goodymatt

https://x.com/kranenburg1/status/1827717472444617118?s=46&t=7raSKCMt6LV8RJ1C2d39WQ Feyenoord say goodbye to Bijlow. Can you imagine us doing this for one of ours? Admittedly Dutch fans understand their league’s position in the order of things but encouraging to see how popular he is. Fab suggests he’s flying tonight for medical.

If (and that’s a big if) Bijlow comes in and stays fit, Bazunu and Macca won’t get a look in. Far superior in every way. Macca and Bazunu are number 2 quality, one nearing the end and one with potential to become a number 1. I’m glad we are doing something about this and fingers crossed Bijlow can break the extremely worrying trend of missing half a season. We have chosen him over Ramsdale because we don’t want a £25-30m obligation plus a £6m loan fee and wages. That’s a huge amount of money for us at this stage in our return, especially considering the money already spent so far with potentially other signings coming in too.

Downes is by far our best player, but he’s not making that list! Sign of where we are at the moment, trying to build back to being able to find the next one for your list.

Smallbone’s worst on the ball performance today. The one thing he excels at, precise one touch passing was nowhere to be seen. Fernandes and Dibling looked encouraging. Our three goal scorers all look very toothless. Not sure in this system that Archer offers us anything different than the other two. THB uncharacteristically off the pace too, looked nervous. He was so good last week and all of last season, just an off day hopefully.

Nearly an incredible OG from THB 😳

@Sheaf Saint DM me your number

Even if we did want to spend the £25m + £5m on a player such as O’Riley, we are just not as attractive a proposition for such a player at this time as Brighton. Plenty on ‘X’ suggesting we messed this up, in reality we were just inevitably not the most appealing option for the player. Martin’s relationship gave us a little bit of hope but it’s hardly a surprise that he’s choosing Brighton over Saints. Same with Gakpo (Liverpool) and Ramos (PSG). If we get Ramsdale, then that would be very impressive given our current position.

I’m not giving up on Armstrong just yet. Being in and out of the team on the left in a 4-2-2-2 off the ball focused team is a completely different environment to the way we play now. I think he will both get more chances to score but also finish more of them than last time. Plus he now takes our pens, so double figures is achievable until he proves he can’t do it in this system at this level. He was taking shots from very difficult places to score in his previous seasons in the PL, I’m hoping as a result of the system and his lack of compatibility with it. The counter argument is 2 seasons at PL level is a big enough sample but Ralph didn’t trust him and Russ does, let’s hope he can step up.

https://x.com/mcgrathmike/status/1826742089167638641?s=46&t=7raSKCMt6LV8RJ1C2d39WQ

Well there could be a situation where we both stay up. Unlikely, but all 3 promoted teams managed it when we last went down. Points deduction for Leicester probably relegated them, 2 more spaces to fill.

I think plenty of Ipswich signings would have been well received if we had signed them. They are having a really good go and I’m hoping that isn’t to our detriment.

Don’t think it has translated too well but sounds like their coach appreciates that Mateus Fernandes is a big loss but necessary to keep other players. Hopefully the financial driver behind this sale is to our benefit and we have an exciting young talent that is going to hit the ground running like Lavia and Tino did.

Yeah his injury record really isn’t great, averaged 117 days injured over the last 6 seasons, best part of 4 months and that’s not far off half a season. We can only hope that’s he’s going to buck that trend and stay fit for the season, otherwise we may be recruiting for this position again in January! At least we are signing a player that isn’t injured on arrival so we may see positive contributions from him and if he does stay fit it’s a really good match for our style and a player that has the quality to be Dutch number 1. Can we just get lucky for once? I’d say our survival might heavily depend on his fitness and it’s a risk we don’t need to take, as much as I like this player when fit as a match and improvement for Saints.

Our new number 26

Our new number 18

De Telegraaf and Fab

I recall the transfer fee was only about £5/6m and so he got inflated wages. Still seems a bit steep though doesn’t it!

Prowsey shouldn’t have left, but that £30m fee will have helped massively with the financial situation. He’s a PL quality player and I’d take him back without hesitation but not for anything like what we sold him for. Feel with the moves we’ve made this window, the club won’t see a spot for him and I’d rather loan a decent keeper for this season than any other position.

Greaves looks like a decent signing for Ipswich.

Left at half time, has a concert in Serbia later or something. Or maybe he couldn’t handle the nerves!

I thought of Archer as an achievable option and think he’s probably as good as we can expect for our budget on a permanent. I’d imagine if we played Archer, Arma and BBD it could be a very fluid front 3 as all can play wide and central. Lesley looks like a big, strong and powerful unit that can pass the ball well. Seems like the perfect attributes that we needed to add to our midfield. Ipswich did well to get Phillips but this could be a signing that is equally as important.

Skipp?

Fingers crossed we are feeling much more confident in the squad come 30/08. Appreciate the update.

Slightly different profile to our last no.32!

Might want to put this wind up merchant on ignore.