S-Clarke

I would say it's too big of a risk to sell JWP this summer. If he keeps progressing it's inevitable he will go, but we need to avoid being blinded by the $$ this summer. If he goes we're not left with anything really, we would in all intents and purposes have to start again which is too big a task. I know people will point to Koemans first season, but don't forget we kept hold of Clyne, Morgan, Wanyama, Rodriguez, Fonte etc who were also very highly sought after and successful players for us, so it was a decent base to build from and absorb the loss of so many good players. If we do that now and have the attitude of replacing all then we will have to be incredibly lucky, because we would simply need every signing to work out. I would say we did similar with Ings last summer, we didn't have anyone at the club who could absorb his departure so we needed to get lucky on his replacement, which sadly we didn't if we're honest. We're lucky in the sense that it didn't hit as as hard as it could have. My idea would be to build this summer and add more players to the base who can grow, to add to KWP, Tino, Salisu etc and then we could potentially absorb a JWP sale a little easier. So my view is that whatever anyone offers, it's not enough for us this summer. We've got to hold our nerve on this one.

I had a quick browse on the FC Copenhagen forums (yes, they are a thing!) and one of the take outs from their views is how well he's sorted their defence, and they'll miss the work he did with them defensively. I think that's an admission from us that maybe defending isn't a Ralph coaching strength, and we've sought to plug that gap whilst appreciating the good Ralph brings. This will hopefully alleviate some of that pressure and allow him to concentrate on his strengths - attacking/counter pressing.

He was supposedly the next Arjen Roben wasn't he? Or was that Lee Holmes. They were obviously both world class, so it's easy to get mixed up.

Is Ross Wilson working part time as their recruitment guru or something? Maybe they'll give us another £15m.

I think going back through all of this, some of it can be explained out. I think we offered both Forster and McCarthy the option to stick around and Fraser wouldn't take the wage drop, so that was that. I don't ever see that as us letting him go instead of McCarthy. The contract for McCarthy wasn't the most sensible, but I guess as a club we were protecting ourselves from going into a summer with absolutely 0 goal keepers. What you mention about the coaches and the lack of replacements for 3 years is probably purely down to finances. Now we've had a takeover, we could pay each one off and still have the money to go and poach a coach from another club to replace them. That isn't a luxury we have had for many a year, I don't think some realise how we were literally tracking every single penny. The fact it's happened now is a positive. Sacking the manager, in my view, would have been reactionary. It's not the Ralph thread and I don't want to bring it round to that, but we took the decision to revamp the coaching staff rather than Ralph. We clearly believe in him, like I do, so it's time we gave him the support which we seem to be doing. Walcott is so far the only big blot on the copybook of Crocker in my opinion. Crocker is the head of all ops, so our director of football type really, and I think in the main we're taking positive steps forward after the years of Ross Wilson and Les Reed - you couldn't say we had a strategy then. We clearly have one now, but things like this don't happen over night and the input of a 'DoF' is usually seen after a decent amount of time (As it will translate to all levels, the academy too - which has turned around)

Few more snippets here -

Slightly different approach by us on this one as well - we've appointed a coach who was currently employed by a club! That would have required compensation and we always seemed to avoid paying that...so it's an interesting change of approach.

I dunno, I don't really buy this argument. What's the point in keeping someone around who we know can't offer anything? If he's good around the changing room then give him a kit man role or something. I don't want to sound harsh because he's been a good servant for us, but we've dragged the life out of Long and it makes no sense having him take up a squad place when we know he cannot play at this level anymore. I'd rather have someone like Ballard or Doyle coming off the bench to impact a PL game, not Long.

Never heard of him, but he does sound like he has a good pedigree behind him. I'd be confident to say that he's been appointed with a long-term view to be our manager some day, similar to Thomas Frank becoming Dean Smith's assistant at Brentford. Although something tells me we've sold the wrong club to him? “It’s exciting for me to work in one of the top teams in the Premier League, to work in the best league in the world in an amazing environment in Southampton, with the crowd in St Mary’s, with a big manager like Ralph, with a lot of good players, and to have in front of you the best teams and the best players in the world, so I’m looking forward to it.

