HarvSFC

I know I was moaning earlier about the lack of incomings, but Matt Grimes isn't all that. A 28 year old with 4 Premier League matches to his name for a relegated Swansea team. He's a middle of the road Championship player, never been named their player of the year and never been named in the Championship team of the year. He was named in the 2014-15 League Two team of the year, though. I know what level we're playing at now, but Downes is the better prospect, even Isaac Hayden, the same age as Grimes has a far superior CV. If we were to get promoted this season, Grimes would be one of the first that needs upgrading on. Manning was Swansea's player of the year last season and his first few appearances haven't been without fault. Indeed. Fulham kept Mitrovic to break Lambert's record, Sheffield United kept Sander Berge, Watford kept Sarr and Pedro, Bournemouth kept Solanke (bagged 29, so you wouldn't put that past Adams) and Danjuma, Norwich kept Pukki, Aarons and Buendia (for one more season)... Loads of examples from recent seasons. Think it needs to be a case of saying we've sold the big three for a lot of money, that'll keep us ticking over. Salisu's also helped add funds. ABK and Sulemana you'd expect will also be in that help to add funds bracket because they simply don't want to be here, but everyone else who's worth anything needs to stay, see if they can get us back to the Premier League, increase their reputations and then in a year we'll re-evaluate ala Schneiderlin.

Genius play would have been seeing evidence of planning and foresight. Deals don't happen overnight, those at the club would have known that Livramento, Lavia and Ward-Prowse would have brought in big fees at least a week prior to them actually leaving. However, our only incomings are still the two that came in before they left and we're now going into two games with a dodgy, overly attacking midfield and potentially no Adams to come off the bench and help us tomorrow like he has the last two games. I wanted to see replacements immediately following the big departures, rather than a few weeks after, giving them less time to bed into the squad and putting more pressure on the players to kick start right away. Now, clubs know we've got a lot of money that's just come in to play with, so they're going to ask for a bit more for their players. It would have even been better to sign the Lavia/JWP replacement before they actually left like we did with Charles. Now, that would have been a genius move, as I said every fan knew Lavia was going this summer, so his departure wasn't a shock, 75% knew JWP was going, so again his departure wasn't too shocking, Livramento's was a bit of a surprise, but we have KWP and Bree. So, if the clubs people weren't able to foresee their departures and get in suitable replacements before the inevitable then that's slightly concerning. I know there's still plenty of time, but I've been burned by last summer's deadline day and all the talk of being relaxed prior - Caleta-Car, Edozie, Larios and Maitland-Niles when we were all certain a striker would be coming in and then the January window, where we again threw loads of matches because we acted at the last minute to get a striker, a not very good one in Onuachu and a young potential, but not immediate starter in Sulemana. A lot of talk of the big squad also, but given all the money we've raked in, surely we can afford to start taking losses/loaning out the likes of Onuachu, Djenepo, Lyanco, Mara and McCarthy. I can't really believe there aren't any clubs in world football who wouldn't take a loan deal on these players. Looking at Turkey here. Lets hope the club pull something out for once.

We signed a player named Sam Bellis from City for the academy a few years back, he's since been released. He calls Taylor Harwood-Bellis "bro" on Instagram, so I'm going to guess they're brothers. Hopefully he has nothing but nice things to say about us. Also, Ashley Cole gave him a glowing reference on Instagram: "what a group of players, you as the captain created an elite mentality and family well done mate fully deserved". Usually Cole's shooting youth footballers with air rifles, but sounds exactly what we need. Sign him up.

Would've been nice to have questions like was Wilcox expecting us to be relegated when he agreed to join. If so, why did he join, or how did his plans for the club change with the relegation. Also asking Martin why he decided to come here over other clubs he was linked with and why he waited as long as he did for us. Both would have said "the project" but would have been nice if a bit more originality came forth. Anyway, both seemed pretty keen on promotion, which goes against the handful who were saying the club weren't targeting it this season. The best stories come from those who attended and met them away from the cameras, so did anyone attend? If you're the guy in the pink goalkeeper shirt, I don't want to hear from you.

