FM16: Southampton FC - When the Saints go marching in

[Jamie Cortez]

[video=youtube_share;qHdj4bQy1Ps]

Welcome to the Southampton F.C. Thread

Overview

Team Name: Southampton FC

Nickname: The Saints

Year Founded: 1885

Owner: Katharina Liebherr

Current Manager: Ronald Koeman

Club Captain: José Fonte

Vice Captain: Steven Davis

Country: England

League: English Premier League

Media Prediction: 8th

Fierce Rivals: Portsmouth (Local)

Other Rivals: Bournemouth (Local), Brighton (Local), Tottenham (Competitive), Reading (Local)

Legends: Markus Liebherr, Rickie Lambert, Matthew Le Tissier, Mick Channon, Ted Bates, Terry Paine, Lawrie McMenemy

Icons: Kevin Keegan, Ron Davies, Bobby Stokes, Martin Chivers, Alan Ball, Derek Reeves, Charlie Wayman, Bill Rawlings, Ted Drake, Gordon Strachan, Nigel Adkins, Ernest Arnfield

Favoured Personnel: Marians Pahars, Morgan Schneiderlin, Kelvin Davis, Gareth Bale, Theo Walcott, Adnrew Surman, Jose Fonte, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlin, Chris Baird, James Beattie, Dave Jones



History Overview

Founded in 1885, Southampton are a professional English club currently playing in the English Premier Division. Southampton's performance last season saw them qualify for the European Cup.

The club play their home games at St.Mary's Stadium and have what are generally considered to be excellent training and youth facilities. The training ground Staplewood Campus is where the reserve team play their fixtures.

The club has an excellent reputation for junior coaching and youth recruitment and the players they have produced and later sold on have generated exceptional income for the club.

Southampton enjoyed its best spell of success during the 1970's and their last competition win was 2010, The Saints are a club with an already extensive and continually growing history. Southampton finished runners-up in the English top division for the only time in 1984, won the FA Cup in 1976 with multiple runner up finishes.

Can you bring The Saint's first top level silverware?

Club Finances and Structure

Estimated Value: £312M (Loan debt: £49M)

Balance: £71.8M

Finances: Rich

Transfer Budget: £10.95M

% of transfer revenue made available: 90%

Corporate Facilities: Top of the line

Training Facilities: Excellent training facilities

Youth Facilities: Top of the line

Analysis of the First Team

Goalkeepers: Stekelenburg / Forster

Rating: ★★★: Both Forster and Stekelenburg are good keepers it's a shame one is out for almost the entire season and the other is on loan an area that should be strengthened.

Defenders: Bertrand / Caulker / Cedric / Jose Fonte / Martina / Yoshida / Targett / Van Dijk

Rating: ★★: Central defence is ok between Fonte/Van Dijk/Caulker, Bertrand and Cedric are good fullbacks. This area requires some investment in general as it's quite shallow and there is better out there.

Midfielders: Wanyama / Reed / Clasie / Romeu / Mane / Tadic / Davis / Ward-Prowse / Ramirez

Rating: ★★★★: This area of the team is packed with quality in the likes of Wanyama, Ward-Prowse, Tadic, Mane. However both Wanyama and Ward-Prowse are highly coveted and you'll face an uphill battle to keep them if you do sell them you can be sure of a hefty war chest to replace them.

Strikers: Long / Rodriguez / Juanmi / Pelle

Rating: ★★★: Again this is an area that has good talent and good goalscoring potential in the first season this shouldn't really need investment with the minimal budget.

[Jamie Cortez]

Reserved History - Non Overview

[Jamie Cortez]

Formations

Southampton have been lining up in a narrow 4-2-3-1 formation, for example



In FM16 Saido Mane prefers to play as an AMR or SC playing him in the AMC role above gives him a role ability of 2 stars, so a variation of that formation is also possible moving it from being narrow to wide playing him as a winger moves him into 3.5 stars.



Team Report Comparrison



What we can take from this is that we have a team who are relatively good technically (first touch/passing) but lacking in strength, decision making, teamwork.

To delve into this deeper for a second the Southampton defence is the worst at heading and strength in the Premier League, they are mediocre to bad at just about everything else. The midfield and strikers are competitive rather than league leading.

