Saint Charlie

The #saintsfc tag on Twitter has a high concentration of mung beans than this forum. There are a couple in particular who are genetically modified mungs.

Perhaps both could be about to return? Waigo as part of a deal to reunite him with his playing partner Osvaldo and Hammond because he will be back for the start of pre season before being sold/loaned out. Would be good to see both feature in at least one friendly so they can rekindle their friendship.

Is Astori actually *that* good? Besides, Glasgow_Saint said its not Astori. Cheers for the PM Glasgow...the intrigue rumbles on!

Think that is true - sure he will still leave though, but wouldn't be via the retained list.

Seem to remember it was quite late last season. As you say, I would imagine a large number will be released, not really anyone who is out of contract who would be a must keep. Will be interesting to see where someone like Ben Reeves ends up.

He was awful.

Oh from a business perspective Im sure its massive I was meaning from an appreciation of the game.

America is a pointless country where football is concerned.

He couldn't. He is a very good finisher but his all round game is nowhere near Rodriguez for example. Austin is the kind of striker where if he isnt scoring he doesn't offer much else, similar to Sharp in that sense.

Cheers, decent source i.e do you believe it to be genuine info? Seems plausible.

It was. He said the whole Adkins scenario was weird.

Jay Rod seems to divide opinion - been rated between 5 (too low) and 8 (too high).

Can't believe there are a few rating K. Davis as a 6 which basically means he has done ok. He has been poor. Unquestionably.

I think Clyne has been consistently better than Shaw and Fonte better than Jos who has certainly been a big weakness and has to get a below average score. See my above post re Gazza, but would say when you think of age, experience etc that Hooiveld has lowered his reputation this season more than Gazzaniga has.

Only just based upon the fact that IMO Gazza wasn't signed to be in the team. He is a rookie keeper and IMO did pretty much what would be expected for someone at that stage in their career. He wasn't poor so much as clearly not ready for the first team, and had KD not been so awful then he wouldnt have been near it. Davis IMO has been worse than Gazza when you consider the relative stages of their career and what you could have hoped from them.

Boruc wasn't fit enough for professional football when he joined, which is something he could have done something about IMO. Took him too long to get up to speed for him to be worthy of an 8 for me, but I get what you mean. If Lambert had a few less goals I could also probably agree but 15 league goals speaks for itself.

He did indeed.

Lambert 7 and Boruc 8 as a reflection of the whole season? Not for me.

I wasn't sure with Davis. He is a tidy player, but playing in the hole as he has, I don't seem him as a massive threat to other teams. Ramirez has more goals (5 to Davis' 2) and assists (4 to Davis' 2) and so I think its fair they get the same score. Davis also was out the side for a lot of the season, and to give him a 7.5 like you say, I would expect a little more. A 7 on the second half of the season yes, but not overall for me. Ramirez has not been as good as we hoped this season but still scored 5 league goals in 20 starts - I think a 6 is fair, he was superb in a handful of games, whilst also poor in others.

