S-Clarke

Yeah, it was a bit odd. Just hidden right at the bottom of an arrival. The club were making such big noises about keeping both deals separate, yet they plant his departure on the same article as KWP's arrival! Never mind, no drama. Will be kind of interested to see how he does at Spurs, but I'm not too bothered.

Maybe he's had some family tragedy and he's taking some time out? It sounds a bit of a strange thing to post though. I don't have instagram myself, so can't see what's happened previously. What have his previous posts been like?

Happy to up my subscription fee if needed so you can purchase more backend resources, I'm sure others will agree as well. I don't want to lose a good community here, but it's going to die very, very quickly if it carries on like this.

Probably the most obvious signing we could have made at RB! Glad we didn't miss that one, seems like a financially sound deal too. Not the crazy 15-20m prices that were banded about only a month or so back. Salisu next...

At last. Saints have quite conveniently hidden his departure confirmation right at the bottom of the KWP piece. Parking the bad news 😉 Although, I wouldn't say this is particularly bad news. Sky sports did a piece on him and said he could add what they've missed since Eriksen because of his forward penetration. Are they having an absolute giraffe? That is why reading stats and stats alone is a very, very dangerous game. I think they're in for an incredible surprise when he sits foot in their stadium.

There needs to be some sort of investigation into Carrillo and Pellegrino. Something seriously dodgy going on there, and whilst we're at it sue him for £19m

He didn't really rip up any trees there either did he? He may have in 1 or 2 games, but generally he lacks application to be consistent. That's why he's a lost cause and there is no hope for him in a Ralph team. I'd be surprised if clubs are willing to spend cash on him because of this, so it will probably be a loan at the back end of September to a random lower European league.

If they announce it all at once, how is this forum going to cope??? It'll be down for the day!

It's weird how the club haven't announced anything yet. Sky Sports confirmed we'd signed Salisu last week, nothing from the club yet. No doubts at all that these are both done deals, it's just odd as to why the club are keeping it so quiet.

I heard a rumour that there were serious considerations to 'pause' the completion this season, as well as the 'Checkatrade' or whatever it's called now.

Stats are stats, but I've watched him in every home game for the last 4 seasons and he infuriates me and bores me senseless. One of the prime reasons we have been so awful at home. We play more progressive and positive without him in the side. I can't say I've enjoyed him at all.

Yeah I think he is also another reason why we won't buy a 'Hoj' replacement. Lots of good things heard about this guy, he turned down some big clubs to join our academy and we seemed to shout it from the rooftops when he did sign. He is very highly thought of, maybe our new midfielder is already under our noses.

I reckon we'll start to hear a lot more in the next week or two, they're due back for training in about 14 days I think! That's when stuff will start moving I guess...

I kinda get what you're saying, there is a huge reliance on Ings and a long-term injury to him and our season is pretty much in tatters. I hope Adams form wasn't just a purple patch, but there are still elements of his game he needs to improve on. But you certainly wouldn't loan Watkins back, if he was an unproven/young player from L1/L2 - maybe, but this is a guy ready for the PL...he'd be straight in most bottom half teams squads.

No, I didn't mean Kat - I meant Gao, utterly awful owner. What did I expect him to do differently? Speak...? Tell us what his intentions are, show us some plans for what he wants to do with us. All he has done is sat back, left the running of the club to other people (there may be advantages to that, for sure), not invested penny and saddled us with the most dodgy of sponsorship deals in history. The team have got themselves playing well, we've got a good manager for sure, but the backdrop is still the same as it was - we need a change at the top to really do anything other than hover in the mid-table/relegation places. I don't want us to tread water and it just feels like that's all we'll do until Gao goes.

Possibly, but it does feel like we're totally strangled at the moment though. We couldn't even bring in KWP until we'd shifted out Cedric, so we're even dependant on money from players leaving to bring in a loan. We had to sell Targett before we could get Adams last year. We're waiting for Hoj to go so we can then pay for Salisu and KWP. Are we in financial ruin or something? It's a sad state of affairs really.

It's such shit timing that we have such a good manager in charge of us when we have such an horrific owner, it feels like a waste. A tiny bit of ambition and we'd be laughing, but no, sell, sell sell before a penny is spent. God forbid we actually spent something we didn't generate ourselves from a sale.

A lot is made of 'lightweight' and 'small' - but just look around at some of the best full backs, they're not all power houses are they? Jordi Alba is tiny, Lucas Digne isn't huge either. I don't think it's a position where you necessarily need to be a powerhouse, but you certainly need pace with the way we play (right back supporting the attacks). He has pace in abundance, reads the game very well and has an excellent low centre of gravity which enables him to wiggle out of tight spots. He's got all the natural tools of a modern day wing back to be honest.

For sure, Premier League could be our only chance really, if he's really keen on that. I just can't see it happening, not sure we have the money for it to be honest. We'd need to shift a few first and I'm not sure he's hanging around for that.

To be fair, Monaco can play the same game too. It's not a massively unique position, as there are plenty of clubs around the world which players can use as shop windows. Dortmund, Monaco, Ajax, RB Leipzig - far better options if one of those comes in for you, as you'll be in the shop window in major European competition. If Monaco are in for him then there is nothing we can offer really.

Selling Bednarek and keeping Vestergaard would be football suicide. That's why that won't happen, if anyone else leaves from the back 4 it's Vestergaard.

Southampton vice-chairman Les Reed said: "Guido represents a very exciting addition to our attacking options ahead of the final months of the season. "We are confident he will benefit us not only in the remainder of this campaign, but in the years to come."

They might as well have kept Eddie then. Maybe he ran because he saw what was coming? (sale, sale, sale and financial oblivion?) They'll be dawdling around L1/L2 in no time.

Yeah I think it is. Quite clear that Kevin De Bryune will win this though. There was uproar he didn't win the writers one!

Yeah it was Les who said that, and I believe it was also Les who likened him to Paul Scholes.