goodymatt

Promotion experience is a very fair point. Farke does also have 2 relegations (pretty much) on his CV, a weird 6 week spell at Krasnodar and a year at Monchengladbach where he maintained their 10th place from the season before. They had finished top 4 not long ago. Call me optimistic but I think we are still yet to see Martin’s ceiling with better resources at his disposal. It would have been nice to have past experience of completing this season objective though, that doesn’t appear to be our way.

JWP has no reason to speak about his future to strangers but playing devils advocate, not knowing where he is playing next season could also mean that we are still an option? I’m hoping he wouldn’t leave us for a club like Fulham but sadly it looks the most likely option at the moment.

With Farke set to be named Leeds manager tomorrow, who out the relegated clubs has appointed the best manager do we think? I think it might be us.

I agree, he will have much more time on the ball in this league and it’s maybe worth risking a free transfer if we think he could fire us back to the PL. Better the devil we know?

Do we see Flynn Downes as the Lavia replacement? He seems great at winning the ball and starting attacks, and keeping possession under pressure.

Would be quite funny if they were the team that signed him, having witnessed ‘that’ miss/handball at their place last season.

I’m hoping our asking price means we keep Tino for this season

We must be in with a good chance, unless there is any PL interest? Think I’d rather sign Downes, who knows the Martin system and who we have looked at before, than Harry Winks.

He could be decent at Championship level. MOTM against Germany recently and was Portsmouth’s player of the season in league one. However, it’s a big gamble as he was the worst GK in Europe’s top 5 leagues last season at stopping shots on target. You’d think that would have dented his confidence, especially after being dropped. He is decent at the ball playing side that Martin will demand from his keepers, this might lead to him being given the shirt to lose. I would get rid of McCarthy and bring in an experience keeper to challenge him properly.

He’s be their top earner then, that’s surprising given the money they spent the last 2 PL seasons. Fair enough!

I wouldn’t be surprised if Fulham offered a sensible transfer fee and could beat the wages he was on at Saints last season. They have higher record fees than us I think. Question would be if Prowsey wants to go there. As I’ve said before, it would be sad to lose our 20 year relationship, captain and Mr. Southampton to a historical yo-yo club that’s been in the top flight one season. I don’t think they will be battling relegation next season though, but you never know!

Martin’s first interview was just up on the main website but has now been taken down. Bit weird https://www.southamptonfc.com/en/news/article/martin-convinced-by-saints-vision Daily Echo have rehashed it on their site if anyone wants to read: