HarvSFC

The entire backline in all it's glory.

Credit to Oxlade-Chamberlain to be the only to remember that he came from Southampton.

Lonergan should be hopeless in the Premier League. There couldn't be a better chance to beat this Liverpool side, it's all been set up for us.

This is only the third time they've made the second round since 2010. Let's have them.

The only thing giving me an inch of confidence is that Adrian is a massive drop in quality compared to Alisson.

Wasn't the rule under Koeman that we would play four at the back against one forward and three at the back against two forwards, and that generally worked.

Billy Sharp was a massive reason as to why we came back up. Those 9 league goals in 15 appearances in the second half of the season meant that we weren't solely relying on Lambert, who bagged 27 in the league (wow). We knew Sharp would bring goals in the Championship when we signed him and he delivered. Those were the days when we signed the better players for the league we were competing in.

We had one new player in the team from last season's shambles of an eleven. No wonder Lemina wants to get out.

Another reason we needed a new centre-back is that when Gunn is tested he's a solid, yet unspectacular goalkeeper. We need someone between the posts who can pull off some unbelievable saves with this defence, like we've seen Pope and Heaton pull off for Burnley in the past, but with Gunn he's just going to get beaten once the defence is inevitably breached.

At least the fans forum should go well. No questions about if you could sign any player in the world, who would you sign? Please. We haven't strengthened the squad at all.

Is this why we leave our transfer business until the last minute, so that they can't play in what was a winnable fixture?

Defended well as a unit, but need to do more in attack. Adams winning none of the long balls, Ings anonymous and Redmond hasn't seen enough of the ball, which is a shame as when he did he worked the goalkeeper, who I can't remember doing a lot else. At least we've got a few attacking options on the bench, which seems weird saying.

I'm going to be miserable when he gets snapped up by a bigger club.

Ryan Fraser's contract runs out next summer. The big boys didn't want to spend the money Bournemouth would demand when he can be picked up on a free next summer.

Ralph said he wanted five at the beginning of the summer, we got three, so at least that's over half. Boufal could also be like a new signing this season if his head is right. We've been calling out for pace in the attack since Mane left and hopefully Adams and Djenepo can provide that, while we've needed a competent centre-back since Van Dijk left, so hopefully Danso can work a strong partnership with Bednarek, as they're both young. On the incoming front, I'd probably rate it a 7/10. The signings seem like the Southampton of old with the three of them being young, untested at the top level and with the hope of progressing. As for the outgoings, there's probably more to come. But, despite the romanticism of bringing players through the academy there was no point in holding onto either of Gallagher or Targett. Neither are good enough if we want to club to start being ambitious again. Once Bertrand goes we need a good replacement, and having Targett as first choice would have seen us regress in that position. Austin was one I wasn't expecting to go after his one year left on his contract comments on Twitter, but a Championship club panicked as some predicted and we made back what we paid for him in the first place, which is good. Clasie's not really been a part of the squad for a few years now. Hopefully we can ship out Hoedt, Carrillo and Elyounoussi in the coming weeks to give us some funds for January. My one concern now is that we're going into another Premier League season with pretty much the same side that has had to fight to stay in the Premier League the last two seasons. But, then we have a very good manager with us this time, so that eases the concerns at least. The Premier League club who I think have had the worst summer are Palace. They have previously spent big money on the likes of Benteke and Sakho, while I doubt that Batshuayi loan was cheap. However, they sold Wan-Bissaka for £50m, didn't sign a new right-back, but went with the signings of Stephen Henderson, Jordan Ayew, Gary Cahill, James McCarthy and Victor Camarasa instead. Typical Roy Hodgson signings really. The did keep hold of Zaha, but we also kept hold of Van Dijk one summer and he was no use to our team in those final few months. Depends how Zaha acts now, as he can win matches for them on his own, but as we've seen when he's previously been injured, they're no threat without him.

Well, Luka Jovic signed for Frankfurt permanently two months before Real Madrid signed him, so it's the least Danso could do if other clubs are in for him.

Hopefully the new regime haven't made the same mistake as Reed did with Alderweireld... Or Ings. Old Les wasn't very good at the whole loan window with the likes of Taider, Caulker, Duricic coming in. At least Bertrand's been good.

Good. Next challenge is to get him in the starting line-up for Saturday.

Right, when's the next deadline?

Reed's in today's training pictures posted by the Twitter page, must have been a late one.

Nothing from Sky Sports, Blackmore, Peach. Surely not?

Yes, I know. But, there's still no guarantee Cedric will be here in September if we're looking to lower the wage bill and Walker-Peters' wages would likely be a lot lower than Cedric's.

I think the only advantage of Kyle Walker-Peters is that he can cover the left-back position as well, if Hassenhuttl's unsure of Vokins, but yeah, would much rather have someone new in the middle of midfield or defence.

Last question: "I know you don't want to talk about Charlie Austin leaving, but... Have you got any comments to make on that?" Ralph: "I don't want to talk about that." Good way to wrap up the press conference.

Can we hijack the Scott Carson deal?