Chez

I think we are signing Danni Shittu, Stefan Kuntz or Josh Windass...but don't post it elsewhere on this forum in bold font or caps

I am now slightly less excited by the prospect of a "French youth international" signing for us. Good luck to the lad.

I heard Martin banned Rothmans and running. He made the players smoke Players Navy Cut and sit in deck chairs throughout training so they could watch him and the other coaches have a kick about. A fit player means a mobile player with the potential for forward passes. He wasn't having that.

...and Diallo.

and Mara had impressed when playing senior football in Ligue 1. Christophe posted that this kid has struggled with the physicality of Ligue 3. Good luck marking someone like Chris Wood. Realistically, he's going to be in the U21s so surprising that he appears in the first team squad on the official website.

Eight first team CBs (if you include Taylor) now. Are we looking for another Prem record or have Chelsea cornered the market on having the most players in one position? £5m isn't peanuts for a youngster, but certainly doesn't guarantee future success, as we saw with Small. Signing a French youth international sounds exciting to me. Let's hope he has similar success at Saints to Schneiderlin.

https://www.dailyecho.co.uk/sport/24842286.southamptons-taylor-lack-minutes-potential-january-exit/ Sounds like Charlie Taylor won't be departing in this window, although I guess there is still time for the manager to decide he isn't his man.

Actually no, it was the 2009 game I was referring to. We were 2-0 down (a little unfortunate to be so) and then in the second half we absolutely marmalised them. Antonio came on and ran riot. Sr Ricky got at least one of the goals, possibly both and we created loads of chances and somehow didn't get the winner. We had the whole side stand and the noise we made was excellent. I went to the 0-2 game too, which was good, but I think we were in charge of that game throughout, so didn't quite have that great come back feel to it that is always enjoyable. Although I don't want to drop down to that level again, it was fun being the big fish and having a side that was better than most teams and made you feel like you were always capable of winning, even if you went behind.

Ipswich lost £18m in the league 1 season. The Championship season accounts will be out in March 2025.

Gotcha. Not sure that means our scouting department has been gutted though. If a scout watches a game/player and provides a report back to three SR clubs, how are we losing out? If it means we have 9 scouts rather than 5, that seems like a good thing to me. If many are always looking at players well below the standard we require, that's an issue I guess.

Agree. There was mention on here of (if you ignore the financial aspect and focus on football reasons only) Dibling being better to stay here than to go to a big club and be sent out on loan. But you can't ignore the financial aspect. Put bluntly, going to Liverpool means you get paid whether you play for them or not and also gives you another level of publicity. If the move fails, you have all of Europe and beyond aware of you and usually a decent move is available to you when the times comes. I don't know why we can't attract genuine talent in the striker position. Chelsea and United seem to have struggled to get their man too. Maybe there just aren't the numbers of strikers as there used to be (with teams playing one up front) or the big teams have hoarded them all?

We have gutted our scouting department? Can you expand? I am not sure how accurate Transfermarkt is in terms of staffing, but they have a list of 9 scouts, 7 or those appointed since SR took over.

Isn't there some sort of game (or betting market) that you can play that is based on the rise and fall of the value of players?

Yeah. I guess we turned a small profit on Alvarez - also not wanted, but you'd argue he at least played games and caught the eye in the Prem. It kind of annoys me when the big clubs make a profit on a player that hasn't worked out (obviously that isn't always the case). The Liverpool signing of Carvalho for pretty much nothing, not really getting a tune out of him and then selling for £27m especially.

Didn't Villa get him back from Hull for about £18m (which actually only cost them about £13m as they had a buy back clause) five minutes ago? Amazing that his price has gone up £2m considering he basically hasn't cut it for them. Villa originally sold him to Hull for £5m, and now they make another £7m.

yeah, because he looked like a ultramarathon runner when he first joined from Genk.

https://www.thestar.co.uk/sport/football/sheffield-wednesday/shea-charles-drops-hint-on-sheffield-wednesday-future-in-fan-conversation-4932633 Story in a nutshell: "Are you happy here?" "Yes, more than happy here."

I would also like Wrexham to go up for the same reason, but only about 1500 tickets for away fans sadly. Quite a way back a the moment, but Stockport and Mansfield are two grounds I've not been to either. Leyton Orient are in a similar league position - I wouldn't mind going back there. The 2-2 game last time was bloody brilliant. One of the best atmospheres and noises at a Saints away game I have been to, I think. Maybe we can get Michael Antonio back next summer to relive it.

I wouldn't recommend looking up how Derby faired in the championship the season after their Prem shitshow. The last team to go up via the play offs and straight back down, Luton, are currently 20th. Funnily enough the previous play off winners were Forrest, Brentford, Fulham and Villa...all doing very well these days.

We beat QPR, Sheffield United, Leicester and Burnley away that season.

In terms of talent at our disposal, we are a top level championship side, however it's not just about individual talent. As a unit we are currently quite disjointed, it's difficult to know what the tactic is to create chances and confidence must be at an all time low. If you throw in the possibility that we might put out an eleven that has not played together, then the chances of them gelling instantly and playing a team off the park become quite slim. If we can lose against Grimsby, as we did two seasons ago with a similarly makeshift and low on confidence side, we can lose to pretty much anyone.

Apart from CBs not really knowing what they are doing, the fullbacks are either too deep and not helping attacks or too far forward and caught out of position. If you are better than your opponent it can work, but if you are using it to try and compete with a better side I think it hinders.

don't all CBs basically look like that when played in a three? I can understand playing 5 at the back against Man City in their prime and just park the bus, but against everyone else I bloody hate it. Koeman used it to great effect to stop the rot one season, but it was a short term thing and he returned back to four soon after. Other than that, I don't recall it ever being effective.

I've never been a big fan and considering he was on our bench a lot in the championship, I didn't think we should be signing him when stepping up a division. However, I watched him very closely against WBA at SMS last season (league game, not the play offs) and his movement off the ball was terrific. He was constantly on the move, looking to get behind the fullback or in between full back and CBs. A lot of his runs were missed, but he kept doing it and was a great outlet. He doesn't have real pace, but that didn't prevent him being a threat. On the ball he was less impressive. He didn't have the pace or skills to beat a man, but that is not always required and the likes of BBD and Sulemana aren't doing that either - in fact they are doing very little, especially in terms of movement and defensively. Players often seem better when not in the side, and that might the case here, but I have to say, getting him and his workrate down that left hand side (perhaps in a 4-4-2) wouldn't do us any harm. Slightly surprised Juric hasn't looked at him. With the last few league defeats basically relegating us, maybe he will.

Seeing as your username is as it is, I feel no shame in moaning about posters like yourself using initials for players names. I saw CT used the other day. Not a fucking clue. The same with TD here - I had to google our squad. Help an ageing poster out here and refrain from this practice... 😉