gio1saints

@goodymatt don’t get me wrong I rate / love him him. And £25-£30m is not excessive for a British international CB. However: In the Championship he is great but was he in the EPL? My view is he needs a little bit more time on the ball than the speed of play at highest level here. Certainly in a team like ours which will usually be under relentless pressure (when /if) we next go up. Hence somewhere continental Europe is perfect. OR play for a team that will hog possession- like Man City or Celtic basically. Ronnie Edward’s is a ball playing CB ready to play in THB’s role and the shift towards physicality with the new guy shows the direction of traffic there.

If I was THB I’m checking my passport is up to date. Porto? Lovely city. Great weather. Brilliant stadium. Great home support. Champions League football. Likely to win a cup / league title whilst there. Only a few hours flying away. Will play with some great players and definitely be in Tuchels eyeline. Would probably score a few as well out there. Plus not be quite under so much pressure to defend as Porto are a dominant team out there. His passing ability and extra bit of British vigour would go down well. And I’d be glad for him. You join Saints and do alright then a CL team can come in for you. That’s the message. As for price - if it’s £20m I’m taking it if I was Saints. A player on his third time around in the championship will not be as motivated as the new guys despite THB being a top bloke top-ish player and never gave less than 100%. Would go with my blessing and goodwill anyways. NB. If he stays he’s going to be a cheat code CB for us this season. The outstanding CB in the league in all probability. But all the same, would not deny him his big chance.

Well I for one always look forward to the Eastleigh game. Reinforces community in a positive way.Its not a match for purists but it Puts ££ into them for a guaranteed full house. Get to see squad players have a run. We saw Jay for example last time and Yuki's debut. And Adam lallanas not debut 😉.

Wow. Was like that £27m they got for Bellingham was burning a hole in their pocket! Plus £20m on the guy from Roma. We spent (I think )£18m on Flynn as our marquee EPL signing…X2. And £20m on THB. Interesting. Do they have any more money left ? because if that’s it they are certainly doomed to finish bottom before a ball is even kicked imo.

Further on comparing Leeds to Saints. When Leeds failed to get promoted last season they unloaded FIVE of their better players : Crysencio Summerville, Georginio Rutter, Archie Gray, Jack Harrison and Luis Sinisterra( who had been on loan) I think most of those five would start at Saints this season! Thing that’s probably surprising is they kept the Manager. I think that’s a mistake. So although relegation is NOT same as failure to get promotion, to equal Leeds work in outsourcing at least three more first team starters need to leave beyond KS and PO..

It’s interesting that Leeds look likely to break their transfer record on a new striker. Muniz has a £35m price tag! This, despite having a record goal scorer and assists player ( Piroe) purchased for a high fee also I might add (£12m) from the championship promotion season in their squad already. It’s almost as if they saw what we did last year and realise they need better., much better. Whether Muniz is the answer is a moot point but their apparent desire to upgrade certainly contrasts starkly with our poor/absent decision making and vision in same time last year. NB. piroe is quoted as an £18m value player on transfermkt. So if anyone thinks we are bidding for him this year I’d be surprised. And why would he forego chance to play EPL for yet another year in the champs anyway even if we did/could?

If that’s right and we end up with a 48% reduction BEFORE The wage reductions come in we can take an educated guess and say that the remaining salaries ( of c £500k) will reduce by I think it’s 40% ( or 50%?) with the relegation clause. That means a new salary bill of c £250k-£265k before the wages of the new players are added in. Say they are all £30k each and there’s 3 more to come means salaries at c £340-£350k this season at Saints. Still higher than nearly all other championship teams I guess but not ridiculously higher like when it was near a Mill.

Excellent choice. We were really, really good. It was no fluke short lived one off period, our team(s) were full of great all time players and we were one of the best, if not quite the best, teams in the country for certainly 18-24-36 months.

Corrected it for you. 😁

Joe Jordan!!!!!! We had Joe Jordan the monster. He’d show our upfront lightweights what it’s all about. Talk about defending from the front! Harassing the defenders by biting their ears off tearing their arms off and such like. Him and Dowie mind. 😁😇

So 1983/84 give or take a few players lol. Have to say I agree. Our best vintage.

Seems to me we were better when we were nasty. When did we get so nice to opponents?

It’s disgusting and I’m outraged no mention of Mark Dennis. Heroic player nasty as anything dirty as anything. Fantastic. Not like our sweet and lovely fullbacks today. Back then the job was to maim or destroy your opposing winger. He was good at it. Made Dodd, Benali and Ruddock look angelic. Maybe Stevie Williams was as nasty. Maybe.

I like it- an emotion based list! Surely Danny Wallace? For Emo value I’d have SRL tops closely followed by Marian and Steve Moran.

Sry Badger. Channon is a Saints superstar but I never felt he was as good as MLT. And I thought Shilts as a goalie was more world class than Channon. Some of mine ARE dubious- are Mane&Bale really valud Saints players? - but there’s no denying they won more medals after saints than we have ever had in our entire history. I claim a slice of the credit for saints and rank them high accordingly. Poor reason perhaps but ho hum.

