The Kraken

Starmer isn’t the best orator, but whoever writes his speeches should give those selves a pat on the back after PMQ today. ’charge of the lightweight brigade’ and ‘z-list cast of nodding dogs’ were my particular favourites.

Yeah, don’t see us going for Broja. The cat is out of the bag with him so the transfer price would be beyond us. Plus I reckon any loan is likely to be subject to quite a hefty loan fee.

You need to ask the question? As Brexit secretary Raab stood up on national television and told everyone that he was unaware just how reliant the UK was on the Dover-Calais trade route. There’s a very good reason the Daily Star lampoon Raab on their front page so often, when a rag like that is regularly calling you a thicko you should probably take notice.

Good news. Salisu’s form last season seemed to dip around the time of Ramadan, so hopefully that was indeed the reason he looked much less sharp. He’s a good player, he’s got a long way to go yet though. Much happier for him to be at saints than not though.

No

Not sure about that, but I don’t think so. There’s different types of safe standing but it seems like the premier league version is just one seat = 1 standing space with handrails in front. Cardiff have done it and it doesn’t look different to their regular seating, they’ve just fitted handrails over over each row of seats.

Get the whole of the Chapel Kop as standing and St Mary’s will be even more of a wall of noise.

Well fuck me, that’s one of the worst Saints shirts I’ve ever seen. Absolutely dreadful. The home kit wasn’t anything to write home about, but at least it wasn’t terrible. I don’t know where to begin with this abomination.

So, how come this lad is so highly rated? He’s only played twice for City in his career, how has he stood out so much?

Exactly what I was thinking, I find it a bit distasteful that a lad with zero league appearances costs nearly fifteen million pounds.

I know we all have this idea that Americans are largely clueless but in my experience the majority are pretty knowledgeable, unfailingly polite and well grounded. Obviously not all of them but I love America, I think it's amazing, and it's a shame that the obvious nutters tend to give us a skewed idea of what it's like out there. Gonna have to very much disagree with this. In a previous job I visited various parts of the USA over a ten year period, i visited over 50 times and went to over 30 states in total. In general, yes, the people were very polite, but overall their knowledge of anything outside their own country was shockingly poor.

Do you understand the term ‘akin’? It means similar, not alike.

It’s not an argument, it’s a statement of fact. Biscuits in America, Canada and other nations do not fit the description provided. You’ve ‘automatically lost the argument’ if your own justification to it is so insular that you can’t see outside of your own definitions and appreciate a global picture.

What about those things that Americans call ‘biscuits’? Akin to a scone and don’t fit your description. If you’re going to provide an all-encompassing rule you need to be more clear.

Not for me, he’s an 8.

Kit changes once a year doesn’t bother me too much, but I don’t buy the kit so it doesn’t affect me much. I think it could perhaps be shifted so that the home kit stays the same for two years, so does the away kit (but the change happens in an alternate year to the home change so between them there’s one change a season) and the third kit can change every year. A small number of clubs this season have kept last seasons kit so as to get in line with cost of living. Wouldn’t be a bad thing going forward.

He seems to be extremely driven to play as many games as he can as soon as he can in his career. He talks about ‘the pathway’ with Saints, which suggests to me we’ve said to him that if he does well we won’t stand in his way of moving upwards in 2 or 3 years time. So hopefully he does something akin to VvD, brings a total level of quality to the team and leaves a hefty transfer profit when he moves on. It almost sounds like he’s been told he’s likely to be our number one straight away, I don’t think he’d have come here without some sort of assurance.

Technically the first kit of Southampton FC was stripes 😉 But I very much agree with you, it doesn’t always need to be stripes and IMO it shouldn’t be, we should mix it up a bit.

Have to admit, I’m a little disappointed with the quality of Hummel’s output. They have done some really smart kits for other clubs last season and the one before, but ours are not IMO all that great so far. If you’re designing a shirt for a PL side it shouldn’t be a generic template, which ours don’t seem to be, and as such the sponsor application should be incorporated in the design rather than a cheap looking stick on logo. That’s the worst thing about this kit IMO. Pretty much any shirt sponsor makes the kit look worse, but just sticking it on over the design just looks like an afterthought. Expected better from Hummel, I don’t dislike either of the Hummel home kits but I don’t much like them either.

There’s two sides to the coin. Saints might provide first team chances sooner. But young players at big clubs are going to be in the spotlight more, and likely more attractive as a transfer at age 19 or 20 than a Saints academy player could be. Look at Man City’s lads, the cream of the crop get a good shot in their first team, the rung just below are being coveted by multi million pound transfer fees. The reports say that this lad has been offered £6500 a week, so more than a million over a 4 year deal. There may also be inducements such as a job for his relatives if they move with him. So financially the kid could get a huge leg up, have 4 years not making the first team, but still have genuine prospects of finding a club at the end of that in the PL aged just 20. Parents would be wrong to just ignore that, as much as we want the players to stay with us. If Dibling doesn’t turn out to be the second coming, is he better off with us or with a bigger club? Hard to say either way but as a parent looking out for my kid in the short and long term, I’d definitely be swayed by the offer. If he turns out to be good enough he’ll make it wherever he goes, so the short term cash injection is security in the bank just in case he doesn’t.

You’re right that their values have gone up now (and Bowen was £18+7 so quite expensive anyway). But the point is that there are attacking players out there who cost a hell of a lot less than £45m or £50m. Players like Dennis and Toney for instance were given a chance before being ‘proven’. Obviously it’s in the scouting to find those players, which is why proven PL scorers cost the earth, it’s a lot easier to go by previous record but it has a price. I’d say Graziano Pelle is the role model type of striker Saints should be looking at buying. Not at all easy be very doable.

The following got 10+ goals last year: Jarrod Bowen, Ivan Toney, Teemu Pukki, Emmanuel Dennis. So it’s not necessarily the going rate. Not easy though, granted.

Do catch up MLG, that was posted by @SuperSAINT 4 hours ago 🙄

Oh god, that is an option too isn’t it?

Cheers. That’s really quite concerning. With current personnel we’re looking at some quite unpalatable potential options: - Valery/Stephens RB and KWP at LB - Salisu at LB - Back 3 with Tella/Redmond at LWB - Putting faith in Vokins or Small stepping up Got to have faith the club know the situation and putting decent contingencies in place.