HarvSFC

Only seen the highlights, but Amo-Ameyaw looked good against very good opposition. The Championship could offer him the chance to be the breakout player from the youth system next season. Certainly doesn't lack confidence, or technical ability. Saw Caleta-Car finished the match as captain. Didn't expect him to be that high up the hierarchy, instead thought he'd be one of the first out the door this summer.

Burnley sold Dwight McNeil for £20m after their relegation and he's crap, so it's over to them now. Doubt we're valuing Tella much higher than £20m.

Well, that was quick. A few small links, but nothing major prior to today. Snuck in before Charles' announcement. Happy with him. Another one who is coming in and outlining the aim for promotion.

Manning, good, wanted him when we were first linked to Martin. Perraud's an okay left-back, a 6/10 most games. Plenty of effort and fight, but not enough quality going forward when it counts. Going from Bertrand to Perraud was a big drop. Hopefully, Manning can fix that, record shows he's one of the top players in the Championship, in the team of the season last season. Proved successful when we used to pick up players from the teams of the season when we were last down here and he already knows Martin's system. Interestingly, looks like we're going to have two of the better full-backs from the Championship playing for us next season in Bree and Manning, although where Bree fits in at the moment, I don't know. Holgate would probably be good at this level. Percy's a reliable one for the transfers for the northern clubs. No idea who Bruun Larsen is.

A more limited player in Mark Noble said this after his retirement: "when I look back now and I see the send off I got and the loyalty I’d shown to the club and the history I’ve created… an extra few grand a week doesn’t compare to that." Perhaps he never got that life changing top offer, but he did stay with West Ham after they got relegated. Hopefully Ward-Prowse has a similar mindset. Can immortalise himself at Southampton, in a similar way that Benali has done, or leave and be forgotten about by his new club a few months after retiring.

All these low ball bids. £20m doesn't get you a lot these days. Just about covers an Onuachu, or Vestergaard, but not a Sulemana.

The worst of our centre-backs on the ball, so the least suited to Martin's pass out from the back tactics. Would be a good centre-back to have in the Championship, but in the new possession based tactics he is an accident waiting to happen, hopefully a team comes in for him soon. Also surprised it's all quiet surrounding him. Maybe the off the pitch murmurs have put clubs off, but then I'm also surprised how quiet its been for KWP.

Ah well, our goalkeepers were shocking last season and he was only selected to play in the 2-1 win over Blackpool. Might be a good influence off the pitch, but again the results we saw were that our goalkeepers and the rest of the team were shocking. Argentine Stuart Taylor these days.

We signed the wrong goalkeepers from City.

City sent a few players down to the Championship last season, who did well: Muric, Steffen, Harwood-Bellis, both Doyle's and McAtee, so hopefully the Championship is a bit more forgiving on this policy than the Premier League was. Also, a potential cost of £15m. That's surely dependant on promotion, but that's up there with the record Championship transfers of Ruben Neves and Britt Assombalonga, both also £15m. So, a big outlay for a Championship club. Again, it's down to hope that Wilcox knows he's a future star and has orchestrated a good deal for us.

The narrative regarding Fonte has returned! In August 2014, Fonte signed a new three year contract here. The following year, he left the agent who he been with his entire career for Jorge Mendes. An interesting move by someone who was one year into their new contract. All while we were under Koeman and flying by our own standards. A year later, he won the Euros, we were managed by Puel and the media were flirting him and Manchester United for the first half of the season. Admittedly, leaving him out of the Europa League matches was a crap move, but again it was hinted that it was to not cup tie him at the time. Mendes possibly thought he could get Fonte a big final day, which we weren't willing to accomodate, so he left us for a then sideways move to West Ham, not Manchester United which again, we know was down to money. Mendes succeeded. This again was supported by his move to the money league, China. Lille's been good for him and he's built his reputation back up, but we're probably his best offer now and now he's wanting to come back. Fonte going to West Ham certainly dampened my opinion of him, it wasn't the same as Lambert to Liverpool and yeah maybe Reed and Puel weren't great in the final stages either, but a player doesn't switch to a "super agent" with a reputation for big money deals if they are content with their current position. I've also been severely burnt by Walcott's return. Walcott was a shadow of the Arsenal/Southampton player when he returned and was even crap last season, but looked a bit better in a sea of shite with Reading now being his best offer.

Noticed with Abu and now the Man City goalkeeper that the official club pages and announcement articles hasn't mentioned "Saints B team", but refers to them again as Southampton Under-21s. Might be a switch back now that Semmens and Crocker are no longer here. On the squad profiles it's still the B team, but may just be needing an update.

Tottenham tried getting him for £25m too.

