Saint Charlie

We must have been confident we could pay Townsend's 40 grand a week. Redmond would jump at the chance of signing for us surely?

Corks Dad thinks he is being messed about....would be inclined (for once) to agree with him.

Brek Shea. We would have really lost the plot if that happens. Christ.

Porto no longer interested in Clasie. Surely we arent unless we lose one or two central midfielders? We already have too many in that area.

I'm sure they will do well because they are good players. Games like the ones versus Madrid are why they wanted to leave.

Could be, all the players we have got this summer have been where the move is a no brainer for them. Mostly a chance to play PL football, big pay rise or in the case of Long a family decision.

Yeah although the Journalist did mumble the name as possible he didnt understand who he was on about. Have to say the standard and intelligence of the questions in those pressers is laughably poor. If we are getting two by Monday then I would expect some more concrete links will emerge very soon.

Koeman said he had never heard of Cerci in his press conference today.

As in the title, Jay and Mark Noble are the guests on GoS this week. Will be interesting to hear what he says, likely comeback timeframe, thoughts on the summer and maybe his future. We miss him badly, class player.

http://gianlucadimarzio.com/en/calciomercato/southampton-and-benfica-are-interested-in-weder-bremens-selke/ English version.

Hmmm. This won't help the credability of my post. Even though most of that is true apart from the Instgram stuff was very unprofessional.

Of course they should have known how Boruc would react. That is basic management of the situation. Koeman said himself he completely understood Boruc's situation. Hardly a huge shock than an Intl keeper doesnt want to be a no 2. The fact we signed a 15 year old from Torquay is irrelevant because hw won't be first team ready, if at all, for at least 6 years. Watson a great addition and probably helped us get Forster, but he isn't going to improve Davis.

When you have ample opportunity to change it, why should you just get on with it? The whole point of evolving as a team is identifying the weaknesses and resolving them. GK backup was probably our biggest weakness last season. Should have been sorted. We can only hope nobody comes in for Boruc.

With the players we have, and the lack of wide options I can only think this is our best team at the moment, assuming Gardos isnt ready yet: ------------------------------------Forster-------------------------------------- Clyne---------------Fonte--------------------------Yoshida-----------Bertrand --------------------Wanyama------------------------Schneiderlin----------------- JWP or Long----------------------Ramirez------------------------------Tadic -----------------------------------Pelle------------------------------------------ Would maybe go with JWP for his crossing then Long later in the game as otherwise there is literally nothing on the bench to make a genuine impact going forward.

Most keepers will miss a handful of games in a season through one reason or another.

McCarthy is going to QPR. They already have Green so one of them will be a no2. In addition Given, Jussi J, Pantilimon or Mannone will be no 2 keepers for teams we would be expecting to finish above - all are considerably better than our backup if Boruc goes.

Very true, and at this stage players will know who is interested and its in their interest to hold out, see who else comes in for them, and how high the money goes. I also know that it oftens happens every year that business is done late and desparately. I guess I just thought that in May and June when it became clear we would let 5 or 6 of our best players leave for lots of money, that we might have a good plan in place to replace them. Reed talks of succession planning of players in certain positions, scouting and recruitment teams, targets being very keen to join us, and a calmness within the club. From the outside the perception is different. Despite having all summer (and the whole of 2014) to plan our approach we may well end up with a no 2 keeper who has proven himself poor in the PL and is 38. The fact we are just "seeing what happens" with Boruc I can partly understand and partly find it mental. If we sell him then Davis will be our no 2. If we keep him then Boruc will be. Thats quite a massive difference in quality between the two scenarios yet we are happy to just "see what happens" and ultimately, we are not in control of the outcome. Quite bizarre. When Forster inevitably picks up a knock and misses a game the reaction here will be the same as the last two years of watching the hilariously hapless Gazzaniga and an ageing Davis. Its almost like they didnt think Boruc would be annoyed, or hadn't even considered it. We have spend £10m on a goalkeeper and quite possibly (if Boruc goes) havent even strengthened overall in the position!

It not about him, nor a case of winning at anything. He doesn't sign the players, so absolutely nothing against him whatsoever. In fact, the opposite, I am sympathising with him, because he has an inbalanced squad with stacks of central midfielders and then bugger all in other areas. After the Millwall game he seemed hopefully of getting someone this week before the West Ham game, which looks like it won't happen. Today again he is hopeful of something before the deadline. To me being "hopeful" doesn't suggest there is much imminent which is a slight concern for me, as we still have some pretty major requirements, as we currently have zero fit natural wide players aside from Tadic and nothing at right back if Clyne were to be injured. Not sure why people get so precious about opinions, pretty widely accepted this window hasn't gone to plan, so whats the issue?

Even on the outgoings, he didnt say they couldn't go because we want to keep them, but because the squad is too small. If Boruc goes our keeping situation is still poor, and for a Manager who likes playing a wide 4-3-3 to not have been given any genuine wingers to select is quite a shame. Imagine he is fairly frustrated, as he will be judged compared to Pochettino and isn't being given a fair chance IMO.

Didn't sound like much imminent, apart from he "hopes" to get someone in.

Poyet tried hard to get van Dijk when he was at Brighton so has held a long term interest. After we signed Gardos, Koeman said no more CB signings. Maybe that has changed, especially if we let Jos leave.

Great response.

Big shame if he does go, especially after the other departures and the fact he wouldnt be going to a bigger club. No idea why we don't want him, and its our loss. Be interesting how they spin it. Probably a further indication that MS will stay, but he will be gone by this time next year. Very few will be left from the Cortese era.

Fair enough mate. End of the day its been a bloody awful window, the worst Saints have had by far since the window was introduced - understandable for fans to show a bit of frustration over it. The club's leaders need to earn the respect of fans, and so far haven't done enough to deserve unequivocal support IMO. Will be interesting to hear what Koeman says today - I imagine will be more of the same "hoping" to get players in, "still need one or two" etc. If at this stage we sdon't have specific targets that we are closing on, and are still hoping, then its not ideal. I wonder if some of the players Reed mentioned were gagging to come here in May/June are still on the radar.

Its not a problem, its just the fact of the situation. Why be so touchy about it? End of the day, we still need a player out wide who will start week in week out and currently have no adequate cover for Clyne or Forster (if Boruc goes). Ralph Krueger and Wes Tender said to judge on Sept 1st and Les Reed said overall we wanted a stronger squad. At this stage we have a weaker squad and first team so hopefully its a busy few days. To go into next season with Kelvin Davis as no 2 keeper would clearly show a lack of thought out strategy and an unwillingness to learn from the (relatively few) mistakes of last season.