Rebel

We need to play a solid 4-3-3 today. Norwich will look to sit deep and hit us on the break with the pace of Redmond. If we play 4-2-3-1 we will lose. 5-3-2 would keep us solid and get the draw. I don't think Mane or Wanyama will play today for a number of reasons. Anyway we have a much better shape when Tadic plays on the left and we played our best football last season when Tadic was played in that position. I'd also drop Pelle to stop us playing hoofball - and he's just far too much of a one dimensional player for me. So a radical 4-3-3 for me: Stem Cedric - Fonte - Yoshida - Target Ward-Prowse Romeu Reed Juanmi Rodriguez Tadic I expect Pelle to start though and Saints to play a 5-3-2 for the draw.

I am sure I read somewhere we made an £8 million offer for Carl Jenkinson but he chose to sign a new contract with Arsenal and go back on loan to West Ham - and we were supposedly interested in Byram at Leeds in January and made an offer of £4.5 million but they wanted a lot more - £6.5 million or something like that. I am guessing Cedric @ £5 million was a cheaper alternative to Byram - but the same age as Jenkinson. So on paper it made sense. And Cuco at 1.5 million was just a cheap option for cover. The problem is in Chambers and Clyne we sold £28.5 million of right back and have replaced them with £6.5 million whereas if we were actually a progressive club we would have spent at least half the money on replacing them - adding some strength and depth to the squad - and with players who could potentially be better than those we sold. We should have replaced Chambers last summer for a start - Jenkinson on loan then would have been great - particularly as it was obvious to everyone Clyne was going to leave this summer. Jenkinson and Byram as right back options would have been great - unfortunately I don't think we could do anything about Jenkinson but I hope we realise our mistake and go back in for Byram. Cedric and Byram as right back options looks much better on paper that what we've currently got.

In Clyne for £12.5 million and Chambers for £16 million we have sold £28.5 million worth of right back and replaced them with Cedric Soares at £5 million and Cuco Martina at £1.5 million - that's the problem we've spent just £6.5 million on replacing them If we truly were a progressive club we'd have spent at least half the money we made from selling them on replacing them For arguments sake if we'd spent £6.5 million on Sam Byram last summer and £8 million on Carl Jenkinson this summer - roughly half the money we'd made and put the rest back into the academy would we be in a better position right now - I think we would Cedric might turn out to be a good buy - the early signs are not good though - but on paper he was the right kind of signing - still young and with potential. We could get 2 or 3 good years out of him before repeating the process. The problem is we just needed to make two signings like that - and more than likely one of them would have come good. I do worry he's just too small to be a full back in the premier league - and it doesn't look like he can defend The Cuco signing I don't get at all - it's like we just given up - mediocrity is OK - a journeyman squad filler

what about Jason Puncheon?

Benassi? Supposedly we made an offer for him just after U21 Euros and the buyout of the 50% share Inter had in him by his current club Torino. I thought he was right sided CM - capable of playing box-to-box or as a CDM though. Him and Domenico Berardi are best mates though so we might as well sign him as well :-) Two for one deal!?

I would just like to say I suggested we could or should sign Romeu on loan in the HCDAJFU thread back on the 25 July - see above. At least someone listens to my advice - and if he turns out to be a brilliant signing I am taking all the credit. Not ITK - but maybe visionary :-) I always thought he would be s good signing as he has a good pedigree from Barcelona and Chelsea - and in the last two years at Valencia and Stuttgart has proved he is over the injuries that put a bit of a stop to his career at Chelsea. He's also the right age - at 23 old enough to play regularly with enough experience to add something to the team - but also young enough to still learn and get better - and with a lot of potential to become great. He's also a proper holding midfielder who will sit in front of the defence and hold the line - he is also a good solid passer of the ball. And he has also got some of the height and physical presence we have been missing in CDM. Of course if he sh*te I will come back and delete this post! And I don't think he will block Reed's route to the first - I see our Harrison as more of a hard working box-to-box CM than a holding midfielder or a Paul Scholes playmaker. If it is anyone with Ginger hair he's like its Alan Bsll - but he has a long way to go to live up to him. He's more of a successor to Steven Davis than anyone else in the current team. A midfield 3 of Clasie, Romeu and Wanyama would look like a very solid base to build on and get a result against the top sides in the Premier league and hopefully the Europa League

