Midfield_General

Guardian also hinting at interest in Rodriguez in their round-up of available free agents: Guido Rodríguez A reigning world and Copa América champion with Argentina who looked set to move from Real Betis to Barcelona, only for the transfer to fall through. Rodríguez is not a flashy midfielder but is intelligent and has been recognised for some time as being one of the best No 6s in La Liga. The 30-year-old has been spun through the rumour mill more than most and could surface in Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Italy or even Southampton, depending on who you believe.

Do you think the management team don’t know this too?

Quality defensive mid. Yes please

Maybe, but having already replaced him, and with him in his final year, I’d have thought that any fee was better than letting him for nothing. Could of course be wrong though, and selfishly I’d love to get one more season out of him.

Yep, fair point. Personally I love him and until he's actually gone I would love to think that there's a place for him in the side, even if Yuki is now clearly our first choice RB. But he's not injured as far as I know, so I can't think of any other possible reason for not involving him.

Not really. Russ has said more than once that if our valuation is met then he'll be sold. That couldn't really make it clearer that we need to sell him, so as the window goes on I suspect that valuation will be reduced until someone buys him. Management know that one way or another he won't be here this season, so there's no point playing him or planning for having him.

I think that a conversation of that type took place too. The best I think we can hope for though, is that he was told the shirt was his to lose. So, Macca will start the season in goal, but we (and he) could still expect another keeper to come in and start on the bench. Then when/ if Macca has a bad spell, he can be replaced without the agreement having been compromised. All speculation of course, but I just can't believe that a) Macca would have signed otherwise, or b) that Russ would be willing to risk everything, including his job, on blind hope that Macca can be relied upon. Especially given how shaky he's looked in pre-season.

And hopefully that's what he will do. He's adapted before when he could see he needed to, and while he's trying stuff in pre-season (which is exactly the time to do it), I think he'll do it again if we don't have the players to do it his ideal way in time for Newcastle. He's never going to throw his principles in the bin, but he's shown he can be pragmatic in terms of formation and personnel when he needs to. He's not stupid, and he's not as utterly inflexible as some suggest. The play-offs showed that. He identified that we needed to play a certain way to get the results, and that's what he/we did.

Another interesting post-match snippet: Interviewer suggested that last night’s result was the first ‘hiccup’ of pre-season. Russ gives a wry little chuckle and says ‘oh there have been plenty of hiccups, you just don’t see them’. Would love to know what that was in reference to. Wonder what’s gone on that we don’t know about?

Getting worrying now. I really hope he’s just saying what he needs to say in public in order to not throw McCarthy under the bus, while in the background telling SR we badly need a keeper upgrade. Because if he really thinks Macca just ‘needs games’ to get to the required level, then yeah, we are bang in trouble.

Russ not happy in his post-match comments. Paraphrasing but said they lacked intensity and that it ‘felt’ like a friendly which he didn’t like. Said no excuse for it and they shouldn’t expect that to be acceptable. Said they played without joy or personality, especially in the first half, which he was surprised about as they try to make sure they enjoy training etc, and want to see that enjoyment translate to the pitch when they play. Called out Sam Amo as the only one who really played with joy or expressed himself, and questioned why it should be down to the 18 year old to set the example. Said BBD will get some minutes on Saturday. Overall sounded quite irritated and disappointed, especially with the first half team. Clearly pissed off that they didn’t appear to be putting in maximum effort.

Still pretty good value for £8m no?

I for one am sure that 'modest Charlie' will be a great lad to have around a non-league dressing room, and absolutely won't act like a complete knob giving it the big one and decimating any team spirit they may have

New 'Chilean' forum comedy character incoming in 3, 2, 1... Amor y luz

No, but if it doesn't work out at St Mary's he's got a strong fallback career option as a Tommy Fleetwood tribute act

7m is buttons at PL level now so on paper he looks a very shrewd signing. Welcome BBD

Or until we actually see them play in the PL. Let's not forget how brilliant lots of people thought our transfers had been before we went down with a whimper.

I'm sure someone can enlighten me, but how is this sort of thing not considered bent? One club buying players and then immediately loaning them to the same team who otherwise wouldn't have the means to acquire them - isn't that seen as trying to circumnavigate FFP or whatever? Is there a limit to the number of times we're allowed to do it?

That's really interesting about Jones. Obviously his football was awful, so whatever good he was doing behind the scenes wasn't translating to PL-level results. I do wonder though how much longer he would have lasted if he could have just kept his mouth shut and given bland, media-trained interviews like everyone else, rather than blurting out the mad stuff he came out with which quickly lost him any remaining respect and turned him into a joke figure with the fans and the media. That's illuminating, given how much speculation there was at the time over the 'injuries'. Pretty sure that was what that non-league manager - Paul Doswell? - was driving at when he gave the Solent interview that Jones then went barrelling into afterwards to defend himself. Also explains why there appears to have been absolutely no attempt to reintegrate the other one, who presumably is the one still at the club but just back from loan, back into the squad. Just get rid and move on from that toxic chapter. Thanks for sharing the insights.

Well, that’s the complex, nuanced and long-running national debate on identity and gender conformity finally settled. I’ll let everyone know. Thanks SaintsLoyal.

They could do with watching everything in that video.

Forest casually unveiling Keylor Navas was also a fairly spectacular loan signing. It shows it can be done.

Behave yourself. How many chances have Mara and Sulemana had. And it's not because they're 'not the finished product', it's because they contribute absolutely fuck all, ever.

I think he could offer something too, especially off the bench. Big lumps can always have an impact, even in the PL, even if its just to change the complexion of a match and cause a bit of chaos and either get a head to something, hold it up to bring other players in or just attract worried defenders to create more space for others. I've got no problem with it if you're a goal down with fifteen minutes to go and have nothing to lose. Look at Koeman too, regularly bringing on Weghorst in the Euros when he needed to shake things up. There's still a place for it. But Martin's such a purist that I just can't see him ever lumping it up to the big man, in any circumstances. If I was in charge though, needed a goal and my bench options were Onuachu or Mara? There's not even a discussion to be had. Get warmed up big lad.

Onuachu has scored 74 goals in 179 games in Denmark, 85 in 134 in Belgium and last year scored 17 in 25 in Turkey. He's old-fashioned, doesn't fit our style and will never be a Martin player but comparing him to Mara is like comparing Zlatan to Antony Pulis.