HarvSFC

Looks Steve De Ridder good in his YouTube video. Only played above Ligue 2 level two years ago and looks like he struggled a bit at Lens, but had some success in the Bundesliga. Another one that could go either way, but you're just hoping this summer's recruitment team and a bit of involvement from Still is better at identifying talent than last summer's. At last a link from a reliable journalist.

Can add Liam Delap and Fabio Carvalho to the list of failed targets last summer. Their alternatives were considerably worse... Joel Piroe from the summer before, we got Ross Stewart on deadline day as the alternative... Moussa Dembele and Vitinha from the January we signed Sulemana and Onuachu and of course the Gakpo and Ramos saga, and we didn't go for an alternative in that case. Since their time here SR have struggled to get the "wow, he's good and improves the team immediately" transfers over the line. Only one I can of is Ramsdale, and he was a panic buy on deadline day, who we offered an uncharacteristically high contract by SR standards. All the players that have turned down contract renewals here too. Adams, S. Armstrong, KWP, Dibling. Some we may have been happy to see the back of, if we had properly replaced them, but again it's similar to the transfer situation. Stephens, A. Armstrong and McCarthy will happily sign new deals here, because they aren't getting better offers elsewhere. Just like all the average crap we sign. But, those that do get others offers prefer moves elsewhere, even when we became a Premier League club again. Similar story with the academy, the youngsters are getting offered more elsewhere and leaving, when you could potentially have a £30m+ player in there like we've seen with Dibling, so they pay for themselves. I had never heard of this Spertsyan guy, but apparently he's good and clearly he's been the main target, as we haven't signed the attacking midfielder alongside the centre-back and striker that was mentioned earlier this summer. But, from the outside it's like SR aren't paying the going rate in football these days. Promoted clubs, Brighton, Brentford, Bournemouth, etc are dwarfing our record signing and it isn't like we haven't made any big sales ourselves in the last few years. They sell a player for £50m and replace with a £30m+ player. We sell Lavia for £56m and replace with Downes/Charles at £10-15m each. And those two aren't even our worse performers.

Ipswich are actually pressing us, and got rewarded for it. As opposed to our players, who just amble towards the opposition player. Allowing a lot of crosses in too.

Whenever a player gets ill on Football Manager, I have to "send them home", or it spreads across the squad. Maybe Downes has been cooking for the squad. A choice between Armstrong, or Archer up top, neither going to work, so shows the lack of depth. You just can't depend on Ross Stewart. If we're chasing the game like last weekend, we can't put all the big men upfront again and launch balls in. The bench doesn't look like it will give us as much help this week.

Did Sunderland not get the memo that good players don't move to clubs like ours until the final weeks of the transfer window? Also not allowed to spend above £25m.

Ipswich getting a lot of money today from Broadhead and Hutchinson. Right time to play them on Sunday before they can spend it.

Sullivan's mouthpiece wouldn't say that a player has little, or no interest in a move to West Ham, that would paint a negative. They're pushing a narrative that favours West Ham. Until they meet our valuation Fernandes is here.

What were their intentions? To try and unsettle him and get a reduced price, or show the West Ham fans they're trying, but little old Southampton aren't playing ball and demanding too much? I don't think we return with a counter offer for this one, like we're reportedly doing with Dibling. Fernandes still seems happy to be here, played both matches and has a longer contract.

What Michael Dawson needs to learn is if we keep Fernandes and if we get promoted, we get more than £50m simply from being promoted back to the Premier League. So, Will Still (😂) is right to set those price tags. Additionally, if Fernandes has a good season and then another good season in the Premier League, he skips a club like West Ham. Even a good season in the Championship could see that, see both the Bellinghams. A lot of ifs, but Dawson seemed to be struggling with us not selling our star player for around £30m.

Imagine signing James Ward-Prowse for £30m and then thinking you can get Fernandes at the same cost.

Just seen this on Twitter. It's actually happening? Although he's now alerted every club in world football ffs.

Yeah, they don't get Fernandes at the same price they signed Ward-Prowse for.

Under Martin, that long ball at the end never gets played. We'd be passing it around our centre-backs on the centre circle with time ticking away. Manning also doesn't make the forward run as he was always the inverted full-back and expected to tuck in to the centre of the pitch and recycle the ball sideways when we were attacking. The same role Max Aarons is playing at Rangers, and he's had a poor start up there. A lot more freedom and tactics designed around their strengths seemed to aid Charles, Manning, Stephens and Bazunu (allowed to play long balls now and not under constant pressure) yesterday.

Sima would be my top choice from that list. Played in Europe, played and done well at a higher level than the Championship, Senegal international, but there is the AFCON this season. Fellows would also obviously be a good signing. Good numbers in this league with the feeling he will get better and could look better in a superior team. Koumas is a similar player to Dibling, doesn't lack confidence, technically very good and beats a man, but also not the quickest and doesn't have the best end ball, so wouldn't be top of my list. Campbell at Charlton would be a risk, I'd only take him as a squad player to develop and Charlton wouldn't let him go for a squad fee. Never heard of Manneh or Fitz until now and only know of Vicente from the YouTube video after those initial links, so can't really comment on those.

