vectraman

Downes pass is it up in the air to Norwich. WTF was that?!

Got a smack in the face against Stoke.

I thought Palace were lacking squad depth - had two sub goalies on the bench on Saturday! Logic says they wouldn’t want to let him go, but not in Saturday’s squad, so that to me says they will let him go. Which also says that they aren’t really that bothered about losing him. Another signing who probably won’t be good enough if we go up. So probably won’t be able to shift him on as he’s on a 4 year deal, another member of the deadwood squad. * Cynical old me I know. Possible he can improve I guess but alarm bells for me that Sheff Utd didn’t want him…

Bazunu £12 million. McCarthy ~£70k a week minus relegation penalty. (40%?) Stoke - Johannson signed for £1 million. What pisses fans off is paying ridiculous amounts of money for a ‘project’ and then pig headedly sticking with him because they can’t admit they got it wrong. He is worth ~£1 million as a mid table championship keeper. We have blown 12 times that on him, and no doubt we will spunk a new contract on him to ‘protect’ our investment. That is what annoys supporters. Literally wasting money. For 3 years or so the criticism of SR is the same - don’t buy projects, buy first team starters. This is why our squad is too big, it’s full of failed ‘aren’t we clever projects’ who nobody wants. Buy quality, buy it once. We were shopping in Aldi, for a Marks and Spencer’s party last season. Now it seems we are looking at going to the Salvation Army soup kitchens for a Tesco’s party this year. They don’t want to do the right thing, they want to continue being clever. We can all see that.

💰💰💰💰💰 normally is the answer. We could comfortably pay him more than Stoke. Moot point though because we aren’t going to try and sign him anyway. Baz is our 🥇and that has always been the intention.

Hopefully one of the other interested teams sign him rather than us. Unwanted by Palace, Sheffield United didn’t want to buy him after his loan spell, and quite frankly we already have Sam Edozie who has a similar record and would cost us nothing. No thanks. That would be an underwhelming signing with a capital U.

I’d definitely suggest a certain goalkeeper too - Ramsdale?! Most definitely a starter!

Having sat at St Mary’s and watched today’s match, here is my take on it… As many have said Adam Armstrong is not a 9. Please stop trying to play him there. If Stewart and Downs are our ‘proper’ 9s why are we not playing them there from the start? Why bother signing Downs if he isn’t good enough to start. My major gripe with SR is signing ‘ones for the future’ . If they aren’t first team starters just don’t bother signing them Our squad is full of average championship players, that we now can’t get rid of. Why oh why couldn’t you just sign Josh Sargent as a proper 9 and done with it? Cameron Archer - did he even touch the ball today? Having said that, Downs was constantly asking for a ball over the top to run onto. Never ever did we try it. He wants space to run into, Christ sake play the ball through/over the top to him quickly. Our midfield was so slow and unadventurous. Our horrible CB to MF to CB to MF crab football was back. Stoke were sat back, 10/11 behind the ball, having a cigar whilst we pissed about doing the square root of fuck all most of the game. Only Robinson would risk taking anybody on 1:1 Not once in the entire game did our full backs take a man on to get past him. 2-1 down and it was back to Russell Martin pass ball. WTF is going on? Hopefully Will Still will read them the riot act and get some home truths into them. Turgid, slow, careless passing, pointless (literally) football. Boy do we need a couple of pacy tricky wingers in the side. Ditch the wanky back 5 and start playing fast progressive football. Stoke were masters of the dark arts, and we did not a thing about it. Their 2nd goal (a proper fast break (Saints take note)) should have seen Capt Jack haul him down and take a yellow. But no, they score. Amateur time again. QUESTION - why do we piss about with these stupid goal kicks which achieve nothing, take an eternity to get going enabling the opposition to all get back behind the ball. Where keeper and 2 defenders are all in our 6 yard box. Drives me insane watching the slow robotic play. You’ve got some quality Saints, but by fuck are you not showing it. For Sports Republic - buy quality or just don’t bother please.

🤞🤞Armstrong scores and proves all us doubters wrong.

Ahhh you looked at the highlights video. You need the lowlights video for the compare/contrast 😉 Be great if every player had a shit moments video too - really would be more telling and accurate than the selected highlights!

MOM - I’d agree that Robinson and Fraser were decent, for me though Charles and Downes were our best pair, Charles shades it for me 🏅

There’s still time for that….🫣

Downes keeps on making crap fouls when he doesn’t need to. Quarshie constantly poorly positioned. Used all our luck up with the shot off the post back to Bazunu.

Well played Saints. Great cross, lovely header Jay Robinson. 😀

‘Best fans in the world’ turn out not to be so again. Entitled Scouse twats.

