So......Moussa Djenepo will be first signing for the new season. A new name to many.
Saints rarely divulge fees, but the Belgian journo' let slip that it was £ 10 million (plus add-ons, I guess). Not a bad deal in today's market when some Championship clubs are demanding £15-20 million for their starlets.

I can already hear some people complaining that £10 million is a lot for an unproven young player (20), to play in the Prem. but gone are the days (I can recall long ago) when players had to be at least 21 before they had the chance of an occasional call-up, (and then only when the "regular player" was injured).

Ralph has shown that he's not afraid to give up-and-coming young talent a run-out, and so (hopefully) he can start to build a side with a view to longer-term success.

Of all the foreign talent we have been linked with this guy always looked our best bet. He is apparently lightening quick with an eye for goal. The price is right and we will all be hoping Ralph can polish him into another Mane. It is worth pointing out that this might take a little time and Mane himself was criticised by many Saints supporters in his first season. However I will be pleased if we get this signing over the line, especially as it qualifies as early business.

Agree.... andy welsh... a lot of nonsense is regularly spoken about "hitting the ground running " whenever new players are signed, but in truth it takes time for a new player to get to know who he's playing with, and what their roles are - if he is to be "a good fit" .

You mentioned the time when Mane was a new arrival, and in the first month Ronald Koeman must have changed his underwear quite often, and even I recall one fan..
(I won't say his name)... who went on-line and compared Sadio to a certain ...Ali Dia.

New players need time to settle , and we must allow new arrivals time to find their feet.

underweststand, I don't think anyone will think £10 million is a lot for a Premier League club to pay nowadays. Most clubs routinely buy players costing £20 million +. Even Bournemouth pay that much. I guess the £20 million we're paying for Ings will be our big buy of the summer though. Let's hope Ross Wilson has turned into a genius at spotting bargains, and not more dross like Elyounoussi, Carrillo and Hoedt.

Same old, same old... we buy cheap players only, in the hope that we can improve them and sell them on in two years for a BFP.

Why would anybody expect differently of SFC Reed or no Reed?

Classic saint Brock post... you must be fun to work with.
"Here you are or Brock.. a pay rise!"
"Not big enough"

Saint Brock all you ever do is moan
Buy cheap ,improve , sell & reinvest was Marcus liebherrs blue print .
Why do you ‘support’ saints

Good point that Lemmsy, have asked myself the same question for the last thirty years!

Isn't that the very essence of being a supporter, meet up with fellow travellers every other Saturday for a good moan? Gets it off your chest and sets you up for the week ahead.

No Brock. A supporter SUPPORTS the team. Clue is in the name. If you've supported saints for 30 years then surely you're aware of the relegation scraps, the tiny stadium, the very few ups and many downs.. the lowest being dropping to league 1. At this point we were bought, given a plan, improved infrastructure, got back to the premier league, stayed there, reached Europe.. then we deviated from the plan and we've had a dip. Now when we try and go back to the plan that brought us success you MOAN again!!! What do you want us to do? Go and buy players for 60 million and bankrupt ourselves like pompey? Have a word with yourself mate.

Better still, go and support pompey, or Bournemouth..or if you only want to SUPPORT teams that spend lots of money go and support man city, or psg.

Ha ha Brock, you’re under fire there! I’ve got to admit I’ve turned eternal optimist to doom-monger in recent seasons, which is interesting given this is arguably one of our most successful periods in decades. It’s probably the scenes from Madrid which almost made me heave, that contribute to my change in attitude. Seeing VVD and Mane and thinking if only our team had been more patient and stayed together. I’d add Lallana to the list but technically he’s just a front row supporter these days. I’m not going to cast any real opinion until the end of the window. The last few have taught me not to get excited. I do know I’d love to see us developing players like Mane and VVD again, but we’ve got to try and retain more. Liverpool have ripped the soul out of this club by consistently belittling us. Even when they break the rules they’re untouchable. If the FA had some balls they’d have slapped a transfer embargo on them, they’d have lost VVD and not won the CL. It’s easy to see why our fans feel frustrated.

Bstokesaint it's wasn't about us "being more patient with past players. We are a small club, with a 30k seater stadium and a minute (in comparison) revenue etc due to shirt sales, fan base and global standing when up against the likes of Liverpool etc. In years gone by we had to sell to survive. In more recent times we have had to sell in order to have a SQUAD capable of competing, which worked! Once poch left along with lallana, Shaw etc we bought players like mane and pelle and they made us a better team. Unfortunately players now hold more power than clubs do in the game, so when mane wants to go (as he did prior to joining us) he can control when he goes. We saw it with vvd. We didn't want to sell him, we didn't TRY to sell him. We held on to him but he downed tools and so our hands were tied. We got 75 million for him. Unfortunately under reed we didn't use that money wisely enough but more than anything we brought in the wrong managerial appointments and lost pur way big time. Now we have made the RIGHT appointment who will hopefully give us a brilliant and full season before he probably gets poached by another club. That's the way it is. If we had 60000 fans turn up at ST Mary's every week then I'm sure we could pay the wages to keep the players at the club longer. But we don't. So we find another way to compete, and also to survive LONG TERM instead of doing what clubs such as Leeds, pompey et al have done and financially cripple themselves for short term goals.

Perfectly said SaintBlonde....