Saint86

He's a class player that sits at a good level for the team and squad. Add to that the fact that you can wait decades to find players with his level of passion for the club, and what exactly is there to not like?

I find a lot of that article to be pretty much rubbish tbh. The saints side is "long in the tooth" - its one of the youngest sides in the league.... James Ward Prowse's last England cap came 3 years ago? No... Saints are perennial relegation candidates? - We've finished top 8 more than we've been in a relegation crap. The Times really has let its standards drop.

It has to remain as 3. Teams with less funding didn't build squads over the summer planning to have an additional 2 quality substitutes to field. Its pure movement of the goalposts from the top clubs. Yet another attempt to unlevel the premier league playing field.

I will wait to hear from Turkish myself. Far higher chance of it happening if it comes from him 🙂

IMO, there is no chance we will play redmond up top over Walcott. This screams Adams and Walcott as a front 2 for me. And i'd fancy that to cause all kinds of problems to be honest. With Adams being a general bully and nusisance, redmond pulling players out wide, and Theo ready to run onto any through balls, i fancy him to be very dangerous. Also, Redmond is the most wasteful player i've seen at Saints for a long long time. I know he can be great at times and he does well to get himself into the final ball positions.... but my god you'd bet on him to fluff the final product up 9 times out of 10!!!

I know Tadic and Ings are shite at penalties - but surely they weren't that bad!?!?!?!

The number of our fans who've written him off over the years 🤣

Exactly this imo. The club have budgeted for it for the season. So we aren't suddenly making an unexpected £3m a month loss with no way to afford it.

An unbudgeted £3m loss per month makes no sense and would be very alarming. I also doubt it is something we would leak during takeover talks. Hence querying it rather than taking it as a "face value" gospel truth. If saints are actually making an unbudgeted loss of £3M per month specifically due to something that was foreseeable this season (and obviously would have been budgeted for) then something has gone very wrong. Given our summer transfer activity, i find that outcome to be highly unlikely - hence calling it a speculative take on what was said and querying it. As Vectis says, what the OP is saying is unclear. What Toby Steele might be have said is that our income streams are down £3M per month, or that we are losing £3m per month but it has been budgeted... not necessarily that we are making an unbudgeted loss of £3m per month. Which would be something very different indeed. For my part, I'd like to think that we didn't go and spend millions on transfers, agents, and wage commitments this summer having budgeted for a full St Mary's every home game. Instead, I'd like to think the club budgeted for an empty St Mary's this year, and our spend and wage commitments factors in no gate receipts for the season.

I don't know who Toby Steele is, but this seems highly speculative take, and to describe it as a loss is disingenuous as well. We have lost a portion of our income this season because there are no gate receipts and that can be estimated for sure. But equally, the club knew that was coming and may well have restructured the business to accommodate it - Removing significant sums from the wage bill over the transfer window being a significant example. To put it another way. outright calling it a loss implies the club sanctioned our summer transfer window spend on the assumption we'd have full capacity for each and every home game. Flip side, we are on TV significantly more this year, and we are on course to finish higher as well. Plus of course, we will have received additional transfer bonuses for Liverpool's title win.

That is all there is to it really - hard for some to understand though.

Basically, once again Liverpool have fooked us over...

Imagine Redmond and Walcott will play on the wings. We don't have any other obvious choices with Armstrong and Djenpo out. Its that or we have smallbone starting in the AMR spot? Or He plays central and JWP plays AMR? Or Ralph really pushes the boat out and puts Valery as AMR?