I would just like to say I suggested the club sign Romeu on loan back on the 25 July - see above. At least someone listens to my advice - and if he turns out to be a brilliant signing I am taking all the credit. I always thought he would be s good signing as he has a good pedigree from Barcelona and Chelsea - and in the last two years at Valencia and Stuttgart has proved he is over the injuries that put a bit of a stop to his career at Chelsea. He's also the right age - at 23 old enough to play regularly with enough experience to add something to the team - but also young enough to still learn and get better - and with a lot of potential to become great. He's also a proper holding midfielder who will sit in front of the defence and hold the line - he is also a good solid passer of the ball. And he has also got some of the height and physical presence we have been missing in CDM. Of course if he sh*te I will come back and delete this post! And I don't think he will block Reed's route to the first - I see our Harrison as more of a hard working box-to-box CM than a holding midfielder or a Paul Scholes playmaker. If it is anyone with Ginger hair he's like its Alan Bsll - but he has a long way to go to live up to him. He's more of a successor to Steven Fabis than anyone else in the current team. A midfield 3 of Clasie, Romeu and Wanyama would look like a very solid base to build on and get a result against the top sides in the Premier league and hopefully the Europa League.

Does anyone know any pubs n Winchester that will be showing the game? I am hoping most of the pubs that have Sky will just add the BT Sport channels. Is there any other way to watch it or am I going to have to switch to BT broadband and get BT Sport for free or just subscribe to BT TV?

We definitely need to sign another defensive midfielder and another central defender if not two If 'Big Vic' is out injured or suspended are midfield with Clasie, Reed, Davis and Ward-Prowse are just too lightweight. And what are the chances that 'Big Vic' with only a year left on his contract next summer will want to move on to a bigger club with Champion League football - so it's as much about succession management as strength in depth. We should take a look at taking Oriol Romeu on loan from Chelsea for the season with an option to buy next summer. At centreback it's pretty much the same situation - maybe a bit worse even - with only two fit first choice players in Fonte and Yoshida and maybe three young players who might be able to step up at some point in the future. So as well as replacing Toby we now need to find cover for Gardos. We should also have one eye on finding a successor to Fonte given his age - and I can see him heading back to Portugal next season to Sporting Lisbon or Benfica for one last big move and Champions League football. So Van Dijk would be a start but we really need to bring in two

Maybe we should have got him on loan for last season as part of the Calum Chambers deal. I thought tactically he was a tactically a step up from Clyne or Chsmbers when West Ham ground out a result at St Marys after going a man down last season. Great signing for West Ham even on loan. Sounds like we went for Cedric Soares as a cheaper alternative as they are the same age. I also read somewhere that Arsenal are paying him £45K a week - if that's true how can we compete with that - £45K a week for a 4th choice right back (after Debuchy, Bellerin and Chambers)!!! Maybe we will go back in for Sam Byram at Leeds now although he will overpriced as an Englishman. Supposedly we offered £4.5 million in Jsnuary which wasn't enough. That's if we haven't signed Cuco Martins as the second choice right back - I hope not though. We still need to replace Cork and Chambers in my opinion and add some strength in depth to the squad though. I'm not really sure why we signed Cuco - a bit like Long last summer - at least he didn't cost us £12 million though. Maybe we will go back in with another bid for Marco Benassi at Torino once we've signed Clasie - at 6ft he would give us some height we're missing in the middle - and is a defensive midfielder who can also score goals. Supposedly we made a bid for him earlier in the summer.

If Clasie is Morgan's replacement we still need somone to replace Cork. We can't rely on Davis and Ward-Prowse to provide defensive cover - and with Reed and Clasie being so small we will need someone a bit more physical to provide cover for Victor Maybe we will go back in for Marco Benassi from Torino - he looked very good at the U21 tournament - and at 6ft could be what we need - Young though at just 20.

