S-Clarke

Apparently he's set a new 2020-2024 strategy and is handing over to John McDermot. If I was John, I'd start by ripping that up and starting again.

I actually think this may have been our most challenging window, yet we've come out of it by sheading a lot of our heavy dead wood and evolving the squad in certain positions with young players. If all goes to plan, we will have new ownership by the time the next summer window comes around and we won't be going into a window with such a huge wage bill around our necks to start with. I certainly don't think it will be anywhere near as bad as you are painting as a worst case.

They just build up whatever they get. We'll have one of the most high profile deals of the day, which says it all about the day!

Worth adding that whilst this may not aid us bringing players in immediately, you'd imagine it will free up some space in the wage bill to aid the renewals.

Boufal has gone on a free https://www.southamptonfc.com/news/2020-10-05/announcement-sofiane-boufal-transfer-southampton-football-club-angers

He's gone. It's another complete freebie though. https://www.southamptonfc.com/news/2020-10-05/announcement-sofiane-boufal-transfer-southampton-football-club-angers The club have finally stopped trying to get fee's for these players. Makes no sense having them hogging the wage bill, so we've done a lot of good today.

Not that I can see. People just putting 2 + 2 together and making 120. Based on the tweet from Adam about a 'sniff'.

Not sure why you've taken a personal issue with Hypo. There are plenty on here who talk a load of shit, he isn't one of them.

Don't think it's fair to say he was crap at Bournemouth, I thought he did well there - played quite a lot of games, had a full season and was pretty tidy for them. He's talented, but injury prone to a ridiculous level. That will put most clubs off, if anyone does go for him I imagine it'll be a pay as you play. Waste of a career he's had really.

Sky Sports bringing out the comedians to fill their airwaves today.

Exciting.

Depends how he does. Maybe we'll have a bit more $$ to play with next summer and we can buy someone like Rachica. This whole signing feels very 'romantically' driven though, rather than what he could offer us on the pitch. It doesn't feel part of any real strategy, which is odd for us. Although our 'strategy' hasn't worked that well in recent years.

Reckon we'll be seeing Butland coming as part of that? Which would be odd, cause we'd then have McCarthy, Forster and Butland. Having 3 keepers of that rep is unheard of, even for top clubs.

Angers I think...should be announced at some point. Talk of 2-3m.

We've just got Carillo off the wage bill, Boufal and Hoedt to follow. We should be able to afford 50k per week for 12 months. We've freed up quite a large % of our wage bill now. Risk free for 12 months, then see if he fancies taking a big pay cut next year. Cheaper than Boufal who was on around 65k p/w according to reports.

Can't imagine us bringing in any more than Theo.

Yeah, it's a strange one in my eyes. Have been thinking about this all day and I still can't quite make sense of it, other than it being a bit of an emotional return. I guess he'll offer us more than Boufal, so it's an upgrade of sorts in that area....I dunno, jury is out. Need to see him play to understand if he's any good these days, the talk is that he isn't and his legs have completely gone.

That transfer is going to be hurting us financially for a few years to come. Massive loss on that one, a criminal use of the VVD funds - that should have been used to build a legacy, but we splurged it on guys like him who we now have to let go as a freebie. Glad he's gone, but christ, what a huge financial disaster for us. It's like we threw £20m out of the stadium and into the river Itchen for laughs.

Sounds like we want backup in full back as our 'third' signing then.

That's the last I heard...but it's all gone quiet!

Really? Not sure I see where you are coming from there. Theo isn't an amazing addition, no, but I'm fairly confident he is going to add more than the 'maybe he'll come good' Boufal.

What's going on with Hoedt? We're not going to be left with him stinking the place out, are we?

Well, I'll take that at the moment.

Ah, I've been unintentionally ITK!

I guess if we look at this as a straight comparison with Boufal, Theo will certainly add more to the squad than he did. So that's something. I wonder how much influence Matt Crocker ahs had on this? I'm pretty certain he was part of the academy setup when Theo was here.