Baird of the land

Not surprised by the rotation where he is able to, given we played on Wednesday. Doesn't want to risk injuries. Expect Walcott to come on for Perraud in 2nd half too.

Is Vestergaard not back in training yet? Wondering about Ward Prowse's knee injury, if it's alot worse than they are letting on.

Gotta admit i’m somewhat biased against sorloth because he couldn’t make an impression on a palace team that have such huge striking issues.

It'll be interesting to see which way Ralph turns in terms of goalie. Fullbacks pick themselves. CB is the interesting area as i feel there's not much between them all. Vestergaard/Stephens offer the outlet on the ball. Bednarek more solid positionally & Salisu has pace. Think it is important to get Salisu's pace in the team. Unpopular with some i might pair him with Stephens but given Bednarek is seemingly ralph's auto pick it'll possibly be him and salisu. If JWP doesn't make it back for friendlies i don't see how he can start. Expect it to be Redmond and Armstrong on the wings. Adams and i fancy Tella to cause them issues on the break. Hopefully we have a new striker by then to act as an impact sub if needed.

Whatever happened to that striker 'Augustin' everyone was talking about before his bizarre Leeds move, has he completely flushed his career after his bright start with Ralph at Leipzig.

No way would i put Ings anywhere near those greats.

Curious if he hates ralph’s Fitness training approach as it seems to be core part of what got him the extra performance level here and into England squad the year before. The no sentiment for saints definitely feels true. The home town boy stuff just media assumption. Play higher the polite way of saying will pay more.

Yeah Ralph wanted him to sign, ings just wanted out. That’s going to cause rub. Listening to danny’s Interview for villa he clearly had no sentimental attachment to saints or to Ralph probably.

I'm not really sure that the goalposts moved, more the veneer of the its not you its me breakup wore off. Danny wanted more than Saints would pay and he finally had to be upfront about that and drop the polite dressing of how much feeling he had for saints and how he just wanted to test himself at champions league level.

JWP has 4 years on his contract which is completely different club strength of situation versus that of a player in their final year.

'No reason to sell', 'we'd love him to be here' doesn't really equate to not for sale at any price in my eyes. The main thrust of the article from Ralph is sending a message of how unideal the situation is, so would he please sign a deal.

When did the club commit definitively to let him run down his contract and leave on a free?

He could but then he couldn't use the money elsewhere where it is more needed.

I don' think for a second that is the case. If there was genuine chance of him getting a move to a big club by sitting put he would have and saints wouldn't have been able to do anything about it.

I highly doubt big clubs were interested in Ings. If they were he could have held out for them rather than going to a mid table team.

Not really convinced by Eduoard. If we’re bidding in Scotland the only striker i’d Want is Morelos.

You are probably right about bednarek being nailed on to start but I don’t think he should be guaranteed. Thought Stephens and salisu had a decent balance to them.

Think he’s just aware his job is to build a team. If the alternative is a halfhearted player and Ralph not getting any money to replace him with if he walked for free, his relief at getting this done before the season is understandable.

I’m sure they hoped he might rethink in the summer. Once he didn’t sign the contract this summer when the Big clubs failed to come in for that was the end point. He clearly just wanted out to anyone and so job was to hopefully to find a way to get him gone quick(so we can replace) for as big a fee as possible.

Whenever Ralph starts talking about Redmond as a striker I get worried. We really need someone with an eye for goal, as we’ve got pace but not really any finishers. Ampadu is an interesting one. Would have thought he might cost a lot but maybe his star has waned in chelsea’s Eyes after his time at Sheffield utd. I’d personally like to see a proper dm come in rather than a cb who can fill in there, which is my gut feeling on ampadu.

Not sure what exactly else the club should have done differently they offered him a very good contract where he would have been top earner, which he refused because he wanted to higher wages mid table villa could probably afford. Not getting anything for him would be far more damaging than selling now.

Annoying that he has left, especially as he’s moving to a mid table club not a top 6 one. All the chat about testing himself at a higher level is clearly bs. Glad at least we’ve got it sorted and got a fee, rather than let it drag on. Hopefully we can quickly sort a decent replacement.

To be honest barring injury you’d expect Ralph to want starting xi to play near enough 90 minutes anyway. wonder if there might be a Covid element, not wanting any of the other xi exposed more than they need to be before they get their own 90 min game.

I’m not opposed to the notion of obafemi going for the sort of fee mentioned but nor am I desperate to see him leave.

Happy we seem to be avoiding him.