tajjuk

Yeh exactly if we were buying a 22 year old English left back from a promoted Championship team most people would approve of that transfer, but as he is ours he seems to get tarnished. By all accounts he did very well for Fulham last year, so I'd like to see him be given the chance to kick on and see if that first team football has improved him/ Yet in FM players will still keep improving up to the age of 24/25 if they have potential ability.

Also delivery and technically wise I'd say he's ahead of McQueen, he might not be the out and out fastest but there is room for different sorts of full backs as Trippier shows for England, who again is not the fastest but is far more of a threat going forward than a speedster like Rose IMO. Or Cedric for example who can't cross for toffee but it is quick and solid in defence. I've always thought Targett has had very good delivery and range of passing, and from the reports about him at Fulham they seemed to say similar

He's a lump but his goal scoring record is not stellar, like 1 in 5.

Some of the comments on here. Forster was/is a very good keeper who's had a spell and lost his confidence. He was not 'dodgy' or a 'complete liability' and such comments are just stupid.

Not sure you can read much into him being back into training, any club that buys him will want him to have a full pre-season. I suspect his agent is still looking for a move. I suppose the issue is similar to Clasie, Tadic etc. The PL clubs riches work both ways, if your player is not going to another PL club or a big European club most of the others don't have £10 - 20 million to splash out, that is how we get them in the first place. So when we want to off load these players back to Europe, there are not many options.

Hopefully we are looking at (say we have a front 3) Moi, Austin/Gabbiadini etc., New player (Promes/Sisto etc.) with then Sims and Redmond as the back up options. I don't really see with Tadic and Boufal leaving, both of whom should raise at least £20 million plus in sales and probably get £100k a week at least of the wage budget (if not more like £130k a week), that we wouldn't try to get two players in. We are apparently buying Moi for £16 million, so spending about £5 million more than we got for Tadic, and I doubt he'll be getting as much a week Tadic is (because he's a new player coming from the Swiss league whereas Tadic would have had a new contract as an established PL player). So we are likely breaking even there wages/transfer wise and getting a younger player hopefully with more potential. If we then sell Boufal for similar and recoup around £10 million again, then we could bring in say Sisto for £15-16 million and I doubt his wages would be any higher than Boufals. Or a Shaqiri who might be more in wages but less in transfer fee. Or we could go even further and push for someone like Promes who Spartake were looking for more like £25 million, and he'd probably want more wages. Overall in those scenarios we'd have sold two players, one older, one who has not performed at the level expected. Then hopefully got in two players that are upgrades, on similar wages, younger and probably only end up spending £10 million ish in transfer funds.

We will probably end up with net investment, but not necessarily that much. You have to account wages and the fact that in terms of numbers there was nothing wrong with our squad last year, we had plenty of competition for places. In terms of attacking wide players we had Tadic, Redmond, Boufal and Sims last year, with Long and JWP also used in wide areas. That was more than enough, they just weren't that good. Same in every other position. Strikers we have Austin, Long, Gabbiadini and Carrillo, we now have Gallagher back as well. Centre-mid we have Davis, Hojberg, Lemina, Romeu, JWP and now Reed and Clasie back. And have added Armstrong to this. Defence we have Bednerak, Stephens, Hoedt, Yoshida, Bertrand, Cedric, McQueen and now have Target back, with Pied leaving Should also note that in Boufal, Lemina, Hoedt, Carrillo and Gabbiadini we have basically players all signed for around £16 - £20 million over the last two years, again they have just not been good as expected. And the likes of Tadic, JWP, Forster, Long etc. are going to be higher earners. The squad is bloated and players have underperformed. I don't think it's a case of needing to sell to buy for financial reasons, or at least to raise transfer funds it's more a case of we have lots of underperforming players and need to make space in the squad for fresh faces who hopefully will perform better and clear the wages. Tadic it seems wanted to go which was fair enough, Boufal will want out as well. So they will need replacing and hopefully upgrading. But more squad clearance is needed, Davis might go, Clasie needs to go, I'd expect the likes of Reed and Targett will want clarification on their futures and I wonder if Long might go along with Forster. Could be 5 or 6 in and 5 or 6 out, not because we need to sell to buy those players but because we'd have like a 35 man first team squad

We are basically swapping an inconsistent 29 year old for an on the up 23 year old (who is faster and apparently works very hard) with the fees looking very similar. Seems a good deal all round to me.

