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Football LXXXI: As The Saints Go Marching Out


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The dismemberment of Southampton FC continues, and chief among the culprits is my beloved LFC. I admit I kind of feel sorry for them but hey we needed a striker...and a midfielder...and a defender.

Ronald Koeman has already been set up for failure imo. It would be a huge surprise to me if he managed to keep them up.

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It would be a huge surprise to me if he managed to keep them up.

My thoughts precisely, with having to bed in a new squad of players who aren't used to playing together and also just aren't nearly as good.

It does make you wonder about the mid-table team and how far away they are from sustained success. If the team hadn't done so well, they possibly wouldn't have lost Pochettino, and possibly wouldn't have lost these players (although you can never be sure, some of them may still have left). Being stylish mid-table battlers is probably better than stylish upper table success stories.

Southampton also isn't helped by scale, since its stadium capacity is only 30,000. A team like Newcastle could have potential with its devout fanbase and large capacity, I could see them breaking into the big-time if they had competent leadership, but most clubs don't have that sort of scale at their disposal.

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The reality is that even after losing all these players there are still at least 3, perhaps up to 6, teams who are completely dire and in far more significant danger of relegation than Southampton are.


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Have the image of Polish literally slapping Ward Prowse onto the pitch.



Yeah no, I don't think they'll get relegated. I feel like that's too far a stretch for Soton. Also, it seems like Chambers is confirmed for 16 million. That's a lot of money for a CB/ RB, might be the most expensive defender we've bought in years.


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Raja, it's the third most expensive signing arsenal have bought I think for anything. Times have changed and we have the money to grab the talent. Shaw went for 27 mil and it's likely Chambers would have gone for a similar amount given another year. I'm happy Arsenal made the deal now.

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Looks like Carl Jenkinson - The Premier League's most banterous man - might be leaving Arsenal

It'll be a loan which is exactly what he needs. He'll never grow as 2nd choice. I'm happy with this move.

Raja, one more thing on Chambers. I think initial fee is only around 11m with escalators and bonuses potentially bringing it up to 16. I don't think that's a terrible fee for an English talent. It's around what we paid for Ox.

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Definitely a good move for Jenks if it's a loan only. Get a full Premier League season under his belt and come back fighting for a first team place next year


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Atletico sign Griezmann. Instead of being gutted they've used money from players sold and improved their squad. I rate Mandzukic over Costa and Griezmann is really really good. Hope they challenge for the title again in Spain.

That's two good signings for Atletico. Hopefully they can challenge again but they will need to have a bit of luck when it comes to injuries because their squad is not deep enough.

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That's two good signings for Atletico. Hopefully they can challenge again but they will need to have a bit of luck when it comes to injuries because their squad is not deep enough.

I wouldn't have thought their squad was deep enough last year but they won La Liga and were in the CL final. But yeah it would be a tall tall task to repeat that success. Simeone seems a really fucking good manager though.

Happy about Lovren, I think him and Sakho will be a good pair at the back. Just wish we had better fullbacks. Still hope we can sign some and also very curious to see who we go for to replace the Remy deal that fell through.

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I was wondering if any Serie A fans are following the FIGC presidential "campaign". It is basically between Albertini, the former Milan and Azzurri midfielder and the 70 year old current president of Lega Pro Tavecchio. Tavecchio had support of him vowed by all but two clubs (Mila and Juve). He seemed to be a shoe in for next month's election, then he started talking. In a rant about problems with developing Italian youth and foreign players in Serie A, this slipped out of his mouth:



“We say that any old Opti Pobà can come here, before he was eating bananas, now he’s playing in the Lazio first XI,”



The sad thing is that since saying this on Thursday, only Fiorentina have rescinded their support for his candidacy. How can Italian owners be so stupid to support a guy like this? How can he possibly be good for Italian soccer? How does this guy still have a job? To my fellow American sports fans, can you imagine if Bud Selig or Rodger Goodell said something even vaguely like this?


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I wouldn't have thought their squad was deep enough last year but they won La Liga and were in the CL final. But yeah it would be a tall tall task to repeat that success. Simeone seems a really fucking good manager though.

They were fortunate when it came to injuries last season though. Simeone was able to call upon a relatively small core of players for the majority of the season. It might be tougher this time around but if they can keep their core players fit for the vast majority of the season once again then I see no reason why they wouldn't be right up there.

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southampton will stay up. despite being picked apart like a brain dead body for viable organs they will be struggle but stay up. there is still time to reinvest some of that money in a few players.



only a few more weeks until the premiership season kicks off. i see my newcastle united side finishing 8th. i base that on almost nothing but optimism!


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only a few more weeks until the premiership season kicks off. i see my newcastle united side finishing 8th. i base that on almost nothing but optimism!

To be fair, your transfer window activity has so far been excellent - a lot of gambles, but I reckon potentially the best overall buys in the league. Could potentially do with another striker, though, unless Cisse wakes up.

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