Be careful - we had a shot first half that I thought had gone in the goal but hit the back of the net from behind…you don’t want that, or do you…😉😁😁

Wow - what an end to our first match. St Mary’s really was rocking - fab feeling to get a late win when quite honestly I’d have taken a point at 1-0 down in the 90th minute… Said to my lad - “that’s why you should never leave a game early..”. He gets that now! My take on it - We still are terrible at the back. So badly organised - how many free headers did Wrexham get? Why can we not man mark at set pieces? Will Still needs to sort this out urgently. We are also so clumsy - Wrexham could easily have had a second pen when Stephen’s had his hand on their players shoulder and he went down. Baz was excellent - game winning save late on - fair play to him - carried on his pre season form - long may it continue 🤞. Armstrong and Fraser up front was a terrible idea - balls over the top with their dwarfen status was never ever going to work. Absolutely must have a target in the box (Stewart or Downs) if we are getting crosses in. Gives us an option we certainly lacked until changes made later in second half. Young Robinson was energising, always willing to take a run at them and take them on. Good to see, coaches need to work on first time shots with him - seemed to always take an extra touch when a first time shot would have been the better option. Great prospect, exciting to see him start. Clear that fitness has improved! Wrexham were knackered last 10 and we looked energised. Great to see that improvement over last season where we were always looked more unfit than every opponent. Fraser and Armstrong worked hard, on another day Arma could have had a couple of goals - some lucky/inspired defending saved Wrexham a few times. (Coady looked decent for them - the sort of experienced and decent CB who can organise and help younger players). Shea Charles won that game for us!! how - his fab block tackle on Kiefer Moore which saw him go off. We couldn’t deal with him at all - should have just man marked him with Quarshie - who at least could outpace him if he got beaten in the air. Edwards was lost against him - always tugging his shirt and giving away cheap fouls. Obvious to me that it was a mismatch. Thank you Saints for making football great again yesterday!! 😀😀😀

As Everton have signed Dewsbury-hall from Chelsea for ~£24 million that may not now happen I’m guessing?

As he is not signing a new contract, if no ‘big six or euro giants’ are interested, what then? Personally I don’t believe he has shown enough for a big move, and is no way worth £35 million with his performances so far. But it’s not my money, and if Everton or whoever think he is worth that then show us your money. Football has become a disheartening sport, money is all anyone ever talks about now. Never about results/aims/fans. Look at posts on this forum. Posters on about resale value, rarely about making the first team stronger. Any signings we make should be first team starters, not ‘prospects’ we have a squad full of failed ‘ones for the future’, ‘unpolished gems’ and all that nonsense talk. I would like to have thought Sports Republic will have learnt their lessons last season - If a signing isn’t improving the first team, don’t bother signing them. I don’t know when football fans outlooks changed, but in the late ‘80s when I started watching Saints, resale value etc etc was not a thing, it was just is he any good, better than what we had?! I don’t care if a player is young/older - is he any good? Is he better than what we have in the first 11. Sooner we look at quality rather than resale value the better. I want to watch Saints win games, not care about future values/wages/depreciation/XG or the other shit Fans seem to now worry about stuff as though they own the team. Rant over, I must just be getting old and cynical with a sport that now seems to be about ££££ rather than kicking a ⚽️ into a goal.

Bad back from picking the ball out of the net?

You really are his agent or brother to be so one way aligned 😡 He was part of the 2nd worst premier league team ever, conceding 80+ goals. He is one of the reasons our defence is so shite. He is mid championship level ability wise for a reason. Concentration/ability. Prem players consistently put in 7/10 games. Jack is a 5/10 player on average in the top flight. He is one of the reasons we aren’t good enough. Yep he can put in a 7/10 every few games. He has no consistency which is why he will never be good enough for the prem league. Say what you want, wearing saints on his sleeve is admirable, but not enough if you are rank average at best. We should be aiming higher, and I am disappointed that is our apparent ambition level. I ❤️ saints and would give 100% if I played for them. But I’m shit. Jack is mid championship level standard and we have given rank average a 3 year deal. That is noddy thinking. Sorry, you big him up all you like, he’s a champ average standard player, and if our aim is prem this season it is a 100% shit signing. Literally no one else would sign him. Must be a free mason thing…

Yes, and as a player in his last year of contract I was rather hoping that as we are trying to reduce squad size and move the dead wood on, that he would either leave for peanuts to a lower championship side, or play this coming season and we aren’t renewing his contract. Easy. KWP wouldn’t sign a new deal but he has been a fantastic servant and will find himself a new club and tidy signing on fee, because he is going to be wanted. Stephens was/is unlikely to be wanted by anyone, so why the hell give him a 3 year deal. He is absolutely the type of player that we should have let go. IMHO of course.

I genuinely (although foolishly) thought Jack and Will Smallbone are both out of contract in a years time, they’d stay this season, help get us promoted as the championship is their level, and we would say thanks, go find yourself new clubs next summer. But no. We give Jack a 3 year contract. WTAF are they doing? He is not good enough in the top flight. So we are stuck with him for another 3 years. Genuinely you couldn’t make it up. I am at a loss to see how the club management see this as the way forward. 🤡’s.

Mario Lemina hands down the winner. Potentially decent player, total tool as a human being.. Arrogant, easy to not like, infuriating that he had talent, but could not be arsed to bother trying to use it. Total and utter prick.

Wrexham of league 1 last season vs saints probably unchanged pretty much of the Prem and people talk as if it’s Real Madrid we are playing. 😡. We play well and we will beat them, end of. What a bunch of melts some of you are ☹️. We should be good enough to be top 3 no problem.