Rebel

I'd like to see us go after Josh Doig at left back as real competition for Manning - but with Manning, Larios, Meghoma and Vokins all on the roster I don't see us signing anyone there. Plus Bree and KWP can both play there. Vokins will be out of contract in the summer, and Larios won't be back for a while and Meghoma is probably too young for now so maybe we will see some movement in the summer. Unless we send Vokins out on loan for the rest of the season and bring someone in now.

I'd completely forgotten about ABK - but given his temperament last season I would sell him this summer whatever league we were in.

I think Brooks would be a good signing on loan for the rest of this season in the Championship. I wouldn't take the risk on a permanent transfer as he may never get back to where he was. But surely it makes sense to both clubs and the player as a 6 month loan. He will get more playing time with us - and get properly match fit - and a chance to get back to where he was. And if he does I expect Bournemouth will welcome him back in to the fold next season. And we get to fill a hole in the sqaud without having to commit to a permanent signing.

on loan for another season - yes - and them maybe a free transfer after that - maybe. As a permanent transfer on a 2 or 3 year contract - no. Same with Holgate.

with Ross Stewart out injured until the summer it seems (and no guarantee he will ever fully recover) don't we need another striker anyway - whether we sell Che Adams or not. Che Adams, Adam Armstrong and Seko Mara are all better as second strikers or wide forwards - what we really need is a centre forward which is what Ross Stewart was supposed to be if we have the money I'd be making a move for Bojan Mioviski from Aberdeen knowing that Adams will be off in the summer anyway leaving us with 4 strikers for next season

the Caleta-Car deal was definitely that way - and reading between the lines from the media reports at the time the Perraud deal with Nice was similar. But maybe I am just imagining that. On transfermarkt it says they have an option to buy. I don't think Perraud will come back to Saints as he will only have a year left on his contract in the summer. I think he will move to another club somewhere in Europe if its not Nice. He was a committed player and good going forward with the ball he wasn't the best defensively. Chances are with Meghoma, Larios, Vokins and Manning all on the books we won't buy another left back until we shift some of these. Vokins is out of contract in the summer and its doesn't look like we see Larios on the pitch anytime soon. Bith Larios and Vokins are a bit on the small side for the defensive side of being a left back.

I thought the Perraud loan deal to Nice was really a permanent deal - just a loan for now to help them out of an FFP hole - and it will be made permanent in the summer.

I thought Celtic were supposed to be good at creating songs - our Victor Wanyama 'he's a mighty Kenyan' was levels above this. But saying that it would be a good fit with Charly Alacarz - although maybe something along the lines of the Artur Boruc's 'he's got his Charly, he's having a party' would work for Alcaraz: We've got our Charlie We are having a party! Alcaraz! Alcaraz! Feel free to improve on this 🙂

Surely it is about time we proclaimed our love for the Saints: I would walk 500 miles. And I would walk 500 more! just to be the the fan who walked a 1000 miles to see Southampton score! Da da da! Da da da! Duh duh duh duh dub duh!

If Ross Stewart is fit and playing in the team before the end of January I think we will sell Che Adams in the transfer window - he's not going to sign a new contract with us - and maybe Mara (it looks to me like we are trying talking up his value at the moment) as well and replace the two of them with one new striker. My money would be on one of the two strikers from Aberdeen - Lopes or Mioviski.

The problem is Martin seems to be wedded to his 4-3-3 with 1 holding midfielder and the fullbacks pushing in to midfield to make a 2-3-5. But I am not sure we have the players to make that work. We would undoubtedly be more solid playing 4-2-3-1 with Downes and Charles protecting the defence. KWP is best as an attacking full back playing down the wing and cutting in or overlapping so we should let him do it. Maybe Manning can play the inverted fullback/midfielder role but I am not sure either is really good enough defensively to do it. But if we are playing 4-3-3 it means the other fullback really has to stay back to make a 3 at the back or the DM has to drop back to make a 3 at the back as going 2-3-5 seems to leave us badly exposed at the back. The way Citeh and Leicester play with one inverted full back means they end up in a 3-2-4-1 as one fullback stays back and the other pushes in to midfield alongside the DM. Maybe it would work if Charles, Downes and Alacaraz are the midfield 3 with Charles dropping back between the centre backs, Manning moving into midfield alongside Downes, and Edozie, Alcaraz, Stu and KWP becoming the 4 behind Adarma or Adams. A more orthodox 4-2-3-1 with attacking fullbacks and a double pivot to protect the defence would probably seem to suit our squad better though.