+ Papa Waigo. Best celebration.

Good that Martin and Wilcox will be there. They're the ones we want to hear from. Hopefully there won't be too many questions put to Spacey-Cale. Thought that was a Semmens thing, but nobody's really interested in what she has to say.

Brighton managed to get £115m and insert a sell on clause for Caicedo. Hopefully we get money and a sell on for Lavia.

And God knows what style Selles was trying to implement last season. Unsurprisingly Reading have lost both their league games 1-0. A reminder of those winnable fixtures we had under him where we just refused to lay a glove on the opposition.

Quick free-kicks made a welcome return too. Haven't seen them since Bertrand put Ings through to score against Arsenal. We tried one in the first half, playing Edozie through while Norwich were setting up their wall and when Norwich were celebrating the offside goal, we quickly took the dead ball and were moving up the pitch. Neither resulted in a goal, but far more entertaining than waiting for somebody to allow/disallow something.

Issue today was we didn’t have a midfield. We have two big Lavia and JWP holes to fill at the moment. I know JWP isn’t known for being a tough tackler, but he always covered more ground than anyone else, meaning the opposition didn’t have the freedom of the city, like Norwich did when they came at us today. Their goals were far too easy for them. We know Alcaraz and S. Armstrong are good going forward, but it was Smallbone doing a one man job in midfield today, meaning we got repeatedly overran. Hopefully that’s the weakest 11 we put out this season and we got a point from it because we know this defence and Bazunu need serious protection, no matter the division we’re in. Norwich are tipped to be up there this season and their quality wasn’t all there today, we’ve still got a slight Premier League swagger and need to keep it before we get dragged down into this level. Refs are still hopeless. Booking every player, missing a throw-in where everyone stopped before the Norwich player clocked the ref hadn’t seen it, so ran it out for a Saints goal kick, which was nice of him, but again the ref missed it, Norwich get a corner and Tella gets booked for dissent. Wasn’t too sure on our second penalty either, looked soft, but it was up the other end to me. For their fourth goal, Smallbone was too honest. He needed to roll on the pitch and receive treatment so the game would stop and we could get a sub on. Instead we played with 10 men and they score from it, good assist from Manning too. Again, the ref hadn’t realised we were down to 10, so there was a bit of confusion when SAA was waiting to come on, but nobody was going off. Need new signings in before next week, please.

Changing the topic briefly, I see that Gnonto at Leeds has kicked up a bit of a fuss in order to go to Everton. Similar player to Sulemana, so hopefully puts the talk of a loan move to them to bed.

Given the fees for Rice and Caicedo, whoever picks up Lavia for £50m is getting a good deal. Potential world class teenager who will give years of service. Credit to him for not kicking up a fuss and forcing our hands as we've seen in a few in the past, even now he's seen a move to Liverpool break down.

Bristol City getting £25m for Scott from Bournemouth too. A player who has only played Championship football and in the same position as JWP. So, on the face of it £30m for JWP in the current isn’t a brilliant deal like we’ve seen previously with Van Dijk, Ings and Livramento. Have to hope that Downes is unofficially part of the deal, as clubs don’t like transacting players as swap deals these days.

Every interview this summer has said the goal for this season is promotion. Solak, Kraft and Ankersen said it in theirs. Wilcox and Martin said it in theirs. Then the new signings Charles, Manning and Lumley have all said it. Lumley being the most recent said it explicitly "I'm delighted to sign for what is a massive club. It's obviously come down from the Premier League and looking to get back this season." I noticed these, as it's a breath of fresh air from Semmens saying we're lucky to be competing. The promotion message will probably be repeated at the fans forum next week also, to properly make it clear.

Joe Shields owes us one. Hopefully with all this money coming in clubs don't start bumping up the valuation of their own players when Southampton come calling.

