HarvSFC

These snippets from Nathan Jones' interview after their 2-0 loss against Reading are comical. https://twitter.com/JustSaints_/status/1829950361802772832 https://twitter.com/JustSaints_/status/1829950564106715486

If Downes and Ugochukwu can replicate what we had in Schneiderlin and Wanyama, it would be ideal. Would give us the protection we're looking for with the five at the back, would protect our fragile defence and would allow us to move up the field faster. I know Stephens wasn't directly at fault for any of the goals today, but he did play a part. It was him who received the ball in the midfield before the hospital ball to THB, who was then forced into a mistake as two Brentford players swarmed him. If that was Fernandes, or Ugochukwu picking up that pass they would have moved us up the pitch from playing on the turn. Fernandes did it well in the second half. Been saying it all year, it is something that last year's midfield couldn't do and it is something Stephens also can't do, meaning when they receive the ball, the ball will 9/10 return to the defence, allowing the other team to press us and try and force a mistake. We got away with it a lot in the Championship, but the Premier League is ruthless. Stephens is a limited centre-back, to get the best out of him you need to keep it simple, defend, he's a last ditch defender. This hybrid role is asking too much of him, if he must play in the side. Martin's got a bit of credit after last season. It wasn't a perfect season, there were a lot of mistakes, but there were also highs and of course promotion. But, given Martin had at least played in the Premier League as a player, I was hoping he'd know the league a bit better than what he's shown so far. He needs to learn quickly what players are good enough and who isn't. Maybe its because we've all seen Smallbone, Armstrong, Aribo, Stephens and McCarthy up here before, whereas Martin's basing his judgement on last season, but we knew they wouldn't have it up here, and so far we're being proved correct. They need to be reduced to squad roles against Manchester United and the rest of the season. My team against United would be: Ramsdale Sugawara - Bednarek - ABK* - KWP Downes - Ugochukwu Fernandes Dibling - BBD or Archer - Cornet If Lallana was two years younger he'd definitely be in contention too. *If he trains at 100% over the next two weeks, may as well make use of him. Anyway, onto the positives: Dibling. Wow, what a player. He came on and ran rings around the Brentford team. I was hesitant to start him today, but that performance deserves a home start against Manchester United at St. Mary's after the international break. He's so good. Did everything a lot of our senior players are unable to do. Ramsdale. Conceded three, but could have been a lot more. His positioning, movement and anticipation to come off his line today was very good. There were a few shots that left you thinking if that was the other three, it would have gone in, or been parried out into a dangerous position, but Ramsdale as the Premier League keeper he is made them look comfortable. Lallana. Showed again that he's a class above a lot of this team. Sugawara. If not for our disastrous finishing, he'd have two assists to his name now. The one at Newcastle for Brereton-Diaz and the one today that Armstrong has no excuses for. Took his goal well too. Fernandes. When he comes onto the pitch you realise how limited Smallbone is a central midfielder. His first thoughts are to take us up the pitch and he created some problems for Brentford even if they didn't come off today, one day they will. Tries things others in our team are too scared to do. But, yeah, that was a really poor 90 minutes. Hopefully a lot of learning and adapting will be done from today and over the next two weeks.

Birtles has mentioned a couple of times now that he's surprised Toney isn't playing. Is he okay?

