SNSUN

We have a (supposedly) decent 4th choice striker as it goes that will give our bench some added quality to it, as well as our cup teams if we want to rest some players. In addition he is young and hungry (we all love a young and hungry player at Southampton) so it may very well be that he hits it off with us straight away and pushes his way to the front of the striker queue. You'd think Adams and Armstrong will start as the main line up with Tella either forcing his way in on occasion or playing deeper in the AM position. Either way this gives us good options up top and bulks the squad out. If only we can do the same to the defence and CM now! I basically echo what has been said already. If Broja has a cracking season, he may feel comfortable enough here to either have another season on loan with us, or, if we can afford him, present an offer to Chelsea to make it permanent. We all know what Chelsea are like with their youth players, unless they have to use them then there is little chance they become a staple in the side and they try to offload them (Abraham, Tomori, Zouma) or stockpile them, and only a sprinkling of top class ones make it into the team. (James, Mount). Of course if Broja is a massive hit this season, we probably lose him one way or the other (Chelsea do want him for their first team, his price soars beyond our price range, big clubs come in for him) but we will have benefitted from him this season and his goals will have powered us to a decent finish. Personally I don't see him getting as much game time as Adams and Armstrong, but I really hope we see flashes of brilliance from him.

Armstrong is the Ings replacement. Broja is the Obafemi replacement seemingly. Then we have Adams and Tella to round it off, and Walcott and Redmond if needed. Long most likely on his way too. Whether that strike force is enough, we will only know at the end of the season. IMO The signing of young players from Chelsea echoes the Poortvliet days as we kissed goodbye to the Championship, which is my only concern about it all. However I will take what other people are saying that the likes of Broja and Livramento are of sufficient quality for us and the Premier League and hope for the best. Welcome Armando. A Slough kid too, like my daughter.

Delighted and a good price and it makes the other wrist-slitting threads look ridiculous now. Yes he has a lot to do to get to Ings level but it's a good start, a versatile striker scoring 29 goals in a mid-table Blackburn side. Add Broja and we have Adams, Armstrong, Broja and Tella as our strikers. There should be enough goals there for the season. (Obafemi and Walcott as a potential fifth and sixth choice too depending on what happens with Obafemi. Personally I'd keep him or loan him out.) Another loan for Long then should occur. Nobody would be surprised.

£40-45 million for Jannick and Danny would definitely give us ammunition in the transfer market if we can spend it right. That should be enough to bring in a Striker (in addition to Broja on loan), a CB replacement and a CM in. We'd also still have another loan slot available. In addition I'd still want another AM as I still think we lack quality there and a GK and another LB but we can't have everything. Sadly.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.bundesliga.com/en/bundesliga/news/alexander-sorloth-who-is-rb-leipzig-striker-erling-haaland-king-of-north-12938 Reading more into it, he's quite highly praised by his peers. Works hard to improve his game, left footed, tall (which will help from JWP set pieces) and a good age at 25. I'd only known him from his spell at Palace but it looks as though he has improved. His goal rate for Norway is decent too, 1 in 3. It definitely sounds like he could be an asset. Him AND someone like Armstrong and we'd be in good shape in attack.

Everton just be spanked 4 nil in their final pre season friendly against Man Utd. Lots of missing players and uncertainty over others. Definitely think a point is achievable.

Will be tougher this season. First XI is still decent enough (Forster, KWP, Vestergaard/Bednarek, Salisu, Perraud, JWP, Romeu, Armstrong, Redmond, Tella, Adams) to survive but we definitely need reinforcements and fast. Definitely, more than anything, we need a striker this week, although effectively we need to improve the entire spine of the team. We are in that bracket that will be fighting for survival as it stands. It will be nervy but it can be done. 14th-17th. Anything better will be amazing. IMO one of the promoted sides will survive (Brentford I suspect) which means one of the established Prem teams will slip. It could be is but my money is on Burnley.

