The Kraken

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.

Just seen that Neymar is looking likely to join the Saudi bandwagon. Just the small matter of £130M a year to find in wages for him. That’s £2.5M a week. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/66495833

I’d rather stick him in goal.

The bloke can’t run and he’s knackered after about 15 minutes on the pitch.

I watched Leicester against Coventry and I thought their defence looked terrible. Coventry seemed to be able to get through their defence at will and perhaps should have scored more than their 1 goal. That said I thought that, in posession, Leicester looked really good, especially as the game went on. They also were able to bring on Iheanacho for Vardy, Dewkesbury Hall had a really good game too with a good goal to show for it. I def think Leicester will be up there, and if they sort out their defence in this window they could run away with it.

“Could let him go free”. Imagine actually getting a transfer fee for him 🤪

Dunno where that stat of 32/39 is from, his wiki page says 18/39.

Call me old fashioned if you will, but IMO being good at shot stopping is pretty much the bulk of being a good keeper. The other parts are very useful to have in addition, but that’s the fundamental you need to have first. I don’t think he’s a good keeper, but maybe if he can start actually making some saves then it might build him up a bit as I can’t see us signing a replacement for him unfortunately.

To be clear, I don’t disagree with that. Just saying I could potentially see the logic if it enabled Martin to bring in someone he prefers. As it is I think Smallbone fits the system well and I reckon the manager would be reluctant to lose him.

I’d hope we keep him too, but I’d understand the logic if he went and we used all the money to bring in a proper replacement to fit Martin’s mould. Hope it’s all just agent agitation but any player is going to sit up and listen if/when a PL club come in with an offer. £10m is also an awful lot of money to spend at this level, the Championship record for a fee spent is £16M.