goodymatt

Damn, this is how desperate I am for a signing! My bad.

I recently signed up for 50% off. So £29.99 for the year, extra month free to cover the ‘off season’. Figured I’d see what all the fuss was about and the recent free to read article on Ralph’s managerial career peaked my interest. I’ve read back a few of Carl Anka’s Saints articles, really enjoyable and I was looking forward to him covering Saints this season. Hopefully Dan fills his shoes well.

KWP looked pretty fast after giving the ball away against Bompey and somehow getting back to block what looked like a certain goal

Agree this is a really good signing at a very reasonable price, especially considering the fee received for Targett. Bertrand was circa £10m before money got silly in football, he may have played a CL final (by default) but was still struggling to consistently perform for Villa on loan and was never in Chelsea’s long term plans. Felt like a gamble on a big club squad player at the time, one which worked out better than we could have ever hoped really! To buy a promising English player with 6 months experience working with our squad (Ralph often mentions it takes much more time to get up to speed with his system), with lots of potential to improve for £12m in 2020 is a no brainer. He looked excellent after lock down and I’m very pleased we have sorted out the shambles at RB. Valery showed some potential but doesn’t have what it takes at this level for me, concentration and defensive positioning are just not there. Cedric’s head was elsewhere and did have some clear weaknesses, despite his self proclaimed world class crossing...

Are we bigging him up now he’s playing well for Fulham? Haha!

Nathan Dyer Jordie Clasie Harrison Reed Michael Obafemi

You're right, LB cover not RB. Might have been Toby that covered RB for them. We can rule him out then, rumours that united might be in for him anyway. I thought Cahill would have been a good buy for us last season and experience is so important at CB. Think Vertonghen is 33 so not really a Saints signing (big wages and no residual value).

Vertonghen is a free agent, experienced and can also fill in at RB when needed. Never going to happen though?

That new Brighton top is a bit too Pompey like for me, seeing Lallana in it just looks wrong.

King.

This is a double cup final for Bompey. They should want it more but hopefully that plays into our hands tactically. I don’t hate them, but agree that after their antics at St Mary’s it would be nice to put a nail in their PL coffin.

Reading all of these rave reviews from Fulham and Leeds fans, it sounds like Reed is turning into a Kante style player. No doubt he would suit Ralph's system and we don't have much money to replace PEH. I know some think PEH won't be missed but if he had signed a new contract at Saints, I wonder if I'd still be reading that. For me PEH is a consistent player at the simple stuff and if Reed can replicate fizzy pop form in the PL, just maybe it will soften the blow of losing our former captain.

I'm still not over that last minute deflection when Hughes was manager... We really are due a win there!

I wasn't born when Adrian Heath scored that last minute goal to knock us out of the FA cup semi in 1984. Do we hate him solely for that?

We did win there on pens in the league cup a couple of seasons ago, if that counts?

The tabs on the bottom of both kits (back of shirt) look really odd! Sponsor looks much better in the block colours. I think I prefer the third kit, reminds me of the league one promotion, where all the fun started. Compared to this years home kit, the new one is much better, wasn't hard though!

Toby Alderweireld on a perm?

I was impressed by the Wolves 'Si Senor' song they stole from the bin dippers. Got me thinking we should try and make this fit one of our players: There’s something that the Saints want you to know, The best in the world his name is Djenepo, Our number twelve Give him the ball and he’ll score by himself Si senor Give the ball to Moussa and he will score I'm not the biggest fan of 'ohhhh Moussa Djenepooo' on repeat.

I would also go for this team. Redmond will be a big loss, everything good offensively seems to go through him. Djenepo would have been my pick to replace him for this game as well. Big opportunity for Boufal to impress, but I'm not sure what we will get from him. With Redmond I fancied us to push them close. Think we will lack the cutting edge going forward and lose 0-2. Hope I'm wrong, I live near Manchester and would love it if we beat them.