Armstrong I feel is inevitable now, but I do think we'll use Obafemi as part of the deal to keep costs down. That means we'll have Adams, Armstrong, Tella (who is versatile and can be played as AM) and Long as our strikers. Obviously Long isn't favoured any more so he'll be off, and we still need to bring one more striker in. Sorloth doesn't fill me with confidence after his Palace spell, but as a target man he would give us something different that the other 3 could play off of. I don't think we'll sign Tammy Abraham, though I think he would be a fantastic signing for us. We simply couldn't afford him if Chelsea aren't prepared to loan him out. What other strikers have we been linked with in the last couple of years? Darwin Nunez is one and Brighton are interested but I think he'd be out of our price range after recent comments by Benfica. I know Alexander Mitrovic wants out at Fulham - I'd take him. I also think we may see Vestergaard go this summer, so we'll have money to replace him with and probably a bit extra to use on top of that. Remember we also have two loan spaces we can fill...

If Spurs and bloody Levy had come in for Ings, I suspect he'd have been off for around £15 million and people on here would have been declaring it was inevitable. The fact he's gone to Villa for nigh on double that and some people are up in arms. He wanted to go and had one year contract. Yes he's one of our better strikers from our second Premier League era (and probably our first too!) but we have been well compensated for his loss, well over what most of us thought we'd get for him. Villa are a rich club with money to spend and can blow us out the water on wages and transfer fees, of course they're going to want to try to better themselves and have the money to do so. We don't have a pot to piss in and, while that is very wrong and annoying for us as fans, that is simply the situation we are in and we as a club have to soldier on as best we can. Villa however need to take a note out of Everton's book, you can spend lots of money but stagnate. We need to finish 4th bottom as a base marker. Even with the players we have now we can do that IMO. But we have nearly a month left of the transfer window and I firmly feel we will see players come in that we need for a more comfortable season. The thing that sucks is the timing of it, shortly before the season begins. If the club doesn't bring in a striker by this time next week then it will be worrying but for us to accept the Ings deal so quickly surely may mean we needed the cash to spend on someone else that we already have in the pipeline. Armstrong would be my guess. Still i wish it had been done earlier in the window if anything. I wish Ings the best of luck there but his injury record makes this a risk for them. We now have to let this episode die and concentrate on the future and trying to find a striker to replace him. Apart from his 22 goal Premier League haul the season before last, remember last season he got 12 and the first season he was here on loan he got 9. It can't be too hard to replace those goals, even Adams has shown he score the latter and is seemingly getting better. Our strikers the season before Ings arrived were Carrillo, Long, Austin and Gabbiadini. I'm reckon we will be fine without Ings. Had we kept him, next season he'd have been off for free and we'd have had no money to replace him. Then we'd have been scrambling around for a loan or Bosman, or would have had to sell an asset to replace him AND whatever asset we sold to do so.

I've just been at my mum's birthday dinner. What have I missed? 🙄 Seriously I only checked Saintsweb this afternoon and this has come out the blue. Am I annoyed? A tad. For a supposed Saints fan that wanted to leave for trophies at a big club, he's left us in the shyte close to the season. However £30 million for an injury prone, ageing player that wanted out anyway is bloody good money for us. Like, double what I thought we'd get. It will allow us to strengthen. I'd be surprised if they get JWP now they've blown some of their wedge on Ings. Getting the recruitment right is now key. We have Adams, Tella, Obafemi (currently) and Walcott and Redmond if need be to start the season but we need to get the next move right. I probably have other thoughts on this transfer but I haven't yet digested it. A bit like my dinner.

I can see this happening for us, even if it means Obafemi heads in the opposite direction. Armstrong has one year left on his contract and they aren't going to want to see him leave next summer for nothing, nor IMO would we be willing to wait a year when he'll have plenty of admirers as a good, mid-20s striker on a Bosman. There's a deal to be done here IMO, and we will be stronger for it, although we need to make sure we have a sell on clause for Obafemi. I guess we're in a similar situation with Ings, although nobody has made concrete enquiries for him yet. According to the article, Armstrong hasn't scored in any pre-season friendlies, so maybe he's not putting the effort in with views to a move. Either way if it happens, I hope it happens in the next couple of weeks. We don't want him starting the season well for Blackburn and other clubs becoming interested.

