Gloucester Saint

SR are better off sending what they need to the top agency firms and letting them come up with a shortlist at the start of next week. Our scouts have proven time and again that they cannot spot a good player to save their lives bar the odd fluke eg Lavia, Livramento. I bet Fernandes was brought to them by Mendes as well.

As @RedArmy says, either offer him to Goztepe to see if they can get a tune out of him, but realistically it’s probably writing off the fee and wages. Plymouth need a striker and maybe in League 1 he might get away with his dreadful first touch a bit more. He doesn’t look a Championship footballer remotely in any facet, and sometimes the obvious error just needs rectifying. Good reasons why Koln weren’t taking a new contract seriously, SR will never learn around data driven nonsense. Tie up with Mendes like Wolves did, he can spot a quality footballer. Need to bring a couple of starting forwards in though, on loan if SR won’t pay the £12-20m required even after selling Fernandes and Dibling. BBD and AA need to rebuild their confidence away from Saints on loan as well.

2005-9 tells me we are nowhere near hitting the bottom of where we are going to sink without a huge turnover in players over the next few days.

Get fitter and quicker and get on the end of them then. If they can’t do that, ship them out subsidised to a lower division and bring in a couple of loan players who do want to do the extra.

Today was unacceptable, I’ll give you that. But he needs to put a firework up Spors’s arse to get the players he needs for his formation and if that means doing in the presser, do it. Managers get the sack from DoFs if they don’t deliver their objectives, whether the DoF has done their job properly or not.

Give me a break, take the red and white specs off. They were quicker, more composure, took their chances well and our strikers were pathetic. Downs looks worse than Ali Dia’s cameo v Leeds. First touch of concrete. Massive surgery needed next week.

If you buy the £20 item to be a smart arse instead of the £75 item you actually needed and the £25 item breaks in 5 minutes and/or is simply not fit for purpose (eg Damion Downs) then you’ve simply wasted money and time, and the item you needed in the first place you may not be able afford. Utter stupidity and we see it every fucking transfer window. SR - stick to selling, and hook up with Mendes and let him identify and advise on the buying. It’s his living and he knows what he’s doing. SR, you simply do not know anything about buying players. You can sell them, but Downs is just the latest example of cutting a corner in a key position in the spine of the team. The price needed for an outstanding Champ striker is £12-20m. If you can’t find that, sell up. SFC is too much for you.

Sadly he does look horribly out of his depth, there’s a reason Koln weren’t busting a gut for a new contract for him to lead their Bundesliga line. Loaning him out is the smart move, have to address mistakes a lot quicker on recruitment.

That’s what is needed, another half-a-dozen, 3 perm, 3 on loan, who don’t have last season’s PTSD.

Wouldn’t score again in 110 minutes.

Need to be very active in that area next week and if selling Fernandes helps then do it. Also need some subsidised loans out - AA, BBD. SFC isn’t a good environment for them.

Must admit he’s been worse than I feared. £8m is cheap but that looks expensive for no first touch, composure or ball striking. Need to be active in the loan market bringing at least one starting striker in, loaning Downs out to somewhere Plymouth who need a forward to get experience and one of AA/BBD even if it’s a loss on wages because their confidence is through the floor.

I would have done at KO TBH.

Need to see it again. Didn’t look an obvious error at first sight.

Reminded me of Guido Carrillo from what I’ve seen so far, big, not much of an athlete and first touch goes further than he can kick it. I was expecting a raw Kenwyne Jones type forward but he’s looked like a poor man’s Jon Parkin or Brett Angell to me.

Remind me of the result when Stoke visited under Martin?

Dragan needs to take a bath on some of them this week wages-wise to get them to new environments where the shadow of Russell Martin doesn’t lurk.

THB is always a threat at set pieces. We’ve forgotten the value of them. Now get the fucking ball forward and pepper their box. Time for Downs to win some headers.

And 0-2. Stoke deserve that I have to say. They will be there and thereabouts this season. Saints won’t unless there’s some open heart transfer surgery in this transfer window to the starting XI. Club have had their PSR wanting over the Dibling fee. Now 5-6 new faces this week and half of those into the starting line up next league game. Don’t mind if 3 of them are loans.

Stoke took their opportunity with superior technique and composure, nothing lucky about it, it’s up to Saints to bring in that composure and technique this week. Tick Tock Johannes.

Yeah, they bought Keiffer Moore who holds it and scores.

QPR are total turd though. No wonder Ronnie Edwards fitted in there. Test here of whether Still is up to it and can adapt because plenty of banks of eight and nine will sit in at SMS.

Players had better find a goal from somewhere because the fans are going to let them know exactly how it is at full-time.

Newcastle away too.

Stoke have been miles better and look far better coached and organised. Robins is a good manager. Still may improve though. Not sure the red will help us actually becuase we’ve been too busy haggling over Dibling, congratulating ourselves on another incoming fee, and haven’t bought in any pace to get behind teams. We might get a lucky bounce or deflection from a set piece to get a point hopefully.