Rebel

I think its probably about 6/10 We are still short a defensive midfielder to cover for Romeu (and eventually replace him). Diallo and Armstrong provide cover for JWP in the box-to-box role but I don't see that we have anyone that can cover for Romeu in the CDM role. We struggled when he was out last season as our midfield is too lightweight without him. Hopefully Diallo will prove me wrong and provide that cover this season - and be more physical. At attacking midfield we still look a little lightweight. I was hoping we'd move on at least 2 out of Djneppo, Redmond and Elyounoussi if not all 3 and get some upgrades at AM. Lets not forget we borrowed Minamino as we didn't think what we had in AM last season was good enough. Djneppo works hard but has no end product - no finish or final pass. He will score the odd worldy but overall he wont make a real difference. Redmond can do it but very rarely - he has no consistency and a somewhat toxic relationship with the crowd. Elyounoussi will hopefully come good and prove to be a much better player than 2 season ago. I was not particularly happy we brought Walcott back on a permanent deal as he is on big wages - and I don't see him having that much impact on the pitch. I think we will regret giving him a 2 year deal next summer. Lets hope Tella can find the form and consistency he has hinted - if he does we should be OK in AM Our 2 best AMs are probably going to be S Armstrong and Livramento which says something as one is a CM and the other a RB. However I think in A Broja and A Armstrong we have done well in replacing Ings and with those two and Adams we should be OK. But we could do with a bit more depth upfront. But I am surprised Long is still here. Why the hell did we give him a 2 year contract last summer instead of letting him leave on a free - and on bigger wages than any other club appear to be willing to pay. Tella & Redmons provide cover at CF but they are both really AMs And we look a lot stronger at full back In central defence I think we will be OK with Salisu and Bednarek as first choice (once Jan's back on the pitch after getting over having a new baby in the house). Stephens will provide OK cover and hopefully Lyanco will do the same. And I guess Simeu gives us a 5th centreback. But I would have liked another CB all the same. And then there is the keeper issue - we really need a better keeper as first choice than McCarthy or Forster. But I don't think we have the money. But I think in reality Ralph/Crocker/Semmens have done as well as they can - and spent all the money they could. Also I think this is really just the start of a team rebuild that will be finished next summer when Long and Forster are off the wage bill and with only 1 year on their contracts Redmond, Elyounossi and Djneppo will be sold and replaced. We probably would have sold them this summer - but we knew no one would match the contracts they are on with us. Hopefully then they will sign a first choice keeper, another striker, a CDM and a CB and upgrade in the AM positions.

Matt Grimes from Swansea - age 26, a CM/CDM, left footed, can also play AM. And as he there captain he would probably give some on field leadership as well. 1 year left on his contract. We could probably get him for £4M

I thought it was partly because we had Oxlade-Chamberlain ready to come in to the first team - and they played in the same position - and we didn't want to block the Ox's pathway.

if Burnley want wide players sell them Elyounoussi and Redmond - simples!

I think Semmens and Crocker are spending everything they can on the team. So far we have bought in Perraud £11M, Adarma £15M, Tino £5M, Simeu £1.5M and Broja with a loan fee - plus there will be signing on fees for the players bought in, payouts to to the players who have left and agents fees - so that’s all the money made from selling Ings and more spent. We probably have a bit of money left from selling Gunn £5M and Lemina £5M but how much of that was eaten up by payoffs and agents fee and signing on fees? So we probably only have a little bit more than the £15M left from selling Vestergaard left to bring in his replacement and a left back. What I don’t understand is why we haven’t tried to sell players like Djneppo, Redmond or Elyounoussi so that we can bring in 1 or 2 better players. You can probably add Obafemi and Valery to that list. The real issue is we don’t have an owner who is willing or able to put in any money to strengthen the squad. I think Ralph is as much the problem as the directors and the lack of money. A good manager gets the best out of the players he has and develops a system of play to do that - Ralph seems stuck to the 4-2-2-2 high press whether we have players for it or not - or who the opposition are.

With a week to go in the transfer window we are still short of cover for Romeu in the CDM role (Diallo is more of a normal CM and cover for JWP), a left footed AM to play on the right, a 2nd left back and 2 centrebacks (we need 5 really so we can play 3 at the back if needed and survive injuries/ suspensions through the season). I can’t see us signing all of those - permanently or on loan - in a week. I’m not too convinced by the sound of Lyanco but maybe he will be OK as a 4th choice and I guess we are counting Simeu as the 5th CB. If we can get Christie and a 2nd left back in as well this week (Doig or Small) I would feel a lot happier. Overall I think we’ll end up being about as strong as we were last season - and our first 11 will be good enough to just about keep us up - but if we have injury problems or Ralph’s fails to be tactically flexible or use subs properly we will be in trouble. I still think we’ll be relying on 3 teams being worse than us - but hopefully 3 from Norwich, Watford, Burnley, Palace and Newcastle will be.

