Saint86

I dont think there is any way, shape or form that Burnley would sell Ings.... It would be madness. Even if they kept him, stayed up, and let him go on a free it would be worth it. If they lose him and go down, well, they'll need to cut the wage budget anyway, maybe. Shane long is a good signing for us, suprised more can't see it. The lad runs and runs, scores good goals when he has decent service around him and is a real nuisance. Him JayRod and Pelle will cause any defense a hard time. Then 2 of tadic, ramirez, davis. and JWP in behind as CM's and Wanyama, morgan or Cork sat behind them. That is just one possible formation. We can equally play 2 up etc etc... The only thing I will say is that either Gallagher has just had his first team chances squashed.... or JayRod is on his bike in January... Also, just typing out our CM options, seems apparent that Spiderman is on his way as well. Far too much depth there, not needed at all.

Opening day squad vs Last seasons first 11 GK - Boruc vs Boruc LB - Shaw vs Bertrand RB - Clyne vs Clyne CB - Fonte vs Fonte CB - Lovren vs Yoshida CM - Wanyama vs Wanyama CM - Morgan vs Cork/Taider:mcinnes: CM - Davis vs Davis AM - Lallana vs Isgrove FFS! AM - JayRod vs Tadic maybe hope on this one FW - Lambert vs Pelle And we have almost no depth what soever this year. Prem level players on the bench, ramirez, cork/Taider, JWP, Forster - No striker, No CB, No decent winger...all key roles under 4-3-3... Our squad is not good, first 11 is passable, squad depth is currently god awful, and it wasn't great last year!

At the moment we will struggle. Spunked 10m on a keeper when the positions that really needed work were the wings, attack and CB... If we don't get a quality CB and Attacking Mid in soon then I think we will struggle for goals and be in deep doo doo very quickly. Realistically, this team will need time to gel, we have our easiest games first and there is a high chance these will get wasted by poor team cohesion. Then we'll struggle with the second batch of games against the top teams. Nothing what so ever to be optimistic about other than the hope that the next 3 weeks will see us sign some actual quality and won't see morgan leaving... That and the kit makes us look like Sunderland when viewed from a distance... Fingers crossed that Koeman really is a good manager, because it all hangs on him atm.. Current squad - 18th-16th Couple of decent signings - 10th to 15th.. Can't see us even presenting an illusion of chasing the top 8 this year... not with this squad anyway.

If Boruc gets injured for the entire season, we will be in (or very close to) the relegation places with this squad. Likewise, if Pelle gets injured we are fooked as he is out only recognized striker.

I would have thought that fairly self explanatory MLG, he doesn't think the team is good enough in his opinion. Is every fan required to right an essay outlining the expected quality of the squad, strengths, shortfalls, targets etc... so that you can review it and decide whether they are able to post on here? Who let the forum police out?!?!?!

That is a shocking decision. 6-1 up with 2min to play, and get knocked out of the champions league.... Law suit incoming I would imagine. Disgraceful decision from Uefa.

That is a widely detached view of reality. I am one of the most positive people I know about saints, and lots of people have been depressed, anagry with the board, accusing them of lying and dishonesty and simply awaiting the next sale. People have been openly talking about cancelling their season tickets (and sales are lower than last year)... This summer has done a lot of damage and now the new board have got until Christmas (latest) to show they can stand on their own to feet with out Cortese or the protests will start. Make no mistake, if form is bad and the team struggles, saints fans will let them know about it.... No one can say they are happy/delighted with the board's performance, but as a fanbase we are fairly level headed having seen bad times before... we have lost faith, but we will give them time and a chance to show their worth. If they cock it up, they will get both barrels from the fans. And they are right on the tipping point as of the Chambers sale.

Happy Birthday to the Don

We should do them by age in ascending order!!

Look you are being silly....... £30m/52 weeks = £577,000 per week.... Plus his actual salary of £25k/week.... Equals more or less £600k per week.... Ta ******* da!!! You don't understand ffp, you are making a fool of yourself, and its frigging tedious.

I think you've failed to understand that blog or the fules of FFP....

My name is Rudy Kraft... hmm, RK?

