Pre-Season 2021/22 : Are We Ready For a New Season?

 

Things Are Strange in Pre-Season

God I hate the pre-season. Years ago it used to be a time when everything went quiet and you could have a break from football which even as a fan, you really need sometimes.

Nowadays of course you have to put up with a constant tidal wave of bullshit stories, bullshit rumours or bullshit photo shopped images of players with a different clubs shirts on. It’s endless. On top of that, you get fans not thinking and generally losing their shit. For example, Southampton Football Club say every single year that they want to get their business done early and have everyone there for preseason. This. Never. Happens.

Everyone is skint and we all know the level of market that Saints are operating because we have been told that we are not looking to spend more than £10 to £12 million on a player. It therefore follows that we are not going to buy a player a month early and have to spend another £200,000 on wages or whatever. It also follows that we are not going to buy a £30 million rated player, nor a player in a position where we all are already well stocked.

Having said that about the early business, we have done some business early and that we tied up Theo Walcott and Romain Perraud. Walcott was tied up because it was already a done deal and Perraud is probably the only new signing that is essential to the first 11 and therefore essential that he has as long as possible to prepare.

Anyone else we sign is probably going to be a player who is not immediately in the starting 11, be they from the Championship or be they a youngster. You have to remember, our first 11 was pretty good last year and it will be this year. The reason we fell away last year was because our squad wasn’t deep enough. Basically what I’m saying is, keep your patience and judge at the end of the window.

So, the incomings so far … with Theo Walcott being the first, joining on a free transfer at the end of his Everton contract. Of course there is no such thing as a free transfer because you’ve still got a pay the guy but it’s largely reported that Theo has taken a big wage cut to join Saints and should be applauded for that. There were signs last season, before his injury, that he can have a really positive impact on the pitch as well as off, so I was glad to see this one get done.

With all due respect to Theo, the most important business of the summer was to get in a new left back, to replace the departed Ryan Bertrand. Romain Perraud was the name linked for quite a while before it eventually became a reality and he joined from Stade Brestois for about £13 million quid. This is the same club that we signed Ibrahim Diallo from. I found it quite amusing that it was reported that because of the Diallo deal, we had a good relationship with the French club. Is that a bit like saying we’ve got a good relationship with Liverpool because they keep signing our players. I think not. Perraud comes with a reputation for being better going forward than he is defensively which is fine. I’d say that KWP is better going forward than he is defensively but as he is very good defensively then it doesn’t matter. I can’t imagine that Perraud is going to be someone who can’t defend.

He Only Has to be Better than Djenepo

The Perraud signing happened during the Euros, when I’d got used to watching teams playing in variations of three at the back formations. On paper, three of the back looks a very good way to go for us, with Salisu as the left footed centre back, Vestergaard of the middle and Bednarek on the right, Perraud and KWP as the wingbacks and midfield three of Romeu, JWP and Armstrong behind a front two of Ings and Adams.

As I write, after a bit of a delay, we signed highly rated Chelsea youngster Dynel Simeu. He was the captain of their Under 23’s side last season even though he’s only 19 and is one of an every growing number of youngsters who do not want to hang around playing age-group football and being loaned out all over the place by the big clubs. Probably helpfully, he spent some of his school years in Southampton so there is an element of ‘coming home’ about this one. I don’t know anything about him really, other than “big, strong, quick, good on the ball”. We shall see whether he is in contention for the first team straight away. I can’t imagine he will be far away because that’s the reason he’s leaving Chelsea after all.

Poortvliet: Those Were the Days

Hopefully a long way from the first team there is another centre half who arrived in the form of Olly Lancashire. Yes, that Ollie Lancashire who last played for Saints under the mercurial management of Jan Poortvliet. To be fair, Olly was just a kid in a car crash of a season and a long time has passed since then within making over 300 appearances in the lower leagues. Interestingly, he has been brought in to play with the B Team, specifically to pass on some experience. On the face of it, this seems like a good idea with the age group teams having been uniformly smashed all over the place last season. At least the club haven’t tried to push him as the Vestergaard replacement which we may yet still need.

As for other links, tow names that keep coming up are Brandon Williams and Adam Armstrong.  We are clearly keen on both but here’s where the patience comes in.  If the figures are to be believed, United want us to cover the £65k a week that they are paying their third choice left back at age 20 and also want us to stump up a £2 million quid loan fee, basically for us to help them develop their player.  Jog on at those figures. Personally, I feel that about half of those figures would be reasonable so maybe there’s some negotiation to be done.  The situation has been complicated though by the injury to Alex Telles, United’s 2^nd choice left back, so they may not want Williams to go anywhere.

Blackburn’s Armstrong is like us with the Ings situation – he’s their best striker, with one year left on his deal.  They are quite rightly holding out for as much as possible and we are playing the ‘but he’s only got one year left’ card.  Blackburn will be hoping someone else comes in so they can instigate some sort of bidding war and will leave that to the last minute, knowing Saints are interested – running the risk that we’ll go elsewhere or lower our offer – brinkmanship all round.  Unlike us with Danny Ings though, it’s unlikely Blackburn will be prepared to lose him for nothing next summer, or for peanuts in January. This one will get done on a Danso if it’s done at all - deal sheet the day after the window closes.

