Midfield_General

If we ended up having to keep Bednarek because no-one else wanted him then he'd be absolutely fine at Championship level. We'd just need to offset it by shipping out Jack Steph... ah. Oh dear.

Not sure Dublin-born ROI internationals are all that popular down Ibrox way, unfortunately.

But where is he on holiday? At the breakfast buffet does he favour the omelette station or the full English? In the pool has he opted to bob around on the big Homer Simpson doughnut or the inflatable unicorn? WE MUST BE TOLD This news blackout is a disgrace. Personally I blame the media team and Jordan Sibley. Or Eric Black.

I think ‘must start’ is a little premature. He’s played 45 minutes against a national league side and looked competent against a very limited attack who hardly got into our half and didn’t have a single shot in that time. He’s clearly quick but his passing wasn’t perfect. Let’s not get carried away.

Friendly result: Rangers 1-1 Barnsley. Goal conceded by having the entire team pushed up beyond the half way line and then the CB losing possession. One pass into the wide open spaces, striker ran clean through, goal. 10 days until their first CL qualifier. Four pre-season games played, yet to win one.

Not sure. Probably Downes?

FT. 2-1 Saints. Only really saw the second half. Summary: - Kit looks alright if you don't mind the plain white back - Basically just a training game generally played at about 50% pace with not a lot of intensity, as you’d expect - Set up as a 4-3-3 - Dominated second half - Robinson MOM. Looked dangerous every time he got the ball – running at people and beating them. Lovely pass for the second goal. Linked up well with Welington down the left - Dibling playing in the 10 role floating about. Was quiet, didn’t really stamp his authority on it. Didn't look as effective as he has done when he plays on the right - Dibling and Welington taking corners - Matsuki put himself about and showed for the ball. Should have scored but put it too close to the keeper - Edozie got into some decent positions but didn’t do a lot with it. Should have scored, but missed the ball completely. Got free later but misplaced his pass - Archer looked a bit awkward. Touch was generally quite poor, nothing really stuck to him. Took his goal well enough though when put through - Didn’t learn much defensively. Bazunu could have got a deckchair out. Not a single shot to deal with. Quarshie got in one foot race and looked strong enough and very quick Nothing else of any note really. Standard first pre-season kickabout. Not sure it was the wisest £5 I've ever spent but I was bored.

2-1 Saints. Archer. Lovely little dinked pass from Robinson, he’s been excellent so far.

Robinson’s playing a bit wider and further up than Fernandes usually does. Playing as part of the forward line rather than the midfield.

Nice from Robinson, falls to Edozie completely unmarked six yards out, does a total air shot and misses it completely

Decent by Edozie, Suga hits the post

Edozie and Robinson either side of Archer as the front three second half, with Dibling behind. Decent bit of skill and shot from Robinson, draws a save from the keeper.

HT. 1-1.

Armstrong scores. 1-1.

Penalty being delayed due to a medical emergency in the crowd

Penalty saints

Not sure if they'd go for him, as an Irishman?

I've missed something - how come Ramsdale and Fernandes are late back? What international duty is there?

Oh dear

If we are, as rumoured, offering him £100k per week to stay, then I'm also not convinced a move to a club like Sunderland would actually be all that appealing to Ramsdale. Are they going to pay him much more than that, for a deal which would mean uprooting his family again to go to literally the other end of country, just to get smashed every week for the second season running and almost certainly relegated yet again, to put a fourth relegation on his CV? Would that really help his financial situation, his England chances or his quality of life enough to make it worthwhile? I'm not sure it would. If a half-decent southern team came in for him then obviously it's a different story, but I think there's a reasonable chance he might turn the likes of Sunderland down, unless they offered him really, really silly money.

Hilarious. While the players still turned up for pre-season on time despite not having been paid, he didn’t and hasn’t been there for three weeks while he’s been trying to get another job. Now the last one’s going to someone else he goes back with his tail between his legs. Obviously the situation over there is carnage, but he really has shown himself in a terrible light by the selfish way he’s behaved throughout. Even if he does well in future I think a lot of clubs will have serious question marks over his character.

Yeah. Let’s stop calling him a ‘servant’ shall we.

This is all fine as a measure of success if you just view the club as a business that exists to make as much money as it can from trading assets e.g. players. If however you view Saints as a football club that should exist to, ooh I don't know, win games of football, the analysis of the 'success' of those signings is a bit different: Obviously improved the team and became established first-team regulars: Lavia, Livramento, Fernandes, THB Given lots of first-team opportunities but ultimately were judged not to be up to it for whatever reason (ability, attitude, injury or some combination of those) and ended up dropped, frozen out, loaned out or sold: Mara, Sulemana, SAA, Charles (last season), Edozie, Meghoma, ABK, Larios, Bazunu Jury's out, could still go either way: Charles (this season), Edwards, Wood, Quarshie, Downs In summary - in pure volume terms this 'strategy' has resulted in us accumulating way more players who were below the required standard on the pitch, than ones who were good enough. And herein lies the root issue - in recent years we've been run way too much as a business that primarily focuses on whether we can buy players that will increase in value in some way, rather than whether they are actually what we need on the pitch to win games of football. Hence we've gone from being an established Premier League club who regularly punched above it's weight, to a yo-yo* club unequipped to compete at the top level even if we do find ourselves there. And speaking personally as a supporter, if you can see that the club is basically being run to make profit rather than win games, it does sometimes make you question what the point of it all is, unless you're the type who really, really gets off on a Balance Sheet rather than celebrating a win. It will be interesting to see by the end of the window whether it feels like there's been a marked shift. Not many signs yet, but there's still plenty of time. (* miss you Dalek)

Meh. Let's hope for the best, I guess.

You don't have your captain as 3rd or 4th choice