That was terrible last night - from the moment the line-up was announced. Unfortunately it suggested a manager who has lost the plot a little bit. A midfield of Aribo and Smallbone and Adam Armstrong was always going to struggle. And playing Shea Charles in defence and not midfield made no sense either with Holgate and Bednarek on the bench. I couldn't work out if we were playing 4-4-2 with Adams and Adarma upfront or 4-3-3 with Adarma in midfield though. I went on a bit of an Aribo watch and he was terrible - he looked lazy and unfit. He couldn't even do the basics for a midfielder right - pass and move in to space for the return pass. And never really seemed to be in the right space. Likewise Sulemana when he came on - again terrible. Full of it - whatever it is - but not really any idea what to do with the ball or how to play in a football team. With both Adams and Adarma on the pitch we still lacked a centre forward or goal scorer. They are both second strikers - although very different in style. They both need a centre forward to play-off or play behind. Neither one really fits in a 4-3-3. Ross Stewart better bloody well be a superman of a centre forward when he starts playing. Adarma is not really a centre forward, he's not our best attacking midfielder and he's not our best winger - so why make him captain. Alcaraz and Stu should start in the AM role over him all season long. The team that ended the game was more like the team that should have started the game - and that's a terrible thing to have to say. But if I am honest I'd struggle to pick a first 11 whether we were playing 4-4-2, 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1. There are some fundamental problems with the team/squad that will take at least another transfer window - and money - too fix. In terms of promotion I think this season is already a write-off.

I am not sure that is true. I think both Leicester and Leeds ended up having better transfer windows than us and have ended up with better squads. And I would say Norwich also look like they still have a good squad despite this being their second year in the Championship. Watford too maybe. Probably both as good as ours if not better. And I think you are ignoring the teams like Ipswich and Sunderland that have quietly been building good squads - and are on a upwards curve. Sunderland just beat us 5-0 by the way. I don’t think our squad is that good in reality - and it looks like our manager isn’t that good either.

It’s not bravery passing the ball out from the back when there is no pass on and you give it away on the edge of the area - it’s stupidity nothing else the team doesn’t look like it has the raw material to play the way Martin wants it to - and that is Wilcox and the owners fault but Martin needs to accept it will take time to build a team capable of playing that way - and get real about the players he has and play the way that gets the best out of them but even then we look light in midfield, lack a goal scorer or centre forward and attacking midfielders - and any real depth at full back I’d struggle to name a proper full first 11 playing either 4-3-3, 4-4-2 or 4-2-3-1 msubr you could just about name a team to play 4-2-3-1 if you are going to play 4-3-3 you need a proper centre forward and 2 good wingers or at least a very talented false 9 and 2 wide or inside forwards we have Adams whose a support striker, Adarma whose a second striker, and 2 left wingers in Edozie and Fraser (one is too small and the other is too young and inexperienced) neither of whom who should be starters i won’t count Ross Stewart until he proved he is fit enough to play again - and shown he’s made a full recovery I am not sure what Kamaldeen is - apart from a load of false hype And that’s before you get to the gaps in midfield and defence. Charles looks like a good DM but is too young to be first choice game in game out. I’m not sure what Flynn Downes is. Smallbone is box-to-box 8 I think and Stu and Alcaraz are attacking Central Midfielders. Aribo - again I have no idea really - I forget about him most of the time we have 2 full backs who can’t seem to defend - and in Larios (too small/too young) and Bree (too bad) back- ups we don’t seem to have any confidence in we should be able to name 22 players we can rely on to be OK (not great but OK) - 2 for each position - and we can’t

Smallbone played as an 8 and a 10 for Stoke - but started the season for us as a 6 and did pretty well at it. I would say his best position is probably as an 8 on the right of the midfield. I would guess he returned a bit too soon from his injury for the Sunderland game - as he looked out of sorts - but then so did the whole midfield. Downes is a 6 and played there for Swansea under Martin - allowing Grimes to get forward. But I would guess he can play the 8 role as well. I think maybe he got through the QPR game on adrenaline as he looked off his game at Sunderland - hopefully due to the after effects of his food poisoning. I am not sure we have the right squad - after the transfer window - to keep playing the 4-3-3. It looks a bit unbalanced with Martin trying to put square pegs in round holes. Not replacing Tella was a big miss. He was really our only wide forward. Adarma is much better as a second striker than as a centre forward - and scored all those goals for Blackburn playing on the right of a 3 behind the centre forward - where he can use the space and make the runs from deep. The squad looks better suited to a 4-2-3-1 at the moment with Adam Armstrong, Alcaraz and Smallbone/Stu in the 3 behind Adams/Stewart, and Downes and Charles sitting as the 2 in front of the back 4. The fullbacks in KWP and Manning are both attack minded and get forward too much - and seem to forget their defensive duties - which leaves the 2 centre backs exposed in the 4-3-3. One of them needs to sit back in the 4-3-3 whilst the other moves in to midfield. But at the moment they both seem to play more like attacking midfielders or wingers. Maybe that why we signed Holgate - to play as a more defensively minded full back on the right. So for Leicester I'd play: Bazunu KWP Bednarek THB Manning Charles Downes Smallbone Alcaraz Adarma Adams Which put round pegs in round holes and will get the best out of the full backs as well as Adarma, Alcaraz and Smallbone. - and give the centre backs more protection.

