SaintJackoInHurworth

You are spot on with this, but sadly too many people cannot see it! Bednarek has been our most consistent centre back for years and a lot of the blame that has been piled on him from last season is just wrong! I'm not saying that Bednarek was without error, but, as I have said numerous times on here, a fair number of the apparent shortcomings of Bednarek last season were actually situations where he was covering for the inadequacies of Salisu and others - not least Salisu's annoying tendency to think that he can play like a wing back and forage up the wing. It was no surprise on occasions that Bednarek was not able to stop goals when he was covering the roles of two or even three players asd well as his own defensive duties. For me, Bednarek is better than Stephens, Lyanco or any of our other back-up centre backs and we would be foolish to let him go without other decent defensive recruits.

It seems to mean Elite Development Squad (E.g. See www.mancity.com/news/eds-academy/shea-charles-eds-v-leicester-preview-63795989)

Hammer... Nail... Hit! Spot on! And don't give me the crap about some sources being more believable than others. Sky, The Athletic, The Daily Fail, The Scum, The Torygraph, even Fabrizio Romano - they all make up stories when they have nothing to write. That's how they make their money! Case in point: The Athletic - the other day they were saying that Forest were in talks to sign Adams, but now suddenly they are going for Emmanuel Dennis! The reality is probably that someone, somewhere, associated with Forest may have mentioned an interest in Adams and suddenly that is changed to become 'they are in talks'. It is all crap and some of our fans need to get a life if they believe everything they read! We have seen it with the media backing for this dreadful government and we see it every season in the transfer window. My advice: Don't waste your money buying them! Again - spot on! I just wish we had more positive fans who would get behind the club and our players instead of criticising at the first opportunity. All we are doing when we do that is falling into a narrative set by the blue few down the road. Sadly, I suspect there are a few of those among us who, embarassed by the failings of their own tin pot club, can only find pleasure by nurturing division and criticism among the Saints fanbase. I'm not saying that we shouldn't ever say anything critical - but it does concern me that there are some fans who never have anything positive to say; and this forum has probably got more than your average number of fans who are that way inclined! Sadly, it is why a fair number of loyal Saints fans cannot stand to read this forum or any of the other ones. Anyway, rant over!!!!! Let's get back to what this particular stream of the forum is supposed to be about - transfer rumours! Anyone got any good ones? Of course, let's take whatever they may be with a little bit of a pinch of salt!!

So, judging by some comments on here, we would be better with Dyche as manager, Lyanco as CB and Adams as our lone striker!!! I just hope the club don't consult this forum to make their plans!!!! It also seems that every rumour we hear is absolutely true in its worst, most extreme form, e.g.: A player is open to transfer = the club are desperate to get rid of him, see him as the worst player in the squad and will sell him for a fiver to help raise the transfer kitty to buy back Danny Ings. We are interested in buying a player = the player must be coming to Saints tomorrow and is rubbish, injury prone, inexperienced and generally on a par with Carrillo. The fact is that even from the most believeable of sources these are just rumours; and where there is any truth in them it is more likely that we are preparing for the situatioin where a player wants to leave because they will drop to 2nd or 3rd in the pecking order and aren't happy with that - especially in a World Cup year. I seriously doubt we will sell any first team player without first bringing in one or two players who will replace them (and hopefully be better than them). Personally, I hope that we will not sell Adams or anyone else until we are definitely sure we are bringing in a player who is better than him - indeed I hope we will not sell him until that player has shown us he is as good as we had hoped.

Was today a wake-up call to some of our fans that Salisu is not yet all that some of our fans think that he is? Yes, he has potential, but once again he was at the heart of our collapse! Criticise what Ralph says as much as you like (and he clearly needs to accept a significant amount of the blame for what happened today), but in this one area he is right - if Salisu had not been so abject defensively for that goal we would still have been in with a chance in this game. I really think Salisu can become a quality player and I really hope he will, but he has got to improve sooner rather than later! Firstly, he must improve his discipline and stay in defence - he is not a makeshift extra striker who can abandon his duties to stroll upfield when he feels like it! Secondly, he needs to improve his concentration. Thirdly, he has got to sort his feet out - what a mess he made for that own goal! Fourth, he must improve his positioning. It is all very well for him to show skill in the tackle in crisis situations, but too often those crisis situations come as a result of his many other short-comings! Fortunately, these are mostly things that should improve with coaching, training, experience, etc. but it does concern me that other players are being criticised when they are having to cover for him and his failings. Bednarek, Stephens, Valery, maybe even Bella-Kotchap have all had to suffer playing alongside him and have been criticised, yet at times the difficulties they have had have been compounded by having to cover for him. Maybe if Salisu could improve then those other players too could have the freedom to improve themselves and get the fans off their backs.

