sockeye

He has been named for the under 21s Euros tournament this summer. Good luck and don’t get injured, this season will be a big one for you. Go on and lift the trophy so we can boast about having two youth Euro winners.

No idea why people thought he would jump ship for Cardiff.

Good luck to him.

Fraser would be a good signing for them at that level. I couldn't help but groan seeing us sign him permanently last year.

I would love him to stay but I just don’t want my heart broken. To be honest, I was resigned to relegation last summer. But when we signed him, it was almost a little frustrating as I knew that he would be out the door as soon as we went down. At that point a little spark inside me ignited and I wanted us to stay up. I believe he would honestly be a part of a theoretical late 2020s Saints European squad. He’s just class and it’s a shame we can’t provide him with teammates on his level of quality

I think he is a good manager who was saddled with a poor squad not suited to him, and potentially also was not prepared for the differences between Serie A and the Premier League. He made some strange decisions at times but I got the feeling he was just at a loss after a few weeks.

Personally I think finishing 18th with 37 points is much more noble than 20th on 12 points. Even 20th on GD with 22 points is much more noble. Martin’s positive qualities lie basically nearly wholly outside of the actual football being played. Dying for a philosophy is not what football is about

Good luck to him

If there's a word I can use to summarise Sport Republic, it's naive. The multi-club model is not a bad idea in theory, but they rushed to implement it as if it will pay dividends simply from existing. That is not the case. The club at the heart of the model has to be stable. At the time our recent history was that we were a lower-half PL side which had just about managed to avoid relegation each year. That is not stable, that is one misstep away from losing over a hundred million pounds. But yet SR immediately jumped to buy player after player from other academies as well as other clubs to make up this multi-club model. SR saw survival as a triviality, and as punishment we were relegated on 25 points. And yet since then we have become even less stable. Our income fluctuates massively every year as we swap divisions. It's not the time to be playing around with the multi club model, it needs to be put on ice. Some of my opinion hinges on how Matsuki does this year.

Bloom acquired Brighton in 2009 and sustainably grew the club for 8 years until they reached the Premier League. He acquired a stake in USG after Brighton's survival was secured for their first season in Premier League in May 2018. Then did not invest in any more clubs until 2025 where he acquired a minority stake in Melbourne Victory. Brighton have never been relegated since Tony Bloom bought them. They finished 16th in League One the year he bought them, and last season finished 8th. They also were in a European competition recently. Sport Republic acquired Saints in January 2022 and could not even wait until they had completed a full Premier League season with Saints before they bought Goztepe in August 2022. Saints were then relegated, and SR bought Valenciennes after relegation was confirmed. They got promoted via the play-offs, but then were relegated again last season. When SR took control of Saints, we were in 13th. Last season, we finished 20th on 12 points. We have not been in a European competition for almost a decade. What SR have done over the last 3 years is not even comparable to what Bloom has managed to do with Brighton.

Yeah that's exactly my problem. SR are ambitious, but they are trying to build their end goal in the wrong order. They are trying to implement their smart stat based scouting and multi-club development model before the main club has even established itself as consistently Premier League quality. It's time for some pragmatism with regards to this.

The multi club model is one that I can see working but it requires a high-flying (financial and league status) club to serve as the root like Chelsea, Man City. Trouble is we are not Chelsea, Chelsea have far more depth of funds in regards to FFP that we do, if we are spending money on players for Goztepe and Valenciennes, does that not show up as being an expenditure for SFC? Especially if we are in the Championship, not sure if it's wise to be outsourcing development of players to other clubs whilst we foot the bill of recruiting them right now. I don't trust SR recruiting at the moment, I would rather we focus on SFC's squad for the time being, because if these Goztepe and Valenciennes players flop (as many SFC players have in the last 3 years), we now have even more dross on the books. Yes Spors is here, they have shuffled around the hierarchy, etc, but we haven't seen if this will bear fruit or not yet. Ambition is great but it feels above our station right now.

Too much obsessing over stats about games they didn't watch. If you actually watch Saints games, it is clear, Russell Martin's style is extremely fragile as there are many more opportunities to make individual mistakes due to the passing around the back, which can be pounced upon by the opposition. Also, it struggles to break down low blocks. If all you're doing is passing around your own half then sides will be happy for you to have possession, because they can break it and then quickly counterattack. Of course we already know that. But it just shows how uninformative the stats are out of context.

That's a pretty nice set.

That's a pretty nice set.

I understand your point, but we have yet to see whether he can really perform at a higher level consistently. Who's to say, we are not just signing the Mara and Djenepos of the world with extra steps.

Still struggling to see any real successes for Southampton FC of this multi-club model that is entering its fourth year now.

Wouldn't be surprised if they stick with RVN at this point

That being said, the real test for Celtic and Rangers is to perform well in Europe. The jury’s out on that one. plus the derby

Dibling had good form early last season. When it became clear that we were going to be relegated, and the manager merry go round began, his performances dipped. It is not uncommon for young players to have on and off spells. With some stability and pragmatism to use Dibling to his skillset rather than in a system, I see no reason why he can’t be fit and firing this season.

I think Bazunu and Smallbone suit his system well, and the Scottish league is very weak, so I think picking them up would be good way for Rangers to strengthen to his system.

Ramsdale was always nailed on to leave. Sadly I think Bazunu will be kept as first choice.

Their fans all live in la la land, you can add Newcastle to that group now, it’s like a bunch of middle class kids fighting over daddys inheritance That being said it’s fun beating them and their fans having a melty, especially if there are dodgy var or ref calls along the way

Looks very cheap

I expect everyone's on the beach now, Still/Quarshie were probably done this early because it was close enough to the end of the season?