Baird of the land

Interesting move for Gazza. Will be good experience for him but not sure where his future lies after that. If fingers crossed we sign McCarthy that should be both keepers slots sorted for the foreseeable future with 3rd choice being youngster like Lewis.

It was ok for us 2 years ago to buy Mane 2 as a good player to replace our Captain or the long term injured england international Jrod. Redmond hasn't been bought as a 16 year old, who might eventually do well. He's been bought because the scouts think he's got what it takes to do it now. They clearly are basing that on other things than last season's goal record in a poor norwich team. I also think it less a case of Mane suddenly becoming a world beater in 2 years but more a case of big fish spotting he's been a good if erratic player ever since he joined us.

Find it funny that someone thinks that our 12m signing who is a dutch international should be sold because he had a tough transitional season to the prem and that we should not renew but instead sell our highly talented home grown england U21 international. Also rather bemused that spending 12/13m each on replacements isn't decent money. To me it is. I wouldn't have minded De Boer as our coach but dismissing Puel's record whilst extolling De Boer is bizarre. It's not that hard to see that a lot of the new TV money is going into securing our talented player base into long term contracts.

That would be a cracking signing. Had a couple of high profile gaffes last season but at reading he was excellent.

7 sounds big but when you consider 2 were keepers, one of which was our 4th choice it could be argued that manager a) might want to promote gazza and youth team keeper to 2nd and 3rd choice respectively or at worst we need to sign one reserve keeper. 2 more were attacking midfielder who were a combination of rarely played/made the bench/loaned out. I'd like to see us buy one more top quality attacking midfielder but i can see why the club might not want to relive losing a tonne of money signing the wrong player again like Juanmi. That leaves 3 regular outfield players. We've bought 2 players, 3 if you consider Austin in January in reality Pelle's replacement.

I don't think we'll struggle. Both signings seem to have a lot of promise coupled with a very strong core that remains despite Mane/Vic departures. I don't see the need to bloat the squad massively that some do but i will admit i would dearly love one more signing of another goalscoring midfielder to add to the mix personally.

It may be short termist to join Leicester over Man Utd for that reason but to join Leicester who have champions league football this year and could make an argument for competing for europe going forward over a similar sized club like Saints who are in europa league and will be battling for same europa league places may make that short term bonus more appealing.

Suppose the bad side of Leicester winning the league is that they seem to have a similar transfer philosophy and i'd expect them to win these sort of transfer battles against us this season as they can offer champions league football.

Hopefully the likes of Fonte/Cedric will be ok for first game of the season. Wouldn't like to go into it without Fonte in particular. Forster Cedric Fonte VVD Bertrand Romeu Clasie Davis Redmond Long Tadic Subs, Gazza, Stephens(though likely to be Yoshi), Hojberg, Jrod, Austin, JWP, Targett

Good news, hopefully tadic follows suit. Long was excellent once finally given an opportunity to play up top rather than on the wing. Hopefully he has a vary season in terms of finishing this year.

I expect us to continue to play only one up top, either some form of 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-3. I have always had my doubts about Austin, but highly doubt we'll bring in another striker though i'd love us to get Berahinho. Think Tadic has looked good when playing the 10 role, less well on the right which shouldn't be an issue as surely redmond will play out there but we clearly need one more attacking midfielder.

Good signing by Liverpool in Wijnamdum. One player i was hoping we might have been able to get after Newcastle's relegation. Though wonder if the signing makes Markovic surplus to requirements at Liverpool. If so might not be the worst signing at all for Saints. Misused by Rodgers but clearly talented & young.

The one area I'd still like is to get a goalscoring midfielder like Wijnaldum in. Newcastle may be resistant to selling him though.

Interesting, was expecting Gazzaniga to be 2nd choice this season. Wonder what the plan is?

Pretty happy with this. Got a couple of peak years out of him then made a profit on a 31 year old. Was never going to hang around playing 3rd fiddle to long and Austin. Pretty happy with our striking offers but definitely feel we need to use these funds to bring in another classy attacking midfielder.

Would be disappointed if we sold targett. With extra European games there should be more opportunities for him to get game time at saints. The fee being discussed is utterly disgraceful too for a young English u21 international with years on his contract. Don't see value of loaning him out anywhere either as we'd need need to bring in a quality cover player.

Seems an exciting capture, a good age and the sort of fee that makes sense. Hope he can develop as well as others have in the past.

Got to say I hope that pied piece is rubbish. Signing a journeyman full back back slash utility midfielder who wasn't good enough to make the nice team is hardly inspiring. rather we invest heavily in first teamers and leave room below that for youngsters rather than block their path further with this type of filler signing.

Hope Saints don't pull out of it. It's surely a good opportunity for u21 player's development with some competitive football.

Having 2 internationals(Gardos & Yoshida) as cover seems reasonable to me. Unless we need to ship one of them out i don't really see the need to bring in more competition. Given how set the first choice 2 centre backs are i think we'd struggle to attract anyone of higher quality than these 2 anyway. Equally I'd like to see Stephens given an opportunity at some point personally in one of the cups or group games to try and prove himself.

Hmm. New kits look pretty horrid imo. I'll be sticking with older kits i have me thinks.

I'd say there would be a mixed reaction. Those who think like Koeman that first 11 should play every minute of every game would be annoyed, those that think that league cup in particular should be a great opportunity to blood a couple of youngsters alongside first teamers would be disappointed with the result but happy with the decision to give opportunity for academy products.

He may very well be an excellent coach but he does seem to have a very bad habit of being around bad teams and managers getting the boot. Birmingham, Relegated, bruce resigned Sunderland, 16th Bruce Sacked Blackburn, 17th Kean Resigned Rotherham, 21st, Evans Sacked Villa, bottom, Garde Sacked

I'm glad we've got someone who hopefully will give more opportunities for the academy players. Given they were successful with the last appointment i'm willing to have faith in the board and their opinion that Puel is the right choice.

Everton's a massive step backwards to him imo, sort of him admitting he's not very good and just convenient money move. He should either stick it out at Utd or move abroad if a top premier club won't take him.