HarvSFC

Did that a lot in his highlights video. Nice if he brought it out against Newcastle too.

Stuttgart bid £25m for Undav from Brighton. So, they may have money.

The day was looking pretty miserable and then Adam Blackmore came in to save the it, similar to when he said Gakpo had agreed personal terms a couple of years back... Finally confirmed what we all know about ABK. He wasn't up for the fight last time and was part of that divided dressing room which played a huge part in sending us down as the players clearly weren't fighting for each other under Hasenhuttl, Jones or Selles. Please can somebody take him, he did at least seem to have some talent even if he is a dick. A lot of players we sign do cite Martin and the football we play as a key reason they joined. Could just be nonsense to fill up interview time, but if his relationships with Carvalho and O'Riley get us them then I will struggle to criticise him in the future. Both would be big signings for us. Surely Leicester aren't going to get Carvalho, too much money and they may be starting on minus points. Plus Martin shits all over Cooper in the looks department. I'm not too sure on Dubravka, Newcastle fans don't like him a lot. He's probably better than McCarthy though. Interesting note the experience on benches. Before the window opened I was interested in Tom Heaton. He still looked good for Manchester United when he played a couple of games in 2022-23 and was taken to the Euros this summer, so clearly a good influence to have. Would have been a good mentor for Bazunu. But he's signed a new deal there. A few other bench goalkeepers: Obviously Ramsdale, Kepa, Kelleher, Steele (been linked), Johnstone, Fabianski and the legend that is Scott Carson, best job in football. Might also be worth keeping an eye on Neto's position depending on what Bournemouth do with their goalkeepers. We could pounce like they did with Boruc. But, yeah, lets get O'Riley and Carvalho in! We missed something in our attack last season, whether it was a clinical edge or really putting teams to the sword despite the amount of possession we had and these two would be huge help in strengthening a weak area.

Yep. Can't talk about being a "bigger club" when buying a star player from Celtic, who are a bigger club than us. Bigger club stuff is nonsense anyway. All players and staff care about is where the clubs are at right now and who can offer the better money.

Sara's been sold to Galatasary for £20m.

https://x.com/AdamBlackmore/status/1820081286062424291 The last bit of Blackmore's Tweet... "O’Riley would no doubt love to play in the PL …and if a player or two goes the other way on loan, good for all parties." So, which two would you send to Celtic on loan? Shea Charles is the one that has been reported and would make sense. He needs more game time and the Premier League would be too ruthless/unforgiving for him to learn his trade. Shaw, or Lavia, he is not. We would need to replace him with a more senior head though to backup Downes. I think the other would be Alcaraz. Again, talks of him leaving, but I think his true value has plummeted after last season. Put him in the Celtic team and hopefully he excels in Scottish football, adding a few more million onto his tag. Worked with Tella, who became a £20m player from his time at Burnley. I think other possibilities would be Dibling/SAA and I know they're flavour of the month at the moment, but I would like to keep them around the first team this season.

https://twitter.com/worldsoccertalk/status/1819886902083826050 Carvalho scored against Manchester United last night and has generally looked good for Liverpool this pre season with Slot giving him a chance. A couple of other previous window targets/links in a similar position have also looked good in pre season this summer. Diallo at Manchester United and Bobb at Manchester City. These are the ones who will probably become available on loan at the end of the window.

Dibling's the Rothwell replacement.

Not too disappointed at missing out on Moukoko. His agent seems a bit of a knob and he's got a whiff of Renato Sanches, Moise Kean and Ansu Fati over him. FIFA wonderkids who do nothing in the Premier League, in real life. He'll probably tear up the French league, but it is the French league. Marseille are spending a lot of money this summer, though.

Keylor Navas is the free agent to look at. 37, one year deal. A big part of why Nottingham Forest stayed up two years ago. Was close to signing with Monza, but that's apparently collapsing.

We were linked with Wright before he moved to Coventry and when we were last in the Premier League. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-11654941/Southampton-bid-8-6million-Antalyaspor-USA-striker-Haji-Wright-short-11m-asking-price.html He's another one who can't take penalties, though. Karma.

That's the biggest drawback with Smallbone in that he can't play on the turn and in the Premier League he becomes a lot more predictable and easy to defend against for the opposition.

Wouldn't be the worst thing if Oxford score a couple more to really rub in the need for a goalkeeper. I'm not a paid analyst, just merely a fan, but God knows what these guys watch to think we can start a Premier League season with either Alex McCarthy or Gavin Bazunu (if he wasn't injured) in goal. Been a big blind spot/the club have tried to be too clever since Forster's big contract. McCarthy's like a cat, minus the reflexes. Every time his contract nears its end he has a handful of good games and then gets rewarded with a new deal. Had so many lives. Come on Martin, you didn't think he was good enough for 90% of last season.