I think he has something, scored that cracking goal against Chelsea a while back. But Ralph obviously doesn't fancy him and he's never really kicked on so swapping him for Armstrong seems like a great deal. Adams, Armstrong, Ings and Tella up front next season... I'm Moist at the prospect. That's probably the best set of strikers we'll have had in years. If ever. Moist I tells ya. 😁 I like the idea of signing players from the top 6 though. So much talent there. As I said earlier you can make an entire first XI from Chelsea unwanted players that could probably challenge in the Premier League. No links, but I wonder if we are still interested in Choudhury at Leicester although he's recently been linked with Newcastle.

So Squad as it stands if we sign Livramento: GK: McCarthy, Forster, Lewis. Verdict - Need a quality number 1 but we won't get it this summer. Just sit on the edge of your seat whenever a backpass is made. FB: KWP, Perraud, Livramento, Valery. Verdict - I guess Valery is off? Is three enough FB's though? Some wouldn't think so. We can obviously discount McQueen despite the contract unless he's Lazarus reincarnated. CB: Vestergaard, Bednarek, Salisu, Stephens. Verdict - Can be improved upon. Will Vestergaard leave or will we keep him for his last year of contract? Anything north of £15 million and surely he's a saleable asset if someone wants him. We would need a new CB though, even with Simeu waiting in the wings. CM: JWP, Romeu, Diallo, Smallbone. Verdict - Still light here but with Armstrong able to slot in I don't think we'll prioritise the position. AM: Redmond, Djenepo, Armstrong, Elyounoussi, Walcott. - Verdict - Again I personally think we are still light here even with Tella able to slot in and youngsters like Watts able to step up. Elyounoussi going out on loan again potentially would definitely leave us short IMO. STR: Ings, Adams, Tella, Obafemi, Long. Verdict - Pretty happy with the initial 4some, but big questions over Ings. I still feel we should sell him if we can, so that we have a transfer fee to go out and sign a replacement. Lose him next summer for free could be risky. Just IMO. I'd be surprised if Long were still with us at the start of the window. Youth - Chauke, Watts, Ferry, Olufunwa and Finnigan have all been in Ralph's plans this year so we'll see how much game time they get. It's getting there. Enough to stave off relegation for another season anyway IMO. It also depends on how other teams do (Premier League gets more competitive every year, especially with the likes of Villa and Leeds now back in it and performing strongly). HOWEVER with a month still left of the transfer window, anything could happen. We still need to shift a couple of players, a couple of players could well be bought, and IMO we still need another GK, FB, CB, CM and AM to be truly competitive, not that it will happen!

Chelsea have proved they can bring through young talent (Hudson-Odoi, James, Mount, Abraham - real name Kevin, who knew!) in their current squad so it is a surprise that they seem to be shedding youngsters to us. I don't know anything about Livramento bar what I read, but he seems to be a right back that can play at left back, so perhaps he sees James as direct competition and blocking his pathway. A lot of Chelsea youngsters seem to be jumping ship though, in spite of the pathway that seems to be there. Simeu and Livramento to us, Tomori and Guehi have already left them, Bate and Myles Peart-Harris have left recently too. And Gilmour and Gallagher are out on loan. Maybe there is something rotten in the state of ̷D̷e̷n̷m̷a̷r̷k̷ Chelsea perhaps. They also have a wealth of more senior players that are unlikely to get a look in, so perhaps that's telling. Loftus-Cheek, Barkley, Rahman, Ampadu, Drinkwater, Chalobah, Bakayoko, Baker, Batshuai, are all on their books still. And most of them CDAJFU in my opinion! Sounds like a coup if we pull it off though. Chelsea seems to be a decent team to raid this summer. It also provides us with the full back cover we desperately need. I wonder if this means Valery will be off, as I thought we'd keep him this season and bring in a left back as competition to Perraud.

