HarvSFC

At least it's providing some entertainment. This guy appears to be a journalist and a lecturer at Winchester Uni.

That's going to the other extreme though, and fans didn't want Walcott signed permanently, or Long getting a contract extension and now Elyounoussi will reportedly also be joining that list. For many years now, we as fans have been told that the charity contracts that we used to hand out were handicapping us in the market. We couldn't sign a first choice goalkeeper for four years with Gunn being the last in 2018 because of the deals Forster and McCarthy had and in those four years, we as fans have always been hoping each summer to sign improvements on the two, but accepting that it wasn't possible as we couldn't shift them. The club should have had two names ready to replace both this summer, Bazunu to replace McCarthy and somebody else to replace Forster, so that we have options, as with Bazunu and McCarthy we have to hope there's only one option and McCarthy goes back to being a backup keeper.

City put a buy back clause on Gunn, so it's likely they'll do the same for Bazunu.

Well, with Livaremento we already had a perfectly capable top 10 right-back in KWP, so we weren't solely relying on him to come good and putting all our eggs in one basket. The same with Broja, he wasn't signed as Ings' replacement, he was signed in addition to Armstrong and to add further depth to our front line, rather than being expected to come in and be the main man straight away. Both players saw their form drop off after bright starts and we did end up relying on Broja, which had a huge impact on the teams end of season form. Gunn had a similar drop in form after his best game in a Saints shirt being his debut against Chelsea and then winning the starting goalkeeping position. We had to go back to those who we were looking for him to replace and mark his signing as a failure, while his career has seemingly not recovered after the 9-0. I don't think many have an issue with the Bazunu signing in isolation. He is as you say, a rated youngster who is seen to have hight potential. However, he's 20 years old. If his first season of Premier League football follows the pattern of Livaremento's and Broja's, then we know that we're going to need to turn to McCarthy, as we cannot afford to ship goals with our poor quality attacking threat. That's the issue. While McCarthy has shown to be capable as the number one, he's also one whose form drops off a very costly cliff and there won't be another experienced goalkeeper in Forster to bail us out next season, unless we keep Caballero, who is turning 41 in September. As I said, we should have had a plan and a list of many names to replace both Forster and McCarthy this summer, as we used to harp on about having constant names in our manager pool in a time of need. Forster's departure isn't a surprise that's came out of the blue.

Benrahma would be ideal for around £15m and below an £80k-a-week wage. Although, sadly, I don't think he'll accept that after being at West Ham. Bazunu, I don't know. Gunn was as rated at Norwich and the England Under-21s as Bazunu is/was at Portsmouth, and of course the former was playing at a higher level, but we all know how it turned out in the end in for him. Gazzaniga was also highly thought of at Gillingham in League Two, winning their young player of the year before coming to us. It's always a risk and as I said previously, not many Premier League clubs would look to strengthen a problem position that needs someone who is first team ready now with a player who most recently played for a 10th placed League One team. We've had at a minimum of two years of knowledge knowing both Forster and McCarthy's contracts were (or in McCarthy's case, should have been) expiring this summer and in past windows we haven't had the budget to make a move to replace them, but we should certainly have a long list of potential goalkeeper signings that are better than the names that keep coming up in the media.

Yeah, I’m in the Redmond’s better camp too. The issue with both really, is that when we’re good, they’re good, but when we’re not on top in a match, it’s like playing with 10 men. And that happens often, as even when we are good, we give Jekyll and Hyde performances in either half.

Slightly erratic and prone to making a mistake, but better than many of the goalkeepers we've been linked with this summer.

But, we’d have to play those other CBS for the 30+ games that he misses.

Double barrelled surnames are very Saintsy. Don't know too much about him, but he pretty much won all of Hull's end of season awards at 21.* *They finished 19th, so his competition wouldn't have been too great.

Phil Jones has played six league games since 2019. 14 in all competitions. Why would we want him?

Hennessy's greatest career moment: "Hennessey argued that he did not know what a Nazi salute was and the FA panel noted that "when cross-examined about this Mr Hennessey displayed a very considerable - one might even say lamentable - degree of ignorance about anything to do with Hitler, Fascism and the Nazi regime".

