S-Clarke

Rasmus will know of him well, was a big part of Brentfords promotion team - just never quite good enough to be a PL regular.

Awful news day, RIP to both.

They are so, so, so bad. Germany haven't had to do anything special. Might as well book the flights back home!

Both sides were dicks. We acted like the pompous stuck up club we were becoming under Reed and Kruger, thinking we'd won football and cracked transfers. Lallana threw his toys out because we were making his leave difficult. Both sides came out looking fairly silly at the time, but 10 years have gone now. Not really relevant anymore.

I think he's Championship at absolute best, he'll never be more than that. He was woeful last year to add to that, Swansea fans aren't big fans. I'd be really stunned if we signed him as a PL club, if this is the level we're targeting we might as well have stayed down. I think it's just media roundabout stuff though.

Adams up front means goals, goals, goals Why are the club pushing the fact Armstrong is featuring? He's not our player anymore, seems to be a bit of a stretch by the club to claim '3' Saints players at the Euro's. 1 and a half at absolute best.

It's a bit of a squad signing, only a year after which point he'll slip into coaching full time I'm sure. Replaces the voids left by Rothwell/Armstrong. I was surprised to read that he actually made 30 apps for Brighton last year, I thought he barely played. Not that he did anything in them mind.

I raise you Eden Hazard. £100m to Real Madrid in 2019, played just 50 league games between 2019 and Nov 2023 when he finally retired. I was surprised to see him rock up on Soccer Aid the other night, he's only 33! I know injuries have taken their toll, but he was up there with the best in the world back in 2015/16 in terms of output

The priority is that he invests in a team that allows us to compete and stay in the PL. If he invests in a 70-100m stadium add on, but not the team, we then sit in the Champ with half an empty bowl and a shit ton of debt. I never understand why fans get so excited about stadium expansion. It will happen when it happens, but it's so far down the list of things that need to be done right now.

Did you put your reg into the app correctly? I know someone who has been bitten like this before (not at this location though), they legitimately paid and had the receipt etc - but just had a typo in their car reg, and that meant it was all null and void. It shouldn't....the receipt should still be proof, but these companies don't have morals.

Yep I get that and it's a valid point, but it would still cost millions and millions of pounds to build - I don't personally think that's a sensible use of our money at the moment, let's build a PL side first and see where we are come 2030.

This is the problem with loans though and why they often say - ''never fall in love with a loan player''! I don't think Burnley made any of their loanies permanent last year, at least we got a deal in place to get THB.

The Brazilian guy is an attacking midfielder rather than a Downes type, probably more of a Paquetta replacement as he won't be seen for some time. I think WHU would be daft to not cast their eye over Downes, this is why I see this one going well into August if it happens at all.

I think we need many years established in the PL, with regular high footfall and sell-outs before anything gets off the ground on this one. All clubs need to keep an eye on expansion for sure, but there are more important costs for us to factor in over the next 4-5 years (i.e building a competitive and safe PL side). This is way down my list of priorities.

I saw that I thought he looks good for L1, but then I realised that Rochdale plummeted to non-league. I remember them giving us some decent games in our adkins years! Shows how quickly football can shift. Defo a signing for the U21's, won't be anywhere near the first team yet.

Not sure how you come to the conclusion that Bittencourt means that we're not getting Downes, two totally different midfielders. Bittencourt is more of your 8, 10 style CM whereas Downes sits. You'd have them both in the same team, not one or the other. We have Rothwell, Stu and co to replace too. Can't say I know a great deal about Bittencourt of recent years, but he's never been a particularly sought after player - just drifted around the German leagues for nominal fees.

And again. The guy is just bonkers.

I think that's always been our market though really. Young players, or relatively low profile/unknowns from weaker leagues with the hope that they can grow with us and sell on for a profit. Or a final return for one of our academy players. (that's only been happening the last couple of years though). We will never be able to sign what I'd call 'ready' players. You see a lot of fans calling for their team to buy a 15-20m PL striker - there isn't anyone who can unless you are Liverpool or Man City. We just have to gamble on youth and hope our scouting is shit hot. That's why it's so critical that scouting at clubs like ourselves, Brighton, Brentford etc is absolutley shit hot because it needs to work, there is zero margin for error. We have been catastrophically bad for so long now and that needs to change this window.

The playoff games can cloud the judgement a bit on the overall run, but you're right - we were utter dog shit towards the end of the season. Stoke, Blackburn, Leicester, Cardiff. We woke up for the playoffs though and that's all that mattered at the end.

I'd rather we shifted the squad dross in Sulemana and Mara before we go after Aribo, you can rely on him at least - the less said about the first 2 the better.

Chris Lines, Brian Howard, Matt Holland, John Halls, Elliot Ward - the ITK 'almost signed' top 5.

Probably the most I've looked forward to an FM game for years, maybe ever. Don't think you can underestimate how much a difference the Unity Engine is going to make to the match engine graphics. Graphically this is going to feel pretty immersive. I assume it'll still be aiming for the Nov release, can't wait for the beta.

Once they've sold Pickford, Branthwaite, Onana, and Calvert-Lewin maybe. They can't move until they've sold at least £100m of assets.

Not fully related, but we've lost another member of staff who was only appointed last summer - along with the U18 manager, we've now lost the youth recruiter. Southampton's head of academy recruitment set to depart for Tottenham | Daily Echo

I think that ''two weeks behind' thing is a bit of a myth in reality. In that 2 week period between us getting promoted and Ipswich/Leicester already being up, nothing has happened. We all released our retained lists at around the same time. If anything we're well ahead of Leicester because we actually have a manager. I agree with a lot of your other points. The financial issues that other clubs are facing will severely slow down the market and restrict movement for many weeks, my hunch is that we'll focus on free transfers throughout July and loans towards the end of the window.