Listening to TalkSport in the car earlier, they said he was the best player on the pitch today in Chelsea’s friendly. I think he’d be a decent signing for a club our size, but only as a transfer. Then if he does achieve his potential, we benefit from it. Sadly he seems a player that is always close to injury, although Ings proved bad injuries aren’t necessarily the death knell of footballers they used to be. Not to mention I doubt we could afford him anyway, Ntcham on a free seems the more likely of the two. On another topic, Ralph says we have enough options in attack now. While I disagree, it is something that can be pushed to January, especially if we keep Ings and if he plans to use Elyounoussi. He wants to concentrate on defensive signings. Hopefully that’s another left back, a centre back and a DM.

I agree, he's not a £50 million player per se. What would I pay for him if I were Villa boss? I probably wouldn't want to pay more than £35 million for him. That'd be my final offer. But Saints wouldn't let him go for anywhere near that for an integral captain, academy product, England international and with 4 years left on his contract. Saints will want north of £50 million and that's why Villa won't get him. If they DO pay £50 million or more, it would completely rebuild this team with a couple of quality additions, and Villa will have overpaid. Short of one of the big 4 making a huge bid around that £50 million sum (possibly including Arsenal and Spurs, though we know what Levy is like) I really think he stays this summer.

Yeah we'll sell him if the right bid comes in... But the right bid will be way north of £50 million. We have absolutely no need to sell JWP and have already said he's not for sale. NOT FOR SALE. Yes all players have their price at a club like ours but it will be way more than Villa will be willing to pay for him. He has another 4 years on a contract he agreed to sign. We have no need to sell for at least two years. He ain't going anywhere unless the big, big bucks come in. Villa's supposed bid was an insult to us AND JWP. The only way that will change is if he uncharacteristically throws his toys out the pram and hands in a transfer request. Even then we hold the cards because of the length of contract. 2 years left? Sure we'd probably sell him this summer for about £30-35 million. But he has 4, so we have no need to sell. (The other exception being relegation at the end of the season but even then we could get £25-30 million odd for him IMO.) I know JWP has his knockers and always has had but he's integral to our team. In a summer where other players are expected to leave, I really don't think he's going anywhere.

Wayne Bridge played 113 games in a row. Still got a knock. He's human. It's just the timing of it that makes the conspiracy theorists take note. Pre-season is an intense work out and he barely got one last season, so it's not surprise he's picked up a knock this season. Moot anyway, he's not joining Villa.

Cheeky fuckers. That’s like City going in for Grealish at say £40 million. Double it, add loads of clauses and then tell them to fuck off. JWP is a Saint and our most important player and only a whopping offer of £50 million+ or a hissy-fit-style transfer request forcing our hand will be good enough.

But the same could be said of the 2022-23 season - we won't have Ings' goals then and will be relying on an unproven striker to fill in so if we are going to get relegated without his goals, you're just delaying that relegation by one season. Except for a club that has to sell to buy, that unproven striker that we replace Ings with is likely to be less good than what we could buy this summer because we won't have the funds from Ings's transfer fee to use on a replacement. I suppose the argument against selling him this summer is that there is a chance we have found investment/a new owner by next summer, and suddenly we are flush with cash to sign an expensive replacement. I don't know what the odds are for that to happen, but it's probably similar to me growing long sexy legs and performing in the Moulin Rouge. I agree it is a difficult decision to make, and in all honesty I'd love him to stay and sign the new contract (even if it has, say, a minimum release clause of £20 million), but logically IMO, the best decision (even if it isn't necessarily the right one) would be to take the money and invest in the replacement now.