I am fully expecting us to get beaten by 5 or 6 goals today. We’ll start OK but as soon as Man Utd score the first goal our heads will go down and the players will give up. A lot will depend on the team Ralph picks and the way we play. If we play the 4-2-2 -2 high press with Djneppo, Redmond or Walcott on the pitch we are in trouble. We need to start with Salisu and Bednarek at centreback (I am hoping Bednarek only missed last week as his wife had just had a baby) and Perraud and KWP at full back and S Armstrong and Tino as the AMs if we are going to go for 4-2-2-2 Personally I’d play 3-4-1-2 against Man Utd today with S Armstrong as the 10 behind Adams and Adarma.

Someone on Twitter has suggested we have agreed a fee for Maximillian Wober - a centre back from from RedBull Salzburg - 23 and 6ft2. Seems to have moved around a lot though - but Ajax and Sevilla have good recruitment records. But begs the question why did they sell him om so quickly. As always Liverpool were linked with back in January - https://www.rousingthekop.com/2021/01/05/potential-liverpool-target-maximilian-wober-has-possible-red-flag/ Probably not truth in it but there you go.

I am guessing we are looking at Caleta-Car - at 23 he fits the profile of the young players with sell on potential we want to sign. Closer to home Tosin Adarabiyo at Fulham would also fit the profile at 23 - and at 6ft 5 in would replace some of the height we are missing. Supposedly he was available for a £10M buyout clause earlier in the window - but that has passed now. Another would be Ethan Ampadu would fit the remit of someone who can play DM or CB - but at only 6ft lacks the height needed. Still think we need 2 CBs - a younger one with potential and a more experienced player with experience to provide some leadership. Surely Ralph, Crocker and Semmens were expecting Vestergaard to leave for a better offer this summer having not signed a contract extension - and given their policy of selling any player with only a year left I am surprised we didn't replace with someone like Kristoffer Ajer or Adarabiyo before he was sold. I am still hoping we will sell Elyounoussi, Djenepo and Redmond and upgrade in the AM/No10/Winger positions. Surely we brought Minamino in last season as we didn't think what we had already was good enough. I wouldn't have brought Walcott back for the same reason.

Its certainly time to start planning for Ralph's successor. At the very least he needs some support from better coaches. It worries me that the whole club - from top to bottom has gone 4-2-2-2 and high press. I am sure we used to talk about the academy teams playing 4-3-3 total football as it game the best routes for development of well rounded footballers. Ralph seems to have too much power and influence at the club to me. I certainly wouldn't be happy with Eddie Howe - Bournemouth bought their way to the Premier League - spent more than us in recent seasons and still got relegated.

The high press 4-2-2-2 seems to works when we play a team set up in a 4-2-3-1/4-3-3 who play out from the back. If a team goes long and direct against us - like Burnley will - we seem to have no answer. We also seem unable to play long and direct ourselves when we are under pressure and get caught playing out from the back. We need a striker who is tall and good in the air who can drop deep and wide to receive the long balls and then make the play from there (just like Rickie Lambert used to to do) Against the 4-3-3 we seem to run out of steam in the second half and the 2 in the middle get outnumbered by the 3 and then our defence gets overloaded by constant attacking pressure and collapse. With the 4-2-3-1 the opposition drop one of the 3 back to overload the midfield and the same thing happens. If a team play 2 upfront against us our it seems are centre backs aren't good enough to cope with 2 strikers at the moment. If we are going to keep playing the 4-2-2-2 we need to play an attacking midfield and a winger in the No10 role - so that the AM can drop back in to midfield to help out the CMs when we are under pressure. When we play 2 wingers like Djneppo and Walcott this isn't going to happen. When a team plays 2 upfront against us we probably need to go 3-4-2-1 or 3-4-1-2 to cope in defence - but we still need an AM who is capable of dropping back to in to midfield to help out the CMs. Or a DM that can drop back to make it 3 at the back. Playing Stuart Armstrong as one of the No10s gives us the ability to do that. Livramento looks like he could do a similar job as well. Walcott, Djneppo, Redmond probably can't. (I was hoping we'd sell Djneppo and Redmond and buy a decent No10 - and I don't really know why we signed Walcott other than nostalgia. Same with Long and his 2 year contract extension). We need to sign 2 CBs, a LB, DM/CM, and another Forward before the end of the transfer window. Problem is we simply don't have the money. Maybe we need to sell a few like Obafemi, Valery, Djneppo and Redmond so we can bring some different players in.