One thing that shouldn't be underestimated is character and leadership. Last time we went down the dressing room was severely lacking in these areas and reportedly had fractions all over it. But, Luton had both of these attributes last season and they were the best of the three to go down, despite on paper looking the worst. Blackpool, Burnley, Stoke and Bournemouth over the years have also stayed up through having leaders, characters and a tight squad. Even in our most successful days of recent years we used to boast the black box, which identified good characters, rather than just good footballers. Looking at our business this summer, which prompted my original post: Lallana, our former captain and hugely experienced Premier League footballer. Probably more use off the pitch, but again will help stop what happened last time were here. THB, here last season, captained the England youth teams, a leader at just 22. Taylor, not a Bertrand or a Shaw, but he is a solid and experienced Premier League footballer. We had Maitland-Niles at left-back a couple of times last time. We needed an upgrade on Manning and have done that. Edwards, England youth international and captained Barnet youth teams when he was coming through there. Wood, yeah, I'm not too sure, but he knows Martin and vice versa. Got to be better than Holgate, which you'd imagine is the role he'll play here next season. Sugawara, good fee for a player with Champions League and Europa League experience. Appears a good character in his interviews. The old Saints wouldn't have replaced Walker-Peters until he had actually left and then we'd be rushing a player in late into September with no pre-season expecting them to pick up where they player they've replaced has left off. Downes, was essential we signed him permanently. The mistake Burnley made last season and Forest almost made the season before was not securing their loans on permanent deals, but looking elsewhere instead. Again, he appears to be another leader in the dressing room to go with his importance on the pitch and in the system we play. And now today, Brereton Diaz. £7m is peanuts. We paid more for Ross Stewart and nearly double (without add ons) for Shea Charles last summer. It made too much sense to sign a player with his goal scoring record for such a little fee and it's one that usually bypasses us as we would look for the more exotic choice. Again, also seems like a good character. The key point being, that while a lot of these signings aren't head turners or household names, they all do boast positive footballing CVs and you can see where they fit into the squad. This isn't Joe Shields' scattergun approach we had last time where we identified players who looked good at youth level and hoped they could then go straight into senior Premier League football. Now, of course our business is far from over. But to get all these players over the line when it's not even August yet, the club needs to be applauded. Ramsdale (another strong character), O'Riley, a CDM to cover Downes, a wide attacker to replace Tella/Brookes (Although that may now be BBD) and another striker would give us a good chance of making a claim of staying in the league and then targeting a higher calibre of players next summer. Although, the need for a new goalkeeper is essential as we've been there and done it with both Bazunu and McCarthy and they aren't good enough. Why can't Lis go back to Goztepe, permanently, or on loan again?

But Football Insider said we were getting him on loan?

There's far too much common sense and good negotiating going on this summer. Doesn't feel like Saints.

Heard he didn't change his name for Chile, but he actually added Diaz in order to attract Saints into adding him to the double barrelled quota.

Bizarre isn't, think we've got another bargain here, alongside Edwards and Sugawara, certainly aren't being quoted Premier League prices. One scored 8 in 31 Championship matches last season for a play off chasing side, while the other scored 6 in 14 in the Premier League for a relegated club who won just 16 points. Only four years between the two as well. Delap has the Man City tax though, which we've been stung with a few times before.

Romano's Tweeted it, £7m. That's a good fee for someone who bagged six league goals in an awful Sheffield United side from January last season. We've got a couple of bargains this season with Edwards already. Means we haven't had to spend a huge amount to replace Adams either, giving us more movement in the O'Riley negotations.

Nketiah was a player I looked at a couple of weeks back for a possible striker acquisition given my lack of knowledge of world football. But, he does have a few negatives around him - Main ones are cost - He's on £100k+ a week at Arsenal, as the top clubs do with their squad players, which is expiring in 2027. Arsenal will also want £20m+ for him. Then his age, he's 25, so not really that young anymore and you'd have expected to have seen a bit more from him by now. 5 goals in 27 and 4 in 30, his last two Premier League seasons.

I'm not sure Lallana, or Aribo are DM's. Neither have got the legs or energy for it.

Yes, he's back! Love it.

O'Hare's the one from Coventry. He's signing for Sheffield United.

Getting Flynn Downes this early is huge, big signing. Our team fell apart when he wasn't in the eleven last season. I feared with him being a West Ham fan that it may drag on a bit, but Martin's obviously a huge draw for him and he must have really enjoyed his time on loan here. Note to Burnley on how to get a deal done for a loan star. Now, a goalkeeper, Downes backup, playmaker and a proven scorer in Europe like Pelle would be ideal. We need the striker equivalent of Sugawara, whoever that is.

Closed down the Bath Academy too, which I found to be a disappointing decision. Surely the positives outweighed the negatives. We may not have seen the next Gareth Bale come through it. But, in recent years Max Alleyne, Kamari Doyle and Tyler Dibling have all come from it. Indeed, two aren't with the club anymore and Dibling had a brief time away, but shows that we're still getting in some talent before other Premier League clubs get to them and if we had a bit more focus on the academy and pathways they could still be here.