SNSUN

We normally struggle against Burnley but I have a weird feeling we will get a point or points against them this time. We need to, the sooner we get something on the board the better, or confidence will be knocked and, while the board kept faith in Ralph last season after the result that shall not be mentioned, they may get itchy trigger fingers before long. I hope not as I still think Ralph is the best manager we could hope for - he just needs a bit more backing in the transfer market. A CM and another AM would be great, add another CB to that and it would be perfect.

Brendan and Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha on walkie talkies could almost enact a scene from Airplane. Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha: "Which player do you want? Over." Brendan: "Under. Over." Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha: "Under? Done." <<<SNSUN gets coat.>>>

Nice are looking to sell Wylan Cyprien. He was linked with us a few years back, under Puel I think. He's a 'goal-scoring' defensive midfielder. Had a bad injury over a year ago but came back from that. Linked with Bordeaux amongst others and was linked with Newcastle and Arsenal in the Prem in more recent times. Could be a shout.

They've signed quality older players but with little foresight for the future. Not that Ancelotti will care. I still think they are weak defensively and neither C-L or Richarlison are Ings-prolific. They'll have a decent season but I still don't see them breaking the top 6 which is what they want. Still Everton, Wolves and Leicester are all above us in terms of quality. Newcastle have done good business too. We will do very well to break top ten. Already think WBA and Fulham will have long seasons and West Ham really needed to win yesterday as their next few fixtures are tough.

We definitely need a creative midfielder that can unlock a defence. Armstrong seemed to be a big miss yesterday. Let’s hope our home form is better than last season and we can stuff Palace at St Mary’s.

Get flucking Ings on! This is shite. I’ve never really rated Southgate and I still don’t

Sure they may do OK this season but do they have enough to break into the top 6 which is what they really want? Defensively no for me, even if they get Tomori. And signing ageing players with little resale value isn't exactly planning for the future if Ancelotti gets fed up and leaves. We shall see though. There's bound to be a surprise package. Newcastle have been quiet going about their business in a sensible fashion for once. Lewis for the future, Fraser and Wilson to boost their attack and Hendrick all for less than Joelinton cost last season. And with Saint Maximin and Almiron pulling the strings, they should have a decent season.

He'd better keep away from Roy Keane-esque players then unlike his dad. He was born in England, while he was probably always destined to play for Norway, it's a shame we couldn't get him to play for us. He would have provided us with even better attacking options than we already have and could have challenged the undroppable Kane for focal point of the attack.

I'm in the keep Boufal camp. It's a long season and from what we've seen of Djenepo, he has ability to pick up knocks and things. Boufal has talent (though we've rarely seen it) and whilst he isn't currently threatening Redmond or Armstrong, he's a good player to have in the squad especially for cup games. £3.5 million is peanuts, unless we can bring in a senior player for similar money (or miraculously more) then I'd be keeping Boufal for this season and let him go on a free at the end of the season. Sims and Hesketh aren't the answer and Ferry and Tella are untested. Ok as 5th choice maybe but not 4th. Unless the idea is to sign Balogun and go balls out attack! In Ralph we trust I guess.

I was going to say... shame we're not away to Brentford and fans can already do a new ground... then remembered the times we live in!

West Ham fans on KUMB are a bit cross over the Diangana sale, I read it as they believe GSB are asset stripping them. Anderson may soon be off to Arsenal too on a cheap loan. They're not exactly blessed with attacking options and yet Moyes wants to strengthen Central Defence which for me, a non-fan looking in, is possibly their strongest position after Rice and Soucek in midfield. Crazy club...and there was me tipping them to have a decent season! Watch Chelsea swoop for Rice late in the window...

At 23 I'm not surprised. He's not going to play here so may as well get some money for him and throw it on the (seemingly small) pile. Good luck to him.

Balogun is 19. And his path is blocked at Arsenal to the first team so if we signed him he’d want to play first team football. Arsenal fans really rate him but Arteta seemingly prefers Nketiah. Had we not signed Long on a new two year deal I could see this happening. I can’t now unless we plan on loaning out Obafemi. Agree that we need a CM more than any other. Vestergaard as a 4th choice CB is fine, so we are stocked there. I would have said we need an AM but it seems Boufal is staying for his last season. The only positions that worry me after CM (which I’m sure we will rectify by the October deadline) is the full-back back ups, with a lot of faith put in Valery and Vokins if KWP or Bertrand get injured long term.

With two years left, I hope we can get this done. If he doesn't sign a new contract by next summer, someone will get a bargain similar to the Hojbjerg transfer. Still he seems to love being here and he's fit as a fiddle now so I hope we can get this done soon. Bertrand's contract too.

I hope Leeds get pleasure from Robin Koch. I prefer Strüken Vag myself. 😈

Wesley Hoedt - stealing a living from football. Actually there's a few Saints guilty of that.

@WALK DMC I've not seen him play but at this stage of a very short pre-season, with two weeks to go until the season kicks off, we have 2 natural central midfielders in the squad and the likes of Smallbone, Slattery and Jankewicz backing them up, or playing the likes of Armstrong out of position. So it's probably more desperation from fans that we want to see a central midfielder brought in, and having been linked to Ntcham shows the club were interested in him. I do think it will be rectified and we'll sign one, but time is of the essence, especially if we lose JWP or Romeu to injury early on.

Blimey, him, Vestergaard (6’6’’), Gunn (6’5’’) and Fraser (6’7’’), we wouldn’t be short of people to put the fairy on top of the Christmas tree...

Fair play to Palace that would be a decent signing from what I've seen of him. But they have a long way to go to completely replace their ageing squad with a wantaway Zaha to boot. I can see them struggling in the next couple of years.

Can we get a better 4th choice AM? It's only for a year then his contract is out so I'd guess he's off then. He can't be happy at not getting regular game time as he enters what is supposed to be his prime. Still 4 keepers on the books. Surely one will leave.

Oh I didn't realise Spurs had £80 odd million in their transfer kitty. 'Cos that's what JWP would cost with a newly signed 5 year contract. Clearly written by a WUM on a slow news day.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.irishmirror.ie/sport/soccer/soccer-news/stephen-kenny-insists-no-axe-22570442.amp I see Obafemi isn't too happy about not getting selected for ROI. Obviously he's fit enough currently.

Yes, I was actually, genuinely, realistically advocating a JWP statue at St Mary's. 🤦‍♂️ Maybe we can build one of Hoedt too so people can take out their aggression before the enter the ground. 🙄

We'd build him a statue at St Mary's, if we're anything like Man City, who are doing it for Vincent Kompany, David Silva and potentially Sergio Aguero! 🙄

Well my predo of Palace was accurate, just got the wrong venue. Still we seem to be decent away, and as long as we start the season as we started the post-COVID fixtures, we will pick up a few points. I always look at the last few games of the season too, on the off chance we have a horror season somehow. (I'm talking Ralph poached, huge injuries to JWP and Ings, points deductions for Gao's ineptitude etc) The last few are favourable and should definitely give us a few extra points if we're not on the beach by then.