goodymatt

We hope Tino will be too 🤞

Sad news for Broja, looks like he’s done his ACL here. Horrible bad luck.

Not sure if this has been covered as the news is a couple of days old, but I hope we’ve not called up another keeper to this tour due to any injuries?

Won’t be Broja (boat had already sailed, I know), looks likely he’s done his ACL. Like Tino just seems to get his studs caught, horrible bad luck.

Matheus Martins who we were linked with is signing for Watford (well Udinese and then loaned to Watford).

In Matheus news, looks like Wolves are signing Matheus Cunha from Atletico Madrid. Along with 33yo CB Felipe. Cunha looks a decent signing. Patiently waiting for some Saints links that aren’t Ryan Fraser…

Seems we weren’t much of a pull 4 months ago, as the supposed 2 high profile signings didn’t happen. By January May not be in the relegation zone either.

Doesn’t stop that feeling that we had agreed personal terms with a player that would have solved our attacking problems and kept us up no trouble. Missing out was a huge blow but I guess it was always a long shot with bigger clubs and wages in the mix. I hope we have someone decent lined up to save the day in January.

Ah yes that is the Matheus we were linked with before, I think it was then reported he was in talks with Udinese. Perhaps our transfer strategy is to sign a Matheus, any Matheus 😂

Isn’t this a player we were linked to a while back? Could we be one of these 2 PL clubs?

Are we confident that these deals will go ahead? Not sure if you know but it would be great to understand if these 2 are lined up to sign early Jan or if we are just in the race for them like we were with Broja and Gakpo. Appreciate the snippet provided and fair enough if you can’t elaborate any further on certainty, thought it was worth an ask! On a side note, bringing in 2 strikers would surely spell the end for Adam Armstrong and Theo. Might even mean we look to loan out Mara.

With both of those players I think value was the main driver. Both were significantly less than their previous valuations. Marseille signed DCC for £17m, we paid £8.5m. Aribo was so cheap it was a no brainer to bring him in. When it comes to our goalscoring salvation I don’t see us spending £25-30m on a player that might decrease in value. It would be the biggest transfer fee in our history and our model would need that player to increase in value like Broja/Gakpo. Sadly it won’t be either of those players now. In the real world, relegation is of course more expensive than buying a striker at his peak and losing money on him when he’s over the hill. However the summer window and even our recent managerial appointment shows that SR like to think outside of the box. We MUST sign a clinical goalscorer and I’m very intrigued to find out who that’s going to be. We wait.

Interesting read and thanks for sharing. Confirms we formally approached them over the weekend so he absolutely was our first choice. I guess the speed of appointment already told us that. Luton having the weekend knowing it was coming also might suggest Ralph was gone regardless of Newcastle result, as per the Athletic’s view? Also interesting that the leaks of the news were south coast related, not Luton as we had rumoured on here. Something we are getting used to since SR got involved. I guess that leaking to the media is ok when we know we are appointing someone but the Ralph rumours all season hasn’t been a good look. Definitely sounds like we’ve been after Jones for some time and had agreed that the World Cup break was fair for us and Luton to manage the change best. Just a shame we’ve wasted so many points in the interim. It’s encouraging that we’ve gone and got our fist choice but it remains a high risk approach.

Perhaps he’s been in talks (informally) with Saints for a month?

Mixed bag yesterday. Awful positioning for their first goal (his feet movement in opposite directions has cost us a few goals this season e.g. Wolves) but he then made 2 excellent saves later on. The one where he dived across and stopped Salah finishing was an incredible full stretch save tbf

We haven’t really shown that 5 at the back can work other than one half at Arsenal. Think it will be a long afternoon, as always at Anfield these days for us and many teams.

I don’t think he’s chucked the diamond out first game away at Liverpool with 3 CBs on the pitch. Need actual wingbacks to play that system and we only have one fit to make the entire squad.

It’s very interesting that Jones mentioned his father in law was giving him pointers whilst watching the Newcastle game “for when he goes in”. So perhaps the rumours of us approaching during the summer were correct and it’s not that he wasn’t ready to accept (as rumoured) but that perhaps we weren’t ready to make that call on Ralph at that time? Might just be a slip of the tongue (or maybe they watched the game back on demand together?), but it could suggest he’s been waiting in the wings for a bit. Hopefully that means he’s seen a fair amount of us this season and has a head start on what he thinks we need to change, outside of the obvious no clean sheets and no goals. I’m sure we would all love to see an identity back in this team, when Ralph and Poch instilled our new ways of playing it was a breath of fresh air. I think this video has been shared before on this forum (perhaps even on this thread), but it’s a 2 hour podcast (also on apple etc) interviewing our new manager on his playing career and managing career, whilst he was taking a break post Stoke sacking. I’m half way though so far and it’s proving a good insight into his character and background. Well worth a watch even though it’s a long one.

Players have shown the early signs of buying into his ideas Gutted for Prowsey but will help his prep as he’s an ultimate professional, Prowsey is going to give his all to the new project Scored very highly on Rasmus’ metrics and appreciates he’s not a big name and it’s a more calculated data driven appointment Wants to address the clean sheets issue and then build to be an aggressive attacking team Will review the squad, see if there are underperforming players that he can get more out of but has support to add players. Meeting to be had with board soon. Gives his all to a football club and is confident he will be a success. When asked about being a good choice for if we went down he wouldn’t entertain relegation and it hasn’t been mentioned during his interview process. Sure I’ve missed bits, but generally a composed and well managed press conference. But more encouraging.

Extra 3 players going to this tournament, with fitness issues around Philips and Hendo. He’s the best free kick taker and would score a pen if needed unlike some. Poor form this season is true but this is largely down to missing a decent CDM partner for many games due to Romeu sale and injury to Lavia IMO. He’s not been able to fully play to his strengths and it has made him overly cautious without that protection. Other players are being picked on historical form, such as Maguire but Prowsey’s 15 PL goal contributions, running further, intercepting lots etc are just forgotten. For his position and in a hot and cold team like Saints, statistically he’s been good enough to go to both tournaments. I think Southgate has just further demonstrated that if you’re a Saints player you need to move to a perceived bigger club and be a bit part player, a la Philips in order to guarantee selection. I wouldn’t be surprised if Prowsey wanted to do that in the summer, which would be a crying shame. I’m definitely guilty of some Saints bias, but generally I think he’s unfortunate to have missed both major tournaments.

Stuey

Walcott has 2 cleared off the line and Armstrong hits the bar with DCC not able to guide in the rebound. We’re getting closer but pens are approaching fast.

Pens

Am i right in thinking Wednesday haven’t had a single shot in the second half?