Now the season has finished, how do we feel our players did? My ratings are based up performance across the season as whole and I have decided not to cop out by selecting .5 scores... My ratings below assuming the following: 1- Utterly, utterly terrible 2- Awful performance over the season 3- Extremely poor performance 4- Poor – not a good season 5- Below what was needed/expected 6- Average, did ok, nothing more 7- Decent season, more good than bad 8- Very good performance, can be proud 9- Absolutely superb season 10- Bale 1. Kelvin Davis – Poor season. Poor start and rightly replaced, just not up to this level. Distribution is terrible – its like he thinks too slowly of what to do and ends up making the wrong choice. 4 2. Nathaniel Clyne – Has got better as the season went on, and our most consistent defender by far. Very good first season in the Prem. Attacking especially has become a good feature of our play as a whole. Did make some costly slips at the start but no wideman has dominated him in the second half of the season. 8 3. Maya Yoshida – Another good signing who did well considering he was thrown into a team lacking any real defensive shape or confidence. Got better as the season went on, and was an ever present until he picked up a knock. 7 4. Morgan Schneiderlin – Not much to add than hasn’t already been said. Top class midfield operator and contributed some vital goals. Seems to lead the team too. 9 5. Jos Hooiveld – Top bloke and always committed but just isn’t good enough, too clumsy as a defender and not great with the ball at his defeat. Has made some costly errors (although did improve initially under MP). To be honest I feel he is lucky with his career background to have had a chance to play in the PL and with some of the good players we have as he is far from their level. 5 6. Jose Fonte – Up and down season, at times looks very good and others looks poor. Would imagine both he and Hooiveld will find first team football a lot harder next season. 6 7. Rickie Lambert – Great first season as he showed everyone else what we already knew: he could score goals at this level. Some great strikes and his link up play at times has been superb. Would certainly benefit from us being able to rest him – was the only man to be involved in all 38 league games and already a Saints legend Joint top English scorer with Lampard. 8 8. Steven Davis – After 5 games we wondered why we had signed him, but since Cork came back in and Davis moved further up the pitch he has been decent, pretty much coinciding with Pochettino’s arrival. Neat and tidy on the ball but doesn’t show enough goal threat or creativity to be sure of a first team place in that position. 6 9. Jay Rodriguez – Season of two halves. First half he was struggling, out of position and getting used to a step up in class. Second half, again since MP came in, he has looked excellent. Seems to have found a yard extra pace and some performances have been top drawer (Chelsea & Liverpool home and Reading away especially). Big season next year, needs to kick on. 7 10. Gaston Ramirez – Huge expectation and superb performance at home to Villa probably only added to that. Clearly very talented but found the physical/fitness side tough and hasn’t been consistently what we hoped. Has all the key attributes though so hope to see more after a full pre season. 6 11. Billy Sharp – N/A 12. Paulo Gazzaniga – Tough ask to come into a PL side with such little experience (poor management somewhere along the line). Great kicking, and very athletic but just too raw which isn’t his fault. Couldn’t really have expected much more from him, hope he can develop on loan somewhere next year. 6 13. Danny Fox – He isn’t a defender, and has made a career because he has a very, very tidy left foot and can cross and deliver set pieces very well. Defensively though he has been exposed in nearly every game he has played and is out of his depth at this level. 3 14. Dean Hammond – N/A 15. Vegard Forren N/A 16. James Ward-Prowse – For a 17 year old with no real pro experience to deliver the performance he did on the opening day was brilliant and he has had other good moments. Clearly will be a decent player, just didn’t have the strength to be a regular in the holding role instead of either Cork or Morgan. Can be well pleased with his year. 7 18. Jack Cork – Made a massive difference when he returned from injury. Somehow wins an obscenely high amount of his 50/50 duels and uses the ball well too. Our best features are the attacking full backs and central midfield pair and he is a big part of this. Never likely to score or directly create, but does his job very well and is super consistent. 8 19. Tadanari Lee- N/A 20. Adam Lallana – Overall he will be a little disappointed. Had some great moments, and does have so much ability on the ball but too often the end product isn’t there. He really misses that extra yard of pace to get away from a defender, and his finishing has regressed the last few years it seems. Unfairly targeted on here IMO, but we know, and he knows, that he can do better. 6 21. Guly Do Prado – Did ok when he played on the whole, but for an attacking player just doesn't provide enough and never looks likely to get a goal. 5 22. Frazer Richardson – N/A 23. Luke Shaw – Very, very good first season as a pro and clearly destined for the top. Superb 1v1 defender and then added to his attacking game once he got comfortable. The only downside (and one which will improve with age) is that he picks up so many knocks, viruses and colds which has meant Fox was required more than would have been ideal. 8 24. Emmanuel Mayuka – Hard to say. Has looked bright enough if the limited times he has been on the pitch but equally hasn’t looked outstanding. Going away to the ACON pretty much ruined his season as he was away when MP came in and struggled to get a look-in after that. 5 31. Artur Boruc – Very good second half of the season after a nightmare start when he had let himself go and wasn't fully fit meaning we had to take him back out the side leading to the Gazza episode and then some more ‘Komical Kelv’. Once he came back into the team he has been excellent, very good 1v1 stopper and quick throws also good. Bit of a character which helps because our team can seem quiet. Pen save at Norwich a big moment. 7 33. Steve De Ridder – Simple: wasn’t good enough last season so never was going to be this time. Only got brief appearances but the fact he did shows the depth wasn’t there. Was also poor in a loan spell at Bolton. Harsh to rate him because of such few apps but he did come off the bench a fair few times around Christmas/New Year. 4 42. Jason Puncheon – Will be disappointed not to have got more games of late as has been probably the most consistent of the wide midfielders and has scored some good and vital goals. Really turned his time at Saints around so fair play to him. 7 Summary 3: Fox 4: K. Davis, De Ridder 5: Hooiveld, Guly, Mayuka 6: Fonte, S. Davis, Ramirez, Gazzaniga, Lallana 7: Yoshida, Rodriguez, JWP, Boruc, Puncheon 8: Clyne, Lambert, Cork, Shaw 9: Schneiderlin

I think we would have won yesterday with him playing, were crying out for a bit more flair and vision at times. Really hope he stays (pretty likely he will), he could be a big player for us next season.

Davis' kicking is utterly woeful and lead in part to their goal. Wouldnt be suprised if another keeper comes in this summer.

Agree - his attacking game especially has really improved in the second half of the season.

Excellent again today, one of our most consistent players this season. Should have had at least one assist to for the Davis chance.

This.