Dusic

Because he has 5 goals now, with 13 (maybe a couple more) games to come so its possible he may score 3 more goals this season. Certainly not out of the question, and 8 goals for a PL striker who is the secondary striker in a lower mid table team would be quite adequate I think.

Aside from Bergman, I think Martian at Man Utd seems to have a decent record against us, like a few Utd strikers. Giraldo at Chelsea, formerly of Arsenal is another. Also feel like Richardson at Everton is developing into one of them as well.

I don't mean this in a negative way, he appears better without the ball than with it. We have lots of attackers who are nice on the ball but don't threaten the space so he is a good option with his pace and hopefully he doesn't lose that direct element. Whether he has the composure in front of goal or in the final pass will determine how good he is.

He knows that teams will always be interested in a player who has proven he can score goals in the PL, and is available for a low fee. He also knows that if nobody to his liking comes in for him in the summer then his offer from Saints will still be available, as for a team like ours he can be the difference between staying up or going down and replacing him will cost more than we can afford. The only group it suits for him to sign the contract now are Saints and Saints fans. Thats the truth. He is in the position of strength, groin strain or not.

I like him. Not because he is going to get 15 PL goals, but because he is one of those players who always gives his all, grafts, is robust and nearly always fit to play and who does have natural ability that keeps you feeling like there is more to come. There are some lazy comparisons with Shane Long on this thread, but Adams has much more on his locker technique wise than Long, the problem is he doesn't show it enough. He could easily have pushed for the Leeds move and accepted it just hadnt worked out at Saints but he didn't, worked hard and got himself back involved and I respect him for that. Our best spell of the season came when he was playing well, so hopefully he can keep playing on the level that he did 2nd half today and have a good end to the season. A good season for a player like Adams would be 8 PL goals and he could easily achieve that.

And Kelvin from the coaching staff, if the rumours about him taking over at BATE Borisov are true.

With the focus on Ings, its gone a little under the radar that Vestergaard's contract also expires at the end of next season, meaning that its most likely he either signs a new one or is sold this summer. He has been excellent this season, arguably one of the stand out CBs in the league given how much he has improved. Excellent on the ball and a massive threat at set plays, I would imagine a lot of teams in various leagues would be interested in him for a relatively low fee. Will be interesting to see what develops...perhaps the club might see him as a saleable asset who they can more easily replace than other players?

A 1.6% chance of finishing 10th despite being top of the league in November. What a mad season.

We would be priced out of anyone decent as imagine the relegated clubs will want to keep most of their good players to have a go at coming back up. Robinson has also impressed me, but we won't spend £15m on a back up LB and if Bertrand leaves on a free then where does the cash come from to replace him? #10 is probably our least needed position but Lookman is known to Ralph and has done well. Not our usual style of player but could do worse than Lundstram on a free?

He was quite firm in todays presser that the squad isn't strong enough to cope as soon as we have injuries and that to progress we need to spend more. I don't see how anyone can really argue with that, its true. But it will only change with new ownership. Maybe Hasenhuttl's tenure will be looked back upon as "right guy, wrong time".

He isn't a natural goalscorer at this level, and very few are, let alone a player signed for £15m from the Championship. It shows how fortunate we are to have Ings who is a natural goalscorer, albeit one we won't have for much longer. I don't really see the value of slagging Adams - he works hard, is rarely unavailable with injury and seems to be a professional guy. He isn't a natural goalscorer like Aguero or Harry Kane. Like most other strikers for non top 6 sides then. I am not sure what you expected him to be?

He is still very good one vs one, absolutely bossed Salah and dealt with Traore very well across both Wolves games. Yes he isn't quite as dynamic as he was a few years ago, but that is to be expected. I just think, like with a few of our players, he just looks a bit tired. He has played 90mins in almost every game of a very congested season. Why? Because our full back back up is crap/non-existant. Would be great to be able to give him a rest every so often but we can't.

Another scapegoat thread. Adams cost £15m, has had some good games, some bad. He works hard, has played a lot of minutes and when were better as a team he looked better than he does now when the team is struggling. He isn't a natural finisher but as others have suggested has created quite a few chances this season. He is one of the biggest issues we have? No.

Of course Matt Hale is going to say that. More interesting is that the quotes about a 20yo contract extension come from the Academy Manager and not the first team manager, which IMO shows how he is viewed. If you think Ramsay did ok against Man Utd then fair enough, but I saw a player who was poor positionally and lacking in composure, the same as when he played two years ago and presumably why he hasnt played since. I haven't seen anything to suggest he is a viable option to start PL games and its certainly not some kind of howler to not select him. I am absolutely certain that Ralph would love to find an academy RB who can cover KWP and prevent him from needing to play others OOP. But he obviously doesn't think Ramsay is that guy.

