SaintJackoInHurworth

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

I agree - indeed he was usually much better when he wasn't paired with an overrated full-back wannabe for his defensive partner...! Personally I wouldn't mind if Bednarek stayed and was paired with Bella-Kotchap until Salisu is able to develop a higher level of consistency and defensive focus, thus living up to the hype that some people seem to give him. The problem is that Bednarek and Salisu are not, at present, a great combination. Nevertheless, until we have seen Bella-Kotchap there is a risk in getting rid of our most experienced centre back, whatever people think of him; and, Bella-Kotchap is right-footed like Bednarek, Stephens and Lyanco whereas Salisu is left-footed and is our only left-footed senior centre back.... ...which brings me to a question... shouldn't we be looking to buy or loan another left-footed centre back? Are we really going to put all of our trust in Salisu and assume that he won't get injured?

Also, now on Saints website: www.southamptonfc.com/news/2022-06-17/announcement-gavin-bazunu-signing-southampton-football-club-17-june-2022

I would have thought it doesn't need to totally rhyme and you could just keep it simple. : Ga-vin Bazuna, Ireland's greatest goalkeeper; He was a skate but he's alright now.

What we all dream will happen at Saints this summer * Ward-Prowse stays and commits to staying at Saints for the rest of his career. He opts to reject the offer to stay away on holiday late at the end of the summer as he is desparate to train and improve himself further. He achieves all of these aims becoming an even better set piece taker and a complete midfield maestro. * We sign a hungry top notch young striker who has scored about 20 goals in 10 appearances last season. * We sign two quality centre backs - one an experienced international at the peak of his career with huge experience in the Champions League, who leaves a major top club because he is hungry for a fresh challenge with a club where success is not guaranteed. He commits to doing all he can to transform that club (Saints) into one of the top teams in the world. The second centre back signing is another up-and-coming high qulaity young central defender with all the characteristics of VVD at that gae, but even more. * We also sign a quality defensive midfielder or two who will compete with Romeu and provide cover for JWP. He/they will be so good that they quickly displace Romeu. * We sign two high quality wingers who have amazing ability to dribble the ball, amazing ability at tracking back to support the defence, amazing shooting ability and more. * Bazuna turns out to be one of the best up-and-coming young goalies around but meanwhile we also sign either Nick Pope or Henderson. * All of our signings are made for £80million * We sell Walcott and a couple of other unwanted players for £30million * Long opts to retire and become a coach. In the following season he proves himself to be a brilliant coach and leads the under 18s to glory which inspires the whole of the club to success. What will really happen for Saints in this summer's transfer window & beyond * We sign Bazuna and he regularly sits on the bench for Saints. When he does eventually play for us in the Carabao Cup he makes a load of mistakes and we are knocked out by Pompey. * We sign Long on a five year extension and Walcott commits to sharing a flat with him having been also given an extension to his contract. * Ward-Prowse leaves Saints for £15million and signs for Spurs. We sign Harry Winks to replce him at the bargain price of £30million. * Ricky Lambert comes out of retirement to play as striker for Saints. * We pay Liverpool £20 million to sign their up and coming 12 year old right back who is halfway back to fitness after suffering a ruptured ACL two years ago.

Here's his YouTube video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVI2z586hpU It looks like he is two-footed which is plus point. I know videos are not the greatest for really assessing a player's abilities but in these moments at least he seems to be fairly focussed on what matters from a defender - defending. In that regard he could be a big step up from Salisu who sometimes goes walkabout and forgets that priority! Also, it looks like he has played 5 times for the Bayern first team, butwas on loan last season at Hoffenheim. Check out his wikipedia details: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Richards_(soccer)

I think we need to calm down and wait to see what happens! We have no idea what is going on so we can enjoy speculating all we like, but it's a bit soon to start analysing the speculation as if it is absolute truth! Who knows maybe the truth is something like this: We sign Bazuna to compete with McCarthy. We then sign Pope or Henderson or other quality keeper as our first choice keeper - Bazuna continues to compete with McCarthy for the spot on the bench as substitute keeper. Until we know for sure let's just enjoy seeing how things shape up and enjoy trying to guess which bits of speculation are true, which are just smoke screens to hide the real activity and which are just stories made up by the Daily Fail.

