tajjuk

Unless the fee we get for Bertrand is going to be substantially higher than Targett, like 2x or more, so like £25 million or so, then it seems pointless. Its very clear Bertrand is better than Targett, as soon as he was fit he took over the spot and played pretty much every game. Plus it does not sound like he wants to leave, whilst Targett wants first team football. So to me it seems obvious to keep the better player, have Vokins as his understudy, sell Targett for as much as possible, re-invest that elsewhere and in two years either Bertrand gets a new 1-2 year deal or we let him go cheaply and Vokins is hopefully ready to take over the first team slot. As others have said, swapping Bertrand for Targett permanently makes use weaker, and you are then putting a 23 year old in the way of a 19 year old, so Vokins would never have a chance to take the spot unless Targett basically got a lot worse, by which point we'd probably have to buy a replacement. The only scenario I can see Bertrand going is if he wants to go OR we get a big offer for him, neither of which seems likely.

Doesn't he want like £200k a week or something and has massive attitude problems, can't see it happening

Depends how well the club rate Vokins and whether they think he is ready to step up and be back up to Bertrand.

Vestergaard is pretty good on the ball IMO, there was some skills/freestyle challenge on the youtube challenge the other day between him, Redmond and Targett, and he won it. The issue with Vestergaard is one he turns like a bus, and two he seems too eager try to go win the ball and that has caught him out of positions a few times. The Man Utd draw at home springs to mind, think he charged out to try to intercept the ball and its was laid off before he could get there, and he'd left a massive space in behind that they scored from. He IIRC used to be a centre-mid, and at times it shows, he's still learning to be a CB and when he should hold position, plus he had to learn the pace of the league which I think caught him out a lot last year. But I thought by the end he was performing solidly. The lack of pace is an issue for all of them, though they are not super slow. But I mean finding a centre-back that is quick, strong, good in the air, good on the ball and is able to mark and read the game is very very hard. I think Bednerak and Vestergaard are solid enough, they are decent on the ball, they win headers, tackles, blocks etc. I also echo what others above have said that Romeu is ok in front but IMO a more mobile DM in front of them would give them better protection.

81 shots apparently, so yeh a goal every 3.7 shots, which I think is pretty good. According to this site - https://www.beinsports.com/au/efl-championship/statistics, he was 10th for shots taken in the championship last year. Compared to the other top scorers in the Championship - Maupay - 4.3 shots per goal Abraham - 3.6 shots per goal Pukki - 3.5 shots per goal Jay Rod - 4.2 shots per goal. So seems to compare well there for a 'scuffer' He also had the highest percentage of shots on target of any player who scored over 10 goals last year at 69%. Plus everyone bar Maupay, who scored more goals than him, were all from much better top 6 sides, not a team that finished 17th. So you have a guy who is 22, scores goals in a struggling team, get his shots on target and converts a decent amount of his chances, plus is quick and strong. Yeh no idea why any PL club is looking at him.....................

This incredibly false point undermines your argument completely, those are not scuffed finishes, he regularly finds the bottom corner with good finishes from what I saw. You don't need to smash the ball in, its about placement, but to call those finishes 'scuffed' is just false.

Bednerak and Vestergaard were generally fine, Vestergaard got better as the season went on and I think Bednerak had an excellent season overall. Main issue for me more was when one wasn't available, Yoshida is a good pro but hes not a great defender and the less said about Stephens the better. So we need a better one regardless IMO, to challenge Vestergaard and Bednerak, to make sure we have 3 decent centre-backs if we play 3 at the back etc.

Considering they were pretty much they were the same price and one was a consistent regular for us who has played over 100 games for the club and gained international honours whilst at the club, and the other has been in and out of the team with injuries and never been that consistent, I'd say that is more than a stretch.

Yeh JWP. Think Bertrand is also a decent dead ball taker.

I presume the fee for Ings would be in last years budget, plus its probably in instalments as well.