I think this could well turn out to be almost prophetic after today's result! Ralph has certainly come out and said that we must sign better players. Maybe this will indeed raise the bar on the sort of signings we make in the next few weeks. Clearly, at the very least, we need both a decent striker and a decent central defender. I guess the question is how do we get such players? The clues to this may be in the signings we made under Poch and Koeman: Tadic, Pelle, Aderweireld, Van Dijk were all quality that we signed (or almost signed in Toby's case!) and maybe they should show us the way to sign quality. I suggest signing like Davis and Stu Armstrong are also decent examples, if not quite on the same level as the other four. What is significant about those players is that they were either players struggling for game time in top teams in major leagues (TA) or they were players doing well in top teams in slightly less major leagues (DT, GP, VVD, SD and SA). All/most of them had experience of playing in winning teams and in playing against top European opposition. For me this suggests we need to be looking at more players playing regularly at TOP teams (i.e. ones that qualify for European competition or equivalent) in Scotland, Belgium, Holland, France, Denmark, USA, Switzerland, Portugal, Turkey, Greece, etc. Alongside this we can also be looking (as we have been doing with English sides) at those top young players struggling to break into the first team at TOP sides in TOP leagues: Man City, Liverpool, Chelsea, At Madrid, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Juventus, AC Milan, etc. So who are the top up-and-coming central defenders and strikers at Ajax, PSV, Feyenoord, Club Brugge, Union St.Gilloise, Gent, Anderlecht, Celtic, Rangers, PSG, Marseille, Monaco, Copenhagen, Midtjylland, Silkeborg, Brondby, Zurich, Basel, Young Boys, Trabzonspor, Fenerbahce, Porto, Sporting Lisbon, Benfica, Braga, Olympiacos, PAOK, etc.? I know we have looked at players at some of these clubs, but maybe we need to broaden our search?

I predict none of the predictions are right (except for this statement in itself and maybe one or two predictions about champions, sacked managers, etc.). That aside my prediction for the final table is: Man City Liverpool Chelsea Spurs Arsenal West Ham Man Utd Palace Newcastle Villa Wolves Saints Leeds Brighton Forest Leicester Brentford Everton Fulham Bournemouth Like others have said, Lampard will be among the first managers sacked, though financial constraints could cause them to delay until it is too late to do anything about relegation - not that they are going to be able to afford to buy anyone in January anyway! Other sackings will include Scott Parker at Bournemouth. My biggest doubt about the above placings is Fulham who have a manager who knows how to get the best out of a weak squad. However, they do still have a fairly weak squad, despite a few purchases that may help them. That having been said, I post this with Fulham having lead Liverpool until a few seconds ago!

Just going back to the actual topic of Saints signing someone... I tend to agree with this: With that in mind, maybe ally_uk has got the right approach (see below). I must admit I have done similar things myself in the past. I mentioned a few names that came out of doing so a week or two ago. Like ally, I focussed on top scorers in other leagues (especially younger ones) and I also looked at younger players from clubs like Man City and Chelsea. Even so, Saints will still bring a rabbit out of the hat that none of us have foreseen and I am looking forward to when they do! That having been said, I must admit I was momentarily fooled (and excited) by the fake Twitter post about Kalajdžić and would be excited if we did manage to sign him!

So four strikers at least have been mentioned and a range of opinions and hopes about who we will actually sign. Personally it feels to me that both Broja and Delap are unlikely - especially Delap - as their clubs seem to want to keep them. On the other hand I think I am right in saying that both Dembele and Kalajdzic have both said things which seem to rule themselves out of coming to Saints. I would say the most likely seems to be Kalajdzic followed by Broja, yet there is a lot of competition for both. I wonder, however, if the player we actually sign will be someone other than any of those four. It would not be the first time that news suddenly surfaces about saints signing a player that has not previously been mentioned. I've no ideas who it could be though and, before anyone says it again, I doubt it will be Ings!

Just putting aside the random rumours about us selling Che Adams for a moment, it seems to have gone very quiet in relation to us signing anyone and especially another striker. Indeed the strikers we have been linked with seem to be becoming increasingly more unlikely all the time: Armando Broja - linked to loads of clubs, not least Real Madrid, while Chelsea are short of first team strikers and seem to want to keep him. Liam Delap - strong rumours that he is about to go to Stoke on loan. Sasa Kalajdzic - linked to Man Utd, Spurs, Brighton, Roma and West Ham as well as Saints and rumours that he is only prepared to move to a 'big club'. Moussa Dembele - no recent news in relation to Saints; has recently been linked with Man Utd. Other than these, who else are we looking at? Is it still possible that we will sign one of the above? What does anyone think?

