CamSaint

He strikes me as very much in the Downes mould. Not as a like for like player, but both have performed to a high level in the Championship and both earned their chances in the PL. However, it hasn't quite worked out for either of them at PL level. Downes has been superb for us on his return to the Championship, so I am really hoping that Rothwell can do the same. On the face of it it seems a very well thought-out move, especially as he has played with AA & THB at Blackburn and JS was at Bournemouth with him last season, so hopefully he should integrate into the group relatively easily.

I believe she's being saved for the 'cup' game........

Really? We created some excellent chances in the second half. Stuey's header just after the break. Sulemana's run & shot that the keeper made a good save from, Mara blazing wide when through on goal.... I think we actually created some better scoring opportunities last night than against Leeds - the finishing was just better against Leeds. In that game, Armstrong's first was a super finish from a very acute angle. His second was actually parried away by the keeper initially and wouldn't have gone in if it hadn't hit the defender and Smallbone's was another lovely finish from the edge of the area. Last night the finishing wasn't as clinical. Despite the naysayers on here, we actually broke at pace a number of times last night. Certainly not flowing football, but effective and the defending & commitment to the common cause was a million times better than in some of the previous matches.

I suspect it is even more deep-rooted than that. When Alcarez arrived Jones was manager and he spoke fluent Spanish and he was then replaced by Selles. So up until RM's arrival both managers had been able to easily communicate directly with him and RM can't. So it's hardly any surprise that Alcarez is struggling more than most even without his personal issues.

He is, but RM has said that Wilcox would never bring in anyone he wasn't happy with and that the two of them are perfectly aligned. I don't know what sort of pre-season Holgate had, but RM also said that Fraser couldn't start because he wasn't fit enough. Maybe the same should have applied to Holgate? Should we have stuck with the Charles/Bednarek pairing that did OK against QPR? You can bet your life if we had have done that and got a similar result then a lot of people on here would have been saying: 'Why didn't he play a 'proper' CH in Holgate'? We have potentially made a superb signing in THB and I really, really hope that he can make a major improvement to our defensive woes.

I think he bears some responsibility as he has recruited 2 of the back 4 (although I assume Holgate was brought in as back-up rather than a starter) and retained 'the best RB in the division'! I would have thought that the susceptibility we have to the fast break when we have a corner ought to be being addressed by the set-piece coach, as he should be setting up our shape for corners (and free kicks near the penalty area).

It wouldn't make sense for us to buy Wood now unless both ABK and Bednarek leave. Even if ABK goes, we'd still have Stephens, Bednarek, Holgate & THB plus Charles in an emergency and possibly even Awe as well ( depending on how he develops).

He did have that fantastic season for us in 19/20 with 22 PL goals in 38 games, but in the last 2 seasons he has got 7 in 30 for Villa (Adams got 7 in 30 for us) and 8 in 35 for Villa/WHU (Adams got 5 in 28 for us). I'm sure he would do well in the Championship, but his recent form in the PL has hardly been exceptional.

Miovski has scored for Aberdeen tonight (1-2 atm).

What about Charles?

Don't forget we have also effectively added Stephens & Smallbone as they returned from loans along with Tella at the beginning of the season, and SA-A seems to have been fully promoted to the first team squad.

Fair enough - Transfermarkt lists him as 1.84m, which is just over 6', but I'm happy to be corrected.

Yes, he's a right back, but would be a very interesting target if true. According to Transfermarkt he's played 87 games for WHU - 55 in the PL, the rest in domestic cups and European competitions, so bags of experience and still only 23. No idea of his style of play, but he's also around 6' so would improve our defensive 'size' issue. As he is an established PL player, I wonder whether the enquiry is for a loan rather than to buy?

🤷‍♂️ Adams has had previous success in the Championship as well as additional PL experience. He has started this season really well with 3 in 3. Piroe has had 2 excellent seasons in the Championship but has not scored in the league this season (although as was pointed out above, he has scored 2 in the cup). Piroe's 2 good seasons have been in Martin's system, so you would think he could fit in well at Saints. However, if we keep Che and then he has a fallow period then everyone on here will be saying we should have sold him and brought in Piroe. If we sell Che, buy Piroe and he doesn't deliver everyone on here will say we should have kept Che! Who'd be a football manager, eh?

Whilst Piroe's record over the last 2 seasons has been excellent, anyone else noticed he hasn't scored yet this season?

Except its not only 3 coming in as Smallbone, Tella & Stephens have all returned as well and SAA seems to have become part of the squad so it is 11 out & 7 in at the moment. If Downes arrives next week as we have been told that will make 8 and the squad will actually only have reduced by 3. The problem continues to be the number of players that we want to get rid of and are proving hard to shift.

It was. I watched it on the Saints Official Site.

I thought that I had read somewhere that although he is a very good player, he has major 'attitude' problems?

Yep. Having no pace/acceleration worries me a bit. That is why Prem sides are not signing him. He's not some amazing talent. He's a Rasiak type. On the other hand, he seems to have scored a shed load of goals in Martin's system - something we sorely lack!

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Wasn't there a rumour recently that we were interested in Aarons from Norwich? Maybe he is on the list of 'targets who are prepared to wait' as the replacement for KWP & Tino.

I'd be surprised if nothing happens with regards to goalkeepers even if McCarthy stays. Last season McCarthy picked up an injury towards the end of December and didn't feature again in a match day squad until March 1st when he played in the Grimsby cup defeat. During that time we had 14 league and cup matches (12 under Jones and 2 under Selles. Willy played in the FA Cup game against Blackpool but was on the bench for the other 13. Now that Willy has gone, we have no 3rd choice keeper which was glaringly apparent on Saturday when we had no sub keeper on the bench (presumably McCarthy was injured) as the U-21s were also playing. The obvious solution would have been to keep Lis, but as he has gone out on loan I would have thought we would need to bring another keeper in. Maybe we're waiting to see if McCarthy goes before taking a decision on the level of a new addition. With regards to Bazunu, since Martin has brought his own goalkeeping coach with him, he ought to be able to look at Bazunu with fresh eyes (not having been responsible for coaching him last season) & could recommend a change if he thought fit. I guess the biggest stumbling block may be if Wilcox has a high opinion of Bazunu from his time at City. Either way, I'd be surprised if there wasn't some movement with regards to keepers before the window closes.

He's back on the OS Team line-up.

The transfer window also opens on June 14th

However Navas palmed the ball across his 6 yard box for the first United goal and did exactly the same thing in the second half, but somehow that time the ball dribbled between the 3 onrushing United forwards. He certainly also made some good saves, but had that been Bazunu we would be ignoring the good saves and still be blaming him for the first goal and the subsequent loss.