SaintJackoInHurworth

OK, so do we have no idea who we might be signing and in what position?? Could anyone summarise the possibilities by any chance? I will start it off, but maybe others can add to this to give us a clearer picture? So... CB: Jason Denayer, Ruben Samedo RB: Calum Chambers, Kieran Trippier CM: Stefano Sturaro, Franck Kessie AM: Riccardo Saponara, Solly March, Hakim Ziyech CF: Manolo Gabbiadini, Valere Germain, Ademola Lookman, Saido Berahino Who else have we been linked with that could be possibilities?

Here is another article from Sky saying that Rodriguez is staying put: http://www.skysports.com/transfer/news/12691/10555660/jay-rodriguez-set-to-stay-at-southampton-rathern-than-make-loan-move-sky-sources. Personally I welcome that. I was at the Man Utd game, standing among the home fans trying not to be noticed, but doing that gave me a different perspective to his performance than most others will have gained. I know it was televised but the problem with any television coverage is that you only get to see what the cameras are focusing on. What I saw from my particular vantage point was that Austin's touch and positioning was poor (this is not meant as a criticism of Austin, just an obervation), while in just the short time that he appeared Rodriguez achieved far more than him. Yes, his confidence was clearly low, but it seemed to grow with every moment he was on the pitch. It struck me that if that continued it would not be very long before we see Rodriguez finally rediscovering the ability that brought him to Saints in the first place. I would not be surprised to learn that Puel has now come to the same conclusion and buoyed by the upturn in form has decided to make him a more significant part of his plans in the longer term.

I'm another that had a slightly different perspective than many others. I borrowed my boss' season ticket and so was sat among the home fans in the Stretford end. So here's a few observations from my perspective.. Targett was not as bad as some people have said and I would like to give him a bit of credit. In fact he carried more significant attacking threat than many other players and I would even go as far to say he was one of our best players! However, Puel clearly wants to prioritise him in the attacking role rather than in defence and that will be why some felt that he was always out of position. Whether that is Puel's fault or a wrong understanding of what Puel was asking him to do we cannot comment. Tadic worked incredibly hard but was often too deep, which limited his ability to use his flair to take on players. It felt a bit as though he didn't want to move into more attacking positions and take on players for fear of moving out of position and doing what Redmond was being asked to do. Sadly Tadic is no deep lying midfield and several of his long passes went woefully long - much to the frustration of Targett who had got into some brilliant wide positions on the wing only to see the ball going over his head into touch. Too many players seemed to be out of their natural positions - it seemed like we were not playing to the strengths of the players available but to a system. Nevertheless, we did have much of the possession, so let's not be too critical of the system. Hojbjerg was incredibly hard working, but again I think he is better in more attacking positions and his long passes were sometimes wayward. Redmond was incredibly inconsistent across the game but did get better as the game wore on. His first touch is poor and his passing and shooting accuracy leaves a lot to be desired. He was better when taking on players than in crossing. Clasie was also a mixed bag. He got into some good positions and worked hard but I'm not quite sure why he seemed occasionally to be playing in a more advanced position than Tadic. Nevertheless, at other times he did provide a bit of midfield stability. Cedric - mixed - didn't seem clear as to whether he should be pressing on or defending and got caught out on a number of times. Unlike Targett though he offered little attacking threat. Virgil - was a super hero in defence but we can't expect him to do it all for us defensively. Without him he would have been in trouble. Fonte - was exposed for a lack of pace on a couple of occasions. Thank goodness we won't have to face Martial or Pogba or Valencia every week! Davis - did ok but was far from spectacular. I would have liked him to have been the one tracking back defensively a bit more instead of Tadic. He seemed to lack conviction in front of goal and prefered the safe sideways pass rather than the incisive attacking pass but was hard working and kept Felaini busy. Long - did very little as a striker but maybe that is because he rarely received a pass from our midfield that he could use. Austin - lacked match sharpness and was way out of position. He didn't really do anything of note while he was on. Rodriguez - was not on long enough to offer anything much but was far more intelligent in his positioning than just about any other player. Sadly this was not noted by our midfield and he didn't receive the passes that could have allowed him to show what he could do. Even having said that he offered far more than either Long or Austin just in those few moments on the pitch. Forster - did OK. He couldn't really have done much about either goal. Man Utd - were relatively poor for much of the game, apart from the occasional glimpse of the attacking threat of Pogba, Valencia and Martial. For much of the game these players seemed to go missing, but then they would suddenly spring to life. On the whole though they seemed to allow us too much of the ball in midfield, though sadly we didn't do anything with it. To some degree Man Utd must be credited for how they allowed us possession in places where it made no difference, but cut out any offensive moves. Saints - did have lots of possession but didn't do anything with it. Few clear cut chances were created and too many players were played out of position. United Fans - sang lots and lots of songs (whose words were almost impossible to work out) but seemed to lack any passion about what was going on on the pitch. When Saints scored they were stunned, but didn't seem to think there had been any foul or off-side or anything. They just seemed relieved that the ref had let them off by disallowing what looked to be a perfectly good goal from a calamitous bit of United defending. They also did not shout for a penalty when Shaw dived in the area. I think they were as stunned as me that a penalty had been awarded. Overall - despite a disjointed Saints performance the result seemed to swing on two key refereeing decisions. Firstly the disallowed goal. It seems that there is significant uncertaint as to why this was disallowed. One report says that it was disallowed for offside, while another says there was a push. It didn't look like either to me - but it is always hard to judge these sorts of things from the terraces. Secondly, there was the penalty. This again seemed questionable - Shaw seemed to go down with no-one near him. If there was any foul I wonder if it actually happened a few feet back from where he fell and if so did the foul take place in the area. Again ist is very hard to assess this sort of thing from the terraces and especially as I was at the far end away from this.

