left is amortised over the new contract. Example:

• £10m on initial 4 year deal.
• £2.5m amortised over 4 years. 
• New contract extension at end of year 2 for further 2 years.
• £5m remaining value then amortised again (£1.25m )over 4 years of contract left.
• In this example, if we sold at year 3 - his value on the books would be £3.75m. Year 4 £2.5m etc.
   

20 hours ago, S-Clarke said:

This is a bit of a left field one - but Danny Guthrie. 

We had him on loan in the 2nd half of that Play off season, he was pretty classy I thought. Lots of games in that 2nd half of the season went through him, and he actually made a decent-ish PL career for himself at Bolton and Newcastle after that year. A tidy player.

Preceded by another Liverpool loanee, Darren Potter who also did OK in that Burley side.

4 minutes ago, revolution saint said:

Before my time but presume you could count McMenemy?

Good point. Maybe the old geezers could enlighten us?!

With the news of Keith Andrews imminent promotion at Brentford got me thinking about all the the success we've had at doing this over the years:

1. Stuart Gray
2. Steve Wigley
3. Dodd/Gorman
4. Selles
5. Rusk

Only one remotely good decision was Merrington, who had a tough job but kept us up, just. Then got the chop for his efforts.

What was your favourite of these (mostly) serial No 2's??

51 minutes ago, StrangelyBrown said:

It's not a proper transfer thread in my book until someone asks if we've signed Rudi Skacel yet

Transfer thread check list:

1. Rudi Skacel
2. Martin O'Neil's house in Winchester
3. Ex-players bound to return due to their undying love of the club (JWP, Ings, etc.)
4. Promes, and other missed targets (De Pedro, Piper etc.)
5. Oliver Bierhoff

What am I missing?

Anyone know if technically Charles, Edwards or Armstrong have been available to us since the end of their season?

Not suggesting it's a good idea, as the group we have is already too big with the likes of Fraser, Gronbaek, ABK and Taylor not getting into the matchday squad.

Just wondered if they are back training, or we just said - enjoy your holiday lads and come back next year...

Just like players, every club is for sale - at the right price. Depends if Dragan is willing to admit defeat and take a haircut.

31 minutes ago, Totton Saint said:

Will we ever win a game this season? 

We've won two already. FFS. The entitlement of fans these days!

In my day, you were grateful for defeats week after week. You just got on with it, kept your head down, and didn’t complain. No fancy expectations, just the privilege of watching your team get battered every Saturday afternoon.

Winning? That was for clubs with ambition - not for us! We took pride in our noble mediocrity, clinging to the hope that one day, we might get world-class catering or, if we really dreamed big - our very own radio station.

Now? People expect a team that wins! Unbelievable.

There's no doubt that our whole recruitment process, whether that's scouting, or offering players the right money to sign - has not been fit for purpose for a (predominantly) PL club.

However, you make a good point that our development of said players has also been poor. Whether that's down to the manager's style and keep swapping as alluded above, or it's just poor coaching I don't know.

As an example, we signed a number of players that you thought 'ok, bit raw but there may be a player there in time'. Sulemana is one now, but Djenepo showed some initial promise. These players seem to go backwards, Djenepo was a worse player when he left than when he arrived!

If you look at Brighton and similar players who look a little rough around the edges, Bissouma, Baliba being two that jump out - they actually manage to progress them. 

As we'll always be in the business of mostly buying players that aren't out and out PL quality to begin with, we also have to get better at developing the players we do bring in. 

1 hour ago, Football Special said:

It's a compelling argument and both windows reflect badly on the board. Complete lack of strategy and poor decision making.

Selling Alan Shearer for a British record fee and replacing him with Dixon and Speedie was a bad one. 

A bad one, but didn't get relegated.

Summer 23 was pretty gash too. Bazunu as 1st choice, Larios, Mara etc.

When was the last window we actually had more hits than misses?

Looks like he has good feet and a decent strike. Whether he can be as effective against Prem level defenders, I guess we'll find out soon enough. 

22 minutes ago, sambosa75 said:

I've personally thought for a while bringing Jordan Henderson back to the prem would be a masterstroke for a club like us.  His leadership would do wonders for our team.  That said, I thought bringing Lallana back was a good decision too but its clear his legs have completely gone which is a shame.

Henderson will have a colossal tax bill if he returns to the UK too soon after his Saudi earnings (think he was on £800k+ a week there). That's why he ended up at Ajax. Not sure how long he has to wait, but it's a few years I think.

That was like Lampard against Germany. So far over the line.

2 minutes ago, Dusic said:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/s/southampton/7493096.stm

Was this move ever officially confirmed? If he still contracted he could do a job next season.

That's a blast from the past. I bumped into him once in a kebab joint in Bedford Place late on a Sat. Nice chap. Probably helped we'd won away that day, but can't remember against who.

1 hour ago, Turkish said:

We've not even been able to clear out deadwood in the summer windows, hence why we're stuck with Sulemana, Onachcho, ABK etc. Remember we had to pay Carillo to leave so few teams wanted him, had to sell the likes of Lemina, Lyanco and Djenepo at knock down prices and even worse people like Hoedt, Boufal Redmond, Adams and Long who no one would buy so we had to let them run down their contracts or loan them out until they were available for free. A lot of these players cost significant sums of money by our standards, but some we cant sell, some we've sold to whoever will take them, some we couldn't even give away. It's never ending conveyor belt of shite signings.

I don't disagree, but at the point when we bought them - Redmond, Adams and Long would walk into our team now. That's how poor our 1st XI and squad is.

2 hours ago, pimpin4rizeal said:

 

 

To those saying the Liverpool game was his only good game revisit the second half highlights of this https://youtu.be/-VefVtwspw4?si=Dh9ano_Vy_0YdU77

he was electric that day and the decision making was decent too 

•  

He also had a decent game against Leeds at home when we blew them away in the first half. I was hoping to see more of that for the rest of the Championship season but he was pretty poor throughout. Appreciate he had some disruption with injury and Russball didn't suit his style, but we really are clutching at straws if we think he's going to contribute much.

19 minutes ago, Fabrice29 said:

As if you/everyone else won’t be judging him after max 3 games ffs. The lack of self awareness on here is unreal 😂

3 games? 1st team selection and 20 mins into the 1st game I reckon...

4 hours ago, coalman said:

Lampard has gone to Coventry. RVN about to go to Leicester.

Leaving the way clear for Saints to get Potter... LOL

I've previously thought that Potter would be unrealistic, but it depends if he wants to get back into management and the PL. The only jobs realistically available at any point soon are:

1. Newcastle. Unlikely Howe is going to get the chop mid-season and you'd fancy them to want a higher profile manager.
2. West Ham. The board do tend to back managers, so Lopetegui has probably got til the end of the season as they won't get relegated.
3. Wolves. Most likely IMO if O'Neill doesn't get them properly clear. There's enough in the squad for any manager to fancy keeping them up.
4. Everton. Potentially, if Dyche gets the chop but the squad there isn't great and they're banking on the takeover to cure all ills. Still a better prospect than us.
5. Palace. See Steve Cooper, would be onto a hiding to nothing with his Brighton connections. Squad has enough though.
6. Us. He's got a sure fire relegation on his CV if he takes the job and then it's a rebuild in the Champ, so he'd need to be bought into the longish term.

I'd say it's unlikely for any other job in the PL to be available this season. So, whilst I still think it's unlikely. It's not like he's got an array of options, so it may come down to timing. Of course, he could go abroad or, end up like Alan Curbishley - turning down jobs until people forget that he's a manager and then stop getting offers.