SNSUN

I didn't know Bournemouth were going for Tyler Adams. Fair play to them they're doing some good business this summer. Well over £100m spent and some good players there.

He means to find Downes, not just something you do as a hobby. 😉

What difference would it have made? Not much. We beat Wednesday playing some of the best passing football the Championship has ever seen and he wouldn't have played against Gillingham anyway. Only against Norwich may he have added steel to the midfield by which time this transfer was well underway. This is an amazing deal for us and the reason SR went down the "buy youth for profit" route, but even though it has happened successfully with Tino and now Romeo, I still think it was a risky route to take with our Premier League place on the line. Good luck to Lavia though. He really will be a top player in a few years time.

I remember when poor Emiliano Sala disappeared, the Cardiff fans forum were researching every tiny island south of mainland England in the hope that he'd be found there. Sometimes you just gotta go overboard on the conspiracy theories.

So Downes not looking imminent and Smallbone out for a long time. Edozie may not start if he still has a tight hammy. So possibly a few changes here. Baz, KWP, Bednarek, Stephens, Manning, Charles, Stu, Alcaraz, Tella, AA, Adams? Or Manning into midfield and Perraud at LB is the other thing I can think of, without relying on Doyle. Definitely need a CM brought in sooner rather than later or we'll be resigned to sticking Aribo in there.

Smallbone could be injured for months. Charles is young and untested even at this level. Alcaraz is more suited to attacking positions. We absolutely need Downes and one other. We don't want to destroy the youth pathway but Doyle aside we don't have a lot of kids coming through in CM right now and we have a long, hard season ahead. "Banging them in" is not the phrase I would use. Armstrong has scored 3 goals, one he knew nothing about and 2 were penalties (though decent, it is still a free shot on goal). He works hard but he wouldn't be my first choice (unless he played wide). Che has 2 (admittedly good) goals but I wouldn't expect him to be prolific over the season. We definitely need another striker already IMO, we're just too heavily stocked with crap. If (and probably when) Che goes, and if we can offload Onuachu and/or Mara we'll need two. Ballard as 4th choice should be fine. Line up with Piroe in attack instead of AA and I think he instantly improves us. I quite like AA for work rate but he's currently our modern day Shane Long.

All clubs thank Sheffield United for signing Tom Davies.

Jump up, jump up and get Downes. House of Pain - appropriate name for SMS last season.

Buck? Bruce Buck, so something to do with Chelsea...

Buck? Bruce Buck, so something to do with Chelsea...

We should sign 41 year old former Leeds striker Tresor Kandol. Then I can make the joke "Does Martin have the best hair at Saints? No, but Tresor may." and you can all throw rotten tomatoes at me.

And if not, there's another transfer window in January! 😜

Or maybe Beskitas fabricated the cartilage issue because they suddenly realised what they were getting themselves in to... 🤪 Either way we only really have Bednarek and Stephens with ABK injured (and likely off) and Salisu and DCC have left so until we bring in a new CB then, weirdly, I'm quite happy we still have Lyanco, if only that it means we still have a "specialist" CB in case something happens to Jan or Jack. (Excluding younger players like Awe and Simeu).

Gutted for Will. Any news on Edozie? He went off on Saturday.

Atlanta Primus joins, Linvoy's daughter.

Paragraph 1 - yes he was signed for big money (for a keeper) but just because a player signs for big money doesn't mean we can't decide after a year he's not good enough and look to improve on him. Maguire (as the first example I can think of) cost Utd £80 million but they're not sticking by him and actively looking at selling him. Just because a player signs for big money doesn't mean they're necessarily going to be a success and sticking by a player who makes mistakes or costs us points would be pig-headedness just because we want to see a return on our investment. I'm not saying Baz is a bad Goalkeeper, I just think it would be crazy not to actively keep looking at the market for goalkeepers in case a better option becomes available for the right price. Paragraph 2 - I agree none of the goals on Saturday were his fault and he did make a good block in the second half. However there were a couple of times in the first half he looked dodgy with the ball at his feet... which is supposedly one of his strengths. He also got lucky right at the end of the Wednesday game when the ref blew the whistle just as he mis-controlled the ball. Paragraph 3 - I do agree he's first choice and we will stick by him this season and I do think he will grow in confidence as the year goes on especially if we strengthen the team in front of him. That said this is just a football forum of opinions like this which is the perfect place to air whether our GK should be replaced or not. I wasn't Bazunu's biggest fan last season it has to be said... I genuinely think we would have had a few more points on the board had we a better goalkeeper but it's not all his fault that the club pinned all their GK hopes on a young man that was thrust into Premier League action on the back of a League One season. But I do think he's here to stay this season so he gets my backing and hopefully the Championship will be less pressure for him to shine than the spotlight of the Prem.