I think the clubs aim is to try to improve as much as possible whilst being financially stable and self sufficient. I don't know why people think this means we won't spend any money, we spent like £60 million last year and according to that Echo article are looking to do the same this year even before any player sales. It has always been the aim of the club to this by maximising everything we can from that investment so that is unearthing bargains with good scouting, improving players with good coaching, getting the most out of players through good management, bringing through players from the youth academy and maximising what we can off the field in terms of fitness, sports science, marketing etc. Its the management and scouting side over recent years that has let us down, we have struggled to unearth gems or they have been poorly managed, not improved and the best has not been made of them on the pitch through poor management. Hopefully the management aspect has been sorted for a little while, we have a good manager who seems to so far get the most out of the squad and wants to improve players as well. If we can get the signings right, then who knows, a good season and we might be able to push for that best of the rest spot at least, or win a cup or something like that. Realistically we are never going to break into the top 4 unless we have an exceptional season where all the little 1% things come off, kind of like Leicester did or like we almost did when we finished 6th and were probably only a few wins away from top 4. I think we'd basically need a couple of signings to really hit it off, plus some of the current squad to have a really good season or Ralph improves them a lot and then everyone is playing decently and as a unit. Plus a couple of the big boys might have a poor season, you never know. I mean Chelsea have lost Hazard who was literally half their goals last year and have a transfer ban, Man Utd have an inexperienced manager, unhappy or seemingly unwilling players, and look unlikely to attract the real top players they want. Spurs could lose Poch and some key players like Erikkson so any of those could have a bad year to open the door for someone else. Top 2 looks pretty clear cut to me, but 3-6 not so much, all those clubs could have bad seasons. But I think most of us would be happy with safe mid table, playing some good football, some good home wins and an attempt at the clubs, basically we want to see real progress. And I reckon we have 2-3 years max of Ralph before he either leaves for a bigger club or we have to have shown some real progress to convince him to keep going with the project.

Plus Cedric was £4 million, to suggest he is a bad signing is absurd

Nah I agree if it happens and we get 3 key signings in early that hopefully improve the team then we can't really complain, will also dispel the myth that we have no money because we are probably talking another £50 million outlay there, maybe even more if a 4th comes in before we sell anyone.

The Daily Echo article about Che Adams basically says Djenepo + Striker (Adams) + other are our 'the initial high priority signings'. Plus maybe another and Ralph wants these done asap to get them all in for pre-season. Then it says 'any further deals would depend on how successful the club are in moving players on.' So maybe Adams (if a deal is done) or another striker, then a centre back and then we are basically dependent on who we can shift.

Seems to be a good finisher, knows where the goal is without really needing to look and takes shots early which I think is a good trait as it doesn't allow keepers to set themselves. Seems to be a good combination of quick but also decently strong. Obviously some areas to work on but that is why he is a 22 year old championship striker, we are buying him for the raw ingredients that we can hopefully improve. Has a style that reminds me of Kevin Phillips.

My guess would be Adams is first choice but the guy from Serie B is another option if that doesn't pan out. Think I have more hope for a rough diamond who scored 22 goals in the Championship last year to one you scored 9 in Serie B last year. But by descriptions both sound of similar mould, quick, strong runners, with strength and an eye for a goal. Interesting that an article I read noted how well Adams played with a target man at Birmingham, Jutkiewicz got 14 goals and 10 assists last year as well with a lot of Adam's goals coming from Jutkiewicz's hold up play and flick ons.

I like Winks, he's clearly capable of controlling a game and looks a good prospect, that massively mature performance against Madrid at the Bernabeau showed that, against I believe Modric, who had schooled us at the World Cup. But he doesn't seem to be able to stay on one piece for very long, just falls apart after a run of games.

