S-Clarke

No, PSV's replacement would have to be done today as their window closes. But we're still free to sign from them up until tomorrow @ 11pm.

I can't keep up! I read about this guy a few weeks ago weirdly, Leicester were looking at him to replace Fofana but went for another guy in france (Belgium guy I think). There are genuine comparisons between this guy and William Saliba. I'd be surprised if we get a loan, he's highly regarded.

Game of brinkmanship, keep it going for as long as they can in the hope that a club gets desperate at the 11th hour and blows us out of the water. We clearly seem like the main players in this right now, we'll know a bit more certainty this evening I think

I think it would have been odd signing another right back, we obviously pin a lot on Tino returning and being the superstar we know he is. This young kid won't be first team, but you'd 'hope' we've already got our succession plan in place for either evolving Perraud or replacing KWP. It's similar to what Brighton did with Cacideo - sold Bissouma, but they already had his replacement in the building.

I get stuck into work for a few hours, and all this happens ffs?? We are really leaning on Shields quite heavily, he will know all about those two kids. AMN is a no brainer and is more of the profile of player we'd look for, Garner wasn't ever quite that type in my opinion. We are going to be a seriously athletic side.

They're already owned by Man City aren't they? Part of their mega-group of clubs afaik.

I wasn't blaming Hugues for that at all. You just proclaimed that Hughes kept us up, just as Ralph has. But they're totally different situations. We've never really been in a relegation battle under Ralph, we were under Hugues.

I'd have liked Kalajdizic 'in addition' to a Gapko type, as he looks like a power house (and adds more height to our spine). But maybe we're focusing on more athleticism and pace across the 3 rather than just tall types. I'd say AMN fits the profile of a midfielder we'd want rather than Garner, we'll see what happens with that.

The difference between Hughes and Ralph is that Ralph has never really been in a relegation battle. Sure, we've been in relegation form and have circled at some point, but we've always had runs of form which means we have been always on the edge of any discussion. With Hugues, that was a proper relegation battle. We were deep in it. We had to go to Swansea and win otherwise we were gone. We've never been in that situation under Ralph.

Wolves have confirmed the signing of Sasa Kalajwhatsit. £18m I think I saw the fee as. Be interested to see how he does, could be a very good signing. Everton about to announce Garner as well by all accounts. £15m. A lot has been made of Forest signing loads of players, having to replace loan players etc, so why didn't they go back and get Garner as he was absolutely critical for them last season. That doesn't help alter the feeling that their approach is incredibly scattergun.

We'll miss Lavia in this one, as their Portuguese midfield will probably be too much for Diallo and JWP alone (this is why we will need a replacement for Oriol). Wolves fan's aren't keen on Lage though, which came as a surprise to me. A bit of an increasing tone that they want him out, they've had enough of him. They don't score many goals but that's born out through style and pragmatism rather than a lack of quality, in my opinion. If we keep it tight then we can break on them and move their CB's around.

So it doesn't get lost in all the other transfer threads, it looks like Oriol has/is about to leave us after 7 years. This transfer has left a bit of a mark on me as I'm a big fan of Oriol. A professional, gave us steel when we needed it. He was originally brought in under Koeman as a squad addition to build us out a bit, over time he developed and under Ralph he made that CM slot his own and he has been amongst the best DM's in this league. Why is he leaving though given all that? He seems to be physically struggling with the intensity we need to play at. It was so noticeable in the second half of last season that he was struggling to get around the pitch as freely as he used to be able to and that made it difficult for us to compete in the middle as we rely on that mobility. I'd have liked to have kept Oriol around in the squad as he'd still be an important player for us - but if he wants to go back home to finish his career with security and a longer contract then no one can begrudge him that. He's given us his all and I wish him all the best, thank you Ori!

Exactly, FFP is equally pointless. It's masked as financial fair play, but actually it's a sly ploy to create an elite group that cannot be touched. It's not a super league, but they'll create leagues within their own leagues as others won't be able to compete. As you say, that's what we've already seen in France as a fine example. When you get Everton and Barca doing what they're doing, after being in breach of so many FFP rules, you start to realise that it's only their to service an elite group. Part of me thinks a super league could be a good thing in the sense of letting all these 'elite' morons piss off and play with each other, but that would equally harm the likes of us as revenue/TV money would collapse.

Not sure he was injured, he was just blowing out of his arse. Hasn't had any pre-season at all really.

Can't remember it being mentioned, seems to have gone under the radar. Another first team staff member brought in other the summer - Neil Simms, new first team head physio. Brought him in from Forest in July.

They seem to be focusing on one thing - defence. 3 at the back, Coady, Tarkowski, holding midfielders etc. They will be an utter bore fest to watch, but it may work. Their points in recent games have come from them defending and then hitting on the break through Gordon. That genuinely seems like the tactic they're going to use.

That has always been the grumble about these late flags, they let the play go on but it could cause a bad injury to a player for actually no reason. I thought they'd adjusted it slightly this year but maybe not. Elyounoussi, against the ball, was extemporary and that is exactly why Ralph picks him. He struggles to have much impact in the attacking third due to his lack of pace, but you can't question his effort.

Exactly. It's going to be really tiring if we spend our time worrying if he's going or not, he will be going at some point but it's not on the radar yet so I don't get the fuss about it already. I get bored reading these articles ''what a team Southampton could have had if they didn't sell!'' - but they always fail to take into account that Tadic, Mane, VVD etc wouldn't have arrived had we kept Lallana, Lambert, Lovren etc. We just have to get our scouting on point so we can get over the loss of these players, but the bonus is that if they do well for us they will improve our league position and thus open the market to a higher selection.

Premier League clubs set for restrictions on spending | Sport | The Times I fail to see how these sort of changes increase competitiveness. The clubs with the higher revenues will be able to dominate the market because they can, even if we wanted to have a pop we'd be stuck.

He struggled in the first half, but that was expected as he's had very little game time. 2nd half though, even more so when Lavia went off, he was excellent. Good energy, good on the ball - and made a telling contribution to our second goal too. You can understand why we're keeping him and letting Romeu leave. We need mobility throughout the team and he certainly gives us that, he can be a little weak at times though - that's my only concern.

He's into his 5th game with us, why do we have to worry about the length of his contract and him leaving already? He will leave within the next 2 years, so just enjoy him playing for us and stop panicking that we've not tied him down for 20 years.

I thought he actually gave them something when he came on, they were so blunt before that. For £70m, wtf does Havertz do? Looked absolutely terrible. I think it was KWP who just ran past him at one point in the first half.

It didn't play very well tonight, looks like a pitch you see at the end of a season. I do think the problem is that we haven't been able to replace it for 2 years though, so it's probably going to be a case of babysitting it this year until we have a big enough gap to rip it up.

I said on the match thread, he reminds me of the CB Ralph had at RB - Dayot Upamenco. Physically imposing, quick, good touch. Seems to have a great mentality and genuine leadership qualities too, and for 20 years old that's usually a sign that he's destined for the very top as long as he keeps his head screwed on.