Wow. I was scared for a good while after that joke man from the Guardian's Tweet and Edozie's deal falling through. Can never complain about a proven Premier League attacker coming in and another goal scorer. Of course the hope is that he rediscovers his Burnley form. I could perhaps see him taking Adam Armstrong's position on the right if Armstrong continues to struggle up here. Again it has added competition. Armstrong's place in the team isn't so certain now and he needs to fight for it, which is never a bad thing. Overall, I think it has been a successful window. Bringing in a striker with a similar play style to Adams would have made it a 10/10. But, that also feels greedy, especially after today. It's the only thing the squad is missing and it's very rare for a Southampton squad to just be missing one thing at the end of a transfer window. Maybe there has been a miracle and we have had some positive news on Stewart. It was said this time last year when he signed that he would be ready after the international break, maybe they meant 2024? And, obviously the key thing is that we kept KWP until January at the very least. I like that the club retains the key players and doesn't sell them for a pittance due to their contract situations. I know it doesn't really help us financially, but as a fan I don't get to see that money anyway, we all get to see the talented players though and if we do survive the Premier League money will make up for any losses we may make. On the actual outgoings: Perraud, Lyanco and Caleta-Car all going was good. They're all crap. Sekou Mara, I always wanted him to come good, but he was just a let down every time he played. Not suited to the English game, wish him well and allowed us to get Archer. Lis, don't know who he is. Alcaraz, I was and am a big Alcaraz fan. I'm glad we've got a sell on for him. He'll come good. I liked how he always looked to attack and thought he impressed against Lazio before his head loss. But, watching Dibling and Fernandes in the week helped me get over the sale. I couldn't have a season of Smallbone and Aribo in the middle in the Premier League. Meghoma, good money for a player who has never made a league appearance for us and in the last year of his contract. May be one we look back on one day and say that's one that got away, but today he has helped us. Overall, no major outgoings, unlike last summer. Look at Leeds' business this summer and see how important it was that we won that match. Sold Gray, Summerville, Kamara and Rutter from that side and replaced them with Joe Rodon, who was there on loan already, Jayden Bogle and a bunch of nobodies. I'm not losing any sleep over the players who have left us this summer. Incomings: Harwood-Bellis - Obligation with promotion, essential to the team and a leader. A future England centre-back and Carsley knows him well from the Under 21s. Lallana - A sentimental signing. I don't like that I have to start liking him again, but on Wednesday night he showed that class was permanent and he's another leader in the dressing room. Saints fans used to get laughed at and called bias for saying Lallana was the better footballer than Oxlade-Chamberlain and Walcott and he is and was, which may still see him as an asset at 36. However long he'll be available for I'm unsure, doesn't train every day either. Taylor - Very good solid back up to have at left-back now that KWP's still here. Brings Premier League experience which has been a key factor in a lot of our signings this summer, which is a much needed turnaround from the summer of two years ago. Pushes Manning right down the pecking order too, which is necessary. Edwards - Potentially a good centre-back. He's a punt that makes sense at a very low cost. Wood - Err yeah, he's a bit rubbish. Fifth choice centre-back, potentially sixth with ABK, so won't see too much of him outside of the cups. Can't be worse than Holgate. Sugawara - Based on his first two league appearances I think we're going to be selling him for a big profit in a couple of years time. Haven't had a full-back who can put in a cross for a while, it isn't one of KWP's strengths, so he adds another dynamic to our attack that we've been missing. Downes - May well be our most important signing of the summer, even if he has been overshadowed by Ramsdale today. The team didn't work without him last season and I was so glad we got this one done early. I've said before that two mistakes Nottingham Forest and Burnley made in previous windows was not signing up their loan stars to permanent deals and instead seeking alternatives who are not guaranteed to bed in. We did not make that mistake. Brereton-Diaz - Was the star of a very shit Sheffield United team last season. Jury's still out after his first two appearances, though. He has always been a streaky player and we did get him for a good fee. For whatever reason it didn't work out for him at Villarreal, hopefully it's a different story here. Archer - I like his signing, again he's a goal scorer. He did look a little bit lost against Newcastle and Forest, but I don't think he had a training session before Newcastle and both were sub appearances where we weren't creating too much, or anything in the Forest game's case. He did start to worry me in the early parts of the Cardiff game, but those two goals against Cardiff were so well taken, something we've been missing for a while. Hopefully he brings it to the Premier League. A minority of people will say why have we signed Sheffield United's attack of last season, but they're the same people wishing we were making the moves that Ipswich have made, who signed Muric, O'Shea and Ogbene, who were all relegated last season also. Ugochewku - Said on Wednesday that he moves around the pitch effortlessly. Made it look so easy. He can be a big player for us this season. Fernandes - Future star. Man of the match on Wednesday, do it in the Premier League and he won't be here for long. Has the all important skill of being able to play on the turn in the middle, which is so important for creating room in this possession based system. He's the perfect Russell Martin midfielder. Ramsdale - Wow. Still can't believe we signed him. Thought it would be a loan at best. But, he's here permanently. Great CV and he'll be looking to get the England number one spot. Another big character to have in the dressing room also. Nothing not to like about this transfer. Les Reed and Ross Wilson would have been shopping around in the bargain basement at 10 o'clock tonight and discovered Dubravka after the Bijlow deal collapsed. We didn't and potentially got better. Well done Saints. Fraser - Good squad player, slightly limited footballer, but important to have around the squad when we're likely to be scrapping it out every week. Cornet - If we get the Burnley Cornet then we've got an attacker who is going to get a fair amount of goals. Wanted us to sign him before he went to West Ham. Now he's here. Overall, I'm happy and positive about the window. We've added plenty of competition, plenty of Premier League experience and Sports Republic really have acted on their words by learning from their mistakes of two years ago and have given us a squad that could actually stay up in this league when it was looking pretty bleak a couple of weeks back. Dragan's backed us again. Ramsdale Sugawara - Harwood-Bellis - Bednarek - Walker-Peters Downes - Ugochukwu Fernandes Cornet - Archer - Brereton-Diaz Could be our best 11 from here. ABK could also add to this if he fights his way back into the side.

