Midfield_General

Hopefully Archer is the Mara replacement (i.e. 4th choice) and there's a big finish to the transfer window coming as we unveil a new CF on deadline day...

Quite right, we should all follow your lead and show the utmost respect to all our players at all times. Not like this guy:

Love that the second highlight on that video, literally the second best thing he did that season, is slicing it high and wide and out for what looks like a throw-in 🤣

Is this how Monaco felt when we signed Carillo?

Dan Nlundulu. Michael Obafemi. Sam Gallagher. Steve Basham. Paul Moody. Frankie Bennett. Sekou Mara.

Over £10m for Mara - who saw that coming? Not cut out for English football, good to draw a line under it and get a very decent fee.

Unfortunately, I'm not sure that's how footballers (or their agents) think

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 🙏