gio1saints

If I was A sneaky piece of shyte like Sullivan telling someone that I knew was going to leak it online without a direct attribution that OUR PLAYER wants to leave is exactly the sort of tosser tactic I’d use to try to unsettle Saints and our fans whilst currying favour with his teams fanbase. It’s the kind of trash talking / business deal softening up for which he’s renowned. What a see u next Tuesday he is.

I did find it surprising that he did not change the shape second half. Sometimes a win masks a problem and these two wins are certainly not fooling anyone. Just hope SR do get these extra players in ( and out) so Will has got a settled set of players to work with. But that won’t be realistically achievable until mid September - assuming the last day incomings who will need assimilation in early September. Just got to try not drop too many points until then- win whatever way we can with whatever players we got and worry about our style preferences later..

@Whitey Grandad I would not get too wedded to any default shape that Still puts out. Unlike RM I do think he is very willing to adapt his team according to what players he has and who we are playing. When and if we get better FB and MF and even wingers we may well see different line ups

We have got probably three of the best midfielders in the division in Shea, Mateus and Flynn. We have plenty decent to very good CB’s. I do think a Les replacement ( ie a big unit dm) is a good idea though. What we obviously lack is a better quality consistent full back. Can Welington or Taylor or Suga make it? I guess they not got many games to prove it before end of window. Manning is looking better this season - at this level - but overall FB looks like an obvious position to get a EPL loanee from otherwise. The attack needs to get a grip. Powderpuff. Downs stop falling over, Archer take off your cloak of invisibility,BBD please just get a loan out somewhere and Adam - come on mate take responsibility open your mouth demand the effing ball. And Ross- pulling out in warm up is not for hard men strikers, toughen up!

Any news on Ross Stewart? I thought it was odd him pulling out in warm up when he must be desperate to impress. Let’s hope not too serious. Mind you I think he’s dodged a bullet not playing! Not that he would have fancied Right wing was it all that much?

Well, Bruges are through, just. Strasbourg are/were the other team involved but I had not heard they’d bid €10m. Agree Saints should take the better bid. Wonder what’s the hold up? Sell on % more likely than fee or his wages but it might be that the win last night hurries that along. Guess we shall see. Saints: Take the money and accelerate the purchase of one ofSpertsyan/Ruddoni!

Got a feeling Sam’s going to be watching the Bruges v Salzburg match later today. Apparently that’s the club he wants us to accept €8m from. I can only imagine Saints are hoping Bruges win so they might be able to up the bid a little…I’d personally take that €8M wish Sam all the best and put it towards the €15m rated Armenian guy or €15m rated Rudoni. In my simplistic way one of those guys really only costs €7m so I’m having it…

Nice link @coalman. Tolerance and Intolerance are a fascinating subject and this forum is a live example. Im personally of the view that we all have “decency” obligations towards each other - essentially to be tolerant up to but not over the remit of the law. And naively perhaps, that Saints fans may have a higher pain /abuse tolerance threshold than some given our history of suffering. 😇

I find it revealing that Everton are going to rent Grealish for a year instead of buying Tyler ( or any other decent attacking player) for £45m or so. 30 yr old Grealish going to cost c £15/16m in wages and fees this season and, given his tendency to get kicked a lot & be injured it might end up costing them close to £1m per every 90 minutes he finishes.With a laughable £50M buy option at the end? And they reckon thats a better option than £45m 21year Tyler Dibling amortised over 4 years? I think it’s desperate a mid to lower table club renting him as he is certainly NOT one for the future, he’s not going to win them the league or get them into the CL or even top half. Weird decision imo. Everton need rebuild a proper team -but around him?

The Tyler transfer will not be decided until late in the window ie September 1st given Saints current pricing policy. IF Everton are wooing Grealish and Spurs want Savinho that’s two of the most likely buyers out of it- apparently. I don’t think Arsenal, City, United, Newcastle or Liverpool are buying him given there current options in same ish positions which leaves, maybe Villa - and German / Italian/Spanish clubs wont pay what we want. Leaves maybe a surprise offer from the mid table EPL teams or a desperation offer from a newly promoted ones- neither of which look probable - only possible. At present id say the odds on Tyler signing an extension with a big pay rise and reassured he can leave next season from a top six are coming in a bit. In betting terms he’s odds-on favourite to leave this window - but the stay at Saints bet is not quite as big a price anymore. Obviously can all change in an instant!

The bloke is apparently in £24k per as it is. Offering him £35k per week at Saints to play championship is defo barely something you hold in reserve until a better offer arrives. I hope he comes on board. Looks a player. Does well he becomes way better known playing to global audience environment. If he does not, then he was no good anyway and rats like that we don’t need. That’s how it goes right?🤣

Probably odds on that will happen.

That’s brilliant!

Another agreed from me @Whitey Grandadc/o the refs union!😉

You mean let negativity cynicism ignorance and meanness triumph over hope for a better future? Never.