A lot of fans rate Fraser higher than I do, but I do see his value in the squad. I believe he was a bit of a pace merchant earlier in his career and that is on the decline, unfortunately. He also lacks some technical skills which wide players need to beat players. However, he is a very good finisher when given the opportunity and can provide a decent cross. He's also obviously very popular among the squad and the club in general. Also, when I saw him lining up against Gnonto in the play-off final I did fear the worst, but he proved me wrong and he did a very good, solid job. His professionalism also can't be faulted here. At the start of the summer, I wanted us to prioritise our (reportedly small) resources in other areas. Now, on deadline day we have, Fraser's cost us nothing, a two year deal is probably about right and it means we're no longer turning to Edozie who needs a loan out for the season. Welcome back.

Best signing we've made in years in terms of the here and now. Sounds like from the press conference earlier that Martin wants him to go straight into the side against Brentford tomorrow too. Some of our more successful signings in recent years have been the ones from the top clubs who can't quite get game time there - Bertrand, Ings and Romeu were all a very high standard. I don't doubt Ramsdale will be the same having been Arsenal's number one just a year ago. Also won player of the year awards at both Bournemouth and Sheffield United and was named in the PFA in 2022-23. There was a thread on here earlier in the summer asking what was the last transfer that excited you. It's this one. Up the Saints.

I liked the sound of Cornet when it was first reported yesterday, but I looked into his record at West Ham and posted yesterday that in his two years at West Ham he has only started two league games there. Now, he is 27, so just coming into his peak and he was a good player previously at Burnley. I wanted us to go for him the summer he went to West Ham. Suppose it just depends and we hope that he can regain that form after a long layoff like Ings did here, or he could spend the next year on the treatment table like Stewart. It's a risk, but it does add more Premier League experience to our side and adds a bit more competition at the top end of the pitch. It doesn't pick itself anymore and after recent seasons of the first eleven picking itself, we have certainly added depth and competition this summer.

Well, that was more enjoyable than some of the second team run outs in the cups in the last two seasons. Looking at Gillingham and Grimsby. Players: Lumley, had some good, had some bad moments and cost us a goal. Bree, was going to say you know what you get with Bree. Solid, yet unspectacular. Yet, he scored the best goal of the night when it looked like it was heading to penalties. Wood, yeah, this man isn't a Premier League player. Haven't done too well off Swansea after Martin. Edwards, slightly disappointed with him, had some really poor moments, expected more, but he's still got time on his side. Taylor, did a good job at left-back. Dibling, wow, what a talent. Sign him up to a new contract quickly, two assists, really forward thinking and exciting to watch. A player who is going to entertain us a lot. Ugochukwu, plays with a swagger, goes about his game effortlessly and always in control. Can probably replace Aribo soon. Fernandes, man of the match. He's the perfect Martin player. Only recently turned 20, he's going to be very good. Has to start on Saturday. Amo-Ameyaw, had a really good first half, doesn't always come off for him, but he took his goal brilliantly. Very quiet in the second half, but did a lot more than the other winger! Edozie, if we sign another winger before or on Friday then he needs a loan out as it just isn't coming off for him at the moment. Archer, didn't do a lot, but stuck the ball away twice with instinctive finishes. Something we've been missing for a while. Hopefully he can do it in the Premier League also. Supply him in the box. Subs: Bella-Kotchap, whether it was to give him 25 minutes to show other clubs that he is fit, or to reintegrate him back into the side then he had a successful showing either way. Would be handy if he could have the Bednarek redemption. Lallana, if he was 10 years younger... He'd probably be scurrying off to Liverpool and playing out wide. But, tonight he looked decent. Wonder if his son can do those spins, I don't think there's another player in world football who can twist and turn so successfully like he has throughout his career and he hasn't lost those. Akachukwu, can't remember him doing anything. O'Brien-Whitmarsh, welcome to double barrelled fc, great showing. Larios, great showing. Overall, it's given Martin a few more things to think about, which is what you want from the second string side and hopefully Martin will look to the 4-3-3 formation going forward. I really want to see a BBD - Archer - Armstrong front three. We still can't defend playing the formation without Downes, however. And final note, we're signing a player with a very good chance of being England's new number one, so happy days all around.