Transfer Targets

Given the relatively tight £10.95M budget and a wage budget that is not going to stretch much further reinforcements will be somewhat limited, If you opt not to cash in on the likes Waynama and Ward-Prowse your only real option for the first season is to shore up that defence. Options will include the likes of

Horn

Bids seem to get accepted quite low £6.5M release fee (altho it does not appear on the contract page)

Balanta

£2.9M to seal this one, taken a nerf since FM 15 but still a good buy.

Roco

Should be available at around £7M

Janmaat

Will require some financial jiggling to get this one

Kone

Transfer listed, cheap, worth a punt maybe not really sure it's an improvement.

Alvarez

Not a defender....but free..and looks promising. Good re-sale value too.

Now if like me you take a risk and sell star players that perhaps you shouldn't. This guy is a must buy,

Embolo

Good Luck with the march! and remember this guy is watching.

[Str0aK]

Been waiting for this. Looking forward to my annual Saints save.

[Jamie Cortez]

Now i started my game before this thread so went a slightly different way to how i would if i began again now.

Probably let Wanyama and Prowse go slightly cheaper than i would have liked but it's allowed me to balance out the squad.

Been some good improvement in areas without sacrificing too much.

My current formation

Current performance.

I am slightly tempted to bring in Del Piero from Preston North End (yes you read that right) for tutor purposes.

[STaphouse]

You can easily squeeze £40m out of Chelsea for JWP.

[Jamie Cortez]

You can easily squeeze £40m out of Chelsea for JWP.

wouldnt budge upwards.

[RTHerringbone]

I'm desperately trying to stay away fro Saints this year. I know I'll fold soon enough......

[Jamie Cortez]

I'm desperately trying to stay away fro Saints this year. I know I'll fold soon enough......

Im not a Saint's supporter, but there is a reason im drawn to play them. Good producers of youth, small transfer budget and typically a selling club. It's a decent club to try and turn into a top 4 club.

[Welshace]

They seem a bit weaker in all areas this year though..

Decent starting XI, but not a lot past that and not a huge amount of talent in the reserves and under 19's either.

Bit more of a challenge for sure.

[Jamie Cortez]

They seem a bit weaker in all areas this year though..

Decent starting XI, but not a lot past that and not a huge amount of talent in the reserves and under 19's either.

Bit more of a challenge for sure.

Definitely, they have a decent bank balance from all the sales it's just not all being reinvested. And your totally right there isn't much in the reserves and youth systems this season. It's a squad in need of work, the money just isn't there to do it without more sales sadly the boards too tight!

[Welshace]

Choice seem to be:

• Stick with the squad and get through first season before improving (beyond the 12 million or so you get)
  

or:

• Sell one of Mane or JWP for big money, neither of which is ideal. Both for me, are essential.
  

Tough choice really... you certainly need a backup striker at least imo.

[celtic_fc]

Could use the starting budget and end up with a squad something like this

GK Alisson (3M) Stekelenburg Forster

RB Peruzzi (2M) Cedric Douglas (loan)

CB Kirchoff (3M) Caulker Mazuch (free)

CB VVD Balanta (2M)

LB Bertrand Taggart

CM JWP Clasie Reed

CM Wanyama Romeu

RW Mane Zivkovic (1M) Schelotto (free)

AM Correa (loan) Ramirez Alvarez (free)

LW Tadic Rodriguez

ST Pelle Long Juanmi

Then sell Fonte, Yoshida and Davis and use whatever you get from them to improve a little more.

[SFC_Jordi]

My first season went pretty well, Chelsea came in for Ward-Prowse early on and he made it clear he wanted to leave so I tried to squeeze as much as I could from them, I didn't think £31m rising to £36m was too bad a deal and it gave me the freedom to develop the squad how I wanted it. I identified the need for a backup striker but Charlie Austin turned me down to sign for Watford instead, Jordan Rhodes normall scores goals on FM so he seemed like a no-brainer.

Yannick Bolasie so far has proven to be an expensive mistake, managed to play only ten games due to constantly being out injured, and when he did play, he only managed one assist in the ten games.

Ryan Gauld has been decent but the fans seem to hate him for some reason.

I was binned out of the Europa League in the 3rd qualifying round by Charleroi, so that wasn't much of a run, however we started the league season with a bang, winning 3-0 at Spurs, I tended to beat the teams I was supposed to and lose to the big sides. We also came away from Anfield with a 1-0 win.

