verlaine1979

Wasn't the talk when we went down that the club would invest for immediate promotion? Regardless of how you feel about the individual quality of Downes, Fraser et al, there's no way you could argue that we've laid down any sort of marker as far as building a promotion-worthy squad goes. With the quality we've got in attack and defense, we're in the mix as it stands - but that's all.

Lol remember when we were allegedly choosing between Sulemana and Doku in Jan?

If we're rating them on confidence, I suggest we wait until Che has a chance in which he needs to do more than just whack it hard in a straight line. The lad is not exactly known for the calm poise of his finishing.

Curious that Adams and Armstrong have pretty much identical minutes per goal/assist in the Championship (about 1 ever 160 mins), but only Che is "guaranteed to get goals" at this level?

Plymouth was too early in the morning for California. But like I said, I'm not disputing that he can score at this level. He's just a shit finisher and I'm tired of seeing him in a Saints shirt. Time for a change.

Can't wait to be rid of him. I'm sure he's a lovely guy, but he's been stinking up our front line for years now, and NOT missing a chance from two yards on Saturday isn't enough to erase the pain of all the other golden chances he's muffed. Also, if I was advising him, I'd tell him to take the Everton money every time. At the moment he's a temporarily embarrassed premier league striker waiting to be rescued from relegation, as most of them eventually are. A full season with us and he's a championship player once more, hoping that someone will take a punt.

This is the bit we never really managed, even during the "black box" era. It was still always one in, one out, which is a model with a lot of inherent fragility. And it's why Brighton now seem a lot more resilient to sales than we ever did, as they've managed to do their succession planning before selling any of their gems.

Is Archer a realistic prospect either for sale or loan? A nice variety of very crisp finishes in Boro highlight reel.

To clarify - that's more a general aspirational point than an observation about our signings to date. At the moment we have 3 shit CBs and 1 potentially good one that doesn't want to play for us. If we allow the "trim the bloated squad" argument to dominate in the last two weeks, we're going to end up with a squad that's, well, shit. Same with our attackers.

We had a bloated squad because a lot of them were shit. Replacing shit players with useful players isn't squad bloat, it's squad depth.

ABK and Sulemana both seem like players that can be replaced before being sold, assuming those reading the runes about them not wanting to play second tier football are true (and they probably are). Both will be snapped up if we set their prices to sell. If you're restructuring a squad you can either try to reduce bloat or you can try to maximise profit. You can't do both.

lol

Thought Alcaraz seemed to be playing from very deep against Wednesday, but didn't see yesterday's game as it wasn't shown in the US. Did he play in the same position again? Would much prefer him playing closer to the goal.

So they've got to want to be here. But we've also got to want them to be here. And if we don't want them to be here, regardless of how they feel about the shirt etc., they can fuck off? Is that how it works?

We were in league one. Most of the squad probably felt lucky to be earning a living.

The kind of team you're imagining here doesn't exist. If you only want players who are motivated by wearing the shirt, you're going to be fielding 11 saintsweb posters.

Good summary. He's just too physically limited to appeal to any of the big clubs - doesn't have either the pace or the stature to impose himself on games, which is why we've been so easy to beat ever since he took over as one of our regular DMs. That and his age were always going to put a fairly low ceiling on his fee.

Same - thought he looked cut out for the prem. Italians rarely seem to do well in England for some reason.

Haven't seen any evidence of this attitude from Lavia. Let's not throw around lazy stereotypes.

Yeah, we should be able to keep both assuming we lose a few of the genuine first-teamers. Neither Tella nor Sulemana is a big enough name to demand PL football.

Re: Downes, always seemed pretty unlikely that he'd want to drop back down to the Championship after only a season. Would give his career trajectory the stink of failure.

Lavia every time. I know JWP can't dominate a midfield in the premier league. Lavia hasn't done it yet either, but looks far more likely to be capable of it.

Future adoptees are cut off.

Bloodlines, apparently.

Bednarek is by far the worst of our CBs on the ball.