That's the point. It all seems a bit underhand now. We got into Martin's head, meaning Swansea had to give up Martin without agreeing a compensation package with us and leaving it to the courts. Liverpool will probably get into Lavia's head, as they did Van Dijk's, ensure he only wants Liverpool, thus stopping a potential bidding war while making sure he doesn't want to be at Southampton anymore and getting him at a lower fee than the £50m we've put him on. Something that was once frowned upon, but never really sanctioned is now all out in the public. £50m is a good price for Lavia in the current market. 19 year old Belgium international who has held his own in the Premier League in one of the toughest positions to play in as a young player against fully grown adults. Declan Rice £105m, Moises Caicedo £85m and Joao Palhinha £80m+. Lavia probably the best value considering he also counts as homegrown and has years and a bigger ceiling than them.

Tapping up seems a lot more common now since the last time we got a half hearted apology.

That's a horrendous take.

Fuck sake. Although, Napoli are chucking in £35m bids for Max Kilman, so...

The Newcastle subs got me. 1-1 after 1-0 up because Selles apparently told the team to sit back for the entirety of the second half. 70th minute comes and he brings on Elyounoussi, A. Armstrong and Maitland-Niles in a triple sub. 10 minutes later and we're 3-1 down.

Our forward play was a lot worse without him at the end of last season, than it was with him. With him we were missing chances, without him, we weren't working those chances. He'll be a good player in the Premier League for a team that plays to his strengths. We haven't by making him the main man for a long time now. If he got a partner like Ings again, him and the team he goes to will be laughing for the fee we can demand in the final year on his contract.

Three far superior goalkeepers to Johnstone and Bazunu were available last summer. Neto, Leno and Henderson, moving to the three promoted clubs, so probably would have been open to coming here too. One cost £8m, cheaper than Bazunu, one was a free and the other a loan. Only issue is their resale, I guess, but then the Premier League money would have counteracted that. Forest didn't ignore the importance of a good goalkeeper by bringing in both Henderson and Navas.

Joe Aribo didn't make it past the first beep in the bleep test.

Liam Delap's going on loan to Hull. Doesn't look like we've renewed our interest after a couple of poor loans last season.

Need a safe pair of hands in the Championship promotion push. The difference between Davis and Bialkowski when we were last down here was night and day in a then very good team. Almost as though a young goalkeeper couldn’t handle the pressure and expectation of the occasion considering he has since become a middling Championship goalkeeper. Goalkeeper’s need a presence, to be able to communicate and organise their box, to pull off a top save every now and then, to come out and claim crosses and in the modern era to kick the ball. All of which I saw none of in Bazunu last season and he was supposed to be good at kicking!

Don't think I'm too far off, you can see the Watford fans' view of him here: https://wfcforums.com/index.php?threads/hamza-choudhury.59615/page-4 A team that finished 11th in the Championship. You'd hope our scouts could find better. Another Schneiderlin would be perfect. "Doesn’t qualify as a footballer for me given his complete inability to play a simple pass more than a few yards. Completely the good bits of his game for me. Seriously hope we don’t mistake undoubted hard work for skill and potential and sign him in the summer. Building a team around him would be potentially ruinous." "Said something similar in the match thread. He's a headless chicken, and one of the main reasons we have zero control of games" "Yep. He's got the footballing equivalent of ADHD unfortunately.I actually think he's not too bad on the ball. He can carry it and he's fairly athletic, it's just he lacks any quality with his passing" "He is good at winning the ball then passing it straight back to our opponents!" "I agree. I like his energy and ball winning, but he’s substandard on the ball. Just gives it away far too often. For £6m I’m sure there are better options for a midfielder with a better combo of a passing and tackling ratio."

From Swansea, I'd welcome Wood, a good young centre-back with potential, frequently in the England youth teams. Manning, in need of a left-back and he boasts a good record in Martin's system. Grimes, good technical player, knows the league and Martin's system. Piroe, much needed goal scorer, and he does a bit more in terms of ball carrying. Like a Championship Broja. Cabango and Fulton who we have also been linked with, don't leave me too impressed. From what I read regarding Cabango, he was Swansea's version of Elyounossi in that the manager kept selecting him, but the fans were left bewildered as to why. While Fulton's 29, played for Falkirk, Swansea, Oldham and Wigan and never been capped by Scotland. Not a great CV. Ex-Martin player, Downes would also be good, a bit of a coup, but would probably require JWP going the other way. Choudhury, I'm not too sure on. We're missing a Romeu type player and Choudhury is a less glamorous version. But, he could also be too far the other way. Choudhury can't really play football, he's just a bit of a thug. Remember him putting in a couple of awful tackles in the Premier League. No red cards last season, but 13 yellows, so while his ball winning stats look good, he is also missing a few games through suspension. I guess he could be the hard bastard we're missing, but again, does such a limited player fit with Martin? I wouldn't be too upset with £25m for Bella-Kotchap, to be honest, either.