tajjuk

At a guess, the signing that is almost over the line is likely to be Stanciu IMO, we were what about £2 million away from the fee they wanted according to the reports. We also look like the only club linked. I think he could be our Payet, of course he could another Gaston but let's stay positive! Other one could be Bouffal as lots more issues there and more interest from other clubs I reckon, plus he's injured currently. Got to be something wrong with Ziyech, can't see how a guy of that age, available at that fee with the record he's had over the last few years not being picked up by someone. I mean he's got far more pedigree than Janssen and is cheaper.

^ Well if true not disappointed as we'd be spending upwards of £15 million and he's 27, if we are going to splash would prefer someone with more potential/re-sale value.

Like the look of Stancu, only a youtube of course AND only Romanian league but size aside (though he looks like a stocky player that can take a knock or two) scoring with both feet, long range, free kicks, dribbling, looks a promising talent. Jay Rod and Clyne, but also remember Spurs got Bale of us from the Championship, Walcott and the OX as well did all right from the lower leagues. Not to mention Deli Alli. Plenty of talent there, especially as it's a hard league.

How in any world is that nonsense? We are currently up about £40 million on transfer spend, not to mention being up the last 4 years. Why on earth could we not afford a £27 million player?

Little bit worrying us and Newcastle are looking at the same players.

Whilst I don;t think we should sell him, if they offered that then I'd expect the club would agree. I'd expect the club would trust our scouting enough to find a suitable replacement for a lot less and it would be fing hilarious to see Everton spend more on than they got on Stones for his replacement. But really that is our, 'he's not for sale but if you throw silly money at us' amount. I think that just encourages clubs these days to think they can start negotiating. Better to say 'X amount or F-off' then there isn't much room for back and forth.

Nah, that just helps Utd. We should just buy him in a year or two, after it is clearly he will have been criminally under used by Jose and he needs to leave to fulfill his talent.

Still grates me how West Ham get gifted that stadium, the amount of clubs that have had scrape and save, some nearly going bankrupt to get a new stadium and they throw like £100k a week wages at the likes of Andy Carroll, have probably spent the last 10-15 years in debt and they get gifted that stadium. Utter joke. At least we can enjoy their injuries £20 million signing out for 4 months and now Carroll injured again for at least 6 weeks. Karma.

£8 million is an insult, he's under contract and our captain, Twice that AT LEAST for money bags Utd. They've just spend £89 million on a player probably not worth £50 million. If they want him, make them spend, we know they are willing. He's better than Ashley Williams and he went for over £12 million.

Not mention we've been transfer neutral for the previous two seasons. Our transfer spend has basically been zero for 3 years, whilst everything, match day income, commercial income, sponsorship, TV income has all increased over that period. If we can't do some actual transfer spend then serious questions have to asked where that money has gone. I think the failure to beat some very poor sides by more goals is pretty inductive IMO. Consistently through pre-season and against Watford we have looked pretty sluggish in attack, how many clear cut chances have we created over those games? Not many from what I remember. Losing away to Utd you can write off, a Mourinho team, his first home game, home debuts for Pogba and Ibra, them spending £150 million, they were never going to be complacent in that game and that is the only way we'd beat a team like that really. But the other games, if you want to include pre-season then they are not a good advocate for this new formation. Pre-season is about performance, not reaults and the performances were pretty average IMO.

That's the trouble with the pundity around, there is a lot of ex man utd or ex liverpool players around and we all know the world is in love with those two clubs even if they have both done f all for the last few years. That's why I like having Henry around as he at least breaks up the north west love in a bit, but would be nice to have a few good pundits appear that weren't so exclusively linked to the big clubs.

We should have more than left from sales alone. You'd expect most Premier League clubs to be able to spend £20 million above any sales they have, don't see that we would be any different. But doubt we are suddenly going to spend £50 million. But IF it is 3 players and one is Stanciu at around £10 million, then not beyond possibility that one could be around £20 million, another around £12-15 million. I'd like Ings, thought he looked really good in a terrible Burnley side. Not an out and out striker, but quick and able to run at people, plus is fairly either footed with quick feet around the box. I'd say he'd be a english (and not as good) version of Jese. Why he went to Liverpool though I have no idea, but a few Liverpool mates said he looked very good in the limited game time he got, even when shoved out wide. Bony would also be excellent, just the striker we need, but the kind of striker you'd think we could play with one up front. More and more the formation just doesn't work for me, not for our players or the potential signings.

Denayer would a be a good third choice and would challenge/long term replace Fonte.

They did with Andy Carroll to West Ham. Anyway I don't think £27 million for benteke is too much, he's 25 and pretty much has it all, big, strong, quick, can score all sorts of goals. If he gets back to his Villa form that'll look cheap IMO, he just needs regular games and the right service, Liverpool typically wasted him, but he still scored some important goals for them and some real worldies as well.

