Midfield_General

Yeah I know, I'm not saying that we'll play 4-2-1-3, it's more just meant to be a rough sketch of the general areas of the pitch that these players tend to play in. Obviously many of them are interchangeable and can play different positions, we'll play different formations etc. Just trying to illustrate it in terms of the general 'at least two players for every position' rule, to see if there's anywhere that we obviously still look too weak.

I wonder if this is essentially the squad for the season now then (with players in brackets unlikely to stay/ be available). If Onuachu, Sulemana, ABK and Manning can be shipped out over the course of tomorrow, maybe there's still room for a more traditional centre-forward type, possibly that Gift fella or someone like him.

Could well be decent in his own right, but he's another one who likes to play wide so if that's the end of our business then that still leaves us very light at centre forward. Onuachu obviously doesn't have a future, Stewart can't be expected to suddenly get fit and stay fit. That puts a huge amount of pressure on Archer, because what are our other options down the middle? Armstrong we've tried many times and it doesn't work. What other options do we have at no. 9 if Archer doesn't work out - move Brereton-Diaz into the middle? Looks like we're relying on Archer, Armstrong, BBD and Cornet for most of the goals, plus whatever Fernandes, Dibling, and maybe SAA/ Lallana can chip in. I wouldn't count Edozie or Sulemana as a goal threat based on their records. I'm really not convinced that's enough firepower at PL level. Hope I'm wrong though.

Personally I’m quite glad we’re not spaffing £18m on Alberto, looked like a very high-risk signing to me.

Hahaha good Win / win

"Still fucked", was Martin's surprisingly frank answer in the presser earlier.

Welease Wamsdale!

Hopefully @Lighthouse - please can you oblige so we can keep this thread to transfers?

A historic cruciate injury and incidents in the past sparked by being sexist to women and refusing to wear rainbow laces in a stand against homophobia. https://www.theguardian.com/football/2023/may/14/toulouse-players-left-out-of-squad-after-refusal-to-offer-lgbt-support https://www.marca.com/en/football/ligue-1/2023/05/16/646354d1e2704ed5528b458b.html This should be a fun discussion 🤔🔫

Translation: Southampton targets Zakaria Aboukhlal (Toulouse) The English club Southampton, promoted to the Premier League, is working to convince Toulouse to let its Moroccan international Zakaria Aboukhlal leave. In the process of recruiting Norwegian winger Joshua King, Toulouse is being attacked on one of its players playing in the same position. TFC has indeed opened discussions with Southampton, very motivated by the idea of recruiting Zakaria Aboukhlal in the last hours of the transfer window, as explained by Foot Mercato. If nothing has been done yet, the promoted to the Premier League hopes to move quickly on the Moroccan international, still tied to the club of the Pink City for two seasons. Aboukhlal had already attracted the covetousness of British clubs last summer, notably Brighton, at a time when TFC was not necessarily opposed to the idea of parting with him, a few weeks after the controversial episode of the day against homophobia. The 2022 World Cup semi-finalist then had a very consistent start to the season (3 goals in 5 L1 matches) before suffering a cruciate ligament rupture in his right knee. He returned to competition last March.

Ah

Everton away

When's the last time we scored five away from home?

Oh I know. You can only play what's in front of you though, and with the caveats that it was against very weak opposition he was good, as were Dibling and Fernandes. We've been shite against shite opposition so many times though, that I'm taking a bit of encouragement from it.

Lallana is not my favourite person by any means but fair fucks, he was excellent when he came on. If he can stay fit, play a part and not encourage all our promising youngsters to leave then maybe over time he can still work his way back into my good books, which I'm sure will inspire him.

I would add to that: Ramsdale Sugawara THB Bednarek KWP Les Downes That's actually starting look pretty solid

Another slam dunk to add to the Alex Crook hall of fame 🤣 Absolute joker

Holy shit Incredible bit of business. Could well be our most important signing of the season.

I’ve always thought that culture-wise, Stoke beats the shit out of Florence

True. Dibden Purlieu’s just down the road, in case any of them need a new hip or fancy an all-you-can-eat carvery

On a slight tangent, I wonder if RM has had any assurances that he stays in the job even if we go down? Because it would be pretty difficult for him otherwise, buying into a transfer policy that is all about the long-term, if he thought he might still be for the chop if we do badly in the short-term.

Nice. Maybe £16m base, rising to that with add-ons? No idea, but you have to say that regardless of whether the fans think he should be given a chance in the side or not, those are pretty good numbers for a fringe player who clearly wasn’t going to be part of the plans under RM.

No idea how it’s structured, that’s just the headline figure being reported. Agree though that it’s unlikely to all be up front, hardly any deals seem to be done like that anymore, it generally seems to be done in instalments and then some add-ons

Being reported as around £16m

Fair enough mate. I don't agree but it's a game of opinions 👍