S-Clarke

It's Gakpo all over again, there's no other way to put it. We'll probably never know the true story behind this ill-fated attempt, but he'll prob end up in the French or Italian league by next year.

If a game ever demonstrated Russ-Ball, that was it. - Keep the ball and have more possession - Tick - Have in excess of 500 passes - Tick - Concede rubbish goals and scrape through - Tick - Be brave - Tick

if BBD buggers off then we may well do.

Spurs will try to throw players in as part-ex, they always do. We don't want your next gen Tommy Forecast thanks.

We'd almost certainly replace Fernandes if he were sold, otherwise we're back to the situation of relying on Smallbone to provide box to box for our midfield should we get any injuries. Too risky, as Downes will pickup injuries and Charles will pickup suspensions. I expect us to bring in the Azaz type without any key sales, but the sales of Dibling and Fernandes should then allow us to bolster CM, Number 9 and further wide options.

If he's going, a bidding war is the best outcome for us.

Weren't they beaten 4-0 away at a L1 Club in the cup or something?

He's not coming Dave. It was over in July I believe.

Azaz is the profile of attacker I think we're missing, someone who can play all across the front 3. He's likely the '10', with the flexibility to fill out wide, but we'll probably get a genuine winger too I think. Azaz will guarantee you at least 10 from attacking midfield which is something we didn't have last time out. Seems like our budget for this type is around £12-13m, which should get you a decent player at this level. (Although that max budget sign off never seems to change no matter what league we're in!!)

Didn't we send them a 'counter offer', which if they agree to will be immediately accepted? I'm sure that's still on the table in their dugouts.

At that point you have to wonder why on earth they even bothered.

Just to help appease some worries, the last time we were in the Championship we signed Charles and Manning early doors in July - just like Quarshie and Downs this time round. Holgate, Fraser, THB, Downes & Stewart all came in post 20th August. We are now in the period things where things start to happen, I also include exits in that. The big sales of Tella, JWP, Lavia all happened in the second half of Aug.

I wasn't a fan of Puel at all, but looking back now I do think the expectations played a part and he came in at a time when that ride was ending. We'd improved our league position every year since 2009, it was incredible and great fun. We all got used to it, in fact accustomed to winning and doing well - those 6 years were strange for me as a Southampton fan as it was the first time we felt like a 'big club' and that we could take anyone on. My biggest regret from those years is that we didn't win anything, we really should have as I don't think we'll ever have such a strong side again. Puel did lose a lot of talent in that summer, and our replacements thereafter we crap in relation to what we sold (Mane for Redmond is the biggest downgrade in footballing history you'd have to say). I think after being used to exciting and attacking football for so many years, it felt like we'd regressed certainly in approach, points, totals etc. It wasn't all on Puel, but he was a symbol of when everything started to go wrong and we started to make daft decisions on transfers and managers. He was probably the wrong manager for us at that point. He wasn't what we needed, I think we should have continued with a more progressive/attacking coach, but it was around this time everyone got excited for Pep and tried to build teams which were built on 'keeping the ball', rather than physicality and power.

I think as everyone says, the biggest gap for us in the attacking third. When we came up we had Brooks, Sulemana (not great tbf, but he was an option), Edozie (he's not part of it anymore), SAA, a younger Fraser, Stu, Aribo - much more to choose from in an attacking midfield area. Stu was class at this level. We've got to get that area sorted before we can say it's stronger or on par with the squad we had available for the playoffs/back end of that season. As it stands we have less attacking options and we'll be less potent imo, but maybe a bit stronger defensively - that may balance it out, who knows - but defo need attacking additions, everyone has said it - even the club.

The absolutely perfect window at this stage for me would be: Retain Fernandes Retain Dibling Sign a Winger Sign a 10/who can also play as a winger Sign a GK to push Bazunu Get a CM and RB in on loan. And the cherry on top - Leicester sell Fatuwu to Everton and El-Khannous to Palace. That's my optimistic hat on.

Didn't we both have the same targets that window? They were looking at Perraud and Firpo and so were we. We got Perraud, and they got Firpo. Neither really won out there.

I guess if we don't see him in any videos or photos this week, then it's not an illness - he's obviously had some other set back of sorts. But let's see first, he may well be fine and back involved.

Ideally I'd agree too, but I'm thinking more in terms of starting addition priorities - what we don't have at the moment. We do need Charles cover, but we can still play the same way without Charles cover today as long as he's fit. CM is third priority once we get some starting wide attackers in the door. I think we've got what, 9-12 days left? We've got to be doing a lot...!

It's probably more fair to say 4-4 at HT. I think we both had chances, we had a couple cleared off the line ourselves if my memory serves. It wasn't a perfect game by any means, lots to improve on after that, but I don't think it's fair to say we could have been thumped as we also gave our fair share. 2 pen shouts too, at least 1 was a certain.

I think so, yes. I still believe we lack genuine wide options, I'd class Dibling as more of an inside forward than an out and out winger. I think we could smash a team together, but without some wide options I don't think it would ever truly fit what Still wants to do. So, even without those sales, we need a GK, a proper 10 and a wide player I'd say. Bonus positions would be RB and CM in the Charles mould.

I guess it's also not just about looking at 'now', we really want to start putting together a team which could flourish in the PL. Building around Dibling/Fernandes is important in that, otherwise we really will become a proper yo-yo outfit. The concern I'd have is that we'd replace proven PL talent with Championship players, as that's our current level, and the players wouldn't have the same celling as either Fernandes or Dibling. Thus, we'd have to spend mega fortunes next summer (if promoted) to bring our level up again. But we are also in a tricky place where we're struggling to shift the fodder like BBD, Edozie, Aribo, ABK etc - and because of that, we can't move on areas we need to improve on today (wide attack, AMC etc). It's a really tricky position for the club to navigate, which has been caused by years of poor windows, but my feeling is that we can't sell both Dibling and Fernandes this window - we've got to keep at least one of them and build around them.

I don't think it's the goals scored which skew peoples thoughts, it's how many we let in. That meant that all those goals just got us over the line in games we gave away goals, rather than us going away and dominating sides 5-0 or 6-0 like a Leeds and Leicester were doing. Yes, we scored goals, but the way he enabled us to score goals created an incredible fragility at the other end. We scored 87 goals, but ended up with a GD in the +20's, that probably tells you everything.

I can probably guess BBD, Taylor and Fraser? To be fair to Taylor and Fraser they have been good pros, but for a PL side they didn't lift us at all and seemed rather pointless.

The evidence is pretty much stacked up. MK Dons Swansea Ourselves Rangers. All conceding in excess of 60 goals - with Rangers on route to do the same, in a pub league. That's not down to luck or players making silly decisions, it's due to the entire structure he implements. It's flawed, whatever Fabrice says. I will never be able to have any good thoughts towards someone who laid the foundations for our worst ever PL season.