Mallagroth

In short, yes. If we aren't we are either stagnating (which is fine at the very top only) or heading in a downward direction. How many we sell and when we do it is my only gripe. But so far so good.

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Bloody hell you are right MLG! It completely slipped my mind, silly me. Wish I could be as clever as you.

Slow clap round of applause for you. For the slower minds and pedants in the room I'll be clearer on what I wrote: There were rumours of a transfer today or yesterday that would be impressive before our opening game of the season and it is disappointing that this wasn't the case and hasn't materialised but not a huge surprise, no biggy it wouldn't have effected much other than some feel good going in. Puel thinks Redmond has comparisons with Thierry Henry, tomorrow is our first game of the season and next up we have man Utd so we will have to have faith that Puel is right at least for the next few weeks. If any transfer does yet happen it is disappointing it couldn't be done sooner because new signings take time to gel, however that is the nature of the transfer season and why they should open transfer window as soon as season ends and shut the window before new season begins.

well disappointing that there wasn't a jaw dropping transfer in the end. Guess our faith will have to go on Thierry Henry mk2.

Seriously why do you care? Some people do, you don't... allegedly. It was supposed to be a nice gesture considered at a time when people were excited that one of our players actually achieved something internationally. Time moves quickly, for example I thought Lallana was mustard not so long ago, yup i'm an idiot and he never was, nevermind. Maybe Fonte will leave and now get a lot of money somewhere else and of course many of us will predictably be annoyed, but that is the drama of modern football and why many people get more emotionally involved in it, than something like cricket. However him leaving doesn't really mean **** all or suddenly give any of our lives any extra meaning depending on our prediction of him staying or going. Can't understand the reason you resurrected the thread other than to do a pretty sad I told you so (when he isn't even confirmed to be going anywhere yet). Can't understand why it's such an issue for you but just so you know Whelk you aren't committed to giving the guy a blow job if he ends up on the banner.

Dangermouth Most people aren't fretting at all and just discussing rumours and speculation because,well, this is a conversation forum... Sometimes it goes too far but ultimately it's just a topic to talk about whilst real news is slow and the season hasn't started. Take your own advice and relax It's just a forum.

Well I trust your knowledge more than daft unverified snippets from elsewhere. Can't honestly see any truth in the Fonte or Bertrand worries people have. The only single reason people can have for any concern is the news article that suggested Everton were going to come in, but can't see saints agreeing to that one no matter the money thrown around not at this stage anyway. Maybe in January if the offer was too good to resist. The worries about his Instagram account were laughable when the guy has been away winning the euros with his friends and family and a case of people looking for drama because all is quiet on the transfer front.

Allegedly Bertrand has a mouth on him so can believe he might have been pushing his luck. If true and it was serious and not just a little dominance/ego type confrontation, one of the two will be out the door swiftly, just as similar incidents have been dealt with quickly by the club.

Think this is a case of gamblers fallacy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gambler%27s_fallacy p.s. Sorry to be a nerd but found it quite interesting.

On a side note i'm liking Puels new tactics for set pieces.

**** i've had enough of this I was going to kill myself but it's now so serious i'm off to buy a Pompey shirt. Checkatrade trophy nights here I come.

Really worrying that the last saints photo he posted on there was the last competitive game he played for us. Must be a sign of doom for sure. #WeMeltOn.

Romeu looked very good tonight staking his claim well, the goal was a bonus for him. Tadic, Redmond and Long linking up well, more to come but good signs. Lots of space on the wings and so with our two regular LB and RB on the pitch I think we can offer a lot more threat going forwards. Cuco had to keep stopping his run to get it on his left foot. McQueen naturally not as confident going forward yet. First half was the real indicator and we looked pretty good, some positive signs. Despite not having our best defense out they didn't ever look like doing much. Personal opinion is that Charlie is going to be off the bench option. I really want Clasie to do well but signs in pre season so far are that Hojberg could quickly have his starting place away from him. In my opinion and like most people have already said we need an alternative playmaker option if Tadic is out or tired, when he went off we lost most of our creativity. We also need a pacy striker so we don't have to rely on Redmond and Long to be fit for every game until January.

i'm gonna save laughing or gloating until fonte has signed dotted line got a bad feeling about everton official account being cocky enough to openly talk about the rumour.

Well that's not good. If Fonte goes, we have a very serious problem to overcome in a short amount of time.

Not the best way to phrase it admittedly but for whatever reason we didn't put up much of a fight for Pelle and Mane when both had time left on their contract. (I don't doubt that's for good reason, maybe just for money or maybe both were arseholes?) Either way we had some power to stop them leaving this season if we wanted to hold onto them but we didn't.

Still hoping we are going to sign a proper CAM/playmaker able to score goals. Needed one for a long time and would really be the difference. Agree with most everyone else that we need to replace at least some of the goals we let walk out the door. The black box seems stuck on the setting for hardworking box to box midfielders with low goal scoring ability.

If you are correct in this then surely that's pretty clever and worth more than getting into a bidding war. We are signing players with talent that no one else is noticing. Yes Austin spent time injured but he didnt get a run at it, we had form players above him when he was fit, I worry he might be a crock like everyone else does but let's actaully see what our infrastructure can do for him in pre-season and then judge him. As we now know, and most suspected, Koeman had his favourites which got played regardless of form... that makes it very hard for youths or squad members to force their way past into the first team... in some ways we were bloody lucky that Pelle got injured so Shane Long was the only option... how long did he have to play a bit part for as an example.

The 'rich/big clubs' only hope of maintaining any status quo for themselves is to continue to inflate the market. Last transfer year proved that they didn't go big enough. Very decent players were still obtainable by 'smaller/sensible clubs'. Once again though I think they are simply proving that the model of yesteryear is unsustainable and the gap in quality between a 105M striker and a 30M one is not so big when you take into account club injury records and periods of form. Both clubs still have more money to spend than many international rivals. The power of a unified hard working team under a tactical manager, in the current climate, is worth more than the transfer spend difference than that of a celebrity manager with big names who often think they are the star player and deserve special dispensation. Eg. Ibhramovic is very good but I suspect many other United players will think he is a knobhead and they are better. How long will they tolerate the big balls act. Same applies to their manager who believes he is the superstar not the players. It could go absolutely perfectly for them... or it could be an absolute disaster (more evidence for that recently), it is a huge gamble for the money they are paying.

Nope. Myth. We can but we choose not too, big difference. We are one of the richest owner clubs in the league... but we go after targets that fit our comfortable price range. If we are truly in competition with another club we have every option to beat them to it. Instead our club has been successful so far in being incredibly astute and placing investment in longer term areas such as scouting and physio department. One season it will go wrong and then you can release the balloons, but for now fair play to the owner and management team. Mirror but probably not the most accurate you can find if you search: http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/premier-leagues-richest-owners-how-6233348

enjoyed the blog, cheers

Yes they also own a **** load of dredgers. I reckon they would break down even more often if they had to get up and over towards Eastleigh.

Osvaldo was Poch's incoming manager signing promise, just as Pelle was Koemans. Thankfully the latter turned out better. Ramirez was just unfortunate, no reason for him to not work out. He had all the signs of great player but couldn't adjust to UK and Poch's style and was injury prone. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/23760294