goodymatt

That older bloke in the City Vlog basically described us as Burnley. Anyone can see we were brave in the way we played, especially first half. It’s not like we parked the bus and scored our only shot on target! Another day both teams score more in that game. That was a performance to be proud of, not a performance to suggest we are an anti-footballing side. Why so bitter?

Can see KWP wanting to move on, but hoping we can keep him as he’s been a great signing. It’s a nice problem to have, but I can’t see it being a problem KWP will put up with. He’s not a LB, what happens if/when Small breaks through or If Perraud develops well. Far too good to be a squad player for Saints!

With this link and the scouting the Aberdeen RB, does this mean Tino might need surgery after all? We are otherwise heavily stocked in this area…

Fabio Carvalho’s scored and assisted in the first half tonight vs Brum.

Do this much noise making it more or less likely do we think? It’s unusual for us to take this approach. Didn’t work out as we wanted with Danny Ings for example.

I’d also be happy with a first refusal to Chelsea like the Tino buyback. If we could get 2-3 seasons out of those two we would be very lucky. Adding some more young talents like McAtee for example would be quite exciting. Still not really sure if we can get Broja to stay beyond this season but if we are trying that’s all we can do. Good vibes about the direction we are heading at the moment.

Zaha and Richarlison irritate me greatly. Both are brilliant players but are so petulant, arrogant and love a dive.

100% this, Puel had to go. His performances elsewhere, especially Leicester also support this. We were clever enough to make the change, but unfortunately believed our own hype in manager recruitment following Adkins/Poch/Koeman. If only we hadn’t got that change so wrong!

I have Albanian friends that have lived in England almost all of their life, but the hatred against Serbia is still full on. I went over to Albania to see them get married, their culture is as patriotic as you can be. Puts us to shame really! Sure their kids are born here now but they all still have family back home and they are all brought up as Albanians, by Albanians that moved here for safety and a better life. When Broja scores we see his eagle celebration every time. Being born in Slough makes no difference at all, any association to Serbia can only worsen our chances of loaning Broja next season IMO. Of course I hope he decides to leave Chelsea and sign for us permanently, but that’s unlikely with or without a Serbian owner.

All sounds like a great fit, like others I’m cautiously optimistic. Hopefully this is our sustainable model with that bit more of a foundation and financial flexibility to make it work for us. I wonder if this is actually more likely to prevent Broja staying on though. One of my close friends is Albanian and he just messaged me “say goodbye to Broja”. I’m sure the association would be seen as unacceptable in his family. The hatred against Serbia is unwavering and for good reason.

As Salisu was a red, does that mean his ban is served in this fixture? Think I read accumulative yellows are competition specific but reds are still for all domestics? Can anyone confirm?

They’ve removed the function to change it unless you sign up to the paid membership. I’d like to change it, but I’m not paying a fiver for the privilege!

Does anyone know how this Covid declaration thing works? I’ve got 3 tickets to Wolves away (should a potential circuit breaker not close the stadium). One of the tickets I purchased with my Dad’s supporter number but he can’t go now and my friend wants to take the ticket. We are all triple jabbed and have Covid passes we can show at the stadium, but I can’t register a declaration against my friends name on the Saints OS as the ticket was purchased against a different supporter number/name. Would that info even make it to wolves on the day or will they just check Covid passes and let him in? Appreciate this is a new process so maybe I’m not the only one wondering how this works and if I need to call saints and make changes? TIA

Jinx!

Absolutely. I did try as soon as Danny jumped ship, but I think you need to be a full member to change avatar these days… Might have to just pay the £5 fine!

I’ve just checked each Villa PL game on Flash Scores. 4 yellows total including today, so not suspended unfortunately.

Any streams for the game tonight?

Tino is an absolute baller. Redmond miss might have been even worse than Djenepo at Newcastle. As if we have 2 miss of the season contenders already… Come on Saints, carry that momentum through into the second half and get the win! Please.

Didn’t work out for him at Fulham despite spending a fair amount. Wouldn’t say Ranieri is nailed on to keep them up. Sadly I’d agree that we are in that lottery group of teams that could go down. Hoping we can still avoid the drop though.

Quite possible. Hoping this isn’t the case and it is just an injury, but there’s usually no smoke without fire and that Sun article (yes, I know it’s The Sun) was concerning and so out of the blue.

Think his contract runs to 2024. Didn’t he sign a new one not long ago? Just checked, he signed a new 3.5 year deal in January 2021. You wonder why he would now suddenly want to leave?

Interesting thread on Ralph’s managerial stats since he joined us.

You make a valid point on changing Ralph out because the results are just not acceptable. I would say the majority of Premier League clubs would come to that decision despite any extenuating circumstances. Hard to argue after 4 wins in 27 league games, but I’ll have a try… I think our decision makers look at it with a pragmatic view. For example that having 8 senior players fit for good chunks of last season won’t present a true representation of Ralph’s ability. I saw a graphic last season that showed when we played games more than 3 days apart our results massively improved. I’d attribute that to reduced chances of injury and the style we play is quite draining (when we do it properly). If we can ‘write off’ the second half of last season due to fixture congestion and injuries having a significant impact, which might be seen as very generous to Ralph, then how have we done so far this season? I think we have shown promise and have only really got 1 result (Wolves) that we can argue with. I think the signs are there that we are capable. The question is how long can we wait. You’re spot on when you say there will come a point in time when a decision must be made. The question is, is that now. We still have more points from the same fixtures we played last season, and the fixture list hasn’t been kind to us for the start of this season. The difference with your work example is you perhaps know this colleague well enough to know it’s just not going to get turned around and I’m not sure if there are as may extenuating circumstances if any to make you think twice about whether replacing them is the right decision? Overall, we’re probably not too many games away from no longer being able to give Ralph the benefit of the doubt. That was written from quite close to the fence!

Ralph is an odd one. It is very unusual to go on a run of results like this (2021 results) and keep your job at this level. 2021 as a year has been a disaster for us. We’ve lost 9-0 twice under Ralph in 2 seasons and had the longest run of defeats in our league history. There are many records you don’t want to have that have arrived during his time here. I’m sure points lost from winning positions is a record too. On the other hand, you can see what he’s trying to do, injuries second half of last season were unbelievable and contributed massively to our form. There is a reason that despite our 2021 form, the fanbase remains split on whether he’s the right guy for the job. Most other managers would be unanimously wanted out by the fans. He’s a likeable guy, when it works it’s brilliant and he fits well with our youth angle and therefore budgetary constraints from an acceptance point of view at least. He’s turned Prowsey into a much better player and improved many others, some have left to play for bigger clubs and others have returned to their previous form like Redders. I agree with @TWar that unless there is an outstanding candidate, a change for change sake is pointless. Personally don’t think Howe is the better manager. I’d love Ralph to turn this around as long term I think he can improve us. Our financial constraints may never give him the tools to prove that though…