Holmes_and_Watson

You weren't having a nightmare. There's a few stories out there of him believed to be high up on our list.

Points

I guess wanting to beat Portsmouth is being balanced out by wanting to fit in with all our other managers, by losing the game. 🙂

Declan Glass joins Saints from Cove Rangers, as the first of their transparent signings. At 5' 9" there were rumblings that some feared would shatter the deal. 🙂

Darn Deep State. They've got to him, just like they got to Truss. Can their machinations ever be stopped?

Is SOG the best for this? I know there's the years of personal experience tackling crime. But he might show too much leniency to ex-bosses making comments about expressing milk.

It has to go a long way for us to get a PL ready side. Replacing the whole spine of the team with PL capable players would cost a significant amount. So, like last summer, SR will be limited in what they can spend on individuals. As I said, something Dyche is used to. Not to mention SR want to maximise their profit, and that also limits potential individual outlay. Again (I won't say for the second time, as you can't count that high) as I said, that's something Dyche will be used to. Then there are the PSR rules which will impose limits, and a second relegation. Both of which will reduce available funds. As I said, Dyche is used to working with little budget. So, he'd be fine with what SR will have available. Back under your bridge, troll.

That would be an immediate issue. SR couldn't replace what we had of one. They'd have to listen to Dyche to get it fixed. Dyche is pretty used to having little budget, so at least that won't be a huge issue.

Sorry, I couldn't resist. It gives me an excuse to say your "scissors of Damocles" post still makes me smile.

Where did you hear Robbie Williams live? 🙂

A like wasn't enough there. Looking forward to reading your summary. Thanks.

Thanks for sharing. Not seen it yet. But I imagine, that despite how it worked out that I'll be agreeing with some factors, if the interview focuses on us. It looks long enough to get hopefully lots of detail.

RM with a lot of time on his hands.

Devoid

If we were coming into the Championship from the other direction with the records at that level of Armstrong, Archer, Brereton, TP and Stewart you'd think things were great. And yet... 🙂

Definitely. But as he'd get injured in the warm up, it won't make much difference.

You could consider retiring near one. Pending MLG approval of course. And no sneaky unretiring, obviously. 🙂

It's saying "New Nivea Water. More moisturising than the best nature can provide! Why not talk to our salesman about it, and coaching opportunities?"

Somewhere in the misty lands of SaintsWeb, a troll peered out from beneath a bridge. Embarrassed from recent outcomes, he spied another innocent, off hand comment crossing above. This time it would be different! Checking around for those pesky petards that always hoist him, the troll leapt out! When you have a minute MLG, perhaps you could update the wiki page for us for that year. Players retired John Beresford -Retired due to a cruciate ligament injury, later played for several non-league clubs. David Hughes - Retired due to a knee injury, later worked as a coach and manager. David Howells -Retired due to a knee injury, later played for several non-league clubs. Don't forget their individual pages where there are things like "Howells also represented Southampton, scoring once against Arsenal, and Bristol City before retiring from the game in 2000 due to a persistent knee problem." Obviously, all the original sources from national newspapers will have to be amended. Such as this from the Telegraph saying David Howells has finally conceded defeat in his battle against injury and at 32 now plans to retire. Southampton's former Tottenham midfielder has had four operations on his knee but said: "I'm not going to play again. I'll miss the game but in many ways I'm relieved the slog is over." Don't forget to get Saintsplayer updated. That has things like the following for David Hughes. "His hopes of contributing to the following season were shattered, in a pre-season friendly at Aldershot, by a knee-injury that forced him to retire a year later." When you've gone through the papers, and websites getting all the corrections, don't forget to contact the tax office. All of those people who came out of retirement, after retiring, are clearly at it! Their retirement at the employer they retired from clearly wasn't retirement! Also check in with the insurance companies. All those settlements for players retiring from top level? Why, they could have unretired at non league! That's no retirement at all! Back under the bridge the troll lamented on why it always turned out this way. He'd certainly been told a thousand times on how to improve. Sadly, as the youth player thread showed, the troll couldn't count past two. So "a thousand" meant nothing to him. On the bridge above, SaintsWeb went about it's business, while the troll plotted his next, ingenious attack.