We give loads of young players contracts, it doesnt mean the Manager thinks they are all good enough to play in tough PL games. Part of it is to protect the asset as we might be able to sell him for 500k in future. If he was that highly rated they wouldn't have let his deal run down to less than 6mths left and would have given him 4 or 5 years. Ramsay played against Man City aged 18 and was poor, understandably. He then played against Derby in the cup and was poor and didn't play for the first team for two years until the Man Utd game when there was literally nobody else. He was poor. I get that people want Ralph to change it up, but its pretty obvious that he doesn't think Ramsay is the next TAA and that tallies with his performances when he has played. PL is ruthless and I can see why the Manager will go to experienced PL players rather than inexperienced players with 4 or 5 pro games to their name - especially if he doesn't especially rate that player. See also clamour for Jankewitz to play - why would Ralph trust him over a player like Armstrong?

Ramsay who has been ripped apart whenever he has played? Jankewitz who he probably rightly has no trust in? Personally I don't think those things would have made a real difference, and certainly aren't ridiculous decisions from Ralph.

Might be in a growing minority but I still think once we get KWP back and get one good result the confidence will come back a bit to some of the attackers. I don't think our poor run is all down to Ralph suddenly being a poor Manager and don't think that its worth getting rid of him just before a kind run of fixtures. Look at tonight, our three subs were Tella, N'Lundulu and Watts. Ralph certainly doesn't have a great hand to play at the moment and surely he has done enough to earn a chance to improve the situation once he has a few more options?

https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/football/14185085/blackburn-west-ham-transfer-adam-armstrong/ Obviously its The Sun, but its indicative of the problem we will have in trying to replace Ings this summer. Brighton shows exactly the value of a good goalscorer - they would be top half with one like Ings - so will be frustrating to give away a quality one for the same price as a Championship player will be quoted as.

After Everton, we play Sheff Utd, City, Brighton, Burnley, West Brom and Palace. If we don't get the 6 or 7 pts needed to stay up out of that run then its time to worry. Hopefully we can get Diallo and KWP back soon and then I am convinced we will improve, especially when we go to one game a week. Fulham have a tough couple of games coming up and Brighton's run-in is tough. We shouldn't be in any trouble unless this poor run stretches for another 6 games.

Just watched the highlights - Charlie McCann who scored twice for Utd, two great finishes setup by a good first touch and firing it into the corner. Compared unfortunately with Smith for us who had two absolutely golden chances and fluffed his lines both times. One of those players will have a successful pro career. (Saints keeper Bycroft, one absolute howler aside, made several good saves).

No, at the time we sold him Bertrand was much better than Targett and probably still is. The excellent fee we got enabled us to sign Adams to replace Austin. Ideal world we kept him and Bertrand but we have no money so needed to generate cash to improve other positions. Good to see Targett doing well, but the issue was not his sale but the fact we haven't replaced his role as backup LB.

Its been difficult, absolutely, but if we had a proper RB and LB backup (like when we had Chambers or Targett, even Cedric as a backup) then it would be so much easier to navigate. I also think, in fact I know, you will struggle to find another club who only has 3 senior central midfielders in the squad. We have been unlucky for sure, but alao its exposed the problem of having backup full backs (Vlaery and Vokins) who the manager basically decided, probably correctly, are not viable PL options. Vokins especially should have been loaned out for the season in the summer, with another senior LB brought in to cover and compete with Bertrand. Brighton for example have had Lamptey miss 15 games and March ruled out for the season, but they have cover for both which is of sufficient quality to enable them to cope, whereas one injury to KWP has basically killed us.

Also puts a total stop to any chance of JWP (or Diallo) covering full back for the rest of the season. What a fiasco.

The whole point with Puel, and the key difference between him and Ralph, is that CP was utterly unable to bring fans along the journey and build any kind of trust or rapport - because he couldn't communicate with us. (I'm pretty sure we did also end the season without a goal at home since Feb or thereabouts). That is a big flaw, and it cost him at Leicester as well. Ralph on the other hand still has a lot of support despite two 9-0 losses and a poor run of form. Why is that? I would suggest partly because he has shown that he can get the team playing in a a successful, entertaining way and people hope we can return to that, but also because he comes across as likeable, honest, a leader, someone who cares about the club and who fans trust and through the good and bad times we have understood and believed in what he is trying to do, even if it hasnt always worked. That is a powerful position to be in. There is no value at the moment in any comparison with Puel. We obviously did an awful job of replacing him, but the decision to get rid of him was widely supported.

I personally think this is a bad take. We were massively lucky not to get relegated in the Pellegrino/Hughes season - extremely fortunate that Swansea imploded. We then stayed up in Ralphs's first half season because he managed to change the whole atmosphere around the club and got Redmond playing well. Since then, despite very modest investment, we havent really been close to relegation - and likely won't be this season. IMO mostly down to how Ralph had the team playing (until recently) and the improvement he got from Ings. But I don't see how anyone can really expect much more from a squad that has one LB, one RB and three senior CMs. Re Valery and Vokins - Ralph sees them every day and obviously decided that they aren't up to PL level, as proven by being benched in the Championship and L1. We needed to replace those players absolutely - but is that his fault that we didn't? What more would 'a replacement' have done than what Ralph has? I think overall he has done a good job, with clearly financial limitations that many other clubs don't seem to have. Have you seen how much Tony Bloom has invested in Brighton? Newcastle and WH have both spent £40m on players (badly, but thats their fault). We need new Ownership, not a new Manager.