hypochondriac

I'd definitely have Smallbone in the squad as backup. It's a long season.

Yes but i don't hold out any hope that we are going to bring one in who will be challenging Bazunu.

I think he's great at what he does, I just don't really see him as a captain. Surely part of his job last year was to uphold standards and in that respect he failed.

We don't need to know the identities but we heard about the cliques and different dressing rooms last year. Some players need removing.

Personally I think getting rid of some of the more corrosive elements is more important than any signings.

Let's say hypothetically that we do everything that just stop oil and extinction rebellion are asking for and Britain reaches net zero pretty quickly. What's the next step? Because we have precisely zero influence over China and India and even if we could do anything, they won't be changing anywhere near quickly enough to make a tangible difference.

Fair enough. I thought they'd done more. I'd still have liked us to do some earlier business ourselves though.

I wonder if we will look back at this upcoming season in May and wonder whether we should have sold a few earlier and cheaper. Leicester will be a good comparison this year as they seem to have done a lot already. I can't help but feel like a little disappointed that we dint seem to have used our early relegation to our advantage.

Always seemed like a good bloke just a bit weak mentally.

I'd happily have them in the squad nut we can't be relying on them to come good or we will be in the same position as last year. Regardless of its quality the squad needs a refresh and the players we have brought in so far are just replacing players who aren't really the main problems (Lavia, Perraud or kwp).

Yes but I was working in the assumption that one of Tella or Sulemana will leave.

A block of wood. It has more influence over the team.

Getting in a top cb, midfielder, striker and maybe a winger will be more than enough for me (arguably only the first three will be sufficient.) With those additions, the club really should have enough about them to be up near the top of the division.

Good point!

Yes we do need improvements to the overall squad but I don't see how you can criticise the club for failing to improve on someone like Lavia or JWP. These are top quality prem players and anyone who would be an improvement on them isn't going to come to saints. What we should instead focus on is getting a team together who can be greater overall than the sum of their parts with some players who know how to perform in this league and with every player clear what their role is.

That's called relegation. We have little choice in the matter.

You can tell we haven't had any proper competitive football in weeks when these conversations start appearing.

This would be incredible. If we somehow manage to keep Alcaraz and Tella and get in a new striker we will have a serious good strike force.

A shame if true in one way but we can get the same positives he would bring from elsewhere.

Was he injured last year? Only played 13 times.

We really should be spending 15-20 million on a top championship striker to suit our system. Bring in someone like Ronnie Edwards at the back to play alongside Bednarek and Piroe or Van Hoojdonk up top and that's our starting 11 sorted (other than replacing Bazunu but I'm not holding out much hope for that.)

I can see both sides of the argument but personally I'd bring in a new striker and probably put Tella in the team before Mara. I don't think he imposes himself on games enough and that's only going to get worse in a physical league like the championship.

With the availability of keepers I just don't see why we'd go through the bother and hard graft of developing a keeper who might be able to be decent eventually. We'd have been better off spending a few more million and buying one much closer to the finished article. It's not like keepers cost the earth and there were plenty of options (there probably still are.)

Mara, Armstrong, Adams and Bazunu are all part of last year's failure and if every one of them left tomorrow it would make no negative difference to the club. You could add Salisu to that as well.

I didn't see much wrong with the football if I'm honest. It's the team who have to carry it out. Imo a team of New gk /Bazunu Tino bednarek new cb Manning Charles Tella jwp Sulemana Alcaraz New striker /Van Hoojdonk? Would be able to start the season and be reasonably confident of success. You could also bring in amo ameyew, a couple of the other youth players and maybe someone like the Swansea captain to replace jwp. That's really only one or two players associated in any big way with last season and thus less tainted. The likes of Armstrong can be introduced if they prove themselves and perform but we mustn't be in a position where we have to rely on them.