Toon Saint

I think Forster and Wanyama need to reprise their heroics in the Celtic vs Barca game if we are to have any hope. I dream of a late Pelle header winning it for us, but in reality I'll accept a narrow defeat, a strong performance, and signs that the squad is gelling.

edit: wrong thread

Perfect timing really. Feel sorry for Palace fans but the idea of Cork going for £3m was mental.

Credit where it is due, the board have done well to get in 7 signings before the first game - 6 of which are full internationals. I'm hoping for another CB (hopefully Vlaar to add some steel to the backline), another wide-option, and cover at RB, but the squad is shaping up quite nicely now. Still debatable whether we have any more depth than last season given that we've lost the same amount of players, but things are starting to look up at long last. Lets hope the board build on the positivity and don't f^ck it up with another high-profile exit. The biggest PR coup for them would be to tie down J-Rod to a new deal, then we'd really be in business.

Are you @thefalselibero Barcelona Saint? Just had a conversation with you on twitter if so... Does seem a strange one that they are missing training to be in London. Meeting with Gardos (as was mooted) would be a weird one as Gardos arrived at the airport quite a bit earlier and neither Jos or Morgan are likely to speak Romanian. Wouldn't they just stick him in a taxi down here anyway? If Morgan is meeting with Tottenham or Arsenal officials then that is frustrating, but why the hell is Jos with him? Needs to concentrate on his football not sacking off training to help his buddies move along to other clubs.

If Hull sign Wellbeck I will wear my birthday suit to WBA game.

Great little player is Cork. Offers no goal threat and doesn't even assist much, but stitches our play together beautifully. He's so solid and reliable and 'without ego' as Ralph might say. I hope the board know what they are doing as it just seems madness to get rid of what little continuity we have left for such a paltry fee. I fear the board will live to regret this one. He'll be Palace's best player.

Would be gutted if Cork went - especially for a poxy £3m - but would hardly be surprised giving how sparingly he has been used in pre-season. Thought we were supposed to be improving the depth of our 'roster', or is that going to be another broken promise?

Is this Jos' role in the squad now, glorified bellboy?

That's not his official twitter account.

Shouldn't we be reveling in finally buying a player from another PL club and putting clubs like Hull 'in their place', so to speak? Long will improve us, and like many of the players we have signed over the last 5 years, we will improve him as well. If used properly and he forges a decent understanding with Pelle and Tadic, I can easily see him getting up to 15 goals next season. Yes, he is overpriced but some of the rubbish spouted on here is ridiculous. You'd think we'd have signed some plodder like Jon Parkin, not a technically accomplished PL striker with plenty of pace, dynamic movement, and by all accounts, a great attitude. After Hernandez, he's probably the next best PL striker the board could have realistically signed - so what have they done so wrong, apart from paying a bit over the odds? His two goals against Villa last year highlight the talent that he has. I'm confident we can coax more out of him.

He's definitely no Jordan Rhodes.

Have to agree. Thought he would have fitted well in Poch's system last season too, loves to hassle and press the opposition and will create space for our midfielders to pass/run into. Definitely expensive but we are far from the only team to have paid a premium on British players this summer - only need to look as far as Hull to see that.

I think Borini or Ings could have been decent options, but Long is a better striker for the here and now. The key thing for me is Long's Premier League experience and being able to rely on a player to score goals at this level. None of our other signings can guarantee that and given that 70% of our source of goals last season (Lambert/Lallana/J-Rod) have been sold or remain injured, it is a pretty big risk to enter a new season without a properly recognised PL scorer. Not saying he is prolific by any means but would expect him to reach similar figures to Lallana and Lambert achieved last year, and that will surely do?

After Hernandez rejected us we were obviously looking for a player with similar attributes, so I think from that perspective, Long fits the bill quite nicely. £12m seems high especially when Hull have banked a sizeable profit after 6 months but lets not forget they also forked out £16m on Snodgrass and Livermore ffs, so what constitutes decent value nowadays? Sure he will score more goals than our £15m record signing managed last year and no doubt contribute a lot more to team spirit as well. Not a signing to get especially excited about, but one that I can see working out pretty well.

You are quite right. Forget me.

Maybe just sorting work permit issues before the move?

Might be a tad on the dull side, but he's a better player than people are giving him credit for. After so much upheaval this summer it makes sense to have a player that is a proven scorer of PL goals. While definitely not prolific, there is no guarantee that taking a punt on a Championship player with potential or an obscure European signing will chip in with 10 goals over the course of the season. We have already signed enough players that while looking good on paper, are ultimately, untested in the PL. Best not to have a whole team of them IMO.

