SaintJackoInHurworth

As I see it, this is the current state of play (players in brackets are U18 or U21 squad players, players in bold are those who may possibly leave): GK - McCarthy, Bazunu, Lumley, Bycroft - all done, but Bycroft may go on loan or be sold? FB - KWP, Manning, Perraud, Bree, Larios, (Meghoma), (Abu) - Maybe all done but if we sell KWP we may need a replacement, especially if we also sell Perraud. CB - ABK, Bednarek, Stephens, Lyanco, (Awe) - buy one more CB (two if ABK leaves) + we need to sell or loan out Lyanco!! CM - Lavia, JWP, Smallbone, Charles - If both Lavia and JWP leave we need at least one addition - probably two. ACM - Alcaraz, S.Armstrong, Aribo, (Doyle), (Dibling) - some wingers can be played here too inc. SAA - probably all done. WM - Sulemana, Tella, Edozie, SAA, Djenepo - Probably all done here unless both Sulemana and Djenepo leave (but even then Stu or Doyle can also cover these positions). Hopefully Tella is going nowhere! CF - Adams, A.Armstrong, Mara, Tall Paul, (Ballard) - shame that Ballard has not been promoted to the first team squad as I think he is probably better than Tall Paul, Arma and Mara! Adams may leave and is (imo) not good enough to be our main striker anyway (though better than most/all of the rest with the possible exceptioon of Ballard!). One or two good additions needed if Ballard is still not going to be given his chance.

The main positive from this for me is that it double underlines in bold that we need to buy at least one half decent central defender so that we have four first team Championship quality CBs - potentially with Stephens and Bednarek as deputy for ABK and the new CB. If ABK leaves then hopefully we will get in to decent CBs with Bednarek and Stephens as cover.

Where do you get any certainty that Livramento will be leaving? There is a huge sell-on fee due to Chelsea if we sell him to anyone but them; and that is causing us to demand a large fee which most/all Premier League teams are not ready to meet. In addition, he has openly stated that he is happy to stay at Saints (though not averse either to a transfer). While, there is clearly interest at the possibility of signing him for less than we are demanding, at present it looks unlikely that Saints will flinch much if at all from that amount and equally unlikely that anyone is going to stump up that much cash. I won't say it won't happen because that would be foolish, but personally I think it remains far from certain that he will leave.

You missed Ballard. If he can break into the first team and build on his success in the Under 18s and Under 21s I could see him surpassing most of the players on that list. I think he definitely has the potential to get up into double figures. Similarly Amo-Ameyaw could get a few goals. As for the other figures here, some I would agree with but I'm not sure about others. I don't actually think Djenepo will get enough appearances to score that many for example.

Ah!! That makes sense!! In that case, let's hope he gets his chance in the last couple of pre-season games as it would be great to see him make his mark with the first team.

It has been great to see some of the younger players appearing during pre-season and doing so well, but there seems to have been a glaring omission from all of this: Dom Ballard. If any player has looked ready to break into the first team in the past few months it has been him. So I have been surprised and disappointed that we have seen nothing of him in pre-season - he has not been given his chance to break into the first team. Why is this? My guess is that he will get his chance to go on loan and to shine for another team before being given his chance for Saints. Hopefully he will take that chance with both hands and surpass the successes of Tella and Smallbone, but I still feel disappointed that, if that is the case, we could be missing out on the chance to see him shine at Southampton. Does anyone know anything? What does anyone else think?

I'm sure you are aware of Northern Saints, who are one of the regional supporter groups with links to the club. I am a member living in Darlington and my daughter and I will be among 48 members of the group who will attending the match. Some of these will be meeting beforehand for drinks locally. No decision has been made yet about where everyone will meet but do get in touch with the group to find out. Northern Saints is on Google Groups but also has a Facebook group. Spot on!! Last time I went to Hillsborough I think I found somewhere to park along Middlewood Road and I notice there is a park and ride along there. I would recommend staying over the night. Sheffield has got plenty of places to stay without breaking the bank!! The big challenge is likely to be the industrial action that is affecting train travel that week. You may be better travelling by coach from London on Thursday or Friday and returning by coach on the Saturday... Or hitch a lift or see if someone else on here can give you a lift!! You probably ought to identify where you are travelling from for this. You are probably best to go to the section of the forum which specifically addresses away travel too!! My Prediction: Sheff Wed 1-2 Saints - goals for Alcaraz and Tella