Stevie Williams is my favourite saints player of all time. Just loved his attitude. nobody close to his mf tenacity since then imo. Bad move to Arsenal and being played out of position for England put paid to him. So not quite in my top twenty best players overall. Rodney’s brother Danny was much better - imo.And he’s pretty close too. Fastest player I’ve seen at Dell. I’ve never seen a Channon highlights video ( unlike numerous mlt montages) but his goal celebration is certainly #1 all time for saints and he’s been / was v influential as an Eng player. Apologies for my spelling VVD incorrectly but I did expect pedantry of that nature so no harm done. 😁

Yes T it’s entirely subjective and there’s no clear rules just my top of the head opinion. You can make up your own criteria, for fun, and see how it matches up. Someone like Bale and Mane did v little for us for instance but got wardrobes full of medals. Mark Wright good shout. It was not his fault he got his leg broke in the semi. Always liked him The ginger Beckenbaur.

Discussion on Adam Lallana elsewhere got me thinking on this as I’d say he is in the top twenty. But where? And what’s the criteria? Future /previous glory at other clubs / internationally can make a big difference - I’m going to give it a try off top of my head so apologies for missing some out and I’m allowed to come back and edit these names! 1. MLT ( no arguing allowed) 2. Shearer ( mainly for England and Premiership goals) 3. Shilton ( our best ever goalie so also no arguing allowed) 4.Bale ( who won EVERYTHING as a player) 5. Paine ( appearances) 6. Keegan Eng captain & pfa player of the year AT Saints! 7. Channon 8. Ball ( he won a World Cup so don’t argue!) 9. Van Dyke ( our best ever CB) 10. Ron Davies legend 11. Mane multiple title winner 12. Adam! 13. Sir Rickie Lambert (because) 14. Luke Shaw 15. Theo 16. JWP ( direct free kicks and consecutive matches) 17. Tadic (class) 18. Jose Fonte 19. Chivers 20 Bates/Franny legend. 🤣 That was my first off top of my head version. So please calm down it’s only for fun. Now to check google ChatGPT grok Siri and Alexa plus no doubt get schooled by MLG and Saints historians shortly! 😇

Saints got £25m for Adam in 2014. Compare that to popular top players like KWP who have seen out their contract and we get £fiddly squat. I suppose IF KWP had said I want a move 12 months ago - and we found out he’d been eye fluttering a team for quite a while but got £15m -£20m say for him he, too, would be regarded in a bad light. Not one ball he kicked one shot or tackle or even goal or dribble he ever made on the pitch for Saints would count for anything versus the impression he had dumped us for a better model he’d been chatting up behind our back - and forget that SFC actually made some money on it. The notion that how good your PR machine is will determine how supporters perceive you is now set in stone. What the guy does on the pitch relegated to nerd territory. Adam did great for us on the pitch, 283 times, greater than most players saints have ever had, certainly top twenty maybe even top ten. He IS one of the earliest prototypes of “if you do well at Saints you can get a move to a big club and win cups and medals” . It’s a model we still subscribe to today, obviously. And one that he is well placed to elucidate upon to our young players coming through today.

We’ve had a mere handful of Class midfield players in last thirty years and Adam was one of them. If you are talking about skills from midfield he was better than Tadic and JWP should be delighted to clean his boots and as for erm Will Smallbone and Flynn Downes ahem…I’m not sure in last thirty -forty we’ve had better - other than MLT of course. Worth looking up. I Count Walcott, Mane and Bale as playing different positions for a start and surely you cannot argue Schneiderlin or Houjberg are anywhere near.. Point is he’s the closest to excellence and an actual WINNER we’ve had in decades so I’m glad he’s staying - regardless of wether some of youse are still funny about why he fucked off to earn more money and win the premiership and the champions league play Workd Cup and become England best international player if 2016 etc. He is A proven Winner. A Champion. And he is at SFC. Coaching the players. GOOD!

We should get anybody whose first name is Josh. FOUR out of the top ten goals and assist machines in the Championship last year were called Josh. Three points if you can name them all without google. 😁

I’m not sure anyone wants to read an essay on sport psychology here so perforce I oversimplify. My view is that our EPL squad was really badly assembled. Largely due to the fuck up that was the aftermath of Wilcox leaving. We had Too many players NOT on an upward trajectory. Players like Jan, Jack, BBD, TP, Adam, Ryan, Ross, Will, Flynn, Joe, Lumley and Alex, Manning, Bree, Charlie Taylor, Gronbaek even Archer. Far too many obviously not at the level nor ever going to be. And perhaps even AA with benefit of hindsight also in the list but he deserved the chance imo. We cannot let that recur. Even if it appears to compromise performance short term in the championship.

Exactly right. I know that many feel pro footballers are ridiculously well paid to do an enviable, easy job - so should not need “motivating” or buying into “projects”. 11 individuals chucked on a pitch and told “you are being paid millions to be good-so be good” is basic level 1 management. Adding motivation including but in addition to just money is level two and upwards. Average players can become good Good players, great. With the right motivation. At Saints we will benefit by recruiting players specifically playing to get into the EPL - they will appreciate in value quicker and hopefully be EPL ready - unlike last time. I personally think AA will be sold because he probably will never be EPL ready - but the pragmatist in me says keep him because he cooks in the championship and he may have to swallow his pride and know he is likely to be moved on- but at least moved on as a winner not as a miserable loser.

You think Saka, Haaland and Salah are available? 🤭

Good start from MF. Looks a class act, as usual.