Saint86

To be honest, you could take those players out (and replace) and the squad Will Still almost certainly be better than the last promotion team. Ramsdale or new keeper, baz, macca, lumley >>> Stronger (Whatever we go with here, you would expect this to be better than a young Baz as starting keeper) RB - Bree, Sugarwara <<< worse (KWP was superb for the championship, but Suga and Bree is still a very nice pairing for the level) LB - Manning, Wellington, Taylor, Larios >>> Stronger (More depth and experience) CB - THB, Edwards, Bednarek, Quarshie, Woods, Stephens >>> Stronger (as it stands, this is a stronger set of CBs, and offers more physicality/athleticism. CM - Downes, Smallbone, Charles >>> Stronger (Charles one of the players of the season in the champ, downes and smallbone a year older and fitter, is there a better CM pairing than Downes and Charles in the champ?!) CAM/Wingers - Dibling (or new), Edozie, Fermandes (or new), Robinson, Fraser === about the same (as it stands i would say stronger, but we will probably lose dibling or fernandes, but then again we know this is identified as a key positon). Strikers - Steward, Armstrong, Archer, BBD >>> Stronger (and that is without strengthening here. Also, i am assuming that Stewart actually stays semi fit and plays for us this season....). Its a decent squad for an automatics challenge. Doesn't look like we're financially pressured to sell, and there is a chance we keep Some of fernandes, ramsdale, and dibling, plus downes/charles/thb. A lot of reasons to be positive i think

I love your optimism that one of the promoted sides is going to stay up. Reality is that its a 17team league, and the only chance one of them has is if one of the 17 has a complete implosion. PSR has closed the shop otherwise.

Ipswich are the obvious / lazy choice for sure. Only thing i would say is that their central midfield and keeper are pretty average for the league, but even with that, they'll have more than enough to blast through the overwhelming majority of sides. The only question over them for me will be whether they can turn around their morale and get back to winning ways quickly, that and how they replace Delap up top. At the end of the day, its a congested 46game season, fail to start well and its hard to catch up - and squad depth will be just as important as Ipswich's first (admitted) 11 quality. Personally think we'll be there or thereabouts for automatics - all the right noises coming out of the club and a real sense of optimism from all corners.... That isn't what you'd expect after just how poor this season went.

Never seen a more one footed highlights reel... but then its also a pretty tasty highlights real - thats a sweet right foot!

Would do but apparently you "can't receive messages" 😄

2 names i think we'll see mentioned this summer are Carvalho (now at brentford but struggled to have much impact and i reckon he could be available on a loan), and Rak-sakyi (34games, 7goals, 2 assists for Sheffield united on loan last season). We've been linked with both extensively in previous windows, they're young, talented for the championship, and fit the positions we need. Could see them being done as loans towards the end of the summer possibly.

$475M, which is about £350M. Not quite as high, but still a significant valuation for the actual size of the club and its infrastructure. Part of me wants to think that they'll find some investors in America willing to get on board at that price... but it does seem mad. I think they'll struggle a bit this season looking at their rumoured business, and that might quickly take the shine off and drop the price.

Number of seasons missed because the victims couldn't behave themselves:

Fair enough Dusic. Don't get me wrong - i am glad we had him when we did (the alternative - i.e., more rasmus/kraft dream team - doesn't bear thinking about frankly). I think he did a reasonable job 🙂, but i don't think his recruitment in particular was that great and i am expecting/hoping that Spors (and his new team) will prove to be a step above Wilcox as a result. I also think its a bit harsh to say the academy was failing - Players like Dibbling, JJ Morgan, Gomes etc were all coming through before Wilcox arrived - we've also lost a lot of top talent during/post Wilcox from the academy which is a real shame. Dibbling notably wasn't considered good enough to make an appearance for us in the champ, and then less than a year later was terrorising gvardiol and co. 🤷‍♂️

Are there any good recommendations for particular products / options for next season?

Reading into it, he also mentioned "master plan" - which to me implies its part of a much wider redevelopment where the club and council are aligned. Could be more of a sporting / leisure / residential / commercial development of the area where the club provide funding and in return secure long term income. Agree though, he certainly implies stadium expansion is on the cards.

"Build it and they will come", what's so hard to understand damit 😄

Solak is coming at it from a position where he says himself in that interview that "he's not a football man". And tbh having watched rasmus and kraft have an absolute shit show (either side of Wilcox's short-lived stint), you have to question whether he wouldn't have valued someone's gran as DoF in comparison. So sure, you can take his view if you want, but he's been an incredibly naïve football owner to date, and the only real thing you can say about this re that interview, is that he has at least learnt that having someone with a reasonable footballing background was an improvement over rasmus and kraft. For you to describe the job Wilcox did as "excellent" is just nonsense hyperbole i'm afraid, and certainly something without evidence. Wilcox hired a limited manager and assembled an inflexible squad, just about scraped promotion (which was the bear minimum to be classed as reasonable that season), and then left us with a team that needed significant outlay just to stand still. You also have to question whether he even left a succession plan and/or any future plans... if he did, they included not hiring another DoF and signing the likes of Fraser to long contract 😬. Regardless, how you can describe Wilcox's performance here as "excellent" is beyond me, he quite literally scraped by with the minimum expected level of performance, then f'd off leaving us in the lurch and started stealing our academy players.

