saints-cris

Utd are certainly beatable; they have a very ropey defence, but a very pacey attack. Any decent winger has a chance of making Ashley Young look silly, which we certainly have options with. Could be a very entertaining game. Gunn Bednarak, Danso, Vestergaard Valery, JWP, Hoj, Bertrand Redmond, Ings, Djenepo

All about opinions, but I thought he was very good today and easily one our best players. We definitely need another DM though as he’s the only one who plays that role.

Bit frustrating to not get anything from that. They were there to be got at and we were pretty decent in the first half. Going in at 0-1 was massively undeserved. we made a mistake at the back and being 0-2 down felt quite unjust. We got a huge stroke of luck to get back in it and I’m not sure how we didn’t equalise with Ings’ miss. Not too deflated, good performance overall and should have taken a point. Fair play to Liverpool, they were pretty tired and ground out a win. The ref was proper crap still. Adams, Redmond both very good. Certainly not worried about this season. Got more ham enough to cause some teams problems.

It's certainly as good an opportunity as any we'll get, but the reality is they probably only need to play well for 25 mins of the game to wrap it up. We have to play like we did at St Mary's last season, run them into the ground and try and get ahead and hope they don't have the legs to break us down. I just can't see it though, their defence will be so hard to break down, and their big hitters will come on at some point.

The extra time and late night will certainly help us, but they are still way better than us. Hopefully they'll take it very easy when they go 2-0 up.

First time in a few seasons I feel more optimistic than pessimistic. We have a top manager who gets the best out of players, and the signings we made have been in positions we all felt we needed to add to. We have more options going forward now that we added Adams and Djenepo, plus with a seemingly happy Boufal that feels like a new signing. Last season if Ings/Redmond weren't fit I'd feel we wouldn't score, now that is totally different. Whether Danso turns out to be good or not, at least we have tried to address the biggest weakness we have. Getting rid of the dross was never going to be easy, but losing Gallagher, Clasie and Austin is a start, with hopefully Carillo, Moi, Hoedt and possibly Lemina to go too. No complaints at all from me, if I was being greedy I'd like another CM, but I guess Danso covers there now too. I'm very happy with how we've done. 8/10.

Sky sources: Charlie Austin has passed his medical medical and agrees a deal to join West Brom from Southampton. The fee is believed to be around £4m; a two-year deal with an optional additional year. To get our money back on him, is quite miraculous tbf.

Sad that so many people gave you abuse for something that really effects them in no way. If I was sat near you I'd probably join in. All the best in your future stuff, I personally enjoyed the vlogs. All the best.

Seems like they are going to get Nketiah from Arsenal on loan, so can't see it happening myself..

Sadly, the Prem is entirely predictable despite what the top 6 media will try and convince otherwise. I see it as four tiers these days. Tier 1 - Way ahead of everyone City, Liverpool Tier 2 - The remainder of the top 6 Spurs, Chelsea, Utd, Arsenal Tier 3 - Better than the rest Wolves, Leicester, Everton, West Ham Tier 4 - The rest, who can go down with one bad season

He signed a 3.5 year deal in Jan, so no. We're stuck with him, cheers Les.

It's a fair point. We consistently live within our means, which is fine but it means we have to constantly find the next Mane or VD, and for every one of those is a Juanmi, Hoedt or El Younoussi. We got 75m for VD; but we can't buy players for that price, so we went the 'quantity' route and didn't really get any better for it. When you see West Ham and Leicester hitting the 40m mark on players, it leaves me a bit miffed that we've only ever gone halfway to that. At what point do we start breaking past our 12-15m threshold?

OUTS: Lemina, Austin (late loan), Carillo (late loan) INS: Possible CB

Certainly more likely now that Gueye has just gone.

Personally I hope he stays, of course it's up to him. The side he left was a losing side, with an absolute dinosaur of a manager with a track record of falling out with flair players. The side he has come back to is completely re-vitalised with a manager worlds apart from Hughes. He has real quality, we all know that. With him, Redmond and Djenepo we have three very good wingers. If he wants to stay, I'm all for it.

Cant complain about the in's we've brought so far, definitely seem to suit the style of what Ralph wants to do. Would really like to see some others out the door though, and it doesn't appear as if any of Gallagher, Austin, Hoedt, Carillo, Forster, MacCarthy, Clasie, Boufal etc are leaving in the overly near future. Certainly no really strong links at this moment. And that doesn't even take into account the guys like Reed, Hesketh, McQueen who clearly have almost no future here. Be as happy to see some of them go as I would a new signing at this point, but I think it's as hard work getting people out as it is getting them in nowadays.

Simon Peach on Twitter confirming contact has been made. It's both a shame that he will go as we know how talented he can be, but also we've coped without him so for large chunks that he's not going to be a big miss and his good games are far too apart. He may well thrive at a big club but he needs to be more consistent. Hopefully we get upwards of £25m and re-invest.

I agree, he only left last year because him and Hughes fell out. He's got game winning quality and this team is so different than when he left. It's a happier place that actually wins games now. You can make a case for us selling, but I'm more than happy for him to stay if he wants; logically he and Ralph would have that chat at some point when he returns. If he buys into it, we have a top quality player back on our hands for nothing. Reminds me of the Puncheon saga a few years ago, came back and did really well for us. We lack depth on the wings, he'd give us more quality.

Nah, he had plenty of time under Ralph already. I think most can agree he's simply not good enough and is on a laughably big wage which only makes it worse.

I suspect Ings on a perm (official) and possibly Adams to be confirmed today.

Can only hope they're deemed so insignificant they're not worth mentioning.

It's a good fit, we've been in for him before and I imagine he probably wants to get to a Prem side before it's too late. Hopefully this means Stephens is off.

Pontuss Jansen from Leeds

Sky Sports now reporting it

Worked with someone who's son was mates with him. 30k p/w (allegedly), this was about 2 years ago.