revolution saint

So, to be fair, I do that myself. Apologies for annoying anyone. I don’t do the yes, no thing though.

You should be on Sky Sports mate - that level of analysis is seriously lacking in their coverage.

I'll have a go. Apparently he's on 30k a week at the moment - I'd have no problems upping that to 65k and an extension of 3 years (so I suppose technically that's a 5 year deal). Probably makes him a bit more difficult to sell but would hope that's about where he is in terms of what he's worth. I think he's a decent player anyway although appreciate not everyone agrees. If he doesn't sign then I guess could probably go a bit higher but it's difficult to know what other players are on our radar and who would be likely to come. I don't know what other players are on or what kind of money we have to spare so makes it a bit difficult to answer. I think Che is important to us and there's every chance that we could replace him with worse so, yeah, keep him and give him a new contract, there's your answer (well, my opinion anyway).

Dunno where you get that from. People comment on potential signings, team formations, Nottingham Forest, random ex players no one cares about. Pretty much everything as you would expect. So you’re just saying what exactly? That you only notice the negative? That’s a shame.

Some people like commenting on speculation, doesn’t really make them “hard of thinking” and it was entirely plausible that he could leave. Great news that he isn’t. No real need to act like a twat though

Not convinced that Stuart Armstrong is rated that highly by Ralph - the injury business at the start of last season was odd. Entirely possible it could have been genuine but didn't he get called up by Scotland and go away with them despite being "injured"? Probably nothing in it but didn't feel entirely plausible. Hope he stays as he's the best 10 we have (although Aribo may challenge him for that). Not fussed about Moi though, he's done better than expected since he returned but think we could do better. Slower league would be ideal for him.

To be fair big clubs also have problems moving players on too. Look at Chelsea - they had Danny Drinkwater hanging around like an albatross around their neck for virtually all his contract, Ross Barkely and to an extent Loftus-Cheek are in the same boat. No one can afford the amounts they want for them. I suspect Man Utd have a string of players they would like to get shot of as well. Arsenal will be well aware that the amount they can get for AMN is small at the moment and negligent after this window - their only hope is try to stimulate some interest and hope that generates a bit of a bidding war. Doesn't look likely but you never know. If no other club shows an interest then I reckon we could probably pick him up for a pretty small amount. Seems like we're looking at a loan though which is fair enough.

Some of the "journalism" around football in general and transfers particularly is laughable. Yesterday I read an article saying Saints had been "offered" Maitland-Niles by Arsenal and then went on to say that he had a year left on his contract but a further year as an option which they believed would strengthen Arsenals hand in negotiations. Erm, no, if Arsenal want rid then having him on a longer contract is at best irrelevant and at worst detrimental to getting a good price because other clubs will know how much it will cost you to keep a player you don't want.

In my experience the real ale drinkers are the hipsters with strange facial hair and they're more left wing too. I reckon you're a pinko in disguise.

No, that’s not true, or at least as far as I can see. Can’t find anything to show he’s refused to play. Feel free to post a link if you can find it though.

And yet he’s played several different positions. Explain that. Course he’s got a preferred position and most games he’d probably play there, but he’s also filled in when and where needed.

AMN has had a couple of wilderness years so difficult to judge what current form is like but if he’s anything like he was a few years ago then he’s a great signing. Obviously versatile and covers a few positions but he also seems to have quite a varied skill set. Tackles, good range of passes, strong on the ball but the thing I like the most is he can go past players and has a few tricks up his sleeve. Can’t finish for toffee mind but can’t have it all. He’ll be 25 in a few day so still at a good age as well.

Just watched the pitch side video and the celebration for the goal and the way the whole team came up to congratulate him puts a great big smile on your face. Whatever happens in the future, it’s really good watching kids desperate to do well and enjoying moments like scoring their first senior goal.

Hmmm, we've been "offered" the chance to sign AMN? Sounds more like agent and/or Arsenal trying to engineer a move than any real interest.

We always seem to get linked with AMN and I've always thought he was a good player. Seems like his loan move to Roma in January didn't work out - played 8 games in the league plus 4 in other cup competitions. Mitigating that was Mourinho started him initially at fullback and, well, it's Mourinho who isn't always the best at getting performances out of players. Only 24 but reckon whoever gets him could probably get a pretty good deal from Arsenal. Couple of years ago I would have bitten your hand off for him but sounds like he's on a bit of a downward spiral. Still think there's a decent player in there. I've checked to see if Forest were/are interested and, yep, they are. I imagine they'll be desperate to get some new bodies in as they're short on numbers so there will be some competition for his signature..........

I watched two games, not snippets. Just giving my opinion, obviously you don’t have to agree and I’m not a scout. He might be great and if we sign him I hope he is but honestly he didn’t look great, and if he plays like that then I think he’ll struggle. Only watched the two games because I was excited about the link, I was probably more inclined to be generous than most.

That’s a bold statement

Yep, agree with that. The Danish lad at Sturm Graz also looks a decent prospect and more of a powerful player than Ramos. Can see why Atalanta are interested.

Yes, thought that after the first game. He’s sharp around the box and has had a couple of good flicks but don’t see him being a player that will fit in too well with how we play. The assist tonight was lucky.

Dunno mate, I go to the Forest forum to find out about Saints. They can't figure out if Bednarek is better than Stephens though

I always thought the intention was to have a high wage economy? For everyone talking about basic economics and supply and demand etc - we've got pretty much record employment and a high number of vacancies (or at least we did recently). Wages are always going to rise in that situation as firms struggle to recruit and retain staff. Basic economics innit? I guess the government could do something about that by increasing the size of the labour pool - maybe relax working restrictions for foreign workers and creating an environment that is more attractive to them. That might keep wages down.

Not really read much of this part of the thread so may have been covered elsewhere but part of the problem has been sub-inflation pay rises for over a decade. Obviously the high rate at the moment is the rather large straw on the camels back but if wages had kept pace with inflation then I suspect we wouldn't be seeing the same level of strike action. Wage growth is pretty important at a macro level - remember reading that one of the things Obama saw as a problem to the recovery of the economy after the recession was stagnant wages and one of the recommendations was trying to strengthen the hand of unions.

You may be disappointed - from the striker links we've had they all seem to be big lads and one of the things Shields pays particular attention to is the physicality of the player. No coincidence that pretty much all our signings have been on the larger side (except Lavia). Personally I like the idea of having a bit of a presence up front - Pelle added a completely different option for us and doesn't feel like we've ever really replaced that. Depends how we play but we don't really play counter attacking most of the time - we press and condense play to the extent that pace isn't really a deciding factor most of the time because there's not much space to run into. How many times have we utilised Adam Armstrong's pace? Yeah, I know he ain't great but we've never made much of an attempt to utilise his pace. Agree with needing creativity though - ideal world we'll have both a new striker and another number 10/winger.

Bet you would if they bought a Russian club.......

Ah, fuck. That’s sad news, couldn’t have been that old either. One of my childhood heroes and always seemed to come across as a good bloke in interviews. Cracking hairstyle too. RIP