The Kraken

Spoke to pals about it last night. Some of them were in the theatre and they said it was really disruptive. Others said that their phone went off multiple times, 4 times was the most. Must admit mine was ok, went off just once and took me a while to even realise what on earth it was.

You can’t judge our transfer window until it closes. It’s 15th August today. Last summer, we hadn’t signed Mads Roerslev, Finn Azaz, Tom Fellows, Caspar Jander and Leo Scienza by this time. If our squad is deficient by the time September ticks over then I’ll get concerned. Until then, I think we’ve got good balance and would expect any major players leaving to be replaced as like for like as finances will allow.

I played at St. Mary's a few years back, think it must have been 10 years ago now. Great day out, and afterwards I was given a signed Saints football which still has pride of place in my home office.

It will be a bit of a cock up if he goes and there’s no proper replacement. The club should know at least a little bit in advance if talks get realistic. We’ll see what happens. I tend to think he’ll go, but can also see some merits of him giving it one more season with us.

Mubama has been putting in the air miles, I read that City only left South Korea after their game on Sunday and were due home Monday morning. Assume he packed a bag and flew straight down to Soton for a medical / formally agree terms, then into training this morning.

If its another striker then they must be reasonably confident they'll be able to get rid of at least BBD and Damo on decent terms (transfer or loan). Feck me, I hope so.... Not sure what another striker in does for Archer; straight replacement or as well, as well seems unlikely IMO.

I keep seeing this, what makes people think we're getting rid of Archer this window? I think the club would obviously listen to offers for him, but they surely wouldn't get rid of him without bringing in someone else of a similar style. I just don't see it happening, at least not on the terms the club would want.

I don’t think it’s been a disaster. It’s cost the club/Dragan money for sure, whether that’s affected us and in other ways I don’t know. There really have been very few obvious upsides though.

The Stewart/Larin rotation is arguably what made both of them look sharp and fresh. The level of competition between the two really helped. Big Cyle is 31 now. We’ll see, but it’s likely his minutes will need to be managed over a 46 game league season. If we’ve only got a ‘backup offering a threat’ rather than the genuine level of competition we had with Stewart, then we’re down some on last season in the striking options.

He may even get thrown in against Watford. The club are saying that Larin is still nursing himself back to fitness and they’ll only make a decision later in the week as to whether he can start. The idea of going with Archer or BBD as starting lone striker was starting to be a concern. Just hope this lad can step up. Def need some goals from him, but our system also needs him to be decent at hold up play too and that bit is a definite unknown for me at this point.

Archer will be number three, as it was last season. If we sell Archer then yes there’s scope but I don’t see that happening in terms we’d be agreeable with.

I would be astonished if we get another striker who is a genuine starter in the mould of Larin and Mubama. Think the plan will be to shift BBD, entertain bids for Archer but in all likelihood go with him as the different striker option. From what Alfie House said, Scienza last season was an over budget punt but one that worked out well. So we’d really have to be getting rid of quite a few players before bringing new in IMO. At the moment we’ve still got players onboard who were out last season and this term who likely won’t get a look in: Downs, Suga, Ramsdale, BBD, Baz etc., we kind of need to see how those lot get out and funded (if at all) before we can spend anything much. But up front it definitely seems like Mubama is earmarked for the Stewart role.

If Larin doesn’t start we could be a bit fucked.

Fair enough, gave a bit more leverage. Still a decent fee imo. Will be interesting to see how he gets on.

Very sorry to see him go, but inevitable once a PL club comes in. That sort of money also just can’t be turned down at our level. Given he’s only got a year left of his contract it’s a large fee.