We have been made to look very naive yet again this summer when it comes to transfers. I am starting to wonder if Saints transfer committee believe their own hype a little bit too much sometimes. I certainly think we started to believe all the hype and propoganda about our black box and transfer strategy after the great start to last season. Maybe Paul Mitchell leaving for Spurs was a bigger blow than it looked. The questions I would ask Les Reed is do we have actually have a long term transfer strategy or are we just running around in a blind panic trying to fill short term holes. And do we actually have a transfer fund to spend. Losing Clyne this summer was inevitable - but losing him to Liverpool and not a Champions League club for just £12.5 million was just stupid. After they way he left Crystal Palace he was always going to do it to us. We should never have let it get to the stage of just having 1 year on his contract. But I guess we couldn't sell him last year after losing Chambers to Arsenal unexpectedly - who would have provided cover at right back, holding midfield and centre back supposedly - and who we also haven't replaced yet. Losing Alderweireld to Spurs is even more stupid - and makes us look incompetent and there for the taking again. We should have made it a permanent transfer in January or pushed a deal through right at the start of the summer - and given Spurs no room to push their way in. It looks like we have been on the back foot and caught right out when we should have been on the front foot. Lets hope we can sign Virgil Van Dijk or some similar to fill the hole and provide some competition for Gardos and Yoshida. This summer we should have been bringing in a long term successor for Fonte and a replacement for Chambers and to give some competition at right back - but now we are looking to fill a gaping hole in our defence. I was also hoping we'd sign an out and out striker to give Pelle some competition but I think we are hoping Rordriguez can do that. I think we are also hoping Targett can take a major step forwards this season to provide some real competition at left back. Cedric Soares look like a great replacement for Clyne but I hoped he was signed to provide some competition at right back - but now we are back where we were a year ago when Chambers and Lovren departed. The signing of Cuco Martins - a journeyman defender from a mid table Dutch team who looks like he's been bought it to provide cover at right back and centre back just makes it look worse - and looks a bit of a panic signing to me. Juanmi looks like a good signing - and he and Cedric are the kind of players we should be signing - young players between the ages of 21 and 24 for £3-5 million who have played at the top level, our internationals, great value for money, full of potential and with a great chance of getting better and doubling or trebling in value. It was also obvious Morgan was going to leave us this summer - and that was obvious a year ago - so why the hell did we let Cork leave the club in January. If Cork was still here with him and Victor Wanymana providing competition and cover replacing Morgan would be so important as it is going to be - or as difficult. Surely having let Cork go in January we should have had a replacement for Morgan already signed and sealed before we sell him. At £12 million Shane Long looked like a panic buy last summer - and I am not sure we can afford any more of those after the failed signings of Forren, Osvaldo, Mayuka, and Gaston Ramirez. Long hasn't been a disaster but at 28 and with only 7 goals he was never worth the fee we paid. I think we rode our luck quite a bit at the start of last season - and had a great start built on a very solid defence. This season we will start our first couple of games with only 2 players from the 7 who started at the back last last season - Fonte and Wanyama. And that does worry me a little bit. Our midfield also looks weaker - with just Wanyama, Davis, Reed and Ward-Prowse to choose from whereas last year we had Cork and Morgan as well. I would liked to see us bring in at least two players to replace Morgan - an attacking midfielder like Wijnaldum and defensive midfielder or playmaker so we can play 4-2-3-1 with a double pivot in front of the defence or 4-3-3 with two attacking box-to-box midfielders. And I'm not sure we have a Number 10 who can play in the hole unless Tadic can fill this role - Juanmi looks more of a wide striker to me and a replacement for Elia, Djuricic and hopefully and competition for Mane and Long. I think we are probably going to finish mid table this year - and probably behind a few clubs we thought we were better than such as Swansea, Newcastle, Crystal Palace and West Ham - and maybe we should be happy with that given where we've been and where we've come from. Maybe it is a case of we're simply not a big enough club to compete with the top six - or maybe we just don't have the money to spend in the short term us fans think we do. But we could still make the three or four great signings we need to stay at the level we reached last season - and compete in Europe - so lets not judge to soon - but I do think we need to take a bit more control of our transfers and show a bit more sign of having a long term strategy to grow and strengthen the team by buying and selling players - we can't always rely on our academy to turn out little gems.

Luc Castaignos from Twente or John Guidetti from Citeh/Celtic - both are ex-Feyenoord and have played under Koeman before.

We do desperately need a striker - with Gallagher and Rodriguez out as long term injuries, Mayuka and Mane in Africa and now Long probably out injured for more than a couple of weeks we only have Pelle in the first team squad. Of those Mayuka is just not good enough - and the same is probably true of Long if we are honest. And Pelle despite being good enough is very one dimensional in the way he plays . So we needed another striker anyway. Mane is also more of a left winger anyway - which brings me to another problem - in Tadic, Elia and Mane we have 3 left wingers - 4 if you add Isgrove - but no right wingers. We need one of those as well - and a right back to provide some cover for Clyne. I think the problem is until we get Mayuka and Osvaldo and Ramirez entirely off the wage bill and/or sell Rodriguez we can't afford to bring another one in.

Apparently Genoa are interested in signing either Osvaldo or Luc Castaignos from Twente. Perhaps we should go for Castaigns so they are forced to sign Osvaldo - plus Castaignos is the kind of striker we need and could be a good replacement for Jay Rodriguez if we end up selling him.

We need a another striker - ideally someone with pace - and another right back at the very least.

Antoine Griezmann left Real Sociedad in the summer for Atletico Madrid and a fee of £25 million - so he's already at a big club and out of our league. We should have bought him a couple of seasons ago but I don't think Sociedad were going to sell him unless it was for £20 million plus.

