Crouchie's Lawyer

I personally think Downs will come good. He can clearly finish looking at his goal in pre season. I know he has missed a couple of 'sitters' but every striker has that in them. He was just unfortunate that two came in quick succession right at the start of his career with us. The first "assist" miss for Stephens goal was a ball which was drilled in so not the easiest and it still went in anyway so I am not bothered about that one. The other one was worse but if you have been watching him, he is making some good runs along the defensive line which have just been ignored. I've seem him do that 3-4 times and been yelling at the TV to play the ball through the defensive line for his run but they never did. Better players behind him who will make that kind of pass could play to his strengths. He made a decent pass to BBDonkey on Tuesday night too which should have been an assist if it arrived to anyone else too. He has only played a handful of games and is in a new team, new system and getting acclimatised to new surroundings. I'll reserve judgement of him until the end of the season but looking at those runs he has been making, I do think he will come good with better service. Yes, I'd love a new number 9 who is a beast and hits the ground running but you either pay an arm and a leg for those and they would normally be in the Prem anyway or you risk it with someone who has done it abroad in the hope they do it here (Tall Paul anyone). I don't see us trying for a new number 9 unless BBD and Arma both go. Even then that would leave us with Archer, Loch Ness Drogba and Downs who could all play there so a fourth could be deemed overkill.

I thought this whole Spertsyan thing had been put to bed as it came out he had signed a new contract with them which his agent wasn't even aware of amongst all of this he's coming/he's not malarky? Didn't that Armenian news guy say he is no longer reporting on it as it is seemingly over where a new contract has been signed? All a bit weird. Wouldn't surprise me if by continually reporting a possible transfer and saying the player is keen to join has been viewed as 'unsettling' their star player and the Russian president didn't like that so has hushed him with threat.?

The stoke attack is what I was hoping Saint would look like this season. Fast, skillfull, direct and strong. we’re still stuck with slow moving build up play

Mads Roerslev been with Brentford for the last 6 years playing 121 times for them between 2019 and 2025. Plays as a right wing back or right winger. Played for Brentford when they got promoted and has played for them at times in the prem too. More recently (last season) been on loan at Wolfsburg in the Bundesliga. Looks like he only made 7 appearances for them last season though. They had an option to buy but did not take this up. 26 years old, made his senior debut for Denmark last November. Signed a 4 year deal, no mention of fee. Looks like he has played on average around 20 times for Brentford over the last few years, mainly due to injuries to their preferred right backs but has seemingly done well enough to be offered contract extensions along the way. I believe they probably deem him surplus to requirements with the players they now have playing there hence the loan to Wolfsburg. Imagine this is an upgrade on Bree/Sugawara which will likely see one of those moved out. My guess would be Sugawara given the earlier post about him possibly being one of those to leave. Stands at 6 foot tall so a fairly decent height although not a beast, certainly not an Arma or Weeman

Saint Lambden has been quite for the last couple of days? 👀 he was pretty confident we had the Armenian transfer wrapped up reading his previous posts. Would be keen to hear what his understanding is on things now it appears to be stalling and other clubs names (Leeds, Porto, Lens etc) have been mentioned as being interested. As it's been said already, I think the club are holding out for a bidding war to get more money. If the player is that respectful of the club whilst he may be happy with Saints terms, he may want the club to get as much for him as they can which will also inevitably end up benefitting him with bigger wages from a bigger team playing on a bigger stage and I'm sure his Agent is whispering in his ear too knowing they will get a bigger cut if a bigger fish comes into play. Sadly this is the way the transfer market works. He may be our #1 option but he could be option #3 or #4 for some bigger teams and if they don't get their top choices, they may turn to him so it benefits both the club and him for things to drag out. Obviously doesn't help us so all we can do is sit and hope that it pans out whilst hopefully working on other options in the background in case he ends up going elsewhere so we can pull the trigger quickly on our back up options.

BBD is truly shite

Anyone know where to look on Saintsplayer for this one?

I'm actually more inclined to want to see Dibling go. Yes, it is great to see academy products make it into the first team but I personally think Fernandes is the better player and if by selling Dibling it increases our chances of holding on to Fernandes then that's what I would prefer. As it has been alluded to, Dibling is pretty much all potential at this stage which may or may not be fulfilled. He doesn't have many years left on his contract either and if we do not sell him now, the fee will only get smaller in a year if he isn't going to sign a new contract. Furthermore, aside from a couple of moments of class, he didn't blow us away with quality last season, especially the second half of the season. I'll await the "yes but he was in a shit team" comments which is a fair point but Fernandes was also in that shit team and put the performances in on a more consistent basis.

