The Kraken

Backed up I guess by Rodrigo, signed in 2020 for £27m but had a clause in his contract allowing him to leave for £3m.

Yeah he could be to be fair actually.

If anything I think it’s a little bit of a dramatic article and kind of gives the idea that we haven’t done much business incoming. As I see it: Tino out; Manning in. Not like for like but balances us up at 2RB and 2LB. DCC out; Stephens in. Diallo, Lavia, JWP out; Smallbone, Charles, Downes (hopefully) in. Elyounoussi, Walcott out; Tella, Sam A-A in. Pruned with no replacement: Salisu, Orsic. As long as any more outgoings have a replacement incoming (which I think they mostly will, though I see the squad size still coming down by 1 or 2 more) then I’m alright with what we’ve done so far.

Agreed. There’s always going to be a drop in quality but I think our replacements for everything bar CB has been good for this level, especially when you take into account the reintegration of Tella and Smallbone.

You obviously don’t watch us much to be confident in that 😉

As has been said, the squad has been trimmed to a certain extent. From here I reckon we’re basically at a 1 in 1 out scenario. And, to be honest, with the exception of losing Salisu and DCC with none incoming, most of our major outgoings have seen a replacement in any case.

Hands up, seems like I misread the meaning of your post. Looks like I mistakenly read your comment of “it is quite unusual to predict the volume of bodies out the door.” as it being difficult to predict; seems I got that wrong so hands up. I was just saying that, while it may be unprecedented in numbers in/out, it was kind of predicted on here that it would happen, and it pretty much had/has to happen.

I disagree, I don’t think it is anything other than was predicted on here when last season ended. I’m not going to bother myself going back and looking at the threads back then but I know what I myself and others posted at the time; and it was that it was quite well expected that there would be a huge turnover of players in and out, and it was pretty much accepted that we would lose more than we would sign as the old squad was very bloated due to a catastrophic transfer policy last summer and January.

Check out fucking Nostradamus over here. Fair play for working that one out mate, spotters badge for you.

According to the Echo it’s 18 million euros, just over £15M. https://www.dailyecho.co.uk/sport/23732612.leverkusen-reportedly-table-opening-bid-southamptons-tella/

Has he signed yet? 🤣🤣🤣🤣ROFL🤪🤪

It’s not 2 though. Smallbone and Tella have come in and all signs suggest the club wants to keep them, and Downes sounds like it’s pretty much over the line bar personal illness so its 5 new faces.

There was a bit but nothing concrete. I hoped we’d get him but realistically can see why we haven’t. Martin has said the squad size needs to be reduced, so the absolute best we could hope for is 1-in-1-out at CM and reduce elsewhere. We shipped JWP, Lavia and Diallo from CM but we’ve seen those replaced by Charles, Smallbone and (hopefully) Downes. Martin has said we might need one more so, who knows. But I think we’ll need to do that in other positions first, and it looks slow going on the ones we really want to get rid of.

That’s a relief. CM is the area we’re very much light in right now, a lot of responsibility in young Charles’ shoulders this weekend as there’s not much other midfield grit to pair him with. Feels like we’ve got to get through tomorrow then look to strengthen with hopefully both Smallbone coming back and Downes coming in, then it’ll feel much better.

I’d much prefer to keep Che than to flog him. It does seem as if his exit has been anticipated for a while though, so I wouldn’t be at all surprised if he’s left out again tomorrow. It was always going to be a bit of a turmoil of a transfer window where we need to let players go before getting others in. That’s all going to ramp up in the next couple of weeks. Buckle in.

I reckon there’s a chance KWP is headed for the exit door so it would leave Bree as the only natural RB.

Mostly I’d agree, but it was when it was brought in at Saints and the manner of who was doing it that caused resistance. Let’s be clear, Sam Allardyce had been using ideas of sports science and nutrition long before Woodward was brought in at Saints. And it was just shortly before Dave Brailsford was starting to make a name for himself at British Olympic cycling with the marginal gains approach. Saints problems were many; Redknapp was entirely the wrong person to implement it. Also, there were/are rumours that Lowe’s goal for Woodward was not a consultant/TD but to eventually take over coaching/management. Bringing in a divisive figure like Simon a Clifford was no help either, and giving Woodward/Clifford control of the reserves caused a division with the management team and coaches. But imo the biggest fan criticism was that the side had just seen much of the first team gutted and were told that there wasn’t any money for transfer fees for new replacements (IIRC Ricardo Fuller was the only incoming we spent a fee on and that was £90K). It was thought that the money being lavished on Woodward, Clifford, the vision coach that Woodward lined up, and all the other background activities were not as important as using that money to stabilise the first team with some decent incomings. The whole approach was flawed from the start.

There’s happy clapping, there’s arse licking, and then there’s manji🤪

I personally think he’d be out of our price range for a perm deal. We got Lavia for £10.5M (+£3.5M addons) and he hadn’t played a first team league game anywhere. Bazunu was £12M and he had only played for two average League One sides. THB has got a Championship league title under his belt plus a Euros win. Also three years experience in the Championship or Belgian top league. I imagine the lad himself is looking for a PL deal, and any perm fee is surely going to be above £20M, which I would say prices us out.

Thanks @egg 👍

Just for clarity (and because I’m genuinely interested) when you say ‘preventers’, what does this mean? I’m obviously aware of the puffers that asthmatics keep but I’ll readily admit I really know nothing more outside of that.

When you say “the club” has committed to this, who do you mean? Bazunu was signed when Hasenhuttl was in charge and with Joe Shields seemingly pulling the strings. Both of those are long gone, the goalkeeping coach has changed too. Who is left that is driving this ambition for Bazunu to be number 1? We’re currently having a refresh of the whole squad and looking to move on players who we spent money on and who aren’t cutting the mustard. If Russ Martin is getting direction from somewhere that Bazunu is a must have, and he isn’t being allowed to bring in someone else as it’s deemed a long term Saints project, then I’m really intrigued (and concerned) where this direction is coming from.

Another option would be to acquire a keeper who is very good at shot stopping and general glovesmanship, and then go to work training him on the distribution side of things. I still can’t believe I read a post on here yesterday that was intended as a defence of Bazunu and it stated that shot stopping was his only weak point. I’m quite aware the game has changed in a short number of years and distribution is much more important now, but ffs at least get the basics right first.

Well done fella. Some people on here have been moaning for years about the Northam/Itchen home singing sections, and that there’s no proper home end, yet they’ve done absolutely nothing themselves to improve the situation. The obvious answer has always been to get a singing section going on in the Chapel, it just takes a good number of people to actually get on and do it rather than squinny about it. Hopefully it’s something that will grow organically as more people get to hear about it. Good on you.

*shudders* I’d almost forgotten just how utterly cringeworthy that video was. Players who just looked confused and disinterested at the weird little man barking out nonsense instructions at them.