He's delivered the worst man united season in premier league history and so far spent over 300M euros since he's been in post 😄

It doesn't mean that at all. We just went from having someone with reasonable footballing knowledge calling the shots, to a complete headless shitshow last summer. Just because Wilcox was better than awful directionless mess that followed him is not the same saying "excellent job". As so many like to pedal, he assembled a side and manager that came 4th in a 3horse race, and assembled a very limited squad married to a limited playing style that required major surgery going into the prem.

🤣

Nothing like taking deserved money away from the local newspaper/journalists than by sharing that link publicly on the main forum barely 2 hours after the article is published...

Comes across really well in the interview - decent, passionate, speaks about his naivety and growing experience, calls Martin "cocky", has a joke about VAR last season, and makes it clear that he's now running the show with regards to saints - as essentially an authoriser for Spors, and the football team he's put in place. Rasmus is in charge of Goztepe. Its a very good "PR piece" for Solak 😋. If taken at face value, then clearly he has caught the bug and is very invested in saints - still reads a bit like an excited kid in a candy shop, but his heart is in the right place, he's open with the fans (which is good), and he cares about the club as something other than just a business venture. Also says we will be signing a striker and creative midfielder before any outgoings happen. Talks (without details) about plans to significantly develop the stadium and surrounding area/facilities to increase commercial revenue. Specifically mentions this is to reduce dependence on tv monies.

https://www.dailyecho.co.uk/sport/25246799.dragan-solak-interview-southampton-owner-opens-sale-rumours/ Comes across really well in the interview - decent, passionate, speaks about his naivitiy and growing experience, calls Martin "cocky", has a joke about VAR last season, and makes it clear that he's now running the show with regards to saints - as essentially an authoriser for Spors, and the football team he's put in place. Its a very good PR piece 😋 Also says we will be signing a striker and creative midfielder before any outgoings.

Agree. But fundamentally wages have to be efficiently spent, and more so when we're talking about higher earners within a squad. That really hasn't been the case at saints by all accounts - i.e., we'll see the true wage figures june-ish time next year (relative to other sides) - but i doubt ours correlate to 12 points and almost half of 19th place.

Don't like how his is shaping up - Could very easily see Wilde going to Leicester now.

What is wrong with some positivity and openness from the owner? He's certainly shaken things up recently and appears to be putting football people in place and trusting them to make decisions. Add to that the fact that he is actually engaging with the press and fans from time to time and i don't have any real issue with him - I actually quite like him and hope he can turn things around (post Kraft and Ankerson) and brings success to the club. I'm certainly happier with him than that Saudi billionaire who failed in Spain.

He'd have to fail pretty spectacularly not to get top 4-5 with them tbh. Squad depth and finances are far above probably 19-20 teams in this league, not sure we'll learn much unless he comfortably secures automatics. For the record, i think he could be a good manager - but he's still early on his career and he's done nothing but manage at basket case clubs so far.

My eldest really liked the yellow (new forest inspired) and red one from the last promotion season - sometimes they're really just nice sports tops, and crucially no sponsors is a big plus. In truth, so far most of what Puma have released has been utter garbage (i much preferred Hummel), although the away shirt wasn't bad this season (or at least for the kids without the betting logo on it).

Iran has been rounding up "Israeli" spies - which basically means they're shitting the bed and disappearing anyone that voices discontent against the regime using the war as a guise. If Israel and the States are hoping for regime change out of this, they'll need to do something to help - the people are completely cowed in Iran and have been for decades. The state's surveillance and suppression/imprisonment apparatus is extremely entrenched. One commentator was discussing how all the hits have essentially been regime supporters within the republican guard and that Israel is trying to take out the loyalists whilst leaving the regular Iranian army leadership in place - almost trying to incentivise a coup... if this really is the plan, i can only assume they've got some contacts or support mechanisms in place... for all of Israel's surgical and lethal intelligence manoeuvres, it would seem like a heck of a gamble to just trust the civvies to revolt? Who knows, maybe it will happen, and Iran can have a democratic revolution that won't end in civil war, and can in fact return to this... and then everyone can finally stop fighting in the middle east and instead love each other for ever and ever? The end 🥰😄 https://petapixel.com/2022/10/14/photos-show-what-life-looked-like-for-iranian-women-before-1979-revolution/