Ivan Katalinic's 'tache

Wouldn't surprise me if he left, whether permanently or on loan. We do have good depth in midfield with Downes and Charles in the holding roles and then Stuey, Smallbone, Rothwell (unknown if he's an upgrade but it looks like Martin will play him ahead of Charley) and Aribo (when he's back from AFCON) in the more advanced positions. As things stand, it seems Martin has him down for a few mins at the end of league games plus cup action, which is probably not enough for him.

Genuinely think he could be the difference between playoffs and automatic promotion. The ability to open up a defence when it’s tight could be invaluable (think Rotherham, Huddersfield etc)…

Clearly happening… 🤣

We're paying a lot of money for Macca to be Joe Lumley's back-up. I can imagine the club will be quite keen to get the extra warm-up goalie on match days off the books in January, if they can.

Surely it's in the transfer window rules that we need to have at least one deal sheet move each window? Given the supposed tension between Burnley and us, following their failed Tella pursuit, perhaps Benson is our deal sheet guy?

Welcome Joe. If you become a huge success (which we all hope you do) and Saints switch to charging per letter for names on the back of shirts, you will become a decent revenue stream for the club. Wins all round.

This season it’s made a change not seeing so much of it on the pitch…

It’ll happen with the way we play. It’s high risk stuff at times from Baz, Bednarek and THB right in front of the goal inviting forwards to press and then moving it on just as they arrive. We do need to learn when to punt it on occasion IMO and it meant unnecessary pressure at the end of the game but it’s clearly something we’ll keep doing.

Looks like we’re back on the hyphenated surname trail again. Excellent shirt name value for money there…

Absolutely this. The only thing I miss is the kudos of being called a Premier League team but, beyond that, the Championship is far more fun. My son and I are travelling to games looking forward to them again, rather than with a sense of imminent doom...

Get them out of the League on the basis of this huge infraction to allow us to form a new rivalry with Premier League giants Bournemouth.

Apparently we will also be retrospectively investigated soon. The PL are unwilling to believe we invested so much money in so many shit players without some kind of kick-back to agents during our time in the division. A Premier League spokesman said “It’s inconceivable that one club can have been duped so many times in so few seasons. No board can be that crap. We have no option but to conclude some serious wedge was paid by agents to board members for these duds to all land at the same club.”

The forum still lacks Bearsy's unique insight.

Bree > Manning

He plays on the left, he plays on the right, Kyle Walker-Peters makes Messi look shite…

Ross Stewart nearing injury return but faces Southampton battle after Sunderland switch - Chronicle Live Not that far according to this.

Red lights on the bridge could generate a whole different income stream for some? I can see the sign now: Southampton twinned with Amsterdam

Clearly someone gave Russell Martin videos of Chris Nicholl's Saints, to show him the Southampton Way, but without giving him Le Tiss, Shearer and the Wallaces to score our way out of our defensive woes.

Has Tall Paul actually (Trabzonspor shirt held aloft, "it's been my dream to play in the Turkish league for a side just below the better ones") gone?

Fulham bid for Stuart Armstrong off according to Sky Sports

This must've been the winger we wanted

Ooh...

Have we Google searched "injured players at Sunderland" and put bids in for any we've identified?

Adam Blackmore has caught up now too. I think we can be reasonably assured this is going to happen

This journalist at The Athletic seems pretty sure all is good for Stewart too. Someone pass the petrol back to the Sunderland fan so he can finish burning his shirt.