Shame to see Ward-Prowse go. Felt that when the inevitable struggle to breakdown teams was going to occur this season that at least we could look to win a few free-kicks around the box and then use his weapon to get the decisive goal. We've also usually had a good free-kick taker since I've been supporting Saints. Bale, Lambert, Ward-Prowse. Who takes over now? Guess the set-piece coach does have to do some work now, but it will also be nice to have someone else take over corner duties as every manager has put Ward-Prowse on them through default of him being good at free-kicks. Who we replace him with is also key. We won't be able to get a player as good as Ward-Prowse in the Championship. But, Downes and Hamer are probably the two best realistic options. Grimes would be a good Smallbone replacement, but going from Ward-Prowse to Grimes would also be a big drop in quality. Also replacing him with another unknown youngster would be a bit of a shambles. For Ward-Prowse, plenty of better players have left us for other English sides and struggled over the years. Schneiderlin, Wanyama, Lallana, Clyne, Lambert, Lovren, Fonte and Ings. Van-Dijk, Mane, Alderweireld and Shaw after a couple of ropey years at the start the outliers and they were all elite when they were here. It's definitely a risk on his side and he could be giving up being the poster boy of Southampton, worshipped by many and being remembered for a lifetime, for becoming a forgotten bit part player at West Ham like Fonte. They aren't exactly known for their sound recruitment and Moyes' future is in doubt already. He could have been the captain that led Saints back to the Premier League. That's 2/3 players selected to model the new shirts gone this summer. Last time I take any notice of that!

Ah well, we knocked Man City out of the cup last season and it meant nothing overall, other than adding another achievement for Nathan Jones to bring up in every post-match interview. 46 game league season is tough enough without the league cup. Would've been nice for some of the squad players to surprise us, but again, we know from the horror of last season that they are mostly shit. Can we not go old school and put McCarthy, Lyanco, Bree, Perraud and Onuachu with the Under-23s. PSG are doing it with a load of theirs at the moment, including Mbappe. Would hopefully force a few of their hands, or they'll be happy to see out their contract. Even better, send them to Goztepe, or Valenciennes. Hopefully with the sales of Livramento and Salisu and expected sale of Lavia, we can afford to pay a part of their departure as no one's going to pick them up on the wage they have here.

Sold out away end to watch this horror show.

Varane and Guardiola didn't have the same energy for player safety and fatigue when their teams were jetting around USA, Japan, South Korea, Norway, Ireland and Scotland this summer to face the likes of Real Madrid, Borussia Dortmund, Bayern Munich and Atletico Madrid. They're talking as if it's 10 minutes added on from 0 minutes last season.

Imagine signing Caleta-Car and Maitland-Niles in the same window...

His finest work came yesterday:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/66423028 Guardiola already complaining about the added time. But, of course, he did campaign for five substitutes, which massively favours City given their elite squad and of course adds further delays to the match. This is going to be like that time when referees said they were going to allow a bit more physicality in the game. I remember Stephens won the ball off Fernandes and we scored against United from it. United thought that Fernandes was fouled, Solskjaer moaned in the media, Guardiola and Klopp moaned in the media regarding incidents that affected their own sides and then it quickly went back to a non-contact sport. What would be better for these managers is that they tell their players to walk off at the nearest touchline when being subbed off, rather than strolling across the pitch, lapping up the ovation, which they would still get, just to high five their teammate and manager. Also, stop your players (Grealish) from rolling around on the floor, demanding the physios after a slight bit of contact, which he is then able to run back on from immediately. You also never see a player from a team chasing a goal go down with cramp in the dying minutes of a match. Then there wouldn't be 10+ minutes added on. 🤷‍♂️

Get Kelvin Davis back in to have a word with him.

Leeds takeover going well then. Signed Ampadu, Darlow and Byram while loaning out six. Not really addressed their squads problems in defence and a fit striker. A nice reminder that they did pay £25m for Dan James.

Wright was one of the few hundred strikers we had a little link with last season. Probably not a Premier League forward, but looked good since coming on and a lot better than Simms. Leicester get the three points.