SNSUN

Rebuild for next season’s Championship push! Well travesty of travesty he beat AA into the team of the season last year so he must have something about him! Seriously how AA didn’t get in that team I’ll never know.

Rooney getting spanked. Long season ahead for Plymouth. Come on Saints, cheeky bid for Whittaker even though he was pants today.

We've had seasons in the Prem where we fail to get many points for ages, the Souness season springs to mind, and it's possible that could happen to us again, but bar Newcastle the first 6 games are largely favourable - coming out of them with 6-8 points would be ideal but I'm not holding my breath. Already the Forest game looks like a 6 pointer. I think the squad is in a reasonable place to start the season - it's not near the finished article but we should have enough about us to compete. Newcastle away though - that's not a nice start! I think the starting line up is the one we saw start yesterday. I don't want to predict a defeat in our first game so I'm going for a cagey 1-1. I do think we'll win the possession stats though.

Hard to tell from such little game time... but when he came on against WBA in the play off first leg I thought he looked very direct like he wanted to score, which a good striker should do. https://www.skysports.com/football/video/30998/13134530/alex-mccarthy-makes-big-save-for-saints-before-alex-palmer-keeps-out-stewart The concerns are of course his fitness and his lack of Prem experience but I don't think we should be completely writing him off just yet. He's only 28.

I think Carvalho would be a decent signing, I think he has shown he can put the ball in the back of the net and he offers flexibility too. Proper 9s are few and far between in the modern game but I like the look of an AA, Carvalho, BBD forward line for fluidity. However I think we play 3 CBs against Newcastle which gives the defence better protection but stunts us somewhat as an attacking force. It worked against Leeds in the final but we need it to work against Prem teams. It'll be AA and BBD up front for Newcastle IMO.

Apart from fannying around with the ball at the back with our passing game and conceding stupid goals (which we all hope won't happen but probably will from time to time), I actually think defensively we're in a better place this season than we were pre-relegation, and with Lis seemingly going on loan we must be bringing in a new Keeper. It's scoring goals that worries me. Without a good striker and one more attack minded midfielder I worry we have enough goals in us. I'm hoping SAA and Dibling don't get loaned out to provide us with an "unknown" factor. An attack force of BBD, AA, Mara and Stewart doesn't fill me with confidence that we'll score that many. Hopefully AA will continue his Championship form in a settled side unlike his last Prem stint and hopefully BBD gives us something more than we got with Adams but there are definitely pieces of the jigsaw missing that we will hopefully rectify before the end of the window.

"Hey Jurgen buddy, miss ya, hugs and kisses! Let me know when you get a new job and I'll be on the first plane out."

I'd take Skipp. No frills but has a bit of experience and is probably "our level". Had a decent spell at Norwich the last time they got promoted in the Championship.

Better him than signing Russian player Waystuv Spayz.

Not a fan of a transfer saga. Much prefer me an out of the blue, get the job done quickly and quietly transfer like Sugawara! That said if we do somehow get O'Riley with the other teams interested it will feel like a real accomplishment!

There’s little doubt that potentially signing O’Riley, Carvalho and Ramsdale would greatly enhance our chances of survival but I’m hoping we have other choices for if and when we don’t get these. I’m also thinking the baggage we have on high wages is presently holding us back on things. Sell Onuachu, ABK and even Charly in the next week hypothetically would give us lots more scope to buy the players we want but it’s not that easy and it will all definitely go down to the last few days of the window.

As it stands: Winners - City Relegated - Leicester, Saints, Ipswich. Tough to see anyone bar the promoted sides coming back down but we'll see. Saints definitely need more quality by the end of August.

I'll take 17th all day long. 3 going up are the 3 that will likely come back down but with some points deductions being handed out there is a chance. A team like Palace that have lost Olise and could lose Eze may also struggle to adjust and Everton... well there's a team that really should be relegation fodder. Ten wins should be enough with a handful of draws. Anything else is a bonus. The team lacks quality right now but hopefully this will still be addressed by the end of August.

Dibling and Bednarek are the key ones (alongside possibly Meghoma). Bednarek for the experience alongside the three younger CBs (with Jack also there for experience) and Dibling because he's going to be a top player we don't want to be losing with minimal compensation in a year's time. I'm sure the club have both in hand though (at least we have to hope). KWP is an odd one. I'm sure we want to keep him, I'm guessing a contract offer is on the table (much as it was with Che) and KWP seems happy to stick around for now but with PSR looming over clubs now, can we risk losing him on a free in a year? We would be much stronger with KWP in the side this year alongside the other full backs but I think the signing of Sugawara was ultimately us preparing for the inevitable. I guess it depends who wants him now the West Ham link seems to have dried up.

