S-Clarke

This is the biggest worry for me. Redmond, Theo, Moussa just do not cut it in those '10 roles'. We needed a 10 this summer, because from what I can see we're relying on Adams using his physical presence against defenders and nicking the ball from the press in order to create chances. We seem incapable of providing opportunities from the wide areas.

We did, but they didn't sign them.

It shouldn't have to be like this and a club should be able to evolve, but our position is that we can't do that. We seem programmed to expect that we have to sell the tea lady before we can buy a new tea lady etc. But in this context, based on us getting 45-50m for him. That would afford us an opportunity to get experience at CB, CM a new goalkeeper and maybe a replacement for Moussa. JWP alone would be a miss but if his fee is put to good use it could add what we miss. My fear is that we'd target more young players though, as those are seemingly all we can afford.

Desperate for some top level experience at CB, not a young untried player who is going to 'grow into the side'. We need someone now who is going to slot in, kick these soft fuckers up the arse and throw his head on the line.

The first goal for me - I'd be screaming all over the GK, don't stand there waiting. Be proactive. Shove Salisu out of the way if you don't think he's going to deal with it. He stood there like a gormless oaf. Just non-goalkeeping.

That was sadly a case of different season, same old fragilities. Nothing has changed. We took the lead, got an element of control over the game, went in at HT and tails were up. Everton boo'd off, all perfect from our pov. But what we don't seem to expect is a reaction. As with last season, when the going is good and we're not facing adversity we're fine, but as soon as we face a little bit of pressure or the opposition turn up the heat on us we crumble into bits. Sadly we didn't do enough throughout the majority of the game to trouble Pickford though, just the goal really. Theo was a signing I didn't really want, as it seemed like a mascot signing more than anything. Sadly that performance said it all, he's cannot contribute at this level anymore. Fairy tale story and all that, but if we wanted a mascot we should have asked him to retire first. Moussa is just pointless. I cannot deal with him stepping over the ball, touching it too many times and then giving it away. He's all legs and no action. Desperate someone gives us some money for him so we can buy an actual attacking player. Armstrong and Adams looked good - both pests all afternoon, they had to create it all themselves though. Tino very composed first half, great positioning, but did drift off a little in the 2nd half I felt - I'm baffled as to why he wasn't substituted if I'm honest. I still think we are leaderless, more so than last season. If I was in charge I'd be all over Cahill and Delaney and get them in that spine ASAP, but I know we won't and we'll add more inexperience to the already inexperienced bunch. We'll win games this season and we'll look good at times this season, but this lack of experience is going to kick us in the balls. I'm still not sure what this season will entail, a new centre back and CM may change things, but as it stands it looks like it's going to be one hell of a miserable slog with a lot of inexperienced players.

We had Vokins and Long on the bench against Palace. Smallbone starting etc. We've not got the squad of the days of Koeman, but it's stronger than it was last year in my eyes depth wise. Quality....who the f knows. I have no idea how it's going to pan out, it's all a bit unknown. As someone on another forum said ''I don't know half the Southampton team''. Arguably we have been crying out for this sort of freshening up for years.....I genuinely don't know what to expect.

Last season we had N'Lundulu, Watts, Kegs, Ferry making up the bench.

The bench is very strong, lots of positive options on the bench. Shame the first team is arguably weaker than the bench. Hopefully this is the season Moussa actually arrives, not holding my breath though.

You can't just look at Ings for his goals though. Assists, runs, movement. Created probably double that for us. (when fit, obviously - which he wasn't last year)

Leeds are just as open as usual. This season will probably catch up with them if they continue this approach.

I'm sure the plan all along was to end up at Aston Villa.

They panicked, that's why they went for it. They saw that they were getting left behind so they wanted an easy way to drag themselves back into it. Unlucky. They'll have to suck it up.

He did well to keep them competitive in hindsight, but at that point Arsenal still believed they should be winning the league. I don't think they've ever been so far away from being in contention. The top 6 have raced ahead in quality and coaching.