Throw back? He has terrific pace, movement, and work-rate. Has scored some lovely goals too. Needs to be more prolific, certainly, but think if played in the right system he could be a really good fit. Could see Pelle and Long partnership working rather well. £10m is too much for him, but in a window when Fulham have forked out £11m for a Championship striker, hardly obscene.

For £6-7m Long would be a really good signing. If we've accepted that Hernandez won't be joining we may well be scouting for someone with similar attributes and a striker who is proven at PL level. Definitely not the most glamorous name to be linked with us, but we can't keep taking punts on players with no experience of the Premier League even if they might be cheaper. Might well be worth paying the premium for someone who should pretty much guarantee 8-10 goals a season. I think with the right service and striking partnership he could score quite a few more, definitely has the potential to anyway.

Think he'd be a good if unspectacular signing for us, but didn't we miss that boat last Jan? Imagine Hull would want a decent profit to even consider selling.

Don't think so, but he's pretty famous on the Guardian comments section. He posts similarly lengthy 'reports' after every Saints game. Always a good read but the fella must have way too much time on his hands.

By all accounts we offered a lot of money for Rojo (17m euro) but sounds like the player was reluctant to move. The clause in his contract may well be related to if a big club comes in (and not the fee itself) which they seem to have now. No shame in missing out to United and I think we've moved on from this since Les came back from Portugal anyway - there has been no more news of us increasing our bid, and we have at least been proactive in getting another target lined up should the bid for Rojo fail in Gardos. If Rojo was ambivalent about being here in the first place, him moving elsewhere is for the best. We've already seen with Osvaldo, the problems that signing someone who thinks he is bigger than the club, can create.

