Saint Mikey

Agreed. I'm willing to be shot down here, but I don't think he'll have a long Premier League career. He has some good attributes: pace and work-rate, but you need much more than that in this league. I think his technical quality, first touch, decision making and composure aren't good enough. They could improve, but at 22 that is less likely. Oxlade-Chamberlain, for example, was a superior player aged 17. It's seems like a Josh Simms situation to me, but I hope I'm proved wrong and it's just my opinion.

I heard he nailed Ralph's shoes to the floor and cut off a leg from his suit trousers. Don't think we'll be seeing him in the 1st Team for a while...

Transfermarkt estimates a combined £17m, but agree £25-£30m is more realistic once you factor in Premier League premium. Impressive stats and good ages. https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/abdallah-sima/profil/spieler/776798 https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/adam-hlozek/profil/spieler/552057 Anyone know how the recruitment from the Czech League is affected by the new work permit rules? Wondering if it's even possible?

This surprises me. I heard him on the BBC 72+ podcast and he said that he'd had offers, but was waiting for the 'right' opportunity, stressing the need for the right club and owner. God knows why he thought they're the right club given the state they are in, or maybe the offers had started to dry up?! Did a very good job at Lincoln, but was out of his depth at Huddersfield - although they were in a basket case situation, admittedly.

He has top end pace, something we lack in the squad. He gives us a real outlet playing in the position he did today. Feel like his close control and ball retention needs to be better though and this is probably why he hasn’t had more opportunities to date. As the team is crying out for the pace he possesses.

Neil Heaney was decent for us before he decided that he could do better. Career nosedived after leaving for City.

'KFC Bargain bucket-load'

Although showing glimpses as a wing-back, it’s never looked like he had the quality for this level IMO. He’s a young player, so maybe he’ll progress but he looks to have too many deficiencies. Poor first touch, poor positional awareness and concentration - added to a questionable attitude, doesn’t make it very likely. We’ve been blessed with exceptional young full backs at this club: Bridge and Shaw were particularly stand out at a very young age, even Dodd was decent and went on to make nearly 400 apps at this level. Valery is miles away from these players and I’ll be amazed if he ever amasses 100 Prem apps.

Echo other's comments on this - great listen! Thanks Ben for putting this together...

Agreed. I'm sure there's plenty of his behaviour he regrets, but who can say they haven't made mistakes? I'm glad he's turned a corner and is putting his focus into a worthwhile project. He isn't the only high profile player to have gone off the rails in this way, but Claus is an example from a previous generation where no planning was done for retirement and hopefully subsequent generations have learnt from this. It isn't enough to be financially secure, you need a purpose - especially if you're used to the adulation of fans and comradery of a dressing room. Once that's gone, it can leave a massive void and if you have an addictive personality then it'll be a slippery slope.

Don't think this will affect us in any meaningful way. If you think about the recruitment of young players from Europe in the past 10-15 years, then only Morgan and Valery stand out as players to make the 1st team. Valery (IMO) is not PL standard and unlikely to play much for the first team much again - could we have found a young British/Irish player that could have done as well? I appreciate we have Jankewitz and he may turn out to be decent, but he hasn't made a 1st team appearance yet. In the past we've done well purchasing younger capable players who've made 1st team debuts elsewhere: Stephens, Best & Blackstock. Whilst also buying players (or paying compo) who were much younger like Lallana and Walcott. So we could go back to this approach when there are gaps in our academy or because we find a good player playing for someone else. I think teams like Chelsea and their loan army, Arsenal, City, Liverpool and Utd will all be affected. Maybe Wolves with the model they have now. But how much is it likely to affect our recruitment, given how many younger players we've purchased from Europe and brought through to the 1st team?

Long's contributions from the bench are getting a joke now. His lack of goals/assists are well known, but does anyone have an idea of the other stats from his recent appearances: interceptions/tackles/successful passes/chances created? In the last few games, it looks like he's barely touched the ball.

I would have thought that the only change would be the playbook. The rest of the strategy would remain in place, we would work with the new manager and hopefully only tweak the playbook to their requirements. This would then be implemented across the Academy, B-Team and 1st Team. The players would have to learn some different tactics/positions - but as pro's you'd expect them to adapt to that. They would have played numerous roles and systems already and would expect to throughout their career. The key would the appointment of another progressive manager who has a philosophy that the whole club believes in and players thrive in. Appreciate that it's easy to say and not so easy to put in practice.

😂 He's not trying to be a heavy weight boxer! I assume you are taking the piss, as 6-8 hours a day in the gym is pretty unachievable and even if it was - when it came to match day he'd be fucked and have no energy.

Great memories! Here’s a link to the teams: https://www.11v11.com/matches/southampton-v-newcastle-united-01-april-1989-89282/ You can see the whole season’s results here including that horrendous run. Looks like we beat Utd at the end of the season - don’t remember that: https://www.soccerbase.com/teams/team.sd?team_id=2471&comp_id=1&teamTabs=results

Was also at that game and remember it well. I think Ruddock took it as we’d missed a couple in previous games (can’t remember who missed them though). He did go on to take our next few pens but also missed a couple.

I've heard he's a lifelong Skate and has tattoos of all their club legends: Vince Hillaire, Whittingham, Awford and a whole back piece of Linvoy Primus. Understandably the club are trying to keep this under wraps until he's a star performer...

Gerrard & Lampard 'Dream Team'. Everyone will talk about whether there's room for both to manage at the same time, or whether one should be manager and the other assistant...

Probably on decent money for his level. Doubt many clubs in Lge 1 have any money to spend on a transfer fee either. Will be the same with Hesketh.

Agreed. TBF if the club have put a Tweet out like this, it means he’s been pretty amenable in the negotiations to pay off his contract and expect he’s foregone some cash that was owed to him.

Just seen that the line-up for tomorrow is Merson, Sherwood, Pulis, Glen Johnson and Morrison. Are they renaming it: Skate Saturday? FFS.

It is decent for a club of our size, but it's also a reflection of the quality of the England squad in the last 3-5 years. How many of these players would have got a game for Germany, Spain or France in that time-frame?

I heard that Bertie was all set to sign, but when he met Semmens - he wasn’t smiling. Semmens was furious, ripped the contract in two and threw it in the bin (Cortese style), shouting: ‘we only want players who smile at this club!!’ It’s a shame, but I applaud the approach taken from the club and hope we ensure ALL players smile ALL of the time.

If a player leaves without submitting a transfer request, I understood you have to pay the entirety of players contract up. I read this in the Secret Footballer and I swear Crouchie has also confirmed this. There are also 'loyalty bonuses' that have to be paid, so the situation is not as simple as 'sell them for whatever price and get them off the books', as this could represent a massive and irresponsible loss. This must be a big factor in us running these contracts down and accepting loan fees and small contributions on wages, so at least we reducing our losses rather than having one much bigger loss. It's not ideal from a squad perspective, but it helps the financial position. If we did as suggested above, we could be hamstrung from offering new contracts or signing anyone for year. So we just have to limp along a bit and be grateful we've got a manager that can get the best out of a small group!

Agreed. You've got Brandon Williams at Utd and Maitland-Niles at Arsenal too. Getting into any full-back slot in the England squad is going to be tough in future, as LB is well stocked too. Shame we haven't got the same depth at CB & CM.