I'd be happy with signing Benteke for that. The fee just reflects the market to be honest, but he's a quality player and has a lot of potential.

We need 2-3 quality players, if we get those, then great, if we don't by the end of the window then criticism of the club is pretty well justified. Two weeks to go, let's see what happens. I don't think there is much point arguing about it now.

Thing is having a pathway is all well and good, but the kids have to be good enough and currently they are not. Fielding academy players, seeing players play for England is all well and good but plaudits and warm regards for our club does not win points or trophies. Those 7 goals at the weekend were scored by Arsenal and Liverpool players, they were scored trying to help Liverpool and Arsenal win a game, they don't help Southampton FC. End of the day the club is here to win games, if a youngster is good enough, he'll play and we'll win games, if he isn't then we should be getting in better players to improve the team. Unless there are some massive change in the rules on how football is run, all our academy essentially does is generate money and provide players for the likes of Liverpool and Arsenal.

I'm not saying they can't do it, just saying it's not their strengths. Also Cedric's defensive contributions both for us last year and for Portugal massively outweighed his attacking contributions. He was rated as one of the top right backs in the league last year by whoscored.com because of his tackling, interceptions and blocking. For this formation you'd want excellent complete full backs who are very quick, can dribble, cross etc., we don't have those, we have very good fullbacks who are good defenders. I don't see the point of changing a formation and forcing players to fit into it, if anything a good manager should find a formation that best suits the players. I mean wasn't that why they said Ranieri was so successful with Leicester last year, he didn't fundamentally change a lot, he realised Pearson had found the best way to get the best out of the players available so just went with that adding little improvements where he could, like fitting Kante to the team.

I think very likely we could have got £12 plus million from Everton for him so I think £8 million is very wide of the mark, can't see why the club would accept it especially from money bags Utd who've just paid an agent £25 million. £15 million plus Rojo. Or just Morgan. The I'd accept it, IF he really wants to go.

Don't think our fullbacks are fundamentally good enough to make this formation work. Certainly Bertrand and Cedric seem better defenders than attackers, if we still had Clyne and Shaw I could see it working, both very quick, both very talented going forward. But our two main full backs are more in the mould of Gary Neville than Cafu IMO.

This, ask the club to spend money we have recouped in sales and suddenly you get accused of wanting to bankrupt the club.

Hope the ITKs are right. All I want to know is that the club recognise we need more quality (at least two), the areas we need that quality (attack) and are willing to spend if the right player is available. The ITK's seem to support that, but he official noises from the club do not, they are saying they are happy with the squad, look how good Redmond is etc. Fundamentally us sitting on £30 million transfer profit and being happy with our current attack is not good enough for me and would be a failure to build on our recent success. Good to see rumours though at least and I'd reckon Bouffal would just what we need so hope there are legs in this one.

FFS when is improving the squad and trying to push on from a good position 'doing a pompey', he gets applauded for tripe like that? Southampton FC is a football club, what it sells is football, that's an entertainment business. Improve the football, you improve the success and thus the worth of the business. You don't do that by selling your best players and then not re-investing. Football has not and never will be a traditional business, the whole set up is there for ONE thing and one thing only, to win football matches. Questioning the quality of our squad, the lack of re-investment after selling key players is a perfectly rational and logical position to take, and god forbid we actually want the club to do even better, how bad of us, what terrible fans. Seriously, this 'bed-wetter' stuff just shows a huge lack of intelligence IMO, are some of you people so sensitive that you can't deal with a little constructive criticism of the club? Someone dares to question the club and the same faces attack them without actually thinking or digesting what they actually say, says a lot about those certain posters and the worth of their contribution.

Mixed bag of 'success' in there though. Obviously too early to tell with Mane and Wanyama (and probably Shaw), but certainly Lallana, Lovren and Morgan have not hit the levels they did with us. Walcott has not become the player we thought he would when he burst onto the scene, a lack of games and injuries have held him back I think. OX is potentially going the same way if he doesn't get more game time with Arsenal. Chambers only played because Arsenal had 3 centre backs injured and made a whole two starts last year. Few grass isn't always greener stories there IMO, of course they will all be richer which is probably all they care about but there you go.

Austin doesn't really replace Pelle because he's not the same sort of player, he can't bully defences and give us that out ball that we had last year. Plus as mentioned we had both for 6 months last season. We also Romeu and Wanyama at the same time, Romeu is not Wanyama quality, that physical presence in midfield is clearly lacking. Plus you saw today what we lost in Mane. Still 3 gaps IMO that need replacing if the squad is supposed to be better than last year.