SNSUN

I go back to the initial Championship Manager in the 90's, I didn't have a computer of my own so I either used my school's computer ( I was a boarder and they let me use it some evenings) or a friend's computer. I did, however, play this bad boy back in the day... ...and it is the only management game where I've had a player DIE on me! I was Wycombe boss and literally my best player died in a car accident. Now THAT's lifelike. Morbid, but lifelike. It was also when I was too naive to realise I could just restart the game and not have that particular player die.

Pace. I would put all our quickest players in there and really bang them on the counter attack, as even though we're the home team, a team like United will have most of the possession. That means playing Tella somewhere. It's a shame we don't have the extra centre back yet, because the other option would be to go with 3 CBs and have Tino and Perraud as wing backs, Romeu and JWP in the middle and Tella, Adams and Armstrong up the top. I know the 3 CB situation was bleak leading up to our initial 9-0 against Leicester, but I still think it has it's place against better teams. Personally my favourite formation is the 4-2-3-1 we played under Pochettino but we are a million miles away from having the defensive and attacking midfielders needed for the formation! I support Hasenhuttl, he isn't perfect but I think he's been dealt a shitty hand taking us on with no added transfer budget, inheriting a shitty squad and then having an injury crisis that would have wiped out Any of the bottom 14, but he has made strange choices of late. Walcott is a back up, and should be a back up. His signing was poor anyway but it doesn't mean you have to use him. To leave others out in favour of him is crazy - this isn't the Walcott of 12 years ago. Our best team is probably: Forster, Tino/KWP, Bednarek, Salisu, Perraud, JWP, Romeu, Armstrong, Tella/Redmond, Armstrong, Adams so let's hope we play something close to it at the weekend.

It also increases the chances of one of our 3 full backs getting injured. I'm all for the idea but it would leave us dangerously light of full back cover again and we'd need to bring another one in. Which we won't.

Another "A" to add to the collection. Just Googled and his full name is Abdul-Nasir Oluwatosin Oluwadoyinsolami Adarabioyo. I dare anyone to say that when drunk! Fits our agenda: young, can improve, tall, Premier League experience and, you know, a fucking CENTRE BACK! 😋 Him and, say, Ampadu would do for me this window. GK and AM too and I would literally sputz in my pantaloons. I just hope it happens soon, whoever we sign.

Ah that makes sense! I just saw it on another forum. You're right that Leicester could arguably implant Arsenal as top 6 really but the media would never allow it. When Leeds are top 6 a couple of times, then it will be the top 7. Then we wait for Villa and, perhaps one day, Forest for it to become the top 9. 😜 If you ask me Man City, Chelsea and Man Utd are blowing everyone out of the water with their spending, and Liverpool will never be considered out of it in the media's eyes, so I'm surprised it hasn't resorted to "top 4" again. Arsenal and (to a lesser extent) Spurs have a long road back to regularly compete for the title although both have fanbase and infrastructure in place.

Livramento in the top 10 for attacking yardage (I assume it means something like that) for week one of the Premier League. I'm not sure how it has come to this that we have two great right backs and crud elsewhere, but there we are! I can only hope he's as good as left back as he seems to be at right back seeing as he's effectively covering both positions.

No. We may be amongst the dregs of this league but we have a Premier League set up and long may it last. Signing players with the potential of Livramento and the goal potential of Adam Armstrong, or signing players like Danny Fox and Jos Hooiveld. I know which I choose. It seems crap because we have no investment from Gao but we still have better players than some other teams in this league. Hopefully once our hard start to the season is finished and the transfer window shuts, we'll have signed the couple of players we need to make us more competitive. Also, I know it's hypothetical but going down there are no guarantees to get promoted straight away. Norwich and WBA are seemingly good at it, Watford less so, but we have the sort of luck where we'd get relegated and not even make the play offs. I look at Stoke's team now and it's crap. That could be us in a few years if we're not careful. Imagine a team like: Lewis Valery Stephens Simeu Vokins Chauke Smallbone Elyounoussi Djenepo Obafemi N'Lundulu I mean it wouldn't be that bad but it may not be far off! Nah, Prem please. I'd hypothetically take, say 15th again if offered now though. Then next summer we could sign a decent Keeper and offload Long and Co for better players.

I want a Wanyama type figure for defensive midfield (I worry if Romeu is on the decline as a footballer), a Monkou type figure for centre back (tall and no-nonsense with few mistakes in him) and another left back in case Perraud doesn't adjust to the Premier League. (A moldable youngster.) Then we can worry about attacking midfield and the fact we will have to watch Walcott, Redmond, Djenepo and Elyounoussi comically try to be attacking midfielders this season. I know I said I was against it but I'd be bringing Minamino back as something different. We are at least 4 first choice players away from being anywhere close to our best in the last ten years. Well done to Armstrong for scoring so early on though. Must be great for confidence.

First choice centre back needed now! And get fucking Forster in. Same shit different season. Tough fixtures to start with. We could be down the bottom of the table with Arsenal after a few games.

