Gloucester Saint

The opposition managers would’ve been saying, ‘give Dibling and Fernandes a whack early on, keep KWP occupied. The rest of them can’t play for shit at this level’.

But Gavin was prized by Martin for ability with his feet to be a sweeper keeper as a Pep copycat rather than his core goalkeeping skills which we know aren’t Championship standard, further reinforced by his time in Liege (no Standard pun intended). As a core keeper he will be even more exposed. He’d been ok as #2 this year but Martin did him in there with the McCarthy extension was which jaw droppingly stupid. But that’s what the club does these days, look at the controversial Stephens extension. It’s a shock when they actually make an obvious football decision.

More like KP Skips as they melt.

Ramsdale - unqualified yes Lallana - 36, great to watch but a 60 min player at his peak and squad player for Brighton, that’s stretching it Fraser - in the past but not for a few years in the PL, a good Champ player at beat last summer Cornet - yes, but had a serious injury BBD - no, half a seasons loan at the Blades, albeit did go quite well. Stewart played a dozen good games for Sunderland in the Championship but doesn’t make him an established Champ player either Archer - one season on loan at Sheff Utd finishing rock bottom Taylor - unquestionably. Don’t know what the hell went on at the club from his perspective. As with Saints in general these days it doesn’t make logical sense. Can only assume him and Martin/Juric fell out.

She was part of it at the time. Desperate for it to be trawled up now a decade later. It’s like Whelk or Dark Munster producing a clip of Dorries getting pissed and saying something stupid in 2015. It’s hardly applicable to Badenoch now or even as a minister when she was in power even.

Whilst I’m up for criticising Corbynite MPs for stupidity, dragging that up from 10 years is really desperate stuff. Plenty of fresh stuff to criticise rather than a from a hard left opposition who never won power (and were never going to).

Didn’t quite get to 2005 Edgbaston levels of nerves, but it’s been a classic series so far close to that summer in terms of quality. Test cricket needed it. ECB will be happy with the full houses and good weather.

Agree on Gunn, that was from some of the record VVD money - bar Stu and Bednarek boy did Les piss that up the wall - and just checked Wiki, you’re right that he left SFC summer 2022. Bazunu joined in 2022 also, I knew he came in after Forster but got the wrong summer https://www.vavel.com/en/football/2022/07/30/southampton/1118417-southampton-season-preview-202223.html

Whether it’s experienced or younger players, there’s simply been far too many of them overall and the context has been ignored in doing so. Edozie, Larios and Bazunu were clearly not the right signings for the summer 2023 situation, when the club had been hollowed out under Gao. We need an injection of quality not gambles. One transfer going well, Livramento, and the Lavia transfers making profit became a whole strategy under Semmens, then Shields and Rasmus which was ignorant of the club’s history. Under Lawrie and then Nicholl, the talented youngsters learned from Keegan, Channon, Case, Shilton, Burridge and were able to grow and then be withdrawn at their own pace (saw this with Shearer after his debut). Bazunu might or might not have done better as #2 to a Ramsdale, the level the club should have been aiming at as first choice in 2023. More quality, less quantity. That’s how during the last two PL wretched seasons we ended up with a squad that struggled to fit into the home and away dressing rooms at SMS combined yet mustered less than 40 points from 76 matches which is pathetic.

Agree with 99.9%, the only detail is that I’m fairly certain Forster was finally out of contract that summer. Even so, we waited five years for Reed’s folly of a mega unwarranted contract extension to go off the books and then replaced it for another 5 years with Shields and Rasmus’s who is 10% of the keeper Forster ever was. Bungling incompetents #decadeofdickheads

Feel of Edgbaston 2005 about it.

Bumrah finally gone. Good catch by sub fielder Sam Cook. One wicket to go 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 and 46 runs for 🇮🇳

Blackpool aren’t in our division which will help

This is the key partnership left, Reddy can bat and Jadeja is a genuine all-rounder. Stokes is going to injure himself with this amount of overs.

Definitely the case with wasps. Although the local Fieldfare population has an actual superpower in eating a lot of the wasps which were hogging our plum trees which are fruiting heavily.

Hence the recent interviews with him about being excited about working for Still. Unless someone pays silly money in January he will be with us for 25/26 I’d have thought. Emphasis to get Bednarek off the books now, low release fee or not, as well as ABK, because we don’t need Jan, THB, ABK, Wood, Edwards, the young French centre back and now Quarshie.

I’m not against de-regulation where needed but this was lethal https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ce8zjk5yx8wo

I agree that if can be both and not an either/or, we don’t necessarily need 25 Papa Bouba Diops but the spine of the team is weak as alcohol free cider, hence the first two signings are big units.

Just listened to that, the city’s schools haven’t improved. That’s a comment on the lad who posted the recording, not the player who probably was just enjoying a Saturday night in pre-season.

You need to have more of the first two when you have less of the last three, and had the first two give you more of the last one. See WGS teams 2001-3.

David Lee got some, Speedie someone IIRC at home to Boro got on the pitch from the lower East and swung at him (which would have been front page now but barely in the match reports next day back then). Dowie got a bit but then Dixon was so woeful and Dowie hit some form it turned around. Stuart Ripley was never Mr Popular.

Will Still doesn’t think they are as fit as they should be and he’s working with them every day. My observation, and it’s no more than that, is that the fitness wasn’t optimum in 22/23 for the PL, it didn’t get any worse in 23/24 and the extra quality we possessed off the bench meant we had a spell of scoring late winners. Last season, even you’ve got to to admit the fitness and conditioning was well below PL level, we looked like pub players even taking into account the gulf in quality. Martin himself has stated since on Sky that the physicality and intensity surprised him.

Oh dear, what can the (dark) matter be?

With the caveat that it locks Still into 4-5-1 because he can’t tackle or track back effectively because of physical development, broadly agree. He’s got a very good first touch, can score goals and good forward passer, as evidenced by Wembley. He’s an 8 or bust. His weakness is even at this level, you cannot play him in a central two. Not if you want two strikers which I have an impression Still might by August. So you either build around him in a 4-5-1 or move him on with 12 months left on his deal. He will never be Declan Rice or Kante, but I’d hoped the penny might drop and he’d have got on the protein shakes and hit the weights during June to compete a bit more as JWP did under Ralph.

He was too inconsistent - if I’m being generous - to have won the play offs. McCarthy made a huge difference, I’m not a fan of his either, but it was night and day the contrast. Gavin never gets low to James’s shot at Wembley, he conceded those most weeks for two years, even you’ve got to admit that. He might be like Bart, shaky with the odd good game as a youngster, and make a Championship career regularly in his 30s after improving in League 1.