HarvSFC

We were linked with Wright before he moved to Coventry and when we were last in the Premier League. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-11654941/Southampton-bid-8-6million-Antalyaspor-USA-striker-Haji-Wright-short-11m-asking-price.html He's another one who can't take penalties, though. Karma.

That's the biggest drawback with Smallbone in that he can't play on the turn and in the Premier League he becomes a lot more predictable and easy to defend against for the opposition.

Wouldn't be the worst thing if Oxford score a couple more to really rub in the need for a goalkeeper. I'm not a paid analyst, just merely a fan, but God knows what these guys watch to think we can start a Premier League season with either Alex McCarthy or Gavin Bazunu (if he wasn't injured) in goal. Been a big blind spot/the club have tried to be too clever since Forster's big contract. McCarthy's like a cat, minus the reflexes. Every time his contract nears its end he has a handful of good games and then gets rewarded with a new deal. Had so many lives. Come on Martin, you didn't think he was good enough for 90% of last season.

One thing that shouldn't be underestimated is character and leadership. Last time we went down the dressing room was severely lacking in these areas and reportedly had fractions all over it. But, Luton had both of these attributes last season and they were the best of the three to go down, despite on paper looking the worst. Blackpool, Burnley, Stoke and Bournemouth over the years have also stayed up through having leaders, characters and a tight squad. Even in our most successful days of recent years we used to boast the black box, which identified good characters, rather than just good footballers. Looking at our business this summer, which prompted my original post: Lallana, our former captain and hugely experienced Premier League footballer. Probably more use off the pitch, but again will help stop what happened last time were here. THB, here last season, captained the England youth teams, a leader at just 22. Taylor, not a Bertrand or a Shaw, but he is a solid and experienced Premier League footballer. We had Maitland-Niles at left-back a couple of times last time. We needed an upgrade on Manning and have done that. Edwards, England youth international and captained Barnet youth teams when he was coming through there. Wood, yeah, I'm not too sure, but he knows Martin and vice versa. Got to be better than Holgate, which you'd imagine is the role he'll play here next season. Sugawara, good fee for a player with Champions League and Europa League experience. Appears a good character in his interviews. The old Saints wouldn't have replaced Walker-Peters until he had actually left and then we'd be rushing a player in late into September with no pre-season expecting them to pick up where they player they've replaced has left off. Downes, was essential we signed him permanently. The mistake Burnley made last season and Forest almost made the season before was not securing their loans on permanent deals, but looking elsewhere instead. Again, he appears to be another leader in the dressing room to go with his importance on the pitch and in the system we play. And now today, Brereton Diaz. £7m is peanuts. We paid more for Ross Stewart and nearly double (without add ons) for Shea Charles last summer. It made too much sense to sign a player with his goal scoring record for such a little fee and it's one that usually bypasses us as we would look for the more exotic choice. Again, also seems like a good character. The key point being, that while a lot of these signings aren't head turners or household names, they all do boast positive footballing CVs and you can see where they fit into the squad. This isn't Joe Shields' scattergun approach we had last time where we identified players who looked good at youth level and hoped they could then go straight into senior Premier League football. Now, of course our business is far from over. But to get all these players over the line when it's not even August yet, the club needs to be applauded. Ramsdale (another strong character), O'Riley, a CDM to cover Downes, a wide attacker to replace Tella/Brookes (Although that may now be BBD) and another striker would give us a good chance of making a claim of staying in the league and then targeting a higher calibre of players next summer. Although, the need for a new goalkeeper is essential as we've been there and done it with both Bazunu and McCarthy and they aren't good enough. Why can't Lis go back to Goztepe, permanently, or on loan again?

But Football Insider said we were getting him on loan?

There's far too much common sense and good negotiating going on this summer. Doesn't feel like Saints.

Heard he didn't change his name for Chile, but he actually added Diaz in order to attract Saints into adding him to the double barrelled quota.

Bizarre isn't, think we've got another bargain here, alongside Edwards and Sugawara, certainly aren't being quoted Premier League prices. One scored 8 in 31 Championship matches last season for a play off chasing side, while the other scored 6 in 14 in the Premier League for a relegated club who won just 16 points. Only four years between the two as well. Delap has the Man City tax though, which we've been stung with a few times before.

Romano's Tweeted it, £7m. That's a good fee for someone who bagged six league goals in an awful Sheffield United side from January last season. We've got a couple of bargains this season with Edwards already. Means we haven't had to spend a huge amount to replace Adams either, giving us more movement in the O'Riley negotations.

