revolution saint

It’s guesswork on what I think will happen not why. I’m basing it on the rumours so far and Ralph saying we were looking at fullbacks. Got any further questions then go ask someone at the club.

How many times has Moussa started 3 consecutive games? Doesn’t feel like it’s happened that often and not recently.

I think we’ll sign Ramos and I think the deal was done a while ago with Benfica insisting on getting the champions league qualifier out the way. Harvey Vale will sign soon as will James Garner. We’ll get a right back on loan too. Going out will be Redmond, Walcott, Romeu, Bednarek. Diallo will go out on loan. We won’t replace Bednarek and half the forum will be very annoyed about this. All just guesswork on my part.

Seem to recall there's a YouTube video kicking around where he looks really good, although most people do on YouTube.

Why is he measuring his mouth in that photo?

In a mans world, maybe. I'd back him to get on up and down the left flank.

They're setting fire to people? That's one way to force a player to move I suppose.........

Yep

Scamacca definitely looks a better player than Ramos did in the hour I watched him but I've only seen clips of Scamacca so maybe not fair to judge on that basis. Plus Scamacca is probably a lot more expensive. In terms of dribbling he didn't do any of that - might be decent but it wasn't on show. He's got good movement and if we have players intelligent enough to pick him out then it could work out because we have far too many moves break down because we get to the edge of the box and then fail to quickly capitalise on it. Someone like Ramos will probably be able to quickly get a shot off (bit like Ings in that respect). He also seems to be good at general awareness of others around him. Benfica played him up front on his own but they had three directly behind him and at least one of those would always be relatively close to Ramos. I don't think he'd be any good if we left him isolated as we've done a lot since we switched to a back 3.

It was just a general observation from me rather than something quite as specific. Che is pretty good at pressing, hold up play but not so great at finishing whereas Ramos is a decent finisher and not so great in the other areas. I checked up (warning, stats ahead) and we had an xG of 50.6 last season and scored 43 so from that point of view Ramos might be expected to improve that discrepancy. Caveats to that are whether we persist in the 3/5 at the back and create less chances and, of course, lad will need to get to grips with the premier league so no guarantee he'll carry over his form if we did sign him. I'm not sure he would be the right choice either and definitely doesn't fit the criteria Ralph would normally apply when looking at strikers.

This is a good article on Ramos from about 18 months ago if anyone wants to know a bit more about the type of player Ramos is: https://totalfootballanalysis.com/article/goncalo-ramos-benficas-uefa-youth-league-ace-tactics Basically the opposite to Che Adams. Doesn't run around a great deal, doesn't dribble particularly well, doesn't tend to get involved in build up play much but finishes well and doesn't need too many touches to set himself up for a shot on goal. Tends to outperform his xG for anyone interested in those kind of stats.

Scott Minto was commentating on the Benfica game last night. He’s an ex player of theirs and does a lot of Portuguese games. Anyway he reckons Vertongen is shot now. Also thinks Ramos needs another season before moving.

That seems a little harsh on Forest. Fair play to them - they're going for it and their fans have had to put up with shit for a while now. I'm also pretty sure that all footballers are motivated by self interest (or mutual self interest). I think most people outside of football are as well.......

I thought he looked pacey in the YouTube clips initially as well but went back over them after watching him last night. I'm not sure he does have much pace but he seems to be able to find space quite well rather than anything else and his anticipation is good. To be honest we probably don't need out and out speed as much as we do someone who can finish. Certainly last night he looked anything but quick and didn't close down. Could be carrying an injury or that's just how the manager wants him to play though. Definitely didn't look like a performance Ralph would have liked (apart from the goal). Agree with you on composure and definitely something we're lacking, and the same with an aerial threat. He didn't look as tall as I thought he would be either - 6ft 1" isn't unusually tall, especially for a striker. Regardless, he seems a decent header of the ball.

I watched him in the game against Kiev last night. Only on for about an hour but scored a decent goal - bit of a strikers goal. You can YouTube it. He didn't do much else. For all the talk of being like Shane Long, well, he looked nothing like that. In fact he didn't look like a Ralph signing at all - didn't really press (although that may have been under instructions not to press too much). Looks a physical player but doesn't look like there's much pace there. Seems quite good in the air. Get the impression he's more of a predator as a striker than someone who works that hard - seems to find pockets of space rather than relying on workrate and pace. Can't really tell much more from an hour and might not be that indicative of what he's actually like.

Agree. Ideal world we’d have a new striker, number 10 and full back but all depends on budget and availability of players. I guess you can argue that Lavia wasn’t essential but he seems to be decent so it’s not really wasted money.

Ramos just got subbed off. To be honest he didn’t do much except score. Well taken goal mind.

7 goals in 1610 minutes innit?

I think this deserves a thread of its own. Don’t want anyone missing it amongst the other transfer sagas

Goal every 2.5 games last season in Portugal ain’t bad even if it is for Benfica. Already got 4 in 2 in the champions league play offs against Mjitland (spelling?). Looks like a similar player to Broja but maybe not the explosive pace. Seems to be decent in the air which is good. Newcastle are going to be linked with loads at the moment so might not be anything in that.

So we don't want to get rid of Romeu, Stephens, A Armstrong, Adams which means we are happy to get shot of any of Diallo, Bednarek, Lyanco, Elynoussi, Redmond, and possibly Djenepo? Hope we weren't relying on raising much money from them.

Don't think there's much in this one. Apparently Benfica want to wait until a champions league play off next week before any sale and they've already turned down a 26M bid from (surprise, surprise) Forest. Seems like any successful bid will be around the 30-33M mark. I suppose the club not wanting to sell before a champions league play off could explain a delay in either this or another striker signing. Anyway, looks alright on YouTube and seems to be pretty good in the air which is something I hope we address with whoever comes in - haven't had a decent aerial presence since Pelle and with the quality of JWP crosses it's something I hope we can benefit from this season.

Not sure if it's still the case but transfers used to stipulate a certain percentage of the fee would have to be paid within the first year. I think over here it was 100% but got a feeling that was relaxed a bit. My impression was that obligation to buy was basically a means to secure a player and get around not being able to meet those financial regulations. Option to buy wasn't binding but included the option to buy the player at an agreed price.

You can absolutely think Ralph deserves more of a chance but labelling people who disagree as people actively looking for Saints to fail is complete bollocks. We’re all fans and guarantee you every single person, whether they back Ralph or not, wants to see Saints win. If you have to resort to doing stuff like this it not only shows you up as a bit of a knob but also a lack of a decent ability to state your case.

Doesn’t Vale play mostly on the right? That would mean S Armstrong, Aribo and Vale all preferring the right side forward/number 10 role. Haven’t seen enough of him to know if he’s any good but seems like the kind of deal we would look at.