Dman

Incredible series, one of the very best. 2-2 probably the right result on balance, but I'd say England have been the stronger team, Aus maybe slightly wiser. All set up for 2 years time - the Aus team will look very different. Hopefully Wood & Archers body will hold up and we find a spinner. I think we could be bringing the Urn home with us!

They've also signed a young keeper from City, who's not yet played above league 1... what could possibly go wrong there...

Yeah, after this, I'd be telling them the price has just increased by £5m, now offer us all upfront or simply fuck off. Anything over £15m for him is great value anyway, imo.

If you were part of the Circle of Trust, you'd know why it is obvious.

That poster could easily charge for his valuable insight, but he doesn't. If you can't be trusted with the power of information that's you're fault. Don't try and ruin it for the rest of us. Sounds like there has been some real movement in the club over the weekend and I'm grateful to be privy to that!

I'd say its fairly obvious that at least 1 of Tino or KWP will be off - probably both.

IMO Aarons is the exact type of player we should be looking at - championship experience and good enough to take a step up. Obviously a downgrade on Tino, but anyone we signed would be. Its certainly not as big a downgrade as I was expecting at RB (can also cover LB, similar to KWP) and given the figures banded about, it would be stupid to not sell Tino if we can bring in someone of Aarons pedigree as a replacement.

According to Nixon, Leeds are after Harwood-Bellis. Valued at £15m, was a stand out player for Burnely last season and captained England U21's this summer. If true, we should be all over it. Would be a great Salisu/DCC/ABK Replacement.

I reckon we'll conceed more than e score.

we bossed the game, but scored no goals and got hit on tghe counter to lose 1-0. I don't think that'll be the last time i type that this season. We look a lot slicker, but still lack any quality in either box. Based on what I've seen pre-season, I think we'll be play-offs maximum next season.

Its going to be really amusing when revisiting that thread come the end of the season. I can't wait to see how the West Ham fans take to him when they realise he's basically just a posher version of Mark Noble who has a decent free kick.

No to Lavia, yes to JWP. Tino.. Not sure, i'm probably starting KWP regardless. But its an interesting point and one of the reasons I've been banging on about just getting deals done for the lesser players and taking a hit. At some point we need to start thinking about who is going to be in our squad come next season. Even if available, I'd be leaving anyone who's not willing to stay here at home (and tell them to not bother coming to the training ground). Regardless of who they are.

I'd be only willing to sell if they throw Downes in (even if its just a season loan with an option). As many have pointed out, we don't need the money (I'm not sure I believe it, but thats the negotiating line the club are taking), but someone like Downes would be the missing bit in our midfield next season. Great player, who'll make us more solid defensively.

Did anyone assume Martin was a Rasmus appointment? I thought it was pretty clear that Wilcox had a strong input into our new manager. Jones was Rasmus choice though.

great news! I knew you'd be a great host @Turkish

Agree, i can't beleive we didn't sel out every game. Knowing how lucky we were and being fortunate to be able to afford the trip(s) & annual leave, I done the lot, both seasons. Isreal you can kind of excuse, but i'm pretty sure, if memory serves me right, we didn't even sell out 500 tickets in a fairly accessible place in Denmark.

Pretty sure we have a friendly poster on here from up yorkshire way. I'm sure his hospitality will extend to fellow like minded saints fans. @Turkish - What are you saying? Any room spare for a like minded, beer loving scummers?

Fuck them. the ones with 'PL quality' have let us down for a few seasons now. They might be good players individually but as a squad they were very poor. No fight, No bottle, No quality. I'd rather we got rid of the lot and rebuilt again in the eventuality of going up.

Same top 2 as I thought, originally had Leeds for 3rd but think they'll be a little lower now (unless they pull a few rabbits out the hat late on in the window). I think we'll finish about 6th. Difficult to be confident on anything though as Pre-Season has been a bit bitty for us, given we have so many players we've needed to give game time who'll unlikely feature at all next season. Millwall and Brum to be my surprise candidates this season.

🤦‍♂️ Have you been living under a rock for the past 5 years, many a crap player which we've over paid for has come in, failed and we've struggled to give them away (loan or transfer) without having to chip in to some of their contract. If we want that pile of shit gone from the club, we'll need to take a hit on them. Its as simple as that.

I'm a touch torn with Tella. Imo he's not a PL standard player and 15-20m for him would be incredible value. Being completely fair, if we'd had an offer of 9m for him last summer, we'd have snapped their hand off. However; he's proven that in the right system, he can be a big asset in the championship. If we had just signed him off the back of last season, we'd all be really excited. On balance, I think if we get a decent offer for him £15m+, we should probably look to move him on and replace him with someone who can / will be able to do it at the step above - which I don't think Tella will.

clearly something we'd likely need to subsidies, unfortunately. Better than having them stink the place out round here.

Might be a touch harsh on Perraud, granted. But he doesn't want to be here and isn't really good enough to attract any substantial interest. Take a small hit and move him on. Free it up for us to bring someone else in.

If we get £45m for Lavia and c.£30m for JWP with the likes of Che, KWP / Tino, Salisu and ABK likely to command decent fee's, surely we can afford to move on the absolute dross like Lyanco, DCC, Djenepo, Big Paul, Aribo, Perruad, Mara & McCarthy for next to nothing, just to free up space in the squad for us to sign players who want to be here and suit Martins system...? I'd genuinely be happy with £15m for the lot if it meant we got them out. Even if we move them on loan.

Big Paul feels like the sort of player we will need to loan out or agree to take a massive hit on, just to get him out of the club. We're never going to get anything near what we paid, he's a terrible footballer and has no future here.