hypochondriac

Well that was about as shite as I expected when I saw the lineup. Yes it's a friendly but I'm not exactly approaching next week with anticipation.

How do we know he doesn't want to replace Baz? Agree about Stephens though I'd much rather he wasn't playing but he obviously wants experience. Frazer playing we don't really have much of an alternative other than Robinson with Sulemana gone and Edozie going.

Nah that was pilchards wasn't it? Minty had the avatar of the bloke from Eastenders.

I don't think it's the manager. It's the players that concern me.

I didn't mention the front line, I think that's probably alright. What is your definition of bed wetting? Because expressing some concern about the lineup just before the season starts is entirely reasonable criticism. Bazunu was statistically the worst keeper in the league the last time he had a season. If Fernandes and Dibling are still here then they should be playing.

What's bed wetting about pointing out that that is a very uninspiring and poor lineup a week out from the season starting? Ramsdale gone, Fernandes seemingly off, Dibling not playing, no Aribo, youth player in cm, Ryan Fraser suddenly in the starting 11, downgrades in defence in the shape of Bree, Stephens continuing at CB, the bench stacked full of youth players. Yes we will bring in reinforcements but that's not going to help us next week and probably for a good few games which makes starting the season well that much harder.

I agree. This appears to be the team starting the season though and that is just awful. Poor will still.

Bizarre that anyone has us 2nd favourite for promotion.

It's a fucking shite team. Not sure why you think we won't sign anyone.

Fuck me that's far worse than I thought.

That's the case for Burnley, Leeds, Sunderland, Sheffield United, Ipswich and Leicester.

If we start against Wrexham with Fernandes, Charles and Downes then I'll be confident for that game at least even if we are unlikely to see it again.

So from that can we assume saints starting 11 will be Bazunu Bree Quarshie Stephens Manning Downes/smallbone Charles Armstrong BBD Fernandes/Fraser Downs/Archer

I don't think we should be signing prem ready players I bthe championship. I'd like to see us try to keep hold of a couple if we get relegated.

Their shoddily written bill is responsible for over moderation.

The only positive of selling these good players is that we will clearly get a lot of money for them. I agree with you, it's bizarre that someone would think we wouldn't.

Completely different climate to 2011. That's almost impossible to do now.

Quality of squad had loads to do with it. We played Manning and Smallbone in the prem ffs.

I'm not sure that's true at all. Arguably we did that last time and it meant the quality of the squad was much too low and we finished bottom by miles.

Once all these players leave how many of our players would we be confident could do it a job for us in the prem? THB maybe if he stays and possibly Downes and Robinson in a squad. I don't think anyone else can which is a pretty depressing state of affairs.

I'd love ugochukwu back in this league.

Interesting to see how they get on. Lots of championship experience there. We seem to be going for gems from abroad in the belief that they represent better value. Ipswich spent last summer buying the best of the championship and on the face of it have a team stacked with championship all stars. We have some players remaining with decent championship records but a bit of a question mark over some of them given recent form. I wonder how these different approaches will work out?

Well we seemingly aren't going down the road of keeping any of our premier league players so there aren't many other roads to go down. We will utilise the loan market and possibly not bother buying those loans if we get promoted.

I am though starting to think that staying up after gaining promotion is an almost insurmountable task. Short of hitting on a goldmine of world ie youth players after promotion, there's just too much to do in one summer to get the squad to the required standard. Selling all of our prem quality players just means they will all need replacing again next year if we get promoted alongside trying to raise the overall quality of the squad. I'm not sure it's possible to do even with the world's best scouting etc.

I'm not concerned about selling all the players- that's not overly surprising. I am concerned at the possibility of doing this all before next week and how that's going to badly impact our start to the season. No doubt we will replace these players it's just how that's going to impact our start to the season and subsequently the rest of the year.