david in sweden

well I won't argue that point as you may be the only person on this site who has seen him play, but I have also noted that (according to reports) both Man Utd and Liverpool had been scouting him so he can't be so bad, and in all honesty I'd look at any player who they had gone out of their way to review.

latest name in the hat is : Justin Bijlow. 26 y.o. goalie with Feyenoord . Sometime international for Holland . He will cost a bit, but as we seem to be on a spending spree......who cares ?

AH ! ..you mean considering that we paid out 11 million when we bought him from Bordeaux in June 2022 ?

at that fee, we have more of less recovered the original outlay, but wasted almost 2 years in the process.

There is no certainty that Gavin Bazunu will return " fit and agile " and in any better shape than he was in the Championship, and the prospect of a return after New Year sounds very sketchy to say the least, and despite that we may still be waiting for him to get fit at Easter ! My point was that knowing the obvious deficiencies in McCarthy's game ( yes we know every player has them) but we are in the Prem. now and every other club in the Prem. has seen him at first hand. I didn't regard McCarthy as a good no.2 last season (despite his games in the play-offs) Now that we've signed half-a-dozen midfielders to go along with those we still have from last season...why was there no urgency to sign another keeper who is capable of DAJFU in the Prem. way back in June? Was there some backroom theory that AM might have improved enough to fill in the time frame of Bazunu's absence ?. Well ....we got the answer to that one in the first game, and the next step must be finding someone else PDQ ...and at any price. Nothing short of a mature, experienced keeper with a knowledge of the Prem. is a vital requirement. The list for that must be a pretty da*n short one.

When McCarthy's contract went out, ( and Bazunu still out for half the season) , Lumley was the only "fit" keeper on the books - JUSTIFIED. Re-signing him was a sort of " repayment for services rendered during the play-offs ", but he can't be regarded even as a solid no.2 keeper and the all-too predictable error proved a sad point from the Newcastle game. There seem to be a fairly large minority who don't see Bazunu as a Prem. keeper and no-one knows how it will be when he is eventually " fit ". I don't care how many keepers we have, as long as the first choice is a top-rated man who comfortably knows his way around the Premier League and can DAJFU. Goalkeeping is the last line of defence , and another Shilton or Niemi would be worth the fee - whatever it is.

There are lessons to be learned from this game. Firstly ..playing against 10 men is not always the "obvious" advantage it might seem. (also noted that Pompey (playing at home) v. Luton...who had their goalie red-carded after 30 mins. but still came away from Fratton with one point.) Howe handled his team well, and brought on more defenders and parked the bus for the remainder of the game. We showed 70% dominance for the first 30 mins. when the media critics (and some fans) predicted our possession game wouldn't work in the Prem. Newcastle's ONE real shot was their winning goal and (guess what)..predictably ...it was the sort of goalkeeping error we've known about for years . I sincerely hope that we have another keeper on the books before the window closes ..and not a makeshift choice with little experience of the Prem. We deserved one point if only for effort, and some good shots that were somehow saved / diverted, but that's football. The red card incident is not one to rejoice over, but Schär has learned a lesson, although BBD's theatrical response didn't help the situation BUT... it's a long time since we've had a tough front man who was not shy of putting himself about, and I like that - if Ben is more judicious in future. My early supporting days go back to the 1960's when the notorious ..George Kirby was a fearsome striker for Saints, who never gave defenders a moments peace and wasn't above challenging a goalkeeper - given the chance.. but that was back in the good old, bad old days - with no VAR.

There are benefits for both clubs as some of these players are clearly not quite ready for the Premier League but may well show up in the future in the Turkish League. Goalkeeper Lis is a good example of the Sport Republic methods. In future he may well be an excellent player for Göztepe even though he is officially " a Southampton player, " and Göztepe won't have to pay a huge fee to sign him as he is on loan from the same employer. There may be other Saints players who need regular game time, and are not yet first choice, but Göztepe will get the benefit of the loan of such players. Whether they stay with one club, or the other, the long term benefit will be avoiding huge fees that many clubs demand for their best players.

It seems like a long way back to the end of last season, and although we should credit AM for his late contribution to the promotion run-in.. With Bazunu out for an undetermined period, my key question was ... then AND now ....where / who is our new Premier-grade keeper? Unfortunately AM reverted to type.. and despite all the excitement surrounding more than a dozen new signings .. still no new keeper.

well there's always that Paul Onu ..?....oh forget it , we'll be letting him return to Turkey for lunch money and a big loss on the investment. I would have liked to see him coming up against Dan Burn. ..

Yes ....but if there was an option ..he cost 23 million (?) when signed, and even if Chelsea were to let him go.... I'm sure they would want to recoup their original investment .....

and typically Chairman Nicola Cortese got stitched up by his Foreign contacts. A 12 million fee(?) ... on a five year deal at 65k /week. and financed on high interest borrowed money Almost as bad as the Osvaldo deal ..similar fee and terms ..and out the door after a training ground punch-up with Jose Fonte. Jose Fonte on the other hand was a real success. Cost little over 1 million and partnered 7 different CB's over an 8 year period.

AND.. Trrabzonspor are now out of their 3rd rate Euro competition in the first match.

... or keep him, if he finally turns out to be a worthwhile purchase who can help us. What player doesn't want to play in the Premier League.?

