S-Clarke

Relegated.

Did Davis sleep with your wife or something?

I couldn't give two shits about Bournemouth and their bucket rattling antics. They need to be brought down a peg or two and a lot of their new fans need to drift back to Chelsea or whoever they used to support. I want to win both, I've got no interest in Bournemouth and I couldn't give two hoots if they stay up, go down, go bust or drift into the sea. I just want us to win the games we play.

The commentators keep going on about Liverpool dropping off as they've won the league, but they seem to forget that they'd dropped off in Feb....they just haven't really got back to where they were pre-Jan. Taking this into next season will be funny, can't see them retaining it with this lack of momentum.

To be fair they looked pretty handy tonight, this will not be easy. I reckon our hardest game of the restart. Think we might struggle here.

The whole 'transfer window closing before the first game' malarkey was shelved at the end of the last one anyway, it was meant to go back to a normal August 31st closure this year.

Rumour is around the 12th Sept, but that hasn't been confirmed yet.

I'm a big fan, maybe he'll move more centrally? I just feel he lacks pace on the right and then there's a lot of reliance on KWP for e.g to provide the width, so our attacks are often lopsided. That's all I'd say, I wouldn't drop him though as he's been pretty spot on most of this season. This is what Ralph said today - "Stu is adapting more and more to this formation and has surprised us all with his finishing," said Saints boss Ralph Hasenhuttl. "He's adapted his game to our philosophy and this is very positive."

So the 'Summer 2020' transfer thread will become the Summer/Autumn 2020 transfer thread. Confirmed the window will open between 27th July and the 5th October. With an additional week between 5th - 16th for just EFL transfers (loans etc)

He really does seem so suited to Ralph's way, watched him tonight and he was epic. He's perfect for the press and the counter press, absolutely perfect. Sell PEH for £30m, give Reed a new contract and put that cash to use in other areas? Seems like that could be a good move going by how good he's been. Just question marks over his fitness, that's all.

Awesome for Wigan, they're sticking two fingers up at the EFL and FA here. If they still get relegated and punished then the people making the decisions need to hang their heads in shame.

Ross isn't involved in this one, so hopefully we're good. I always had nerves around Vestergaard because of his lack of pace, ditto Hoedt. Good on the ball, but poor players for this league. Danso just isn't at the right level at all. This guy looks a bit of a beast, more so than any of those previous 3.

Where have you read this??

I'm pretty positive about this one to be honest, looks like we have actually got him! He's got a VVD swagger about him, and the normal cliché 'he's young and hungry to improve'. This would be a good start to our business, adding pace and power at CB, attributes we currently lack back there and haven't had since VVD left.

Sell Bednerak? Are you having a giraffe? You're not going to find a more in form CB in Europe at the moment. The guy reads the game well, dominant in the air, uses it well with his feet - he's a very, very capable centre back and in my eyes our best centre back. Salisu or whoever we get will be to partner Bedernak. The first crazy thing is you'd sell him, the second crazy thing is the fee you'd accept. You're talking getting 20m for the oaf that is Vestergaard, yet you're only looking at 5m for the best CB we have? I think you need to revaluate what you see!

I like him in a technical sense, uses the ball well and is very skilful and agile in his movement. Little bit lapse defensively, but he actually reminds me of Clyne when he first joined us. Clyne wasn't the finished article when he first started with us, and lots of teams targeted his lack of height and strength at the near post. He got better at that though through strong coaching by MP and co. 'If' we could get him for under £10m then I'd start talking, but anything near the 15m mark and I think there is probably someone in Europe who is much more of a finished article defensively that would be better value. This is such a key position for us to get right this year. Given how we play, the full backs are absolutely pivotal to the setup. Both in terms of recovery pace and attacking capabilities.

Looks like quite a few of their squad are being plucked off and heading elsewhere. Going to be tough for them and every other club below the prem IMO.

I don't think we've had a problem away from home in terms of fan noise or pressure, over the course of the season our away record is still top notch. There's a possibility that they are affected by fans in the home games, but it's impossible to say. We've still had our worst performance since the return at home (Arsenal), so the home form is still a bit of a concern for me with or without fans.

I know the media still say 'And they sacked Puel for finishing 8th!' - but us fans know what we see and what we're on about, and there was nothing but regression about his game and the improvement in our play wasn't there. It took us a little while to get out of the Puel mindset of pass, pass pass and do nothing with it, but we're finally there. Yes, we finished 8th, we weren't in a relegation battle, but he still had the likes of VVD, Tadic, Fonte etc in that side. We were closer to 17th than we were 7th, I couldn't wait to get shot of the bore. Leicester also felt our pain a few months later and it took them a while to recover as well. Death by football.

That is from the Rennes chairman a week or so ago, given there was actually no movement with Rennes I'm inclined to think he has chosen us and this is where we start to hear...

I can't sign him on FM, gets rejected a WP every time!

https://www.football-espana.net/2020/07/14/southampton-close-to-signing-valladolid-defender-salisu

I did say loan next to Obafami. Give him a season playing regular football down in the Championship, could do him wonders. We need 4 first team additions in the summer, in my opinion. I know we won't get them because finance dictates and all that, but... First choice RB (whether that's KWP or not, still not 100% convinced.) First choice CB with pace/power First choice Winger to come in on the right side. Another striker, different to what we have - bit more of a focal point centre forward, could either play with Ings or give us another option. A nice to have would be a power CM to play alongside JWP, but I can't see us getting a CM under any situation - I can see us keeping Reed and Smallbone developing further.

Yeah, I agree. Massive single point of failure right there. We've got no one I have confidence in who could hit more than 5/6 goals in a season up front apart from Ings. I'd ditch one of them in the summer (Adams or Obafemi - even a loan) and bring in a much higher quality player to play alongside Ings and offer a genuine goal threat if Ings is missing.

Happily give credit to them for Bednerak and Armstrong. But in the grand scheme they were relatively cheap gambles we could afford to make. Still doesn't get away from the crimes he committed with the purchases of Carrillo, Hoedt, Lemina, Boufal and co though - and £50m odd in the process. Those are the signings you need to be careful with and ensure you get right, but he cocked each and every one up and I will never forgive him for that. (Ross) Wasn't Romeu bought under Koeman though, when we had Mitchell? Even if it was just after Mitchell left, I'd probably still credit him with that one!