the saint in winchester

Or is he? On the Butland thread, there is a link to the Stoke City fan forum, oakcakefanzine, 19 pages. I read the first and last page. He got injured, losing his place obviously. Had to wait for his chance, but by then lost confidence so was dropped for poor performance. Never regained it and now on the market. Stoke fans are split into (1) over the hill, sell asap, and (2) lost confidence, sell to lower level club. Of course, page 19 reflects today's story that we are interested and prepared to let them have Gunn in exchange. 100% of them want that to happen. So I'm not sure we would be getting the better side of the deal. 5 years ago, yeah, Butland was England's best, but now it's all gone Pete Tong. Do we want to take him and hope we can recondition him? If we want that, surely Forster is the better option.

Nightmare rumours day. Butland ...and Welbeck. 😵

Oh ok, not a joke anorak then? Hopefully we have him play in a friendly to test him out.

Who is Paul Joyce? I don't twitter and know nothing about him. Based on not being good enough for Stoke leading to him being advertised for sale, I'm not excited.

Yeah, the excitement of the Adkins era won't be matched in a long time. Successive promotions, Lambert in his heyday. Expecting to win every home game.

OK thanks for that insight. So some players have let themselves slip since season end and won't be in the right shape?

Good for who? The fans watching on TV? Not the players. That game needs to be pushed back 24 hours.

We have to apply for approval to go abroad on holidays. If refused, job could be at risk if you go. We're also banned from public transport. Compelled to commute by car. Am I the only one then?

Heavens above, it won't be Bednarek. If anyone is going, it will either be Stephens or Vester. JS is English so is in demand, and Vester is second fiddle and would want to be first choice. Jan B will be staying. If I'm wrong, you can pelt me with words.

£30M is a drop in the ocean though. Buys one player.

Clubs are looking to buy English ... so more likely to be Stephens under offer than Bednarek. We wait to see. To think we have, what, another 7 weeks of this speculation ...

Put me in the camp of wanting to give Reed, Smallbone and Jankewicz their chance this season. If we don't do that, what's the point of the Academy? May as well wind it up if we're only trying to find U23 team players.

It's an emphatic NO from me. Resisted attempts to have Bournemouth extend his contract, so left on a free on 30th June. Then when season was extended, told Bournemouth he would play on to the end of the season for £100k a week! Howe was right to decline that! So he's self-centred and money grabbing, not what we need at all. Crystal Palace are in for him, so he'll get fixed up.

I'd take it with a pinch of salt, Doc. We are going ahead with KWP. Assuming we keep Valery as backup, then we are stocked. I can't see any others being considered. I read over the weekend Everton wanted to give us a good deal on JonJoe Kenny. I would imagine the press are simply seeing the KwP stories and putting up other RB candidates.

Yeah, it would be a shame to block the path for Jankewicz and Reed. The latter has an opportunity to move, but we do need to bring these players through. No good having an academy if we aren't prepared to let them progress to first team.

Yeah, agree. I was picking up on Tajjuk quoting the Athletic. But that itself was an "if" statement. We can't afford another striker, when we have 4 already.

I'd prefer Ollie Watkins myself.

So I often quote the Spurs fan in the office here. His take : "I don't even know this Hojberg fella, but I know we don't need him. We have Winks for that role. We only need one DM, as we play 3CB and 2 WB. 1 DM and 2 AM. We have Winks, Ndombele already. Jose needs to get them two playing. You're welcome to Walker-Phillips (yeah he can't even get the name right) as we're going to be playing Sessegnon next season (he says Sess can play both sides, although not at once)."

I'm 'appy with that. Do the deal.

It's acknowledged he didn't have the standout impact in that game that he has had in other games. Believed that the early booking affected his game. Previously the reports are that he has been their MoM and surprised Saints can do without him. Let's not judge him on that game alone. I'd rather keep him than bank £8M and be unable to afford to replace him.

Until I see him in a Saints shirt, holding aloft a Saints scarf on the official site …… let's hold our horses, shall we? After his 14 day quarantine. maybe that can happen. OK, I'll settle for an official announcement on the OS.

Couldn't read the Telegraph article without agreeing to hand over my firstborn …. but from your comments it sounds like Fulham have the RIGHT to buy him for £8M? I'd like to think we would try to get him to sign a new contract, but I admit the odds are low and he will prefer to go with Fulham now. Again, get it done and let's see if we have enough in the kitty for this McKennie dude then.

Then tell him the alternative is "Salisu-su-su…" to the tune of Agadoo-doo-doo. I'd go for Daddy Kool if I were him.

Whatever the final numbers prove to be, let's hope the deal is done soon and we can move on. We don't want this to drag on into September.

Don't know if Ben is coming back on here to update us, but he issued a 125B update, saying they may be able to go on with the podcast, with payable support costs, meaning we could subscribe at £10 a month flat fee.