That this board won't spend anything more than the bare minimum to keep us up, and that we will see hardly any of the £93m being spent. The first team have been asset stripped ready for sale, and we'll be patched up by loans and cheap players as much as possible. Tadic and Pelle were only signed as part of the Koeman agreement.

Its all ballcrap, keep the fans happy for as long as possible... spin spin spin... Meanwhile, that £93m we made, we don't spend a penny more than tadic and pella who were part of the koeman deal. Stripping the club before sale, happy to be proved wrong ofc, but this board have given us diddly squat to believe in or trust.

The lad has massively developed in stamina, strength, set piece delivery and free kick taking, long shots and passing vision. This will be his break through season I hope. Ironically his position is the one we haven't sold anyone in and the one we have the most depth in! Bare in mind how good players like lala and morgan were when they were 19, they had nothing on this kid. He is also very intelligent and articulate, plays in a non flashy position and is a local(ish) lad, can't see him following his "dream" move to Anfield can you? I still remember the 1-1 with City last season and him scrapping with yaya, pushing him of the ball and hastling him all night. Poch gave him a fiesty-ness that will stand him in good stead. Expect Koeman to teach them all some dutch attacking swagger! You're allowed to doubt him ofc, but just bare in mind what he has achieved for his age and compare him to other players and the fact that the average CM age in the prem is 26 as stated above. The lad is at a respectable level for most prem teams already! And if he turns into a set peice beast as looks to be on the cards, that is worth points by itself!

Ben Smith is very anti saints and exagerates/negative spins everything... I mean come on; "But by signing three players, Graziano Pelle, Dusan Tadic and Ryan Bertrand, for a combined potential outlay of £30m, the hope is he will not have to rely on them." - No its not, its £20m and a free loan... and no way will we sign Bertrand for £10m! "The parents of one 15-year-old player have already decided they no longer want their son to stay on at the club amid the uncertainty." -No evidence, no quotes, is it real, what is the context etc etc... utter negative spin bollarks! The whole article is "Cortese was marvelous", everything else is ****e... Back to his stirring ways personally. He wouldn't even need to put a spin on a lot of things, but because he does he loses all credibility tbh.

Or any of it in fact!

Come back when that happens please, 7/10

Well, Ashley Cole couldn't get in the Chelsea team... so hardly an argument to say someone is crap. He'll do a job for us, still better than when we first arrived. Still not seen any evidence of interest from the board however, patch us up with load signings, pocket the catch, and sell the carcass still to be disproved... Remaining on the Asset strip side of the fence with Spider to go on Sep 1st.

In light of morgan's tweet, is it not possible that he wanted to stay, and the board have told him he is being sold or sitting in the reserves... meanwhile they make a brave face of keeping him. All the negative press about players leaving has come from club sanctioned sources... They've lied and lied in statements, had puppets come on here to keep fans happy and various times (during the sales and season ticket renewals etc)... I trust this board not one iota. Nothing to disprove this theory atm, and until we spend a significant amount of the money we have recouped it will look like an asset strip prior to sale of the club.

Viking, if we sell Morgan, jayrod, Cork, Fonte and JWP, which is all being reported today or this week, then we will not be okay. It looks this week, like an asset strip prior to sale of the carcass. It is hard to be positive at the moment, as to do that requires faith in Les Read and his ability to bring players in. I hope that is the case. But as it stands and with our current momentum.... its hard to look past relegation. I am also one of the bigger happy clappers on here.... But I am becoming very, let me stress this, VERY, concerned.

Doesn't change the fact that as it stands, we are getting relegated after a fairly brutal asset stripping does it. Massive upturn in fortunes is required in the next 2 days let alone the next week.

I'm not sure of a lot of things right now, even less so that the club have £80m in the bank, if she's selling then those monies are in her pocket not the clubs.

Jesus Christ, seriously. The Liebherr's have been notoriously quiet the entire time they've owned the club. Why don't you just wait and see what happens over the next few weeks. We are rolling in it, have a great academy, good players remaining and a very well established manager with world class pedigree as a player. We are being linked with a lot of quality players and it could be a very exciting time. I hope she doesn't read the forum and realise what a bunch of ungrateful bedwetters saints fans are in general tbh. She would sell up.

Guys grow a pair, the club will show their intents in the next few weeks. Stop begging for reassurances, it is embarrassing!