Midfield_General

Not sure if they'd go for him, as an Irishman?

I've missed something - how come Ramsdale and Fernandes are late back? What international duty is there?

Oh dear

If we are, as rumoured, offering him £100k per week to stay, then I'm also not convinced a move to a club like Sunderland would actually be all that appealing to Ramsdale. Are they going to pay him much more than that, for a deal which would mean uprooting his family again to go to literally the other end of country, just to get smashed every week for the second season running and almost certainly relegated yet again, to put a fourth relegation on his CV? Would that really help his financial situation, his England chances or his quality of life enough to make it worthwhile? I'm not sure it would. If a half-decent southern team came in for him then obviously it's a different story, but I think there's a reasonable chance he might turn the likes of Sunderland down, unless they offered him really, really silly money.

Hilarious. While the players still turned up for pre-season on time despite not having been paid, he didn’t and hasn’t been there for three weeks while he’s been trying to get another job. Now the last one’s going to someone else he goes back with his tail between his legs. Obviously the situation over there is carnage, but he really has shown himself in a terrible light by the selfish way he’s behaved throughout. Even if he does well in future I think a lot of clubs will have serious question marks over his character.

Yeah. Let’s stop calling him a ‘servant’ shall we.

This is all fine as a measure of success if you just view the club as a business that exists to make as much money as it can from trading assets e.g. players. If however you view Saints as a football club that should exist to, ooh I don't know, win games of football, the analysis of the 'success' of those signings is a bit different: Obviously improved the team and became established first-team regulars: Lavia, Livramento, Fernandes, THB Given lots of first-team opportunities but ultimately were judged not to be up to it for whatever reason (ability, attitude, injury or some combination of those) and ended up dropped, frozen out, loaned out or sold: Mara, Sulemana, SAA, Charles (last season), Edozie, Meghoma, ABK, Larios, Bazunu Jury's out, could still go either way: Charles (this season), Edwards, Wood, Quarshie, Downs In summary - in pure volume terms this 'strategy' has resulted in us accumulating way more players who were below the required standard on the pitch, than ones who were good enough. And herein lies the root issue - in recent years we've been run way too much as a business that primarily focuses on whether we can buy players that will increase in value in some way, rather than whether they are actually what we need on the pitch to win games of football. Hence we've gone from being an established Premier League club who regularly punched above it's weight, to a yo-yo* club unequipped to compete at the top level even if we do find ourselves there. And speaking personally as a supporter, if you can see that the club is basically being run to make profit rather than win games, it does sometimes make you question what the point of it all is, unless you're the type who really, really gets off on a Balance Sheet rather than celebrating a win. It will be interesting to see by the end of the window whether it feels like there's been a marked shift. Not many signs yet, but there's still plenty of time. (* miss you Dalek)

Meh. Let's hope for the best, I guess.

You don't have your captain as 3rd or 4th choice

No. The Scottish PL isn't even rated in the top 30 leagues in Europe, and they can't even win that. They have a big ground and a lot of fans, and their two-horse race league means they get into Europe, but so do Total Network Solutions. In the wider context of the game they're mid-Championship level in terms of pull and spending power. Look at the signings they've made so far that they're getting all excited about - Rothwell for £500,000, Fernandes from Peterborough for £2.9m, Aasgaard from Luton for £4m, Max Aarons on loan. They're mid-level Championship players.

Difficult for your captain to 'lead' if he's not on the pitch

Fuck sake, Saints. Presumably that means he's staying captain as well then, which basically means he's starting every week. So either THB and/ or Simple Jack must be close to being off.

It is. It’s completely made up.

Re the rumour that Ramsdale's not necessarily itching to leave - If we're really offering him £100k a week to stay, then that's a good start as it might mean the decision doesn't just come down to money (which is obviously usually all that matters). There's no reason to disbelieve that he might like the club, have his family settled, think that the offer on the table to stay could work financially etc. So if the money can be put to one side to an extent then I guess it would simply be a question of whether he feels the other aspects of any offers that come in for him are significantly better than giving us another season would be. There's a slightly plausible situation where if his other offers are from say, shite Northern teams like Burnley or Sunderland - where it would mean Prem football but uprooting his family again, having another horrible season and getting hammered every week with almost certain relegation at the end of it, for a similar amount or only slightly more - he might just think that it's not worth it and give us one more year to see if we can get straight back up. With three relegations on his CV already you can definitely see a scenario where a season of banking a hundred grand a week while winning most weeks and challenging for an honour, albeit in a league below, might actually be more appealing than uprooting everything to go to a PL struggler just to get battered and relegated again. It might actually be better for his prospects of getting into the England squad to be in a winning team and would probably be more enjoyable. It might at least give him something to think about. What would presumably be game over though is if someone half-decent and based in the south comes in for him. A West Ham, Fulham, Brighton type club, so he doesn't have to worry about relocation or relegation. And sadly I think there will definitely be at least one of those, if not more, by the end of the window, because he's shown he's good enough for most teams in that league and I think at least one of the more attractive ones will come in for him. It would be great if Bournemouth weren't interested though as it would at least take the most obvious one out of the equation.

Sounds like this one is in the bag. Congratulations @CSA96 for breaking the story!

Fergus29 certainly seems to be a big fan 😉

FT: 2-2. They were better second half once Brugge took their foot off the gas but it was very noticeable that it really doesn't take much for that crowd to turn. If they're ready to boo them off in a pre-season friendly, then if he's not winning every week they're going to be on his back very quickly in the games that actually matter.

True. But when your first Champions League qualifier is in two weeks time, it helps 😉 Edit: 1-2. Shocking defending and goalkeeping from Brugge.

Rusty off to a good start. Their first friendly of pre-season and they were 2-0 down after 15 minutes and have just been booed off by their own fans at half-time 🤣 Fans already questioning their fitness, marking, closing down, defending and the fact that Martin's decided not to wear their precious club suit on the touchline. He has got a big, big task ahead of him.

Or a law firm specialising in defending the Mafia.

Solak said that he’d approved the signings of a defender, attacker and creative midfielder without the need to sell anyone first. We’ve got the defender and attacker now, so hopefully should start seeing some links to creative mids next.

And De Bruyne. Quite impressive for the same club to fail to recognise the potential in not one but two of the world's best players.

Excellent. 23 years old, full German international with three clubs apparently interested. Let's start the bidding at £20m

Spot on

Macca's ony got a year left, and at his stage of his career no-one else will be matching his wages even with a relegation cut, so I very much doubt he'll be going anywhere. As you say, if we get a proper new number 1, Macca's absolutely fine as second/ third choice until his contract expires next year.