Patches O Houlihan

Ivan Toney with AA and BBD playing off him. Would be amazing, but seems too much to hope for

The reports are that there is no option to buy. Seems less able to play on the turn than Lavia; so presumably that will still be Flynn's job. But he does seem to have the destroyer element to his game like big Vic had.

It's the second coming of Victor Wanyama! 😁 Welcome Big Les!

Am concerned that when Chelsea sack Enzo Maresca, that RM is next on their manager shopping list. He plays the same style, so they won’t need to replace the 75 players currently in their first team squad. 😕

Cameron Archer: “That was one of the main reasons why I'm here, his playing style, his coaching and trying to improve me as a player. It's not a bad place to do that in the Premier League with Southampton. “I just want to keep scoring goals and improve myself as a player, and I don't think there's a better place to do that than with Southampton.” This may be an element we’re underrating as Saints fans. Players ultimately want to win titles playing expansive possession football for top teams. What’s the best way to demonstrate your ability to play that way? Play well for Saints in the PL.

He was listed as the fastest recorded player at the 2022 World Cup. So probably quite fast then 🤔

eg. Edwards, Sugawara [But also Mara, Edozie] eg. Sulemana, Tall Paul, Duje Ćaleta-Car, Ross Stewart, Boufal, Osvaldo [But also VVD, Danny Ings] And this is why there is always a stick to beat the club with. Unless every signing, at every price point turns out to be solid gold someone will find something to moan about. I wish we were Brighton... [hint - it's the data collection paid for outside the club, made possible by owning a gambling company that is the secret of their success]

YET Let's revisit that statement the week after the transfer window shuts. We all know that the majority of the big loan moves happen in the last few days of the window - happens every year. I would be amazed if we didn't get at least one quality loan signing in, based on our success with loans last year.

https://www.themag.co.uk/2024/08/how-are-chelsea-allowed-to-get-away-with-this-quite-incredible-what-is-going-on-newcastle-united-premier-league/ https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/cy4yg422zjpo

We did get the question about a striker at the end. But realistically would we rather a) Get a lovely fan friendly answer to the question that compromises our ability in the last weeks of the transfer window OR b) Receive a standard PR perfect response that maximises management's ability to complete the deals we all want to see.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/live:bbc_radio_solent

17:59 and no sign of the live feed on the app. Does anyone have it?

According to Bild, Eintracht Frankfurt are the latest side to express their interest in Southampton defender Armel Bella-Kotchap. Hopefully a bit of competition for ABK will see his sale price rise

Try thinking about it this way: We may have bought a Virgil Van Dyke at the price that Celtic would have paid, rather than the price we would have had to buy them from Celtic for. [or we may not have done - nothing is certain in life besides the unfairness of the PL]

Maybe after a season with Baz in the sticks for RM, and now with 2 seasons of data to analyse, the club have quietly recognised that they were wrong to put him in the firing line so early. Maybe they sign a keeper on a 5 year contract, we keep him for 3. McCarthy is back up this season, and Baz back up for the 2 after. Then that keeper is sold and Baz becomes our no1 again? I've nothing to back that up, but it's what I'd consider, assuming we were confident we could get Baz onboard with it

I agree with you. But sadly we don't get to play 10x BBDs. We still only get 11 players on the pitch, and the skill and ability of every player counts. Marginal gains against diminishing return on investment. (I seem to remember a classroom Economics lesson about why Nurses earn less than Footballers 🙂)

Maybe the DJ will play Freed From Desire in the pre-game too 😁 Feels like it is played at every sporting event this summer - not sure how I feel about that

See Sulemana - currently injured for a month or so after playing in pre-season; and as a consequence very unlikely to be sold.

But I think you can agree that those 3 windows have definitely been an improvement on the clusterf**K that was their earlier ones - and that was my argument.

Watching BBD's YouTube videos I saw a couple of goals in that style, so wondered whether he could emulate Ings for us using that technique. Blackburn fans describe him as being quite streaky, and a confidence player. We could really do with him retaining the hot form he had with the Blades and starting well for us.

Charlie Taylor was at Burnley and played alongside THB BBD played with Arma at Blackburn - there's another link somewhere too. Can't think of it right now. [RM last night > "Flynn played for England with him as a kid"] Sugawara was quite likely recommended by Yoshida when he was training with us. There is a credible argument that the quality recent signings have come from personal contacts rather than a 'black box'. Fine by me as long as it doesn't all fall apart if Russ gets headhunted as so many of our good managerial team seem to.

School holidays are obviously leaving you with too much time on youre your hands 😉

https://archive.is/IReWF

Last summer (2023) he was signed. Man City - 1 appearance Northern Ireland - Broke into the team aged 18 1/2, has made 17 appearances. Besides defensive midfield he can also do a job at centre back and right back. He is not 21 until November. Yes it would be great if he was a rock star. But so far he's about par with JWP at that age isn't he?