we'll play 4-2-2-2 and the high press again - hopefully the squad are more suited to it this season. At least with KWP and Perraud we'll have 2 attacking full backs. And Vestergaard's lack of pace wont be exposed at the back. But I will be very P*ssed of if we don't have a plan B against the big teams for when 4-2-2-2 doesn't work and a plan C against the teams like Burnely that sit back and long ball it so there is nothing to press. Broja will give us some height up front if we have to go long and direct.

sign Josh Doig at left back for £4-5M, Matt Grimes for Central Midfield at £4-5M and get Ethan Ampadu in for CD/CDM on loan with an option to buy. its easy this transfer stuff isn't it On a more serious note I was hoping we would sell or send out on loan at least 2 of Redmond, Djneppo and Elyounoussi so we could bring in someone better for the No.10 role and play Tella on the left. But that would mean we need another striker/forward as well. I was also expecting us to sign a left footed No. 10 to play on the right.

I never understand why we don't buy before we sell - as soon as we sell a player like Ings or Vestergaard and need to replace them the price of the replacement goes up. It doesn't really help that we have no real strength in depth and thus a player who is ready to step up and replace them. Ideally you do that and then buy a younger cheaper player with potential to fill out the squad. I guess with Salisu we already have Vestergaard's replacement as the left centre back but I sometimes wonder why we didn't sign Kristoffer Ajer for example to replace Vestergaard in the squad before we are forced to sell him. Maybe money is the problem - needing money to come in before we spend it out - but I thought that was what the loan was for. Armstrong is overpriced with 1 year on his contract at 20-25M. Edouard at £20M is a risk at the Scottish Premiership is really equivalent to League 1 in standard and competition so you have to judge the player on European games, internationals and youthful potential. Nketiah at £20M is also overpriced with 1 year on his contract - but although we got a good fee for Ings it has set a high bar in terms of transfer fee and put prices up elsewhere. Maybe a buyback deal like we did for Livramento would lower the price. I not particularly enamoured by the Sorloth rumours given his failure at Palace - surely Hoppe from Schalke would be a cheaper and better long term bet. I thought Obafemi, Long, Valery, Elynoussi and Djneppo would all have been moved on by now - either permanently or on loan - none of them are good enough.

Where are the ITKs? Is the problem that club don't have any idea what they are going to do either!?! 😂 I'd be disappointed if we sign Sorloth after his complete failure at Palace. Surely Matthew Hoppe from Schalke for £5-10M and Nketiah from Arsenal for £10-15M are more worthy of a gamble.

How about Alassane Plea as a replacement for Ings? Monchengladbach will supposedly sell him for £15M. We were linked to him just before Claude Puel left - pretty sure Leandre Griffit thought it was a done deal by his tweets at the time - but they paid £25M for him which was more than we would pay I expect. He's 28 so a bit too old for our supposed recruitment strategy - but I think we need a bit of experience up front as well as some youthful potential.

Arsenal want £35-40M for Abrahams and he supposedly want £130,000 a week. If it was subsidised loan maybe - but Chelsea want to sell him. Its not going to happen - hew will probably end up at Arsenal. I think it will be Armstrong and then someone like Hoppe or Nketiah to replace Long/Obafemi. I can see up getting Ethan Amapdu to cover centre back and defensive midfield - as others have said he fits the bill as a player from one of the big six on loan or with a buy-back option - and there is no real pathway for him at Chelsea. I fully expect Vestergaard to go before the transfer window closes. Question is who do we replace him with. I wouldn't be surprised to see Josh Doig and Matt Grimes end up at Saints to provide some cover and competition either.

Supposedly Villa are paying Ings £120,000 a week - so he's partly gone for the money. I think he realised none of the big 4 clubs were going to sign him and Spurs weren't going to pay the fee Saints wanted or meet his wage demands. So when Villa came up with the money on both counts he jumped at it. I think he's also gone to club which he thinks are showing some ambition to push for the top 6 and Europe - and may have a chance at winning something. Rather than stay at Saints for another relegation battle - which is all too likely with or without Ings. He probably also thought he has more change of making the England squad for the world cup at Villa than Saints (as per Mings and Grealish). I was a bit unsure about us making him our highest paid player on £100,000 a week given his age and injury record. And we got a good fee for him given both those things as well. I am still a bit disappointed in Ings leaving us though - as supposedly he was a fan - but in his place I may have done the same thing. The real issue for me is how we replace him. Armstrong would be a start but we shouldn't overpay for him. But even if we sign Armstrong we need another striker as we can't rely on Long, Adams and Obafemi to score the rest of the goals we need to stay up.