Of our attacking wide/wing options - Redmond - largely average with odd good moment Boufal - inconsistent, sulky, seems to have thrown his toys out of the pram but aside 1 good goal not much to show for his time here Tadic - better than the other two, but not by much, spent most of the last two years being average, missing chances and only really woke up towards the end of the season. Not sure we can do much worse, doubt Sims would be either given a longer run in the first team, but I suspect Boufal is going and we will be getting two players in this position. Looks like Elynounoussi is almost done, still rumours of Shaqiri, Promes, Sisto and a few other wingers.

As long as we replace him and looks like we have with the guy from Basel I think it's a decent deal. Good player but his last two years he has been very frustrating and the potential new guy looks like he has more pace and goal threat about him (plus at 23 potential to improve)

Liverpool paid a lot of Andy Carrol's wages at West Ham I believe, happens more than you think. Also the Rooney to DC United transfer rumours were talking about BOTH Utd and Everton subsidising his wages. --------------------------------- Things seem to be speeding up transfer wise. Not sure on the Gunn transfer, surely only worth it if we think he is going to be first choice (and same for him) and we have just given McCarthy a new deal, plus still have Forster on high wages.

He can't actually do much worse than Tadic has done over the last two years, he's been average at best until like the last 4-5 games of the season.

http://www.skysports.com/football/news/11700/11418387/southampton-agree-16m-fee-for-basel-forward-mohamed-elyounoussi

Elyounoussi looks an exciting signing, 1 in 3 goal record from his career as a wide forward is good and the European performances are promising as it's always good to see players from lesser leagues perform well against bigger clubs. Worked out well for the VVD and Wanyama.

Looking like we are basically swapping Tadic for Elyounoussi as the fees are almost identical and I'd reckon we are probably going to pay him about the same as Tadic. Presuming he obviously chooses us over Wolfsburg.

Davis probably, he'll be 34 in 6 months so we might seem him go back to Scotland to finish his career I reckon. Prowse seems to play more often wide right more than anything. It's also about time he established himself in a position, if Armstrong forces him out of the team then it'll be because he's not good enough. Only issue is as mentioned above that we need a goalscoring no.10 type player and if Armstrong is not it, are we going to sign someone else?

Agree with this, but I'd keep Austin because I think he's the type of striker you don't let go because he's always got a goal in him and I think he's a good lad in the dressing room. We just shouldn't rely on him to be our main striker.

Sounds like it might be a 'smart' signing, just the worries over why he's not been a regular for them over the last season or so, is this injuries?

To be fair when he took his shirt off after scoring the goal, I actually thought that he did look like he was carrying some extra pounds. I mean don't get me wrong, he is still probably in better shape than most people on the planet, but he looked like he had the physique of the poser blokes you see down the gym rather than that of an elite athlete.

All the rumours/linked players seem to suggest our priorities are a centre-back and playmaker mid at the moment.

I think he is trying to look cool in that picture, smiling would make it look like it's a super special occasion, whereas I think he is trying to show that it's just his life, no big deal sort of thing. Or maybe he just doesn't like flying.

£10 million seems a bit low in today's market. Young, England U21 international who was by all accounts the best left back in the Championship last year, if he was at like Middlesbrough or Brentford they'd be expecting us to be £15 million plus at least I reckon. How about we give them £15 million + Targett for Sessegnon?

I still kind of get the impression that Bertrand might have done the big club thing and doesn't want to do it again. Not that if like City made a bid and we accepted he'd turn it down, but more that I feel he won't agitate for a move away unless we go down or something else major upsets him. And it's not like money is clearly an issue looking at that picture.

Yeh agree can't see a striker in until we get rid off one or two out. And the links to players seem to highlight that.

We have two young left backs, both of whom are reaching the point where they need to be playing if they are to get any better so I'd expect one to go.