Southampton vs Spurs
The birds having been making use of the bird bath this morning, there has been a constant flow while they have a drink and preen themselves, one starling was having fun flapping away while standing in it.
Another windy but sunny day on the south coast, a winning day from the betting perspective doubling my money, see if we can do the same today before our lunchtime kick-off takes over the day.
Right, Bale and Reguilón are here, happy days, but that's not the end of the summer rebuild.
The Reguilón deal I understand is for a 5-year contract and a transfer fee of €30m fee with a 2-year buy-back option set at €45m.
That makes far more sense then the silly €5m journalists have been guessing at.
As for Gareth Bale, the deal struck with Real Madrid was a one-off deal because it was Spurs.
Bale wanted to return to a happy place, by that I mean a place where he was happy before, where he has happy memories to rekindle the joy within himself.
I wrote that before he has signed and his agent confirmed it, it is how you rekindle the spark, go to a positive place, get your head in a positive frame of mind and the rest follows.
Tanguy Ndombélé has had to do that, Dele Alli now has to do it as he is mentally in the wrong place along with Danny Rose.
You simply can not perform if you have the wrong mindset.
Real Madrid were keen to remove him so have given us terms they would not have offered to Manchester United for instance.
Bale turned United down and told Madrid he only wanted to join Spurs so they put all their efforts into securing a deal and Spurs have got a very good deal.
Gareth Bale will lose out financially because many of his commercial deals are dependent upon him being a Real Madrid player, thus they will get terminated or renegotiated at a reduced fee.
However the Premier League is the most watched league in the world and I'd expect his image rights income to increase, particularly if he hits form consistently and get back to being an elite world class player.
Daniel Levy offered Real Madrid Tanguy Ndombélé in a swap deal for Bale and Reguilón but the Spanish are not signing players this summer, only offloading and raising funds or reducing the wages bill.
As I said in a previous post, Real Madrid want to sign Kylian Mbappé and the Frenchman wants to join them, that isn't going to be cheap.
Bale is on an initial one year loan with an option of a further year if he shows the form and stays fit, something he isn't at the moment.
He misses two weeks of football (7 matches), then there is the international break, then he should be available.
Our transfer business will be complete by then.
Onto the game today.
With 5 goals and 4 assists, Dele has been involved in more goals versus Southampton than any other Premier League side.
Danny Ings has scored in both his Saints games against Spurs.
In the Premier League, both teams scored in 15 of the last 19 away matches last season, including 6 of the last 7 since February.
The only clean sheets we managed in that time was against Watford and Bournemouth, two of the relegated teams so we might have to score twice to get a win.
In 10 of the last 11 games between the two sides both teams have scored and we haven't kept a clean sheet against the Saints since 2015.
Southampton have scored a goal in 29 of their last 33 home games going back to November 2018 and at home they are unbeaten in the last 4 against Spurs.
Southampton have scored in each of their last 11 matches against Spurs in all competitions (W3, D2, L6).
An encouraging statistic, Saints are winless in their last seven opening home games of a new season (D5, L2).
In the Premier League table from 1st January 2020 Southampton sit 7th and Tottenham sit 10th (Everton 9th).
Southampton have started the season playing a high line and were punished by Crystal palace in the opening day fixture and then lost 0-2 to Brentford in the League Cup playing their first team.
With our side not firing, it will be a tough game.
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