Oh no Mick Mills

We also got more points per game last time in the Championship when he played. Unfortunately this sort of thing gets ignored because it doesn't fit the anti Stephens narrative. Mediocre player yes. But no worse when he played in the Prem than Bedders or THB.

THB and Bednarek were both superb last time round in the Championship . We conceded so many due to a weak left back in Manning. Baz in goal. Martins possession at all cost tactics. No decent options at CDM when Flynn was sick.

Totally agree with this assessment.

Whilst off last week I watched the full 70 mins he played in Koln v Kaiserslautern on YouTube. Koln won 4 nil. He didn't score but had a decent assist for the 2nd goal. Apart from that and a couple of passes/layoffs he did very little else. On two occasions his first time passes went straight to the opponents and one was a perfect through ball that Kaiserslautern should have scored. Not going to pass judgement on him based on one game but from that first impression I was rather underwhelmed. More Mara than Che Adams going by that game.

Didn't Frannie get sent off a few times for dumbass reasons? Strange how two limited but committed players to Saints can be seen so differently through the lense of time.

Pleased to hear this. A decent player for this level .

To add further to my pro Edozie stance. Similar to Smallbone they both showed enough quality in enough games to convince me they can do a decent job for us at Championship level. Are they nailed on, first name on the teamsheet type players...of course not . I'm assuming we want a squad of players , not just a first 11 and imo these two would do a good job for us as they both proved in the 23/24.

Not sure you can describe him as a Pretty Average Championship Striker. 23/24 . 16 goals in 26 games. 24/25. 15 goals in 32 games. Best goals to mins played ratio over the last two seasons.

Agreed. He's a good player. 6 goals in his breakout season. Consistently beats his man and he's exciting to watch. Maybe not Prem standard but certainly better than most other wingers at this level.

Sorry, I don't see him hiding in games. Physically not strong enough and a lack of pace yes... but also arguably our best player in the play offs. He's fine as long as we don't expect much from him defensively. He's a much better better passer than Downes. 6 goals and 3 assists says to me an important squad player.

I thought THB was our worst CB last season, which is saying something .

Ronnie Ecklund is the stand out one for me. A more obscure one was Jack Cork in the disastrous 08/09 Championship relegation team. He was very young but clearly a class act.

Bumped into Ken Monkou at a cheese tasting weekend in Brighton..lovely guy.

Looking at his record last season he scored his 5 league goals and 1 assist in the last 11 games.

Fear not my son. Big Daddy Jack and his "boy" Ronnie will be guiding us to a New Dawn...

Being a bit pedantic as I appreciate Ipswich have cocked this up but I'm assuming City get 10% of the profit which would be be 3m . Therefore City made 23m Add on signing on fee and agent fee ..maybe 2m Ipswich make a 5m profit?

Franny was someone who'd make a great last ditch sliding tackle or be there on the goal line to clear a goalbound shot . He'd then spend the rest of the game simply passing the ball to the oppostion! I used to think maybe he suffered with colour blindness as his passing was so bad! But Total wholehearted commitment meant we forgave him.

On the whole I agree with you. I wish we had at least a couple of better defenders. Stephens is limited but give him his dues when he's had a decent game and he's had a few decent ones recently barring Leicester . We're chock a block with mediocre players all over the pitch , i just dont understand when he's crap why so many pile on him whilst THB seems to get a free pass whilst being even worse and costing 20m.

Thought he was pretty decent yesterday. He gave Wellington a big cuddle just before kick off and spoke to him . A captains performance.

This isn't true. We actually gained more points when Stephens played than when he didn't. He played the first four games which we won 3 and drew 1. He then got injured and we lost 4 on the bounce. We then had our unbeaten run which he featured in the last 7 or 8 of those games. Our first defeat after the unbeaten run he was on the bench, he came back into the team and we beat WNA and was then benched for the Hull home game which we lost. He also played every minute of the playoff semis and final where we conceded 1 goal. He's a poor Premier league defender that's for sure. Along with all our other CBs. He's OK in the Championship. Personally I've thought THB has made more mistakes leading to goals and looked out of his depth , he also cost us 20M whilst Stephens was a about 500k I think.

This isn't true. We actually gained more points when Stephens played than when he didn't. He played the first four games which we won 3 and drew 1. He then got injured and we lost 4 on the bounce. We then had our unbeaten run which he featured in the last 7 or 8 of those games. Our first defeat after the unbeaten run he was on the bench, he came back into the team and we beat WNA and was then benched for the Hull home game which we lost. He also played every minute of the playoff semis and final where we conceded 1 goal. He's a poor Premier league defender that's for sure. Along with all our other CBs. He's OK in the Championship. Personally I've thought THB has made more mistakes leading to goals and looked out of his depth , he also cost us 20M whilst Stephens was a about 500k I think.

"The standard of the PL has been really poor this year" ...really? I think it's been one of the strongest PL ever. All three promoted teams are absolutely miles away from the other 17. Teams like Spurs and Man Utd are so far down the table because loads of smaller clubs are absolutely superb with quality all over the pitch. A poor premier league quality wise is when there's 6 to 8 rubbish teams like they're used to be ...hence why promoted clubs had a chance at survival.

I watched MOTD last night . The first goal summed up our hapless defence. THB was easily beaten out on the right flank. Bedders and Stephens decide to mark thin air and Vardy strolls through in-between them to finish in style...easy peasey.. pathetic really, he's old and past it.

The fans were superb today. Some of the muppets on here who slag them off and call them Noddies can do one.. Proper fans who show genuine commitment and passion. Support and slaughter the players when required. Today other than Fernades and Ramsdale we roundly booed the other losers and gave them all the abuse they deserved.