So.... Ay suggestions for good streaming sites these days? 😆

I also have that niggle in my mind that our new American owners (waiting in the wings) would want us to agree to this. It will be absolutely fatal for the competitiveness of the league. Obviously teams like Saints/Everton/Wolves, and of course Leicester, have rattled them in recent years. It is already extremely difficult for teams to challenge the top 4/6 as it is, but these changes are designed to absolutely close the door and bolt it shut. It should be obvious to everyone that the giving a majority vote down to 6 (the top 6) is just tying a noose around the neck of any other club that votes for it. The first thing that goes will be any fairness in tv money distribution. Easy to do when the European 6 can all just vote to take as much as they want, or organise private TV deals. Its also telling that they want to be allowed to hoover up more top talent on loan. Basically stripping other clubs of their rising talents, whilst making money (loan fees/sales) in the process. Also the changes to income that are already proposed (by default) will harm all other clubs outside of Europe. They'll get reduced TV money, reduced league cup prize money, and reduced attendance figures for the season across the board. Meanwhile you can bet the top European clubs will be arranging more and more lucrative tv deals for European competitions and foreign friendlies. Honestly, i know people laugh at this view. But i think they should all be invited to join a European super league and with no promotion/relegation - cut them off and let them go. If you put clubs like Arsenal, Barcelona, Madrid (x2), United, Spurs, Dortmund, Juventus, PSG, Chelsea, Monaco, Inter etc etc etc all into the same league it will lead to the dissatisfaction of 75% of their fanbases. Only 1 or 2 can challenge for that title. And some of them are destined to be the Fulham or Norwich of that world. It is absolutely doomed to failure. Those clubs exist at that size because their respective football leagues can support them. Put them all in the same league and some will wither quite rapidly. United fan's are unhappy now, imagine what it will be like when they're at the bottom of the table? Ditto Arsenal fans, they demanded Wenger was sacked because he could only get them 4th... Kick them out, and let the rest of us enjoy a competitive league with teams like Saints, Villa, Leeds, Notts Forest, Everton, Newcastle, West Ham, Leicester, Wolves etc.

Kane has 6 assists and 3 goals in 4 premier league games. This increases to 8 goals in 8 games when all his games are considered this season.

But not into saints 😆

Does anyone have an estimate of the total wages saved here? Edit - I see its been estimated as 350k. No further questions M'luds.

I am conflicted over the Walcott signing. On the one hand, he is a returning academy player who has always had a soft spot for the club, and it is great to have academy players (who left the club very young) want to come back. However, he could have come back before (albeit perhaps the starts didn't align financially between clubs - and we had signed boufal and carrilo). He has been a very good player in his career, scoring some crucial goals in the champions league etc, and he is lethal for through balls in behind - so he does bring us something unique in that regard. However he doesn't have the ability to beat defences that sit deep and compact... which is most teams we play other than the top 4-5. Is he anything more than a better shane long that probably doesn't work as much, niggle as much, or jump as high? Walcott has also made a big deal about the emotional side of this move - and i am sure that a lot of fans have a little soft spot for him as the first of that academy team to break through and then get sold off to balance the books.... But ultimately, as a club and a fanbase, he doesn't really deserve any special treatment - he hasn't played for us for years etc. If it was any other player, this would be the equivalent of west ham signing another 30+ player who can no longer cut it at the highest level. It does feel like this deal has an emotional aspect which surely has no place in football business decisions? Especially for a club as hard up as saints? Best case scenario, he does very well and warrants a contract by the end of it. Any other scenario sees him not warranting a contract and the club have the elephant of an underperforming loan player (not the biggest deal in itself) that also comes with a side of player/fan/club relationship baggage. I find myself wanting him to do well as much for the emotional "nice story" part of it, as for the benefit of a new squad winger. Hopefully we get an ings stlye bounce - also i hope he is eligible to play against everton!

He only signed for them last season?

I particulary like how MLG totally missed this 🤣

Irrelevant if there was, we can't afford his wages. No way should we be signing him. His attitude is poor, we're paying to develop someone else's player, and the last thing we need is a double agent for a top club showing bednarek, JWP, ings etc what easy money they could be getting. Definite pass on RLC.

Diallo and Sessegon would be tasty deals to complete. Of all the players we were linked with in central midfield, Koopmeiners was the one i really wanted!

So are we thinking its Wasserman now?

Can anyone see us utilising Stephens as CDM. Especially given we have no money and seemingly won't sign one? Salisu and Bedders for me. Vestegard as the rotation option.