Willo of Whiteley

Panic buy written all over this one 😂 Was Tom Fellows not available?

Fernandes will stay if no CL team comes in for him - which I don’t think they will. Not for the price we want. Rak-Sakyi deal is ongoing but more unlikely than likely.

Finn Azaz feels more like a panic buy to me. Reading some of the write ups from Boro fans suggest that he’s ok in space in the AM role but will go missing in quite a few games. Stats are ok though so happy to reserve judgement.

Matty Fernandes needs to stay forward and not drop back so deep. He dropped back continuously at the weekend and as soon as he did that you effectively had Downes, Charles and Fernandes all playing the same position.

I remember listening to a pod where Rickie Lambert said that he, Jos Hooiveld and a few other senior players hunted down Nicola Cortese when Nigel Adkins was sacked; and threatened to leave. Although he finished by saying that Mauricio Pochettino took them to a whole new level once he’d embedded his ideas and training.

Calvert-Lewin is another one of those players in the Brereton-Diaz mould, looked amazing for a season and now doesn’t even come close to resembling a Sunday League player

Four at the back please, a bit of attacking impetuous. No long diagonal balls to a 5”7” striker. Bazunu; Roerslav, Hardwood-Bellis, Stephens, Manning; Downes, Charles, Fernandes; Fraser, Stewart, Robinson Expecting a 1-1 draw. Watford have started ok.

It’s almost like I said Rak-Sakyi enquiries had begun. A week ago 👀👍🏻

The Sport Republic way. Manager and fans: We need a Mercedes and a Ferrari SR: Well we can try and give you that (Fails) SR: Great news, your new Reliant Robin is ready to pick up. Just ignore the fact that it’s missing both its doors, all three wheels and an engine.

Agreed, my point is more that I feel the last few years we’ve been linked with and targeted certain players, and have consistently settled for our last choice😂

Finn Azaz strikers me more of a “desperate signing” rather than one we were actively targeting. Sure, his stats are ok but it doesn’t scream “well planned” and “we wanted him all along”. If we did we would’ve bid for him at the start of summer.

A British core is absolute what Saints should be going for. Home-grown talent who understand the leagues. It’s just common sense. You can quickly buy players that will be totally disinterested and little understanding because they have no affiliation for the English game.

And Johannes Spors came onboard in March. Still plenty of time, I’m still underwhelmed, I’d rather see us pay that bit extra and get our players on July 1st. But there’s a week left to sort this out.

I mean I could be pedantic like you and say I asked for three benefits and you only only gave two. 😂 But it’s late. At the moment there isn’t a huge benefit in this multi-club model. I’ve always said Sport Reoublic tried to run before they could walk. Surely you focus on your big club, so to speak, first; and then you build around that. Make your first club successful first and then replicate that. Sport Republic went out and bought three clubs, two of which have suffered relegations and horrific investment. Getting a couple of quid for a player that will likely never play for Saints again is not a benefit. S-Clarke posted a really excellent summary in another thread of all SR’s signings since taking over the club(s). How can you hand on heart say Saints are benefitting from them? Commerically yes they’ve made some developments, the stadium, the bars etc, very good. But it means absolute jack if you sole point of the business, your football team are playing in the lower leagues. That isn’t an attractive proposition. I’m sure there are a lot on here that would rather we had Jisheng Gao who never spent money but equally never took money out of the club and we were sustainable and a decent Premier League team.

If the benefits are that we can buy and loan out players to sister clubs then that is a terrible defence of the multi club model. That’s really terrible. That’s hilarious 🤣🤣

Correct. I disagree with MLG on some topics but this is right. So far it’s been underwhelming, but I’ll be more annoyed in a weeks time if there’s been little to no change.

Please share what you said then? How have Saints benefitted from the multi-club model under Sport Republic? You haven’t answered. Name three ways in which we have benefitted? You haven’t answered. I’m still waiting. Don’t just say you’ve answered when you haven’t, and don’t go back and edit previous posts. Just reply to this one. If you’re that confident there is a benefit you should have no problem in responding to this. If any other user can find MLG’s answer to the above can they please share it as it would appear he has forgotten how to respond to question.

I’m loosely in agreement. If you watch football regularly you can work out patterns of play, players that look lively etc. It isn’t difficult. The problem is nowadays clubs base everything on stats and analysis, for example you could monitor a player and he could have a list of the best attributes going but that only lasts as long as the player can be arsed and is motivated. Look at Dele Alli and Saido Berahino as examples, the latter I remember saying to mates when he was 17, linked with Spurs and went on strike “he’ll be an EFL player in a few years”. The problem is where it’s all based around stats now and computers and that stuff, it’s not any more reliable than good old fashioned scouting of watching a game. I’ve probably explained the above terribly but Sport Republic are an example of stats and analysis not working.

This entirely 🤣

Still waiting… It seems MLG hasn’t replied to a few who have asked this or similar. 🤣 Feels more like a club plant every day. 😂

Since the first game of the season. I think it’s quite good. I read initially though they were only going to do it on certain game weeks this season as a trial. I’d say it’s pretty good

Newcastle are the worst for dishing out those tackles but can’t hack it when it’s rightly against their players

Just the normal aggression from those Geordies. Might be something to do with Isak wanting to leave Newcastle to go to a better club (Liverpool) too.

Name three? And three that we’ve benefitted from so far?

Ramsdale a bench warmer