Kanji

I'd argue whoever is in charge of scouting for Southampton should be held up in some regard. Sadio Mane, Fonte, Lovren, Tadic, Pelle, Bertrand, etc. Regarding our setup - I still believe Carr is a great scout with some brilliant contacts. But I think our entire setup was always hindered with our aged training facilities, lack of backroom support staff at all levels, and poor manager. Had the backbone been invested immediately and aggressively coupled with a progressing forward thinking manager capable of getting the best out of 5M-12M signings to compete at the very highest level as well as "Sell-On" value to then recycle capital into players, youth academy grads, etc - the model has legs to work. We never did any of that shit and paired these players with Pardew. The scouting probably fine, the chairman or technical director lacking (our chairmen being fucking idiots) not knowing football and not having a manager with a clue on how to build a squad with these unique players always hindered us. You pair Carr's scouting/contacts + Southampton's squad building abilities + Football people + Proper Manager you get results. All well in good if you can find players but you're going to be operating with both hands tied behind your back when your striker shortlist of 5 people is widdled down and you sign emergency #7. You miss out on #2 b/c you didn't feel like paying 3M more or some 3rd party agent wanted you to grease him or whatever. You then just sign any player who is on the list and figure it out later with Alan fucking Pardew. You then have a chairman who can't do a fucking deal to save his life getting rid of players on these odd season long loan with commitments to buy so hey, try out our player and if he returns to form and you love him and he becomes a world beater or we have an injury crisis we can't take him back. tl;dr - but our shambolic setup can be partially blamed when you try to analyze Carr - he's done some 50-50s but needs a win on some brilliant players sooner than later IMO but I can't help but feel we've wasted far too much talent with the idiots we have working with these players or doing deals for players.

If Sissoko Plays: Aarons - Mitro - Thauvin Sissoko Wijnaldum Anita Haid-Colo-Taylor-Mmemba ? Is that what we have to do in the back?

In the old days we'd turn up here and just get fucking bummed. Wonder how it will be under Stevie Mac. If Thauvin signs fucking start him. Is Sissoko out?

You don't run the NUFC Gallowgate twitter account do you by any chance? I'd just run that lineup for the 0 fucks aspect.

Just like many of the younger french players that left, ones who captained their club or showed tremendous potential tend to be well-thought of. He's still highly regarded in France. He did pretty damn good over at Roma tbf, and scored that goal versus Lazio.

has he said anything at all regarding Ayoze??

He should be playing LW or Perez should be there. Right wing should be Thauvin or Sissoko. Central Mid should be Anita + Sissoko + Wijnaldum or Anita + Wijnaldum with De Jong or Perez playing #10.

The "manager" watched those two performances and thought nah, doesn't deserve any more games, soon after. How does that happen?! I blame his Algerian friendly match soon after that basically was so typically for us

I'm going to convince myself that I just didn't see him play as MOTM worthy as he did those run of games b/c it's gutting to see a player who basically finally resemebled what we lacked in terms of physicality and presence at the center of our midfield in years... Good luck to him, this kid came back and bossed Yaya/City and Liverpool.

Weren't we win for Ayew, Lacazette and Gomis? All didn't pan out basically b/c we didnt want to pay their salary and or transfer fee?

I really wanted him to succeed, I loved watching him play for Montpellier and it's a bit crazy to think how far that title team was dismantled over the past 3 years. Think Cabella could have come good this year if he was fit, I think his quick dribbling and passing would have been great for us. Disaster of a move for him, but I'd put money on him re-finding his form in France, getting back into the French team and so on. But in Thauvin we potentially have a mecurial winger who is going to be direct and cause problems. I'm all for it. We still need fucking defenders, ffs, but I'm not going to be so short sighted and think that isn't a move that needs to be done b/c quite frankly we do need a right winger (would have preferred Shaqiri).

I still believe we aren't signing all of his "top" targets as we either a) don't want to pay it and/or b) have had Pardew/Carver damage our reputation and c) have no european football

Hoy the fucker into the first 11 then

Put 15M into a CB

I'm fine with this move. We need a spark of an attacking mercurial type player. Still need to sign some fucking defenders.

Strange.

Don't you guys want the England setup to win something? Why the fuck would you wish your enemy upon your country's national setup? Makes no sense to me.

I know our club was shit last season and I know it was only a handful or so of times I'd waste my time watching QPR but he looked far more dangerous running about and creating his own shots than people give him credit for. If he's brought in and has to compete to win the spot versus the others in I'm okay with that. Earn your spot by scoring goals. But again We aren't that type of club so would rather spend the money elsewhere.

We need to claw any draws we can in this beginning run IMO. Build some confidence. We've many tough fixtures ahead.

Looking forward to this match

Hate Lee.

I've no problem with Andros. If we're signing a wide man, he's got to have pace and a decent eye for goal.

Personally I have no problem with us trying to sign him, I just don't like this 1 in 1 out or 1 signing here, sorted type mentality. If we were building a squad to mount a genuine push for Europe or Cup competitions, fair enough. To have Cisse, Mitrovic, Austin as a striking team would be awesome. And to have depth in quality is all great.

I like that the ultimatum was "we're holding on 15m, and also if nobody meets that we are offering him a contract" like has has any fucking obligation to sign it.