We also reached the Capital One Cup semi final but a disastrous first leg against Chelsea saw us lose 4-0, and despite winning 3-1 in the home leg, we crashed out. We also crashed out of the FA Cup in the third round, getting trounced 3-0 at home by Wolves.

We finished the season well, finishing 7th and once again qualifying for Europe due to Spurs winning the FA Cup.

Man City came in for Cedric and I got very good money for a full back (the fee is rising to over £20m), and managed to replace him with a home grown player in Carl Jenkinson and have some cash left over. Wanyama kicked up a fuss so I had no choice but to sell him, he was replaced with Vicente Iborra who's release clause still stood at £4.3m, so he was a good, cheap option.

Graziano Pelle wanted to leave to return to Italy, he had a pretty poor season so I allowed the move to happen, his Atlanta side were drawn against us in the Europa League group stages.

Geronimo Rulli was out of contract and is outstanding so he was a great choice and Fraser Forster provides great competition. Jamie Vardy's Leicester were relegated, he was dirt cheap so I couldn't say no to having an option like him off the bench.

Since the transfer window closed I've negotiated deals for Calum Chambers, Danny Welbeck, and Javier Pastore.

[Jamie Cortez]

Looks a good save Jordi.

Have you signed/scouted any decent youth prospects? as at the game start the youth teams are pretty poor.

[STaphouse]

I'm really struggling with Southampton this year in a network save.

i just can't seem to get a tactic to work. What tactics and instructions are everyone using?

I've still got pretty much the starting squad with the only addition being Carlos and then Renan and Timo Horn to come in January. I currently sit 16th in the league though .

I've already been sacked once ffs.

Don't know why I'm struggling so much!

[Jamie Cortez]

I'm really struggling with Southampton this year in a network save.

i just can't seem to get a tactic to work. What tactics and instructions are everyone using?

I've still got pretty much the starting squad with the only addition being Carlos and then Renan and Timo Horn to come in January. I currently sit 16th in the league though .

I've already been sacked once ffs.

Don't know why I'm struggling so much!

Mainly using this one for home/easy games (lol as if) and then a counter attacking 442 for tough games.

I've beaten the likes of UTD, Liverpool (3-1), Arsenal (2-1), Man City (3-0) using one of those, but i can't seem to put away mid table/lower table teams with the same ease. Losses to Everton,Sunderland,Swansea,Newcastle.

Frustrating!

[Matthew Le God]

They seem a bit weaker in all areas this year though..

Decent starting XI, but not a lot past that and not a huge amount of talent in the reserves and under 19's either.

Bit more of a challenge for sure.

In FM terms the first XI is weaker, but the squad has more depth to it this season.

Its very early of course but van Dijk, Clasie and Cedric look like very good replacements for Alderweireld, Schendierlin and Clyne. The latter three are still better players in FM as they have proven themselves in the Premier League already. If the team continues as it is, then quite a few will be getting rises in the winter update.

[Welshace]

I was talking purely in game of course, I don't see any depth beyond the first XI in game really. The likes of Romeu, Yoshida and co don't impress me.

Are there many youngsters showing signs of possibly making the grade irl I wonder?

[SFC_Jordi]

Looks a good save Jordi.

Have you signed/scouted any decent youth prospects? as at the game start the youth teams are pretty poor.

Nah, not really. At the start Hesketh, Gallagher, Stephens, Targett and Slattery look good enough to be first team regulars in the future. In any case Man City offered me an interview so I took the job there. Split the save however so there's scope for returning!

[Matthew Le God]

I was talking purely in game of course, I don't see any depth beyond the first XI in game really. The likes of Romeu, Yoshida and co don't impress me.

The club sold two players this summer (plus no longer have Alderweireld) and signed eight new senior team players, so that difference of six adds to the depth of the squad. Plus Jay Rodriguez is back having missed the entire 2014/15 season, so is like having a new player at the start of a save.

Are there many youngsters showing signs of possibly making the grade irl I wonder?

There are quite a few with good PA's in the database, but the younger players have minus PA's, so it will vary from savagame to savagame.

Callum Slattery is the standout new young Southampton player in the FM16 database.

[Welshace]

The club sold two players this summer (plus no longer have Alderweireld) and signed eight new senior team players, so that difference of six adds to the depth of the squad. Plus Jay Rodriguez is back having missed the entire 2014/15 season, so is like having a new player at the start of a save.

