revolution saint

Not that I really care but sounds as if the Sunak thing is a case of wilfully misrepresenting either what he said or what he meant. I think both candidates have enough ammunition to beat the other so there's not any need to do that kind of thing. Still, if they want to make the contest even more of a nasty affair then it would be churlish to stop them. I'm still not voting for Truss even if she did promise the Queens head on a stick.

I think Ralph will go with Baz, KWP, ABK, Bednarek, Salisu, Djenepo, Lavia, JWP, Aribo, S Armstrong, A Armstrong Personally, if we're playing 3 at the back, I'd swap out A Armstrong for Adams and bring Romeu in for either Aribo or S Armstrong. Having said that I wouldn't be playing 3 at the back if it were up to me anyway. Think our most likely chance of scoring will be from a JWP set piece.

My vote goes to The Birdy Song - that'll puncture some of the pomposity around various occasions.

Rule 1

I think rival is a good word to start a game of wordle.

Probably because Ralph was pretty keen in January? It’s hardly the mark of madness. Just out of interest it’s probably worth sharing what other transfers are unlikely too. Cheers in advance.

Good player, works well in tight spaces but can be a bit sloppy at times.

Yeah, it’s not something I would agree with. The versatile players such as Aribo and S. Armstrong would still be an option anyway so that’s moot. Having just three strikers for a complete season is a big risk especially when one of those scored just two goals for all of last season. If we’re saying Saints sign, for example, Broja but to do so need to sell Adams and have one less striker then that puts us in a worse position than last season when we had both. If it’s not Broja then it’s an even bigger risk on a player who may or may not work out at the expense of a player who, whilst not the prolific striker we all want, is decent enough and you would expect to contribute a reasonable number of goals.

With respect mate, you don't have a clue what Saints will or won’t do.

Just to be clear, you're suggesting we could sell Adams and add the amount we receive to the amount already put aside to buy one striker (leaving us with three recognised strikers - new guy, A. Armstrong, Mara). Or, are you saying sell Adams and buy two players leaving us with 4 recognised strikers? Appreciate you're only guessing rather than saying what we should do but trying to follow your logic.

Very insightful. I've not really thought about it much before but the idea that good strikers who score lots of goals are not just a benefit to the team but also help you win games too is pretty revolutionary stuff. I just hope other clubs don't figure it out as well.

Yeah, fair enough, Broja is a known quantity. Would then depend on who else we brought in as to whether we'd have a better squad overall. Personally think that the money we could bring in for Adams isn't the amount he's currently worth to us (if that makes sense).

Completely agree. Anyone coming in will have the inherent risk associated with all new signings but particularly with strikers and Ralph will probably claim they need to time to adjust to our style of play and/or build up their fitness. Getting rid of Che will mean two new strikers that might not function that well for a significant proportion of the season.

I dunno, I think it's rather clever actually. I mean, it's basically saying to that section of the party that still wants Boris around that there'll be at least some sense of continuity.

Striker and a number 10 to play on the left. Can probably cope in other areas of the pitch. TBH I'm as concerned about the formation, who Ralph picks and where he plays them as I am who we bring in. Not a big fan of 5 at the back and don't like the idea of S. Armstrong or Aribo playing as a second striker. Certainly don't think we create enough in that formation and I don't think we look any more solid either.

Next time think before you post FFS! I’m joking, sorry if it came across that way.

Yeah but Stuart Armstrong has been used more than Che, or at least feels like it. Plus that doesn’t really explain the lack of minutes at the end of last season. I agree he shouldn’t have fallen down the pecking order as he’s our best current striker by a mile which makes his lack of game time even more confusing. You’d have thought that a major change in formation would also necessitate playing him more than he has, so that we’re as best prepared as possible. I’m not saying there’s any truth in the article and the fee is laughable but Che should have been involved more (unless he’s carrying an injury).

So he rested Che during much of the pre season so that he’ll be fit for the spurs game? Yeah that makes sense.

Ironic that you would describe god as a compliment given the amount of posts you’ve spent decrying religion, don’t you think? Anyway I’m sure you would agree that there’s probably as many people who like tommy sauce as profess to be religious and Ketchup is easier for auto correct so doesn’t really call for it’s use as pathetic. Certainly welcome the name change though! To be really democratic we should put it to a vote so suggestions on here or a separate thread for your new username.

Care to change your username then? I mean, it’s a bit pathetic to use the wrong surname isn’t it?

Out of interest what’s the difference? If he’s saying something negative then it’s being critical and there’s no way you can dress up needs to work harder as a positive. Most other managers would have kept it private anyway. Obviously it’s not the worst dressing down but I still think it was needless. You said yourself you didn’t see enough to form an opinion and that’s entirely down to the lack of opportunities he had in that half. It wasn’t as if he even had many chances to at least hold the ball up and lay it off.

I dunno that it’s fair to be honest. Lad had zero service and we weren’t pressing at all in the first half so running around and being a pest wouldn’t have done much good on his own. Standard stuff from Ralph though and I expect he was always going to say that whatever his performance. He’d be better off addressing the lack of chances we create for strikers before criticising a lad who hasn’t even had a full week of training with us.

Well that's pre-season out the way. Overall I'm pretty disappointed. I don't like the 3 at the back formation because we don't look any more solid and we certainly don't create any more chances. Appreciate it's only pre-season and it'll probably be better once the games are competitive but there's not been many bright spots for me. New signings have generally been OK but as a team we haven't looked that slick and frequently seem to be struggling to get to grips with the formation. I enjoyed the Monaco game but the rest has been poor fare. Hopefully gets better and I've seen enough pre-seasons to know that they're not fantastic indicators of how a season will go but, at the moment, I'm not exactly buzzing for the new season to start.

Do you know what our budget for wages is?

You don't know what our budget is though. Or do you? Apologies if you're ITK on that. I respect your ability to be really knowledgeable on some pretty obscure players but I think the answer may well have been under your nose all this time.