Wow, that's a good deal. Sorts our goalkeeper problem out for years if we manage to stay up. Don't let me down Saints... Best goalkeeper since Boruc?

Cornet's only started two league games for West Ham since his move from Burnley two years ago. I know he was good at Burnley, but would be a big risk in 2024. Cannot believe the Ramsdale move sounds like it's happening... Big signing.

Looking at this Tom Fellows, he only started 15 matches for West Brom last season. He was an unused sub 11 times. He only started 4 of their last 8 in the league, so wasn't like he broke into the first team through the season. And on the right wing, which is his position according to transfermarkt and it was Jed Wallace keeping him out of the side. He was 20 last season as well, so not exactly that young in today's football. All our best youngsters were getting a lot more game time at 20, especially at Championship level. So, what am I missing, because he definitely doesn't seem like a £10m+ player.

50% of the prediction right...

Even got the famous number of weeks line in. "Adam Lallana is back in the squad for Cardiff tomorrow. Ross Stewart is in full training and will be playing in the next couple of weeks. Kamaldeen Sulemana training too but one to watch over next few days." Must be an in joke now.

Yeah, I'm not too enthusiastic about this Yuri Alberto. He's even got a joke compilation, like Joe Lumley did when we signed him. It's the complete opposite of Bijlow, a good goalkeeper who has played in Europe and is loved by Feyenoord fans. And, then you go for a 23 year old striker from Brazil who Corinthians fans don't rate at all. The bloke last hit double figures in the lower quality Brazilian league in the 2020-21 season. Since then he's bagged 20 goals in 72 league appearances. We need goals, what are we seeing in this guy? He has a better scoring record than Juan being the only positive really.

I wonder why it's only Trabzonspor going for Onuachu this summer. Is it because he's 30? After the 2015-16 season he has a good scoring record each year, barring his half a season with us. Last season he hit 15 goals in 21 league appearances in Turkey, which you would think would get a bit of attention on him. But, the cheap skates from Turkey have been the only links all summer. You'd think another club would panic and sign him thinking they can play to his strengths, while we did not.

Now, that was a lot more disappointing than last week, unfortunately. Too slow and too predictable and ultimately we didn't even test the Nottingham Forest goalkeeper, at home. Think we need to start phasing players like Smallbone and Aribo out of the starting eleven and using Stephens as a rotation option with the best centre-back duo being Bednarek and Harwood-Bellis, even if the latter did have a bit of a shocker today. Adam Armstrong would also be included in this, but we don't have an alternative, despite him proving in the first two games that he is a top end Championship player who can't make the step up. McCarthy will also be replaced, although he did the basics well today. Last time, Adkins knew his captain of two years Dean Hammond wouldn't be able to make the step up, as well as Billy Sharp, who he had some affinity to having manged him earlier in his career. Chaplow and Richardson were also pretty much left out after strong Championship seasons and Kelvin Davis was given a few appearances before that error became clear. Hell, Rickie Lambert was even benched for the opening game against Manchester City and he needed to prove himself to be good enough for the Premier League despite his heroic status. Martin needs to be a lot less accommodating regarding who he plays at the level he's asking them to if he wants to be a successful manager and if Ugochukwu and Fernandes aren't better than Smallbone and Aribo then our recruitment has got it wrong again. On that topic, I don't see why flare players disgust Martin. They're the players that are the difference between winning a game and losing. Last season we had S. Armstrong, Smallbone and Downes in our midfield. Aribo was only a squad player in the Championship, usually coming on at the end of games to help us see them out and then he got an extended run in the side at the end of the season because of Armstrong's injury. He only made 16 starts last season and 8 of them came from April and afterwards, and now he's starting for us in the Premier League and he's a completely different player to Stuart Armstrong, so he isn't giving us the creativity, or running that Armstrong gave. Now, Armstrong also wasn't perfect, he didn't always keep the ball and was probably the worst culprit last season for giving up possession, so I don't know why Alcaraz is now so frowned upon. Okay, Smallbone's passing stats are a lot better than Alcaraz', but that's because Smallbone doesn't try anything other than short, sideways and backwards passes. Whereas, Alcaraz' first thoughts are to move forwards with the ball and he will attempt the killer pass. It doesn't always come off, more often that not it doesn't, but one day it will and will win us a game. Yet, he's the one being sold. And then we have the subs issue, again. Forest were getting the better of the game, but Martin does nothing, only until Forest go a goal up and then we bring on Edozie, who's hopeless and Archer. Really demoralising today and it's going to be harder to attract quality players for the remainder of the window with today's result.