In my opinion he showed enough in the few minutes he was on to suggest that he can rediscover his ability. OK, there was not enough time to really assess him, but he was getting into good positions and showing appetite for the ball. It was just a shame that his teammates did not pass the ball to him when he got into some of those good positions. More significantly on one attack he showed real persistence in the box and almost created an opening. Admittedly just before that he showed a little fear of a crunching tackle coming in, but nevertheless, he did hold his ground and came out of the situation fine. The more he can have experience like that the more confidence he will gain that his injury worries may be behind him.

I'm surprised that (unless I have missed it) no-one has mentioned that West Brom continue to seek a replacement for Berahino. Having abandoned their plans to sign Sakho, newspaper reports now suggest they are after Watford's Ighalo. This seems to suggest that they will definitely be selling Berahino. While Stoke have seemed to be the front-runners to sign him, might the previous rumours that we had sneaked in and gazumped their bid be true? Personally I think Berahino would be a great addition. On another point and as an aside, if world class players are only those selected in Wortld Cup XI that would rule out Gareth Bale as a world class player and would rule out a number of other players who many would describe as world class.

I was just looking at the teams lining up at the Olympics and see that Germany, Portugal, Sweden and Denmark all have squads at the tournament together with a number of non-European nations including, of course, Brazil. It just occurred to me that with our emphasis on younger talented players could this effect our ability to bring in players that we might otherwise have wanted to sign now? For example, I wonder whether Denmark had considered taking Hoijbjerg to the tournament. If they had would we have signed him?

Good guess... though sadly you were beaten to it... embarassingly enough by me! As a youth worker it is not usually the done thing for me to win my own games, but this is a bit different and in my defence I had originally intended to go for August 2nd but someone beat me to it! Anyway, I shall enjoy my prize...!

And the winner is... er... me! Well, how did that happen?! I've been intending to provide an update of where we were up to with this but I've failed to make the time; yet now it seems less necessary following the announcements of not just one but two signings! Nevertheless, I hope these will not be the last two signings we make. Hopefully we will soon also be announcing the signings of a couple of attacking players. So, let's keep going with this topic and see what happens...!

