goodymatt

Perhaps he also had a sizeable sign on fee or associated bonuses? Otherwise the maths do not add up at all do they?

We do seem to struggle when the player shows they are worth extending - Hojbjerg, Vestergaard and Ings all recent examples. Perhaps slightly different with a younger player but if he’s decent we could be forced to sell in 1-2 years.

3 year contract seems a bit on the short side?

Watching some analysis on Perraud it seems he is an excellent switcher of the ball and can play diagonal passes like Vestergaard. I wonder if having this in his locker would negate losing that ball playing ability that Vestergaard clearly has over Salisu. Playing LB, Perraud isn’t going to always be in the best position to do it though. But the better defensive quality and pace of Salisu will also help with the way we play. He’s also only going to get better and needs games. Also having 2x FBs that can get up the pitch and great chances might mean a CB with more pace and 1v1 ability is more important to us than Vestergaard’s ball playing. He’s so slow and when left exposed we struggle. This time last year nobody expected Vestergaard to be a first choice with Stephens and Bednarek ending the season before last so well. Salisu was signed as the improvement. I think it’s time with 1 year left and a good Euros to cash in here and back Salisu. Don’t think it will hurt us overall.

Perraud is a great signing. I think the fee was really good value. Voted best LB in Ligue 1 and has a lot of hype around his potential. Fast, good crosser, decent shot on him. Aggressive in duels and will suit our high intensity style. His recovery pace looks impressive and he’s going to need it! Adam Armstrong also seems like a good fit. £10m would be silly for a striker that scored 28 times for Blackburn in the Championship! Hopefully we get that one over the line. Will be good competition for Adams. Looks like we will get some cover in for the FBs too. I’m starting to think we know what we’re doing this window. Just need to keep Ingsy and hopefully get him to sign that new deal…

Regarding Bertrand, are we saying he’s not really injured and Ralph’s just binned him off as he’s not signed a new contract?

Exactly this. I also think the absence of a natural overlapping LB gave Redmond less options when trying to go forward and he ended up trying to do it all himself and wasting it. So naturally defaulted to Ralph’s plan to pass and probe centrally. That being said, neither Minamino or Redmond affected the game enough yesterday and thought the changes were about 15 mins late. Prioritising Ings and Armstrong’s minutes was the right decision though with their history of 3 games in a week, so one of Minamino or Redderz was going to play the full 90.

At least he’s on a long term contract. I don’t think JWP is a worry for this summer like Ings and Vest. It would be crazy to lose all 3, that’s the core of our team really. I know when Poch left we did similar but we won’t get the level of money in required to rebuild. We cannot contemplate selling JWP in either of the next 2 windows. Loyalty in football is dead, so can’t expect him to be the next MLT. Would be nice though!

I’d agree with that. Such a shame we are having to rebuild again, likely losing Danny. Vestergaard in the last year of contract too. Going to be a busy summer with a limited budget.

Theo has 9 more league games and hopefully 2 cup games (fingers crossed!) to earn a new contract. He’s not a bad option if the wages demanded are reasonable. No way can he be Ings direct replacement though.

Some coincidence that! I like it.

Yeah does look like the Mirror have made a a big assumption based on Ings favourite place to play being Anfield on a CL night. They won’t be playing CL there next season by the looks of it anyway!

Papers saying he is holding out for a return to Liverpool this morning.

I guess we are managing Djenepo with his injury history. I think he’s a stronger option than Tella. We miss Walcott for sure. Che Adams is in poor form but he loves a goal against Sheffield United. His brute force would be useful against a team like this.

Brighton create a lot more chances than we do, they just can’t finish their dinner. If they had a goal scorer they would be top half comfortably. 25 shots last night, 5 on target. Palace did nothing all game. At half time they were 1-0 up with their only touch in Brighton’s box! Worrying when you lose games that way... For us to be below that Palace team is worrying too. They are so poor, especially without Zaha. Hoping we make tonight’s game in hand count and go back above them. Relegation shouldn’t really be a worry, but would be nice to put it to bed with a win against the league’s favourite team - ‘Dirty Leeds’.

Sky Sports gave Salisu a match rating of 5/10... think that’s pretty harsh! Couple of rusty moments but he looks a player to me. Think it won’t be long before he holds a starting place. I liked what I saw last night.

Our injury worries are looking better, only Theo and Diallo who would potentially be starters unavailable. Alongside long term injuries to Obafemi and Smallbone.

