Saint Charlie

Can't see us paying any of their wages. Even fringe players will be on 60k plus most likely.

We will be the club whose fax machine ****s up and we fail to register someone by the deadline. Probably a **** loan signing though so might not matter

Our lack of transfer spend isnt to do with FFP rules.

Of course not. Its awful.

We have a fairly strong team but possibly the worst PL squad depth wise.

Still nothing on the two centre backs we are in dire need of then? Or anyone to complement our one proper striker two weeks before the season?

Lol at the Kiesling stuff. Nothing posted on the UI has ever been anything more than bull****.

Its means nothing apart from they signed them after everyone else did testing and Yoshida was back after everyone else had done it. They probably had a day off today so got those lads in to do the tests.

Current first XI is good enough to stay up but not the squad as a whole. And its a squad game. Central defence, wide and up front we are woefully thin.

I asked a couple of Italian Journos on Twitter if Taider and Schelotto were good signings: Journo 1: I think they are good moves, especially Taider. Schelotto can be very good but is inconsistent Journo 2: Good players, especially Taider, but Schelotto plays well if used properly. He (Schelotto) is an old-fashioned right-winger, high energy, decent crosser. Good enough for PL? Probably, yeah

Its a fact that we have a weaker squad than ended last season.

Surely its proven by now that we can only work on one deal at a time.

When we sign Schelotto the OS will probably say something like: Saints have beaten a host of top European clubs to the signing of Italy International Ezequiel Schelotto. CEO Gareth Rogers commented, "Ezequiel is an excellent young player who continues our policy of signing proven young talent. I am excited to watch him and am sure our fans will be keen to see him play." Schelotto said, "This is a dream come true for me. I love the Premier League and the chance to work for such a respected CEO as Gareth is great. When I first met Les Reed I was so impressed with the amount of money he brought in by selling the best players. That made me feel I could be a part of the club." Tickets to watch the debut of Ezequiel versus Leverkusen are still available. Ryan Bertrand, Giorgios Samaras, Barry Robson and Gary Caldwell will also be paraded before kick off.

Newcastle signing Lascelles and Darlow from Forest, great couple of prospects. Think they are loaning them back for a year. Would say of the teams below us last year they have done the best business so far on paper. Certainly now have squad depth far in advance of us.

Sorry misread the Echo table! http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/sport/saints/news/11384555._/?ref=mac We have dropped from 40 at the start of the summer.

Yeah Ive been to Bournemouth and Brighton and we were decent, especially at Brighton. I do think the quality of opposition hasnt been very good. The part timers were just for fitness but Swindon had been beaten by Eastleigh a couple of days before we played them. Bournemouth were decent enough, but Brighton dreadful. When you look at most of the other PL teams they have tended to have tougher games. We have one versus Leverkusen so that should be good. There was obviously meant initially to be the away game versus a top European side and that would have been very useful but for whatever reason went from being announced shortly to cancelled. Also the lack of required signings means our team during the season will probably be quite different than played in pre season which isnt ideal, especially under a new Manager. Tadic wasnt able to fully train with us until last week and there has been such a cloud over everything this summer. Fonte is set to be Captain yet won't agree on a new contract. Cork has looked well below par in the Bmth and Brighton games, playing as if he is frustrated about something. Schneiderlin training but clearly ****ed off. Can anyone really see him starting versus Liverpool? Some players (Jay, Lovren) not replaced at all despite us knowing since April and June that they wouldnt be available to us (in Jays case until November or so). Not a lot more Koeman can do, but Club as a whole I wouldn't say has optimised the summer period and given us our best chance of a good season. In fact, in the PL nobody is less prepared most likely.

Saints 4-1 for relegation Stoke (who we finished above) are 150-1. As it stands our squad is relegation strength, even if first XI isnt too bad.

It took us ages to complete the two big signings so far despite the players being very keen to come here and the clubs needing the cash. So no suprise we are struggling to get players in more difficult scenarios. When you have lots of cash its complicates slightly, but even more so when you have lots and don't want to spend much of it. Its already been beyond the point where we are running out of time and its seriously impacting our prep for the season, which appears poor.

Daily Mail season preview says we are in "dreadful" shape ahead of the new season. Harsh or fair?

Exactly. Now Guan just said hw has known of all transfers apart from Chambers, so he would know if we have currently signed someone but just havent announced it yet. He hasnt definitivelh said that we have so assume nothing is done yet.

I think Guan finds out a few hours before a signing from someone that would know. But am not convinced he knows a lot about wider targets etc before they are very late in the signing process. Still, has given some good info, and it may be wrong with the above.

http://www.goal.com/en-sg/news/3875/transfer-zone/2014/08/04/5002497/musacchio-set-to-join-tottenham-admits-villarreal-coach His manager expects him to move. Centre back wise we just have Lambert basically telling Koeman to shut up about Vlaar, and despite Lovren having been clearly leaving for probably a month or more, we don't seem especially close to replacing him. Despite just two weeks to go until the season starts. Seems pretty poor to me. Centre back was weak in depth anyway, I expected when Lovren officially went that we would get someone in very soon after and certainly well before the season started.

That was funny. Yeah we have some great plans but will tell you later. After September it will be "judge us in the summer" etc etc.

Spurs set to sign a 17m centre back whilst we sold ours. Surely nobody still questions why Pochettino left and the fact Spurs are a class above us?

We have a great scouting and recruitment team led by Paul Mitchell and over 20 scouts across Europe compiling detailed reports on many players. It must just be coincidental that we are sending Osvaldo to Inter who happen to have two of our top targets, players that we have tracked for 2 years and have identified as the talent needed to replace all our best players.