SNSUN

If Livramento continues his rise, he could become England's regular right back in a few years and poor TAA will continue to find his path to the right back slot blocked. An abundance of riches in that position.

We did reasonable business to bulk out the squad, and whether we do well depends on how well Lyanco, AArmstrong and Perraud fully settle in. By my estimation we have 21 'winnable' points between now and the end of November (excluding the unlikely, but possible (as the point against United showed) chance we get something against a top team) and how we fare this season will be determinant on how many of those points we get. 21 points by the end of November and we are looking at mid-table or better. 15-21 should see us lower mid-table, 10-15 and it's a relegation battle ahead for us. Fewer than 10 from those fixtures and we are probably going down unless something major changes. We also have a smattering of 'winnable' games over the Christmas/New Year period. It's so tricky to predict this season as we haven't had a summer with so much movement since the Koeman days. Tighten up the defence and we have a good chance of mid-table again. We need to stay up this season, for no other reason than next summer we can actually sign a decent keeper and really make strides to improve the first team. The problem is that this is probably the toughest set of teams in the Premier League we've faced in years, and the top 4 have really improved, so taking points off them will be so much more difficult. (Yes I know we have one already against United but with Ronaldo there now, no Varane and Sancho starting and the likes of Rashford injured, we met them at a good time.) We need to beat the teams we think will be in and around us, home AND away, and hope we can get a few points from the likes of West Ham, Leicester etc when they have off days.

Or wrong, as bigger clubs don't want him... I do think he's a decent fit for us. Seems to care about the job, willing to work with his hands tied behind his back and seems to have the support of the players. God knows if he'd be any good with some money to spend but it may be a while before we find out.

GK: McCarthy, Forster, Lewis RB: KWP, Livramento, Valery LB: Perraud, Small, McQueen CB: Salisu, Bednarek, Stephens, Lyanco, CM: JWP, Romeu, Diallo, Smallbone AM: Armstrong, Elyounoussi, Redmond, Tella, Djenepo, Walcott, Str: Adams, Armstrong, Broja, Long That's the squad (excluding young players like Watts, Chauke, Olufunwa, etc). 27 players with a couple probably due out on loan to knock it down to 25. Personally I think it has been a decent window for a team that has it's financial hands tied behind it's back. Yes we are unsure on Armstrong being an able replacement for Ings and yes we don't know much about Lyanco but we definitely have more strength in depth, especially at full back which cost us heavily last year. The biggest worry is the unknown quantities of player we've signed but we will see in due course. I think we will still see Valery and maybe Long go out on loan if we can find someone to take them, and obviously McQueen will probably be gone in the new year, but overall it should be enough, at the very least, to stay up.

I'm OK with the £2 million fee. The principal bit of the deal will be getting a good sell on fee clause. If he's a hit at Swansea (and I believe he has the traits to be) then if we have a, say, 25% sell on clause he goes for, say, the Armstrong amount of £15 million, Then we'd be getting close to £3 million extra quid which would help in future transfer windows. I guess Long isn't going anywhere, so that effectively makes him the 4th choice striker this season behind Adams, Armstrong and Broja. (If you consider Tella, Walcott and Redmond as wingers/10s.)

With dosh incoming from Swansea I hope we don't fully give up this evening. London is close enough to us to score a last minute loan. That said I think our squad is in better shape than last season so we just have to hope that we can pick up a few good results soon to boost morale.

They're already standing as they're busy celebrating goals against us. 😈

Hate Newcastle. So fucking jammy. One decent player and he’s done us. Our fault really for not putting the game to bed earlier.

Add another centre back and striker to it and I’d guesstimate it could beat some Prem teams!

Morale is higher in our camp than theirs but Bruce is a wily old bastard who will no doubt play negative football to counteract anything we do. This is a big test of how much we've improved. Newcastle should be below us at the end of the season. Draw today though. 2-2.

On FM09 I tried to relegate Portsmouth from the Premier League to non-League by selling all their best players and adding a new manager whenever they sacked me. I got bored of it in the end. Turns out they nearly managed it in real life anyway, so well done them. 😁

He's part Serbian so maybe Dusan Tadic too! That beard is a bit odd too, a bit like the monstrosity Lewis Grabban has, but I'm not going to be the one to tell him! I'll stick to keyboard warrior for this one. 😋 Welcome aboard Lyanco. We hope our recruitment continues to be a success this summer. (We'll consider Walcott as an existing Saint from last season...)

Don’t worry, I’m sure the media team are already working on putting the commemorative DVD of the game together! 😜 Decent win and good for the confidence. We definitely look like we have more strength in depth this season. Looking forward to the Newcastle game now.

Surely Valery on the right, KWP on the left and Tella up front for Redmond? I would assume... I believe Sky Sports News are showing the goals as they go in tonight if there isn't a stream anywhere.

He has a deep female singing voice and 4 anuses? 😜

We still have a loan space that could be filled, and seeing as we tried to get Minamino back, I think we may still be interested in an AM. Ryan Christie on the cheap sounds like something we’d do too. I still think we should go back and raid Chelsea. They have so many players surplus to requirements that would fit us, especially in CM.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/av/54438727 Everton fans seem annoyed and angry he’s leaving which is always a good sign. He seems like a unit even at 17. Imagine fielding a defence of Tino, Simeu, Salisu and Small; Salisu at 22 years and 4 months would be the experienced one!

That is a hell of a point. Very pleased with that, well fought against a very good Man Utd team. A good base to go to Newcastle and get a positive result.

Starting to look tired here. KWP for Tino and Tella for Moussa perhaps? 25 very long minutes to go...

Delighted to be one up at half time, even if I had to listen to it on 5live. However if this does finish as a United win, then already our "points lost from being ahead" record this season will already stand at 6 and we'll be well on course to beat last season's record. That said it sounded like we were fairly well organised so hopefully we can get something from this game. A point would be superb. A win would be MASSIVE. I just think United will have too much for us in the second half but I hope I'm wrong. Ralph needs to make the right changes...

While I'd favour Forster as the starter (based on his previous success with us if little else) presently, I'd rather we had one Number 1 settled and not that horrible rotation exercise from the end of last season, so if Hasenhuttl chooses McCarthy as that number 1 then so be it. Even if McCarthy signs the mooted new contract, that doesn't mean he'll be number one next season, so hopefully we get the recruitment right and bring in a proper number 1 that we can trust (like West Ham did with Fabianski back in the day). I think it's probably likely that Forster will go. The other issue depends on which league we are in. McCarthy as a Championship keeper (hypothetically) is probably good enough, so Lewis may well get bumped up to second choice. We can only hope we survive this season and finally can bring in a good keeper that does the basics well.

I meant with the feeling amongst the forum users. Carrillo was almost universally panned on here and from what I've read, Lyanco seems to be going the same way! Like I say I know nothing of him but from what it sounds like on here he's like a crap David Luiz. 😀 I look forward to seeing him prove us wrong.

I know nothing of this fella, so have no comment. I guess we will have to hope Crocker etc know what they're doing. I hope we sign him AND one of Worrall or Adarabioyo, which would give us options and strength in depth. (And it would mean Salisu could fill in at left back if we don't bring in a back up.) There are Carrillo style vibes around this one...

I hope we sign Caleta-Car, but I hope we don’t give him number 10, or the media will be making 10cc jokes. Im not in love with that idea.

Protects the asset and resale value, and in turn shows loyalty from him. Great news IMO. Re-title the thread and sticky it for all to see.