SonicBoom

Can't wait for Friday when all the bullshit is over. All parties talking like they aren't in control. Gakpo knows full well whether he's leaving.

LaBia

Surely Gakpo won't leave PSV to come to a club whose realistic ambition is 10th? I love saints but wouldn't. I've also been to PSV and the stadium is great, far superior to ours. If he wanted to play for a year or two to get a bigger move then maybe, but he already plays for a big club so is visible to everyone. So I cant see this happening at all unfortunately.

The problem with a big strong centre back is that the first time they come up against a nippy skilful centre forward they look slow and clumsy and everyone starts moaning about why we bought a lump with the turning circle of an oil tanker. Who'd be a manager.

I don't know why fans get so mad at the club for "not signing players earlier in the window" etc etc. If you are selling and the player is wanted then you can obviously control when that happens. If you are buying then the deal is out of your hands. The selling clubs sets the timescale of events. Saints want a striker so the selling club knows they can force a better deal the longer they make us wait and the nearer we get to the window closing. If you were selling Gomez would you flog him to us three weeks ago or make Saints wait until the end of the window when you know it would be very difficult for us to go somewhere else? That's why deals sometimes don't happen because the selling club demand a ridiculous fee with days remaining. Saints may have to walk away instead of getting mugged off. Problem with that is the fans then blame the club for not getting a deal done when in reality the sellers were taking the mickey. I'm not saying we're perfect but it's not as simple as finding the player, making an offer, and bringing him in when we want to. Unless you're Chelsea and you can make ridiculous offers for players that aren't worth it.

I don't understand why everyone suddenly thinks Adams is this fantastic striker. He's never been very prolific in his time here. He does have the odd purple patch and score 4 or 5 but then goes back to hitting the keeper. He even hit the keeper from a few feet last night but it did go in. I'm not saying he's terrible. He works hard, he can make a pass and he is the best we currently have. However we won't get anywhere when your main striker scores 7 or 8 a season. So if he goes then fine, we get a pot of cash to get someone else in. Ideally we keep him and spend on a goalscorer to play with him. But let's not be fooled by a couple of good halves and a brace against Cambridge. He hasn't suddenly morphed into Didier Drogba.

Broja won't be too happy to see Gordon arrive will he.

OK some good points about Che. However, he is still only going to get you around 8 goals a season. Unless something changes dramatically from the last few seasons. I guess the answer is to keep him and play someone else off him. I was happy we signed Adam Armstrong but frankly it hasn't worked at all. We have Che scoring lets' say 9 and AA scoring 2 per season. That simply is not enough. Che offers more all round game too. So maybe the harsh truth is that we replace AA with more of a poacher.

I do find it odd that Che Adams is suddenly the best thing since sliced bread. Apparently we cannot and must not sell him at any price. In fact, he's played well for a while against Leeds and half an hour against Leicester. Credit where it's due, he did turn both games though. But, this is his pattern. He has a few good games then disappears for long periods. Frustrating because you can see he is capable. Hence he only scores 6 or 8 a season. If he played like this every week then of course he would be indispensable. But he doesn't.

I certainly wouldn't want Iheanacho. Doesn't seem to have made any sort of impression anywhere and I'm not sure he's better than anything we have so what's the point. I also see someone said we might "go big" on a striker. Bear in mind 25 mill for a striker is not really "going big". It is for us though I guess.

I'm no Redmond fan and I'd be happy to see him leave. But it makes me think "why?" In his time here he has actually delivered more than Djenepo and Diallo for example. I think it's because at times he looks a really good player so you know he can do it. Most of the time he doesn't do it so it's infuriating. He also doesn't seem to improve. Case in point would be his shooting. He cuts across the box, makes space for a shot and BOOM - row Z. How has he not worked on that ?? So really if you compare him to some of the others he's not too bad, but compare him to what we thought was his potential, and he's really really frustrating.

Clearly it would be good to buy all the players you need on the opening day of the transfer window and have a full preseason with them. Sometimes that is possible if all parties agree. But it seems some fans think that if we don't do that then there is something wrong with our recruitment. Do people not realise that there are a lot of factors. Maybe the selling club doesn't actually want to sell. Or maybe they want to hold on to the player as long as possible in order to push up the price. Maybe the player doesn't want to rush into a decision, he wants to see who else comes in for him and he can afford to if he has a contract. Sometimes the buying club doesn't want to appear too keen. The subtleties are endless. It's not a case of "We want a CB, why don't we just go buy one". Well you can I suppose if you want your pants pulled down on every deal. I'm as worried and critical of the club as anyone else - but I will at least wait til the window is closed to evaluate our business. There are deals that selling clubs just won't do until the last day.

I hope all the people that are pleased we aren't selling him, remember they are pleased when he smashes the ball into the keepers face from point blank range - yet again.

I find it odd that we haven't ever got anything from Ralph's previous Red Bull connections.

Why stupid? He doesn't score many. Letting him go is fine. what is critical is who we bring in.

It all depends, we always have one good half and one bad. Which was that, the good one or the bad one?

Yeah fair comments. I'd still say if we were going to flog him I'd actually like us to sell him to rival team in the bottom half of the premier league. Obviously he could have one of those days but in general he's not that scary to play against and he's unlikely to suddenly start scoring 20 a season for someone else.

This might not be popular but I'd rather Che was playing against us for a rival than for us. He scores the odd goal but really isn't much of a threat. He used to be good at bringing others into play or playing through balls but I haven't seen that for a while.

I am buying Redmond a dog.

Everyone seems very happy with the business to date, but we are still taking a gamble. The new recruits have barely any PL games between them. I am looking forward to seeing them, but then I was the same when we signed Djenepo, Diallo, Armstrong, Elyounoussi etcetera. They have to be a success and I'd like to see some experience bought in. It's a very long season to rely on very young players.

Seems an awful lot of money for an unproven player however not only must we have thoroughly scouted him, we also had the input from the Man City guy that is joining us to be head of recruitment. So we have a lot of first hand information on him and the club must be convinced he's the real thing.

Maybe I should have been more specific. We are going to have very little experience in our back line.

People seem excited about our recruitment. I have to say we are extremely light on experience and none of the incoming players have any PL games under their belt. They do all look good on the surface but we have seen from the last few windows that players can flatter to deceive and are soon found out. I really hope we sign someone in the 25 to 30 bracket.

Brighton seemingly interested in Delap now possibly as part of a deal for Cucurella to go to City.

Spurs are very short odds to get Eriksen back. There is no chance he'd come to us. Face it, would you ? Right now most would put us in the bottom quarter of the league for next season.