The Kraken

Bazunu off, big Willy on. Or maybe not.

Bazunu is putting me on edge.

Bloody hell Lyanco 😆

Chelsea have signed another winger. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/64339737 According to the article that takes their total spending from the summer and this month to £426m. Not far off half a billion pounds in one season. FML.

They gave it to him, that’s all.

MOTM for Nathan Tella 👍

I didn’t see anything smug or self congratulatory from Jones’ press conference, to be honest. Just quite honest. If anything he was fairly quiet and closed, nothing grandiose at all.

I wasn’t a fan of his dive in the first half though.

Yep. The lad looks decent, he’s got a massive air of confidence about him. No wonder he didn’t want to come back. Good luck to him.

Lyanco’s taking the piss there.

He would also be expensive, I’d imagine. He’s still got 18 months left on a contract signed last year with an option to extend for another year. Can’t imagine West Ham have been paying him buttons, The Times reported that his new contract was an increase on his previous £70k a week. He’s also 33 in March. If West Ham would entertain a loan then it might work, but I can’t see Saints going for it otherwise.

Would be a good little collection of Saints and ex Saints: Jack Cork, Nathan Tella, JRod, O’bafemi. Burnley are flying, top by 5 points but more importantly clear of third place by 16. Kompany has done great job so far.

That’s a proper boss appointment la.

It is certainly noticeable how much more forward JWP is being asked to play, and isn’t he just revelling in it. I’m not sure I’ve ever heard JWP described as a “number 10” before but it’s very welcome, as such he’s far and away our best goal threat right now. Often breaking beyond Adams, especially so for his goal but also various other occasions through the match too. Im not sure about the first graphic you’ve used which basically suggests an intention to start with a 3 at the back and Elmo at RWB. The average positions second graphic shows how more advanced Elmo obviously was throughout the game (I assume it’s the same graphic that whoscored.com use for their average player positions, so I assume it’s as accurate as it can be). Lyanco’s inclusion allows Saints a fluid formation throughout the game but if I had to give that starting lineup a particular formation then personally I’d suggest it was a 4 at the back, with Lyanco instructed to hold position much more than KWP on the other flank.

If we’re going nostalgia I can’t go back that far but I’m going to when I was 16/17 and watching Rod Wallace and MLT on the ‘wings’ with Shearer and Rideout up front. Halcyon in 1989/90!

I’m not sure I’ve seen anyone on here outright say “don’t sign Jackson, sign Wood instead”. Maybe some have done it by inference but after an initial scan back through I haven’t seen it. Personally, I’ve not commented on it either way so I have no dog in this fight, but to say Wood is “crap” seems a bit silly to me. The bare stats listed of 5 goals in 39 don’t sound good. But, this season at least, he has only started 4 league games, sub in 14 others and he has 2 goals from 440 league minutes on the pitch. Which by direct comparison is around a goal every 2.5 games, albeit its an extremely small sample size (and tbd one was a penalty). But it’s certainly not a laughable contribution, and definitely not “crap”. Stats aside. What Wood ‘might’ give us is an extra option up top, someone who can bring attacking midfielders into the play a bit better with his hold up abilities. And, at 31 years old, it’s short term thinking but it might be something we can afford and actually get done this season. Che adams is working his balls off in that position and has no direct backup, if we lose him we change our way of playing, and I get this idea that Nathan Jones likes the idea of a strong central lynchpin up top. Before any straw-manning gets underway, I’m not saying Chris Wood is the answer. But he’s not “crap” either though, and it’s worth of some consideration being as he, possibly, could be a striker that we might be able to bring in. If SR don’t want him then fair enough. edit: figures taken from a very quick google. https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/chris-wood/leistungsdaten/spieler/108725 https://footystats.org/players/new-zealand/chris-wood

Nothing wrong with saying JWP (or anyone else) is one of your favourite players. He’s certainly one of my faves from the past few years. It’s a high accolade to say second best ever though. Two of my favourite saints players down the years have been Mark Dennis and Jimmy Case, they’d walk into my favourite Saints XI. Technically, perhaps not in the best Saints XI of my lifetime, but emotion rules logic in this instance.

Pinch of salt required I feel. Its not a quote from Danny Ings, it’s from Alex Crook, and we all know how reliable he is. The quote is: “. I was told he wasn’t particularly keen on joining an Everton or a Wolves.”. Which, even if true, suggests he’d prefer / only want to move for a side higher up in the league. Saints may be a little more a draw than those just due to family, who knows. But I think it was reported that Ings is on around £120k a week wages at Villa, so that’ll be a factor too.

Just looking at Ings’ wiki, Villa only put him on a 3 year contract when they signed him, so he’s got about 18 months of that left.

Funny, I was driving in the car around full time yesterday and they had a bit of a phone in on the radio, a Chelsea twat was on bemoaning how breathtakingly terrible it was to support Chelsea, they have no stability with sacking managers willy nilly and now are apparently are paying the price for that. It had to be pointed out to him how successful they had been previously but I don’t think it got through, he was just so hard done by.

Lavia certainly seems to be being eased back in, which is encouraging to see. Against both Man City and Everton he was taken off just following the 60 minute mark. Sensible, we really can’t afford him breaking down again.

https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11095/12520895/transfer-news-fifa-announces-radical-new-loan-plans-that-will-limit-clubs-to-six-loan-exits-per-season I hadn’t heard about this, good news, as you say Chelsea and other sides having 50 players loaned out was a bit ridiculous.

Kind of looks like Everton had a plan to drop a defender onto the line but he didn’t make it back quickly enough.

Not sure what Pickford was doing giving him all of that side of the goal, but it was an excellent strike from JWP.