Except that in those clips he seems to be a very different sort of midfielder to Harrison. This guy looks to have a fair amount of flair and drive but there are no clues about whether he can tackle and I would say his pass completion needs a bit of work before he is ready for the first team. Nevertheless, it looks as if he has real potential so let's see what happens. Sent from my GT-I9195I using Tapatalk

I'm a bit bored of the 'we are weaker and doomed to failure vs we have a team of world beaters vs lets wait and see' discussions, so can I sort of get the thread vaguely back to its main topic... So, from what I read on here, am I right in assessing that we must be in the middle of a process that looks like this: 1. Identify current squad needs. 2. Identify potential targets to meet needs by reference to the black box/book. 3. Identify availability and cost of potential targets by a process of enquiries with agents and clubs. 4. Develop enquiries to put together transfer package bids in consultation with agents and/or clubs. 5. Submit bid 6. Negotiate with players and their agents. On that basis could the lack of transfer news suggest ee are quite a way on in the process to buy the players we want? Sent from my GT-I9195I using Tapatalk

It would seem logical that we wouldn't hear anything on a Sunday, but didn't we first hear rumours about Hojbjerg on a Sunday?! ☺ Sent from my GT-I9195I using Tapatalk

I accidentally posted this earlier without ever selecting my own prediction. I was going to go for 2 August but as that has already been taken and so hsve the following couple of days, I will go for 1 August instead! ☺ Sent from my GT-I9195I using Tapatalk

OK... there are a lot of people getting impatient for our next signing, SO how about a sweepstake to see who can predict correctly which date or dates will see the announcement of further new signings. So let's see who can make an accurate prediction. Of course there need to be a few rules: 1. Only one prediction per user. 2. Second predictions made by anyone are null and void and can be claimed by anyone else. 3. If someone submits a prediction that they then discover has already been claimed then they may submit another instead. 4. Your first prediction is binding in every other case - you may not change your mind and select a different prediction. 5. Each prediction must correspond to one singular day on the calendar and not to a range of dates. Otherwise the prediction is null and void. 6. Only new signings count - not players signing extended contracts. 7. However, should Saints sign a former Saints player who has left and signed for another club (other than on loan) then that signing WILL constitute a new signing. 8. Dates chosen may be in the current transfer window or a future one. Incidentally, I am only a registered member of this forum so if admins would like to edit the thread to show dates which have been claimed please feel free. Thanks! Dates 21 July 22 July 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 1 August 2 August 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 Sent from my GT-I9195I using Tapatalk

Oops - forgot the link: http://the4thofficial.net/2016/07/profitable-but-replacement-needed-southamptons-decision-to-let-go-of-star-might-be-a-good-move

I know there has been some discussion about Pelle's impending departure but I don't know if this has been posted. If this article is to be believed, evidently he is off to a Chinese club rather than an English or European club.

As I understand it the original reason this whole discussion took off came out of the worry expressed by some that we might not be spending on new player acquisitions using the money from the sales of Mane and Wanyama, the potential sale of Pelle and the extra TV rights money. While some started to hint that maybe KL could pocket some profit from the club, Daft Kerplunk put forward the suggestion that maybe the club were thinking about investing the money in stadium development. This then descended into an argument between him and CB Fry about why the club might consider doing something like that. Personally I don't think it is beyond the bounds of possibility that the club could consider doing something like this, despite some strong arguments against such an approach. Nevertheless, as some have rightly pointed out, it is a discussion for another thread. I would start one myself, but I'm more interested to hear the latest rumours about potential player purchases and anyway I'm only a 'Registered User' so I only get a maximum of three posts a day! Getting back on track, therefore, my biggest concern is that we replace Wanyama. While we have got Clasie, Romeu and Ward-Prowse plus Harry Reed who can all play in the defensive midfield positions, none of them quite brings the same attributes as either Schneiderlin or Wanyama and so I believe we need to strengthen in those positions. In terms of attacking players I would love to see a Mane replacment, but I am aware that we have got a lot of attacking players on the books: Pelle, Long, Rodriguez, Austin, Tadic, Redmond, Gallagher, Isgrove, Olomola, Barnes, Seager, Willard, McQueen, Sims. OK, most of those are youngsters but it does show the full list of the first team and development squads' strikers. I wonder if the club is more confident than we are that Rodriguez and Austin will successfully keep going without further injury this season (at least injury that is a direct result of former injuries). I'm sure we will see in time.

Apologies that I have been slow in replying... As you will see from my post above Palace were one of the teams that still had four players at the tournament - including their Welsh players. These stats are obviously out-of-date now, but I won't attempt to update them.