It's a tragedy, what an absolute cowards way of going about addressing any personal daemons you may have. 3 year old little girl, I mean come on. He can't even face justice for what he did as he took the cowards way out at the end. Social media certainly doesn't help, well it's the internet generally really. People get into really dark places and sadly there are a lot of dark places online which fuel that. But you have to be mentally deranged to go through with any of it. Lots of people are struggling, no doubts. Probably being bombarded by those 'happy family shots' on social media and the likes. But let's be clear, none of that provides any reason for shooting innocent people and then killing yourself is cowardly and he deserves nothing but contempt. He was deranged.

Oh god, now you've done it.

Arsenal were an absolute mess. Just look at them 10 years ago to today, the regression has been ridiculous. Why did they spend £25m on Mari? I've never seen anything from him to suggest he is a capable PL centre back. They just look like a bog-standard PL team to me nowadays, capable of winning and losing in equal measure. That ultimately means they will be mixing with your Evertons, Villas, Leeds rather than the Utd's and Liverpools as they used to.

That's not true at all.

I know what you mean, it's not an amazingly well drafted email and doesn't read particularly well - but saints-comms.com is the domain they use for all mail communications.

He does play that way, fullbacks are one of the most important positions in our team. Sadly Bertrand just stopped doing it for us, personally I think he'd just gone stale here and needed a fresh start. But there have been signs, over at least hte last 18 months, that he'd lost the pace and that burst which made him a threat in a wing back role. So more often than not we relied on the right side with KWP to provide all the width. In terms of Vestergaard, whilst he is a great ball playing centre back, it's a risk to play him alongside another slow centre back if you play a progressive high press type of game. If you get caught up field that's it, it's done. He's got the turning circle of an oil tanker and is prone to being done by tricker and nibble players in and around the box. Don't get me wrong, he has improved massively since he first joined us but I think most fans will be honest when they say we won't miss him for his defending.

Dier would be a great addition for us, better than any of our current CB's. He can cover midfield and full back too (at a push) so it covers all elements. Is he available though? I've not seen anything suggesting he is. I'm not sure why fans are turning their noses up to him. Fair enough, if we were looking to win the league or finish Top 4 and we'd signed Dier I'd be a bit underwhelmed....but we're just here to stay in the league and maybe have a flirt with the top 10 if all goes to plan, so on that basis he'd be a massive coup let's be honest. Personally I think he'll cost too much in both wages and fee, so it's probably a no go. Same with Caleta-Car, they're talking £20m for him. I imagine we've got £15m tops to use. That serb who was off to West Ham, but now isn't, would have been a good option - but if Spurs want him then we have about as much chance as no chance. The other one on my radar is Kamara who is linked with Newcastle, not over the line yet to my knowledge and they're just about to splurge £25m on Willock...so maybe he has just become available to nab.

Which the loan is there to cover, and has covered. Obviously that loan has to be paid off, but Martin and co have confirmed that this isn't something to worry about in the 'here and now' and transfer fees are not going towards it. That loan was so we didn't have to rely on 'sales' to prop us up as a club, so these sales should still give us the funds to reinvest. Maybe not every penny, but at least 80% I'd have thought. Anyway - I think this was one of the most inevitable exits of the summer. I'm not going to lie, I wanted more $$ for him and I thought we could have got more - but I think it became clear that it was £15m or £0 next summer, so we took the cash. He improved massively under Ralph, but I'd say that our defence has been one of our weakest elements. So we now have the funds to improve on this position and bring in a player much more suited to how we play. I'll miss Jannik for his passing and switches, but that says it all really. I certainly won't miss him for his defending.

It would be a bit niave to go in with those two as first choice. I think we need to take this opportunity to get a new CB who will be first choice, then it's up to Bednarek or Salisu to stake their claim as 2nd. That's my view anyway. Although It probably won't play out like that. We'll sign Phillips and we'll have Phillips and Bednarek as our primary pair of slow centre backs.

It's very hard to call this season, it could be a complete and utter car crash or we could surprise a few and push towards top 10. We have a lot of new players, everything feels refreshed in terms of age and some of the key positions (up top, full back and potentially cb). Arguably it's the freshening up we've been crying out for but it's had to come at the expense of losing some starters in order to create the budget. 10 games should paint a fair picture, as is always a decent benchmark.

The Phillips stories won't go away, he seems our 'Armstrong' type target for CB. So expect this to be done for the weekend I reckon. And that will be us done transfer wise. Struggling to get on board with it though if I'm honest. He's the opposite of what we actually lack at CB.