sir_fred

Weird times... Well run on the pitch and totally chaos off pitch. I am amazed the Ralph stays. He probably gets a lot of power to make this his team...

So my bet is end of the week in an away shirt...

Redmond hasn’t produced the points needed from an attacking player but is so important for us anyway. Both in his press play and his ability to hold the ball and beat his man. Such a difference when he’s not playing.

Hehe, sorry. I am Swedish so my English is a bit dodgy. When I was in language school In Torquay I got corrected on my grammar by the 3 year old daughter in my host family. ? I hope my point is still valid, there are some major question mark regarding this sponsorship. I hope that the real answers don’t get us in trouble.

I just checked the LD Sport web page and it really does not look like a company who can afford to sponsor a Premier League Team. It is in Chinese but the the content on the page seems to very limited and Southampton focused. What details do we have on the sponsorship deal? Is it confirmed that Gao is the owner of LD Sports? It is really tricky to find any information on the case which is odd on a Premier League sponsor. https://www.ldsports.uk/

FFFP is also worth consideration as we can’t sell a few of them due to making huge losses in our annual report.

We will love VAR every time it goes our way and hate it when it turns against us. Simple as that.

A bit high on the result and performance in the second half yesterday I started looking at our squad for next season. I think Ralph will continue to reduce the number and try to increase the quality in the squad with a few but quality signings. I have build a squad around 3-4-3 and Ralph can of course have different ideas for next season. Also unclear what budget we will have as our outgoings will not generate any cash as we have most likely have them on (too) high salaries. GK Gunn GK McCarthy CB Bednarek CB Vestergaard CB Yoshida CB Stephens CB Marquee signing with leadership attributes LWB Bertrand LWB Targett RWB Valery RWB JWP (as cover) CM Hoj CM JWP CM Lemina CM Romeu OM Redmond OM Sims OM Marquee signing with pace OM Armstrong OM / ST Obafemi ST Ings ST Marquee signing with pace and strenght Get rid of: Boufal, Hoedt, Austin, Long, Mo, Forster, Soares

This is probably done behind the scenes now. The club wanted him to stay and all actions up to now was trying get another year from him.

Possession + Bad defence + ineffective strikers is a really bad combination. My tip for Puel is to adopt to our current crop of players. Let the team fall deeper and use the strength of our counter attackers (Long, Redmond, Gabbiadini). We have already seen(Liverpool) that this fits Stephens better when he can defend with play in front of him.

We are on a Jack Stephens suicide mission...

I thinkit is also a case of Kat failing Reed... She is looking to sale(either part or the entire club) and her focus doesn't seem to be to build the club at the moment. The uncertainty affect all staff at the club we are quickies loosing our strategy. We need to get the owner position sorted quickly if we are not to following steps with Villa where Sterner lost interest in the club.

An absolute abysmal window by the club. We needed a central defender and a goal scorer and we end up with a keeper and a forward who has never scored more than 10 in a season. What worries me about Gabbiadini is that he is 25 and with limited skills to be developed. He isn't that kind of raw material we have signed earlier. And by not signing a central defender we will be in a real mess in the summer when we will need to rebuild with 2 new central defenders after VVD leaves. And due to the injury of VVD we are in a mess now as well team wise. I think it is clear that the focus is elsewhere at the moment. We are looking too much into investment/selling the club and are loosing our place as first challenger to the top 6.

Jack Stephens are struggling badly. Wasting possession and side footed in defense.

I know that you should not rate players on one game but since there had been some rumours about him I studied him extra when I watch Napoli-Sassuolo in November. He was just awful, running around and never seemed to be a threat. We need a goal scorer and I don't think the Gabbiadini will be that for us.

I really hope that we are nowhere near interested in Gabbiadini. He has an awful record and saw him at a game at San Paolo last year. Hard-working but no attacking threats. A Shane Long without speed and smartness. If we are signing him, we have lost it transferwise. Hopefully just a media story circulating.

Was in Utrecht last year and saw Haller. Not impressed at all. Didn´t offer that extra you need from a striker. Tall but not very good in the air, quite athletic but no real pace or power.

IF Fonte leaves, we should go for Ragnar Sigurdsson from Krasnodar. He was immense during the Euros and is a really good defender and leader. Swansea is about to sign him so needs to act quick (if Fonte is leaving).

We have not been in a position to keep players from the big clubs. Therefore the plan have been to develop players and make a profit and using that profit to improve the structure of the club. What we can see this summer is that the clubs are making moves to keep our current crop which will be needed to make the step up. So, selling players has been both nescassary fot the club to improve and unavoidable.

I quite often read that we are signing players with less quality of what we sell. Well, isn´t that the plan? In our current position we are great to develop players in their early twenties to great players ready for the big clubs. So when comparing player to player we get weaker. But, when you look at the team we have planty of players who will develop over the next season. We will have a better Soares than last year, a better van Dijk, a better Clasie and so on. People here are though probably right that we probably need a new attacking player who we can develop to our next Mane. What I think is exciting is that the club are signing up player for the long run. I have some hopes that the club feels ready for the next step and keep the stars we develop. The club has also highlighted the problem with our raise in the premiership. We now are too good to get players straight from the academy to the first team and try to build a bridge from the academy through partner clubs. The club has also highlighted the lack of commercial income. If we are to make a step up towards the Champions League, we need to increase our income level. I think we are making the right moves by looking outside the UK. I think that the Afrian deal with Sport Pesa and and the American moves by starting Saints Academies and the partnership with Under Armour are steps in the right direction. I would say that the task of making Southampton to a Champions League team is a massive one but I think we are giving a good try. Looking forward to the future!

So what we are looking at is: Ronald spends two years in telling us what an honorable man he is and that he always honours a contract. A week after the last time he says so he fires his agent cause he wants RDB as a manager for Everton and not Koeman. We are talking about Everton, a club far away the top and to be honest 100M will not take them long as the premium on the top players are very high at the moment. For me he rise to the top of the Judas list. Far ahead of Lallana, Lovren and Poch. He is a simple liar and a hypocrite.

There are plenty of good options. Pellegrini of course, Frank de Boer, Rowett is intresting as well. An outside bet would be Karanka. Done well for Boro.

Make Everton pay up and then move on. As others has written, we are in a good position and have acted well in those situations before.

Out of reporting today: Mane - Depay Tadic - Son Wanyama - Morgan A striker is needed anyhow as I have big doubts about Austin/Pelle leading the lines. I d not have good suggestions though. Mou will not settle with Morgan and no other big clubs will buy him. Depay is pure potential but needs the belief of a manager. Son has skills and work rate.

Went to see Utrecht today and Haller was not impressive. Bart Ramselaar was a young(19), impressive midfielder with both technical skills and a hard working attitude. Hope the scouts in secret have been watching him instead.