HarvSFC

A competent ref and that's a lot more comfortable than it was. The decision to not give him a second yellow after Livramento was running into an open area with Targett caught up the pitch is disgraceful, the decision not to book the dive, which is a certain yellow given the rules is just incompetence. But, he is the brother of Bobby Madley... Although, we didn't make it easy for ourselves either. Armstrong had the glorious chance from a corner that he skied. Still looks rusty and it's a shame he's going away with Scotland again for the 50th international break of the season. However, Martinez had to make a couple of worldie saves, while I can't remember McCarthy pulling off any great saves this evening, despite our second half performance. Livramento had an uncharacteristically poor game, alongside Armstrong, but again Livramento should have just been facing Targett down his side from the 15th minute. Elyounoussi had his best outing in a Saints shirt in the first half and looked like the player we signed originally from the YouTube videos, turning Cash inside and out and confirming why Cash has suddenly declared for the Poland national team. But, the second half he went back to just being solid/dependable. Again, JWP and Romeu also had great first halves. JWP had a cracking shot saved, played his part in the goal and seemingly ran himself into the ground to make recoveries for the team, while Romeu kept making the Villa attackers look amateurish each time they tried to break. But, both had to play a bit more "professionally" in the second half. Overall, good, professional win. We can enjoy the rest of the weekend. (And the next two weeks 🙄) Three points from fifth, seven from 18th as it stands. Villa have lost 5 in a row, Ings made the correct career choice, JWP must be seething that he didn't make the same move. Up the Saints!

That’s why he started! Was always a matter of time.

Austin was Koeman's last signing. We didn't make a single signing in January 2019. Djenepo was Ralph's first signing, joining the following June.

It has near confirmed that, that line was one of those "mutual agreement" statements, that aren't really mutually agreed, only officially. 🤷‍♂️ Fair play to him, though. A fair amount of time out, returns to assumedly the best resourced club that he could realistically join, rather than a run of the mill Premier League side.

I saw this table posted on another forum when discussing Howe's move to Newcastle, which goes to show the resources he was working with at Bournemouth and why their relegation looks really poor on his record: Courtesy of Transfermarkt, we’ve ranked the 20 current Premier League clubs by their net spend over the past five years. 1. Man City – £601.98m 2. Man Utd – £484.88m 3. Arsenal – £267.88m 4. Everton – £225.42m 5. Brighton – £214.86m 6. Wolves – £205.22m 7. West Ham – £187.49m 8. Bournemouth – £176.95m 9. Aston Villa – £166.65m 10. Watford – £125.69m 11. Leicester City – £124.83m 12. Newcastle – £122.91m 13. Chelsea – £115.57m 14. Liverpool – £107.58m 15. Tottenham – £106.62m 16. Crystal Palace – £75.69m 17. Burnley – £59.4m 18. Sheffield United – £56.71m 19. Southampton – £22.32m 20. Norwich City – £25.42m profit

Yes, which is why I clearly stated that there wasn’t an active transfer window. All I’m saying is that there was obviously a lot of media attention given to the Newcastle takeover and how they would soon become a super club. However, so far they have not shown a lot so far despite being in charge for a near month and now Emery has said they lack direction, so it’s relevant. I then used us an example to show what could be done within a month. Sacking an unpopular manager, appointing a new one and signing a handful of players on top of that. Cortese/Liebherr weren’t interested in buying us for 18 months either, where you would expect a plan to be outlined.

I was only counting those who had signed in the first month of the Liebherr/Cortese/Pardew era, drawing comparisons with Newcastle are acting slowly given they've had new owners for a near month now, which seems a bit wasted and is a lot of time in a football season. Hammond was the nearest to just miss out, Jaidi signed in early September and Fonte was of course a January signing.

It does seem a bit odd that the owners had been looking to buy Newcastle for over a year, knew Ashley wanted to sell to them, yet almost a month and three league matches later, they're still managerless. It does seem a bit like it all came as a surprise and only after Bruce lost to Tottenham did they start looking at potential new managers. They're currently six points from safety and haven't won a game yet this season, so it's not like they can afford to throw games either. Comparatively, Wotte was sacked a day after Liebherr took over and Pardew appointed nine days later. We then signed Lambert, Harding, Murty and Mellis within the first month of the new ownership. I know that there isn't an active transfer window, but we were moving a lot faster in 2009.

