I'm sure there's in and out lists and there are those we'd like to keep but probably not able to. Can but hope we can keep the best but the choice they have is championship or champions league or other european competitions and the prem plus keeping themselves in contention for international team selection.
I don't like the fact that the season begins before the transfer window has ended. It favours the larger clubs (including us when in L1) as they can push for transfers close to the end that destabilises everything for the smaller clubs. We could start the season with KWP, Lavia, JWP et al. still around and then have them stripped from us after 4 or 5 games leaving us rudderless. I would hope that there's an internal date that is earlier. If they're not gone by that date then they have to wait until January. In the L1 days, due to the total change around in the club that summer, we not only started with minus 10 points but also on the backfoot in terms of a settled side. It was no surprise that it took us ~10 games to get motoring. I expect similar this season.
I very much agree with you in hating that the season starts before the window has ended. But it ultimately works both ways (as you somewhat allude to). Yes we could have our squad picked apart by PL clubs throughout August - but what's to stop us then turning around and using that money to buy some of the better Championship players? Because whilst we're now "small" in comparison to the PL, we're "big" in comparison to the Championship. The Coventry's and the Swansea's of this division I think have a far bigger right to be concerned about being left rudderless than we do.
Indeed. The balance is hard to manage. I agree with you that there are other clubs that will struggle with it more than us. There's no right answer I suppose as they differ across nations as well ... maybe they should be scrapped altogether!!
I'm saying hopefully in parallel, hence doing as much prep as poss and ready to move asap once we know someone is going to be off (soon)
I am pretty sure it is only us fans that are left hanging to know. The club will know that say Lavia is 99% leaving and accommodate that. There is no way for example, JWP goes into work every day and the club aren't in conversation with his agent about what is going on. I am pretty sure they won't spring it on us is what i am saying. Whether the club act upon it is another thing
we definitely need a defensive midfielder and we’ve been linked with a few City youngsters and Downes from west ham. The potential of JWP to West Ham and how our relationship with City continues if we sell Lavia elsewhere will be interesting.
With sarcasm, is that the team who could not be arsed for the last three months, not necessary my definition of a team
I do wonder if 18 months without regular football due to injury has given him this perspective. Not many young players show little interest in that sort of move.
Flynn Downes agent was at the training ground today. Could have legs. That would be a very decent signing imo
He was academy player of the season or something at Chelsea just before signing for us wasnt he? Seems like he has prioritised playing regular first team football. He (or his agent) also will have had conversations with say Newcastle about their plan for him and with Trippier still there it is safe to say he wouldn’t be starting all the time like he would be here. I’m sure the reason he and others joined Saints in the first place was so when they (hopefully) got their move to a big club it was to be a first team player after proving their ability at Saints
Fair point. It's just the Saints he joined were a very different Saints to the one we are now. I'd have thought regular football at a (relatively) stable PL club is a completely different prospect to playing in the Championship. Either way, I'm not complaining!
Id imagine that is the easiest assurance we could ever need to give. Although I guess Bree will be on hand for cup games and to give Tino a break in more congested parts of the season.
I don’t think the premier league clubs that will start him regularly are going to bid what we want for him. Are there any whose top priority target is a right back? And not, say, a striker? There are rumours about what we have rejected from Newcastle. So it is at least north of £25m. There really aren’t many clubs out there who will spend that on someone fresh off an ACL injury and more than a year out.