There is a lot of sense in these posts. Any element of gamble is no greater than the gamble of trying to repeat the (failed) policies of recent years. The fact is that the quality-at-an-affordable-price players that we have bought in the past are not available to us at present, as we are not seen as a club with any hope of European qualification any time soon. It is also worth saying that not all of these players are necessarily expected to be a success this season. It is more than conceivable that some of these purchases are part of a longer term policy of developing the next batch of players - for next season or the season after that or even after that. As such, we must be patient. Having said all that, there remains a slight concern that at present we may, possibly, be weaker in attack this season with the current crop of players due to the loss of Broja. I certainly hope that we will in the coming weeks address that concern.

Personally, if we don't sell Bednarek, I don't think it would necessarily be a total disaster; indeed, I could see him going on to prove wrong the many fans who criticise him and showing his true ability. However, it could well be a total disaster if SaintLondon is proven right and we can't sign any more players unless we get rid of a few. As others have said, it would definitely seem that we need at least another striker and winger and some extra quality full back cover for Livramento and Perraud. I hope that either we can shift Theo (and possibly some others) or that, nevertheless, we will still be able to make those three key signings (or even the five signings that has been mentioned!).

OK, but if we are talking of five more (I think that's what was said wasn't it?), who are the possibilities we know of so far? Striker: Delap or Broja or Kalajdzic Central Defender: Colwill or...? Full back: Marcus Pedersen or ?? Midfielder: Harry Winks or James Mcatee or James Garner Anyone else?

So it seems all the talk is currently about Delap, but who is our back-up if we can't get him? And if we are also looking at others, in other positions, who are they?

It is certainly difficult to find 'Saintsy' strikers who are prolific at a reasonable price. I'm not sure Jonathan David is realistic though! Transfermarkt have him valued at £40.5m which is well out of our league! Martin Terrier on the other hand is valued at £22.5m but with Leeds and Liverpool rumoured to be interested in signing him we may struggle to sign him at that price. One option that may be interesting other than Dembele, Cornet, Broja and Delap could be Jonathan Burkardt, who plays for Mainz and is a German U21 player. He is valued at £15.3m, so much closer to the price range you would expect Saints to be exploring. In his first season in the Bundesliga last year he scored 11 goals and you would expect a player of his age to improve upon that in his second season. Nevertheless, he has already been linked with Newcastle and has come out and said he wants to stay at Mainz, so I guess he is probably out of our reach. All of this just brings us back to Dembele, Cornet, Broja and/or Delap... or maybe a gem that the club unearth that we have not as yet heard of!

Maxwel Cornet - Winger/wing back Moussa Dembele - Striker Marcus Pedersen - (Feyenoord & Norway) - Right back Jonathan Burkardt (Mainz and Germany U21) OR Martin Terrier (Rennes & Former French U21) - Striker (OR Liam Delap!) Alejandro Francés (Zaragoza & Spanish U21) or Levi Colwill - Centre Back (Burkardt has been linked to Newcastle, Terrier has been linked with Leeds, Francés is rumoured to be 'on Barcelona's radar')

Everyone assumes that Bednarek will be leaving, but if that is the case you have to wonder why he has been taken away on the pre-season tour. Personally (and as I have commented before) I think Bednarek's shortcomings have been over-exaggerated (though I'm not saying there aren't any!) and I would rather keep him and get rid of one of the other centre-backs. I have far more concerns about Stephens and Lyanco than Bednarek and I think Salisu is not yet ready to play without a defensive partner who will try to cover for his tendency to get caught out of position, albeit Bednarek's confidence did take a knock when he was blamed in those circumstances.

That's rubbish - they spent about 5 minutes before the final ball was bowled attempting to get it right and the umpires were happy. Again, that just stinks of being bad losers; and the fact that the commentators and/or so-called experts were entertaining that view is just a sign of bias. I felt all the way through that there was significant bias towards Lancashire. They were praising Lancashire until the match started to turn and when it did they just criticised the Lancashire bowling or cited 'luck'.

I liked Broja and thought he did well last season. I would be pleased to see him back playing for Saints... BUT... I don't think he is (yet) worth €30m (£25.5m). I believe we could probably obtain someone better for the same amount elsewhere. While there is no guarantee that Delap will do as well if we sign him, he will cost a lot less and we would be able to sign someone else as well.

