The Kraken

Dunno, I kind of like the idea of changing it up. I’m not a big fan of stripes, though the 1989/90 stripes kit was one of our best ever. I’m in favour of mixing it each year with a sash, rank xerox, halves, quarters, or something new like this year. Also would be good to see if Hummel do something with the 1976 home kit, that was a very decent non-traditional stripes effort. Barcelona do this, IMO very well.

Exactly. Like I say, I hope Perraud is back very soon.

Any news on Perraud? He was reported by the OS in mid May as having a fracture in his foot and would be out for 5 to 6 weeks. Hope he’s back very soon, otherwise KWP is our only fit first team full back.

He’s under the Wirral to London diagonal so he’s a Saint for sure.

Im not a huge fan of the kit but I don’t dislike it. And I’d prefer we do something like this rather than have stripes year on year. Red and white stripes with black shorts is also Sunderland, Brentford etc…. Saints can keep red and white and stay ‘traditional’ with quarters, halves, rank xerox, sash, and this new one. Personally I think stripes are extremely bland, so while I’m not a huge fan of this one, I prefer it to another stripes shirt.

I don’t dislike it. I’m not really a big fan of rounded collars but I’m never going to wear the thing. Biggest criticism is the sponsor, it looks cheaply done and stuck on. Looks so much better when JWP crosses his arms and hides it.

Exactly this. Literally nobody is suggesting looking to raid relegated sides for multiple of their star players at a a time. (If anybody is suggesting that, they’re mad). But there were comments by multiple posters to say that players from relegated clubs should be steered away from, or avoided at all costs. It’s a fact that some relegated players have signed for a PL side and improved them. No, there’s not a huge amount of them. But there’s plenty more than none, that’s for absolutely sure, whether they’re young or old. Even loan players like Conor Gallagher, he did ok at West Brom and got himself a loan move to Palace, and Palace had one massive season out of him. That in itself is another reason to look to recruit that way, even for the loanees who may go back out on loan. I don’t think Ben Mee is for us either. Jonny Evans is the ultimate find of that type and there’s not a great deal of them, but certainly enough to not rule out a whole category of player and keep looking. I think Tarkowski is a decent free for Everton, no fee but high wages can be offset and he’s certainly better than anything else Everton have got, including Godfrey ImO.

Not a bad list, that.

Ok, let’s have a little look at the players from teams who were relegated from the premier league in 2021 and have since gone on to ‘do something’ or have been snapped up / attracted interest. And let’s be clear here, literally nobody (sensible)is saying that relegated clubs are packed with players who will do well in the premier league. The question is, do relegated clubs have at least 1 or 2 players who would prosper in a premier league club? The answer is yes, they do. Sheffield United: Aaron Ramsadle (in fact two relegations in a row for him), Morgan Gibbs White, Sander Berge (available but overpriced). Fulham: Ruben Loftus Cheek, Mitrovic (limited in the PL but has scored more in one PL season (11) than Che Adams has in any of his, and level with Che’s best season (9) is Mitro’s second best. WBA: Sam Johnstone, Conor Gallagher(loan). So, yes, I’d say every relegated club has at least one or two players who PL clubs should be very interested in. Beyond that there’s potentially another few who are very interesting candidates. Ruling them out just because they got relegated is too simplistic.

Puts the potential of a loan into context, if he’s loaned out it’s with likely no intent of coming back and just a bit of a wage saver.

Sheff U want £25M for Berge. But then they did want £35M for him last season. The only way we get him and the other players we need is if we raise funds by selling Ward Prowse IMO.

The Lis one doesn’t bother me. He’s not going to be on big wages and there’s a potential he goes there for a season then next season he’s a cheap number three keeper for us (like a Harry Lewis but might actually get trusted with some game time). The Lyanco link is extremely strange and I’m not sure I buy it. No way would the loan club be able to supplement anywhere close to his wages. And it’s hardly a personal development step for Lyanco either, i could see that it would damage his career opportunities rather than enhance them. Both only rumours at this stage anyway. I simply can’t see the Lyanco one happening, but Lis has its merits.

I’ve done two weddings abroad, one in Italy and one in Ibiza, and they were both fantastic. Both couples at the start stressed that it was their choice to get married overseas and they recognised that a lot of people might not be able to make it. If it’s too expensive and /or holiday time off allowance is too much then yes, that’s a problem that you’d be justified in not going for the full duration. But If you can go I personally would advise it as, like I say, I’ve got so many good memories of both I went to, a holiday abroad with a bunch of friends in a sunny place. Pretty sure there was no wedding list ‘thing’ though as they recognised everyone had spent out on flights and hotel.

It’s only £19 for an under 11 season ticket in the family stand so that comes into it. Adult is £580 though, so a total of just under £600 for the two. It’s £55 to £45 for adult and under 11 ticket per game (or was last year) depending on cat a to cat c. So say an average of £50 a game, you need to be going to about twelve games over the season to make it worthwhile. Sounds like it is already viable in this situation, and more so given the potential for getting some money back via the resell scheme.

At the start of last season I thought he showed glimpses of being decent, he got into good positions and made good positive runs. As the season went on he lost confidence and his play was, frankly, not good at all. I still think there’s a player in there, albeit as third choice. But it seems like he’s totally out of Ralph’s plans. Think the best case is to try and get as much money for him as possible, though it’ll be very difficult to get anywhere close to what we paid for him.

Very odd. Ordinarily a Turkish second division side surely wouldn’t be able to get close to Lyanco’s wages, and if not we’d be supplementing that. And for what? Long term goal that he comes back to Saints a better player? At the moment the benefit of Sport Republic seems to be to the sides beneath us, in that Saints buy players and loan them out, potentially subsidising their wages. If this link is true, plus the others, it would be interesting to know just how much of the wages are covered by the club loaning in the player(s).

How many players have passed through the entire chain, out of interest?

Speculation on my behalf, but if two clubs are reportedly interested in taking Armstrong, that says to me that the club are entertaining the idea if not actively promoting it. Which could say they’re ready to cut their losses on him. I’d initially thought it more likely he’d stay this season, though he hardly got any game time towards the end of the season so perhaps RH has already made up his mind about him.

Surprised by that, I thought I read a report quite a few weeks ago saying all the games at SMS had sold out. Edit. Maybe it’s just the England game that has sold out.

Ooooh, shut that door.

That’s a good signing for Newcastle tbf.

He stands at nearly 6 foot 3, Kotchap Kotchap He says he fucking hates Pompey, Kotchap Kotchap Signing him is a compliment His name sounds like a condiment Armel Bella, Southampton’s stopping machine

Exactly.The Tories go on about their desire to pay high pay for high skilled jobs. Then it’s a race to the bottom: “be grateful you’re getting paid a decent salary because look terribly we pay other occupations in the public sector!”.

Armel Bella-Kotchap and Arma better catchup.

This is it for me. ‘Ambition’ is a word that gets thrown around a lot, as you say often the expectation of it is for the club to spend loads of money that they haven’t got on players. It’s not sustainable. Having owners who are engaged and have obviously done an evaluation of the whole club is very refreshing. The coaching situation was known to most but is now being actioned. This chap in recruitment has obviously been working to different parameters with City, but we know that Saints are going to be looking at a lot of young players to come in, so perhaps he’s a really good fit for that. With SR’s background I’d have thought all scouting will be done on much more than the scout’s eye test, so there’s lots of small positives which will all hopefully make a difference. At the end of the day though, it’s the quality of the first team and their results, so proof is in the pudding. But yeah, so far some encouraging signs throughout the club.