Dusic

Dropped today and they were 3-0 up at HT. Would be an awful loan move if he ends up on the bench most weeks.

Sounds ridiculous because he has only played one game, but I wonder if Saints will try to extend his contract? He only signed for four years, and it seems he won't play a huge amount in the PL in his first year, and Ralph has often referred to him as "one for the future". Well...if the optimal selling opportunity is when he has 2 years left on his contract, it would only give one full season before that point is reached. If we could extend it by one season it makes a lot of sense for Saints. Also shows how difficult it is to get the contract length right. We have given the likes of Elyounoussi and Forster a 5yr deal which looks a poor decision, but as seen before with Clyne, Wanyama and possibly Ings now, four years is effectively 3 as we dont want them to enter the final year and go for free. With Salisu its almost turned into a 2yr contract as he has barely played in his first year.

I would imagine Rumbelows ceasing to trade in 1995 would be a problem.

Great debut! A bit sloppy a couple of times in possession but he will get used to the pace and it was his first game in ages. One vs one, the reason we signed him, he was very impressive. The conspiracy theories can end.

Remember how he bounced back from being the fan's boo boy to POTY the following season? Would have been very easy to just give up on Saints at that point and look for a move. That would have been the safe option. He has had a stop start season and I'm sure would be the first to admit he isn't happy with his form. Do you really know him well enough to judge his character? Or is he just another footballer that plays well when confident and less well in other spells - like most attacking players aside from the really good ones?

Thats the point when we sell him to West Ham, or Newcastle (they love a no 9 in the North East, according to reports).

Lots of comments on Twitter that he was continuously caught out of position. Interesting because many here have said the same in his handful of first team apps - he always seems to be a little too high, and then if a move breaks down he gets caught out. Potentially something that can be worked on, but as Ralph hinted recently, Vokins isn't really a natural defender. Will be interesting to see how he does there. For someone who is one of our highest rated prospects and who is considered quite close to our first team, he needs to do well - otherwise how can he seriously be considered as being our back up LB next season?

Ralph often says Armstrong struggles with playing every three days and tends to pick up muscle injuries. I think he will leave him for Sunday.

No other PL side will lose their best striker this summer for £20m and an Academy player. It may happen, but wouldn't be "fine".

Or they would see it as being his form has dipped because our whole team's form, structure and control of games has dipped. Put him in a better team and he would score consistently IMO. Besides, at £20m or thereabouts in a pandemic impacted tranafer market he is extremely low risk.

Thanks Neil Custis.

As ever, once it becomes clear one of our best players will leave the SWF downgrading of their ability begins.

I am totally resigned to him leaving now unfortunately. There will almost certainly be one team that makes a move for him that can offer a hefty pay rise and European football. For a top side he is well worth considering. He is a good finisher, hard worker, adept at pressing, good character, able to last 90mins, English and available cheapily which is handy given Covid finances. Also, as proven, if it doesnt work out there is a clear market to sell/loan him out. Its an extremely low risk move for a big club, with potentially a big upside. Can't see Saints being happy to lose him for free and little benefit to him to sign an extension before the summer, so all points towards Saints "reluctantly" letting him go this summer and hoping multiple teams come in for him.

Would imagine our form of late and likely bottom have finish will have ended much chance of him signing a new contract. Why would he? Any sensible agent would tell him to wait and see what develops...

Boufal was largely dross and if I am not wrong has barely done anything since going back to France. Redmond was poor yesterday, but had Ings shot gone post and in would have had a nice assist. Regardless, Boufal is one of the answers to the question of how our squad got in a mess in the first place, nothing more.

Salisu surely has to play if he is fit, Bednarek needs a rest. Also thought JWP and Bertrand looked tired today but there isnt anyone to cover for either of them. Even if Armstrong is fit I would leave him for the league game. But if he has a muscle injury he will probably miss both. Could we even see the return of the back 3/5 that Ralph went to at HT today?

Redmond wasn't very good but he wasn't the reason we lost the game. The biggest factor was the McCarthy mistake when we had got back into the game. He is sometimes too careless. That was a big moment. Tactics when they went to nine were questionable, but we aren't a team setup to just bang balls into the box, that isnt how we score goals. At the start of the game our passing out of defence was awful, Vestergaard and Romeu were off the pace and Stephens got targetted playing at RB. If you concede 3 away from home you aren't going to get points very often. We are clearly in a bad moment, but it will turn.