There are quite a few with good PA's in the database, but the younger players have minus PA's, so it will vary from savagame to savagame.

Callum Slattery is the standout new young Southampton player in the FM16 database.

I'm ashamed to say I was talking about irl .. Haven't kept up with who's doing well irl for the academy/reserves in recent years.

[Jamie Cortez]

In FM terms the first XI is weaker, but the squad has more depth to it this season.

Its very early of course but van Dijk, Clasie and Cedric look like very good replacements for Alderweireld, Schendierlin and Clyne. The latter three are still better players in FM as they have proven themselves in the Premier League already. If the team continues as it is, then quite a few will be getting rises in the winter update.

Van Dijk has been exceptional no complaints (8.06 last 5 games 7.52 overall) Clasie has been ok done a good solid job.

Cedric again has a good 7.90 rating in my save but currently injured, injuries are killing the season for me really.

Targett has been playing alot for me, again Bertrand has spent more time with Eva on the physio bed. He has progressed well potential for 4/4.5 stars.

One thing im finding with FM16 people get unhappy for the slightest things which has caused some issues.

My end of January business.

[Jamie Cortez]

The end to my season

Not too bad, 6th is above prediction, back into the Euro Cup next season and we displaced Chelsea out of the top 6!

Good results against the big sides but terrible results away at the lower league sides, that's where we need to improve next season!

Saido Mane won young player of the year, Shane long is a goal scoring beast! 21 in 28.

And the best part, by clipping chelsea to 6th on the final day i got Mourhino the sack

[Jamie Cortez]

Season 2 Begins - Update.

Good start to the season hopefully to continue!

[EasyBreezer]

In to my second season now and going to give posting some updates a go for the first time. I'll start by saying that I am a Southampton fan so player bias is definitely a factor in the early seasons for me.. Jose Fonte seems a bit underrated in my opinion, but I can't not play him. I could also never sell JWP or any of the English talents produced by Southampton. I am also going to attempt to bring a few back where possible.

The first season was pretty disappointing initially, I decided not to improve the first team and get some English youth, Gray, Dozzell, Hause and Reed look particularly good. A poor start saw both Mane and Tadic demand to leave in January. £30m + £15m (I i got 5m already and about to get £10m for making 10 international appearances) for Mane and 12m for Tadic enabled me to buy some gems! Never really heard of Embolo before but when I saw he would join he signed straight away! I somehow managed to sign Odegaard as well for 11m, crazy. I also picked up Rajkovic who looks a great keeper and Chambers becomes the first returnee. Results picked up from January and it looked as though a 8-10th place finish was on the cards, then I managed lose the last 4 games and dropped to 11th.

I also got this guy through the academy who I will look to convert to a F9.

The second season started was a huge improvement. Van Dijk demanded to go and I happily obliged when Real Madrid agreed to a £25m + £5m bid! His defensive stats aren't even that good anyway.. Shawcross came in from a surprisingly relagated Stoke for a bargain. I picked up Januzaj to continue with my wonderkid shopping spree, also coming in are a few more youth players, though they will probably be back ups for a few years to generate profit!

I spent most of the first half of the season in the top four and had a 6 game win streak without conceding. Fonte and Shawcross seem to be playing well together and Chambers is struggling to get a game at CB. A few bad games in January sees me drop down 7th to recently, though i have games in hand. Embolo has been on fire with 15 goals and 3 assists in 20 games. JWP has been the best player for me so far. Can't believe any one would consider selling, 9 goals and 11 assists in 21 games and 7 caps for England.

Will post update at end of season/ after main transfers completed. If anyone wants any other screenshots let me know and I'll try to oblige, though I am a 3rd year science student!

Will update after end of season and some transfers are done.

[Jamie Cortez]

Hey ncie update, good to see someone else joining in.

I like the idea behind what your doing with your squad it'll make for a very interesting save.

As to JWP i just dont see it, he just doesnt seem to perform, after selling him to Chelsea in my game his season was poor 29,0,5 his second season and they have dumped him in the U21's.

His overall PA is good tho but given clubs will pay 40M for him there are higher PA options for less.

[Welshace]

Hey jamie, just letting you know i've edited out JWP's PA in your post above, posting spoilers like that is a bit frowned upon unless they are in spoiler tags, some people don't want to know

Also.. EasyBreezer, I like your style of managing, you've kept to the SFC way, selling high and buying low-ish, and a great turnover of british/english talent too, i like it.