Outgoing Player news is not as sexy as incoming but is just as important.  One of the biggest problems that Saints have had over the last few years has been of course, the players we signed for big fees, who we put on big wages, who were then not fit for purpose and we couldn’t find anyone else to sell them to. We’ve had a few that we basically couldn’t give away.  Another issue has been the fact that we have kept some academy graduates for far too long when they were clearly, never going to be Premier League footballers.

An example of this left the club in the summer with Jake Hesketh finally moving on. He is 25. If ever there was a true indication that he was never going to be Premier League quality then it’s that he has gone down to Portsmouth since he left us and had a trial and even though they are short of players for the new season, they have decided not to take him on.

Josh Sims has also moved on. Sims of course provided a couple of great moments in the first team but never quite looked like he was ever going to make the transition from impact sub to starting player. His career took a very strange path when he was loaned out to the MLS though to be honest, the writing was on the wall before that. He will always be remembered for the run from his own half against Liverpool which saw Shane Long score to get us through to the League Cup final but remember, that was four years ago. It’ll be interesting to see where he turns up as well. I would be surprised if it’s anywhere higher than League 1.

Cheers Josh!

Another that moved on, on a permanent deal was Callum Slattery who assigned for Motherwell. I really don’t know where it’s all gone wrong for Callum because he looked to have the talent and a bit of swagger on the pitch but there have been a lot of noises about a less than perfect attitude which when you are a young player, will not be indulged for too long. Hopefully the penny drops with him and he turns out to be a good player in the future.

One departing that I feel could be a bit of a loss is Alex Jankewitz. He seemed to be moving in the right direction until 'that' appearance at Old Trafford.  Seems like he was dead in the water as far as Ralph was concerned, as soon as that drop kick landed.  I wonder if the outcome would have been the same had we only lost 3-0.  The reason that this one is a shame is because the lad clearly has talent and like Slattery, a bit of swagger about him but unlike Slattery, he's only been at the club about two years and is only 19.  He could disappear, now he's gone back to Swiss football but don;t be surprised if he's playing for a big Italian club in a few years time.  I hope we have a decent sell-on fee.

Also moving to Scotland is Jake Vokins, on loan to Ross County. This is another shitshow from us because Jake has been given a fairly long-term contract and he doesn’t look remotely like he’s ever gonna be Premier League level. He didn’t look like he had the first clue about how to play at full-back and unless he makes some massive strides whilst playing in Scotland, I can see him being another Hesketh and finally being let go when he is about 25.

Also on loan is Dan N’Lundulu who signed a three-year contract and was immediately loaned out to Lincoln City in League 1. This is an interesting one because Saints obviously rate the guy so will clearly be expecting him to smash up League One next season. The jury is out for me as I’m seeing a player who is just a little bit slow to make up his mind what he is about to do and his first touch needs a lot of work. He is a big unit and he has to learn to play like one and dominate defenders. I’ll be an interesting challenge for him in League One if he comes through that then you never know.

In the category of big-money-flop-finally-leaving, we have three entries. The first of whom was Angus Gunn who on the face of it was the most bizarre purchase bearing in mind we already had two goalkeepers on the first team wages. We had already tied up Fraser for another four years rightly or wrongly and Angus was signed to be first choice. After initially looking promising, it became apparent that he didn’t really have the presence thought there was a theory that this would always come with more experience. After a while it became apparent that this wasn’t really going to happen and it all came to a crushing end one Friday night against Leicester. He’s gone back to Norwich, where is dad once played and where Angus himself was on loan. Good luck to him and there is certainly a goalkeeper in there somewhere. As signings go for us though, it hasn’t been the best. He will feel that he hasn’t really been given a chance with us and we will think that we’ve seen enough and therefore, it’s probably a good move for both parties.

We also got rid of Wesley Hoedt. The key to doing this was of course to find a club that would buy him without having him on loan first because once anyone had him on loan, they realised just how shit he was. Unlucky Anderlecht. I’ve never forgiven them for the 1976 European Cup Winners Cup third round, so they deserve it. I don’t think Wesley was as bad as he has been painted to be but I sure as hell wasn’t the replacement for Van Dijk the club thought he was going to be. A bit like Guido Carillo, I think we just got it completely wrong regarding how good he was. It’s not his fault that we signed him and it’s not his fault that we threw ridiculous money at him, which meant we were saddled with him when we realised that he wasn’t good enough. Wesley’s main problem when he did play was that he seemed to be deluded about his own ability and try to do things that which were ridiculous and his arrogance was his downfall on a number of occasions, never more so than in his last game for the club away at Fulham. A Cruyff turn by your own corner flag is never a good idea for Centre back. Good luck to him and whilst he has found time to have a couple of digs at Ralph, at least he has not been a massive bell end on social media whilst he has been out on loan. Which brings us on to….

