Badger

Perhaps we've gone back to the Cortese era of only giving releases after the Echo have gone to print.. Not that I'm expecting an announcement any time soon (hope to be wrong but suspect we'll have Gao around for some time to come).

https://tbrfootball.com/celtic-reportedly-wanted-southampton-star-in-2015-now-they-can-get-him-tbr-view/ Could we be lucky enough for Celthampton to come to the rescue ? ...but not another loan..

Don't think we were interested when he left Arsenal on a free, so can't see us being interested now at the 'cut price' £5.5m. Assume that's a transfer fee not what Watford pay us to take him. Outside the age bracket we're meant to be going for.

Working well today.

Especially with PEH driving them from midfield... CL quality player he is. Apparently. According to PEH that is.

Wasn't 'more news on Friday' the story of 2007/8 ? Especially around the time of the Paul Allen takeover that never was. It became a byword for "sometime never..."

Youtube convinced me Carillo was shit. So at least he lived up to expectation.

Ings making a mug of Alderweirald in the league.

Of the three, which one do you think has the ambition, and is more likely to believe they could be playing CL ? Similarly which one is more likely to be in demand elsewhere? Not sure the 'English premium' is sufficient to change that. If so, perhaps we can also flog Forster, Redmond and Adams for £30m each.

I thought the link with Ralph was probably too good to be true when it was first mooted ( remembering the Tuchel link after Puel left). It was a brilliant appointment and with his recent record at Leipzig before leaving I'd have expected him to move to a bigger club (Europa League at least). Not sure who was responsible for bringing him in, Reed left shortly after so not him. Krueger ? I hope he's around for a few more seasons to build his team. The big challenge will be keeping him on board with the 'project', and to do that we'll need to show progress in the transfer market in retiaining the players he wants to keep, and bringing others in. Remains to be seen if those running the club, and in particular the owner can match his ambition. Of other managers, I'd have liked Tuchel in 2017 but he's now out of our reach, and in any event does seem to fall out with clubs. Rangnick has been the footballing brain at Leipzig and could have been a good option, but don't see that happening even if RH were to leave. No other managers I'd prefer. Just hope Ralph stays with us and gets the opportunity to build something.

We probably are, but of the two players Bednarek is the one more likely to attract interest.

Agree with what you say about his valuation, but the contract issue is probably the critical issue having seen Hojbjerg's transfer fee reduced by being in his final year I doubt the club want to see the same happening with Bednarek if he's not shown a willingness to extend. But we're Saints, and doubt we'll extract the full value. Can't see him going to a big 6 although perhaps Leicester have stumbled across him as an alternative to Vestergaard. Now that would be galling to lose Bednarek, and end up with that plank still here. But as Lighthouse says none of the CB's have been that reliable this season, so not too attached to any of them leaving.

I see a young player with pace at the moment, but don't see the rest of the "potential" others talk of. If hedging bets, I'd look to loan him for a season to somewhere he'll get game time. Doubt he'll play much more at Villa or WBA than he would for us.

Along with West Ham v Millwall. (And Liverpool v Everton - although that is a "nice" derby with fans arriving together .. yawn....)

Yes, Ajax v Feyenoord whilst heated isn't really a "derby", nor is Liverpool v Mancs. And Seattle v Portland, a distance of about 170 miles !

Might as well print 'Air Florida' on the shirt again. They're as plausible an entity as LD Sports.

Poor little sod is probably being marched off in handcuffs to a wet market

Contenders now, according to different media sources: Mangala Ntcham McKennie - although Blackmore has discounted it. Mangala appears the lower cost at £10m. Any others realistic names linked ?

I read something similar with Celtic fans critiscising a casual performance in a European game. You could have replaced the name with Lemina as it was similar to his SF v Chelsea effort. Strange that this one seemed to go cold for a while, which might have been due to this hinging on the Forster situation.

Was an excellent prospect once, we were linked with him but Cortese wouldn't pay the £6m Birmingham wanted, and we went for Gazzaniga instead. Have wondered how things might have panned out for us and him had he signed. Probably better than FF, and no worse than Gunn, but he's lost his way though, and would be a gamble. Not sure we want to go through the counselling and rebuilding fragile confidence with another GK.

I know this will disappoint many football purists on here but here's one MF enforcer who we won't be signing: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/53781445

Glad they let him show his arm of tattoos off in the pics. That will reassure a lot of their fan base that its money well spent.

it's down to the 'end of season syndrome'. Not just for MF, but reading the posts on here after our run-in people expect next season goals will flow aplenty as Adams has found his shooting boots, not for the first time in his career Stephens has eclipsed Maguire, and KWP will be the greatest right back we've ever had...

Have to say I'm not convinced that we should be relying on Romeu as a starting choice, especially to cover the full season. The downside of a good end to season is that many have glossed over the inadequacies of the previous two seasons. Although Romeu still has something to offer he's been shown in the last couple of years to be exposed as a bit slow and sometimes cumbersome on the ball. Definitely need a replacement, hopefully an upgrade on Hojberg. Jankewitz from what I've read is promising but the fact he wasn't given a run out towards the end of season indicates RH doesn't feel he's ready.

Some good Google translations in there, and some reasonable comments although a couple suggest 40-50m which is as deluded as some on here with valuations of players (often thiose we can't even give away). A few of the comments: Fair point... Not sure Saints and "big money" go together.. Wtf ??