SNSUN

Would be brilliant as we need a striker that can ACTUALLY score goals - but I'm not going to get too excited just yet as about six clubs (if not more) are interested in him. When was the last time someone chose Saints over a raft of other clubs? (Pre-Manning, I won't accept him as an answer!) We can only hope the Martin link is a strong one. He won't come cheap though.

I'm outnumbered as my wife's entire family support Norwich and I'm the lone Saints fan in mine but I do what I can to keep her from the dark side. To be fair the only sport she's shown any interest in so far is basketball and swimming so it could be more of a task than I thought. Maybe a trip to the Saints Megastore could swing it...

Got my tickets today - as the missus is a Norwich fan it's been a few years since we've been to see our respective teams play together. More importantly we're taking our 5 year old to see her first football match so hopefully the experience will encourage her to choose the mighty Saints over the stinky Canaries in life. That's if she's not completely bored by the whole experience.

Personally I would like to keep hold of Djenepo. I think he'd have something to offer at Championship level and is still only just turned 25 so still has good years ahead of him - and has 2 years left on his contract. Put it this way if I were to keep one of Aribo, Stu and Moussa, it would be Moussa. He's also the most versatile. Stu's best days may well be behind him and Aribo has been nothing but a massive disappointment. Yes Aribo could find his feet in the Championship but I wouldn't hold my breath and he'd be out of the door first. As long as we keep Tella, Sulemana and Edozie (with Djenepo and the youth backing them up) I think we'll have a decent season. We do need a new striker though, if not 2.

Think I read recently that we have the biggest squad in the division and Sheffield Wednesday have the smallest. That doesn't mean much but if we can't find 11 players to beat them then it's very worrying for our season. However we should still have some big names by then that could be sold closer to deadline day so we should have enough to beat them. But it is still tricky to predict right now even with 2 and a bit weeks to go.

Martin seems to like AA so I think he's part of our immediate future. Adams will probably go to a Prem team. I think Onuachu will go but we will keep Mara. We definitely still need a striker even with Ballard coming through. As for the AMs then I hope we keep Sulemana and Edozie, I think Djenepo will stay, and of course all the youngsters will chip in but I think Stu and Aribo will go. You've also missed off Tella who, if he stays would be massive but again he could go. Lose Tella and I think we need one more AM.

£20m is a fair bit of money for a Championship striker but even so it would be quite a smart signing for Leeds. He has close to a 1 in 2 goal record in the Championship in a mid-table Swansea side. He's only 23 and is over 6 foot. I'd liked to have seen us interested in him as I think he's the best available choice to be Championship ready (besides Gyokeres who went abroad) but Martin will know all about him and if he doesn't want him (or maybe the club think he's overpriced), then I guess we trust him.

Blimey we’re doing a Liverpool and selling our crap players for decent money. Anything over £5 million for Aribo and I’d be happy too. Glad Lyanco Is going, he was never going to be good enough even though I liked his moxy.

Roll with the punches. You'd probably think Lavia will be gone in the next 3 weeks but we already have Charles in place to step in. As long as we don't have to wait for players to leave before bringing in players we should be ok. Charles and Manning are already in ready for Lavia and Perraud leaving. In a summer where we could see a ton of players leave, it makes sense to be proactive and sign their replacements in advance if it is the player we want. The issue would be signing a player to replace, say, JWP then finding nobody comes in for him and we suddenly end up with a bloated squad. Or not signing a replacement for, say, Charley, then finding someone comes in for him late in the window. It's hard to predict. I think the fact we've seen a lot of Amo-Ameyaw in pre-season as well as the likes of Dibling, Doyle and Meghoma and of course we have Ballard shows that playing youth is in the forefront of the manager's thinking so even if we sell players without replacements we have the youth that can, hopefully, step up.