If the "window" is later in Turkey ? ..I'd give him the chance to get some game time until the last possible day before giving him away. He can seemingly score headers without raising his feet off the ground and has good ground control for a man of his stature. If we still haven't scored a goal in the last 20 minutes of these early Prem. games ..what do we have to lose? Maybe he will come good, if given the chance. 18 million is a lot of money to lose on a bad decision.. whichever leagues he's played in , and you can't say all his goals were flukes against poor defences.

Times change and so too job titles and responsibilities. We recall when Rupert Lowe ( a previous club chairman / now MP) ...bought in (Sir) Clive Woodward and frightened Harry Redknapp away with some sort of bluff job title and a course of hokus-pokus coaching methods that worked well with the English Rugby side. A few decades ago clubs starting getting " DOF's" in as directors (who could hold the fort) in the interim after clubs had sacked managers. Jason Wilcox really was a one-off in terms of his experience and history and is likely irreplaceable. We have a group of new faces behind the scenes and so we may not even try to replace JW. Often good leaders are not always "appointed", but may well..." emerge " from the existing staff. Any" bright spark " who worked alongside JW for the time he was here must have learned something that the club can use effectively.

Not expecting Tyler Dibling to start, but he's worth a place on the bench at St. James Park as it is a lucky ground for him. It was there that he scored his " identical hat-trick " for the U21s a season ago. there is a Video clip somewhere in You Tube....or "X". He certainly looks to be a more mature player now.

Lack of willingness to pay Money in the Prem...! that's us and about 14 other clubs who work on limited budgets whilst seeing the "big money teams " pay out the equivalent of our entire transfer budget...on just one player, and even if we sign players at " a reasonable fee " they don't play for nothing every 20K / week salary is over one million annually, and many of these fellows will spend a lot of time on the bench. RM wants O'Riley but that sort of transfer fee is just " lunch money " to clubs like Chelsea who regularly spend twice that without blinking. (e.g. Lavia) Saints have spent around 60 million (so far) and brought in a dozen players.. that's pretty good economy in anyone's books.

I'm wondering ?....IF Newcastle can remember when Dibling played against their U21 side up there...a season or so ago? , ....and he scored a hat-trick with three identical moves. There is video clip somewhere on the net.... OK.... it wasn't a Prem. match, but maybe lightening could striker twice ?

Did I miss this one..or ? Just read an article claiming Dom Ballard had moved (permanently) to Hull City for a fee of 4 million. ? Two years ago he scored around 30 goals for U18 / U21 sides , but his subsequent loan to Reading ended tragically with a bad knee injury. Dom and Tyler Dibling were both in the goals that season, and although TD has come on well, I had hoped to see them both back in tandem. If he has actually gone, we wish him well, but for only 4 mill.. .. I hope we got a good sell-on clause - just in case.

Back to .the subject again.. Yes... Lis is returning to Turkey, and although it was good to see him - even for the pre-season in England ... he doesn't seem to be any sort of "upgrade" on our existing goalies. IF.. the Turkish top tier has the sort of disparity with their second league that we see in England, then Göztepe may struggle for survival and we can really see what sort of quality he has as a potential Prem. custodian for the future. Although Saints have been paying AM a very large salary to sit on the bench for the last 2 seasons, we must admit he DAJFU in the play-offs and re-signing him was a wise move, but is he capable of being the required standard for even half of the season?.. A bad start might see us in the drop-zone already before Christmas with no satisfactory replacement .... and what happens if he gets injured.?. Many subscribers (above), seem to think that AM will be our automatic choice until then, and Bazunu will "magically " be back in the New Year but no-one knows if Bazunu will be " good enough to return " by then, and how fit he ..may / may not ...be. Goalkeeping is the most specialised role in the team. Throwing yourself at the feet of advancing strikers, or leaping around like a trapeze artist or leaping to punch / catch incoming shots... Agility is key, and in today's game also the ability to play out from the back with your feet. (Oh for the days of Antti Niemi, who was almost on a par with Peter Shilton IMHO). A few practice games with U21's may give us a clue how good GB may be in anticipating his return to Prem. level football, but the U21's have no league fixtures planned between the end of November and the second week of January. As I wrote in my opening post, we need a top rate keeper with international experience, not "a desperate loan" taken from someone else's bench. Whilst "the Downes' and O'Riley's" may command big fees... without a top class keeper the whole enterprise is doomed from Day 1. in this league.

In today's market this deal is an absolute steal , and if Ben and Adam can click up front, we may have a new strike- partnership to be proud of. A goodly selection of international players gives us a " world perspective " as a Prem. club. So'ton has a large Polish population rooting for Jan.B OK ...we may sell a few shirts in Tokyo and Santiago but we still have a squad well-packed with " home-grown " British players as well.

seems like we will run out of superlatives in the first few pages. Formerly played alongside Adam. A at Blackburn and has scored goals in the past. What could be better?. Assuming we have " a fit Ross Stewart " plus A.N.OTHER... it will give us a good variation of strikers.

Relegation isn't always the goalie's fault. I've always maintained that a keeper is only as a good as the defence in front of him. I recall Jordan Pickford was Sunderland keeper when they went down with record number of goals conceded, but still got the move to Everton, and at the current rate ...he'll still be England keeper under .." the new England manager " but he'll still be back to having defence problems even there.

Has English father and mother is from Chile. Has played 30+ games for Chile in last few years and was at Blackburn at the same time as Adam Armstrong. Impressive looking goal tally when at Blackburn... (see YOU TUBE). At 6' 1" will add a bit more height to the front line , and at 25 has a good few years in him. Looks to be a good signing if medical is OK.