"I'm Back" said Mario on Instagram.  Thankfully, not for long #NiceArsehole

Finally we got rid of Mario Lemina who signed for OGC Nice where he will link up with Morgan Schneiderlin and be forever known as the Nice Arsehole. I’m sure there have been players over my 40 years following Southampton who have been as big a bellend as Mario but they’ve not had social media to bring that to a wider audience. Brand Mario has not given a shit about Southampton since he signed. It took about three months for the cracks to start the show. It became apparent that he only put the effort in when he really wanted to, which was either against shockingly poor teams or occasionally, when we played the likes of Manchester United. The trouble was the Mario had the ability to be brilliant but just didn’t use it and that’s the worst crime of all. Though I had already formed a negative opinion about the guy, the FA Cup semi-final against Chelsea when he basically didn’t give a shit and just wandered about, was the end of the road. That game was one of the five or six biggest games in Southampton’s history but he jogged forward, lost the ball and then didn’t bother chasing back on a few occasions. A waster and an absolute arsehole.  It amazed me that some would still have him back, like he was going to be reformed or something.  No, not happening and Ralph saying he wanted him around is purely a dig at the board to get him a replacement.  Ralph doesn’t want Mario around – no one does.

Finally of course, we lost Ryan Bertrand who moved on to Leicester City at the end of this Saints contract. I feel that this is going to be a more common occurrence in the next few years with players refusing to sign new deals. Anyway, as far as I’m concerned, Ryan has been a Saint for seven years so he deserves the opportunity to go and do whatever he wants and he is moving to a very good Leicester City team who should be challenging near the top of the league all season. If they are not, then questions are going to be asked of Brendan Rodgers because he has all the tools there.

The final aspect of the transfer market is of course, which of your first team players who you don’t want to lose, is going to be linked with moves away to big or even medium sized clubs.  The speculation for us has been around the two with one year left on their deals, Ings and Vestergaard and there’s been some comical interest in JWP and Fraser Forster.  Danny and Jannik have been linked with Spurs because it’s always Spurs.  The Europa Conference League will I’m sure be a huge draw.  To be fair, I could see Jannik going there and they have just sold Toby Alderweireld so are short in that area.  Regardless, there has been no concrete offers for either. 

There apparently has been an offer for JWP of around £25 million from Villa.  This is where you have to think – and not too hard.  Is he a player we can afford to lose? Is he agitating for a move? Are Villa going to at least double their offer? Are Saints going to sell on the cheap? Is Villa a significant step up? Is anyone going to agree a fee with Villa before Grealish is sold?  aNswer to all those is “No”.  As for Fraser – Celtic have a shit goalkeeper at the moment and no money.  They (or the Celtic friendly desperate media) basically want us to loan them Fraser for nothing and pay a huge proportion of his wages.  He’s probably going to be our first choice keeper this season so stop embarrassing yourself lads.

The pre-season matches started with a training ground friendly against Fulham which was little more than a fitness workout with two completely different teams playing each half. Saints dominated the game, especially in the first half but it took a Shane Long goal, set up by Michael Obafemi, to give us the lead before we got pegged back and the game petered out into a draw.

Next up came a decent test away to Cardiff who are further along in their preparation for the new season and we smashed them 4-0 With goals from Walcott, Djenepo and two from Scotland’s finest, Che Braveheart Adams. Comfortably winning a game in preseason brings out the same overreactions as losing one does. Looking good in a pre-season friendly against the Championship side, really does not mean anything but the players as a whole looked very sharp and very fit, which is very encouraging. I couldn’t get my head around seeing Elyounoussi in a Saints shirt again, nor Shane Long. It kind of proves that there is more work to be done of the pitch, in the upcoming weeks.

Along the coast to Swansea and a comfortable 3-1 win but not without it’s issues, namely Salisu putting Swansea ahead with a right footed swinger under no pressure which rocketed past McCarthy before he could move.  In the second half, Macca tried that dribbling round the forward from a standing start thing, which always ends badly and it would have done again but for Bednarek getting back to clear it.  In between times, Tella, Redmond and Armstrong all scored to give us the win.  I know it’s all about minutes and getting a run out but I hope that the Spanish opposition coming to St Mary’s in the next week in Levante and Athletic Bilbao, provide better opposition than the Welsh clubs who were both decidedly average. 

Are we in good shape for Everton in two weeks time?  It’s hard to tell.  The players look sharp and fit and that’s all you can ask for at this stage.  There’s going to be some serious competition for places in some areas – goalkeeper, centre backs, left-wing and in the more settled positions, it’s good to see the usual incumbents looking sharp, like KWP, Romeu, Armstrong and Adams.  Tella and Redmond are both putting their hand up for the left wing spot and Salisu is doing likewise at centre back.  Ralph is trying to fix the full-back back up issues that we had last year with Yan Valery on the right and Moussa Djenepo on the left.  Valery has looked decent to be fair and Djenepo has looked good going forward but the thought of him playing left back in the Premier League gives me the shits.  I’d be putting money on a red card as he can’t tackle and he dives all over the place.  Next week should see the return of JWP from a minor knock and Vestergaard from his holiday and of course, the rumour mill bullshit will be in full flow.

A lot can change in two weeks…