I refer you to exhibit A: Charlie Alcaraz loan to Juventus with a £40m odd option to buy clause a couple of years ago

Given how much we have pulled in from the sales of Tall Paul, Sulemana, Edozie & Bednarek plus the loan fee we will get for Ramsdale not to mention the saving on wages getting all those (and KWP) off the books, surely we are in a pretty damn healthy financial position now? It was alleged we weren't really in a bad financial situation before all of these sales and only really needed to reduce the squad size because we had too many players from a coaching and who can be involved in the matchday squad perspective. If this is the case then I would like to propose we don't fuck about with our prized Fernandes asset. Say we won't take less than £60m for him now and if nobody is willing to pay that then he remains with us. Villa did it with Grealish a number of years ago and he stayed and played in the Championship. Vardy (albeit he was older) did it with Leicester a couple of years ago when I'm sure he could have moved to a Prem team for a last hurrah rather than stay in the Championship. Show some balls Saints. if we don't desperately need the money then hold out for a ridiculous fee. If Brighton can buy players for peanuts and regularly sell them for £50m+ a year later then why can't we do it with our star asset? He has 4 years left on his contract and seems like a decent lad. Tell him we will sell him next summer if we don't get promoted or if we do get promoted and his stock rises further, we will sell him for what we deem an acceptable amount then. Liverpool have just paid £80m odd for a player who has just had one decent season in the German league. Prior to that, as a striker he scored 4 goals in 15 appearances in 2023-2024 and 3 goals in 25 in the 2022-2023 season. Hardly pulling up trees on the goalscoring front in previous seasons. Young talent is now being sold for big money. £40m seems a bit meh for someone with as much potential as Fernandes who has proven he can cut it in the top league.

That's my guess. Player thought he would have decent interest from top level teams this summer. Perhaps hasn't materialised as he had hoped. We come along and his gut reaction to us is "nah, I'm fine thanks" thinking he will get better. Better hasn't come along for whatever reason so his agent tells him to come out and say you will now consider the proposal from Saints, as this may mean that teams in the tier between Saints and the top level teams are alerted (the likes of Brentford, West Ham, Everton, Fulham, Brighton etc) if they see you saying you would consider joining Saints in the Championship. Would love it to happen but I'd be very, very surprised if it does.

Fair amount of bed wetting starting to show on here now. Am I happy with the current squad as it stands? No, not overly. I think there are a few key areas we still need to strengthen in and a number of players who I want to see leave. Do I think the squad will change by the time the window SLAMS shut (TM), yes. There will be a few who leave, a few who come in. Would it be better to have the full finalised squad sorted the day preseason starts? Yes, of course but that's not how the world of professional football works. Football is a food chain, the big guys normally eat first and what's left over falls down the food chain to the smaller teams. Christ, it even happens at under 10's girls football. We have a couple of players looking to join the team I help coach but I know they have a couple of other options they are waiting on (academies). If they get into those then they won't sign for us. If they don't get in, they will very likely sign for us. If it happens in non competitive kids football, it certainly happens in professional football where there are millions of pounds being spent and wages being earned etc. It's just how it works. Always been the way since these transfer windows came into effect and will always be the way. Some utterly stupid suggestions on here about just going out and signing the players we need before offloading our players. Yeah, the solution to shrinking our already bloated squad is to sign more players. What happens if we cannot get rid of the players we would ideally like to get rid of? We end up with an even bigger squad which is more difficult to manage not just from a financial sense (extra wages) but also from a coaching perspective having to coach many more players than you'd like. There is also a bigger chance of player unrest in bigger squads too which can cause upset in the dressing room.

Blackmore is loving being able to get away with saying Wanky as much as possible. He is milking it

Player just been bought on in goal for them is called Juan Key. Sums up how we are playing really... pretty Juan Key

I have 2 TV's in my house which I have the IPTV installed on. I don't watch the two at the same time and asked if I would be ok to use a one device subscription if I watch on two TV's but not at the same time. He said that was fine. I had the same with Saints Player (app installed on my phone and two separate TV's in the house). So long as you're not physically watching something on more than one device/TV at the same time then you can get away with a one device subscription. I think you only need a multi device if you are using them at the same time, e.g someone is watching a film in one room and someone else is watching the footy in another room on another device.