SaintBobby

The loyalty points system thingy is just bizarre and totally incompetent. Agree with those saying this match is mispriced too. I doubt it will maximise revenue and, in any event, it's worth getting more fans packed in to increase our chances of winning. Madness.

Well, don't disagree with that really. But I think you can make some judgements without a player even kicking a ball for us - you just need to be aware that the judgements can easily turn out to be wrong. On balance, I'd say the early signs are that our 3 new signings look pretty good - but that's not definitive, of course.

Pretty strange that we've been unable to offload him. Is he on some mental salary and we're unwilling to pay any % of it? If so, looks like a "lose lose" situation - we end up paying, say, £30K a week and Billy rots in the reserves.

I think, on balance, I'd prefer to have Osvaldo and Wanyama for £27m than Barry and Lukaku on loan. But it's a close run thing. Of course, Lukaku and Barry aren't "free" - I don't know how their enormous wages are being paid (SSN said Barry was on £120K a week). But with wages and loan fees, Everton may well be paying £5m or £6m more than the "running costs" of Osvaldo and Wanyama over the season and will have nothing to sell on at the end of it. So, I think the real numbers are Osvaldo and Wanyama on permanent deals and a net cost of about £22m or Barry and Lukaku. Even if Osvaldo and Wanyama flop pretty badly, I think we'd be able to recoup a fairly big chunk of the £22m. In any event, it's not obvious to me that Lukaku or Barry would have seriously entertained the idea of coming to SMS.

Pretty excellent all round. Most pleasing thing for me is we've retained all the players we wanted to retain, apparently effortlessly. Potential downsides: 1. We've invested all of our cash in 3 players, if any of them flop, that's going to stand out big time. So far though, I'd say all three look promising, with Lovren almost looking "proven". 2. Not a great deal of squad depth - I think we can name 25 players for the league (excluding under-21s?) and am not sure we really have 25 players worth listing, maybe only 22 or 23. 3. Strange to let Puncheon go and not replace him with a like-for-like player. No obvious blistering pace up front and signing such a player would have completed the set for me. All in all, though, reasons to be cheerful. Probably B+.

I wouldn't be too happy as a West Brom fan right now. Anchibe? Meh. And Shane Long is recalled from signing on the dotted line at Hull, as they wanted Lukaku. So, he knows he's not really wanted.

I agree. We have a very good squad, but not great. Still, onwards and upwards. It's getting better every year...

FFS...the Saints "fans" on SSN were lame as f*ck. Embarassing.

Transfer window is always so boring for us. We do our business too early FFS.

Overall, a strong window for Saints. Getting rid of the "surplus to requirements" players has been important too. Another positive "defensive" issue is that our top players don't have the vultures circling - Shaw, Lambert, Lallana, Schneiderlin etc all clearly staying. We're keeping what we have with ease. I'm still wildly hoping we sign a new player (pacey winger ideally), but am glad we basically got in our new players early this year (as folk on here have been advocating so strongly).

Intrigued by Lennon. Think he might very well leave Spurs by 11pm. That doesn't mean we are a sure to sign him of course, just that I think it's better than 50-50 he will leave Spurs (maybe on loan)

Lennon would be an amazing catch - anyone linked to him?

Wtf? Wanyama was excellent in his first two games. Osvaldo has only played for about 100 minutes - and has already shown some real promise. All three signings improve the team.

Epic trolling. Congrats!

Definitely need a pacey wide man. I guess we try and shift out Sharp, Barnard, Forte too - any others?

That might be nearer "world class", very few players achieve that. I'd say having a set of skills good enough to get you into one of the top 20 or so international squads in the world on a reasonably consistent basis.

Without either Shaw or Clyne, we really do seem to look very slow. Puncheon also added some zip when we used him.

He's a great player. Just hasn't adapted at all well yet. That's not unusual, sadly.

Well, that's cheered me up after a pretty poor performance from Saints. They're down to 18th in League 2 now, no? Sn1gger.

Pretty poor. Strange to bring Lallana off. We don't seem to be creating enough.

Rodriguez for JWP?

groan.

Hmmmm....taken off our best performing player....

When was the last time we got to 415pm without a single goal in the 3pm top flight games?

Very odd he isn't on the bench IMHO. He's one of the most versatile squad players we have. Most be a long time since Cork has been fit and not included in the squad.