SWLondon Saint

Sounds like a proper pre-season 👍🏼

Isn't the Gibbs-White move off or at least in contention so that could well be slowing it down? Also, I would bet if they want Fernandes, they'll want to pay something like £25m+bonuses, like they paid for Gibbs-White, but the problem is we probably want Lavia money - which I think is correct as he's an established PL player unlike Gibbs-White when they got him.

Robyn Cowan to me is just average as a commentator, fairly inoffensive. But whoever was co-commentator last night was complete rubbish, half the time they were just describing what had just happened and the other half just spouting gushing compliments about the England players, couldn't offer even restrained criticism.

She's clearly technically a level above most of the women, probably from playing with her brother and boys for so long when younger, but she does also seem to drift worryingly at a lot of points and seems a bit casual in possession. But then she also does some top drawer stuff, I remember one volleyed goal that any player male or female would've been proud of.

I reckon last year's defensive 'philosophy' was definitely just do whatever you feel like, including making quarter-arsed attempts to stop someone walking past you and shooting aka Small Willy style...

I thought the pens were bad but it seems quite a few shootouts down the years have ended at 1-1 after 5! https://www.rsssf.org/miscellaneous/penalties.html

Makes you wonder what the f*** they were told last year then?! Don't cross it or shoot?!?! 🤯

Wonder if the 1st half / 2nd half was a shot across the bows to the older squad members basically saying you lot need to shape up.

That's most of my 'players I don't want to see play for Saints again from last season' list, maybe Still started with the shite team?

What else is he going to say though, 'he's complete crap and we're crossing our fingers someone's dumb enough to take him off our hands'? That'll really help the sales team!

Like most of us, I'd love our top players to stay but I'm pessimistic about it. The reason it's taking a while is that they won't want to join another struggling team (not could they afford them!), but the teams in the middle of the Prem / upper end of European leagues who are realistic targets both ways are still being raided by the big guns, so the offers won't come in till that's all settled down.

Exactly how I feel. And what about accountability? As captain, getting sent off twice, leaving your teammates in the shit and also being banned for 9 games isn't the kind of behaviour I expect to see from a club captain. Not to mention all the goals we conceded by Jack playing brainless passes to people in no position to receive the ball. I'm convinced he was the 'trigger' for several other teams to press our players as they know he'll put someone in trouble with the ball.

Let's not forget that at the start of last season, some deluded muppet decided they'd rather have BBD and Fraser in the squad for that left wing position and send Edozie out on loan. So probably a bit unfair to say Edozie was considered 'not good enough' for the PL....

If you're going with just Still, surely it has to be...

He mainly plays 4-2-3-1 or one of the variations on it according to most sources - but more importantly he's adaptable and uses whatever formation fits the players he's had. Would be nice to have a manager who's pragmatic rather than a system obsessive...

By comparison, Birmingham spent over £15 million for Jay Stansfield last season after 13 goals in 37 apps in the Championship...

If they're in Teddington, that'll have been a tough day - I'm just the other side of Kingston and it was ridiculously hot and humid round here.

As long as after the cameras were off he told Stephens what a complete crock of shite his play last season was 💩🤞

N'golo Kante seemed to do just fine at a towering 5'6"...

Sugawara was unquestionably bad as an individual defensively, though I do have some time for the argument the defence in general was a mess and they were pretty much all crap, which is a bad situation to have to come into. Having said that, he did also look like the only wide player who would look to cross and could actually deliver a decent ball into the box, so Still might like that. Is he a PL level full back? No. Could he be a PL wingback with a 'proper' FB behind him in a 3? Maybe. Pretty sure we'll be stuck with him anyway so might as well be optimistic.

On that note I'd never buy a kit with a gambling sponsor on it, too many relatives / people I know have had their lives ruined or had massive problems from gambling addiction. All this online stuff just turbo charges it, it's no good at all.

Only saw the second half but half our players didn't look like they could be arsed. You might as well leave the 'first' choice out if they're going to play like that. Oh, and another complete joke VAR decision. I honestly wonder if these refs have ever played the game. Never handball in a million years.

The Saints Marching site is just full of complete bollocks, I blocked it actually. Pretty sure it's AI generated crap some twat somewhere has set up to scrape saints related news and then spew out clickbait BS articles. 💩

Thinking about that number of number of daft goals just makes me wonder how anyone can not think he's a total fraud? Anyone in any job can make a mistake, but when you double down and say I'm gonna keep doing it again and again against all the evidence... 🤦🏻‍♂️ And there was literally no upside to his passing tactics either - it wasn't like we were pulling teams apart and scoring amazing back to front goals and having lots of shots, it was literally just doing nothing good at all.

Big Wuss might have fooled his new bosses that it was 12, actually it was NINETEEN f***ing goals: https://www.premierleague.com/stats/top/clubs/error_lead_to_goal?se=719