Saint86

Agreed, solid post! Although I would say that Gao wasn't to blame for the recruitment, only the funding side of things. We signed Tino, KWP, Broja, Adams etc under Gao and they're all fairly solid. Big change for us was the shake up starting with R&K going - which tbf to Gao he did implement.

The hyperbole over the Sweden win / england ladies is just getting silly. The BBC were reporting that backheel goal as "one of the best goals you'll ever see". Its not. The keeper got nutmegged by a slow shot at her near post. In general the keeper had an absolute howler and if it had been Macca i dread to think what would have been written about it in the match thread. For equal comparison, the BBC described Lingard's back heel/flick vs burnley a few years ago as, "clever" and its a far superior goal that actually beat the keeper rather than the keeper having a mare. I'm pleased their doing well, and its good for the women's game in this country etc. But the coverage is just cringe at this point. As is any comparison between the men's and women's games.

Southgate can't do brave, he's too worried about who it will offend. Nice enough guy but he's so poor tactically and i highly doubt we'll win anything under him.

Thanks for sharing MLG

Saints extra plummeting in the credibility stakes with this one. No chance surely.

I don't know much about either of their politics. But he's a Southampton boy and comes from a solid family background that valued education, hard work, and sacrifice as tools to get ahead in life. That's enough for me. Agree though, the Southampton way is to come runner up 🤣

Not necessarily true? The quotes say we are looking at getting in another "attacker"? To me that could mean a striker, a No.10, or perhaps a winger (if we somehow magically change to a conventional 4-2-3-1 / 4-3-3).

He got a watch then 🤣

Now that is some serious revisionism hypo! The doubting and criticism of mane went on for a while. But agree with others, all fanbases and a lot of fans have have players they do that to, saints aren't special in that regard. Doesn't matter now, but some were on his case all the time early on - every game, every mistake. I remember we played arsenal early on in his saints career - I watched it with an arsenal fan who said straight away he was quality, and we ended up discussing the negativity he got from saints fans in a mixture of amusement and bewilderment. Look back at it now, and he's probably the best attacker we've had since le tissier for me. Was a great team that, bizzare to think back and remember people were so negative about one of our best ever prem players, we'd bite someone's hand off for another mane at that kind of price!

So the saints Web logic now is a player tiring means it's Ralph's fault they do an ACL? 🤣I look forward to that gem getting rolled out on here this season whenever a player looks leggy on 70min 🤣 Granted that may not be specifically what you are saying SS (so this isn't aimed at you), but that is the broader context of this conversation and enough people on here have said it / implied it since it happened. It's a non argument. Re resting, as Clarke has said, he'd had a break for injury already earlier in the season, and it has already been demonstrated that he was rested in the month prior anyway. Also, as others have said, we have a very well paid medical team who's responsibility is the players fitness. If they say a player is fit, that's it. Tiredness is not your typical cause of ACL's!!

Wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if he has the opening few games in mind. We have tough fixtures and did well at times last year by keeping it tight at the back in those games. Longer term we'll go back to a 4 at the back, as you say we don't have the players for a 3-5-2, especially with our injuries at WB.

And summarily rejected outright by City. I cannot see that we're getting him. He's got a long contract and we surely aren't going north of £30m for an unproven player, would be a huge risk for us.

That ignores signing / loyalty fees, and ofc the dreaded agents fees - let alone any bonuses... So I suspect its nearer £25M or £30M all in. Either way, its a marquee signing for Forest, and £20m-£30m is reasonable for them if they're prepared to spend that much on one asset - they will be vindicated if they stay up. As others have said, saints will never look at spending that much on that kind of player, so its academic for us really. I also don't think Saints are in any kind of position to spend that proportion of our budget on one player. Lingard has seen his contract out to do exactly this re wages, fair enough. But he has to perform or yes, it will piss off the other players big time - but a bigger issue for forest may be that it shows all their players the merits of running down contracts and leaving on a free.

You left off, "the club is a shambles" 😉

Fair enough, useful summary to have! And agreed, more fouls = more 25yard penalties 😅

1 and 3 tend to go well together 😅

The yotube video i saw showed him playing on the wing a lot and ending up on floor after most challenges (something i can't see working for him in the prem in quite the same way) - and hence the "lightweight" remark. May have been a bad set of clips on him though?

19years old and 6 goals in 26 Ligue 1 games last season - albeit less than 900minutes - (that's as good as Broja's Eredivise record for me as its a higher level and with more game time), plus 5 goals in the Toulon tournament. He's been courted by Newcastle and Leeds all summer. Its not the established first team attacker we'd all hoped for though. I'd say he's got decent enough pedigree and good potential but i feel we do need more. Hopefully another to come as well (out and out striker). Not quite sure where Maru would fit the team as he seems a bit lightweight - Does Feel like a 4-2-3-1 or similar next season - well we have the players for it. Bit of a come down from looking at Karlson's clips yesterday though 😭

Are we actually linked with him? Reckon that's one of the best youtube clips i've seen posted on a saints transfer thread... He's got some serious skill/ability with a football.

Sadly this is a symptom of modern football more than anything else - as we're all seeing... The top clubs hoover up the best youngester, then play them in their academy / u23 sides or loan them out. More and more, these players are at clubs where their competing with your Kanes/Ronaldos/Lukakus/Salah's etc and they can't get game time. So whilst its reasonable to say Delap is unproven, you also can't right him off. Equally, if he was playing in a top 6 first team at 19 - we wouldn't be able to afford him! Also, before MLG gets in there(🤪), Broja played for Vitesse in the Eredivise, not the Jupiler Pro league - funnily enough alongside Openda, who did go back to belgium this summer (after a 2 year loan) before forcing a very reasonable move to RC Lens at a price we should probably have been all over (IMHO) 😙

Why wouldn't anyone want Ings at the right price?

Openda was cheap 😭 😁 Edit - I am fully aware that i've got it coming if Openda does awful at Lens 🙈 (all i'll say is he cost Similar to Aribo and had a better record than Broja did before joining).

At the moment, i think Everton and Bombey should be in everyone's "favourites for the drop". They've had bad windows and can be expected to struggle. Unlikely saints are going to be near it imo. But you never know what will happen with injures etc.

If you actually mean that then I think its some serious revisionism on your part. He was decidedly very good at the "best of times" - hence the hype. But that wasn't that often. He was also very average - and that was most of the time - and he was also completely missing on other occasions. Whether that's because our service was garbage, or because he's just a young player (and oppositions worked him out / he needs to work on his game) remains to be seen. Regardless, the fact remains that saints would absolutely taken him at the right price - But that price isn't the rumoured £30M.

If Everton can afford him he'll go there. Strong connection with Lampard supposedly, and he'll definitely get game time with their back line. Saints need to shift some defenders out if we want to temp another youngster into that position with promises of regular football.