Must also give props to the team for not giving the ball back after Coady's time wasting "injury". Usually we're far too nice and sportsmanlike. But, this is the character we want to see. You kick the ball out to waste time, as your player will just run back on the pitch in 30 seconds, which Coady did, then we'll keep the ball. They had players going down afterwards, but they didn't kick the ball out again to stop the play after that.

Football is back, after the horror show of last season today feels fantastic. Scar tissue, what scar tissue? Get the criticisms out of the way. I'm still not a fan of the formation. After the Brighton match last week I posted a team of a back four, as I felt even though we looked good with the wing-backs it was too knee jerk/reactionary to then start it this week on the back of a good 20 minutes. Also didn't think you should play three centre-backs at home against Wrexham. I think today it caused problems at both ends of the pitch. Armstrong, who is now letting another manager know after Hasenhuttl, Jones, Selles, Martin and Mowbray (At West Brom last season) that he's no good as a centre-forward was made to look even worse as he was an isolated figure who didn't stand a chance against the Wrexham centre-backs. While at the back there was always one centre-back either getting pulled out wide, or not really knowing what position to take up, so you see good experienced strikers like Moore breaking the lines. Meanwhile, Sugawara and Wellington, who I think had his worst game in a Saints shirt today were getting rinsed with no support on the wings. Hopefully when we get some new wide players we can go back to a more balanced formation, as we looked better with a few more forwards on the pitch to occupy Wrexham. And the referee. Felt like he was playing into the Disney documentary narrative, looking for a part in it and for a time it felt like we playing against one of the big six with the decisions being given. Has it been confirmed the play before the penalty was onside? Now, onto the positives. A good omen, as we started the last Championship game with a 2-1 win over newly promoted Sheffield Wednesday with a late, although not quite so late goal from Adams. We scored a lot of late goals that season, and I think it's because our depth is just better than most others in the Championship. It happens to us in the Premier League when they have a bench full of superstars, while we had Will Smallbone. While today we brought on Stewart, Archer, Manning and Fernandes who all start for most teams in the division. Superior squad depth will see us through. Charles looks classy and that cross field ball to Manning for the second goal was huge. A good long ball at the death, which we never saw under Martin despite us all calling for it, so was great to see. Bazunu and Stephens saved the day. Who'd have thought that before the game. Who shall we all criticise ahead of Ipswich? Manning also very impressive and he was another who looked quite average two years back. Maybe he does have some of Danny Fox's strengths. At the end of the day, today was without our best four players from last season in KWP, Ramsdale, Dibling and Fernandes for 60 minutes and then THB, Bednarek and Sulemana, who despite his weaknesses was starting every game at the back end of last season and is one of the wide players we're now lacking. These players haven't really been replaced yet and our only starting debutee was Quarshie (Bednarek's replacement) at the back. So, at this stage of the season it's all about grinding out results and getting the first win on the board. It's a lot harder to tempt new signings to the club after a 1-0 defeat against Wrexham, as there may be doubts as to whether we have turned a corner after the horror show of last season. But, a good and battling three points on the board is helpful. Up the Saints.

What a guy Matty Fernandes is by the way. His head could have easily dropped last season. A 20 year old in a new country, talented footballer, but put in a team that loses every week. Most of the other more experienced heads gave up, but he kept going every week. Now, this summer, again, he could have easily got straight on the phone to his agent and demanded a move. He could've joined all the other footballers in 2025 who say their head isn't right and they don't really want to be at their current club, so sit out of preseason and the opening games in the hope of a move. He's the most talented player in the squad and has no business playing in the Championship. But, he's available tomorrow. Even if it's only one game he's shown himself to be a classy person on and off the pitch during his time here.

Short press conference, only questions from Blackmore were shown on the YouTube stream. I like what he said about playing the ball forward and playing with energy. The antithesis of what we've seen for the last couple of years. Hopefully not just talk, as Juric promised the same.

Thought Blackmore was a lot better tonight than he has been in previous years. Although, repeatedly saying that we signed Rickie Lambert from Bristol City when introducing Trollope was a stain. I thought Trollope came across well. He obviously wasn't the focus of the evening and couldn't tell us too much as a step in and assistant manager, but his responses were good. Still became available to us as he needed to leave France due to personal reasons, hopefully the reasons aren't too severe and don't impact anything going forward. I thought Spors didn't give too much away. The Stephens response wasn't great. Said he had a good pre-season, when we've all seen with our own eyes the mistakes he's made. Also didn't like Blackmore's comments regarding the fans scapegoating him. If a player's good, they're good, they're applauded and they're well supported. If they consistently make mistakes, they get called out on it. There weren't many questions or comments regarding individual players this evening. Two years ago there was the Bazunu and last year McCarthy comments. But, only discussed Dibling, Fernandes and Stephens. Not too many promises made this year, and I think the panel were more tight lipped than they have been in previous years, but it wasn't ever going to be a night of revelations. Parsons did say that the PSR rules are likely to change to "squad cost ratio", so wonder what impact that will have on us. Hopefully a more positive one.