I'm interested in how Dozzell, Reed and Ennis are looking?

[EasyBreezer]

@Jamie: Thanks, I will try to keep it up. I have posted screenshot of how JWP has progressed for me, one of the most consistent performers for me spanning a few editions of fm now!

@Welshace: Thanks! I have to stick to the Southampton way really. Dozzell is the one who could be push to be first team player. Ennis doesn't look great but staff reckon he can do something. Reed looks like he can become the English Clasie!

I gave you Slattery as well because he looks class.

[Jamie Cortez]

Hey jamie, just letting you know i've edited out JWP's PA in your post above, posting spoilers like that is a bit frowned upon unless they are in spoiler tags, some people don't want to know

Also.. EasyBreezer, I like your style of managing, you've kept to the SFC way, selling high and buying low-ish, and a great turnover of british/english talent too, i like it.

I'm interested in how Dozzell, Reed and Ennis are looking?

No problem, it was only a guestimate judging by how he's developed at chelsea, don't think there is a way of looking up PA's yet is there?

@Easy

Slatterly is one i've kept he does shape up well.

[lewis999]

As much as I like Mane in real life, selling him for 26.5m is a no brainer surely? He has low decisions and in his coach report it mentions that he is an inconsistent performer.

[Welshace]

All true Lewis, but then again, his pace, two footedness, dribbling etc are invaluable and he has the knack of scoring goals too in game.

Bit of a coin toss really, if you have anyone in mind to bring in first, I guess it makes sense.

[Jamie Cortez]

As much as I like Mane in real life, selling him for 26.5m is a no brainer surely? He has low decisions and in his coach report it mentions that he is an inconsistent performer.

Totally, you can get more than 26.5M.

Anwar El Ghazi has replaced him in my side, and he has been alot better than Mane. 10 Goals in 20 with 6 assists and 4 MoM

[lewis999]

Totally, you can get more than 26.5M.

Anwar El Ghazi has replaced him in my side, and he has been alot better than Mane. 10 Goals in 20 with 6 assists and 4 MoM

I tried 30m and they put in a really low offer of like 14m. I then tried 28m and they went up to 18m I went 27m and they put the whole amount in so that's the most I can get. Be interested to see how you can get more.

[Jamie Cortez]

I tried 30m and they put in a really low offer of like 14m. I then tried 28m and they went up to 18m I went 27m and they put the whole amount in so that's the most I can get. Be interested to see how you can get more.

Usually with addons. I got 28.5M upfront 6.5M after 10 International Appearances and 708k a month for 12 months. Granted this was Barcelona. So the total Transfer was about 43M.

Being from an African Country, the African nations cup makes the 10 IA a given and he is 1 more away from triggering the clause.

[lewis999]

Is that straight away? Because in your two season transfer screens it doesn't show Mane leaving.

[Jamie Cortez]

Is that straight away? Because in your two season transfer screens it doesn't show Mane leaving.

Transfer window at the start of the second season.

He's not in my squad in the overview i did just before your initial post, as El Ghazi has taken his space.

It can be hard work getting the fee you think you deserve, i've got a ton of clubs sniffing round Mario Fernandes and El Ghazi but they refuse to meet the valuation.

Monaco offered me 9.5M for Fernandes who is valued at 16, and they refused to budge so he's still with me.

[Jamie Cortez]

Season Update.

Nearing the end of the second season and we are exceeding expectations. We did continue our good start to the season.

However, i just got this

#### ### ### ####!!

[james_wilko]

Good opening posts, I'll definitely be trying Southampton later on.

and Jamie, thanks for the tactic suggestions. I've used the narrow 4-2-3-1 for my Newcastle team after initially struggling through a few pre-season playthroughs. Now we're playing a lot better. For those of you who get later in game and are using a similar formation, Afobe does well as the RAM as an attacking mid and Mitrovic does a really good job as a target man support in it.

[PLD3009]

Two bids for JWP in pre-season, both from Chelsea, £16m and now £24m, both rejected and JWP hasn't come to me yet asking to move.

Man City also interested but no bids from them so far

[Jamie Cortez]

We go into the final game of the season knowing a point against the in form West Brom will be enough for our first Premier League Trophy

[Jamie Cortez]

We are the Champions!

