Baird of the land

Good news as far as i'm concerned. See no point in bloating the squad further with multiple signings. If we can focus on getting one good attacking player in to the club that should leave the squad in a pretty good condition.

Odd i personally thought Redmond's second half display was a definite positive. Scored one, was just offside timing his run when he scored a 2nd, had a decent effort late on just wide. I may not be a huge fan of the diamond formation currently but Redmond showed he definitely had promise to play in the striker role in that formation.

Like most i'd like to see Hojberg in for JWP. We need to keep Long in as his pace will be vital if we are going to get anything there. The other 2 contentious areas are centre back and right back. Given how poor cedric was i'd be tempted to start Martina or Pied. Despite how much difference fonte's leadership would make, i'm rather dubious he'll be fit enough if Cedric's performance is any indicator. Other thing i'd like to see is the team reverting to 4-2-3-1, though once again this is probably unlikely.

First half we were utterly terrible. Nobody wanted the ball. Goal was poor, blame all round, felt one of the centre backs should have been with deeney and then romeu was too slow to the 2nd ball. 2nd half much better. It was good to see Redmond looking dangerous after an anonymous first half. Long worked really hard but air shot really summed up his day. Hojberg looked good and composed. I'm with others in thinking our team is much better suited to a 4-2-3-1 than this diamond we were trying to play but maybe it settle down better. Would have preferred to see Davis or Romeu taken off to bring on Austin. Felt a bit of a safe move against 10 men. Tadic was mom for me. Feel a bit sorry for Martina. While he's a limited player he did a good job at end of season and is only right back to have full pre-season, yet instead unfit Cedric got the nod and played horribly.

I can see why Puel might want to ease Hojberg into the Premiership. I think the midfield and attack looks fine. It's the defence that gives me jitters, we really need Van Dijk to show some leadership in the absence of Bertrand and Fonte.

Great news that Tadic has signed a new deal especially since his current one was getting low. Hopefully he can continue the rich vein of form he had at the end of the season.

I wouldn't want Depay anywhere near Saints. Large wages, bad attitude does not equal good signing in my eyes no matter how talented he's supposed to be.

I'd really like to see Hesketh get a chance this season as he's the player who has stood out when i've seen the u21's in action. Wonder if he will though, or if he'll even get his contract extended.

Yeah i can see why Koeman is keen. Basically he's an explosive game changer a bit like Mane even if he is 3 years older.

Or we signed Redmond 25th June before selling Mane on 28th.

Good national PR for Virgin Media whilst the club doesn't lose out either. Hopefully other club's sponsors will follow suit.

It's a bizarre world in my opinion when people are considering 12/13 m purchases to be on the cheap.

Swansea's deal for Llorente could finally provide them with a decent striker again, if a short term move considering he's already 31.

What do i expect & consider acceptable, top 10, get out of europa group, getting past first round of FA cup. Anything above and beyond these what be good.

Very good signing. Didn't think we'd get someone that talented to be back up to Fraser. I guess he's going to be our league cup and possibly fa cup keeper.

Would be good if we could get all 3 tied down. Hope the noise around Fonte is nothing more than pressure being exerted to maximise what will likely be his final big deal. Would be a profound loss on the eve of the season.

odd deal by Koeman. Everton already have a thirty something international centre back in jags. Bringing in a 2nd just seems complete short termism. Guess it shows how badly Everton are struggling at getting in players that they had a resort to that move.

Yeah pretty terrible deal. We get all the financial risks(£15m) for little benefit. If he's poor/injured we're lumbered with another very high wage player on a long contract. If he's good they buy back for same amount we bought him for if you factor in transfer inflation. Essentially it's a far worse version of a loan.

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.