Saint86

He was out best actual left back on the books... Wonder who we've got coming in to cover/replace Manning...

This was exactly my thoughts. Luton play a very limited style of football that will not be effective in the premier league long term. Saints will have the legacy of the £160M on our FFP balance sheet as well, so the team and style we get promoted with will need to be competitive for the premier league as well.

Its a good move for him in all seriousness. He's probably not quite got it all there (yet) to excel at the premier league's level, but a move to the Bundesliga is situated nicely between the prem and the champ ability wise. Plus he'll get European football over a few seasons i'd expect. Good luck to him.

We won't win the net spend trophy without it!!

Some of those comments are the polar opposite of what a some of our fans said about him on here... Makes you think about that Plymouth fan that came on here saying how much our fans slate our own players. 😶 "he can certainly pass the ball well. hopefully when we get settled and get more possession he can start running the show. works hard and has a good engine. good signing . His corners are things of beauty. so dangerous. who remembers nobles little floaty ones ?" "He always was a top 6 Footballer in a struggling poor Southampton side and top 6 Teams should have picked him up long ago for what he offers. Thankfully we can now be that top 6 Team for him.Dead ball specialistLeadership skillsHigh work rateExcellent passerDisciplinedHigh number of goals and assists from Midfield (especially in a poor side)" "Two games, two assists one goal. Our midfield looks so much more front foot with him in it." 🤣

Not a chance, they were on for promotion last season before their manager upped sticks on them. They're a decent outfit again this year.

Important to remember that he remains absolute "Pony" for some of our fanbase 🙄. Its tough watching him playing for another side and doing well, but i hope he gets his dream England call up for the euros, not least because i think his set pieces would actually be invaluable in a tournament.

Decent movement and a good finisher. Looks to have good header placement as well. Hard to gauge how he'd get on in the championship at a higher tempo and level of physicality.

Every game we get 70-80% possession and nearly all the cards... Wtf.

Seen this reported a lot today (although not the wages element). Good for him and us frankly. Plenty of other players seemingly can't wait to make their exits, even if they'll be heading to struggling or potential relegation sides.

Euros next summer, and Bednarek wants to be in the Poland squad. Stephen's won't be dropped as he's been made captain (🤣), and Woods will be a big money signing. Holgate similarly would expect to play regularly at this level. Its a good set of CB's for the championship, but equally will be very hard to keep them all happy and maintain a settled back line. Also, if the club do shift Lyanco, ABK, Tella, Adams, and potentially/probably others, it would seem to be quite poor business without at least 2 more quality additions for this level.

I find it interesting that Martin says Holgate will play predominantly CB, and that Holgate says adamantly that he wants to play CB and is a CB... and yet we are seemingly trying to sign Wood as well. Is the implication that KWP isn't leaving and so we don't need additional RB cover? Or is it that bednarek is off as well? Can see us with quite a few CBs on the books by the end of the window as it stands - Stephens / Bendarek / Woods / Holgate / ABK / Lyanco / Awe and ofc Charles...

My understanding was that Adams did train yesterday, but is likely to be benched vs qpr?

Sheldon is a little weasel in the first instance, certainly no friend of saints and a bang average (at best) sports journo to boot. As for the club's public stance, the fans need to stop being so childish about stuff like this imo. Whether its true or not, we took a hard line bargaining on lavia/jwp/salisu/Tino by representing a position of relative strength - we had fans on here saying we'd never get more than £40M for lavia etc. - so we've done very well on the sales front. And I'd far rather we make the most of whatever position we're in than be kept fully informed about the club's negotiating strategy to the detriment of the club... The alternative is more than a bit precious lets be honest. Besides, we're on course to have a very competitive squad for this league despite the player sales, and we've got some cracking youth players coming through that we really shouldn't be blocking off.

To be fair to Holgate and Fraser, they seem like good blokes who want to be here, want to play, and want to push for promotion. They're good quality additions for the championship, and i suspect they can be added longer term quite easily if they do well. They also both know the league and what its like to be in relegated sides. Fraser, Martin, and Tella all know about promotion from the championship, and Manning, smallbone, and Downes have had very good seasons at this level. As have some of our other players such as Che and Armstrong. Looks to be a tidy squad that's being put together. Plus we look to be keeping at least 2 of Sulemana, Tella, Alcaraz, and ABK... When that window "slams shut" we really should have an embarrassment or riches for this league.

Is it too late to sign Openda? 🤩

Not if he isn't gone this week... 😄

Ah yes, tbf i forgot about Downes - but he isn't going to be hanging around beyond this season. Manning was a fullback replacement for Tino/KWP. Shea Charles is a cb/cdm to replace the various outgoings before they happen. With smallbone, Downes is essentially adding depth as we've lost two cm and gained two CDM's 🤷‍♂️.

All of our signings have been done in advance of players leaving. So far at any rate. 😅 We just haven't signed many players....

Lets hope that's it! Tella, Suleman, Alcaraz is a title winning attack.

Ryan Fraser is miles off either Tella or Sulemana. Shocking bit of business strength wise.

The ladies world cup final penalty call vs spain was a really good example of this. They took ages looking at it via video assistant, and then the ref stood by the pitch side monitor for a few minutes to look at it about 10 times... They then overturned the onfield decision to give the penalty. Quite evidently, that wasn't a clear an obvious mistake as it took to long to look at it, and for decisions like that it really should be a quick 1min look, is it an error? Yes/No style job. There are other instances where there are various issues that occur, such as potential offside, then maybe a handball etc. But even then it should be a couple of minutes top. The refs have the tech and its good, but the ref's are poor. And thats the issue - its is beyond me how time and time again they keep getting dragged into looking into decisions in minute detail when that very clearly isn't the scope or how its meant to be applied. Just shove a damn time limit on it! But the mentality of putting VAR back in the box remains nonsense in my book, shouldn't even be on the table as a possible option.

That article is written as if Leeds have a decent shot at promotion... It's not going to pan out that way 😄

I for one am just missing the Napoleonic wars chat...

Speak for yourself, but I'd happily sell onuachu, mara, Aribo, and djenpo 😅