A fair review I thought - though I've never heard of Sam Stephens, any good? Jacob Steinberg clearly thinks we will finish better than the average prediction of 15th. http://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2014/aug/12/southampton-premier-league-preview-2014-15 Guardian writers’ predicted position: 15th (NB: this is not necessarily Jacob Steinberg’s prediction but the average of our writers’ tips) Last season’s position: 8th Odds to win the league (via Oddschecker): 1,500-1 Watching Southampton being reminded of their place in the food chain has been a dispiriting experience this summer and unless you support Portsmouth, it is hard not to feel sorry for them. In another era, they might have been able to use their brilliant youth system to build something special and make a proper challenge to the bigger clubs. A team who have grown up together might have been allowed to develop into a genuine force. But not now. Their best players have been pilfered, their manager has gone and it is enough to leave one questioning what the point of all this is if a team is dismantled as soon as it threatens to smash the glass ceiling. When speculation was building over the futures of several players last season, Les Reed, the club’s executive director, promised that “any enquiries we get will probably be met with a ‘no – not for sale’” and the chairman, Ralph Krueger, also said that sales would not be required to pay off Southampton’s debts. However when Ronald Koeman, Southampton’s new manager, insisted that they are a not a selling club when he was introduced to the media last month, that claim was rather undermined by the fact that they had already lost Adam Lallana, Rickie Lambert and Luke Shaw and that more were seeking moves. “We sold three players,” Koeman said. “That’s good enough. Enough money. Now we will keep the rest.” A few weeks later, he was tweeting a picture of an empty pitch at Southampton’s Marchwood training ground. “Ready for training!” the Dutchman wrote. Southampton Manager Ronald Koeman Ronald Koeman has also changed the coaching set-up, bringing in his brother, Erwin (second left), and Sammy Lee (third left). Photograph: Chris Ison/PA Koeman is not the first manager to put on a defiant face in public and will not be the last, but no one was taking those comments seriously and it was not long before an increasingly rebellious Dejan Lovren had forced through a move to Liverpool, Calum Chambers had joined Arsenal and Morgan Schneiderlin and Jay Rodriguez were itching to link up with Southampton’s previous manager, Mauricio Pochettino, at Tottenham Hotspur. Naturally supporters questioned the club’s ambition and whether the owner, Katharina Liebherr, who took over when her father, Markus, died in 2010, is in it for the long haul. Suspicion is understandable. Ever since Liebherr fell out with Nicola Cortese in January and brought in Krueger in February, there has been uncertainty. Pochettino, who was close to Cortese, could not be convinced to stay and the wheels were in motion. Yet it was risky to judge too soon. For some, the sales were a sign of weakness, for others, a sign of business acumen. Southampton finished eighth and have brought in £88.5m from the sale of five players, a figure which will rise to over £100m if Schneiderlin and Rodriguez leave. Many clubs will envy them. Not many would say no to Arsenal when they were offering potentially £16m for Calum Chambers, a 19-year-old right-back with only 23 first-team appearances, while Lallana, Lovren and Shaw were expected to leave. Only Lambert’s exit was a surprise and he signed for his boyhood club. Reed asked for patience. The time for judgment comes at the end of the transfer window and while there are still a few holes to fill, Southampton have calmed supporters’ nerves by signing Fraser Forster, Dusan Tadic and Graziano Pelle and bringing in Ryan Bertrand and Saphir Taider on loan. A deal for the Steaua Bucharest centre-back, Florin Gardos, is also imminent. Further signings are expected and when it is put like that, it is not much of a crisis. Ryan Bertrand has been brought in on loan from Chelsea as a direct replacement for the departed Luke Shaw. Photograph: Peter Cziborra/Action Images Fears that Southampton are going to be dragged into a relegation battle are misplaced, even though Koeman is essentially building a new side. Southampton have not ceased to exist. They remain in a better position than a lot of clubs, not least because of their academy, and looking at it positively, these can still be exciting times, a chance for a new manager to make his mark. It will certainly be fascinating to see how Koeman implements his ideas and whether he will make tweaks to Southampton’s high-energy pressing style. He has divided opinion during his managerial career but he is a multiple title-winner, does not lack confidence, can be expected to make good use of Southampton’s academy and his Feyernood side have been credited with providing Louis van Gaal with the inspiration for the 3-5-2 system used by Holland at the World Cup. In any case, Pochettino was not perfect: there were times when Southampton relinquished leads or handed over the initiative to inferior opponents, while his bizarre and unnecessary decision to field a weakened side against Sunderland in the FA Cup attracted derision. Given that Southampton were comfortable in mid-table at the time, there was no need and a place in the final would have been within touching distance if they had beaten Sunderland. Instead they limped out meekly. Absorbing the loss of Lallana will be difficult. The midfielder joined the club when he was 12 and while his progress was slower than Gareth Bale and Theo Walcott, Lallana rose through the divisions with Southampton and was always improving. Whenever it appeared that he had reached his peak, he would find another level and he was exceptional last season, scoring 10 goals, dictating the play and making the side tick. Yet Southampton have found a replacement in Tadic, and will hope the Serbian international can replicate the form he showed for Twente, for whom he scored 16 goals last season. Nathan Redmond could also arrive from Norwich City to give Southampton more width. Predictably Koeman is looking to exploit his knowledge of the Dutch market and has also filled the gaping hole in attack left by Lambert by signing Pelle from Feyernoord. Inevitably there are suspicions about any striker signed from the Eredivisie – blame Afonso Alves and Mateja Kezman – and Pelle, a 29-year-old Italian, will be under pressure. He was prolific for Feyernoord but his record in Serie A was unconvincing. Koeman appears to know how to get the best out of him but Southampton still need another striker now that Dani Osvaldo has joined Internazionale on loan. Sam Gallagher, a young forward, is promising but raw, while Rodriguez is sidelined until October with a serious knee injury. Tempting Javier Hernández to the south coast would be a coup. Other areas of the squad are more solid. Artur Boruc managed to quell his erratic nature last season, other than a comedy attempt to dribble past Olivier Giroud that ended in disaster during a 2-0 defeat to Arsenal, but he will probably lose his place to Forster, whose arrival for £10m from Celtic suggests that Southampton’s ambition remains strong. Losing the efficient midfield energy of Schneiderlin would be a blow but Southampton have added Taider, an Algerian international, as part of the Osvaldo deal and already have Jack Cork, Victor Wanyama, Stephen Davis and James Ward-Prowse in central midfield. Harrison Reed is also on the verge of breaking into the first team and Koeman is thought to be interested in Feyernoord’s Jordy Clasie. However there is slight concern about the defence. Southampton have more than doubled their money on Lovren and there is little admiration for the way that he left, but the Croatian shone last season and formed a solid partnership with Fonte, who improved alongside him. Southampton cannot rely on Jos Hooiveld and Maya Yoshida and will hope that Gardos acclimatises quickly to the Premier League, if he does indeed sign. Nathaniel Clyne, who was outstanding last season, will ensure that the departure of Chambers will not be felt too keenly, while the signing of Bertrand on loan from Chelsea fills the void left by Shaw on the left. There is also a belief that this could be a breakthrough year for Matt Targett, who is another product of the youth system. Other youngsters like Jordan Turnbull, Sam Stephens and Lloyd Isgrove will also hope to be involved. Realistically Southampton might struggle to hit last season’s heights and a mid-table finish would represent a successful campaign after all the disruption. They are heading into unknown territory but if Koeman embraces the challenge and the new players settle, everyone will wonder what all the fuss was about. If not, the consolation is that the stripes are back and at least no one can buy them.

Shouldn't we be more worried about a song for Lovren given that Lallana won't be playing: