gio1saints

BBD about to show he can run. Gets round of applause for doing length of the pitch 😂. Not being nasty but he looks slightly timbersome to me. Maybe that’s why he’s the only one allowed to run pitch lengths.

Tyler trains with Sam amo, bk with TP, Charlie with Shea JA with Sam E, Flynn and AA with Will. interesting the groups.

Sry to say this but TP looks like Billy no mates. BK looks like a boss still!

Yeah I think so

KWP present!

Jan present no RS though. Or Adz far as I can tell.

Sekou gone back in. He had a lie down got up but I think it may have done something to him.

Tall Paul is present. And easy to spot!

Cannot see him yet. But BBD is there. Flynn Will and THB are so much in their love triangle. 😁

Lumley exists!

If we do not accept an offer by 30/8 then KWP will need matches to get match fit. More self harm for saints. He must surely get minutes in preseason - unless transfer is imminent.

Does anyone else think KWP is too good to drop and keep out the team until the window closes? Leaving him out of friendlies is self harming Saints basically. If he is fit he is arguably our most exciting attacking player - and has to play v Newcastle?

Sry I did not wait for the post match stuff. Was too peed off! I think maybe he was as disappointed as us at the lack of energy on display. He would have hoped we would cope better I assume and was wrong. Hence disappointment. But as I said not seen interview.

@Luke SkyWalker-Peters thanks for your well considered pov. I watched the entire match and was frustrated at most of it. like all of us. Not just at the two giveaway goals but the general lethargy on display. If you are right - and I think you probably are re - that this was played on the back of a heavy fitness session and the match was essentially to beast the players ahead of season starting - (and RM was in Brighton most the day dont forget so was not supervising -) then the fitness coaches have either overdone it or did it on purpose to his instructions. Either way it showed me ( no big revelations here) that under extreme fatigue our style of play especially the high risk stuff in our own area breaks down and we concede goals. Damned if you do damned if you don’t I guess. Unless you practice in those extreme fatigue conditions how can you hope to deal with them better? The training session at SMS will be interesting. I’m hoping to see RS, JL, BBD and AL kicking balls shooting on target ( you know that thing we didn’t do last night) and running without problems. PS. But if Oxford can do that to us what will better teams do who will fatigue us more and with better quality - a sobering thought.

The experiment of two different teams two halves is obviously no motivation at all for our players who look half asleep - and experiment already has failed purpose. AM fuck ups are making players lose concentration. We are literally giving goals away for free. RM’s tried to be too too clever by far.

AM Again with another fuck up. And we do another give away goal. Every time he gets the ball it seems it’s a disaster waiting to happen. This time our defenders playing fuck around football in dangerous area and it’s a goal. Really shit performance so far.

So far. Dull as dishwater. Being played at sub walking pace. AM doing his fuckaround in the penalty box pass thing and they nearly score. Every match. Every match we do that. And now they score. Deserved really first time cross took a deflection and easy finish.

Tyler gets ball straight away turns runs at defence releases KS whose shot is straight at goalie.

Mara off injured replaced by Tyler.

Sports mole says Arsenal are now amenable to a short term loan for Ramsdale because nobody wants to pay the silly money they want - with Forest interested- as well as Saints. Given that Ramsdale would only leave to be #1 and that AM would be a good back up to Raya at Arsenal and can play PBF a bit too - so Arteta would be reassured - and from player perspective AM would prob get medals at end of season plus likely get to play a lot of cup matches including CL, I don't see why we could not suggest swop our first choice for their second choice for a year and see how it goes. Is relying on Lumley and Lis as back up goalies that much of negative compared to the big positive of acquiring a direct upgrade top keeper? Essentially just wages differential for a year to pay. It’s unlikely but not an impossible line of approach for our negotiators.

Very much so. Atalanta want €60m. Juve offering €45M. Koopmeiners is highly regarded in Italy as a CM ( obviously more than Soule or Charlie for example who the first they sold and Charlie gave us back) and O’Riley considered a good - but not their only - option as an alternative. That Atalanta only gone to c €17M smacks of not seriously bidding too much until they get the Koopmeiners deal sorted. We could still get him. But it’s tight and odds against imo right now. Unless our negotiators get inspired!

MLG is right. SC is not an ideal swop for O’Riley. But Charlie might be. Charlie did not turn Juve down- would he turn down the chance of some CL nights at a raucous Celtic Park? ( And I think they would love him btw). And seeing as Celtic are also looking at wingers and another FB Kameldeen and James Bree are also possibles. Celtic need get replacement (s) resolved quickly - ie before star man O’Riley leaves- so swops and bundle deals could save them a lot of time.

He should be joining Atalanta on paper but life isn’t always that simple. Hopefully!

I think you have totally missed my point that all things being equal Atalanta is the better choice for him. 😂

Only a few years ago Atalanta could be considered on a par - or frankly below, Southampton. They were perennial mid to lower Seria A makeweights who occasionally pulled off a result against the big boys and even qualified for UEFA now and again. Got a few Coppa Italia runs also. A bit like Saints. You might say. Their average attendance - at their tiny ground is under 15,000. But they been punching way above their weight consistently for a number of years now. I hope it’s sustainable and they don’t just get best players gobbled up by the bigger fish of football. If I was O’Riley - assuming the wages are the same - I’d be wanting a taste of that success story ahead of the lure of the EPL with a likely relegation struggler - not matter how friends I am with the boss. Only caveat to that is - you fuck up in Seria A you can sometimes struggle to come back to UK, do same in EPL -most watched football in the world - you probably got more opportunities. All things being equal the right decision is he goes to Atalanta. If we pay him more salary assuming the fee is settled or certainly better than both Atalanta and Celtic currently do by a decent margin - then we become favourites-but it needs be a big salary uplift. And/or our package is sweeter to him and Celtic - hence adding a loan player into the narrative seems to be gaining momentum - from Celtic’s pov it’s very good sense to play it that way.