https://twitter.com/AlShabab_EN/status/1827081573486789103?ref_src=twsrc^google|twcamp^serp|twgr^tweet One of the biggest wastes of money in recent years has made it to Saudi Arabia at 30. Congratulations, Wesley Hoedt.

Yeah, we needed to spread whatever money we had around a lot of positions this summer, while also securing Harwood-Bellis and Downes on permanent deals to have a chance of staying up. So far I think we're doing a good job. A goalkeeper and another attacker, while keeping KWP would make it a very good window. Then, next summer if we stay up and all has gone well then we would only need 2-3 additions and then you'd like to see the £30m come out.

https://www.facebook.com/reel/1086762903019604 Maybe Ramsdale's the striker loan signing. Stuart Pearce tried it at Manchester City with David James.

Interesting. Ramsdale's the better goalkeeper, Bijlow's better with the ball at his feet. There's big positives and small negatives for either. Is this going to be another Ramos and Gakpo situation, where we end up with neither?

Jack Clarke's agent is Ian Harte, the old left-back who played for Reading and Leeds and was good at free-kicks. Sunderland fans really dislike him as he's quite outspoken in the media and said he wants Clarke to move this summer.

We sold Lis to Goztepe for £30m, right?

Bijlow would be the best alternative to Ramsdale that we've been linked with, possibly even better because for all of Ramsdale's strengths, playing out from the back is one of his weaknesses and our tactics need someone competent at it. Bijlow is a competent goalkeeper and can play out from the back, so would fit us like a glove. Johnstone, was overrated at West Brom because he was busy I didn't want us to sign him then because if we had good scouts we could have done better. Now, in our position he'd be an okay signing, he's solid but unspectacular, but we'd probably be lumped with him for a number of years after McCarthy. Steele's main strength is that he's good at playing out from the back. His main weakness is that he's barely a better goalkeeper than McCarthy. Been protected a lot by a solid defence at Brighton in Dunk, Veltman and when they had Caicedo, etc. Similar to when Forster's clean sheet stats were boosted when we had the likes of Van Dijk, Alderweireld, Schneiderlin and Wanyama protecting him. So, just need a better source than a random Dutch account with fewer than 50k followers now.

Sugawara obviously a very good player, so hopefully there has been some amendments to the recruitment team from two years ago and this can be another gem. Downes, Ugochukwu, Aribo, Smallbone and Fernandes all vying for the three spots. Good competition when in previous years we've had to keep the same midfield game by game due to having rubbish like Diallo as backup. Now, onto a goalkeeper and a Tadic like creator.

JWP would be the ex-player who would make the most sense bringing back this summer. He dominated the Sheffield Wednesday match in his only appearance last season, albeit at a lower level and Sheffield Wednesday started last season terribly. However, there are also quite a few drawbacks. Number one being we are now stacked in his position, specifically with ball recyclers who do his job. JWP's an upgrade on Smallbone, but we're going to continue developing Smallbone here, so no room at the inn. Number two being that while JWP would be an upgrade, he's not THAT much of an upgrade. His free kick's are world class, but other parts of his game are lacking. He wouldn't have got into our best Premier League midfield (Davis, Wanyama, Schneiderlin) and if you want to move into the top half of the Premier League, JWP in the middle doesn't cut it, which is why he's no longer needed at West Ham. We were slightly handicapped with JWP, as we were never going to replace him, he needed to leave on his own accord for that to happen, and he did. And then number three, JWP made his decision to up and leave last season because we were in a bad place and he didn't want to give the club or management a chance to see if they could turn it around, chasing an England cap that he had no chance of getting even with his impressive form at the start of last season. We're now in a good place again, and it suits him again...