He must have been decent enough during his time in Spain to have a top moments video posted by La Liga last month. Looking forward to finally seeing him play (assuming he actually is starting tonight). Easy to focus on his mysterious absence from the team for half a season, but there was a reason why his signing was met with so much excitement. Here’s hoping he can stay fit going forward and start to show why he’s seen as our future.

This is definitely a case of be careful what you wish for. Although I do agree with those that cite negligence when something like this happens twice, it really is unacceptable. Charlie Austin loves to pipe up at times like these and although he’s a bitter bloke, he makes some valid points - we should have defended that game in a way where we never see such a scoreline again. However, this was different to Leicester - Refs and VAR made this game the record scoreline. Injuries and early red card made the prefect storm. Sounds an easy bias/excuse, but it’s 6-0 with 5 to play (we had also scored a fair goal). We are not seeing 9-0 without the Bednarek decisions. We cannot remove all blame though, we were absolutely shocking. Ultimately, are we likely to find another manager that can deliver the following: 1. 5th highest points PL total in a calendar year (2020). 2. Style of football we actually get behind and enjoy watching. 3. Strong relationship with the fans, Ralph’s emotionally there with us. See Sheffield United and Liverpool at home. 4. Manager with potential. I think we have seen Ralph improve and he has the potential to improve much further. He’s linked with big clubs for a reason. With all that in mind, we would be asking him to resign on the basis of just 2 games of football, when the entire time inbetween he’s been working miracles. I’m fully behind Ralph and hope this summer someone finally invests in us to move that glass ceiling a little higher. To sack Ralph for making this unwanted history would be short sighted and only impact us negatively going forward. Injuries are on their way back and we should see the Saints that have entertained and performed beyond our expectations since Project Restart return.

Another great read Glen 👍

Minamino is an exciting signing for me. He knows the style from Red Bull and has a lot to prove in the PL. Assuming this goes through as reported, I’m looking forward to seeing him play for us. Hoping he can show the form from his CL performances. Elyounoussi did look good against City in the CL too... On the other hand, how can a PL team have literally no cover for either FB position? I accept the view that Valery and Vokins aren’t good enough. However, that does not excuse the mistake to not find alternative cover for either position in the last two windows. Why sign Salisu if there is a greater need elsewhere. Admittedly Vest has found his space jam and the injuries are unfortunate, just a lot of risk here. We may find that our captain - one of our most influential players - spends too many games playing out of position and that could cost him his England place this summer.

Shame there is no option, but there wasn’t with KWP either?

This sounds stupid?

Looks like Romain Perraud signed a new contract to 2025 two days ago? https://www.getfootballnewsfrance.com/2021/romain-perraud-signs-extension-until-2025-with-brest/

I’m still fuming this morning. Incredible combination of crazy decisions for one game: 1. Handball - he’s not been unlucky that it’s just bounced up off his thigh and hit his arm. It’s slightly touched his thigh and not impacted the ball direction. His hand is in a goalkeeper’s position and that’s as stonewall a penalty as you’ll see. If the rules say any touch means it’s not a pen, that opens up some weird situations and you’d hope they slightly amend the rule like they did with the recent City offside vs Villa. 2. Offside given to us on a backwards pass the phase before their goal. This stuff happens all the time. It’s a poor decision but we have plenty of time to defend the next action. Grealish created that goal so well. Would KWP have stopped it? 3. Romeu foul on keeper - does he really foul the keeper? I know the goalkeeper’s union is fairly consistent on these calls but like the Burnley goal disallowed vs Leeds, there isn’t a foul and the whistle shouldn’t be blown. Why isn’t that a goal? VAR should be looking as things like this more closely, as well as actually punishing diving. Both are just accepted currently. 4. Danny Ings equaliser - the ball is blurred in the freeze frame, surely that’s too late? The armband extends his shirt, are all short sleeves even the same length. They should change the rule to see what part of the body you actually score from. His sleeve gave Ings no advantage in scoring this particular goal anyway and we were denied a perfectly good goal. It’s hard not to come across as being bias when there are so many unjust moments in one game. This was a 6 pointer against a team we are directly competing with. We didn’t play to our best and certainly weren’t as clinical as we should be from the chances created. But with our injuries and players playing out of position, we created 20 shots against one of the best defences in the league. The referees cost us potentially 3 goals. We deserved the 3 points without question IMO. With our injuries and United up next, I can’t see how we don’t languish in mid to low-mid table until we can play a strong team. I fear this will be too late to have a late push for a special finish to this season. We are unlikely to see where we could have really finished and with Ings potentially going this summer, the chance may not come again for a while.