Bednarek was superb for most of the game against QPR - he had Sinclair Armstrong in his pocket once he’d figured out how to play him. His commitment has been great so far this season - and he has the experience we need at the back. He’s a level above the Championship - and maybe he’s become the leader at the back we have always needed him to be. I think the Villa experience taught him a lot. I’d play him over ABK all day long. Maybe ABK has a higher ceiling - but all he’s really shown us is he’s a quitter when things get hard. Now we could have said the same thing about Bednarek in the past - I’ll give you that. if we don’t sell ABK I more or less expect him to go on strike until January.

true we don't know what was offered for ABK or Sulemana - maybe the offers were so lowball they weren't even worth contemplating. But I think holding out for £25M and £30M is probably a bit too hardline. I still think Sulemana will be another Djenepo - I don't see him as a £50M player. But I could be wrong.

If we can't shift Tall Paul, Sulemana and ABK before the end of the week does this mean we are going to be stuck with them playing in the reserves - if at all - and eating up money we could use elsewhere? And going down in value? I think I'd have taken any offer for Sulemana and ABK that got us our money back to get them off the wage bill. And with Tall Paul I would have accepted a short term loss to avoid a longer term loss.

the value of players on the balance sheet is amortised - so if you buy a player for £10M and give him a 5 year contract his value drops by £2M for every year of that contract until he is out of contract. It doesn't matter whether or not his transfer value goes up or down until that is realised by selling him. I am guessing that is why some players are going out on loan with the option/obligation to buy next summer as it means we retain their value on our spreadsheet for another years - whereas if we sold them for a lot less than we paid for them this year our balance sheet would take a hit. Transfer fees are also normally paid in instalments which also affects the balance sheets. But this is all management accounting dark arts and spreadsheet black magic. It ignores the fact that Sports Republic have invested about £250M or more in Southampton - both in buying the club and loans or capital injections to fund buying players. They want this back - or as much of it as they can get. Which means they will have to take it out through management fees, loans repayments or dividends. I expect they will do this over the 3 years off the parachute payments - and will use that money and the money raised from player sales to do it. Which is why we don't have loads of money to spend despite player sales. I could be wrong - and SR could be happy to write off the investment or they could be happy to bet it all on getting promoted this season. . Most investors would take the money out until what remains of the money invested equals the value of the club without parachute payments - which means on paper they haven't made a loss. The truth is probably somewhere in the middle - they are looking to recoup a large chunk of the investment but not all - and spend enough on the squad to give us a fighting chance of going straight back up - but not bet the house on it. Even if we were in the premier league I think they would want the money the put in to buy players back.

I actually thought Mara had a good game on Saturday and made a big difference when he came on. He led the line OK and occupied the QPR centre backs allowing Adarma to drop deep and creating the space for him to run in to. He gave us a bit of pace and presence upfront. His quick thinking free kick also put Fraser through on goal. If we sell Adams - and I think we will - I would still want him replaced though. I'd be happy with Bojan Mioviski from Aberdeen to replace Adams and Andi Zeqiri from Brighton to replace Tella.

Out of interest what is the average Championship wage? £10K a week? Or is much lower than that. I thought I read Flynn Downes is on £25K a week. And that Everton were paying a large % of Holgates wages (£70K a week) which I took to mean we would be paying about £35K a week for him as well. I would have thought it was a similar deal with Ryan Fraser.

Totally agree with that - but it doesn’t change the way they are going to act now unfortunately

Sports Republic are restructuring following a major investment which was then followed by a major loss of revenue they are selling / liquidating the assets to get that investment back - and that means selling players they also want to cut the costs / wage bill to a level that fits with our annual revenue It’s what any business would do in similar circumstances they will use players sales and the parachute payments to recoup that investment over the next 3 years - probably until what’s left of the investment matches the value of the club in the Championship without parachute payments any positive difference after that can be spent on growing the business to make a return - i.e flipping your payers and maybe getting promoted Shea Charles being an example of this They would obviously like to get promoted but they are not going to count on it having lost a lot of money already

I have no issue with selling Adams - if we had a replacement for him already. the Champions is his level but he has a year left on his contract so you have to sell unless he signs a new contract similar with Adarma - he’s not good/ big enough to be the centre forward and we should have better AMs/wingers but I would have liked us to have signed Piroe and Duk for example before cashing in I am sure there is a plan - it might be B or C by now - but it’s not an obvious one right now

I didn’t hear the interview - but that makes me think Bednarek is off I still think KWP will go though