Good servant for the club, there isn't another player who plays at this level with his work rate and still to this day. Sadly, the ability is mostly gone now, but lets not forget the good he's done here and the goal against Everton tops off what has been a good spell here. The fastest goal in Premier League history against Watford, the goal against Liverpool to send us to Wembley, the goal against Aston Villa which was only overshadowed because Mane decided to score a hattrick in less than three minutes and the 10 goals in 2015-16, when we finished three points off the Champions League, one league goal behind our top scorers in Mane and Pelle and, finally, the Ings partnership in 2019-20. All that for £12m. We've spent a lot more on a lot worse in recent years and he should be a role model for many in that putting in the work can often make you better than those with more talent, but don't put in the effort (Charlie Austin). A cult figure for match goers and if this is the end of his Saints career, then I wish him well at Reading, who are in their own struggles at the moment.

Not another game, but Aston Villa lost their assistant manager, who became manager of QPR this week, so they replaced him with Blackpool's manager. They're moving very fast this summer and on paper it all looks impressive.

Yeah, Watford and Man City have had a host of players, who they've signed, loaned out and never made a first team appearance for the club to benefit their partner clubs. Jack Harrison, Aaron Mooy and Adalberto Penaranda are three off the top of my head who I can think of. Last season Watford loaned out 29 players. That's Chelsea levels.

48 teams qualify for the 2026 World Cup, so Scotland may actually have a chance then.

It’s time we brought back the Polish contingency. Bednarek, this goalkeeper and a few others and we can replicate the Bialkowski, Hajto, Kosowski, Rasiak and Saganowski days. Boruc as coach.

Yep, I discovered the sausage rolls a couple of months ago and now I get one pre-match as a ritual. Renewed today with the deadline fast approaching. Hopefully with the new leadership things start to change, and we bring back the half-time relay. The deal or no deal imitation to win a bitcoin was horrendous.

The one against Burnley in 2009 wasn’t as jovial, but there were enough stewards/police to keep the fans separated and no players were attacked, of course. The Championship promotion celebrations are some of my best memories standing on the pitch and watching Tommy Forecast take the glory. The players and the supporters were able to celebrate as one. We had all been on the same journey for that year and the prior two in League One and some before that in the Championship. We don’t get to celebrate a lot as Southampton fans and I hope that when we can next, heavy restrictions aren’t put in place due to others.

Yeah, Smallbone and Garner are completely different midfielders. Smallbone's more attacking, not very physical and plays a more technical game, while Garner is like a mosquito, makes great recovery tackles, excellent energy and wins the ball back well.

Saint Etienne out of Ligue 1 for the first time since 2004 following the sacking of Claude Puel earlier in the season. Quite a fall, as they finished fourth three years ago.

Forest lost 6 of their first 7 matches of the season under Hughton and were 24th when Cooper was appointed. Some turnaround with just 6 losses across the rest of the season. See how they get on in the Premier League.

All that talk about the quadruple... I guess Salah was concussed tonight, or something like that.

As I posted when we were looking for our own takeover, there's a pattern of unsuccessful American owners over here, Burnley the most recent established Premier League side to drop out after an American takeover, joining Swansea, Aston Villa and Sunderland in previous years. Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal fans go against theirs depending on the match result of that particular weekend also. It'll be interesting to see how this now goes for Norwich, as they weren't ever going to be competitive up here with Delia Smith.

Salisu is still very raw, had an excellent game against a world class opposition in Man City, but then has also had some shockers, like against Tottenham where he was trying too much and ended up getting a red for a couple of mistimed tackles. He's just inconsistent at the moment, which you can forgive for his age, but Van Dijk and Lovren were 23 when they joined us and were of a higher level. I don't think he's too great on the ball either, which given the way modern football is heading could hamper him. His throw-ins... yeah, pretty shit. Bednarek, there isn't a lot between him and Stephens and weirdly their best form in a Southampton shirt came when they were paired up during lockdown football, although was quickly ripped up following a couple of heavy defeats. Following the City cup game, I'm not sure Bednarek's a player I'd want if we do get pulled into a relegation fight. Did not realise he was 26 until now, either.

Made the Championship team of the year too, three consecutive team of the years for us. As we know, we didn't win the league in any of them and in 09-10 we finished seventh in League One, although that was down to the -10. So, it wasn't the token gesture of simply picking the goalkeeper who won the league. Our player of the season in 08-09 as well. I don't know how people can discredit him. He was the best goalkeeper in those divisions at the time and exactly what we needed at the time, while Liebherr also saved money on not having to sign a new goalkeeper until we got to where we wanted to. There is and was a lot of average goalkeepers in the lower leagues and as we've experienced for a number of years that it's a very hard position to fill. Fortunately, we only had to experience Bialkowski for one match in that team, or we'd be having very different conversations today.