Subject to injuries and bookings, there is now every likelihood that we will see a player associated with Saints (either a current player or a former player) in the final. We would expect to either see Bale or Fonte and Cedric in the final. Not only that, but if Italy beat Germany and France beat Iceland, each of the semi-finalists will feature a current or past Saints player. Incidentally and on another related point, I thought the following stats may be of interest: * Three Premier League teams have four players still at the Euros: Man Utd, Arsenal and Palace. * Four EPL teams have three players still there: Saints, Liverpool, Swansea and West Ham. * Three EPL teams still have two players still at the Euros: Man City, Spurs and Leicester City. * Two EPL teams have just one player still at the tournament: Burnley and West Brom. Meanwhile, Chelsea, Everton, Stoke, Watford, Sunderland, Bournemouth and Hull players have all seen the international teams that they play for eliminated from the tournament. That just leaves Middlesbrough who did not send any players to the Euros.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/36681358 - looks like their source is just that Tweet though. Will this be announced by the club soon?

With the mega-millions that we receive each season from the TV rights, etc. surely we CAN afford MUCH more? I think the frustration for me is that we sell these players for big money, replace them with cheaper alternatives and the profit gained does not seem to be ploughed back into the club. Consequently, we limit our potential to develop as a squad/team to the stage where we actually win something. Having said all this, I fully accept that £32m is a huge amount to turn down for a player who wants to move to one of the so-called 'big clubs', especially as when these players move to these clubs they rarely manage to replicate their form for Saints at those other clubs (with the exception of Gareth Bale). Yet, if Liverpool were offering £30m and we wanted £40m I don't understand why we haven't strung it out to get more. Does this suggest that we too easily let Liverpool call our bluff by saying they will rescind their offer if we won't come close to their estimation? And what about other clubs? Weren't Man Utd inteersted too? Couldn't we have drawn them into a bidding war to force the price even higher? It would be great, though, if one day we could become a club that doesn't sell and that can afford the mega-bucks that clubs like Liverpool, Arsenal, Man Utd, Man City, Spurs, Chelsea... and even West Ham... are prepared to pay. It is in this last area that I pin my hopes... * Maybe the club is building up enough money to build a mega-ground where extra funds can be received from an enlarged fan-base. * Maybe the club is building up the resource to be an even better developer of young players making further profitablity towards future success. * Maybe the club is seeking to accumulate enough resources to one day suddenly transform into a huge club which truly is able to compete with the other big clubs - not just in the short term, but in the long term. Or... on a more pessimistic note.. * Maybe the club has accumulated huge debts from the development of Staplewood and needs to clear those debts before we can begin to build a sustainable future for the club. I just hope that we have not become just a money-making enterprise for Katharina Liebherr - seeking moderate success in return for financial profitability rather than investing heavily in the club in the pursuit of real, meaningful trophy-winning success.

So it seems we face another summer meltdown yet it seems that 'meltdown' has become shorthand for improvement in recent years. With Koeman looking destined to leave, what would be the most quality consequences of our latest meltdown? For example, my dream meltdown result would be: Koeman leaves and is replaced by an ever better quality manager who not only leads us to unprecedented Premier League highs, but also brings with him quality backroom staff and between them they show Koeman and his crew how to develop our youngsters into world beaters and how to get players desperate to play for Saints rather than anyone else. Of course, the only problem with that scenario is that it reduces the options for further successful meltdowns!!

It was embarrassing at first but when the thread with all the dead pan humour started taking off I laughed so much that I still only have to see a picture of the statue to find myself instantly laughing. For that I am truly grateful to the sculptor!!

He is still not telling everyone his destination is Saints and not Man United: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/36390196 (PS I would sooo laugh if he truly did come to Saints!! hehe)

Maybe the rumours that Zlatan is about to move to Southampton are true... http://metro.co.uk/2016/03/16/arsenal-midfielder-santi-cazorla-names-his-dog-after-zlatan-ibrahimovic-5755306/ Maybe Josh Banfield has something to do with it... http://www.saintsfc.co.uk/news/article/saints-fan-is-top-dog-at-crufts-723696.aspx

Obviously I hope and expect that Koeman will stay but if he did go then personally I'd go for someone like Michel Preud'homme. He has an absolutely immense managerial record and has been hugely successful at just about every club he has managed. Other possibilities would be Murat Yakin or Senol Gunes.