goodymatt

Well that’s a shame, he would have been perfect. Manuel Benson seems to be the main target then #FreeBenson, unless there is still a chance with David Brooks.

Boro apparently winning the race for Amad Diallo loan as they are offering to pay a higher amount of his wages. We are still interested (Alan Nixon)

https://theanalyst.com/eu/2024/01/southampton-russell-martin-club-record/

FAQ section on the OS article suggests away fans will be moving to the family stand.

He mentioned in his interview that we have been talking to him for a few weeks, so good to know it’s not a ‘who else is available?’ after the Carvalho pursuit. Actually think his experience and relationship with a few of our players makes him a decent fit. Sounds like his playing style will help break the lines too. More sensible than exciting but you can understand the logic here.

I thought the entire team got a 40% reduction, still £42k/week is high for this league. Aribo cost us €7m apparently so a relatively low fee, but his wages are what you might have expected on a free transfer, definitely inflated.

His first game in charge was 6/1 vs Morecambe in FA Cup (2-0 win). This weekend’s 2-2 draw at Birmingham was his first Championship game.

So basically lumped too much info on at the start, took a step back and focused on key elements and went at a pace the players could learn from thereafter to make his information into a feeling for instinctive play? That sounds like he just changed the speed/order he taught the players, rather than what he was teaching. i guess we will never know if the changes in play we have seen over time, long passes, more direct at times etc is what he always intended or a response to the 4 defeats on the trot. Either way, I like what I’ve been seeing since September, we look great. Still need to see how we do away at all the other teams chasing those top 5 spots to know how good we really are.

Seems Rothwell is more of a Carvalho alternative than anything to do with the RW search. I reckon we will keep Che and it will be Rothwell plus a RW and that will complete our business.

I think Leicester are still on track for a record points haul. The chance of them not finishing top 2 must be an extremely low probability. For that reason I hope they beat Ipswich. If Vestergaard could avoid any last minute deflections this time please.

Leicester do have the best team in the league and to have a 10 point lead on us given how well we are playing and that we have now lost the same amount of games is a credit to them. From a Saints perspective it’s frustrating when you think of draws like Rotherham, Watford, Norwich and Huddersfield. all 4 of those game we were by far the better team and that is the difference, killing off games, especially away from home.

Russell Martin returns to his old club with the target of breaking our football league undefeated record. 5-0 winners vs Swansea at St. Mary’s should give us confidence. Swansea now managed by one of Martin’s former assistants. We have the momentum with us and I fully expect another win, even though managers going back to previous teams can add a bit of extra pressure. Saints would go back to 2nd with a win and stay there until at least Monday night, when Ipswich travel to Leicester. Leicester will be without Maresca in their dugout and Fatawu due to suspension.

Che with another left footed finish, that’s 2 in a row!

No new injury concerns. Martin said Edozie, Bree and Sulemana are all on track for a return at the end of the month. Ross remains out for the season.

https://x.com/southamptonfc/status/1745800465671925788?s=61&t=32j3cg4j7-NzvLD4O818SA

ABK has only played for PSV a handful of times having got himself injured yet again (I think another shoulder dislocation and a shoulder surgery this time to stop it happening again). This is the longest time he has been out injured, 83 days and counting so far. Even if he wanted to stay with us in this league I’m not sure his body could handle it, maybe his surgery will have fixed the problem and we can see him become the player we think he can be. Very frustrating for him as well, I’m sure. We could do with him playing the second half of the season as one of our few assets out on loan that could attract a decent fee and help with FFP. Alternatively, should we go up, he may come back into the fold.

I would be ok with replacing Che with a loan from a bigger PL team, who has a point to prove. I know he is now at Sheffield United but a good example is Cameron Archer last season. Signed on loan in January for Boro and scored 11 in 22 championship games for them. Trouble is not all loans are that successful and can we guarantee starting time to the best available options or will we lose out to other teams like Fabio Carvalho recently. Che doesn’t want to be here and will almost certainly be playing to avoid injury as the season goes on. He’s more than good enough to help us if motivated though. Not an easy call for Saints and not something we have full control over.

Bournemouth are ‘inconclusive’ about whether or not they want to let David Brooks leave on loan this window (Phil Hay, The Athletic). Dirty Leeds also interested.

Listening to the Total Saints pod, their fan suggested they are pressing as a unit and high, just like you’d expect from a Ralph disciple’s team. It will be interesting to see if our playing out from the back is polished enough to take advantage of that or if we might end up giving away a silly goal or two. I’m feeling pretty confident in our possession footy now, despite the Bazunu error vs Plymouth and the chances afforded to Walsall just after half time at the weekend. My expectation is that we will get plenty of chances to score against their leaky defence.

Tella situation is silly. We loan them a player with no option to buy and he becomes their top scorer for the season and helps them get promoted. They took the piss with a £9m bid and the social media ‘Free Tella’ stuff. He went to Leverkusen for £20m. Any club would have done the same, our asset and no obligation to sell to anyone. If anything Burnley should return our favour and help us with our promotion by loaning us a decent player, if they want to be all sentimental. As if!

So having lost out on Carvalho, Alex Crook states we are still in for David Brooks. It’s gone quiet on Benson who was also strongly linked with Hull. Usual transfer window report that Ings doesn’t want to come back, this time due to us not being PL. If Benson does go to Hull, that would be 3 players that chose Hull over us (Philogene, Carvalho and Benson). We also had previous interest in Delap and they have a former Saints academy player at CB. I vote to rename Hull as ‘Nearly Saints Tigers’.

We tried to hijack their Philogene transfer on summer deadline day and now they look to be getting Carvalho ahead of us. I would have expected we had much greater pull? Are we really not able to offer a player of this quality playing time assurances?

Avoid defeat in this match and we will equal our all time undefeated league record. Wednesday are much improved, winning their last 3 in all competitions. Will our former assistant end our run? I still think we will have too much for them. 2-1 Saints. Baz KWP THB Bednarek Manning Smallbone Downes Stu Arma Che Fraser

Not sure what was the nicest surprise, the quality of our youngsters or finding out Che actually does have a left foot… Ryan Fraser, great performance and he has further reassured me that Edozie and Sulemana injuries shouldn’t stop our momentum. He’s been great off the bench but this was a full game performance of high standard. I would like to sign him up permanently please. Also pleasantly surprised by Lumley. Didn’t have much to do but saved well when needed and I thought his distribution and speed of decision with the ball fitted in well to our style. That video of his bloopers was a worry but I think he’s better than we expected.