Badger

I wonder if age is a factor in Saints considering letting RB go, as at 28 in August he is probably at the peak of his game and value if we are going to cash in on him. Think he should be in the £30-35m bracket. Just don't sell him to Liverpool or Spurs unless its £40-45m (which it won't be).

Bournemouth linked with Ake for £20m.

£65m plus Christensen, or possibly Ake might be tempting. Troble with Ake is that he is seen as a potential Ruud Gullit by some, but he could also turn out to be a Dutch Jacob Mellis.

Someone on here mentioned Sammy Lee and the prospect of his return. My recollection is of a rumour that he left after a fall out with other coaches, either Dave Watson, or one of the Koemans. It may only have been a rumble on here without any foundation to it. So I suppose the prospect of his return might be governed by who he fell out with, and the manner of it, especially if Les Reed was caught up in the crossfire of it. And of course how many back up team MP is allowed to bring in. I think RK had three including Lee, and Puel had a team of two, (both excluding GK coach).

Thanks for the research and insight about the coaches, interesting read and shows the benefit of the Forum (as opposed to mongboard willie waving antics of some...). This article also contains reference to his coaching staff at Alaves. The GK coach is a new name to those Pamplemousse gave us. So will be interesting to see what this means for Dave Watson. Forster too.

Very promising from someone who seems to know his stuff. Bit disappointed that we didn't bring Tuchel in, and slight concern over Pellegrino's limited track record, so its wait and see for me. But listening to that interview bodes well. Welcome MoPo II/Mr Pilgrim or whatever his name will be. Hope Reed & Co give you the tools to do the job and don't look to sell them from under your nose.

boast

Bayern Munich have worn r/w stripes before.

Tuchel, and ??? Any idea who the other one was ?

Coaching team, or say in the running of things might have been a sticking point, but I can't see the contract situation being so black and white. Sign for 3, we won't let you enter the last year winding it down so you'll only do 2 anyway. Unless he wanted a 2 year deal to p!ss off after one.

On what I read about last nights performance against England U21's, no. Sounded like more of a direct replacement for Gardos from that.

i read somewhere that Bristol Rovers had r/w stripes, black shorts as an away kit during the 1960's. (Hows that for an anorak fact ?).

Apologies, I bow to your greater knowledge. (Why do they speak Spanish, but have Italian names though?)

Google translate tells me that pilgrim is peregrino. But happy to call him Mo Pilgrim it it suits....

Hope it works out better for this one than the last one then.

Cheltenham Town

I think some people are excited by the exotic sounding name, which no doubt looks good on a computer game. I'm not sure that Maurice Waterman after a single season and mid table finish would be so sought after. Hope Les and the Black Box have been more diligent in their research and this proves to be an inspired choice.

Not so sure that is such good news as if the player does want to leave then it'd be good to have Chelsea drive the price up. I'd rather he ended up at Chelsea or City than Liverpool.

That's just what we need, a manager talking warmly about his time at Anfield and how great it was. Hope he doesn't do that in the dressing room.

Some might be past their best before date though. Sometimes easier to spot on a pasty. Whilst no manager is risk free, they do have a track record to analyse. Not convinced that one season in La Liga is so convincing.

Thought Lee went at the end of the season before either Puel or Black arrived. Mooted on here that it followed a fall out with either Watson (GK coach) or one of the Koemans (probably no truth in it then).

Ake is not really a like for like CB though, would prefer Christensen from what I've read of the two.

Are you assuming De Boer was our preferred option then, or is Pellegrino suddenly in line for Palace ?

Not mutually exclusive though. I'm probably in these camps to be honest. Disappointed we didn't snare Tuchel, even if had only been for a season or so as I think he might have elevated the club, and attracted some decent players. At the same time though we have to hope whoever else comes in does a good job, and one that is better than we might have expected had CP remained in place.

Future England captain in the making obviously.