He's listed as a £1.3m transfer on TransfrMrkt. I seem to remember us getting our fee back a year later though, he went off to a Saudi club from memory. Pretty forgettable signing all told. I can't think of any 'bad' performances, i just cannot remember him. It was that forge table.

Come on Saints, long? What are we doing FFS. Move on from these players. They're not going to suddenly re-ivent themselves. They're done, finished. Hopeless squad fillers who take a place, money and cannot actually compete at this level. This an opportunity to have a clean slate, but we're not learning are we.

That summer was a strange one generally. We lost Baird, Bale, Jones, Pele and Claus (who i don't think played again). So we got in Safri, Thomas for like £2.5 combined. Vignal on loan to replace Bale (jeez). John was signed to replace Jones. That Bennett bloke signed at the same time as Davies I think, to be fair to Davies the only decent spot in that season. I think we got Euell that summer as well. Absolute disaster all round and not cheap, given our situation.

This is the team. I'd go Son over Ronaldo every day, Declan Rice over Thaigo. Surely you have to go Ederson in goal and Walker right back? There is an outside shout for Kane over Salah based on the second half of the season. Spurs kind aof went under the radar, but their form second half of the season was Top 2.

It's true, if they have the money they'll spend it. But what annoys people is that Liverpool are painted as plucky underdogs doing it the right way, not with the budget of Man City/PSG etc. Bullshit to that. They have spent fortunes which is why they are successful, not because they're plucky underdogs.

They didn't even win anything ffs. They certainly didn't do it on a 'budget' either. I hate the way the media paint them, the plucky underdogs going about it the right way.

Honestly, how can they justify asking for that much? He cost them £3m, they were relegated and bar a purple patch at the start of the season he has been extremely average ever since. 1 goal since Dec I think. They'll need to half that asking price and then some to get any bites.

He's on about 250k per week. If he moves it'll be to a European club somewhere, we can't afford or attract that level.

That's the one. We got him on loan from Reading for 6 months, we'd just lost Baird and Claus too and that was one hell of a regression. We did blurt £1m on Wayne Thomas that window as well.

I think this is the crux of the complaints. It's not so much that people are writing him off, far from it, it's just that this position isn't really one we can afford to gamble on right now.

Didn't Liverpool actually sign him shortly after that game? They used him as a supersub striker weirdly.

I hope he gets a good loan this season. He needs regular football and to baulk up a bit. He's talented and he has a good touch I think, better as a number 10 type from what I've seen. I wouldn't sell him as I think there is something there, as long as he gets the games.

The club haven't helped themselves with the sheer mystery surrounding McCarthy, it's like they're hoping fans forget he was out of contract so we don't realise they were daft enough to renew him.

Crikey, there have been many. But one which has always stuck in my mind as a recurring nightmare was Alan Bennett at home to Palace in 2007. Hoedt away at Fulham in 2018, absolute shambles. He was an embarrassment. Oliver Barnard in any of the games he played for us, he didn't know where a left back was meant to be.

Yeah, it can go wrong for sure if your scouting is crap. I'd still feel more comfortable signing established players in our current guise though, let's not forget how we finished the season! Most of the 11 looked washed up and done for, we can't replace all those with unproven players.

I guess experience is the wrong word, it's more proven quality I'd say. So they can still be in the 24-26 age bracket but have significant experience behind them of a decent league (like when we signed Mane, Tadic, Pelle, Toby) Honestly i have no problem with buying unproven players with little top level experience, but when the experience and proven quality we have around them is so shit it's hard for them to flourish. I'd say Tino was the exception rather than the rule, we can't expect that every time. And with young players, you will always get dips of form as they're not used to that level of football - that's where you need some established to rotate them with, which we don't really have.