I think it is a little bit unfair to say that Bednarek is prone to lapses of concentration. All of our centre backs are prone to that and if anything Bednarek is better than the others in that regard - though not perfect; and as I have said above, often the reason that he is found out of position is not entirely his own fault, because sometimes or even often the issue is that he is covering for others who are out of position! On the other hand, as you have said, one issue with Bednarek may at times be his reading of the game and yes, he doesn't always look particularly happy with the ball, but that is not necessarily top of the criteria for judging a centre back - albeit it is something he needs to work on. As for Salisu, I would agree he is physically strong and his speed is not too bad, though I don't think Bednarek does too badly in that regard either. I am not convinced his reading of the game is as good as you say at all though - he definitely needs to improve in that area and his recklessness is a result of that! Concentration is also a major concern. It is so frustrating seeing him suddenly realise that he is miles ahead of the play and needs to get back or that he is the nearest player to the ball and that the ball that is not being picked up behind him is the one that he should be getting! While I agree that Salisu has potentially greater long term potential than Bednarek, I would still argue that at present Bednarek is, in some respects at least, still the better defender, though his form and confidence has been battered this season.

The problem is that he rarely gets the chance to do just his own job as he ends up covering for others. Whether that is his own fault or whether that is what has been asked for him, who knows? Even so we would probably criticise him even more if he didn't make the effort to cover for Salisu, Stephens or Lyanco when they go missing. Which leaves him as the mug who is always blamed; and when he is the one being continually blamed his confidence drops and he begins to just look desparate - which is where he has ended up. I just have to ask the question: why, when he plays with a decent defensive partner (e.g. for Poland) has he always looked a much better player? He is never going to be a world beater and I am not for a moment claiming he is a GREAT defender, but I definitely think that at his best he can be semi-decent and that some of the criticism he recieves is over-the-top.

This is a very good point! What we need is a right-sided centre back (or two) and then let Salisu and Bednarek fight it out for the left centre-back berth.

OK - it's obvious to state the fact that Bednarek had a really poor end to the season. It is also true to say that at the start of the season Salisu did do some good stuff and showed some solid improvement... However.... While Salisu has great potential, he is still young and still very inexperienced; he is still prone to far too many errors for a first choice Premier League defender. He has a very annoying tendency to get himself out of position and is slow to get back in position when he does; and like many of the central defenders we have had in recent years, he has a tendency to ball watch at times. Bednarek is the experienced central defender who has done well in the past but has been expected to cover for the others; and that is a hugely demanding role when we play both full-backs as wing back and when Salisu also loves to charge forwards! It leaves Bednarek exposed and struggling to cover everyone else. The result has been that he hasn't been able to do that - after all he is only human and cannot be expected to do the job of four players! I think some of the finger pointing that has been aimed at Bednarek should also be pointed at Salisu. I also think that some of scapegoating of Bednarek has not been great for his confidence and he has always struck me as a confidence player. Don't get me wrong... I'm not saying that Bednarek is without blame, but I do wonder if we would see much better from him if paired with a higher quality central defensive partner; and maybe in the future when Salisu has reached the required quality, then maybe Bednarek and Salisu will be able to form a decent defensive partnership in the way they have failed to do this season. I would personally be happy for Bednarek to be kept on - either as the second CB in a partnership with a new quality CB, or as a quality reserve option to bring in when another CB is injured. I hope that if that happens, our fans will stop lambasting and blaming him for any and every mistake - even ones that are not his fault - and will give him the confidence to shine.

