Patches O Houlihan

Over the last few years the two PL clubs with stand out academies have been Man City & Chelsea. Wilcox ran the MC academy for 10 years, so will be fully connected up there. Meanwhile Joe Shields (our ex DF) is at Chelsea, plus Poch who we know still has a soft spot for Saints. In the last ten days we have made £45m on Lavia & £27-£32m on Tino and both parent clubs made money on the deals. This surely puts us in the driving seat to receive the best available loanees & young players between now and September. I can well understand talented youngsters not necessarily wanting to commit to a Championship club if they see their future in the PL. But if they aren't going to get regular playing time then coming to Saints on loan for a year, with a good potential to get promoted is the next best option. Particularly if we get an option to buy included in the deal. We know that the last week of the window usually gets frantic. Players will be brought in pushing others down the pecking order potentially raising their interest in Saints. I'm sad that we only got to watch Tino & Lavia for a season each, but hopefully there are some more where they came from (and Shea Charles may be one of them) I'm still very optimistic.

I just read an article in the Telegraph that suggests she's contracted until after the 2025 Euros and the FA won't let her go anywhere. Apparently she's on ~£400,000/yr. Southgate is on ~£6m/yr. PL managers are in the £4-20m/yr range. So probably unlikely at Christmas 😁 I'd love to see how she does in the mens game though. She has managed a team to the final of the last 4 major international tournaments; won 2 and is favourite for the fourth... 🤞

At the fans forum Martin was asked whether he gained tactical insight from Spacey-Cale (& v.v) Should Sarina Wiegman be advising Gareth Southgate? (Does she already?!) A bit of that steely grit would be very welcome

Absolutely perfect unveil video for Flynn. Which oddly stars Will Smallbone! Could this become a chant?

Manning put in a couple of really lovely crosses, that dropped just too short for the keeper to get to.

6 'clear cut' chances. 4 went in. I didn't see 3 of the Norwich goals because of streaming issues, but it does seem a bit harsh to critics Baz. That said once I got a stream running I was swearing hard at Baz for the parried 'non goal'. I feel like as Saints fans we have forgotten what it is to have a resilient side. Sometimes I need to remind myself that we once had Wanyama and Schneiderlin protecting Fonte & Toby/Virgil... It meant Fraser didn't have to be a rock star every game.

ABK has great recovery pace and would surely monster this league if his head is in the right place. We persuade him to stick around, and play him with Bednarek; that would improve things at the back

I was hopeful of this at the weekend… Then watched him close up at Gillingham. I am staggered that we paid the money that we did for him. He was 2nd best to League 2 defenders on every occasion.

This is correct. The players were not all "dog shit". This is standard Dman negative bullshit. He's basing this opinion on radio commentary and post match reports, we know he didn't attend the game. A good number of them were naive/young/inexperienced or rusty/still not up to speed with the season or style of play. And yes there were a few that really need to find a new club. But you can't describe the whole team like that, without seeing the game, and call your self a Saints supporter. It makes you part of the problem, not part of the solution.

So for some reason I thought he had signed with us four or five days ago - long enough for a couple of training sessions, not literally just arrived. I still think Simeu (CB) and Perraud (LB) is better than Meghoma (LB) and Perraud (CB)

So if not Simeu, then why not play the new guy Zach Awe? He's a CB, aged 19 and Aresnal describe him as commanding and a leader. Then you can start Peraud at LB. Meghoma misses out but Awe is older, and Perraud isn't played out of position in his first match after returning from injury.

Simeu is now 23 and returned from his second loan playing men's football. There's also the new guy Zach Awe. I agree it's not ideal. But nor is playing Perraud there when he has been injured during preseason and this is his first game back. I was sat right behind Perraud for the first half. There was no lack of effort on his part. He had 17yo Meghoma at left back to babysit, and Djenpo ahead of him. The only first half goal came from a Bree error on the right. Maybe he was at fault for the 2nd half goals, but I didn't have a clear view of those. At the weekend I suggested that maybe we could play 9 man total football and chip it into Tall Paul to beat a low block. Having watched Paul at close hand last night there is no way this would work. He really needs to find a new team in Belgium/Germany. SAA was lively and full of running until right at the end. Also I thought Shea Charles did ok at DM. It is clear that Charley really cares - he was fired up (and pissed off last night) He had a free kick probably more suited to a left footer right on the edge of the area. Us fans were right there and we let him know we wanted him to have a go at it. Ball went into the side netting at the near post, but it wasn't a bad effort. His goal was by force of will as much as anything.

I was at the game. Starting line up: LB Megahoma LCB Perraud RCB Lyanco RB Bree DM Charles AM Stu Armstrong FWD Mara FWD Adams RW SAA (who played well, and was still playing well in the 97th minute) LW Djenpo I can’t remember ever seeing Perraud at CB before

Edozie/Sulemana getting fouled on the edge of the area and a JWP special!

Mine did too

That’s the issue really - Paul is hopeless at pressing, and movement of more than 10 yards. BUT he must have the knack of being in the right place at the right time in front of goal because of the number of goals he’s scored consistently in previous seasons. Don’t get me wrong I’d rather have a fit Danny Ings in that role but we’re a Championship side for now and don’t have that budget

Being promoted with that playing style might even allow us to maintain that style and stay in the PL

AA was surrounded by defenders cutting off space for a pass to him. An airborne pass wouldn’t work because of the size of the average Championship defender. But it might work if you had the Statue of Liberty playing striker…

He’s been linked with Belgium and German clubs but nothing in the last week or two that I’ve seen. AA was so isolated from play in the 2nd half on Friday I was wondering if it would work to have 9 men playing total football, and 1 big stationary bloke stood in the six yard box between the posts who we chip the ball to. He either heads it in or knocks it down Pelle style to Charley or one of the wingers to finish off

Is there a scenario where Tall Paul can be fitted into our new style and is effective against the low block many teams will play against us? He ought to be good at both defensive and offensive set pieces too (and we’ve just employed an ex Brentford/Arsenal set piece specialist coach)

I watched it back too and 4 proper touches is all that SW got in that 9 mins of injury time; and each time we won it straight back.

Martin did say in a presser that he has had an injury, wasn't specific though

Have we ever got to the bottom of why he was late starting to play for Saints after signing? There were months of radio silence from the club.

I read somewhere that for the last few years Jack Stephens was the team 'judge' responsible for dishing out the fines, and forfeits for misbehaviour by team mates. His absence may have been part of the reason for the degeneration of standards in the dressing room last season. If he had established that position in the club, then he would seem to have some leadership credentials and would also need to be well liked by senior players. We're now at a stage where there are really few players on the books who have been established at Saints for multiple seasons; Stephens Bednarek Stu Armstrong (probably not a leader) Che (probably off) Alex McCarthy (unlikely) KWP (unlikely) Moussa (😁) A few weeks back I suggested Perraud as a potential leader/captain. But since Ryan Manning arrived it looks less likely that he'd be first choice (or may be on his way out?) A leader on the pitch is required, but ideally the Captain would be an automatic pick. JS is a bit too inconsistent for that though I think...

We started poorly against Bournemouth and managed to level things up after having been 2 down. It would have been very easy to fold, but they didn’t. I know we ended up losing the game but we did demonstrate some grit and fighting spirit. I listened to TSP as well - more confident of a result now. Would love a JWP trademark free kick as a final thank you if he is going to depart.