niceandfriendly

That was his main position at Chelsea? I must be wrong but I thought he was an attacking full back who sometimes played further forward?

A game of spending money. F*ck me are you and Turkish ok? They're spending a lot of money, well done to them. We can't do that, we don't have the money. What's hard to understand? Why are some people so desperate for us to just copy every other club's playbook? I'm not surprised at Turkish wanting to be West Ham as they're all hard and a lot of them have skin heads, but for the normal people, why do you want us to be West Ham? I'm happy being Southampton.

Spot on. Reed and co played the same game as West Ham are still playing. I'm happy with how we do things now.

I feel like that was a genuine reaction from Ralph when asked about Stu. Watch his facial expression when Blackmore asks about him. I've seen enough Saints managers of old trying to avoid questions about players potentially leaving to think that Ralph is telling the truth on this one.

I like him too, honest and fair. Not sure I'd want him managing Saints though.

Reporter: Southampton just won 8-0 are you quaking in your boots? Bruce: (Laughs) No. They're a good team with good attacking talent but we aren't quaking in our boots.

I'm pleased we shop in different stores to West Ham, personally. Haller £50 million, Anderson £35 million, Ayew £25 million, Arnautovic £20 million, Yarmolenko £20 million. I'm happy with the way we do it.

No excuses for this either. It's not difficult. Where's David Luker when we need him?

So funny seeing Everton linked with the likes of Maupay and Maitland-Niles, especially after their fans came and gave it the big'un on here. Perhaps we could tempt them with Long?

Now we're talking!

If only we all had nothing to talk about ey?

Of course, then lost him for nothing and they'd have got no buy back clause at his future club.

True true, but didn't we get him because he wasn't going to sign a new deal at Chelsea so they had to sell? And he chose us due to our clear pathway to the first team (and general all round sexiness as a club and fanbase)?

Absolutely!! Definitely a step in the correct direction. I love the new strategy from us, think it's brilliant.

Probably more likely the end of next season, when his actual value would be more like £60m+ and they'll get him on the cheap

No it wouldn't. £25mil would be a bitter pill to swallow, let alone 10! I agree with you our way of doing things is brilliant, but this kid's clearly worth more than £25 million already. We got him because he refused to sign a deal with Chelsea and wanted a chance to play. If we've allowed the buy back to be as low as £25 mill then that's a mistake on our part IMO.

Bloody hell throwback

(paraphrasing) Blackmore: Is all ok with Stuart Armstrong? Are you worried he wants to go back to Scotland? Are you expecting Stu Armstrong or anyone else to leave the club? Ralph: No, not worried about this. We need every player and I don't expect anybody to go.

I'd probably end up doing a Demarai Gray-style knee slide against Leeds. Anyone else see that?

What PSG are doing is the opposite of being great for football. Hope they crash and burn. Ronaldo there too would just be disgusting.

Yep I'm sure he'll be bang up for it and can totally understand the Newcastle fans thinking he's bound to score. We'd be exactly the same if they had, I dunno, Long in their team. Actually maybe not a good example! Can anyone imagine actually scoring against Saints though? Envisage you've just signed for Crystal Palace and you're up at SMS next. I think I'd roll up in a ball and cry if I scored against Southampton. They're professionals, I get it, but still... it runs too deep.

Looks like everybody is. Don't see much negativity on here, especially after the Total Saints Podcast learnings and his positive interview. I'm looking forward to seeing him play. True, although he seems confident he'll learn quickly and can already say some things in English. I'd be surprised if he doesn't have a fairly decent command of the language already.

How do we pronounce his name? Lion-Coe? La-yan-coe? La-yan-cho?

I remember the arguments on here about him. Not sure why, he was great for us.

Football is a joke, let's be honest. 😔 Hideous wages all round. (Not a JWP bash)