I have seen a few people saying that our top priority needs to be getting a striker and that was certainly true last season. However, I am not 100% convinced it is our top priority this year with both Ward-Prowse and Lavia likely to leave. I think central midfield is a bigger concern, even allowing for the fact we have signed Charles from Man City. Also, I think we find ourselves in a bit of an odd position in regards to attacking players. For a start we have loads of them with a number of youngsters starting to knock on the door to first team football. In short, at present we have all of the following options including wingers and wide midfielders, etc.: Adams A. Armstrong Mara Onuachu Ballard Dibling Amo-Ameyaw Sulemana Djenepo S. Armstrong Edozie Aribo Doyle That is a lot of attacking players and I think before we bring in more (whether strikers or wingers) we may well need to ship out a few (e.g. Onuachu, Adams, AA and possibly a couple of others). However, with some of these youngsters showing a huge amount of promise in pre-season I think we have to be careful that we don't totally block the way for them to compete to get into the first team. I am particularly keen to see Ballard in the first team, so I am currently a bit disappointed that we haven't seen him so far in pre-season matches.

I was born in Southampton and grew up in Hythe. I have supported Saints since childhood. My Dad was an Arsenal fan but he brought me up to support Saints as the 'local' football club. However, I have taken a different line to my Dad and I have brought my kids up to support Saints even though I now live in the North East. The eldest is 17 and not bothered about football; the youngest is 14 and is a keen Saints fan and comes with me to a couple of matches each season. I also have a friend who grew up here who decided years ago to support Saints even though he and his family have no connection to Southampton. So, make of that what you will... Was my Dad wrong to bring me up to support Saints? Was it wrong that I supported Saints growing up out of the city in Hythe? Is it wrong that I support Saints now I live up north? Am I wrong to bring my kids up to support Saints? Is my friend disqualified from supporting Saints because he is not even from the South? Clearly, the answer in each case is 'no'. Finally, calling yourself a scummer is weird. It is a term of abuse used by Skates to slag of people from Southampton and Saints supporters. However, in the face of a Pompey fan calling me that I might possibly own it just to put them down by saying something like "I am not sure what a scummer is, but presumably if we are scummers it's only because we kick the scum out of you Skates!"

Isn't it more likely that Ings still owns a house in Southampton and is now selling it? I saw mention that this mural is one of three - all of a player wearing an England shirt, but with different numbers - 9, 14 and 19 I think he said (though don't quote me on it). It was also commented by someone that those were Ings' England numbers.

Sorry to get technical, but £5m would be a £7m loss not a profit considering we paid £12m to buy him. What I think you mean is that it would be a cash flow into the coffers of £5m due to liquidating one of our assets. I think a lot of clubs would be keen to sign KWP and start him. Newcastle are rumoured to have renewed their interest in him having realised that Saints are not going to reduce the amount we want for Tino. I can't see us necessarily being more open to cashing in on Tino bearing in mind that if we sell to anyone other than Chelsea we will have to pay a Chelsea a large dollop of whatever fee we receive. Having said that there are rumours that Chelsea are now interested in signing him and in that case we may have no option but to sell as Chelsea would be able to exercise their buy-back clause. At the same time, Chelsea could launch also bid to buy him for a lower fee than the buy-back figure and we could potentially be prepared to receive that on the basis that we would receive the full amount of any fee that Chelsea would pay. Hopefully though we can dig our heels in on that and insist on a fee much closer to the buy-back amount.

So, let's see... Walcott, Elyounoussi, Orsic and Caballero have gone from the first team squad. Chauke, Nlundulu have been sold from the B Team and Lis, Wright and Lawrence have been loaned out, while 10 other B team players were released. Abu and McNamara have signed for the U21s and we have taken on 15 new academy players. We have brought in Ryan Manning (formerly Swansea). Rumours suggest we are about to sign Shea Charles from Man City. We are also rumoured to be interested in Amad Diallo (Man Utd), Matt Grimes (Swansea), Mason Holgate (Everton), Jacob Bruun Larsen (Hoffenheim), Sydney van Hooijdonk (Heerenveen), Carlos Borges (Man City), Nathan Wood (Swansea). Lavia is likely to leave - probably to Liverpool. West Ham are offering peanuts for JWP. Maybe no-one will offer what he is worth and he will stay? Burnley seem to have given up on Tella. No recent news about Bella-Kotchap going to Villa. Tino may well be staying... or may go back to Chelsea. KWP may go to Newcastle. Onuachu may go to Germany. Lyanco may go to Besiktas. Caleta-Car may go to Genoa. Salisu may go to Real Betis. There are no recent concrete reports relating to any other Saints players. Have I missed anything? At this rate we could end up with a bigger squad than last season instead of a smaller one!!

