Saint-Armstrong

Seems pretty sure that Neal Maupay will leave Brentford this summer for c. £20m, so I'd imagine they're more capable of making the deal happen. Bad news for Blackburn.

Bit weird to write off an upcoming 22-year-old who scored 20+ goals in the Championship last season because a couple of our guys who are now in their 30s did it six and eight years ago.

Amen to that!

Fair play, either of those would be a cracking move for him. Would rather he stayed here, but wouldn't begrudge him a move.

The statement... to save a click.

Garry Monk leaves Birmingham: https://www.bcfc.com/news/articles/2019/club-statement-garry-monk/?utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=SocialSignIn

Che Adams poised for Southampton move: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2019/06/18/che-adams-poised-southampton-move-club-considers-another-bid/ Sam Wallace saying we're set to pay £14m for Adams, who favours a move to St. Mary's over Turf Moor.

Saw on the donation page that Adam Lallana has made a donation that comes in at over £6k. Fair play.

Job done. Now on to the rebuild!

Oh, Prowsey Prowsey!

Wonder what his deeper intentions are and why he (and Nelly) attended a private dinner to fundraise/rally support for the Conservative Party lately...

Dorset Police have just announced on their website that the body recovered from the aircraft wreckage has been formally identified by the coroner as Emiliano Sala. https://www.dorset.police.uk/news-information/article/6973#5c5cb373a83f84.17855404

Neil Moxley at the Daily Mirror posted this update at 13:36... I understand the fee for Che Adams will be north of £15m. Southampton are the main interested party. They are offloading Charlie Austin, too. Burnley have been scouting Adams but my information is that Austin is leaving on a permanent deal for around £8m. Could Turf Moor be a potential destination for the Saints striker? He fits the type of profile that Shaun Dyche likes and the Clarets are in the market for a forward. The fee for Adams will be the highest received for a player at St Andrew’s. But that will be of little consolation to Blues boss Garry Monk who is still operating under a transfer embargo because of FFP issues. However, Birmingham broke the rules to such an extent that this may leave little wriggle-room before the transfer window closes. It will depend on the conversations they are currently having with the Football League. The club is still operating under the threat of a transfer embargo. Garry Monk doesn’t want to sell Adams because where will he find a replacement at this late stage? But with a fee of that size the club will have little option but to cash in.

Additionally, Birmingham aren't allowed to sign any more players this season due to their transfer/finance situation. So, if they sold Adams, they presumably couldn't replace him under any circumstances.

Birmingham Mail is reporting that the bid has been rejected but that it's believed to be our opening offer and another bid(s) will follow. For context, here's what Garry Monk is saying... “I am not concerned at all. The only time I ever need to concern myself with that is if the club come to you and say ‘We have got this’. “Until that point there is no need for me to even think about it. “We don’t want to sell any of our players, the owners are on board with that, we don’t want to sell any of our players. “I am not naive to think if ridiculous offers come in, that happens with every club in the world, if a ridiculous offer comes in and the owners are asking you to consider that - then you consider it. “But the owners are on the same page as me, we don’t want to sell anyone, we don’t need to sell anyone. It’s a case of not having to worry about that until if we ever have to deal with that. “It’s speculation and I have not even given it a second thought if I am honest.”

Not immediately apparent from the initial link but if you scroll down, there's a story from Reuters. They were reporting on Friday night that the controlling shareholder (Gao) has sold 29% of Lander Sports Development co Ltd, for the equivalent of £145m. Here's the link to that particular announcement: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/brief-lander-sports-developments-controlling-115308103.html There's a document linked, in Chinese, which I've run through a translation tool. It says that 29% of the shares have been sold to 'Mr Fan Mingke' (allowing for translation confusion, this may not be the actual name) and reports that Gao now owns only c. 24% of Lander Sports Development. As such, the announcement confirms that Fan Mingke is now the new controlling shareholder.

Never really warmed to Cedric, if I'm honest. Got exploited quite a bit defensively and his crossing has been pretty woeful for almost the entirety of his time here. Was it suggested that he has a bit of an ego about him too? I know Ralph has made some comments about Cedric's fate being in his own hands and his sudden sidelining, in favour of Valery, appeared to hint that Hasenhuttl was not particularly keen on him as a player/character. (not sure which!)

Not sure indictment means what you think it means! But agreed with Bateman above. He's good and tidy but he does make some very costly mistakes, gives away needless fouls and can definitely be improved upon. Especially if, as seems to be stated in the summary (by Ralph H? or Ralph K?) that the ambition is to return to the top eight spots.

New assistant manager of the Under-23s, apparently. His NBC-presenting wife seems to have confirmed before the club:

Yep. Saints under Hughes: 9pts from 15 games Saints under Hasenhüttl: 10pts from 7 games

We're always better after we have a full week on the training ground with Ralph. What a man. I love him already and it's gonna hurt like hell when he leaves. Great character into the bargain.

Official:

Hasenhüttl in his press conference before this weekend's game... Whether Forster is in his plans... No, not really. I made the choice to have two strong keepers with Angus Gunn and Alex McCarthy. I think they did it well, both of them. So it will always be like it is, if you have a good experience with one goalkeeper then you don’t look for another one. It can be that Fraser can take a game in the under-23s. It’s possible to do so in the future because he needs games to get back in the position where he is an option for other clubs maybe and that’s what we try to force in the future. Whether Fraser might therefore leave the club as he trims the squad… Yes, that’s right. Gabbiadini going to Sampdoria today and why didn’t it work out here… It’s difficult to say. If you are a new manager and you come to a new club, you get the first experience and first impressions about a player and for me it seems that he is a good player with fantastic technique, but with this intensive pressing system we try to play, I think to be honest it’s not his way of playing. So it’s better to find a solution that is better for both sides. We can’t show him what he wants to see from us and he can’t bring us what we want to see from him. So it’s better to find a different solution and I think it’s a good step for him to go back to Italy and I wish him all the best. I know that he is a fantastic player and I am sure that he can score in every club in the world, his goals, but we try to go a different way and I think for that we need different players. Whether signing a forward is his priority now... That’s right. That’s what we are forcing and what we are looking for. To bring someone in, in this transfer period is not so easy. Because we must find a guy who is also not for the short-term to make us better, but also for the long-term. I only want to take a transfer which is also with a future, that it is helping us for the longer term and that’s what I want to see. If the upcoming games means we should move faster in the market... Sure, it’s better to make it as soon as possible. But it’s not so easy in the winter transfer period. We have very important games now, that we are facing and we have a good squad. We have a little bit of a problem with injuries in the front, that’s right. But we don’t want to be hurried. We’ll take time, think about it and if we are 100 per cent sure that this guy makes us better, we will take it. But not earlier.

Because of a suspension he received earlier in the season. They see this one as a second strike so it'll be three plus one, for the second strike.

Completely left out of the squad again by Hasenhüttl.