TWar

The biggest loss of this signing is that we won't get to make these puns. That leaves KWP or Maehle I suppose

Linked to Omar Colley again in The Sun and other places referencing The Sun so take with a massive grain of salt.

Don't blame the club whatsoever for not taking the 26m deal in January. If one of Stephens or Bednarek were out for the season we would have been stuck with Danso who clearly isn't up to it. Playing risky with relegation is not something I am in any way in favour of, even if it loses us 10m in the interim. Now, however, get rid, get Salisu in now and look for another cb too if we can find someone reasonably cheap who can act as a worthy 4th choice, I am not sure Danso fills that role.

Harsh on Che. He has been unlucky not to score more goals and looks great off the ball. He will come into his own next season I reckon.

Can only give my personal opinion. He is a ball winner, as are most of our team. We play a team that focuses on quickly regaining possession high up the field and making aggressive incisive passes. As for the actual role of Hojbjerg, he is more in the box to box role than the defensive midfield role, which has been primarily played by James Ward-Prowse. Personally, I do not rate Hojbjerg that highly as a box to box player, his passing is inconsistent and often not as aggressive as a lot would like. The strength of our midfield is mostly due to Ward-Prowse who has covered the most ground this season in the league and is an excellent tackler. I think a lot of fans were hoping we would upgrade on Hojbjerg anyway, even before rumours of him wanting out. The spot next to Ward-Prowse is one of our weaker positions, along with right-back, second forward, and arguably CB. I am, personally, surprised to see numbers like £35m being quoted for him as I do not rate him nearly to that extent. He is a decent mid to bottom of the league midfielder, he is pretty good at pressing, reasonably mobile but nowhere near to the extend of JWP, and can win the ball. He also has a little bit of utility, he has lined up at lb and rb this season, although to mixed results. He does not provide much going forward, doesn't shoot well at all, and doesn't provide many key passes. He also definitely has an error in him and has been known to give the ball away in some dodgy situations. As for mentality, he seems pretty professional to me, went about this in the right way, didn't throw his toys out the pram to get a move so I think he is ok on that front. I could be wrong but I think Southampton is about Hojbjergs ceiling, and even then we would probably want someone to compete for his role with him. I think teams like Everton and Spurs should be aiming higher. If we get offered more than about 15-20m in this market I would be very happy for him to go.

I believe it is only a one match ban for a second yellow.

AS may be not great but Salisu to saints has been reported in the Mail which tends to be an ok source. That one is from a guy on twitter with < 3k followers. Reporter for footmercato but they themselves are also reporting the AS story: https://www.footmercato.net/a6275678484672404351-rennes-mauvaise-nouvelle-dans-le-dossier-salisu.

I imagine it may be Bednarek Salisu competes with. Competition is good for these things, makes everyone perform better. Not sure about a forward, seems we are linked with Ollie Watkins but I'm happy for Che to have a bit more of a chance.

Lots of conflicted stories, none from particularly reliable sources. I am no more inclined to believe this latest development than the one from Le10 sport yesterday. We will have to wait and see.

I think Adams is still the better player. Great at the pressing side of the game, got some nice chances for us by outmuscling Pogba a couple of times and AWB. Needs to get his eye in shooting-wise but his pace and power are starting to show and will be excellent assets going forward. I like Obafemi but he doesn't have the same impact off the ball Che does.

Wouldn't be surprised to see us back in for Disasi after this, still, very disappointing. Will say, cannot find le10sport on any source reliability guides so probably worth taking this with a slight pinch of salt.

I mean aggressive in the "play more attacking and get at them" sense, not the "be physically intimidating" sense.

Yeah a new keeper would be contingent on getting Forster out on a perm to Celtic or Arsenal/Chelsea and Gunn out on a loan in the championship or something to regain confidence and accumulate value. Bring in keeper to compete with McCarthy over the next season or two and surpass him and then when McCarthy moves on/retires Gunn can come back in as backup. Or we sell him if we get anywhere near the value we signed him for.

Not sure I'd want us to spend any major outlay on a striker. Ings is phenomenal but I think Che could easily be developed into our second forward and Obafemi + Long is fine depth in that position. If Ings gets injured we have a sharp drop in quality but that is the case for basically any side losing their striker outside City and Chelsea really. If we are spending the sort of 20m+ he would cost I would rather get an excellent ball playing holding midfielder to play alongside JWP as this is clearly our weakest position at the moment. Or a keeper.

Same team, maybe Smallbone in for Romeu to play a bit more aggressively.

Yep, google agrees, unused sub, my bad. The reddit thread on the match didn't list him but not a particularly reliable source. Where are you seeing this? Not sure about the credibility of Lonjon, wasn't he the one that reported Lemina was going to wolves last year?

Dropped from the squad for the game today, get the feeling he is imminently going somewhere but I doubt it is us. Would love to be wrong though.

Getting the feeling we won't sign him. There are a lot of richer clubs interested and we aren't as appealing. Need to get it done fast!

A good point, but Adams may have done a lot better in the championship than Augustin based off his excellent season down there with Birmingham. Also sounds like Augustin has major injury problems.

We are likely bartering to pay in instalments (potentially more money to do so) rather than paying the full sum up front. This isn't that uncommon, most teams pay for players over 3-4 years or so, this means the upfront cost of a 10m player you get through a release cause is the same as the upfront cost for a ~40m player.

I remember the Coutinho rumour, was never sure how much truth was in it. Seemed like agent talk.

With the recent revelation that Leeds are going to be in a legal battle with RB Leipzig in order to get out of signing Augustin: I thought it might be interesting to have a look at some of the big transfers which didn't quite make it across the line in the last couple of years and see what they are up to nowadays. The ones that come to mind for me are: Quincy Promes: Was very poor at Seville with 2 goals and 3 assists in 33 games but seems to be turning things around at Ajax with much more impressive numbers, however, obviously at a significantly lower quality league Ademola Lookman: Has been dreadful for Leipzig with 0 goals in 12 games and all reports indicate that they are desperate to offload Theo Walcott: Everton fans seem to absolutely hate the guy, and to be honest he has looked pretty dreadful every time I have seen him play. 9 goals and 7 assists in 72 games isn't great either to be honest. James Maddison: A bit of a stretch this one as we were not linked at all until the week he signed for Leicester, so likely the link was just to hurry Leicester up with the signing, still great player Ryan Sessegnon: Signed for tottenham, has barely played, held out the team by Lamela and Lucas Moura who, while are alright players, one would expect him to be competing with given his 40m price tag. The message from all this I suppose is to the fans that think "oh just chuck another few million at them, get it over the line", the ability to know a players value and not spend over it is as important as the ability to spot a bargain. We have learned this lesson the hard way in the past! Remember this when some signings this summer inevitably don't come off.

Looks like we dodged a bullet with Jean-Kevin Augustin, Leeds may be entering a legal battle NOT to sign him:

When Adams gets one I expect him to get a few. I hope he will start now until the end of the season as I expect he would score 2/3 goals. That last burst through against watford was superb.

Yeah the UK did horrible things preWW2 as well.