Lighthouse

Certainly looked decent but the question marks have always been over his long term fitness, rather than his talent.

Nice to get our annual ‘not winning at Goodison’ out of the way nice and early. I’d go with the same team which finished today’s game, depending on Armstrong’s injury. Another idea would be a 4-2-3-1 with Elyo - Armstrong - Redmond behind Gabbi, with Ings off the bench.

Dreadful for an hour, considering we had 3 CBs they had so much space in the box and had the chances to put the game beyond us. Nobody really looked like they knew what they were doing. If we start with the 11 that finished, in the same formation, we will do alright this season but that starting 11 was garbage. McC - 8 some very smart saves kept us in it. A couple of dodgy balls out Cedric - 5 don’t think he touched the ball for the first 30 mins. Stephens - 6 Shaky at CB, looked better at RB Vestegaard - 7 strong and dominant, looked much better after the subs Hoedt- 6 Again, looked better after the subs Bertrand - 7 Seemed to work well with Elyo second half Romeu - 5 Never imposed himself on the game Lemina - 7 industrious, one of his better games. Redmond - 6 on 33 minutes he ran at the defence and scared the crap out of them. Why he doesn’t do it more I have no idea. Armstrong - 6 looked decent until his injury Austin - 4 I know he’s a good finisher but his all round game is just poor IMO. Ings - 7 looked bright and lively Gabbi - 6 didn’t have a lot of time but looked okay. Should have started Elyo - 6 Looked a threat at times. Would like to see him start on the left.

It was deadline day, if they'd had better offers before he'd have gone already. It's not an unreasonable request, given his injury record and if they had said no I'd have walked away. Sadly this is the board that gave Forster an extended contract, sold Fonte and Van Dijk mid-season without replacements and signed Carrillo to keep a manager happy who should have been sacked months ago. As such this deal doesn't surprise me, especially given that they caved in and paid the full £20m asking price that nobody else was interested in, for a player who didn't even make the squad for their last game.

That's definitely a red for Jagileka IMO; lunged in with his whole weight, studs up into the standing leg. Lucky not to break it.

Why indeed. Why we wouldn't at least have an 'option to buy' instead of an obligation, I have no idea.

Yes. We have agreed to sign him. Even if he does his ACL again a week before the loan ends and we get relegated, we have to give give Liverpool £18m and keep him.

First injury time kick in the nads already. 4 points dropped for a clean sheet from DDG.

Lukaku and Vardy on the bench. That'll p*ss off a bunch of fantasy managers already.

I don’t follow. My point is that the ‘I told you so’s’ won’t come after he makes a mistake or even a poor game, they will come after he has another serious injury to one of his glass knees.

Not so much his first mistake as his first crippling 9 month injury.

How about a game of super 6 but with all the fixtures. I'll go with Man Utd 2-1 Leicester Newcastle 1-1 Spurs Bournemouth 2-0 Cardiff Fulham 2-1 Palace Huddersfield 1-1 Chelsea Watford 1-0 Brighton Wolves 2-0 Everton Liverpool 4-1 West Ham Saints 1-1 Burnley Arsenal 1-3 Man City 2 points correct result, 5 for correct score.

We were seconds away from getting 6 points against Everton last season, it was only the universal constant of Saints not being able to win at Goodison which stopped us. Why you think Leicester are anything special I've no idea, they've still got Puel and lost their most creative player. Then there's Wolves; they may have 'won' the transfer window but pretty much anything could happen. Norwich won the transfer window about 4 years ago, then got relegated.

Which will just be amazing if we get relegated. Imagine, we're in the Championship with players like Forster, Carrillo and Boufal stuck on the wage bill for 3 years and to top it off we are then OBLIGATED to spend £20m on a player who could well be out for another 9 months with dodgy knees. Why agree to an obligation to buy instead of an option? What possible leverage did Liverpool have to say no? Like f**k they were going to call the deal off if we asked for an option to buy instead. If they had I'd have run a mile.

Excellent thread Michael! I am going to say Cardiff, Huddersfield and Watford.

So Liverpool have been asking for £20m all summer and nobody has bitten. Then on deadline day when it's basically their last chance to offload him, WE cave in and pay their full asking price. I think this is bat sh*t mental personally, on par with the whole Carrillo fiasco. Our record signing is now a man who has played 14 league games in 3 years. Give it 3 months, Long will be starting games whilst every talks about how much better we will be when Austin and Ings are fit.

Sorry, finger trouble. 3 years.

It wont do any harm but that's nowhere near good enough. We needed significant improvement up front and I don't think we've found it. I can still see Austin taking home our golden boot with about 7 goals, like he has for the last 2 years. Mo and Armstrong are unknowns, Ings has a terrible fitness record; 3 goals in 14 games in 8 years. Our recruitment in the final 3rd of the pitch feels like we've made par on the 18th hole. Not bad in itself but we're already 8 shots off the lead.

I'd say we're pretty much stuck with them for the rest of their contracts; probably loaned out with Saints paying a chunk of their wages. Underwhelmed by Ings. With the thousand gazzilion million pound TV deal, could we really not find a striker somewhere in the world better than Danny 'glass knees' Ings?!

https://www.saintsweb.co.uk/showthread.php?60110-Transfer-Deadline-Day#.W2v7-yhKiUk

https://www.saintsweb.co.uk/showthread.php?60110-Transfer-Deadline-Day#.W2v7-yhKiUk

The time for HCDAJFU and rumour is over, Premier League clubs have until 1700 BST to complete any transfers, including loans. Free agents may be signed after the deadline. Clubs may also sell or loan out players to clubs in other leagues, where the window is still open.

I thought he was sh*t for us, always out of position and losing his man.

It's largely irrelevant how well they do, nobody outside of England will be willing or able to match their wages. I think we are stuck with Long, Boufal, Forster, Clasie and Carrillo until their contracts expire, which isn't for a while unfortunately.

I'd sell him for anything above £20m personally. Everything other than his set piece delivery is mediocre at best, even that is nothing special.