Midfield_General

Fair play to Russ, he called that one. I’ll be the first to say it, seeing as it’s cost us our first and only match so far. I hate it. Why are they passing that close to their own goal?

Up to £16m fee, plus wages, for a promising but raw player on a perm in a position we don’t need when we’re apparently low on funds and utterly desperate for a starting keeper, attacking mid and goalscorer. When the price of getting it wrong is the hundreds of millions it’s worth to stay in the PL. Righto. I’d love to think this means we’ve got those other three positions covered and we’re going to unveil them this week, so this lad can be the luxury on top, but somehow I’m not sure that’s the case. Don’t ever change Saints, you bunch of absolute mentalists 🤣

Nice one, cheers 👍 Another simple concept that worked perfectly made worse and more needlessly complex - chalk it up along with handball and offside. Also if you do have to it that way, why not just add another column called ‘blocked’ so it’s clear? Anyway.

Aha - I see - cheers

How does 5 shots on target and 4 shots off target equal 19 shots in total? Where did the other 10 go?

Nope, I don't get it either. As a club we act very, very strangely when it comes to keepers. We never seem to just make the obvious, common sense decision when it comes to that position. It's very odd indeed.

But last season Russ didn't even trust him enough to make him reserve keeper in the Championship. He made him third choice, behind Lumley, so it's pretty obvious he doesn't really rate him. Starting the season with last season's Championship 3rd choice as starting keeper in the PL is quite clearly barmy. Which does actually make me feel positive, because it means we can't possibly see it as the permanent solution, so we absolutely must be looking at bringing in a PL-quality starting keeper. Because even Saints wouldn't be that mental. Would they?

I think one of Sulemana, Edozie, SAA would have to ship out first

Happy with this, welcome aboard

Interview with Martin in the Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/football/article/2024/aug/16/russell-martin-southampton-premier-league Extract: "Some people will hate it and say: ‘Why are they passing that close to their own goal?’" 😬

Clearly not quite the finished article but quick feet, good movement, strong and seems to strike the ball really well. Lots to like there.

Can I just ask what you're basing that on, given that he was utterly ineffective in the league below and has done absolutely nothing pre-season? Genuinely curious.

£120k per week, and apparently he won't drop that, so personally I think that rules him out

Horrible to say, but I don't think anyone should expect to see Stewart again. I think he's done and is going to be forced to retire, sadly. I can see an unexpected, leftfield deadline-day loan coup happening for a more traditional no. 9 striker that comes out of nowhere. Either that, or we end keeping Onuachu, which personally I wouldn't be against.

Nice surprise out of what feels like nowhere. Welcome aboard

Apart from the bit about finishing, of course.

“Can’t find any legs or a pulse boss” ”OK in which case tell them we’ll pay £11m but not a penny more”

Drop one of the forwards and play 5-3-2 with 2 defensive mids and the wing backs providing the width

Put Ramsdale in goal, confirm KWP at LB and put an actual goalscoring midfielder in the Aribo/ Smallbone role and that XI actually looks like it might have a chance of staying out of the bottom 3

12m?? * Starts the car * ”Get in, Sekou, we’re driving to Strasbourg”

Come back Che, all is forgiven

Oh terrific

Good call, playing against 13 players is the last thing they'll be expecting

In the not-too-distant past, clubs being willing to pay those sort of fees for young players generally without PL experience would have been a massive plus for us, rather than a negative, because it would have been our youth academy products who were being bought for silly money, helping us to stay financially competitive. Poor recruitment has hurt us badly on the buying side, but on the selling side you could argue that the way our academy has dried up in terms of no longer producing great young players who get snapped up for big fees has hurt us equally badly. We've gone from being strong at both recruitment and development and being able to 'win' twice, to being poor at both and 'losing' twice. Hopefully Dibling and/ or SAA will help address that negative trend this season.

Leicester did 'kick on' quite significantly in that they won the Premier League and got to the quarter finals of the Champions League, to be fair