I can't believe what I am reading!!! 10 months ago, Salisu was being feted on here by all alike as our greatest player while Bednarek was a pariah. I pointed out at the time that Salisu had his weaknesses that few at the time were prepared to admit, while I also suggested that Bednarek was not as bad as some suggested. Now you are all berating Salisu as if he is suddenly our worst player, while some are even admitting they may have been wrong about Bednarek. The actual fact is that Salisu is a player with huge potential, but he is a young player and is prone to indiscipline. He is also perhaps a little moody! Bednarek on the other hand is a player who frequently covers for other players but in so doing can get caught out himself. He was clearly affected by the criticism he received but still has much to offer - not least a degree of experience. I wish we could be less critical of our players and sometimes just recognise that form is up and down and that none of our players are world beaters but many of them have huge amounts to offer if their strengths are well utilised by good management.

Personally, I think Edozie did alright - not spectacular, but alright. At first we saw a player who offered a lot going forward and who showed skills at running past opposing players, but he then struggled to find someone to pass to, causing his hard work to end in frustration. However, I think that was not entirely his own fault - often it was mainly as a result of other players around him having lost the confidence to move and provide him with an outlet. Sadly, after a while and despite giving him more opportunitiues at first, Nathan Jones did a great job at undermining his confidence and trying to force him to stop using his skills and instead try to emulate Elyounoussi and Adam Armstrong (though to be fair, in the first instance Jones did seem to appreciate Edozie's directness). However, once he began to be coached to dribble less and just run about headless chicken instead, even the brilliant dribbling ability that he had demonstrated at first disappeared. I don't think Selles had the ability to see how to utilise Edozie's talent and his decision to frequently not even select him on the bench just added to the pattern of undermining Edozie's confidence. Indeed, while I always prefered Selles to Jones, sometimes it just felt like he was picking or not picking players purely to be different than Jones! With good coaching and encouragement, I am hopeful that Edozie can rediscover his dribbling ability, while players around him will hopefully also develop the confidence to create an outlet for him when he does get past opposing players. I am therefore looking forward to what he will give us this season, if he is given the chance.

Assuming only JWP leaves I would go with Stu Armstrong or Romeo Lavia... If all 3 go, then Bella-Kotchap... If he goes too then Bednarek, Grimes or Perraud

I happened to go and see the away match against Middlesbrough's U21s last season and it was striking how far short of first team standard many of the B team were. However, the standout players in that game and the only players who looked like they might be worth considering for first team football were definitely Ballard and Doyle. I've argued ever since that Ballard, in particular, deserves to be given his chance and I was disappointed that he did not get a look in at the end of the season when we were clearly struggling for goals. I felt that Ballard played with a kind of nonchalant freedom in his game and that he could have come in and got some goals and given us some much needed hope. I was disappointed that he was not given his chance until it was too late.

Is he hoping to bring those other three with him??!!!! 🤣

Crazy on both counts!

Why would we need to do that? Their contracts are up in the summer. If we wanted to place any players in the shop window then surely that would have seen us playing Tall Paul or other players who have been hopeless for Saints and whose contracts are not up for renewal this summer - i.e. players who are going to take wages out of the club to do nothing but rot in the reserves. My only guess why they were playing is that Selles believes his own deluded publicity and genuinely believes he is in with a chance of staying at Saints next season; and with that it is his hope to re-sign Elyounoussi and Walcott for next season!