[Mike Fordham]

Just on the transfers thing, I sold Mane to Real Madrid in the January of the first season in a deal worth £50m. £24.5m up front, £9m after 10 league goals, £9m after 10 international appearances, £9m after 50 league appearances and 30% of the profit on his next transfer (I'll be waiting for the Board to negotiate an early termination for that clause!)

It's hard to keep players once they want to leave - it's only June 2016 and I've sold the following:

James Ward-Prowse (Chelsea, deal worth £35m)

Sadio Mane (as mentioned above)

Graziano Pelle (Atletico Madrid, deal worth £11.5m)

Jay Rodriguez (Spurs, deal worth £32.5m)

Virgil van Djik (PSG, deal worth £32m)

Victor Wanyama (Arsenal, deal worth £30m)

It's a lot of rebuilding to be done but for that money they are all good deals. Homegrown and club trained quotas starting to become an issue though!

[EasyBreezer]

As you can see I finished 4th, pretty happy with that. Was solid all season and get the deserved champions league play off spot. Board was taken over, survived that, then they also agree to a 16,000 seat stadium expansion and to upgrade youth and training facilities!

Wanyama had a £21.5m buy-out clause and had been bitching to leave for 2 whole years so i finally let him go and bought in the experience of Nigel De Jong, I like high determination and he will certainly provide experience. Kinda the same reason why i got Flanagan, need some depth at full back as it looks like Targett won't be much more than Championship quality despite getting 15 games a season so far, I have a 5* potential left back in the youth team but isn't ready to take over. John Stones is the main signing here.. £45m takes my whole initial starting budget of £52m with his fees. World class though and him and Shawcross could be quality for the season, Chambers could easily start at CB now, but I like my English back 5 of Forster; Chambers, Stones, Shawcross, Bertrand. Fonte leaves despite averaging 7.22 and being captain, his physicals started falling too fast, making Hause or McCarthy a more viable option. Finally I promoted Slattery to the first team and will look to give him more games. Seriously considering getting a new young DM to phase out H. Reed who unfortunately looks like he wont make the cut either.

The aim this season has to be to integrating some more youth players, but the gap to the first team keeps increasing!

Team looks something like that (GK P. Rajkovic & CM C. Slattery off screen also), though there's room for quite a bit of rotation and experiment. I'd like to move away from slow build up and structured but can't seem to get any success with out them!

[Matthew Le God]

It's hard to keep players once they want to leave

Realistic then!

[Mike Fordham]

Realistic then!

Yep - the best compromise in my experience is to let them know they will only leave if an acceptable offer comes in. That way I can drive prices up from buying teams and most importantly I don't wreck morale in the squad. The good news is that I can get massive fees for players and usually replace them for a lot less - also like real life.

On my previous save I got £28m from Man City for Bertrand as well.

[Jamie Cortez]

Right i have returned from New York so will look to progress my save this week.

I got offered an interview with Man Utd before i went away (Spin off Save i guess!)

[KiilwS]

Decided to give Southampton a go this year, In December in first season, Currenlty sitting 3rd in the league, hopefully I can stay there

[r_amanze]

I'm half-way through the first season with the saints. There seems to be a severe lack of pace/acceleration in attack, and defence.

Martina

Fonte

Yoshida

Gardos

Pelle

All require replacing.

Whilst Wanyama and Mane are both unhappy. After being unsettled by bigger clubs.

I sense a big overhaul in the summer.

[RazorsEdge]

After over a dozen starts and restarts with different clubs I've finally settled on Southampton for my first serious game this year...

Sorted out a few transfers straight up, still have some more building of the squad to do at the end of the season but no more funds for now...

IN:

Lewis Cook (Leeds - 7M, 1M after 30 league appearances)

Breel Embolo (Basel - 14.5M, 10% profit to Basel, 1.2M after 20 league goals, 140K/game for 10 games, 1.2M after 10 international caps, 1.2M after 30 league appearances)

Louis Reed (Sheffield Utd - 1.1M, 20% profit to Sheffield Utd, 110K after 50 league appearances)

Ron-Robert Zieler (Hannover 96 - 8M)

Ricky Alvarez (Unattached - Free)

Charlie Austin (QPR - 8.5M, 1M after 20 league goals, 850K after 50 league appearances)

Paddy McNair (Man Utd - 5.5M, 1M after 30 league appearances)

