Baird of the land

Might be a good thing that we got a hiding in this friendly. We seem to have spent the summer drifting outside of the managerial appointment.

Agree, don't want to sell at all but if he goes for anywhere near 60m mark rather than the anywhere near the 75M, that will rub extra salt into the gaping wound.

I'll be really disappointed if TOM28 is correct and we've decided to roll over and sell him. Makes us look completely spineless. It'll just encourage whatever team wants to poach one of our players next summer. Worse still is the timing. At least if they made the decision in June they could have planned and spent money early in the window like Everton. Now we've got a week and half till the season starts to somehow try and conclude buying a top quality first choice centre back and get him bedded into the team.

Yeah for me its more that neither Stephens(just signed a 5 year deal) nor Yoshi would be happy as 4th choice centre back. More likely he's one of the players we're tracking in case van dijk leaves or its the usual paper hot air. Only other scenario is that Yoshida is off and he's coming in as competition with stephens for the 2nd slot

At least recently Mane/Wanyama/Clyne there were real short contractual length reasons to sell. this time is far worse, we've got him on long contract and gone out of our way to complain about their tactics and still folded like a cheap suit.

Very disappointed if true that we've rolled over like a whipped cur. Makes club look completely weak. Very little time to both agree a deal and bed in a new first choice centre back before 12th August too.

We have natural poachers in the likes of Austin/gabbi. I think both Gallagher and long offer something different to that. I'm happy we've got someone like long in the squad with great stamina and pace who 2 seasons ago was among our top goal scorers. Last season his confidence got shot and we weren't playing in a way that suited his game particularly either. Last season I felt the approach was really stilted. We may have had territory and shots but rarely watching did you think those were gilt edged. Hoping Pellegrino's approach with greater pressure will result in a much better quality of chance being created.

Wasn't Long being strongly linked with Liverpool before he signed his new deal.

See our juniors just knocked Man Utd out. Frank Lovett clearly a future superstar. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/40736259

It might be interesting to see Gabbi behind Austin in a central role in some games especially at home in the 4-2-3-1. First choice though would be Gabbi.

For me it's threefold. 1) After making such a fuss about tapping up & then rolling over and selling to Liverpool would make Saints seem laughable. 2) Selling him to anyone for less than the quoted £75m would make us seem weak 3) Selling him 3 weeks or less before the season starts & then expecting that we'll be able to complete a transfer for a new first choice centre back and give him and Stephens/Yoshida time to bed in together before the season starts on Aug 12th seems vastly optimistic. For this reason It's very close if not past the point we should be rejecting all bids and telling him his only option is to stay this season.

Disagree while I'm perfectly happy with yoshi/Stephens alongside a top drawer centre back like van dijk, I don't particularly want to have a significant period with them as a pair when facing much better opposition.

Happy to see him play for saints again, if he gets his head re-screwed on. I'd be lambasting my agent for convincing me to sign a long term contract with no releases but not sulking. Couldn't care less about return on investment, especially as a fair chunk will go to Celtic anyway. Do care about how losing our best centre back and having to panic buy a poorer replacement at vastly over inflated last minute prices would affect our season. Club simply put have to hold firm this season.

Got to keep him now & rely on him coming to terms with staying once the transfer window closes The alternative is the club looking incredibly weak, us being robbed cheaply by Liverpool, then having to shop late in the window when no one will be wanting to sell anyone good and whatever replacement we do end up getting will be for a vastly inflated fee.

Pretty happy that saints have England's 3/4 choice keeper. If McCarthy gets fit gk is a position I'm happy with. Yes he didn't have his best season but before that he'd been good, especially coming off the back of a serious injury. no doubt got a lot to prove to ensure he gets to World Cup too.

if there's any truth to Roberts rumour that's not good news for sims. Personally not a fan of developing other teams youngsters for them.

Not sure i see the point of Wilshere personally. He wouldn't off us anything that we already haven't got in the likes of Clasie or JWP and has been injured repeatedly. Think he might be wise to go abroad.

Austin ( not particularly mobile, injury prone, doesn't fit system that well imo) Gardos (injured) Targett (McQueen looked better when given his chance than targett did when given his) Gazza (Never right technically)

He was bad for Liverpool defensively before Klopp came in. I'm not quoting pundits, just using my own eyes from live to games. Mediocre players can get international call ups, that doesn't mean he's anything other than flash with no defensive substance.

Would never want Moreno, the first job of a fullback is to be able to defend. He's completely useless at that while not good enough to be a winger. There's not a deal I see out there I'd want to take for van dijk especially Liverpool options. We'd be vastly weakening our centre back position which whilst Stephens is developing isn't something I want to see this season.

Don't see what in his cv justifies him for a role for a top half premier league club. It may be that his coaching far outstrips the mediocrity of achievement clubs he's been involved with have produced but it's worrying that something not very important such as popularity is being used as justification for keeping him rather than bigging up his skills.

See Lewis has been loaned to Dundee united

I still think our midfield is pretty good. The 2 problems i see with our midfield is a lack of a midfielder who chips in with goals and the lack of physical presence cover for Romeu. JWP on paper should perhaps be that goalscorer especially given how highly rated his set piece ability is. Davis is still a very good player. Under Potch he was the perfect bustling energy worker in the 3 of the 4-2-3-1. If we're going back to that it might suit him as i still think he's got plenty in his legs for a couple more seasons at this level. Clasie & Hojberg are the obvious wildcards. Both very talented players who haven't consistently shown the sort of quality we might have hoped from them. It's perfectly possible that under a new manager they will kick on alongside Romeu. Even if Clasie stays i think we should be bringing in another physical midfielder, ideally one that might cause problems in the opposition box as well as being a defensive shield.

When we signed Romeu he was 23 and had played 108 career games whilst Chalobah is 22 and has played 103 career games. As with then we may wish to have someone hungry who can really compete for that DM starter position and with talent to develop as the season progresses.

Wouldn't mind at all if we sign him. Hopefully seeing how Bertrand/Romeu have bloomed here will help swing the deal.