I don't think he's a player that will spit his dummy out if he doesn't get the move he wants, unlike so many of our better players in the last ten or so years. If the move he wants doesn't materialise, I genuinely think he'll continue playing happily for us until the end of his contract, and will probably be out to impress bigger teams that he's good enough for them. Then he gets his big move next summer on a Bosman with probably a nice signing on fee, ahead of half a season at his new club to push for the WC. The rub is that for a club with our tight financial restrictions, I feel that if we can sell him this summer for around the £20 million mark, we absolutely should be doing that. £20 million is a huge amount of money to lose on a player for one season, even someone as key to us as Ings, especially as he could spend large chunks of next season on the treatment table. A replacement won't be cheap, but I do think it is doable. You look at the likes of Edouard, a proven goalscorer albeit in Scotland, for that sort of money and we could plan ahead the next few seasons now, rather than bumping the problem down the road until next summer, when we lose Ings AND have no money from his transfer fees to sign a replacement. All IMO of course.

We're a club that relies on young players to back up the first team. The whole reason Simeu joined us from Chelsea is because there is a pathway to the first team here. As long as we have two or three 'senior' players for each two positions (Str, Am, Cm, CB, RB, LB) then we should absolutely be using the better of the young talent to pad the squad. (Tella, Obafemi, Smallbone, Watts, Chauke, Simeu, Valery and maybe even Ferry could all see game time this season.) Yes it's risky but it is what a club with our finances and ethos do. And perhaps it is the reason we can pilfer young players from top 6 academies going forward. Don't forget Obafemi's decent goal against Chelsea a couple of seasons back. I still think he has something to offer as a back up striker.

As it stands without any more sales and trying to be as realistic as possible... GK: Forster, McCarthy, Lewis. I think we are stuck with these three unless someone comes in for Fraser. Between the first two they have errors in them but they are both experienced keepers and should be enough to avoid the dreaded drop. RB: KWP is first choice, but after that we have Valery. It depends on how Ralph sees Valery really. If he stays as our back up right back, then we can concentrate on bringing in a left sided back up full back. LB: Perraud is on board now, but we have nobody as back up except someone out of position. LB needed, especially (IMO) someone good enough to push Perraud for the first team spot. CB: Vestergaard, Salisu, Bednarek, Stephens. Ignoring Simeu, who I assume is a longer term prospect, we have 4 CBs on the books. Personally I'd cash in on Vestergaard and bring someone better in but if that person doesn't exist, then keep Jannick. I worry the money we lose on Ings and Vestergaard next summer as opposed to selling them this summer will be crucial in our current financial state but we wait and see. Getting our signings bang on from here on out will be crucial to our continued stay in the Premier League. Do we need a 5th CB? We can definitely improve upon what we have but I don't think we will bring another in (bar Simeu) unless we sell Vestergaard. CM: Ward-Prowse, Diallo, Romeu, Smallbone. I personally feel we are one light here, so I'd be looking to bring in another CM. I also think someone may eventually come in for JWP but perhaps not this summer, and I certainly don't think we'd sell him anyway unless he pulled a transfer request out of the bag. AM(R) Armstrong, Elyounoussi (presently), Walcott - Armstrong is first choice, so I'm fairly happy here. (See below *) AM(L) Redmond, Djenepo, Tella - With Tella a decent prospect, I'm also fairly happy here. *Weirdly though, I say I'm happy with both AM positions but I'd still like another, more creative AM if the budget could stretch that much. Maybe a decent loan? Elyounoussi may not be here by the end of the transfer window either... STR: Ings, Adams, Obafemi, Long - even if you consider Tella and Walcott as potential strikers, I still think we need to ship out Long and bring in another striker. AND that's before you even consider selling Ings and bringing in a replacement for him. Financially though we probably can't afford two strikers but even one would help. So for me: 1 x LB, 1 x CM, 1 x AM, 1 x Str. So 2 loans (FB and AM), 2 transfers (Str and CM). Lots more work for Ralph and co to do, though we aren't in terrible shape as it stands, we do need strengthening in the next month.

We've had players that played for Man Utd previously (Hughes, Kanchelskis) and obviously some that went from us to them (Shaw, Schneiderlin) but none in recent times between them and us. Francis Burns in 1972 is one that a quick search brings up.

Bring back Jo 'Fish' Mills and we have a back up left back too!