Bailly Cargill (Bournemouth - 3M, 1M after 30 league appearances)

Total: 47.6M

OUT:

James Ward-Prowse (Chelsea - 29M, 30% profit to Southampton, 3M after 10 league goals, 6.75M after 40 league appearances, 332K/month for 12 months)

Lloyd Isgrove (Burnley - 700K, 20% profit to Southampton, 170K after 50 league appearances, 15.35K/month for 12 months)

Graziano Pelle (Napoli - 5M)

Gaston Ramirez (Crystal Palace - 2.8M)

Shane Long (Shakhtar Donetsk - 10M)

+ various loans

Total: 47.5M

Chelsea came in on the third day of the game with a 20M offer for Ward-Prowse and were knocked back. Came back with 22M, knocked back. Came back with 24M and I eventually dragged them into the deal I finally got, which I am fairly happy with. Added money to my kitty to reshape the squad now rather than later, and I managed to hang on to Mane, Wanyama and Rodriguez for at least the first transfer window. Pelle I don't rate so got rid of him well below his listed value, but I feel as though 5M pounds is probably closer to his true value. Austin has been outstanding, scoring a goal per game and doing well in the Europa League as well. Lewis Cook has, surprisingly, been fighting Clasie for the central midfielder job alongside Wanyama, been very impressed with him. I've tried to build a young, English squad, for my future European aspirations as well as players who can become home grown at Southampton.

Playing with either a 4-2-3-1 or 4-1-2-3 lined up the following:

4-2-3-1

GK (Goalkeeper - Defend) - Ron-Robert Zieler

DR (Full Back - Automatic) - Cedric

DCR (Ball Playing Defender - Defend) - Jose Fonte

DCL (Central Defender - Defend) - Virgil van Dijk

DL (Full Back - Automatic) - Ryan Bertrand

MCR (Central Midfielder - Support) - Jordy Clasie

MCL (Ball Winning Midfielder - Defend) - Victor Wanyama

AMR (Winger - Support) - Sadio Mane

AMC (Advanced Playmaker - Attack) - Steven Davis

AML (Winger - Support) - Dusan Tadic

STC (Advanced Forward - Attack) - Charlie Austin

4-1-2-3

GK (Goalkeeper - Defend) - Rob-Robert Zieler

DR (Full Back - Automatic) - Cedric

DCR (Ball Playing Defender - Defend) - Jose Fonte

DCL (Central Defender - Defend) - Virgil van Dijk

DL (Full Back - Automatic) - Ryan Bertrand

DMC (Ball Winning Midfeilder - Defend) - Victor Wanyama

MCR (Advanced Playmaker - Attack) - Jordy Clasie/Steven Davis

MCL (Box To Box Midfielder - Support) - Lewis Cook/Jordy Clasie (If Davis starts)

AMR (Winger - Attack) - Sadio Mane

AML (Winger - Support) - Dusan Tadic

STC (Advanced Forward - Attack) - Charlie Austin

Areas of concern are:

Goalkeeper: Unsure if Zieler is up for European football, his form seems to dip in bigger matches. Stekelenberg wants out since he's not playing enough but I don't have a suitable backup at the moment with Forster still out.

Defence: Unsure whether to keep Caulker on or not. He has played well but I'm not sure of how he will develop to be worthy of the 8M buyout clause. Full backs are in need of upgrade. Cedric is fantastic, Targett has been a good backup but Bertrand hasn't been as good as I'd hoped and Martina has been terrible.

Other than that not too many problems with the squad until the suitors eventually come knocking for Wanyama/Rodriguez/Mane. Man City are interested in all three... Romeu wants gone because he hasn't gotten much game time (mainly because he's been absolutely terrible...). Yoshida wants gone because of a lack of first team football but he is getting more time due to his versatility as a right back as well. Gardos will be sold when he is fit. Don't rate him at all.

Sitting at number 2 in the Premier League after 8 games after losing for the first time this season to current front runners Arsenal. Through to group stages of Europa League with Fiorentina, Shakhtar (with ex-Saint Shane Long as their spearhead no less!) and Rijeka in my group. Defeated Shakhtar 3-2 at home, and then defeated Fiorentina 3-2 away, so feeling pretty confident about my chances to move through the group.

Really enjoying myself so far! Would recommend Southampton to anyone looking for a decent starter squad with room to build.