verlaine1979

The winners like Lavia and Livramento pay for the losers. That's how investment/trading is meant to work. Our problem over the past decade was twofold. a) Our scouting was poor, so we picked fewer winners than our similarly-sized peers, b) we were cash-constrained under Gao (and presumably PSR etc. after a few disastrous big-money signings) and so couldn't take quite as many rolls of the dice on recruiting early and loaning out. For the most part we recruited on 1 in 1 out, which aren't the right odds for this model to work.

I'm imagine Fernandes is appealing because a lot of clubs assume he'll be cheap since a) we didn't pay very much for him b) he was good but performance level was probably limited vs true potential by the drag effect of playing in an historically awful team, and c) the perception that we'll have to sell because we got relegated. They probably think they can get him for double what we paid if they wait.

At last.

Didn't realize this had been moved. Bearing in mind knowledge of Stephens' new contract was already widespread, I intended my statement to be read as an ellipsis of the phrase "either of them". But I feel all this pedantry is missing the larger point that, new contract or not, they should both fuck off elsewhere.

either as opposed to both

Bednarek and Stephens both very much in the Che Adams mould of players I just want to never have to watch again. Don't care if the replacements are inferior, don't care if it's irrational, don't care if keeping them would marginally increase our chances of promotion. They are the authors of so much tedium, shame and misery over the past 5+ years that all I want is for them to fuck off and play for anyone else. If we don't lose either this summer, I will be very cross indeed.

With Quarshie, Charles and Downs in the side, we might actually have a bit of physical presence on the pitch for the first time since Lavia left.

Chief among them, you can't sell yourself as a shop-window club to young players if you refuse to sell them when someone higher up the ladder tries to buy them.

Practical criminal negligence from his agent if he didn't get a release clause.

It's just bizarre to claim that the Championship is a higher level of football than Ligue 1. The Champ is inferior on pretty much every single metric.

Even Koeman had a fairly patchy CV before he came to us, didn't he? Wasn't there a disastrous spell in Spain with a club like Valencia?

Didn't Mourinho take over at Porto 8 years after Robson left?

Two straight balls through the middle of midfield and defense.

You definitely need to be able to spend 30m when the position demands it, but it's not as if teams with better scouting than ours haven't been finding gems in the 10-15m range in the last 2 years. I can't be bothered to do an extensive search, but both Semenyo and Kluivert cost B'mouth in that range in 2023, and Hudson-Odoi went to Forest for about 3m. Our scouting is just fucking awful and has been for years (with the very small exception of when we've been able to convince high-profile youth players like Tino and Lavia to join, which isn't the same at all). (Obviously Hudson-Odoi also a known quantity, but he was just so absurdly cheap I include him for comparison anyway)

Ah I thought his name first came up during the summer 22 window when we ended up with Mara and still no obvious target man.

Lol wasn't Gyokeres rated as not good enough for us by some on here as he only played for Coventry?

On the contrary. He's very obviously shit in the PL and always has been.

Our recruitment really has been utter shit for a decade. It's not as if the likes of Bmouth, Forest and Palace have outspent us. Their scouts just seem to have clocked that you can't really make it in the PL without both strength and pace. Those are table stakes, and anyone who doesn't have them needs exceptional technique to make up for it.

Anyone got a clue why Archer never seems to get much of a look in at the moment? I can't think of a single instance where I'd want Armstrong on the pitch of he was available to come in instead.

Barely had a kick since the 20th minute. Getting absolutely rolled.

Lol, yup, Van Gaal told Gakpo he was already better than us and Leeds, and so it proved - quickly. Didn't he score a hattrick in the game when we were all waiting to see if he'd sign after full time? I've seen the Saints PR machine in action too many times to be taken in by those kinds of rumours. It'll be a long, long time before we're anywhere close to taking PSV or Benfica's best players off their hands.

Those would be the players who ended up at Liverpool and PSG within a window of us declaring our interest? That Gakpo and Ramos?

I'd rather watch talented mercenaries than shit that bleeds red and white.

When fit, he's a better player than either Bednarek (who we should've shit-canned seasons ago) and Wood (who has improved of late, but from a pretty ropey base).

I disagree. I don't see us taking up the positions or showing the kind of movement that would have us looking like a Pep team if we had better players. Better players would certainly make Martin look better, but mostly because better players look for the ball and know how to position themselves to find it. He's not a master tactician undermined by the quality of players available to him. He's an extremely limited poser who has latched on to maintaining possession as his only footballing ideal, but doesn't actually have any clue how to progress the ball up the pitch when we've got it.