S-Clarke

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!

Stephens for the first I'd say, he was too weak against Martial. (and the sloppiness in the build up). 2nd goal though, definitely. Was dreadful defending.

Yeah, this is what is making me seriously think that the club may ditch PEH and just replace him with Reed. Then use the money elsewhere in the squad. The only worry with Reed is that he seems susceptible to injuries. Let's see what happens.

It's good to see Adams getting a little run, but I think he let himself down tonight and showed why people have doubts over him. There's no question that he has physical attributes such as pace/power etc, but he doesn't seem to be very technical and his decision making with the ball leaves a lot to be desired. Whilst the ball did stick to him when he held it up, his ability to then lay it off and bring others in was somewhat lacking. He just seems to lack that bit of technique for me.

We are such a great watch at the moment, it's the hunger and determination that I love to see. Never giving up, we're like a load of Jack Russell's nipping at the ankles of the opponents - all game long. Our fitness is at a level I don't believe it's been at for years, but the main thing for me now - and probably since Christmas time, is that we have a clear identity. We lost our way with Hughes, Pelligrino, Puel - we didn't seem to know what we wanted to be. Defensive? Tiki Taka? Our recruitment was confused because of this as well, and we ended up trying to be too clever and buying players like Hoedt and Lemina, Boufal etc because they can 'pass the ball'. But for the first time since Poch and Koeman we have an identity to our play, you know what you'll get when you see us - we press, we harry, we dis-posses - but we do it with quality, we're very good on the ball when we have it, very agile and nimble with our movements. The fact we have an identity and a clear pattern to our play will make it so much easier to recruit - you know exactly the sorts of players you need. It's just refreshing to watch a team play with some professionalism even though there's little to play for. Romeu has been awesome, but Jan Bednerak for me is like a colossus back there - everything sticks to him, he's being brave to win the ball back and playing sensible passes with it - he's been unreal, developed at an alarming rate in the last few months. Got to tie him down, big clubs will be sniffing soon. Onto Brighton, I think we'll need to shake it up a bit because we will be tired - not much time between Thursday and Sunday either, so this is going to put our fitness to test.

I'm personally not counting on Lemina, I want shot of the loser. The problem for the club will be that he's still a CM on the books, so until his situation is resolved it will put any additions in that area on hold. I believe the club see Jankewitz as a proper DM type. If we can shift Carrilo, Lemina and Hoedt this summer, it will open up so many avenues to improve our squad. If it were possible, I'd sue Ross Wilson for each of their transfer fees.

We've also got Lemina returning - not sure if he'll leave for good or he'll be given another crack. Who knows. So with PEH gone, you'd have Smallbone, JWP, Romeu, Lemina, Reed, Jankewitz all still contracted to us in midfield.

I don't know, it's a tricky one. I think if we were looking at it if he wasn't our player, we'd be kind of happy to be linked with one of the best championship midfielders. But I guess we've seen him at this level before and he has flittered in and out a bit. He could just be a very good Championship player and no more, but the club will know that better than us.

Leicester just collapsed. Their season is imploding in front of their eyes. It's not like a Brendan Rogers team to fall at the final hurdle.

Why have Leicester just hit the self destruct button? Weird.

Yeah, we had problems at the start. Got a couple of decent away results at Sheffield United and Brighton, but that wasn't as straight forward as the score line suggested - we were lucky in both of those iirc. We needed a bit of a readjustment and I'm glad the club backed Ralph to oversea that, as I never saw him as the problem. He was working with quite a disjointed bunch and he's somehow managed to forge a team with them. I just hope we make the most of Ralph and provide him the funds to add quality in a couple of positions.

Douglas Luiz, really? I think he's garbage and has been all season for Villa. Very hyped and doesn't do a great deal aside from give the ball away from the games I've seen 15m wasted.

It has been a complete turn around, like you said even barring that little dip in Feb we have been pretty solid since November to be honest. We'd be nailed on top half had and pushing for top 6 had it not been for our late September/October form, we even started the season decent enough.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/49684490 Who'd have thought....so many months on!

Bournemouth defend as badly as any team I've ever seen, and I include us in that.