SNSUN

Where's Dalek? I'd take his usual prediction right now! 😁

I was excited for the season this morning. Now I can see it is going to be a long season. Sack off this 3 at the back nonsense (we don't have the CBs!) and go back to 4-2-2-2. At least we'd offer more in attack than trying to go defensive against one of the best attacks in the Premier League.

Cash Out. I doubt that'll be the end of the scoring!

Well this is going exactly how most of us thought it would then. I said it at the end of last season and I'll say it now. RALPH NEEDS TO GO.

1 goal away from a draw! It can be done...

Not done our "points lost when going ahead" stat any favours so far...

Please keep the score down Saints.

Come on Saints! Stuck at work while all my mates are getting pissed at a garden party so anything to make today better would be great. Apart from being 1-0 up, have we actually played well or have Spurs not started well?

I'd be surprised. Zaha, Eze, Olise, Edouard, Mateta, Ayew - their attack is strong and their defence isn't bad. I think they lack a bit in midfield and they go a bit "gung ho" at times but I can't see them anywhere other than mid-table. This Arsenal team will do better than last season's Arsenal for sure and they don't even have Smith Rowe tonight. It's been a good game. I'm quite looking forward to tomorrow now.

Cheick Doucoure has looked decent on his first Palace appearance tonight.

It depends how they spend the money as to how well Brighton will do - they have £90 million odd from sales and Potter must be rubbing his hands together. They've brought in Colwill which is a start but bar a striker nobody has ever heard of, they've not done anything in the window yet and of course the season has now started.

If he's even half the player Jeremy Pied was, we're in good hands.

Edouard was clinical as hell for Celtic. Not really clicked at Palace yet. Mind you even Moi looked good at Celtic so...

I've only heard of one other person called Pol...

And a decent, specialist right back, or one that they can trust. They have Cedric, Bellerin and Tomiyasu on the books - Tomiyasu is injured (and is more of a versatile CB), Cedric is crap and they want to get rid of Bellerin. Partay's future is still potentially uncertain so I agree on the CM and striker depth but overall Arsenal are probably heading in the right direction with the transfers they've made. I'm glad to see Saliba hasn't been sent back out on loan too, we were linked with him before he signed for Arsenal and I've been wanting to see what we missed out on.

Poor old Leicester. No signings, bigger clubs want their players, Vardy knocking on a bit, Kasper gone, Barnes out for weeks, Perreira out for months and even Bertrand is still injured. Oh, and they still have Jannik. I mean, not a good time to be a Leicester fan. Maybe we can put in a bid for Dewsbury-Hall, to wind them up a bit.😈 I have no grudge against Leicester but am reminded of this comment... "They don't have to sell. they have a choice, maybe their objectives have changed. They were looking to be a Champions League club, I believe."

I started writing this post saying that Aribo is the only one that improves his position, because our AMs bar Stu were largely average. Aribo and Stu make for a decent AM and hopefully we can strengthen that further. Then I wrote about Bazunu, and realised that he probably does strengthen GK because even though we lost Fraser, he was never really first choice over Alex Mac when Alex was fit. Bazunu will at least compete for the GK spot with Alex (which may raise Alex's game) and maybe even make it his own if he performs well consistently. Then I wrote about Lavia. Did we need to strenghen CM? Well with JWP, Romeu and Diallo we had 3 good to reasonable options there, but I did say last season we really need a proper DM to come in, someone Wanyama-esque. Since we don't know that Lavia brings anything similar to that, he is highly rated and is regarded as a DM so I guess we can say we've strengthened that niche position. Then I stopped writing the previous post, as I realised I was trying to make myself pick fault with our signings when they're all seemingly quite smart acquisitions... at least positionally. Yes there's the unknown element of them and questions over their age, but I think we could have had a much worse transfer window. Even ABK was getting good reviews at Bochum it seems and could help plug our leaky defence. Where we are weaker is in attack, without Broja and even Long, although we've brought in Mara he's still a complete unknown. Yes we will strengthen here but the season starts and we're looking at losing Adams and playing AArmstrong, or even Aribo up front which weakens the AM position. We are also weak at wing back/full back without Tino for a while yet and Perraud only just back from a broken leg. I really hope Djenepo doesn't get eaten alive tomorrow. Still, there are a few more weeks to bring in players (and ship some out) and I think we'll do that OK. What we don't want is clubs coming in late and trying to prise the likes of JWP and KWP off us, disrupting everything. As the season starts then I have to say we're still not ready (hence why we may be playing Valery, Djenepo and Moi and not using a recognised striker) BUT we've at least given ourselves a fighting chance longer term by bringing new players in. I think we'll have a rocky first month or two but find our groove as the new players settle in. Then there's the WC that stops things for six weeks - I predict we'll come out of that flying like we did post-lockdown in 2020. I'm apprehensive about the season, we are one of the weaker teams in the league on paper and I think we'll be in, or mentioned in the same breath as, a relegation battle until later in the season, when I think we may start to pull away as the youngsters improve and gel.

I personally think the team will be McCarthy ABK Bednarek Salisu KWP JWP Romeu Djenepo SA Aribo Adams It’s not what I’d choose but I think it’s what Ralph will go with. Either way despite predicting a Saints defeat I am excited for the new season. I can’t wait to see what our squad will look like come September.

Jizz? No way! Does he love to get in the face of the opposition?

Overpriced then. I feel better for that.

I already think we’ll be part of the relegation battling 6 or 7 teams, selling those two even with replacements brought in and I’d seriously question our club’s sanity. New players need time to settle etc and we’d be selling two of our best players. KWP is our only RB bar Valery (fit, and we don’t know if Tino will be the same player yet) and a better LB than Perraud and probably a better wing back than everyone so he’s basically irreplaceable, so unless the money is right I can’t see it happening. Adams I like, hard working, good passer, just needs more goals, isn’t irreplaceable but leaves us with Sekou and Armstrong which isn’t comforting. However until it happens I’m not losing sleep. I do have confidence the club seems to know what they’re doing right now and I hope the building continues.

This sentence filled me with dread.

Exactly. Not to mention he's first choice here and wouldn't be at Chelsea.

I do know Leicester aren't after a first or second choice (Ward/Iversen, Iversen a potential Kasper replacement for the Dennark team) but I can't see Alex going there to be third choice when he's fighting it out to be first choice here. Unless Ward or Iversen start the season badly and they panic buy. But Foxes fans must be pissed to (apparently) not be bringing in a first choice replacement.

Nice one Leicester, always good for a laugh. I'd arrange a taxi for him but he'd probably miss it.