I’d call beating Panathanaikos and Victoria pixen recently good results for such a meh set of players he has. It’s kind of lazy - and frankly a sign of how intellectually challenged some posters are - to constantly paint everything he is or does as bad. Shakespeare wrote ( in Hamlet if you are interested- which you are not as you probably think Hamlet is a fancy ham omelette ) but anyways he wrote “there is nothing either good or bad that thinking makes it so” You carry on thinking it’s all bad. I will carry on thinking for myself on that. Apologies in advance to all I’ve offended . I was having too much fun and that was a minor tap on the wrist compared to the pages of shit written on RM here. 🤣

Fair. Yes he’s meant to play off last man and it’s way harder when opposition camped in own half. But - the likelihood is that this is how most teams will play at SMS this season. Logically - Still would be wise to start home matches with at least one out of DD or RS up front. Ability to hold the ball in a crowded last third when there’s no space becomes a high value skill. I can see both playing together against the more obdurately defensive teams. I think general point - that I’d prefer the forwards get to touch the ball more often per match - is valid though and something that Still is and should continue to be looking to achieve. PS: Moore gave us a perfect example of how a seemingly limited player but with that specific skill set of being able to retain possession well in the final third can cause problems to any team even one with three decent CB’s. He will ruin the careers of some of the Championship CB’s he plays against if stays fit on that performance.

I don’t think he will be given the time, unfortunately. IF Rangers give him the time maybe they will be domestically competitive once more. The points they will drop getting to that stage ( like yesterday) may disqualify them from winning title this season but it’s not impossible they go on big unbeaten run so don’t write them - or him off yet. But they won’t give him that time. Out by Xmas most likely. Getting Rangers to play Martinball must be one of the toughest gigs in football. Youve got a million Rangers fans screaming at you to attack attack attack get it forward. You think SMS was difficult. Man needs balls of steel to take up that job. I only wish him the best because I call it courage and principles - agree with it or not - not ego or stupidity in what he does and why he does it.

One of the most telling stats on that match was regarding Cameron Archer. He came on for 25 minutes when we desperately needed a goal in that critical first match of the season a goal down. And he touched the ball just twice. That story of Cam invisibly being on the pitch as a goal scoring forward has gone on and on. It must be the case that the rest of the team are not good enough to find his runs otherwise how come he gets on the pitch? What’s the point of playing him if you don’t totally focus on giving the ball to the one guy who is supposed to be there to finish? Noticing same with Damion Downs. Nobody ( please don’t bore with the manning assist/cross or JR’s assist- other than that he hardly gets a touch) was head up thinking where is Damion let’s give him the ball see if he can score. First half AA barely a sniff also. I swear with my degree in football knowledge that if the rest of the team gives the ball to the forwards quicker and more often we will score more. I don’t mean always long I mean cut out 50% of the sideways stuff and put it vertically to feet or to channels for the forwards to show why they are on the big bucks.

I agree. Moore could go anywhere he liked across the line but consistently stayed the opposite side to Quarshie. I think maybe Saints were a little bit disrespectful of him because he played well enough to be man-marked by Quarshie and that would be that from him. Will did not make that call. Worked out ok but it was obviously an option he may have looked at and turned down-in play.

Gonna be a big player. Da dum! Looked a bit rusty distributing but glimpses of his pace and power were enough to let me know he’s got the athletic abilities we will need in this league. Especially at the end he looked bigger and stronger and faster than anyone. Big, fit,strong, speedy lad! Why he wasn’t put onto Moore I don’t know. Maybe Moore just stayed away from him? Would have loved that scrap!

Manning = JWP 😇 https://x.com/SkyFootball/status/1954171213896454620?ref_src=twsrc^tfw|twcamp^tweetembed|twterm^1954171213896454620|twgr^|twcon^s1_c10&ref_url=about%3Ablank

Took a lot of stick slagged off everywhere he goes. 95th minute winner. Goal saving tackles first match of season when everyone was looking at him and expecting to see failure. Mark of the man. Respect it. 🙌

If we needed any more evidence NOT to play AA as the centre forward the first half sealed it. Anything we sent long just came straight back. Whether AA can start instead of Fraser I don’t know but frankly I’d prefer a BETTER player than either and with Downs ( first choice) or Stewart at #9. Wrexham worked themselves into the ground defensively and their game plan to utilise Moore was smart - but we were ultimately fitter and the better team. Sure they had some chances - but so did we- and the ref was an absolute c£nt. So many bad decisions against us it would have been an injustice not to get at least a point. Glad for Will, glad for Captain Jack and glad for Ryan manning most of all to Gav who basically got us the three points with his late save.

Ronnie was given a hard time having to compete with their best player- Moore. I thought he did ok mostly - not the disaster most here saw. Ditto Quarshie. Few bad passes but otherwise he showed with his pace and strength and height how much we’ve missed having someone with those characteristics. Think it was quite obvious the defensive line still not gelled but that’s more than balanced out by the long awaited return of …team spirit….last minute equalisers….and injury time WINNERS!