saintwbu

Blimey, the sensible posters do exist, they just wait til the early hours to appear!

We still have Aribo too, who seems to have had a bit of interest in him, so maybe him going would see another body in for those wide positions.

Conversations is a bit different to handing in all kit and saying goodbyes because you’re imminently off to Germany?

I’m not a fan of either Fraser or Holgate, both in terms of ability and on-field character. But people are judging them on their ability in the Premier League. They’re playing for us in the Championship, in a team full of players people couldn’t stand in the Prem but now don’t want to leave. We haven’t seemed to include an option to buy in either deal, so it doesn’t seem like we see them as options for the future but for the here and now instead. Both signings make sense, the circus around Tella/Che is just taking people away from that.

Agree - think Edozie gets more than his fair share of stick from fans tbh. His actual minutes played must be pretty low, Tella was still in the youth set up at his age. Edozie has a lot of skill, finishing and crossing obviously needs work but he beats players with absolute ease, not a lot of wingers can do that - even Tella struggled to do that when he switched to Edozie’s side when he went off. Hopefully with experience and game time this year his end product improves, he’s one of the few players in the squad that I find genuinely exciting to watch.

Ballard starting for U21’s tonight. Given that he made the bench after starting last Friday, I know we can’t read into it too much, but would he be starting if Che was off imminently? He’d be jumping a place in the pecking order if Che wasn’t available tomorrow.

Not sure that’s quite a fair representation of what he said…

People are bemoaning signing Holgate on the basis Everton don’t want him, but are gutted we didn’t sign Coady, who Everton also did not want. Personally don’t want either, but can’t use both as a stick to beat the club with.

People wanted experience, that’s what we’re getting. Not a fan of either, but I guess as loan deals it’s not a bad thing as they both need to prove themselves to secure their future somewhere as neither are wanted by their parent club any time soon.

He turned 24 about two weeks ago, he’s younger than Tella. If he was good, resale value would be there. Maybe they don’t think he’s good enough for us? Or maybe we just cannot do anything at all until Che/Paul leave.

It seems this year there seems to be a bit of use of the loan market to circumvent FFP laws - David Raya to Arsenal seems to be one, and not sure about Lewis Hall to Newcastle but there was talk that was the plan there too. Loan now, buy next summer, get around not being able to spend this summer.

You’re right, it is rubbish, albeit imo a symptom of the turnover of players we have had. When you think of the squad that was picked apart when Poch left, off the top of my head Lambert, Lallana, JRod, Wanyama, Jose Fonte, Steven Davis and Poch himself all had chants - since then it feel like people haven’t bothered as the players leave so soon. But some vids from the Plymouth game had chants for Che and Tella, so people are trying at least. Hopefully the increased positivity can lead to a few new ones.

That would’ve been my second suggestion! It’s been so long since that chant was used most people would think it’s original haha. Fits perfectly.

As he seems to be staying (jinxed it now!) he should definitely be worth his own song. Whilst it’d be great to have more original chants, thought Si Señor would be quite fitting for him - especially as it originated in Argentina (unless it being a River Plate chant would be contentious for any reason!). There’s something that the Saints want you to know The best in the world has come to the south coast Our Argentine, give him the ball and he’ll score every time Si señor, give the ball to Charly and he will score

The Henderson replacement

Think he’s had a few good insights already this summer, so think this can be taken as more than just an easy link. Like mentioned above, maybe one who’s willing to wait for us to move on a couple before going for him.

It’s nice to have a likeable manager who says all the right things. Last night was a great start for him, and i’m really impressed by how clear the identity of his team is already.

He’s 20 years old and probably about 20 games into his professional career. I don’t remember us having a player that can beat people with such ease, we need to be patient with him whilst he finds the end product. I’ve always felt a season in the Championship will be great for a number of our players, and he’s one of the main ones I think of. A really great performance last night, the end product will come.

The middle ground is called ‘he signs for Brighton for £15mil instead’

I think the thing with Tella, and to an extent Smallbone, is they don’t seem to be playing with the burden of last season. For me, in the last two pre-season games, they have looked two of the standouts and they seem to just be playing with confidence. Sometimes that is more important than quality, if that quality is weighed down by self-doubt - there are definitely players in this squad that are much better than we saw last season, and if they’d have had a season at Burnley on loan I expect we’d be desperate for them to stay rather than hoping we can shift them.

Came on here to say I have liked Doyle in both games, but seeing others say the opposite - he looks comfortable on the ball to me, looks very calm. Has got his feet tied up a couple of times tonight but he seems to be playing on the wing which i don’t think is his best position from what I understand? Looks a pretty big lad too.

I wasn’t watching, but what you describe is something Brighton are known to do a lot, to invite pressure from the opposition - eventually they play round/through the pressure and create chances. So maybe it was that.

Don’t Chelsea have a sell on clause too? So £12mil becomes more like £9mil realistically. Surely those sort of numbers are way off.

For me our worst manager, ahead of Jones. At least Jones came into a team that was struggling and way too bloated. Pellegrino took over a team that had just come 8th and lost a cup final by fine margins. Then add to it the fact he spunked a load of money on his mate when he should’ve been sacked weeks before, and benefitted from that by taking him on loan at his next club. Complete shambles from start to finish.

Liverpool, City, United and Arsenal have all released kits recently based on some of their previous classics, City and Liverpool have done it this season in fact. That’s what we are doing. It’s not an ‘experiment’ or ripping up tradition, i’d wager the original is probably the most sought after kit in our history on the second hand market, it goes for a fortune in a decent condition. If it looks half as good as the original, this will be a very good seller i’d imagine.