One name we won't hopefully hear anything more of in a Saints shirt is Mo Elyounoussi. His contract is up at the end of the season, so let's hope he will follow Selles to his next club - potentially someone like Rochdale who have just sacked their manager following relegation to the National League! That is probably more like the appropriate level of football for both of them. Meanwhile Theo's contract also comes to an end at the end of the season, so one would expect he won't be with us next season. So, why, then were both of them in our starting line up against Brighton? OK, Elyounoussi scored a goal and Theo had one disallowed, but so what? We are relegated already. We needed to use this game as a chance to give experience to players who will be with us next season. I do get that those players may not be ready to start yet and some of them did get to play today, but why play players who won't be playing next season? And why put players who pretty certain not to be with us next season on the bench too? Ainsley Maitland-Niles may have said he wouldn't mind staying with Saints next season, but are the club really going to spend money transferring him permanently in the summer or even loaning him for another season? Meanwhile Amo-Ameyaw wasn't able to get on the bench despite travelling with the squad! Another opportunity missed!

So, a quick flick through the last two pages suggests our responses range from: Please no, he is going to be a disaster.. Through to... Let's just give him a chance... maybe this is the best we can get at the moment with the most positive view being: He made some improvements in the past taking a relegation contender to mid-table obscurity. Let's give him a chance. We have previously appointed managers who didn't look that good but were better than we feared. All in all then I don't see resounding approval for the guy! Let's hope he isn't just a 'keep the ball and faff about with it at the back' style manager, but I guess we all fear that this is exactly what we are getting!

Welcome to Southampton - probably the most significant city in England, south of London! I hope you will enjoy watching Saints - just recognise that, while we have spent more time in the Premier League than lower divisions over the past 40-50 years, we have always been a relatively small club in Premier League terms.... but we do take joy at having spent most of that period and some time before it in a higher division than our closest rivals. You are probably on the wrong thread to ask these questions and you can actually start a new thread to ask them all. Nevertheless, to answer this specific question, I would say there are plenty of players to look out for: Will Smallbone has been out on loan at Stoke City this season and has done really well. He is keen to return to Saints and could definitely do a job for us in the Championship next season. Nathan Tella has set the world alight on loan at Burnley this season. Saints fans would love to see him return next season to bring his form back here and to help us push back up to the Premier League. Smallbone seems to hint that Tella may do that, but don't know whetehr or not that is realistic or whether Tella will move permanently to Burnley. Sam Edozie was signed from Man City last season and his dribbling skills certainly scared a few Premier League defences. Sadly he wasn't able to combine it with a good final ball, but hopefully he can improve on that next season in the Championship. Dom Ballard is one of our under 18 academy talents who has scored bucket-loads of goals for our B team having been promoted from the academy team. There are many fans who hope that the Championship may give him the opportunity to break through into the first team. Sam Amo-Ameyaw, Kamari Doyle and Tyler Dibling are among other Under-18s who could make the step up in the next year or so, given the opportunity to do so. Juan Larios was another exciting youngster signed from Man City last summer. He has spent most of the season injured but hopefully he may be able to challenge for a first team spot next season - though he may have to challenge Romain Perraud for that position if the Frenchman stays with the club. Finally, I will also mention Tino Livramento. He actually was an exciting breakthrough talent in the Saints team last season and made a first team spot his own, but sadly he suffered a swerious injury that has kept him out for a year. We are hopeful he will soon be back playing for the first team and also hope that he is not snapped up by another Premier League Club. There have to be serious questions for them about his fitness, so hopefully that will keep them at bay until January at least. In terms of signings, it will depend on who leaves and where the needs are. In particular we all anticipate that our captain James Ward-Prowse will leave and it is also likely that Romeu Lavia will leave too. Our third central midfielder, Ibrahima Diallo has also declared that he wishes to leave, so aside from the return of Smallbone (see above) we may be short in that area and could well need to invest in bringing in one or two players with a bit of experience of the Championship in those positions.