So, it is pretty obvious that significant changes are needed at Saints, but the reality is that even if Sports Republic are able to offer a little bit more money than we have had at our disposal in previous years, they won't be able to change everything in one go. So what are the priorities? I think the first priority has got to be central defence. Salisu is dreadful! He has potential, but is prone to drift out of position and other errors. He needs time to get to Premier League standard. Bednarek is better but spends too much time covering for other defenders (especially Salisu) and his own form and confidence has suffered as a result. Stephens, Lyanco and Valery are also not up to much (although Valery has done better this season than previously). I believe we need one or even two decent central defenders with a bit of experience in the Premier League who can bring a bit of stability and can help the other CBs to improve. I would prioritise someone like James Tarkowski who has just got relegated with Burnley, but is a semi-decent centre back who we might, possibly, have some chance of buying. Secondly, we also need a decent striker as none of our striking options have delivered anywhere near enough goals. Thirdly, of course, we also need a keeper. If we have any money after that lot, I would try again to find a decent creative/attacking midfield player/winger. Walcott has failed; Redmond has lost his way; Elyounoussi has had a better season but is still not great; Djenepo has failed to deliver and still looks like a headless chicken most of the time and Tella has not done enough to suggest he can make the role his own. Only Armstrong can be trusted to regularly deliver any quality. Finally, though I doubt we will have enough money for this, we need to do something about developing a player who can cover for Romeu when he is injured or off-form. All of our other reserve central midfielders (Diallo and Smallbone) are better as cover for Ward-Prowse than for Romeu. We can talk all we want about the manager - and he has definitely made mistakes - but until we get our squad sorted we can't really complain. What he does need however, is a decent assistant. So alongside up to six decent squad additions I would argue we also need to improve in that area.

Yes - we have kind of upgraded it by bringing in that greater depth - but I agree we haven't upgraded with sufficient quality. In addition, Ralph has failed to find the ways to help enough players to develop their abilities. For example: Salisu, despite some fans adulation has been dreadful and Bednarek has suffered with trying to cover for his frequent lapses, with the result that he (Bednarek) has often looked like the one who has mucked up by gettimng out of position covering for Salisu. Bednarek always looks better when Salisu is not playing at centre back. The reality is that Salisu is probably more of a left back than a centre back. Adam Armstrong was on paper an ok appointment, but Ralph has failed to find the way to unlock his talent and has instead undermined his confidence. Diallo has some abilities but very little confidence. He is also not a holding player so should never be played as cover for Romeu. He is at best a back-up for Ward-Prowse if he is injured, but would probably be better utlised in the same way that Stuart Armstrong is best played - as a link player between midfield and attack.

I'm sad to say that I have now probably moved into the camp of those who think it is best for a change of manager, though I'm not sure he can take all the blame and we have still got to be very careful what we wish for. I see it like this: Ralph adopted a weak, demoralised squad with no direction after several disappointing managerial appointments. He made good changes to our tactics which began to turn us round and got us moving back in the right direction - not least the re-introduction of the high press which had been so successful under Poch. Changes in the back room made some improvements to our transfer strategy, but not enough. We continued with a compromised, half-baked, idealistic transfer strategy that was a shadow of what we had previously had under Poch and Koeman. Budgetary limitations further limited our ability to be effective in the transfer market. We were slow to realise flaws in our academy model and were left glorying in a past academy success that had long since evaporated. Some fans were impatient for change and put the blame for failings wholly upon Ralph's shoulders. Ralph was initially stubborn to change things - in some ways a good thing, but in other ways a failure to recognise the need for the ability to change strategy within a game. Injuries also compromised what Ralph was attempting to achieve and a lack of squad depth did not help with this. In order to improve squad flexibility and depth and beginning to see the need for a bigger range of tactical approaches, Ralph tried some changes - some succeeded but others backfired badly. As time has gone on Ralph has begun to tinker more and more with the squad. Potentially Ralph may also have been under pressure to utlise more of the squad including players that were failing like Diallo and Elyounoussi. We have been left with a compromised set of tactics and ambiguous team selections. This all leaves me feeling that whether or not it is all Ralph's fault, we need a change. However, we must avoid a knee-jerk sacking without having a clear idea of who we might replace him with.