KWP is a strange situation really. He's a player I'd love us to keep and yet we don't really have space in the squad for him as we have Tino and Bree at RB. At LB we now have Manning and we still have Larios and now Meghoma is in the reckoning (assuming Perraud leaves). Meanwhile he's one of our saleable assets that we could get decent money for and yet despite a bit of early interest from Newcastle there hasn't been much word of anything. I do think someone will eventually come in for him but I'd be quite happy if he stayed, it's just that at FB on both sides we are well stocked! Manning being versatile is interesting though. I know Martin said he's here as a LB but with Diallo, JWP and Lavia all likely to leave, it's comforting to know we have another option at CM if we need it.

50% for them all, they do leave or they don't leave. 🙂 (Yes there's always that one twat that says this...)

I just noticed Moussa Dembele is out of contract. We've been linked with him before. I'd like to think we're still interested but our relegation has probably closed that door.

A signing a day and today it is Shea. That rhymes and you know it.

I know he's only got one year left on his contract but 6.5 million they're having a laugh. I wouldn't thought we'd be looking north of at least 12 Mill. These clubs see our relegation and think they can get our players for peanuts.

Bloody hell. I know he was on a free but that was fast work Saints! I read on here literally an hour ago that he was at Staplewood today and... bang. He signs. Wanted by Prem clubs, one of the best LBs in the League last season, good signing. Must mean Perraud is a goner which is a mild shame as I think he might have been decent this season. Anyway welcome Ryan. Get Charles over the line and the rebuild is well under way. I wanted to get some players in before we lose players and that would be a decent start.

As a coach/4th choice perhaps but not a starter. Dani Osvaldo isn't contracted to a football team either... oh wait...

While I'd rather have the money now than lose him on a free next summer, keeping him for a season wouldn't be the worst thing in the world. I suspect though that he'll be gone by September.

I've spent a nice evening with Dick Slicker.

£40 million sounds about right to me, probably could have got closer to £50-60 million last summer. He's a player in his prime that never misses a game, has a good engine, is a good passer of the ball and in the right team will get assists and goals. If other clubs think they can get him for £20-£25 million then they're dreaming - clearly they think relegation means we have to sell our players on the cheap when we actually have a good pot of money and can play hardball, as we are doing with Tino and Lavia. I can see JWP going for £35million, possibly even as low as £30 million with add ons but not £20-25 million.

I noticed how porous he was last season! Honestly though I was a big knocker of his last season and I do think a better keeper would have saved us some points, but had we stayed up I would have said we should loan him to the Championship for experience. Well now we're in the Championship so... sod it, he should play. At least until such time as he starts costing us points again.

IMO his long term injury will put clubs off looking at him as a first choice RB - most will want him as a squad option/future prospect. I look at the Premier League table and struggle to see a club where he will be first choice - Chelsea have James, Newcastle have Tripper - he's either going to have to be content sitting on the bench and playing cup games and the odd league game or staying with us, the team that nurtured him through his injury, and being outright first choice. The fact that we are financially better off following this relegation than the last does make me think we can hold on to some of our better players, as long as, like Carlos, they are happy to stay.

Edwards being linked with the Prem, would be decent if we got him though. Links to all the Swansea players concern me slightly, not least because they were only mid-table last season (I believe their squad was thin though) but also because, having pinched their manager in iffy circumstances, they may be unwilling to do business with us. Latibeudiere and Manning are out of contract so they will be getable though.

Think we'll need more than one CB but it depends who stays. Very likely Salisu, ABK, Lyanco and DCC could all be off leaving us with Bednarek, Stephens and Simeu. Personally I would like one starter and one decent younger CB at the very least. I hope Tino stays though. Newcastle pulling a fast one there.

More importantly it would leave us with Armstrong, Mara and young Ballard as recognised strikers (if Onuachu also goes) so that's one non-prolific striker, one underwhelming striker thus far and one untested youth striker. Definitely would need a signing there, if not 2 (although I wouldn't want to block Ballard's pathway).

Badly injured isn't he? I'd be surprised if he went anywhere this summer. But even if he does it leaves us very light at CB. Salisu most likely will go, DCC and Lyanco are moving, really only Bednarek and Stephens will probably remain and we sent both out on loan last season and even Stephens may yet go back to Bournemouth. I guess we will still have Simeu but really it's a position we will be desperate to strengthen as well as CM.