Defenders made mistakes, but then so did De Ligt, his was a howler as well. But England lost that in midfield, just not good enough on the ball, not good enough at finding space to move the ball forward to the front players. Compare our midfield with De Jong, just no comparison, a 21 year old that has just signed for Barca for like £80 million and we are playing Delph, bout sums it up really. We need to find some quality midfielders from somewhere, its why I said JWP was very unlucky not to get in and if he keeps progressing he is a shoe in because that midfield is sh*t. I'll let Rice off cos hes young, but Delph and Barkley should be nowhere near an England team. Same happened against Croatia in the World Cup, we couldn't deal with Modric and Rakitic, when we come up against top quality centre mids, we lose because our centre mid is average premier league at best. Sad thing is all our hot prospects and success at youth levels, I am not sure who is going to come in to fill this role because most of the stand out players from those teams are not centre-mids. Foden if he can develop into a no10, maybe. But we need to find a De Jong type player, someone who can link and develop the play. Its a shame a Wheelchair has pretty much fallen apart because he could have been that player I reckon, he's talented enough but never really developed.

I don;t think hes a terrible player but it just hasn't worked here for him and I can't see it working, he lacks the pace that Ralph wants so let him go rebuild his career.

Not sure, I'd presume it depends on who is paying their wages at the time and whether they count in the calculations, I doubt many of the people we loaned out we got the other clubs to pay their full wages. Plus I can see us needing to subsidise some of them even if we do sell them, I mean I can't see many clubs paying Forster the £65k - £70k a week that he's probably on and he'd basically have to agree to a pay cut to move, which many players don't do, so even if we find a permanent take for him I could see us still having to pay half his wages for the remainder of his Saints contract. But isn't are wage bill something like £120 million? And this article reckons we can cut something like £21 million from our yearly wage budget by clearing the likes of Forster, Austin, Boufal etc. https://www.footballfancast.com/premier-league/southampton/how-southampton-could-save-almost-22-million-this-summer So either way, I can understand why the club wants to move them on, we could create wages for 3-4 key players, basically take on probably 3-4 players that would be highest earners at the club but still wouldn't actually be increasing our spending.

He also doesn't need to exceed a massive bar to be one of our most effective attackers, something like a season of 5 goals and 5 assists would be better than what we have for a while now and would improve the team, so if he can create the odd moment of brilliance to score some goals and create some chances, even if he is inconsistent, I'll take it. I mean out top scorers got 7 and the most assists anyone got is 4.

I can't see us spending £25 million on a centre back that we are going to loan out again, surely we would want one to walk straight into the first team at the price, and its a massive gamble for a player that barely has 15 professional games in his life. Jansson would be a good signing, though I'd think Leeds would want a lot of money for him, surprised he's stayed at Leeds this long as he is by far the best centre-back in that league. He has though just come out and talked about Leeds' promotion hopes for the coming season, so would be a slightly odd if he was on the brink of moving. He's also a leader and a bit of a nutter as well, kind of centre-back I think we need, whilst at the same time he's still decent on the ball. Lallana has also just come out and said he's staying to fight for his place at Liverpool, so hopefully that should rule out him coming here as we seem to keep getting linked. The money thing has clearly got to be more wages than transfer funds, Hoedt, Forster, Austin, Clasie, Boufal, Carrillo, and Cedric, that is probably £300k maybe even £400k a week of wages there we need to shift. And IIRC FFP rules prohibit yearly wage bill rises to a fairly small percentage, so we probably need to clear those wages to offer wages to new signings. Plus there is no point having a load of senior players sitting around doing nothing.

Yeh that is very harsh on Armstrong, clearly a solid if not spectacular player who was probably unlucky not to get a longer run in the team. I mean I'm excited about this guy, love the double nutmeg that is doing the rounds and physically he looks right the PL, he's big and looks quick, so that already ticks some boxes. But we have been let down so many times before, but this player seems to have a little X factor about him but is probably a little rough around the edges, I am thinking they have seen enough ingredients in him to polish him into a good player but he might be a little inconsistent and frustrating early on.

Legend, but also a lot of good news there, more coaching staff coming in, working on more transfers and planning all the training so we can switch between multiple systems with ease. Quite excited by what he can achieve this season.

I'd say more like the Norwegian Drogba.