Obviously Leicester wanted him since January, but without Fofana's injury and Denmark's impressive showing in the Euros I doubt they'd have come in for him this summer. And we'd probably have ended up keeping him until the end of his contract and him leaving on a free. This way we get £15 million to spend on his replacement meaning we should be able to bring in a better replacement than we otherwise could have afforded next summer AND will probably have some left over cash to strengthen another position. Let's see if we can get this recruitment right...

Danjuma (linked with Liverpool), Brooks, Lerma, Kelly, Stacey as as a versatile full back option... they still have an abundance of Premier League quality there just surrounded by other sub-standard quality! Fulham have Robinson, Mitrovic (not everyone's cup of tea but I like him), Adarobioyo, Anguissa and a certain young determined midfielder called Reed! Then there are others like Fry, Berge, Diangana... All would improve our squad, if not our first team IMO. Priorities now though in order... CB, CM, GK, AM, LB. Though I think we may only see the first one realised this window.

There's experience and then there's a player whose legs aren't what they were. There's a reason he only played 20 Premier League games last season and made no cup appearances and apparently his wages are very high and he wasn't going to agree to a pay cut. He'll be nearly 38 by the end of a two year, £60k a week contract. I agree we would do well with some experience alongside Bednarek and Salisu but there are better options out there. That'd be worse than giving Long a two year contract. I don't think the club are shy to bring in free transfers, for example we've brought in Walcott, but usually there's a good reason why players are free agents. Jetro Willems would be OK as back up, he did well at Newcastle but then got a really serious injury so it depends on how fit he is. I'd sign him based on the fact his middle name is Sexer. There are a number of good players in the Championship which IMO we should be interested in, and it's a market we seem to be using in recent years. Bournemouth and Fulham alone have a handful of decent players we should be looking at. I don't think it is the time to panic though, we have ample players in the squad to start the season with. The issue remains the strength in depth in some positions (CB, LB, CM, and IMO AM) which is more of a long term issue as the season progresses, and we still have 3 weeks of the transfer window to run and money in our pocket. We'll bring players in. We even have another loan slot to use if we want to. GK though - we will have to make our peace with that this season. Until next summer when we can ship one or both of Forster and McCarthy out the door, I do believe they are our options. Neither have so far got us relegated, so there is a crumb of comfort I guess! I've never seen him play but a quick stat check (age, height, qualities) makes it look like he'd be a decent signing. Left footed though so he'd be competing for Salisu's slot and I feel like we need someone to better Bednarek on the right. Also TransferMrkt have his value at £22 million so he'd probably be out of our price range.

£15 odd million for Vestergaard is about as much as we were going to get for a player with one year left on his contract, and with his limitations as a defender. He has good assets (height, passing) but his limitations are also there for all to see (lack of pace, slow on the turn) especially against quick Premier League forwards. Apart from a purple patch early on last season, he's not shown a great deal since he's been here, and undoubtedly his Euro showing for Denmark has been the reason we've got decent money for him. For a club that needs to sell to buy, we could have kept Ings and Vestergaard and reached next summer needing to replace both but with no money to do it with, which means we'd have had to sell a key asset. Now, with £40+ million in our pockets, we can replace those players (Armstrong has already come in) and plan for the long term future AND have a bit of cash in our pocket should we need it. Having money as we reach the end of this window could prove key to picking up a bargain. For Leicester, £15 million is a low risk amount of money for a proven Premier League centre back, one who is ultimately a stop gap until Fofana is fit again. It is a no-brainer for both of us really. The big question is can we replace him adequately. Salisu and Bednarek as a first choice centre back pairing worries me, and Stephens should only ever be a 4th choice at this level. I'd like to see us bring in someone strong, tall and fairly quick as a first choice to play alongside Salisu.

As long as Ralph realises Fraser is marginally the better keeper of the two pretty early on this season, then I can make my peace with us not bringing in a new keeper this summer. Both will cost us points but neither have got us relegated.... yet.... and both have played for England so they must have been half good at one time or another. Next summer though we need a proper goalkeeper so let's hope we are scouting now! As for other positions, to make this a decent summer for transfers, we need a first choice centre back, especially if Vestergaard leaves, a CB/DM hybrid that Ralph has alluded to, a back up left back and, IMO, another attack-minded midfielder along the lines of Stu Armstrong. (Delaney?) Defense though is the most important to strengthen now, so let's hope we can get it done. We still have money in the bank from the Ings transfer and will have money if we can sell Obafemi and Vestergaard so let's use it! None of this 'keeping it until January just in case' malarkey. The squad needs to be strong NOW!

Welcome Adam. A good age, English striker who has proved he can put the ball in the back of the net at Championship level. Let's hope he can form a good partnership with Che and replace the goals we've lost in Ings. Apparently he has a good engine and doesn't get injured much, so we should get more game time out of him than Danny. People that say he's a Championship striker... well yes but that is the market we are shopping in. I'd rather a promising top striker from the Championship than a has-been striker with iffy Premier League experience. Armstrong and Broja give us two new options to replace one player. And if he's rubbish? Well we can probably still recoup what we paid for him anyway! 😏 Adams, Armstrong, Broja. Will Obafemi and Long leave? I guess that would leave Walcott competing as our 4th choice striker with Tella, but both are versatile.

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.