At the moment we don't have the strength in depth to keep our good form going for a whole premier league season - the Europa League or Champions League would be a stretch too far by quite a long way. We need at least two good players for each position - and players versatile enough to five us some tactical flexibility. Against Citeh our front three looked tired and out of form - but we really only had Shane Long on the bench as an option to change things around and freshen it up - also with a Cork out, Morgan getting injured, Davis not match fit and Big Vic booked early on in the game even in our strongest position - central midfield - we looked a bit short Right now we can't afford to rest players from our first 11 and compete with the big boys. But who is to say we won't strengthen in January and add the strength in depth we need to compete in Europe and at home. Sam Byram for right back, Nathan Redmond for right wing, Scott Sinclair on loan to play on either wing, Danny Ings or John Guidetti up front and Virgil Van Dijk in defence would give us a bit more competition for places and a bit more depth to the squad

The reality is Ward-Prowse is injured and Luke Shaw and Calum Chambers were sold in the summer - all 3 players would have been in the Matchday squad if fit or still at the club. Harrison Reed was in the squad - but the game as never at a point where we could or should have bought him on. Similarly it wasn't the game for Matt Target with Bertrand playing so well lately. I expect both to play against Sheffield Utd. We should never have sold Chambers but that's another story. Lloyd Isgrove and Sam McQueen are returning from injury - Sam Gallagher is still injured. All three our on the edge of the first team. Jack Stephens and Jordan Turnbull are on loan at Swindon gaining valuable game time - and will probably be in the first team squad next season as a result. Josh Sims, Jake Hesketh and Ryan Seagar are amongst the next crop coming through - OK it's not as good as it has been with 3 youth players regularly in the squad - but it's not bad either.

And possibly Schneiderlin and Rodriguez

I imagine Les Reeds middle name is 'Incompetent' - it's certainly looked that way this summer For all the talk of keeping our manager and not selling our best players that's exactly what we've done. Then we talked about selling our players for premium prices and bringing in better players and adding strength in depth. So far it seems all we've done is replace the players we've sold for lesser players - not added any strength in depth. Apart from Forster but it now looks like Boruc wants out. And what's the point in getting premium prices for our players if you're going to spend £12 million on Shane Long and possibly another £12 million or more on Andros Townsend. So far we've spent £21 million on a strike force that looks like it will struggle to get 15 goals between them. At 27 and 29 that's not money we are going to get back again. As it is we desperately a good striker and a goal scoring right winger to have a chance of competing this season. Unless something changes dramatically it's going to a long, hard and depressing season. Our only saving grace might be that Crystal Palace, QPR and Burnley are actually worse than we are.

£20 million for Pelle and Long - that is a real indictment of Les Reed that is. Both players at 29 and 27 should be at the top of their games - but the sad truth is neither look anywhere near good enough for the premier league. That's 3 games I've watched Pelle play now - and I'm worried - I see nothing from him to suggest he going to score goals for us. I want him to be good I really do as we really need someone to score goals. He seems to lack the aggression needed, not too mention the pace and movement. And he's certainly not a replacement for Lambert - he's not going to drop deep or go wide and pick up the ball and play someone else in. And Long gives you what I expected - running and work rate but that's about it. He not going to give you creativity or score goals. He's a championship striker really. And other than as a hard running wide forward I'm not sure where he fits in a 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1 - otherwise it's him or Pelle to lead the line and at £8 million and £12 million that's expensive substitutes. Right now Gallagher looks a better bet than either of them. I have a horrible feeling we'll end up sending them both out on loan to Italy and the Championship next season to get rid of them as we massively overpaid for them and we won't be able to sell them for anything like £20 million we paid for them. A bit like Osvaldo really - oh and Gaston. At 29 and 27 there value is only going to go down. It's a £20 million mistake we can't afford. We'd have been a lot better off buying young strikers like Ings, Guidetti and Castaignos foe a lot less money - with the chance they improve and go up in value. I don't think we really had a transfer strategy this summer - more that we were bullied in to selling, went for the cash and then panic bought.

PaddyPowers PR/publicity man on Talksport is a skate isn't he? I think that's where all this anti-saints stuff comes from.

PaddyPowers PR/publicity man on Talksport is a skate isn't he? I think that's where all this anti-saints stuff comes from.

Maybe I should have added Long to that equation - but we are going to need to score 40 goals plus this season - and our top scorers last season were Lallana, Rodriguez and Lambert and at the moment none of them are playing for Saints. Anyway 2 x 12 = 24 and 2 x 15= 30 so not out of thin air. And as I said I think Rodriguez will be off meaning we need another 15 goals from somewhere at the moment it looks like it has to be Tadic and Pelle. Long might get us 10 over the course of the season if we're lucky. But after the Bompey, Bayer Leverkusen and today's game at Liverpool I'm not convinced by Pelle. I know he needs time to find his feet but I didn't see anything from him to build on. I hope we sign another striker / forward / winger who can score goals as we are going to need one