bugenhagen

Didn't Wilcox say something along the lines of: we have players that are PL quality, and we have players who think they are PL quality, and we have to manage both types for the rest of the window." I thought of Che, amongst others, in the latter category.

In my eyes, Stephens always has a moment in most games where he shuts down and stops paying attention. Bednarek, whilst a good sliding shot-blocker, consistently leaves or aviods spaces, that in turn creates problems for the rest of the back four (and midfield). That Villa never used him says alot. They had their share of CB issues last season when he was there. Don't really want any of them in my team, but hopefully not both.

Sure, we probably won't sell him for less, I agree. Just think agents have a lot more influence on deals, but they are rarely mentioned on here If Liverpool ups their bid it can probably be done quickly, or else it may take time. The agent is talking with all parties and knows how a deal can be struck.

I agree... Would sell him to Chelsea for less But his agent probably has everything lined up with Liverpool, so will be difficult even if we accept the higher Chelsea bid. It will just drag out.

Agree about the scary part, those forwards would need to score 3-4 goals pr game, as the GK and CB's will be leaky. Unless Charles is AMAZING and able to fill all the gaps that the CB's presents our opponents. And we must hope that Tella will be as good for us as he was for Burnley, that is not for certain playing with Che and AA... I really hope we do shift a lot more players/serial-losers, but that may end up happening in august after the season starts (fingers crossed)

Indeed - and don't forget about when we sell early we are idiots because other clubs then know how much money we got, and every player we do bring in costs more...

Yeah, the rest of the team need to be great going forward, or we need real defenders in front of him - either way, he will cost us more points than he wins us if he ends up as our number 1

I think we have to buy one? Or we can do like we did as kids, swap it around every week 😄

I can't speak for anybody else, but the reason I am impatient this summer basically comes down to two things: 1) I currently have no reason to believe that SR will get this window right based on any evidence, but happy to be proved wrong and start believing again. I want to believe - but need to see at least a few signs before I do 2) I actually want most of our old squad out, so time is not on my side. In my mind the same group of players will just continue to lose and struggle - no matter who the manager or owners are - or what division we are in. I think our squad need major surgery, but sadly, we cant remove the spine... because it is nowhere to be found 😀

No, it's when Fonte leaves for the West Ham job 😉

The bidding war is sadly for Lavia's wages, not our transfer fee. It may go a little up, but not by much.

I wouldn't think too much of it. We can either speculate that something is rotten in Denmark, or that what has been released was done so in a hurry to calm the nerves of the Saints forum warriors... Probably it's nothing to it. They have just planned it a different way.

Why do we want to give him the best time possible to prepare? Are we not all in agreement that he will fail, and the sooner he fails the better? Lets hope he gets as little time to influence players with his yawn ball as possible, before the next fella comes along... or am I reading this forum wrong?

At the time I might have thought that he did not get the best out of Redmond, Boufal and Hoibjerg... but at the time I probably also believed that we had a magic black box working in our favour in hignsight I accept I was led a little astray at the time But I think is more to do with the leadership in the club at the time, and the blind belief that we could do no wrong. Puel was just part of it all, and I do not think he would have brought us forward, but he would probably have stabilized us a lot better than the clown(s) that followed (with the same board).

I was not "Puel out", but was not to bothered if he would stay or go, as I thought we were regressing - even if I can agree that he had a worse squad. We were lucky to finish 8 with our point tally that season, and my opnion was that with him we would probably continue the regression next season into mid-table, and possibly beyond. I want to be entertained, but to entertain me, we have to create chances. I do not care if it is via possesion, counter-attack, gegenpress, long-ball or whatever style of play. Edit: Or front-footed style of play, forgot about that

Such a letdown, typical Saints - I was hoping we would go for one of the brothers who did Fargo, Lebowski, etc - now that would be a statement of intent!

Can't see how this will make a difference outside a courtroom or tribunal of sorts. Not like Swans will be going: "Oh, now we see that Southampton is listed as a Championship club, OK then, lets all agree on the Championship value of the clause". They will still hold out for what they believe is right, and I don't blame them.

I think Martin is a big, big risk - more likely to backfire than succeed - but I do not understand that a lot of posters fixate on this (sorry for using your qoute Gran ). I can't for the life of me see that we played the same way that Swansea did. We just had no plan when in possession, and could not play football. Our sideways passing was just retention with no attacking intent. I am not a fan of possession fotball, I am a fan of creating a lot of chances football - don't really care much for how we go about doing it. Just happy that things are changing, because it brings back hope again. Can't remember the last game I looked forward to - now back to: any given Sunday... err Saturday!

Know nothing of the guy, so have little to add to this, other than it does indicate that the playbook is leaving, which I am very happy about!

Nah, we are way smarter than that. Our statistics and analyses shows that...

Probably thought he was playing for Villa

I understand that most of us has little to no faith in Ankersen making good decisions based on the last year. My issue is that I have just as little faith in the players. Get in new board, leadership and manager with the same players and I still think we will have major problems next season.

Agree. If they had managed to bring in Haaland, then we would probably be upper-mid table with Ralph still here. We need to look at how we are playing the game as well. Not many players will thrive at our club currently. The playbook either needs re-writing or burning.

Who leaves? Hopefully all of them Keep most of this team together, and they will lose their way stragth down to the next division.

City, Arsenal, Brighton and Liverpool are the games to hope we can get points from. They will all attack us, and we might be able to get lucky in one or two of those. The rest of the games we will draw or lose. We can't play football (against teams that do not attack us). Don't know why poeople think we will beat the likes of Forest and Palace.