Patches O Houlihan

Right better than left, so Conservative club better than the Working Men's Club you'd think

He would get there; he'd just be a bit slow getting down there, same as big Fraser would.

I'm pretty sure he is One of their Own ™ Been a bit of a club hero, won things with them.

https://everybodysoccer.com/even-the-goalkeepers-like-to/2020/2/18/the-worlds-best-goalkeepers-2020 Rated 17th best in the world Jan 2024 according to their metrics. There's spreadsheets to dig into and updates every six months. Have a thorough look and report back for us whether you agree 👍

Where's that bedwetting emoji when we need it? Come on @stevegrant pull your finger out!

Thought Mateus had a good PL debut today. Put himself about, good positioning, good layoff for Taylors cross that Archer really should have put away. Not bad for a 20yr old playing his first match.

Do you really expect RM in an interview with a journalist to say "Don't worry we are negotiating for 3 attacking players here are their names, and here is where they will fit into the team" ?! No he's going to play his cards close to his chest; say that he can see we need help and try to give a sensible answer about our attacking players. All the attacking players on the pitch were toothless today so he can't talk about them. Talking up Dibling would pile unnecessary pressure on a youngster. Realistically Tall Paul will be sold and not become our saviour. So who does that leave: Ross Stewart - who is at least tall and solid unlike most of our attackers. As a football fan you've surely seen enough interviews to know how this works. We do need to add some final third beef to the squad though.

In fairness we haven't done too badly at this over the last two games. It could have been a lot worse. Something to build on. But like you say right now it is tough to see where a bit of final third magic is going to come from.

Whilst ideally I would like a winger and a striker, but I think the striker needs to be the priority if we are limited by funds/FFP

In case you didn't spot this this previously I will post it again - to try to raise some spirits after a frustrating afternoon at St Marys. Although I do recognise we need some attacking threats too.

Needed: Edozie to the Championship on loan, replaced by someone more creative than BBD and Arma on the wing. New striker to compete with BBD, Archer & LND if fit. Just toothless today, Smallbone has been fine mostly but today was all that frustrates you about his game. On the plus side: Taylor & Fernades looked pretty good and combined well to create a 1 yard tap in opportunity that Archer really ought to be burying If Aribo had given it a bit of Peter Kay the score would have looked a lot better. McCarthy didn't fuck up today. Well done Alex

Taylor & Fernandes creating best opportunity if the game

Is it just me or has every corner we’ve taken across both PL games been utter shit?

Joe had an opportunity to boot it away and didn’t

Great play by Suga

THB having a bit of a shocker today

By all means, but maybe you can enjoy doing it without having to play Eeyore every week 🐴

There’s the fighting positivity we know you for Alex. Never one to write off a player too early. Always willing to give the benefit of the doubt. 💪

Remember that it was our first game in the PL. Sugawara’s debut, and after BBDs antics all of St James’ Park was baying for blood. I’m not surprised he wanted to leave one of our most experienced & streetwise players on the pitch, particularly our captain. Without care we could very easily have gone to pieces and embarrassingly lost 3-0; but we didn’t, and as a consequence the atmosphere for todays game against Forest is still positive.

No I think you're more likely to have it right. Ramsdale's best mate is at Bournemouth and they have deeper pockets, so surely he Is more likely to go there? We may be ahead of Wolves though in his interest. Also there is the small matter of money. He would be comfortably our top earner if we were ever to pay all his wages. Does that potentially create a rift in the squad with a newbie?

Cardiff on Wednesday maybe. No chance RM will throw him in to play tippy tappy passes with defenders he doesn’t even recognise. Although in fairness unlikely to be worse than McCarthy at Newcastle

From the Reddit thread: Flamengo fan here. Victor Hugo has been massively sabotaged by our club, something that happens to everyone of our academy players nowadays. I'm confident Vini Jr wouldn't get playtime if he was coming up now, especially with our trashcan of a coach who sabotaged current-level Vini at the freaking World Cup. Victor Hugo carries the ball really well, is capable of beating his man, is phisically developed for his age, has a knack for getting into the box and scoring. The problem is that his confidence is shot since he barely plays and our coach hates youngsters, so he hasn't been doing these things in the rare instances he gets a chance. He was never given time to develop, but he's only 20 and started featuring for us at 18. He's not a player to be involved in a trade, he was supposed to go for 20M minimum, so if you develop him you'll be good. [13 upvotes]

I'd say that Flynn or THB are more natural leaders. When he first joined us he did used to visibly flap when under pressure, and English isn't his first language of course. I don't remember too many times when he has been sent out to face the cameras post match either. That said I feel like his game has really come on since returning from Villa, and he is rightly amongst the first names on the team sheet and our first choice centre back. Keep up the good work Jan would love to see him sign up for another 4 or 5 years.

I note that Sky are describing the Ramsdale loan discussion as 'Loan with option to buy' ie Arsenal get their player bought; which they want. We get a solution that is more flexible for our finances over the next season or two. Also as suggested it might just be a negotiating tactic for Bijlow. Either way we would end up with a high quality no2 from a national side who is trying to impress enough to be in the no1 shirt.

The way RM talked about him in the press conference and the way that every Portuguese person seems to comment on him suggests that they think he is going to be something special. The Portuguese seem to think he has potential to be one of the stars in the Portuguese national team, and they want to see him progress well. RM said that they were recruiting specifically for players who really wanted to be at Saints, and not just in the a shop window. For Fernandes and for other players that want to fight for a place in a national team (like Bijlow) Saints offers the chance to play every week, and in the toughest league in the world: Much better than weeks on the bench at a dysfunctional Chelsea or Man Utd.