It can’t just be that he “doesn’t fit Martins style of play”. If he really had the potential to be the player we think he can we wouldn’t be letting him leave. I refuse to believe it.
Exactly. Feels like umpteenth time I've had to say it, but Russball is really not that revolutionary or extreme or complex. Most teams in the Prem play a similar style. Charly looked great when we signed him, but he really struggled in the Champ. Sometimes - in fact more often than not - young players who are hyped up, just don't reach their potential. We have a long history of such players; Gaston, Boufal, Sulemana etc. I couldn't be more "meh" about Charly leaving if I tried. Much more excited by SAA and Dibling getting minutes.
Who is “we” in this instance? Us Southampton fans? Or the people in the club. Perhaps the latter don’t think he does have the potential that some in the former group believe
The club. Yes that’s what I mean. It would be madness to get rid of a good player for that reason alone. Also I just don’t buy it, that top professional players are inflexible and can’t adapt. Look at how long we persevered with players like Djenepo and Elyonoussi.
I know an Ipswich fan who is concerned about what their finances / PSR will be like. They seem to be doing a slightly more sensible Nottingham Forest. But they need to hope that they don’t get relegated and also that they can sell at least one of their players for a big profit. And only a couple look to fit that criteria (Greaves, Delap and the left back) But that is a future concern. Their forward line looks decent (at least by championship standards). And probably more threatening than ours which I am sure will upset lots of our fans
We don’t seem to be intending on regularly playing with a formation where he will play every week. He doesn’t play in the 5-3-2 at all
I think he could have fit into our systems. He was the one player last year who really gave KWP the run around.
In the 4-3-3 - yes In the 5-3-2 - not really. He’s not a left wing back, a left sided 8 or part of a front 2 What I don’t understand is what we are so bad at defending with a back 4 and Ipswich aren’t. We leave ourselves much more exposed with a back 5 as our attacking threat is reduced allowing teams to pile in. Happened when Ralph tried the back 3. But essentially I can understand both why we didn’t bid that much for Clarke and even if we had he would have picked Ipswich
Ipswich are not much better at defending than us. They only conceded 6 fewer last season, and that was with a settled defence. We took a third of the season deciding on our best CB pair. I think we've recruited better at the back this summer too. Clarke's a fantastic signing though. Ipswich are having a really good window, and I'm close to thinking they will stay up.
The only thing I’m thinking (hoping) about Ipswich is that 2 successive promotions were on the back of team spirit (and a good manager). The sum of the parts was greater than the individuals. Bit like us when we did it. Will all the new faces change that as they haven’t been on the same journey.
They have almost signed a whole new team and you have to imagine at least 8 will eventually all start (albeit one was a loan last year). It’s whether they gel. And they might not be done yet. And I assume we all remember the various teams who have “won” the window over the years. Norwich and Fulham spring to mind. Ipswich has the benefit of a far more highly rated manager though
I wonder if we backed out of this one ages ago due to the fee and signed BBD instead. And if we did that won’t necessarily mean we “can’t compete with Ipswich” on fees. More that we might have decided not to Or whether it is because we didn’t have the squad space/wage space/transfer budget available right now due to being unable to move enough people on An indication will be who, if anyone, we sign in an attacking position between now and the end of the window. A central striker will suggest BBD was out left winger signing. But another winger would mean we might have wanted to go for him if the stars had all been aligned
Completely agree with the "winning the window" comment. So often you look at transfers based on their existing reputation, but with Saints business model that is kind of the opposite of our transfer strategy. Look at someone like Mane. All fans get excited about their own signings but when we signed him no other clubs were looking on with envy and thinking we had pulled off an incredible deal, but he went on to be a world beater. Same with loaning in Alderweireld. Same with Pelle. I doubt most other fans could tell you a thing about Saints new £7m right back, but for me he is our signing of the summer. We all say about how you should only judge a transfer window when it actually closes, but even that is premature. It only becomes clear about 3 or 4 months later how good of a window a club really had.
Also I think Fernandes could turn out to be a real coup. Ipswich may be signing bigger or better known names, but that's no guarantee it will turn out better for them.
I am not sure this is true. Mane had just scored a hat-trick against Bayern Munich when we signed him and he was certainly on the radar. Alderweireld felt like a really exciting piece of business. Pelle, yeah, who was he? But I do think people looked at the first two deals with envy.
I maybe thinking crazy, but it really would surprise me that we end up signing a central striker than no one thought was available. He will end up banging in 15-20 goals this season! Time to wake up I guess, and stop dreaming lol