In the era where Walcott came through he was attracting attention from fans from about aged 14. It was obvious Shaw, Ward-Prowse and Chambers were going to be successful from aged 16 or so. When you see the threads on here, reports from the U18s and views of people who watch them there aren't one or two names that keep cropping up as being ones to watch. Previously players like Best, Blackstock and Dyer were being spoken of in glowing terms when they played for the U18s and people were excited sbout them because they were excelling at that level. Just like none of the English players ever get picked for the Eng age group sides. Re ignoring those in the first team squad, I mean the likes of Diallo and Salisu who are clearly players we have signed rather than developed.

When you look through the U21 list and ignore those who are part of the first team squad there are very few that there is any real hype or expectation of.

Hearing that the FA have brought in Mike Dean and Leonard Mason to oversee this week's disciplinary appeals process.

I guess the appeal will rest on whether or not Bednarek is deemed to have made a foul as appears from the laws that if he did then a red card is justified. Of course, it wasn't a foul, but this is the key point. I see Arsenal are also appealing Luiz's red. I think this will remain a red as even though it was not intentional he did bring a player down when he was through on goal. From the FA's perspective its probably less hassle to just reject both appeals rather than have to explain why one is different to the other.

If they overturn it then its essentially admitting that VAR was wrong. Which is why they won't overturn it.

Obviously not nice to lose 9-0 but this feels totally different to the Leicester game. Then we were a poor team. Now we are just in a poor moment and had a game where pretty much everything that could go wrong did. No blame on Ralph, he was hamstrung in terms of what he could do. We were always going to struggle even with 11 due to the injury situation and Utd targetted Ramsay who clearly isn't up to this level. Once the red happened it was obvious it would be a very tough night, and as soon as the first goal went in you kind of feared the worst. Officiating was awful, and that certainly impacted the fact it ended 9-0 instead of maybe 5-1 or 6-1, after which the game would be quickly forgotten. PGMOL should have to come out and explain what the lines on the Adams goal are actually measuring, but we know they won't. But the main difference this time is that we know why we lost badly, and it was more specific circumstances which will improve rather than because we are rubbish. Get some players back fit and a regular lineup again and we can still finish top half - and thats a major achievement for a club that doesn't spend money. We got 0pts from the game, its not the end of the world.

Off the top of my head, these are the main Academy trained players who have been given a debut and then some form of gametime during Ralph's tenure or relatively shortly beforehand. Sure there are some missing, but it is interesting: - He has given a chance to lots of players but as yet I wouldn't say a single one has taken it and most have probably regressed, certainly those who were given the most chances have aside from Smallbone. - None that have left the club have really played consistently or been successful and are being linked with teams at a higher level. - Many of those now playing at L1 or below we kept until they were at least 20 - perhaps we need to make quicker decisions, how many players who show nothing aged 20 are suddenly PL quality at 21 or 22? - None have generated any income. Reed, Gallagher and Targett from the previous group have been notable sales but they were from the academy 8 years ago or thereabouts. - Overall, the output since the Shaw, JWP, Chambers, Reed, Targett group has been woeful. - Hopefully Matt Crocker will make a difference because, whilst its not possible to develop a constant stream of PL players, something has broken. Note - having 7 or 8 Academy players on the bench for games when we have literally no other choice should not be heralded at some kind of success. -----‐--------------- GK: Lewis - he is awful and will do well to have a long term pro career DEF: Ramsay - ironically might start tonight but binned off by Ralph after one appearance Jones - hyped but let go for virtually nothing after loan spells. Now playing L1 Valery - started well and has clearly tailed off to the stage where Ralph has seen him as unselectable. Now playing Champ. Vokins - physically looks miles from being a PL defender but clearly has something. Now playing L1 MID: Slattery - highly rated but bombed out by Ralph after a few sub apps. Now playing L1 Smallbone - the pick of the bunch. Unfortunate injury Johnson - loaned to US, now playing L1. Sims - at one stage a squad regular but failed loan spells have seen him drift to L1. Will leave on a free Tella - hard to really judge and a shame he is currently injured. But with players in his positions now mostly fit he will probably not get much more game time. Jankowitz - signed for a decent fee aged 16 and recently made an official transfer request as he didnt see a pathway to the first team. Will probably start tonight...hopefully he can build bridges with the club. Hesketh - at one stage looked a prospect. Now playing L2 and will leave on a free Watts & Chauke - look promising but not had enough time to really assess FWD: Obafemi - given lots of chances, done ok but injuries have held him back. Was about to be loaned to Champ. N'Lundulu - promising, but hard to really tell if he has what it takes. Olomola - now playing L2 Barnes - now playing L2 Seager - prolific youth scorer. Now playing National League South

If that is the line up (and there is a fair chance it will be), I would have said Armstrong at RB makes more sense that Djenepo.