Saint86

Yeah, like him a lot as a saints pundit.

Midfield looks empty without jwp. Worrying. No pressure from alcaraz. Also why was che Adams playing rb for that goal... Sunmary - we have no real shape out of possession... Edit. Also, bree has been an absolute waste of space in all pre season games and certainly tonight.

The saints apreciate your support, I'm sure of that much.... Even if you didn't have the bottle to watch us lose to bitter arch rivals Bournemouth in a friendly game 😡

Would expect Arsenal and possibly even city/united to sniff around as well tbh.

Yeah I'd love to keep him, he's clearly a top talent and one of the players we should aim to keep.

Which makes complete sense given where the club was (from a financial, recruitment, and coaching perspective) during the relegation, administration, and league 1 years. Wouldn't have recovered significantly until after we had re-established back in the premier league so you're talking 2013-14 intakes onwards imo. These kids join the club under 8 years old etc? So we really should be seeing the fruits of the academy investments only in the coming years - and the signs are already good.

I really don't think it's hard to understand tbh. We seem set on making one big money sale. And this will be lavia like as not. If by some miracle someone comes in and offers us north of £45M for JWP or Tino then it will be one of them that leaves instead and we'll possibly even keep Lavia... But people can tell basically everything you need to know about the transfer strategy from the prices we're asking - its a tacit acknowledgement that we can't keep lavia long term and are happy to do a deal now at a decent price, and are then essentially pricing the others out of a move with the intention to build the team around them... If by some miracle no one wants lavia then we'll drop our prices to get that one big money sale. But fundamentally we have owners who at least are making a very good show of being prepared to underwrite financial losses this year, and a bunch of good players on long term deals. I know its a step change to playing the game properly for once, but it is what is happening. And largely irrelevant to that. We have a vast plethora of bloated shite that has suffered wage drops and wants out of the club and that the club wants to get out... and those players need to be shifted regardless of one of Lavia, JWP, Tino being sold. I'm actually more concerned with how we shift most of our 6CB's and the likes of Che Adams, Aribo, Diallo (gone thankfully - anyone get a price for his move though?), Tall Paul, etc. than whether we get £50M, £45M, or £40M for lavia etc. Also, media rumours/stories about bids of £35M for Lavia, or £25M for JWP are irrelevant tbh. I read them as PR pieces for those club's fans "look how deluded/unreasonable Southampton are" (groundwork excuses for not getting them - #we tried), to pressure other clubs into sales of their players (we're moving for JWP/Tino etc), or to try and unsettle players via constant noise/attention (though i imagine that is done in the background mainly) - which may work if the club is financially stricken and unlikely to be competitive this year. But all you can read from our board is that we're not operating under financial difficulty and we are intending to win the league... Which is either on the money or a good poker face.

This is what i was saying, but better 😍. I'd honestly put Liverpool up there nearly with Portsmouth, certainly my two most disliked clubs.

They really are the victimhood city of the world. Whenever they're not on top its "unfair". or they're somehow being shafted or hard done by, that or others are in the wrong... and even when that isn't the case they're always being generous and others are being outrageous for standing up to them etc. It never quite ceases to amaze me how basically an entire city can develop such a warped outlook.

And yet spurs topped the sustainability index in 2023 - despite the carbon emissions of a new and somewhat unnecessary stadium and international tours.... https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/65544714

Exactly this.

No, the ball trajectory didn't change at all in the views I've seen, no visible evidence of a connection, so no evidence that it impacted her fingers... she could just as easily have been moving her hand to avoid the ball... So it isn't clear and obvious and it's a lucky pen, and one that was well saved initially given the keeper is 5'4" especially.

Thought the England women were poor. Got lucky with the penalty as certainly wasn't a clear and obvious handball, Haiti should have equalised late on - was a good save. All a bit flat, and does seem like they've let the Euro's and all the attention go to their heads prematurely - reality is that without a strong showing in this tournament its not worth much.

