Saint Matty 76

Mentioned Ferguson on loan a little while ago as a bit of a pipe dream. If it's actually an option we have to be all over it. Would assume it'd be a preferable move for Brighton as well due to the similarity in playstyles.

Yep. He was clearly at his end physically but Stu Armstrong was the only one capable of doing that for us last year, and I felt like we really missed that whenever he wasn't playing. The only capable players in this current squad are either A) 18 with about 40 professional minutes or B) about to be sold. It's why playing Smallbone & Aribo together is utterly pointless, as neither of them excel defensively or offensively. They're both just alright at shielding a ball and playing short passes. It has to be one of them and somebody more attacking, or maybe even neither.

A day on and I still just cannot get over the tactics of the first hour. If you're not going to attack Forest at home as a winnable fixture, which game are you? I'm praying it's just a case of not having the options ready to set-up differently, but if he intends for us to look like that with two wingers (strikers) who cannot beat a man, and Smallbone and Aribo lumbering 10 seconds too late into the box... christ.

Really need a strong Dibling performance here. For now there is nobody else in the squad who can do what he does on the turn, and as a result he should be starting over Aribo.

So clear for 5/10 minutes before their goal that the game was there and we needed to make a change. Doesn’t react until they score. Happened plenty last year too. Too scared to attack Forest at home, what hope do we have outside of that?

Tactics in the first half nothing short of embarrassing. Smallbone and Aribo pointless footballers with no creativity/urgency. One of them or neither, never both. Ridiculous. Dibling our only footballer capable of turning and driving with the ball.

Literally neither of us have ever heard of/watched this player and that's your conclusion? Fair play.

Really confused as to why this has everybody so rattled? We're taking a young player who had an £18m bid from a PL club last year, and putting him out to a good league to develop for a season whilst we're able to take a good look at him and see if he'll fit our system the year after? If he does, great. If he doesn't, there'll likely be a resale value on the player so it seems extremely unlikely we won't receive any financial value from the part exchange.

Be happy either way to be honest. Ramsdale more expensive, Bijlow with injury concerns. Both have a flaw but both are monumental upgrades. The one worry I'd have with Ramsdale is that if it's a loan where we don't sign him at the end, do we just go back to Bazunu? At least with Bijlow you'd assume that he'd be the starter for the foreseeable.

https://x.com/VI_nl/status/1826655523779084551 The top Dutch source stating that "All parties would find it strange if no agreement is reached tonight or tomorrow." about Bijlow, so looks like it probably is just a bargaining tactic.

Feel like I can be quite relaxed about it if we're in a situation which looks like it'll be Ramsdale or Bijlow. Actually miles better than the standard I was expecting.

Exclusive: #Southampton preparing to make a loan bid for #Arsenal’s Aaron Ramsdale. More on @SkySportsNews and here: https://t.co/OzHTtF6IG5 #Saintsfc #Afc #wwfc

If he'd struggle to get a work permit here then this is the actual pure benefit of the partnership no?

Bijlow and an attacker of some form would have me happy, whether that be a creative midfielder, winger or striker. I think we've been clever this window and given ourselves a reasonable chance of survival, which would also have us in an extremely strong position to come back up again if we were to go down.

Kalimuendo would definitely be fun, if anyone can get over the fear of it being another Rennes transfer disaster.

Gave us this top class gif too.

Good GK but been injured for about 7 months of this past year.

The exact type of signing I'm usually really excited for us to make, but I think it's currently a little overshadowed by the needs elsewhere for me. I hope he's able to make a positive impact right away, though.

This is why he’d be quite intriguing as an O’Riley alternative in my opinion, played his best football in the more advanced role which is the midfield area we’re currently lacking in the most. Fernandes/Smallbone - Downes/Ugochukwu - JWP/Aribo/Lallana Suddenly looks quite exciting, although I do still imagine Ugochukwu will partner Downes more than just being his back-up.

Aribo (much like most of the team) had a relegation clause which took him down 40% to £40k p/w. Not sure if he had a mirroring promotion clause which took him back to the original number, however. Interested to know how much of his £80k McCarthy got back on the renewal…

JWP is on another level to Smallbone/Aribo. If he was available on loan and wanted to come back it'd be a complete no brainer.

We're not getting Ramsdale. If there's a deal which is somehow favourable to a team of our financial capabilities, then there will be better options for him available. We're also not getting Johnstone because the club don't want to pay a fee for a keeper, presumably because they're still somehow viewing Bazunu as our long term no. 1 outside of this season. It'll be going further down the list, to a Dubravka/Steele type option.

"Arsenal would rather sell Ramsdale than let him leave on a temporary basis and recently turned down an approach from Ajax, while the likes of Southampton have also expressed an interest." Article from Ornstein actually tells of our interest for the first time.

EXCL: Wolves make proposal to sign Aaron Ramsdale from Arsenal. Initial loan + buy option + #WWFC would cover majority of 26yo goalkeeper’s wages. Acceptance at Molineux deal difficult due to finances involved but talks with #AFC continue @TheAthleticFC

#SaintsFC and Strasbourg have reached and agreement for the sale of Sekou Mara worth €12m. Personal terms still to be agreed — possible signing at the end of the week. Some good news that I didn't really expect, especially after ABK fell through.