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.

I too have lost access to Saintsplayer which is a little frustrating given I was 6 months into a 12 month subscription but it is what it is. I have just signed up for 2 months with Xtreme as above. Looks and feels just like SaintsPlayer to be fair. Assume therefore the football will play the same on this as it did on SaintsPlayer but that's why I have only signed up for 2 months rather than 12 months, just in case it isn't as good. User interface is the same if you use Smarters IPTV app (either on your iOS device or your smart TV. You just need to go into your IPTV and click the switch user in the top right and when you get your new log in details you can create a new user there. The website for Xtreme (as someone has linked above) has a WhatsApp number which you can use to communicate with them. They are very quick to respond. Subs can be purchased via Paypal, card or bank transfer.

Please bring in a #9 before the end of the window then I think we would have got all areas covered and I think it would be a pretty solid window. Can't rely on the Loch ness Drogba this season. He will be a Brucey Bonus if he a) returns to full fitness and b) is able to perform at Prem level given he has in essence jumped from L1 to the Prem. Without the option for a Prem loan now, and without shifting any of the deadwood it's unlikely to be a purchase at this late stage so would leave the prospect of it being a foreign loan or a player who is currently or will shortly be without a club... Can't see it happening but still holding out hope something comes about late on

To be fair, with the seeming lack of alternative options, given a sensible package which protects us against paying him a small fortune to sit on our physio table if/when he gets crocked, I'd take Ings back as that central striker, focal point I think the team needs. I can see him thriving off the kind of through balls Fernandes and Dibling were playing against Cardiff and him and Archer would provide good competition for that role. If we do get Cornet too, he would be a replacement for Edozie who may go out on loan and assuming he can stay injury free, would probably offer a better goal/assist contribution than Edozie too.

Just got a Google news ping on my phone about Saints lining up a 'double swoop' from West Ham in Cornet and Ings... Not seen any recent links to Ings (aside from some posters on here mentioning it) so thought I would share A separate article on Givemesport actually says triple swoop and includes JWP as one of the 3 but we know that's not happening with him seemingly off to Forest.

Never normally ITK but Fraser on a flight from Newcastle to Soton. Mate is on the same flight and just told me. Could be nothing, could be something

Wow, his non pen xG looks pretty terrible for a Striker at 0.24 and that pie chart thing has his goal threat really low too. Chance creation isn't much better and goal efficiency only slightly better too. Still ball retention is pretty decent which will fit in well with our sideways and backwards passing style... Despite what that Saints Brazilian poster has said and his goal scoring stats which to be fair look ok, I'm still not convinced by this signing but I guess we will have to trust in Russ and the scouting team if they genuinely think this is the guy who will hopefully be that focal point up top we so desperately need.

I appreciate we cannot loan from Chelsea and their small country population sized squad but there must be other options from other Prem teams for brink strikers looking to get game time?! Or even similar types of players from big European teams. You'd think there is more chance of a player playing in one of the big European teams perhaps being able to speak English better than someone who has spent the majority of their playing time in South America and there is also the climate too. Moving from South America to the UK would take a bit more acclimatization than say Germany or France. Personally I would take something like that over a loan for someone who seemingly has the ability to earn £250 from You've Been Framed every time he steps on the pitch going by that bloopers reel we have seen of Alberto.

If the advantages of shared scouting lead us to conclude this Brazilian, who their own fans seemingly do not want is the best option in the whole world for what we need right now then I don't think their scouts are up to much cop either

Arma just looks like a little kid playing against men. May be a bit quicker than some but doesn't have what it takes to beat a player and has no chance physically either

I guess it depends on how we are looking to play attacking wise but it seems to me that we will either be set up in a similar fashion to last season where we will be playing two wide forwards (BBD and Arma) with a central attacker (likely to be Archer) or how we initially set up on Saturday with BBD and Arma occupying the two attacking roles with 3 CM's (Downes, Aribo and Smallbone on Saturday) with Suga and KWP playing the wing back roles with a back three. There is a lot of clamour for wingers but I'm not really seeing the dire need perhaps in comparison to that out and out striker we have been begging for (I think Archer may perhaps be more suited to a wide forward role from what I have read). If we play with the two attackers like we seemed to have set up with on Saturday then we don't really play with wingers as Suga and KWP kind of do that side of the attacking and assuming we hold on to KWP then they will be nailed on to start in my opinion (was surprised to see Suga get subbed at half time on Saturday as I felt he was one of the better players for us in that half). I believe Russ switched to a three pronged attack given how dominant we were in the game and he felt it was perhaps a little wasted having (technically) 5 defenders (two of which were wing backs) so opted to bring on Edozie to switch to a more conventional back 4 with the 3 in the middle then the 3 attackers with BBD eventually being replaced and Archer coming on. Archer is a different kind of player to what Che was and for all his flaws at not perhaps being the most prolific, what Che did have was physicality and the ability to hold up the ball. Whether BBD can do that job, I don't know. He is certainly built similar to Che physically, albeit perhaps a little taller. I do still think we are missing that out and out striker though, not one who can play anywhere across the front three. I know that having those types of players does give us a bit of flexibility but I would rather a 'specialist' than a jack of all trades as I think we have those boxes ticked with Arma and BBD who both appear to prefer the wide attack roles than the focal point up top. if we do bring in a winger then if it is a player who is a walk-into-the-first-11 quality player, it will leave a question over where he plays and in what system? It wouldn't work for how we were set up to begin with against Newcastle and if we go with a three pronged attack as we did with Edozie coming on at half time on Saturday then that would mean one of Arma or BBD would not play in that wide attacker role as the winger would surely occupy that, they would have to go central. As referenced above, that central role is neither of their preferred positions as I understand and we all know Arma in a central role just does not work as well as him being out on the wing so I'd personally prefer we focussed our efforts (and funds) on a proper striker who can play as one of the front 2 if that's how we set up (with BBD or Arma taking a bench space) or the main central guy if those two play as the wide attackers. We have Edozie, Sam Amo and Sulemana (hopefully he gets sold as it simply hasn't worked for him here though) who can all play a winger role (Edozie and Sulemena preferred on the left with Sam Amo preferred on the right) on top of BBD (left) and Arma (right) so it's not like we are desperately short of those positions. Archer can even play that wide attacker type role too. I'd even go as far as saying a clear upgrade on Aribo (who, to be fair I think played quite well on Saturday) may be a better use of funds but that could be Fernandes. I guess its the unknown regarding these younger players from abroad that's the problem here and that's where we have to place our trust in Russ and the scouting team. He could be the next Bruno Fernandes or he could be the next Sulemana who looks exciting but fails to deliver and doesn't improve us.