Regarding PSR loopholes, first port of call when we start to get close to the limits is to sell our women's team to ourselves, like Chelsea, Aston Villa and Everton have all done. We also have two other clubs to move money through. Nottingham Forest, the owner Marinakis is very close to John Textor. There's a few dodgy deals between them. Textor owns both Botafogo and Lyon. You'll see this summer that Botafogo signed Danilo from Forest for £21m this summer. A player who made 8 Premier League appearances last season. While Lyon signed Matt Turner for £6m. One of the worst Premier League goalkeepers you're likely to see. It would be like someone coming in with £6m for Bazunu or McCarthy, which doesn't happen. Last summer Forest also sold Orel Mangala (bad) for £20m and Moussa Niakhate (who?) for £27m to Lyon. When Forest get close to the line, their friend Textor helps them out. Forest repay it by spending £20m on Botafogo players, but that gets spread over their contracts, rather than an outgoing which is immediate on the accounts. We should start to look to sell players like Lis to Goztepe for £10m or so. It does feel for a long time now that we strictly abide by the rules, while others find loopholes to gain success both off and on the pitch and leave us behind. Only one way to break the status quo now.

Amidst all this our good friend and skate Alex Crook is showing himself up on Twitter again. Saw the initial reports, Tweeted that Everton were hopeful of completing a deal "in excess of £35m", pretty much what the original Everton site said. And then 13 minutes later after all the reliables Tweeted it had been rejected, he then follows up with it being rejected. Absolute con artist. On the talk of Everton and PSR, they recently sold their women's team to their parent company: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/cjey097w872o, which is something we should look to do should we get promoted again. On the price, £45m is a good fee, especially if we include a sell on. Just have to hope the new recruiters can spend it better than we did the Lavia, Livramento, JWP and Tella money.

Did they? They went into the season with McCarthy as number one with the plan for him to keep the gloves until Bazunu returned from his injury and seemed quite confident with doing so at the fans forum last year. Bazunu, McCarthy and Lumley were the three goalkeepers they decided to go into the season with. It was then after the Newcastle debacle on the opening day and the Nottingham Forest match that the realisation hit that we were going to break Derby's points record with McCarthy and they panic bought a goalkeeper, being Ramsdale.

Hutchinson's throwing his toys out of the pram at the moment and didn't travel with them to France at the weekend. Hackney's already turned down Ipswich.

Booed off at full time after the first game of the season. Motherwell, 38% possession, but more shots and the same amount of shots on target. I don't get what enjoyment Martin himself has watching his football every week. On another note, Slattery played in the match. Forgot he existed. Once very highly rated here, but has been at Motherwell since he left us four years ago, so hasn't fulfilled his potential.

For a good 60 minutes I was bemoaning the lack of intensity and energy from the side. A lot of players just ambling about and not stepping up to the ball, or getting into the Brighton players faces while also not creating anything. We were easy to play against and it showed in the second goal, as much like last season, we kept backing off and let Minteh pick his spot. Then the subs came on and it all changed and I must say we had the better of the play for the final 20 minutes, could've won it, whereas I don't think Brighton threatened to score a winner. Props to Jay Robinson. I've previously thought he's a player who's a nuisance for the opposition, but lacks that final ball, but today he stood up and like said changed the flow of the game, as he was attacking with directness and pace while also pressing the Brighton backline, when they had had an easy afternoon up to his introduction. Must comment on the full-backs too. Sugawara and Wellington also had very decent performances. Much better than Bree and Manning were managing. I think the former two have a lot more about their game than the latter two. Bree and Manning are limited full-backs, who struggle defensively while also offering very little in attack. Now, we all know Sugawara also has big limitations regarding his defending, but he does at least give us something going forward. I think a promotion chasing team could carry a Sugawara in theirs. While, I don't think I've ever actually seen Wellington have a bad game for us. He got nutmegged once, but for whatever reason a manager hasn't made him the number one left back when Manning and Taylor are quite poor. Our attack was also aided with the Brighton defence having to think about Sugawara and Wellignton also, as when it was Manning and Bree, they only had to think about the front three, and they easily coped with that. Bazunu's also had a good pre-season. The club are probably confident with him at the moment, and we do have more glaring issues if this is Bazunu's performance level now. However, he did have a good pre-season two years ago also, so please can he carry this form into the season when it matters. Charles looks very good too. The team I'd like to see start next week against Wrexham is: Bazunu Sugawara - Edwards - Quarshie - Wellington Sesay - Charles Armstrong (Right wing) - Robinson (Left wing) Downs - Archer Of course Stephens will be in there instead of Edwards, but hopefully Still's team doesn't look too different. I know we improved with the wing-back formation today, but you can't start three centre-backs at home against Wrexham.