Midfield_General

I'll say it again - JWP is on £100k a week at West Ham. Does anyone think we're going to pay that, or think that he'd take a pay cut to come back when he's in the prime of his career at 29? It's not happening, in the same way that Ramsdale's not happening. We're not in the market to pay anyone those sort of wages, regardless of whether there's transfer fee, loan deal or anything else.

On £100k per week at West Ham. Not sure he'd want to take a wage cut just yet (he's 29), even if we wanted him back.

Breaking news: Sports Republic announce the signing of Strasbourg's recruitment and negotiation teams. "With their eye for a player and a red hot deal they'll fit right in", says Ankersen.

True. Especially if the current natural understudy, Charles, is off on loan as it sounds like he might be. Could make sense.

Oh I know, I was just saying that it's a bit harsh to judge that player (Keita) on stats like assists and killer passes when he's a defensive mid who's primary job is to put his foot in and break up attacks. Anyway like you say I suspect that any rumours still going around of Saints being one of the clubs interested in Keita is based on previous interest, and probably isn't actually relevant anymore now we've signed Les.

I’ve got a sinking feeling that Fernandes is being brought in to play in that role higher up the pitch. He looks decent but not the attacking/ all-round creative threat we need. I think the idea is that he threads through-balls for our now more mobile front 2 or 3 to run onto. I don’t think we’re getting the MOR style more tradition creative AM, although I very much hope I’m wrong and we pull a quality loan of that type out of the bag like Luton did with Barkley last year.

He’s a defensive midfielder in the Kalvin Phillips mould. Harsh to judge him on attacking stats.

Mike McGrath from the Telegraph saying we are interested in Ollie Arblaster from Sheff Utd (along with Brentford and Ipswich): https://x.com/mcgrathmike/status/1825466216401580165?s=46&t=yx-nO3PhK9WdSZqAccORKA

Virgin? Doubt it

If anyone at the club thinks that having the keeper who was third choice in the Championship as the starting keeper in the Premier League is a realistic solution for the whole season then quite frankly we deserve to be relegated.

On a personal level I absolutely agree with you and I would love to play the season with KWP in the side, but as others have said I have no idea as to how crucial it is to our other transfer plans to get him out and get a fee for him so we can reinvest before the window closes. It sounded like they were very much expecting him gone at one point, but playing him on Saturday does suggest that we're not going to push him out of the door for purely PSR reasons, Chelsea-with-Gallagher-style, which is great. Bloody love KWP.

It does seem to have gone very quiet with KWP - don't remember any recent links to other clubs since the West Ham chat. I wonder if there's a point at which the new contract offer that we've apparently got on the table starts to look attractive? Feels unlikely though. At best we'd probably get one more half season out of him, then someone comes in with a proper low-ball offer in January, which the club are forced to accept to avoid losing him for zero in the summer.

As far as fairly decent, competent passes go though, that one is one for the ages

I realise that you're joking, but this actually is quite a useful and balanced summary of the benefits of the approach: https://totalfootballanalysis.com/article/tactical-theory-playing-out-from-the-back-tactical-analysis-tactics How Saints apply it as a team, whether we execute it effectively, whether we have the players to do it at this level etc I will leave to be discussed!

It was a light-hearted comment mate - just quite funny that that was Russell's quote in the week and then we lose 1-0 to a goal given away from trying to pass out from our own goal. I fully understand the concept of possession-based football and all the arguments for and against, but thanks for your interest 👍

Because Russ is after the Vincent Kompany route into the Bayern Munich job?

I really hope you're right 🙏

Fair play to Russ, he called that one. I’ll be the first to say it, seeing as it’s cost us our first and only match so far. I hate it. Why are they passing that close to their own goal?

Up to £16m fee, plus wages, for a promising but raw player on a perm in a position we don’t need when we’re apparently low on funds and utterly desperate for a starting keeper, attacking mid and goalscorer. When the price of getting it wrong is the hundreds of millions it’s worth to stay in the PL. Righto. I’d love to think this means we’ve got those other three positions covered and we’re going to unveil them this week, so this lad can be the luxury on top, but somehow I’m not sure that’s the case. Don’t ever change Saints, you bunch of absolute mentalists 🤣

Nice one, cheers 👍 Another simple concept that worked perfectly made worse and more needlessly complex - chalk it up along with handball and offside. Also if you do have to it that way, why not just add another column called ‘blocked’ so it’s clear? Anyway.

Aha - I see - cheers

How does 5 shots on target and 4 shots off target equal 19 shots in total? Where did the other 10 go?

Nope, I don't get it either. As a club we act very, very strangely when it comes to keepers. We never seem to just make the obvious, common sense decision when it comes to that position. It's very odd indeed.

But last season Russ didn't even trust him enough to make him reserve keeper in the Championship. He made him third choice, behind Lumley, so it's pretty obvious he doesn't really rate him. Starting the season with last season's Championship 3rd choice as starting keeper in the PL is quite clearly barmy. Which does actually make me feel positive, because it means we can't possibly see it as the permanent solution, so we absolutely must be looking at bringing in a PL-quality starting keeper. Because even Saints wouldn't be that mental. Would they?