LuckyNumber7

Considering how shit our CBs are, if we are signing someone to be backup to them we have big problems. Can't say I'm very enthused by this signing but I'll reserve judgement until I've seen him play.

Never heard of him, but Torino have leaked goals for fun the last couple of years which is a bit worrying. Guess he'll fit in well!

We only need to sign one CB (unless any leave) as that would give us 4 in total plus Simeu which is plenty. Meanwhile we still only have one LB in the whole squad and I'm fed up of having square pegs in round holes. Neither Salisu or Djenepo are the answer there, a young player who can develop and act as backup is perfect. If he's that highly rated then £5m isn't that big of a gamble.

Exactly why I didn't renew my ST

Don't agree with this at all. Salisu looks promising but is very inexperienced and the jury is still out on him at this point. Bednarek, to put it bluntly was garbage last season. We need to replace Vest with someone good enough to start (alongside Salisu) as that is how you evolve the squad. Signing players to be backup to players who aren't very good is asking for trouble.

If you had asked a year ago, I think the unanimous opinion on here would be that we would drive him to Leicester ourselves! In his first two seasons he was awful, error prone and an absolute liability. However... last season he was much improved. Very good on the ball, especially with his long diagonal passes to Walker-Peters on the right wing, which we will miss. Very good in the air in both boxes, solid defensively and contributed a few goals for us. He got injured midway through the season and wasn't quite as good when he returned, however he was still our best CB by a mile last season, although that's not saying much. His biggest weakness is the lack of pace, he is slower than the Titanic. I'll be mildly disappointed at him leaving but with just a year left it's a no brainer for us to cash in and hopefully get a younger, quicker replacement. If you can adequately cover his lack of pace I suspect he will do a good job for you.

Forster for me too. He's not great but don't think he did an awful lot wrong last season.

Bednarek was our worst defender last season as part of a defence that leaked goals for fun. He is far too slow and uncomfortable on the ball, will do as a backup but if Vesty is sold we really need a new starting CB to partner Salisu.

Whilst our defence was atrocious last year, Vestergaard was far and away our best CB. I'm not opposed to selling him if we can get a decent fee, but Salisu is still very much unproven, and Bednarek and Stephens fill me with dread. Would definitely need a new CB.

Blimey Sorloth was appalling at Palace, hope we don't go after him. Would be far more risky than Armstrong imo.

By all accounts a very smart signing, look forward to seeing him play. Welcome to Saints Tino, hopefully you have a long and successful career here.

Grealish has had more than one good season in the PL, he pretty much single handedly kept them up the season before last. He is a fantastic player which is backed up by the stats. Sancho is a different type of player anyway and was very good at Dortmund, but is totally unproven in the PL and has failed to impress for England so far. As with everything in life if you want something that isn't for sale you have to pay over the odds, Grealish is hugely important to Villa so they have every right to demand £100m or no sale, especially as they are financially well off. Just as we won't (or shouldn't) sell JWP for less than £50m. He's part of the fabric at Saints, our captain and contributes goals and assists and is coming towards the prime of his career. With four years left on his contract, if we sell it's on our terms.

But we can't, which is kind of the point. We cannot afford/attract proven PL strikers, so we either have to look for cheap talent abroad or at the best players in the leagues below, i.e Armstrong. Whoever we sign will come with a large element of risk, but at least AA has shown he knows how to score goals. Whether he can do that in the PL who knows. I would be happy with him signing, although wouldn't want us paying more than £15m as we have other areas that need strengthening too.

Absolutely, jabbed or not I won't be going back as long as they require proof of vaccination, which at this rate will be never. That is not 'getting back to normal'. I won't be blackmailed into taking something against my will. Some people won't be happy until Covid is eradicated, which is never going to happen.

In the few appearances he had for the first team I thought he looked out of his depth tbh. I had been expecting him to show a bit more given the hype around him. Don't think there's any hidden agenda here, truth is probably he just wasn't good enough. Good luck to him at Motherwell though.

I've never heard of Livramento. Is he the next Messi or something?

That only works if clubs are willing to buy the player. Remember Forster turned down a move to Celtic last summer and I don't recall hearing of any interest from any other clubs. I'm sure if we get a half decent offer for Moi we'll accept and hopefully he'll go, but again other clubs don't exactly appear to be queing up to buy him. It's not as simple as saying "just flog him".

As per SKD's link, it has happened.

Since when has booing national anthems been a fineable offence? Pretty obviously it's all part of the match day tribalism and trying to unsettle the opposition, the vast majority of songs in football are aimed at winding up the opposition, are we going to start getting fined for that too? I can understand people not wanting to do it, but getting fined for it is pathetic. If oppo fans booed our anthem I couldn't care less. In fact I'd probably join in as it's so bloody awful!

That would be disastrous imo. Redmond is not and never will be a striker, and whilst Tella looks promising he is largely unproven so far. Armstrong would be a good signing but relying on him and Adams for a whole season with such weak backup would be asking for trouble. Still think Obafemi has something about him but he could do with a season of regular football out on loan. If Ings goes we need another striker.

We may be skint but that doesn't mean we literally have zero to spend. There is still the annual TV and prize monies, crowds should be back next season plus we will sell a few more. Armstrong is being rumoured at £10-15M which should be just about within our reach. Then there's that guy from the Portuguese league we've been linked with (Ellis I think), who was being touted around £5-7M IIRC. Only the board really know what we are capable of spending and they are seemingly fine with keeping him if we don't get a decent offer. Selling now for around £20M doesn't help us a great deal imo.

But Hojbjerg was nowhere near as important to us as Ings is. Personally I wouldn't sell for any less than £30M. Get Adam Armstrong in now to have a season of bedding in and next summer when Ings goes look to bring in another young/cheapish striker. Another thing to note is I believe Liverpool have a sell-on clause so that reduces the fee we get even further.

Blimey, I can only think anyone saying Bednarek is fine starting for us didn't see us play much last season. He's an absolute plodder and should be third choice at best. I would be mildly disappointed if Vesty was sold but we've kind of been expecting it, and if it gives us some decent funds to help rebuild then so be it.

Of course it's subjective to a degree but I think most football fans would agree Villa are a bigger club than Saints. Bigger stadium, fanbase, historically more successful and as you say currently more spending power. Regardless of that it's fair to say if you take your Saints tinted specs off that they are a more attractive proposition than us atm sadly.

It's totally irrelevant what we did a few years ago. In the here and now Saints are going nowhere other than mid table at best. Villa are a bigger club than us, have genuine ambitions of challenging for Europe and he would get a decent pay rise too boot. It's very naive for people to think he would have no interest. I like JWP and hope he stays, he's an important player for us. However if we received a bid north of £50M I think we would have to seriously consider it as we could potentially do some serious rebuilding with that. Problem is I have little faith in the club to spend the money wisely.