This is a good point, and why I would be surprised if we sold Smallbone. Not only has he been one of our best players over 3 matches whilst playing out of position, he's our only first choice academy boy left bar Tella (who we effectively got from Arsenal).

There's a difference between wanting someone around 6'2/6'3 over someone who's 5'9/5'10, it doesn't mean we need someone 6'7 with the turning circle of the globe. We showed we needed height the other day. Lisandro Martinez at United shows you can be a great CB without height, but it isn't necessarily what we need in a team that lacks it. Edwards AND a tall CB as a pairing would be ok.

Ronnie Edwards I know little about but he's a good age for that price. Not the tallest though which was an issue against Norwich. Same with Holgate although I wonder if he's a right back option if KWP goes. If Palace want Alex I'll drive him there but it doesn't mean we wouldn't replace him with a 1st choice. I still think Baz is there to stay. I also think if Martin wants to keep Che he's going to have to start him. He's not going to be happy coming on as the impact sub all season. I reckon there'll be enough interest in Che from the Prem that he'll go, especially in light of his contract situation. Which means hopefully we will get Piroe. I'm not holding my breath with Sulemana, although him, Tella, Edozie, Armstrong x2 and A-A make for excellent wide options. And then there is Djenepo...

I liked JWP, he could pass a ball well and had a decent engine, was very hard working and could hit a free kick up with the best of them. But... - I don’t think Championship Saints will miss him. We have Charles, hopefully Charly and Smallbone, and Downes and possibly Grimes joining them. That should be fine. - His corners weren’t great. - He’s 29 soon, we may have had his best years. He’s not going to cover every blade of grass as he gets older. - He’s going to be compared to Rice, who is the better player. - West Ham is, IMO, not the best move for him but if they're the only club that bid then he didn’t have a choice. I think Moyes is on borrowed time there. Yes they won the European trophy equivalent of the JPT but I’d be extremely surprised if they won anything else soon. I do wish him the best and I hope he gets that free kick record from Beckham. I just think West Ham will be expecting too much from him and he’s not that sort of player, he’s very much the tidy midfielder that goes under the radar a lot of the time.

I’m ok with it, but I’d like a trumpeter to go rogue and start blaring out a jazz version as a solo then finish up with a knee slide.

Then we'd better make sure we get enough points on the board that one wrong decision doesn't affect us. His penalties were confidently dispatched, especially the pressure of the second to get us a point. They weren't bang in the corner though and a keeper going the right way could have got to them... but the power was enough that even if that happened the rebound is possible. I do like a powerful penalty and to be fair to AA he really hit them. The issue with him being our penalty taker though is that he has to be on the pitch to score them. Right now I'm not sure I'd have him up top long term (though perhaps in a wide position maybe and to his credit, that tracking back and tackle he made in the second half was exceptional). I'm a fan of Tella and I hope we keep him but maybe Adams, AA and Edozie would be a good starting attacking trio. My daughter loved it and was wiggling her butt whenever a goal went in. Maybe one for the younger generations.

I think we can be thankful, thus far at least, that none of our better players have refused to play for us. Che, KWP, Charly, JWP, Tella - they’ve all started the season playing despite links away from the club and showed their professionalism. Even Lavia hasn’t spoken out about leaving albeit we’ve not played him. Really only Salisu has come close and that was last season. Leeds have now had Gnoto and Sinisterra act up, and from Farke’s comments some of their younger players are not training well. I like Farke, I do think he’s a decent manager and he does know the Leeds job is going to be a tough one but I do think he’s bitten off more than he can chew.

Dubravka is wasted sitting on Newcastle’s bench. He’d be my choice if we could ever ship out a GK. Baz just doesn’t fill me with confidence with the ball at his feet. He did make a good block today and could do little with the goals AND has an iffy defence in front of him but a good keeper inspires his defence and makes them more confident. I don’t think Baz fits that bill. That said, I think he remains our number 1 all season.

Last season Saints would’ve snapped him up. 😁