Pass the Dutchie

Pelle coming on

This game is open. Spurs a bit better, but chances here. Come on!

Great! Next: - sign Stekelenburg as permanent back-up - improve Romeu's, Tadic's, Long's and Bertrand's contract - sign on Martina for another year or two And who knows... make Mané an offer he can't refuse.

Probably not, but the website gives £11M as his market value. He has a year PL experience now (no matter how little he actually contributed). But yes: just a game.

"An opportunistic move for one of Feyenoord’s standout academy graduates is gaining momentum in Inter‘s favour, as Tonny Vilhena met with the Serie A club earlier this week." http://www.gazzettaworld.com/news/serie-a/inter/promising-dutch-midfielder/?refresh_ce-cp

Slow Friday at work and I’m bored. Let’s play! Pretend you’ve got £60M to spend on transfers to make next season’s squad stronger. How would you spend it? Simple rules: - You can sell current players to increase your budget (and yes, there’s always someone who wants them), but for a maximum of 150% of their market value* - You can buy any players (doesn’t matter if they’d want to or are available), but for a maximum of 200% of their market value* - None of this will be realistic anyway, but try to calculate in a bit how ‘wanted’ a player would be in the transfer sum you use *Market value according to this website: http://www.transfermarkt.com/fc-southampton/startseite/verein/180 (let’s make € on website £ for this game) Let’s not bother too much with salaries. It’s just a bit of fun to get through the Friday. I know in reality it’s not at all this simple, and I know there’s all kinds of things wrong about the amounts on that website, but it’s fair to all work with the same source. So to recap: - £60M available for transfers + whatever you get for selling players - Sell for max 150% of market value according to http://www.transfermarkt.com/fc-southampton/startseite/verein/180 - Buy for max 200% of market value according to http://www.transfermarkt.com/fc-southampton/startseite/verein/180 I’ll start. I’d sell: Graziano Pellè (centre forward) for £15,5M Cédric Soares (right back) for £11M Matt Targett (left back) for £5M Steven Davis (central midfield) for £5M Juanmi (secondary striker) for £7,5M Gallagher (centre forward) for £750k Yoshida (centre back) for £4,5M Reed (central midfield) for £2,2M Extra budget from selling: £51,45M -> total budget for buying = £111,45M And I’d buy: Troy Deeney (centre forward) for £18M from Watford Kieran Trippier (right back) for £10M from Spurs Hakim Ziyech (attacking midfield) for £20M from FC Twente Gylfi Sigurdsson (attacking midfield) for £17,5M from Swansea Andros Townsend (right wing) for £15M from Newcastle Bruno Martins Indi (centre back/left back) £15M from FC Porto Simon Kjaer (centre back) for £10M from Fenerbahce Balance: £5,95M profit. Let’s say I’ll use at least some of that to keep Stekelenburg on loan for another year, and the rest to improve contracts. This makes my squad for 2016/2017: Forster Stekelenburg Gazzaniga Britt Gardos Fonte Martina Trippier Van Dijk Kjaer Martins Indi Bertrand Clasie Ziyech Tadic Wanyama Romeu Ward-Prowse Sigurdsson Townsend Mané Deeney Long Rodriguez Austin

Deano6, are you for real? Or are you trying to respond to irony with a joke?

I think as long as there's something to really play for (which there has been al season), we all expect the manager to get out the best team possible. It's fantastic if there's some space to experiment with academy talents, but at which point this season would that have seemed like a great idea?

This actually made me laugh out loud. Thanks! "Who can name David Watson, Toni Jimenez, Stuart Murdoch, Malcolm Webster and David Coles? Anyone? David Watson, Toni Jimenez, Stuart Murdoch, Malcolm Webster and David Coles? No? Just me then?"

Can't tell if you're serious, but: 2010/2011: promotion to the Championship 2011/2012: promotion to the Premier League 2012/2013: 14th / 41 points 2013/2014: 8th / 56 points 2014/2015: 7th / 60 points (highest ever PL ranking) 2015/2016: 7th / already 57 points with 2 games to play How's that progression not success?

Martina has had quite some decent games lately, definitely not just the one. The goal was also hardly his fault; just very unlucky. I do agree though that it'd be good to have a better option available, and keep Martina as a decent squad player.

I know 'ifs' don't matter, but just imagine if, for example, we'd won away at Everton, home against Sunderland, and away at Bournemouth. Three very winnable games, and we'd be right up there competing for #4. Still, great season the way it's going.

VVD seems determined to score today. Let's go for 5!

Oh yes! Oh yes!!!

Brilliant work!

Preview and live updates on the Guardian website: http://www.theguardian.com/football/live/2016/may/01/southampton-v-manchester-city-premier-league-live

Red card for Liverpool. Game must be done now.

Do you mean Patrick van Aanholt? He cost Sunderland around a £2M transfer fee and around £50k a month. We'd have to better that, but he wouldn't be the most expensive player, even for a back-up. If they go down, worth a shot, but probably mainly as a back-up for left back or midfield.

That said, given the choice, I'd rather have Wijnaldum and Martins Indi for Saints, and all combined would make the squad much too Dutch.

I'd take Vilhena in this summer, since he's free to go. But he'll need time to grow in the PL, same as Clasie. Not someone to expect to build a team around yet.

With Austin and Rodriguez we already have two unsure factors. Not sure if we'd risk taking in another injury-prone striker.

Well done! Five posts in and four of them negative and the other one anticipating the negative. You'll fit right in.

And Clasie being the best player on the field in some (two or three) games counters the rest. He still needs to become better and more consistent, yes. But he's shown that he has the potential.

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/apr/23/aston-villa-southampton-premier-league-match-report

Martina has caught up with him and probably surpassed him. Who'd have thought at the start of the season?