It's a smart bit of business from the club. 7 mill is buttons in the Prem but we have a player that has proven to put himself about a bit, scores a few, is a good age and is versatile. Either he scores goals/gets assists to keep up or, worst case scenario, we have our attack pretty sorted for the next promotion push. We still need a proper striker, getting that right is key, but for now we have another option in attack and we are suddenly looking in much better shape. Bring in O'Riley or similar, sort out the Keeper situation and without any other outs, we're in reasonable to good shape to start the season. Hopefully the players we have that we want to sell like Onuachu, ABK etc aren't holding us back on spending too much. I'd still like us to announce a couple of new contracts soon...

Ooh a wunderkind. This would be an amazing coup because on Football Manager he's excellent and that's all I need to know.

2 and 8 will still be here IMO. 3 and 5 will probably still be here unless someone becomes interested. 10 only if we can't get him to renew his contract (and then we'd need a new CB) and 11 has been signed for the squad. 4,6,7 and 9 are accurate I'd suggest though Larios is really putting in the work it seems but with Taylor and Manning it's unlikely he'll be retained for the season... although he can play right back.

I have Mickey Evans in the same league as Johnno Quick Forte for what they did for us in their short spells. One scored the goals that helped keep us up and the other scored a couple of goals that turned a game that got us promoted. As for Ken Monkou he was a big favourite of mine. I spent a fortune of my parents money listening to the last ten minutes of "that" Norwich game dialling into Club call to listen to the commentary.

Double post, stupid hotel WIFI here in Ibiza. Nothing to do with AI Vodka.

One that can play there for sure. If we play 4-3-3 there's a possibility he can play wide left, AA wide right and we still bring in another number 9. At the very least it gives us options. We've also been trailing BBD since his Blackburn days. Does he count as a double barrelled name? 😁

I do think age and expectation sometimes has something to do with it. Especially Sulemana who was almost our record transfer aged 20 after having been moved from Ghana to Denmark to France then to England in the space of 3 years. I'm very much in the camp of not writing players off when they're still young in footballing terms... however I agree that we've seen a fair bit from both Kamaldeen and Mara and they've not shown much that either will make it right now. Mara appears to have some technical ability and has shown he can score the odd chance, but is lazy. Sulemana has pace and little else that I've seen. If they do improve and impress us this season (if they're still here) then I take my hat off to them but I personally doubt they will. I know not every footballer is universal but Will Smallbone is an example of a late bloomer, although how he fairs in the Prem remains to be seen. We do need to sort some contracts out though, I hope we get Dibling and Bednarek down and it would be a dream to get KWP to commit. Meghoma is the other one that needs looking at. Dibling could have a huge future and to not secure him for the next 4/5 years would be a travesty. We need to say he'll be part of the team this season if he signs. Him and SAA have shown they should be part of the project and they'd be an X Factor for us against teams in the Prem who might not know too much about them (bar Spurs and Chelsea of course...)

You get a whole year of sweet sweet SWF goodness for a fiver. Now that's money well spent.

These are largely my thoughts - those 3 have earned their chance, as has Bednarek if he stays. I also agree with the description of Will, I find him technically decent, good eye for a pass, gets into positions to score, but he’s not the quickest and there were times last season that he didn’t work hard enough defensively. Hopefully all coachable and he can still improve but he’ll definitely be in the starting line up alongside Downes and, we hope, O’Riley with Charles, Aribo, Lallana and Charly as alternatives (and hopefully Dibling).

I want us to pay the right price (for us) for O’Riley but Celtic know they have a popular asset on their hands so will want the auction. If Martin and O’Riley are buds, that bodes well for us but I doubt he’ll go handing in a transfer request so presumably we’ll have to pay closer to what Celtic want than what we want. Either way id just like it to be done sooner rather than later so he can get some decent pre-season in with us and learn our tactic of getting the ball back to the keeper asap. 😀 As for Rak-Sakyi, I know little of him but I would like to see us use SAA and Dibling this season - I know they’re only 18 but both appear to have something about them and it would show others there’s a pathway there - and maybe Dibling would sign a new contract as his is out next year I believe. The club assumedly know what they’re doing but I’d rather sign a more proven experienced winger if we’re going to bring one in than Rak-Sakyi - although it would bolster our double-barrelled name quota.

Bodes well for us, O’Riley would probably see our midfield business done unless we ship any out like Aribo. Then (bar selling anyone) we need to concentrate on the attack.