Let me reiterate what I am saying - I am not saying for a moment that Salisu does not have potential; nor am I saying that he didn't have some good performances last autumn. What I am saying is that far too many people are making overrated assessments of him. Yes, he may have made some hugely telling interceptions in a few games before Christmas - he may even have been one of the stand out performers in those games; but for every game that he has performed well there have been far too many where his performances have been below par. Let's face it - he is not yet anywhere near the standard of Virgil Van Dijk or Toby Alderweireld or any other quality centre back. Yet some people's praise of him would seem to suggest that that is exactly how they see him! Don't get me wrong - I would love it if he could take that next step up in performance and achieve that level; and he certainly shows some potential that he COULD reach that level - but he is not there yet. It astonishes me that many of those people who are so quick to lambast Bednarek (and there have certainly been times when he may have deserved that) are often the same people that go all starry-eyed over Salisu! I think the truth is actually somewhere in between and that some of the time Bednarek has been criticised (whether fairly or not), people have failed to observe just how much Salisu's errors have contributed to Bednarek's shortcomings. You are quick to suggest I haven't been watching what has happened in Saints games, but actually I could lay that same criticism against you. In fact it is because I have taken the time to carefully analyse what has gone wrong for some of our goals that I have come to the conclusion that I have; and I would urge you to go back and look at some of those goals where Bednarek has been criticised and see what I am saying. What you will see is Bednarek trying and failing to defend, but if you look closer I would encourage you to ask yourself where is Salisu on (some/many of) those occasions. You will discover on a significant number of those occasions that he has disappeared up the wing, forgetting his defensive priorities; and that is where my frustration lies. As far as I am concerned, both Bednarek and Salisu need to improve; Bednarek needs to stop trying to cover two defensive positions and to focus and covering where he is supposed to cover. Salisu meanwhile needs to improve his focus and prioritise defending rather than seeking some glory as an additional winger. With two central defenders defending, no matter what any of their deficiencies they may have, they will do better than if they are left as the sole central defender. Of course, it may well be that Bednarek will be forced out by those who are so keen to place all blame at his feet. I just hope that if that happens, we aren't left to rue an over-dependance on Salisu. Hopefully, instead, he will begin to live up to the over-stated assessment of him by many of our fans. Hopefully, too, Bella-Kotchap will prove to be an inspired purchase and a central defender of real class.

Salisu is massively overrated by our fans. He has great potential as shown in some of his performances at the start of last season, but he has a distinct lack of defensive discipline at other times. If he can sort that out then re-signing him will be great. Hopefully, it is the sort of thing that can be coached. Nevertheless, at the current moment I would not be overly concerned if he did get snapped up by City. That could deliver a fee with which we could buy someone better and more disciplined.

Thanks - I missed NLundulu! I think the key issue will be the number of players over 21 in our squad. This could well be last chance saloon for some players with Vokins, Ferry and Ramsay already over 21, Bella-Kotchap and Bycroft turning 21 this year and with a diminishing number of spare squad places if older players are bought. If we sell/release Walcott and maybe others, it could ease the pressure a little. It remains to be seen if we will. Personally I hope we will keep Bednarek as we need his experience. He has become a scapegoat at times and blamed for situations where he has been left to cover for the defensive inadequacies of others - including Salisu who is a little overrated by some of our fans. If we are to lose any centre backs I would prefer it to be Stephens, Valery and/or Lyanco. Nevertheless, depending on who we sign in the remainder of the window and who we loan out, it is possible that we could keep everyone!

To quote the EPL website: "Each squad contains no more than 17 players who do not fulfil the "Home Grown Player" (HGP) criteria. The rest of the squad, up to a total of 25 players, must be "Home Grown". A "Home-Grown Player" means a player who, irrespective of nationality or age, has been registered with any club affiliated to The Football Association or the Football Association of Wales for a period, continuous or not, of three entire seasons, or 36 months, before his 21st birthday (or the end of the season during which he turns 21)." I think we are nowhere near breaching that particular limit - I think we have about ten who count as not home-grown at present: Lyanco, Romeu, Caballero, Perraud, Djenepo, Salisu, Elyounoussi, Diallo, Bednarek, Lis

Last season there was a limit of 25 players per Premier League squad. Assuming there is no change to this, it will be interesting to see how it impacts Saints as the transfer window continues. We now have 26 players in our squad who were aged 21 or above in January this year. Vokins, Ferry, Ramsay and Smallbone have now all passed that age-limit. Of those, only Smallbone seems to have secured a full place in the first team squad so far. Including Smallbone, but not the other three, our current over-21 squad size would be 23 players. This raises several questions: Will any of the other three stay at Saints this season as part of the 25-man squad? Last season they all went on loan. Will we sign any further players who are over 21? Will any of the current over-21 year olds leave? Who will that be? Potentially we might not sign more than a couple of over-21 year olds, if any, so we could, in theory, keep all of the current squad. It will be interesting to see what happens.

The whole question of our current wingers and attacking midfielders is a frustrating one. I guess the question must be which ones are best and worst and which ones have the potential to improve. I would put Tella in the potential to improve category, but most of the rest are at an age where they should be around their best. The slightly harder one to assess is Djenepo who has failed to live up to expectations by a street but still shows flashes of latent ability which goes well beyond the others - if only he could turn it into anything meaningful. He is also still only 24 so could still improve with the right coaching. Excluding Tella from my ranking for now, I would personally rank the players as follows: Stuart Armstrong Nathan Redmond Moussa Djenepo (on the basis of latent ability) Moi Elyounousi Theo Walcott