Matt Grimes and Joey Veerman

I fully expect Vestergaard and Ings to go this summer - probably at the very end of the transfer window. Counting Bednarek, Stephens and Salisu we have 4 centre backs but if we are going to play 3 at the back we probably need 5 - so we probably need to bring in another centreback before we even replace Vestergaard. Some would argue you need 5 anyway to give you enough cover. Whether Ings goes or not we need another striker - and if he goes we will need to replace him as well and for probably pretty much the same fee as we sold him for. We also need cover for Romeu in the 6 role and cover at left and right back. I think the appeal of Williams is he covers both these fullback roles in one go. I expect we need to shift some more players off the wage bill and raise some more funds before we can sign anyone else this summer. Maybe we will see some more incomings once Lemina and co have been shifted.

Is it just me or can anyone else see Saints selling Ward-Prowse for £30M plus and replacing him with Grimes at £8M or thereabouts. I certainly think they are thinking about it or doing something similar. Maybe someone other than Grimes. I can see Ings going as well - but I don't know how we would replace his goals. Would Adam Armstrong be good enough if we can get him? I think Adams will get better and score more but we will need another goal scorer. And I can't help thinking we should have kept Targett (Villa's player's player of the season), Reed (Leeds interested by all accounts) and Sims (maybe even Hesketh too) and given them the time and the game time to develop in to premier league regulars. Replacing Reed with Diallo cost us money - £5-7M or something like that - and I am not sure the team was any better for it. Targett would be our first choice left back now - and it looks like we'll have to spend more than we sold him for to replace both him and Bertrand. And would having Sims and Hesketh be any worse on the left than Redmond, Djeneppo or Minamino?

I don't think we should bring Minamino back whether its on loan or as a permanent signing. Also think its time to sell Redmond - he needs a change and so do we. And Djenepo either needs to move on permanently or go out on loan to the Championship for a season to get more playing time and first team experience. I'd like to see us sign Danjuma from Bournemouth - maybe we could send Long and Djenepo there on loan as part of the deal to lower the price. I'd be happy with either Ryan Gauld or Ryan Christie as relatively low cost left footed additions in the AM role. Then you'd have Danjuma and Tella as right footed AM/Wingers, Ryan Christie/Gauld? as a left footed AM, and Walcott who can play on either side as well as Armstrong all providing competition and cover for the the AM/No.10 roles. I am surprised Lloyd Kelly hasn't been mentioned as a candidate for the left back role - he could also provide cover as a left footed centre back. Another left back to consider could be Aaron Hickey at Bologna - only 18 I think - but he would provide real cover and competition at left back with first team experience.

He's got a year left on his contract - and I don't think he will sign another one so we should sell him whilst his stock is relatively high and he has some resale value. He is good at bringing the ball out from the back- but sometimes gets carried away with this and plays us in to trouble - but he's not so great defending when people run at him. He had his good and bad moments but I think it time for him and us to move on. It's probably also time for Stephens to move on - and maybe down a level to get regular first team football. We need younger players who are going to improve and step up a level. I think I'd sell both Vestergaard and Stephens and try and bring in another right footed as well another left footed defender. Sven Botman and Kristoffer Ajer could be perfect - Botman's probably out of our range but I don't think Ajer would be. Can't help thinking its a shame we released Ben White at 16!

It's probably time to sell Djenepo - he has 2 years left on his contract so he still has some value. At the end of next season - unless he drastically improves his value will drop considerably. I think he will improve - but he needs to play regularly at a lower level if he's going to - we can't afford to give him the game time in the Premier League - and I am not sure he will ever be consistent or disciplined enough. He does work hard though. I'd sell both him and Redmond this summer - trade them in for someone who is good enough to play that AM / No10 / Inside Forward role on the left - Milot Rashica or Arnaut Danjuma maybe.

I think the reality was we were desperate for cash - and spent the money or most of it on Djneppo. But yes I think its bad squad planning - having just 1 right back and 1 left back doesn't look like good planning (not unless you are hoping for no injuries, suspensions or loss of form). And yes on the 1st July I think they will wake up and think shit we haven't got a left back in the first team squad - we really need to buy 2 now.