Saint86

Who knows, maybe without the likes of Kelvin (club legend that he is) as a tactical sounding board, maybe we will see a change in that regard... Although I agree it is unlikely.

A midfield 3 of JWP, romeu, and eriksen would be fairly 🍆🍆🍆 (Obviously I am speaking hypothetically, but a man can dream). Chuck in bazunu, a competent CB, a good attacking 10, and a good striker - like openda (or similar ilk) - and it would be a very tidy window for a team like saints.... Again a man can dream. I guess we also need cover at full back Forster = eriksen wages? I guess we'll be shifting djenpo/redmond /Ely, one of bednarek/salisu, maybe Armstrong up top?

Absolute shambles of a club...

What is this, a summer of alpine tribute accounts?! We aren't a shambles ffs. If anything there are a lot of positive noises coming out of the club? There is nothing wrong with retaining macca and stephens provided they're to be used as squad players mid-long term... They're both perfectly fine for that level of involvement. Our negative fans need to get a grip as this incessant pissing and moaning about the club and players. The window doesn't even close for 2 and half months yet. Derby are a shambles, Watford are a shambles, saints were a mess under les Reed and Krueger, but that was years ago and the current management and board have worked a borderline miracle to restructure the playing squad, keep us up, keep us solvent, and get a good takeover... Where is the shambles?

Well said. We have new owners who seem to be proactive. We are finally seeing a shake up of the coaching setup (hiring on merit which this place had called for for years), we look like we're going to positively refresh the first team, and the academy sides are doing great... Far from being the badly run b&b some fans make out! I'd say we seem to have a reasonable strategy centred around stability off the field, high pressing football throughout the club, and signing promising young players. We're not going to go out and compete with teams like villa and Everton on spend, but we're clearly going to try and upset the apple cart in our own way. It suits our 'underdog' reputation, and it definetly makes a change from cylicng through dull and dire managers (puel-Hughes) and signing squad filler players for inflated fees and high wages!

That was 2004, but it was a car crash right at the start of your supporting career - so totally understandable to have blanked it 😅

Kids going to be good, naysayers need a bit of faith.

Sturrock?

It's almost like we don't have a transfer thread already... I actually thought we'd made an offer or something for a split second 🤦‍♂️

No one said we weren't addressing the attack? and tbh - its GK, CB's and No.10s that are the bigger issue for me. I quite like Che, and in all fairness Armstrong had very limited opportunities last year - still think there is a player in there, although his confidence must be on the floor after starting behind Long, Redmond, and an average broja (granted still young) for most of the season. Regardless of all that, we can still be excited by the signing of a top young prospect from one of the best teams in world football..

I don't think its that. He was on just shy of £100k per week here. There is no way we were offering him that on what will probably be his retirement contract - not given his form, ability, and injuries. Whereas in reality Spurs are paying him the same wage for the same role - but at a bigger club with a chance of European football and silverware. I don't disagree with you though that Forster's decision making probably wasn't helped by Macca seemingly being #1 choice, but then equally it may have been the case that Forster made his decision to see out his contract last season and this was why we went with Macca. I maintain that letting them both go for free would be an error though regardless, replacing either of them will cost a minimum of £10m which is unnecessary when the reality is we just need a competent keeper and aren't exactly flush. Bazunu looks to be of a similar standard, but has a lot of potential, lower wages, and future resale value.

Well, i'm excited by this potential signing 🤷‍♂️

I wouldn't be that surprised if big Willy joined longer term in a coaching role.

Forster made the choice is probably a more realistic way to put it... unless the choice you wanted was for us to let both keepers go for a free?

https://www.portsmouth.co.uk/sport/football/portsmouth-fc/gutted-hes-not-going-to-get-a-chance-at-a-big-club-enjoy-your-relegation-battle-hero-to-zero-portsmouth-fans-react-to-gavin-bazunu-stands-on-brink-of-southampton-move-3725585 🤣 Not bitter at all are the "bestest" 🤣

plenty of quotes saying double figures for arrivals / departures this summer. Wait for the dust to settle before worrying about the team's make up. We haven't signed a single player yet.

Kane is offside as the ball is played by Grealish, it comes off the defender within a second, and deflects towards Kane. No one even controls the ball before it leaving Grealish's foot and it reaching Kane - its all part of the same pass, albeit deflected. I'm not even sure there is significant contact on Kane for it to be a pen, looks like he slipped to me every time i watch it. All in all, that's a very lucky pen for England to have been given for me, and one I could easily see VAR not giving. Kane took the pen well though after a reasonable pause, so fair play for that.

Agreed. But think it has a lot more to do with England chasing the game with 10min left and actually committing men forward with the fresh legs of bowen and grealish. As opposed to saka and mount playing in a team with 7 defensive players and no support... Depends if you blame some of the most gifted players in the prem or a championship level manager who can't use them.

He was, we got very lucky.

No to both of these for me. I really think it's just a case of Southgate just being tactically awful. It's not Mount's fault or saka's fault. We could have Messi, mbappe, and neymar up front and we'd still play 7 defensive players and 3 attackers playing in opposing 3rds of the pitch and be outnumbered in both with walking tempo passing. Mount and saka are both class players in an attack minded team that has some form of cohesion and keeps the ball.

Yeah agree with all that, and for sure - fingers crossed!

Agreed sadly. Despite having arguably the best season of any English central midfielder, he finds himself 4th choice - possibly 5th if you assume Henderson is going. Philips presumably preferred becuase Southgate only sees a big defensive lump and that's the extent of his tactical requirements. Feels verh harsh on JWP.

Tripper, and then Philips and Bellingham being preferred to JWP and KWP. Typical by Gareth.

Its obviously only coming about because of brexit, but it doesn't overly bother me the way it does others - but then I use both regularly anyway. As for outdated? Imperial is still used by America... Its just not as clearly logical as metric. And let's be honest, its only not used in this country because EU legislation made it illegal and we suffer from over zealous enforcement. If they want to give people the freedom to also use imperial again then I don't have an issue myself - it's not going to replace metric is it?! I've seen a fair few people getting very upset by this proposal. The reality is they are getting rather swivel eyed about other people being allowed to simply use units of measurement that they are more comfortable with 🤷‍♂️. Which at worst is exercising petty control / restrictions over others, at best an irrelevance. It will fade away if it isn't used with no harm to anyone. Conversely, imagine what it was like for those people when they were forced to abandon imperial and adopt metric with no choice in the matter. This really is nothing to fret about in comparison? As for costs - if a grocer wants to scribble on the price per lbs above his/her potatoes, what does it matter? We still use miles, our entire rail network is set out in chains and yards, height is mostly feet and inches, and babies are pounds and ounces... If anything, displaying both measurements might actually add better understanding and context between unit types for some people 🤷‍♂️ The only thing I can't countenance is Fahrenheit. Why!

Couldn't disagree more with the sentiments of this post. By all accounts Semmens and Ralph have both done good jobs over the past 4 years given the financial constraints and squad they inherited post Reed and krueger. The end to this season was a big dissapointment, but we were never in danger of relegation and in reality reached the required points total (for survival) after 27 games. I see no reason at all not to be excited by the new owners, they've not made a mistake so far, have serious resumes behind them, and have made nothing but the right noises about being "serious" and building a portfolio of clubs centered on saints...