I used to spend time pointing out the positive possibilities, but after our defeats to Bournemouth and Palace I knew our time was up. Only an unlikely win against Newcastle was going to change that. I still find myself clinging onto the positive possibilities but even those seem so beyond likelihood now that there is no way anyone can realistically believe we can stay up. For example, here is a (hugely unrealistic) scenario that I have posted in the 'Relegation run-in' thread: Gameweek SAINTS Result? Pts Leeds Result? Pts Leicester Result? Pts Everton Result? Pts Forest Result? Pts 35 Forest (A) Win 3 Man City (A) Lose 0 Fulham (A) Lose 0 Brighton (A) Lose 0 Saints (H) Lose 0 36 Fulham (H) Win 3 Newcstle (H) Lose 0 Liverpool (H) Lose 0 Man City (H) Lose 0 Chelsea (A) Lose 0 37 Brighton (A) Draw 1 WestHam (A) Lose 0 Newcstle (A) Lose 0 Wolves (A) Lose 0 Arsenal (H) Lose 0 38 Liverpool (H) Lose 0 Spurs (H) Draw 1 WestHam (H) Draw 1 Bompey (H) Draw 1 Palace (A) Lose 0 Extra Pts 7 1 1 1 0 Current Pts 24 30 30 29 30 Final Pts 31 31 31 30 30 As you will see, even with this hugely optimistic scenario where we get 7 points, we are still likely to go down on goal difference with Leeds narrowly escaping! To escape relegation, therefore we are going to need 8 points at the very least and that is highly unlikley - even taking into account the fact that we often beat Brighton at the Amex! Having said all that in the unlikely scenario that we do beat both Forest and Fulham and our relegation rivals lose both of their next two games, then I am sure I will find myself believing we can escape!!

We have no realistic chance of staying up but there is a semi- realistic chance that we might not finish bottom and/or that our relegation may not be confirmed until the final match of the season against Liverpool. Of course, there is also a purely theoretical chance of us staying up and there are two sides to that: Our results - In theory we could get up to 12 points (though realistically we won't get more than 6 and we are likely to struggle to even get 6) The results of others - It is more realistic to suggest that some of our rivals will also not get many/any points (albeit as they have a 5/6 point advantage on us already this is unlikely to help us!) So, it may be interesting to look at how things could go even in an optimistic scenario. Here's is what it might look like: Gameweek SAINTS Result? Points Leeds Result? Points Leicester Result? Points Everton Result? Points Forest Result? Points 35 Forest (A) Win 3 Man City (A) Lose 0 Fulham (A) Lose 0 Brighton (A) Lose 0 Saints (H) Lose 0 36 Fulham (H) Win 3 Newcstle (H) Lose 0 Liverpool (H) Lose 0 Man City (H) Lose 0 Chelsea (A) Lose 0 37 Brighton (A) Draw 1 WestHam (A) Lose 0 Newcstle (A) Lose 0 Wolves (A) Lose 0 Arsenal (H) Lose 0 38 Liverpool (H) Lose 0 Spurs (H) Draw 1 WestHam (H) Draw 1 Bompey (H) Draw 1 Palace (A) Lose 0 Added Pts 7 1 1 1 0 Current Pts 24 30 30 29 30 Final Pts 31 31 31 30 30 Sadly, even with the other teams getting no more than 1 points (not an impossible scenario) and with Saints managing to get 7 points (which is really stretching reality I know!) Saints would be dependant on goal difference to stay up - and we all know that Saints GD is worse than everyone else except Forest! In actual fact this scenario would leave us comparing our goal difference with Leeds. At present our goal difference is 8 goals worse than theirs, so we would probably need to win by 2 goals against Forest and Fulham, lose by only one goal against Liverpool and rely on Leeds to lose by 2 goals against Man City, Newcastle and West Ham. In other words, even in this highly unlikley and hugely optimistic scenario we would still be likely to get relegated on goal difference. Sorry for anyone who thought I was about to say we could stay up - realistically we can't; and in reality even avoiding finishing bottom is highly unlikely! I think the best we can actually hope for is the joy of seeing Leeds or Everton get relegated with us - or even both of them!

Key Reasons that have been contributing factors to our relegation: 1. Failure to sign a striker (e.g. Gakpo) last summer because we were penny pinching and thought we could save money by brinkmanship - instead Leeds came in and screwed it all up and we cannot score. 2. Sacking Hassenhuttl and appointing Jones. Even keeping Hasenhuttl would have probably been enough to stay up, but why couldn't we have appointed a quality manger like Fonseca or Gallardo instead of Jones? 3. Failure to recruit an experienced player to replace Romeu. We could have played that experienced player as CDM and given Lavia and JWP more freedom to push forward and control midfield. I think there is also a fourth and maybe a fifth too!... 4. Only signing one quality centre back - ABK has been good but he got injured as did Salisu and we didn't have enough quality to cover. 5. Injuries: Livramento, S. Armstrong, Lavia, Bella-Kotchap, Adams, Walker-Peters, Perraud have all been key injuries for us at the wrong times. There have been others too that may be of less significance: Larios, Walcott, A. Armstrong, Djenepo.