a quick totalling (from Ipswich wiki page) gives approx 104M with a couple of million going the other way. I got the feeling that some of the players they got, were ones we were looking at. For me, it's an example as I put above about the strengths and weaknesses across everything. If our scouts/ data were identifying some of their players, and they're effective then not everything about or recruitment can be bad. However, Ipswich could be straight back down with us. So, their target list may be just as flawed. But with a Delap, Hutchinson, Clarke and Szmodics combined with what we had, and replacing a lot of who we ended up with (and a decent DM), who knows. As you say, still looks like a struggle. But all our managers may have had just a bit more, to get some points on the board. Ipswich may offer more in wages. SR are keen to keep these very low, while buying in bulk. As Farmer said, the amount needed could well have been a lot higher than either could spend.

A slow clap as he does a lap of honour on "Mr. Football" day.

Like most things, it's a combination. Which is why every party has supporters and detractors. SR have put money in. But their plan on outsmarting others was fatally flawed, and they keep repeating it. Ralph. Martin, Jones and Juric have specific styles. All of them have suffered from SR not filling key first team gaps and their wider decisions. Yet all were masters of their own downfalls too. Our playing squad has been brought in on SR's strategies and those of the managers they selected. Different styles, different requirements, with a bloated squad resulting in a leaderless group of mentally shot drones. Even there, you can see the effort of some. And it's still got plenty of players who got us promoted last time.

Stewart will just want to get fully fit and play games. He'll have felt all the emotions we can think of, having to go through this. His absence isn't through any lack of e It's the club's responsibility to make adequate risk assessments when signing players. They clearly thought it was worth the risk. They've got a duty of care to their employee, to try to get him as fit as they can. Stewart has to look at his own interests, and the support available to him through us. Like previous seasons, we shouldn't be building our attack around him being fit, but he will hopefully be that, and give us options next season. If he's injured for next season, then it's up to all parties to discuss. I have no ill feelings at all towards the player. The opposite, in that I hope he gets fully back. Perhaps SR would make a different decision next time. That's on them, not Stewart. I think we had a summer when Beresford, Howells and David Hughes all retired.

I'd like to see the gaps left since SR's first window addressed. Replacements for Romeu and Ings. Focus on building a spine to our first team, rather than buying in bulk on the off chance one comes good. SR are going to have to come to terms that their recruitment is going to face agents who want massive wages for their clients, and competing clubs. Putting their eggs all in baskets as with Gakpo/Gomez, Delap etc is going to leave them looking ...well, just like we do. SR have let down every one of the managers, by not giving them the tools to field a competitive team. They don't mind spending more as long as individual wages are lower. Much more, even if it costs them two relegations. But their recruitment has little depth when they chase targets and fail to get them over the line. Our first team next season wood look something like:- GK - Ramsdale 28 DR - Sugawara 28 DL - Manning 27 DC - Bednerak 27 DC - THB 28 DMC - Romeu replacement MC - Downes 28 AML - Edozie 27 AMR - Armstrong 27 AMC- Fernandes 29 FC - Ings replacement Any replacements to the above need to be replaced with someone SR consider to be PL ready. That leaves the rest. Several will be just fine for a season in the Championship, and give some competition to the above. Dibling would be in there, but probably the one that all parties would look to get a move for. Others are still young and can hopefully push for a first team place, particularly Charles and Edwards. those with '26 contracts expiring will be the ones SR looks to resolve quickest. Clears the wage bill a bit, if all parties can move on. Replacements should be with a view to giving PL competition for the first 11. Their usual frittering away on loads of fringe players shouldn't detract from that. GK - McCarthy 26, Bazunu 27 DR - Bree 26 DL - Taylor 26, Larios 27 (U21),Welington ? DC - Stephens 26, Edwards 28 (U21), Wood 28, Bella-Kotchap 26 DMC - Charles 27, Bragg 26 MC - Smallbone 26 AML -Sulemana 27, Fraser 26, Juan? AMR - Dibling 27 (U21) AMC- Akachukwu ?, O'Brien-Whitmarsh 27 (U21), Aribo 26 SC -Archer 28, Robinson 27 (U21), Ballard 26 FC - Stewart 26, Brereton Diaz 28, Onuachu 26

12 players that if none of them ever returned to the ground, you'd not notice they were gone. I take that back. After a couple of games, you'd wonder why we weren't conceding penalties from handballs, to cover Sugawara's absence.