Targett was serviceable when he had Grealish in front of him, as his only job was to defend, rarely getting beyond the halfway line and giving the ball to Grealish and letting him run with it. Now, he's expected to contribute something up the field, which we know is a weakness, as he has no pace and used to just turn back with us and he also doesn't have any defensive protection from Bailly, etc, again leaving him exposed and we know him to be a limited defender. Last season when we beat them 4-3 we had a lot of joy down their left. Our first goal being from a free-kick that Targett gave away and our third coming from a new Poland international Cash handball (that was actually given), otherwise we'd have been through, as he was the only Aston Villa defender in the area, as both Mings and Konsa were dragged out wide, as Targett was caught up the field. Hopefully more of the same on Friday. We did well to get £15m and Adams for him. Then they tried going cheap for JWP!

The Athletic have also reported that if Tottenham do not finish in the top six this season, they can sack him without paying compensation: https://theathletic.com/news/spurs-can-sack-nuno-without-paying-compensation-if-they-finish-out-of-top-six/NwFfHH15zGIr/ Although, it now doesn't look like he's going to get that far even. Was always a strange appointment on the whole. Sacked Mourinho because of poor results/boring football and then replaced him with a less successful version of Mourinho, who had just been given the boot at Wolves. But, I guess they were turned down by about 20 other managers prior.

Konsa getting a red is a positive for us.

I must be reading the table wrong, as we’re above Aston Villa and Ings went to play in the Champions League.

Imagine what we’ll be like when the camp’s healthy!

We'll take that! Should have been a lot more comfortable given the chances missed, but at least it's not another match added to the points lost from winning positions table. McCarthy MotM for me, closely followed by Salisu. McCarthy was faultless throughout the game, collecting crosses, good handling and making a vital save close to 90 minutes. What we've lost in attack from last season, we've seemingly got a solid defence again and hopefully this continues.

Need to get his contract sorted, as I believe he can be the player who can get us back to where we were and following a similar model to Leicester’s. We wasted the VvD money on unsaleable dross after high hopes of who we could bring in. Harry Maguire has since went for more money in £80m and Salisu will probably progress to be better than him.

Yes, but as you said, it wasn’t a success. He only scored one goal, got relegated and is now still without a club almost three months into the new season. Serie A is also a much slower league than the Premier League. He got his money, set himself up for life, but in football terms, he wouldn’t be good enough for us now and his career would have taken a downturn when he went to China.

He retired from this level when he went to China.

He’s been working in the UAE for some time now. Don’t think Koeman had any of the coaching team that he had here at Barca.

Broja out injured. 😔

Koeman sacked from Barca.

No complaints here, you just can't expect Chelsea's first five shooters to miss twice in a shootout. Forster, what an improvement he's made. He's now far from the goalkeeper who used to let in routine shots from outside the box and have any saves he did make ironically cheered. Kept us in the game tonight with some top drawer saves and it's a shame after years of the famous contract, that it's expiring just as he's able to offer us something and that he's reportedly looking to leave at the end of the season. Lyanco. Could we have found another bargain gem? Give him a start against Watford and see how he gets on. Deserves it after tonight. The scouting/recruitment seems a lot more solid now, than the Wilson/Reed era, so I'm positive about this one. Funny that some wrote him off after watching goal highlights against Sheffield United, as there weren't any streams for the live match. Last year, if we had made 9 changes to our eleven from a league game we'd have been playing a load of dummies. Now, tonight's proven that we've finally got squad depth again. They went up against a Chelsea side with no amateurs, containing a £70m Kepa, £40m Kovacic, £40m Ziyech and £70m Havertz. Just four players who together likely cost more than our entire 25 man team. That's the difference in resources, but this squad has got something and from our performances has enough to stay up. Now back onto the league we go and hopefully get a result Saturday.

We've got Lancashire.

The poorest part of his game is his defending. The strongest part, and what made him stand out in his youth days is his attacking and skill set on the ball. Please not a CB. More suited to number 10 if RB isn’t working out for him.

He's doubled down...

Or Solskjaer.