Armstrong with a couple of attempted leg breaker passes so far, mara as well. Smallbone's got some nice vision on him.

The way I see it, we have an owner that is backing us, and we are setting high prices for our best assets. The first prices to get met will be the few that are sold, and we'll keep whatever is left. The price we're setting for players is an extra strategic layer on that aimed at at least trying to focus the likely sales... some we don't want to sell we've set really high, some we setting a reasonably expensive price for and will allow to leave if its met, and others we're actively trying to shift. It will be a case of who blinks first... If by some miracle no other club gets desperate and comes in then we'll lower our prices - but it's advantage saints in every regard as it stands... And it's nice to have an owner prepared to be tough, hasn't happened since cortese was calling the shots. I.e. Top clubs know that if they want lavia they have to move before city's clause kicks in next summer, sides like west ham physically have to sign a CM, other clubs will miss defensive targets etc. It is very unlikely that with all the pressures in all the various leagues, no club gets desperate enough to pay what we want or reach a reasonably expensive compromise. Around all that you have two kinds of overly negative viewpoints from some of the fanbase - one where some fans believe we have no power as a club and will be forced to sell all our best players 🙄🙄, and ones that seem to think every rumour of a player being linked away at a low price is true... 🙄🙄🙄. There is also that particularly odd view raised on here earlier this summer that man City can tell us who we sell lavia to and that we couldn't possibly ask for more than £32M-40M because of our side agreement with city...😂🤣 The only way we'll drop our prices is if its late in the window and we've not made either 1 big sale or enough smaller ones. So I remain fully comfortable with how the window is going personally - we're showing strength and ambition so far.

Looks like a vomit again.

I agree with Le Trimmier. This feels like more a case of them considering that a second tier club is too small to have a designated reporter. When Sheldon left, there was a big song and dance about the handover to jacob - that hasn't been the case this time. Will wait to see what happens, but on the basis that they think a club's division (not its fanbase) merits dropping them i'm not very impressed. Pretty silly if that is the case by them as well given their business model is a subscription based service and i'll be cancelling mine if there is no coverage... Alfie house is actually the best saints reporter out there at the moment, so quite happy to switch my attention to the echo if the Athletic don't consider us worthy of reporting on.

https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/fc-portsmouth/transfers/verein/1020 They've certainly been busy.... although i can't say that any of that stands out as good business...

What are they up to anyway? Any chance of them getting relegated (again)?

The last linked article feels like a bit of a blast from the past now - that was the last game where Ralph had what resembled a fully fit squad. Could have been so different last year, particulary if we'd signed some bloody attacking competence in the summer. Main thing now is that we get back ASAP with minimal collateral damage.

They don't. Ranked 24th for dribbles last season.

Sorry what? Explains a lot tbh.

People shouldn't need to be constantly reminded... but JWP isn't leaving... 😎 On the Ings topic, A fit Ings gets us promoted. He is still one of the best finishers in english football, albeit he is about to turn 31. I guess he's done less mileage than most due to his earlier career injuries, but that in itself is still a risk. And there is question over pay/motivation. Would make some sense from the perspective that he could do a job for 2 years and allow some of the younger players to develop. If he's interested and we can do it without overstretching, then i would bring him back.

Saw this in Bristol as well the other day. on a 5year old. Weird.

What?!?! Its an absolute non starter. This is sports washing and an attempt to build interest and tourism in Saudi Arabia - the money is good because no one wants to go there and that will never change whilst the saudi's run around dismembering the free press in various international embassies or funding civil wars in yemen etc. Jude bellingham joined Real (in the face of better pay options), the lanky Robot boy is at Man City, and Mbappe is at PSG... That's your three best players in world football in the making (if not already) - and i reckon that no young player with a serious love of the game grows holds a dream of playing and living in a league with no history/prestige and in a desert country with one of the worst human rights records in the world... They're signing old players or the ones only in it for the money. Its no threat at all to the premier league or europe, and if anything its benefitting those leagues as they're getting paid silly money for old players to improve their squads.