Nketiah was a player I looked at a couple of weeks back for a possible striker acquisition given my lack of knowledge of world football. But, he does have a few negatives around him - Main ones are cost - He's on £100k+ a week at Arsenal, as the top clubs do with their squad players, which is expiring in 2027. Arsenal will also want £20m+ for him. Then his age, he's 25, so not really that young anymore and you'd have expected to have seen a bit more from him by now. 5 goals in 27 and 4 in 30, his last two Premier League seasons.

I'm not sure Lallana, or Aribo are DM's. Neither have got the legs or energy for it.

Yes, he's back! Love it.

O'Hare's the one from Coventry. He's signing for Sheffield United.

Getting Flynn Downes this early is huge, big signing. Our team fell apart when he wasn't in the eleven last season. I feared with him being a West Ham fan that it may drag on a bit, but Martin's obviously a huge draw for him and he must have really enjoyed his time on loan here. Note to Burnley on how to get a deal done for a loan star. Now, a goalkeeper, Downes backup, playmaker and a proven scorer in Europe like Pelle would be ideal. We need the striker equivalent of Sugawara, whoever that is.

Closed down the Bath Academy too, which I found to be a disappointing decision. Surely the positives outweighed the negatives. We may not have seen the next Gareth Bale come through it. But, in recent years Max Alleyne, Kamari Doyle and Tyler Dibling have all come from it. Indeed, two aren't with the club anymore and Dibling had a brief time away, but shows that we're still getting in some talent before other Premier League clubs get to them and if we had a bit more focus on the academy and pathways they could still be here.

Same initials as Gaston Ramirez, South American, appears to be highly rated. This is the 2024 version.

Don't know too much about Sugawara, but we have dodged a bullet in Max Aarons, who is really poor defensively.

The Delap stories are coming from a reputable source in Ornstein, but I'm not going to lose much sleep around missing out on him. He's a punt with the hope of turning a profit due to his age and nationality. We've made two similar punts in Edwards and Wood at centre-back, but we have Stephens, Bednarek and THB already at the club. Upfront we have barely anything with Adams gone, Armstrong struggling in the Championship as a centre-forward, Stewart picking up knocks whenever he steps out onto the pitch and the failed punt in Mara. Meaning we'd be over reliant on Delap, like we were Broja when he was on loan. I know most signings are punts, but since the initial links to Delap two summers ago he has had three loans in the Championship which haven't exactly been eye catching in terms of goal output. Stoke and Preston considered two failed loans. Last summer was the time to bring Delap in, on a loan deal, giving him a season long trial in the team and seeing if he can be the success those at the club clearly believe him to be, but we went for the more experienced and a better scoring record in Stewart. Hopefully we now do the same this summer as Delap's too much of a risk, especially at £20m, his value hasn't dropped since we last decided not to spend that on him.

Has links to Barcelona and was linked to Everton earlier in the window. Could be a coup, or could be an agent trying to speed up a Barca move, who will play all the tricks in the book if they do want him.

Trained on his own last summer too, if I'm remembering correctly.

Not good enough for the Turkish league, so not good enough for the Premier League anymore. Hopefully not true.

They give us a £50m loan fee.

Could be one we send out to Goztepe/Valenciennes. We have loads of left-backs with the signing of Taylor and can't see us discarding Manning even if it is the right thing to do.

Hojbjerg's passing is atrocious, so hope it isn't him. He's a Jose Mourinho style player, disruptor in the middle. Not a Martin midfielder. He's been linked with Saudi Arabia in the last two transfer windows, anyway.

If we sandwich a defence of THB - Bendarek - Stephens between the right personnel then it is serviceable in the Premier League. I think the team has three more important concerns, where the majority of the budget needs to go, so I'm not wholly against some cheap development centre-backs. Key areas to improve this summer are goalkeeper, CDM (Downes, or Downes equivalent) and a striker. If we were relying on Adams, A. Armstrong, Mara and Stewart who picks up a knock every time he steps on the pitch for goals then I don't think that's workable in this league and we'd be relegated. I believe the same would/will happen if we're relying on McCarthy, Lumley and eventually Bazunu to keep the goals out as they simply aren't good enough. Downes is also key as we saw how open our team was without him in the second tier. The three centre-backs however have at least played a part in keeping us and Stephens helped keep Bournemouth in the league last time he was up here. They just need a quality stopper and a defensive midfielder helping them so that their limitations aren't also picked up on by having a weak defence around them. On O'Reilly, he'd have been a luxury signing, but we need to spread the budget elsewhere. Lets see what today has in store for us.