captainchris

One thing is for sure, if we don't bring about three in we will be in deep doo dah......

I didn't ask for an analysis of potential hurdles to jump in signing players - those are obvious and relate to any transfer deal...... I said 'what are we waiting for' !!

Excellent post......Someone who watches the game in detail......Fox is not a premiership player never will be - not in a million years.....It doesn't take a Marinio to work out we have no pace, need at least one new CB and a left back and have done since Christmas. Nothing has been done about it and now we have but a few days to sort this out - if we couldn't manage to sort these issues out in 8 months I really cannot see them being addressed in 5 days! Considering our stated ambitions and evident money to spend this is poor planning. I say someone is at fault for this ............Who ever it is needs carpeting! And before you 'happy clappies' start talking about 'knee jerk reactions' remember, these issues have needed addressing since Christmas or before! What the hell are we waiting for??????????????

Sooooo true..............Complications is now the football world we live in - we need to get used to it.......

God I hope you are right but hell, this is looking dodgy .....

Yes but am I the only one now really beginning to wonder if we are going to be up to speed squad wise by the end of the window......It is well documented on here what we 'need' in terms of position strengthening and by and large there agreement on that. However we have been slow to fill the holes and call it the jitters or what ever you like but we are still short - is anything happening???? Only a very few days left and we have three weaknesses in the team to fill..........I am getting nervous . The main reason for this is our stated ambition to finish about half way or above and not be fighting for our lives this year. We do run the risk at the moment of playing Russian Roulette this season. Perhaps problem solving with transfer negotiations is not our forte. If there are complications we rarely seem able to jump the hurdles - perhaps Davis apart but that was not really a 'complication' just a SFA decision... Anyway, no rumours at all now and time running out - are the club complacent about our needs or just unlucky in transfer dealings...

Back of the net ............

A very factual accurate account...

Dead right - cough !!! Give me a hundred million and even I would look half decent at managing a football team and I could learn to b---**** and suck up like him too in time....

Good post. 'Odd' is true........Considering our new formation, our well known lack of pace, and our well known need for a centre back and also a left back........ The 'we do everything behind closed doors' bla de bla rhetoric seems to mean that nothing is happening and without doubt we have left transfers far too late in the day to integrate them into the team. Why do we always leave our transfer business too late? Why didn't we have our targets known months ago and why haven't we completed those targets as we are so smart at doing business privately. I am really beginning to think that we are quite disorganised in our transfer/targets decisions or business would have been wrapped up weeks ago....

'Only failed because of the chairman at the time' that's a laugh. Were you unfortunate enough to see the complete rubbish we played under Redknapp?? Were you there to see the complete fraud of a pay day he gave his over the hill son who was completely past it? Were you there to watch our relegation that followed his non existent tactics? Were you there when he left our floundering relegated ship for his 'Spiritual Home'. He failed because he was not up to bringing on a team that didn't have 100m to spend and we still don't! The guy is full of flannel and nothing else - old man with old ideas who would not embrace the modern thinking of our current philosophy. He failed because he was not up to it.......

A hell of a lot of Seaborne bashing on here and for little good reason. Is Fonte that good??? No he's not!

Your point about Fox is a good and one and has been glaring ever since he arrived. Fox does not play Lallana in either when he was playing on the left!. My question is why haven't the coaches picked up on this???? Why is Fox consistently allowed to cut inside and pass across field thereby breaking up the attack and cutting out the left hand side. It really is poor that our coaches are not picking up on basics. As for defending the 20 - 25 yard line, well we don't want to go there do we....Come on you coaches lets see if you are up to it - give us some real analysis of the personal performances and your strategies - we keep being told you have the tools however I am not convinced we have the coaches to correct the issues....

I think you are forgetting that we played very ordinary football for the second half of last season and were often outplayed in midfield. This symptom would have been further exposed in the premier league - we had to change it. However we are playing this system of one up front without the energy or commitment to run for your life to support the lone striker when we have the ball. Without this total commitment the new system cannot work.......Of course we also need pace but how committed are we to put the energy into the system, this is my question. Also by now surely we know that playing Rodrigues out of position is not working. We have built a squad with a 442 basis of personnel and now we are playing to a different formation? Our 'standard' team seriously lacks pace as has been mentioned a thousand times yet still nothing happens to address this. If we are going to play a defensive formation we have to break quickly. Cork, Schniderlin, and Davis will never set the world alight and enable to break quickly. Also we will always ship long range goals with these guys sitting in positions that are away from opposition players that can affect the game. Ok Davis is new but the other two are not exactly ball winners - give me Hammond every day protecting the edge of the box - oopps Hammond is not popular on here is he....... To quote the olympic rowing coach - are our team individually as good as they can possibly be ? In this observation I would include the coaching team which continue to allow players to players to play within themselves and our central midfield are prime suspects in this regard which reflects on our coaching staff..... That should wind a few a few up......!

Dreadful - Impossibly difficult to navigate and find anything - shocking actually. I'd like to know who they used to design the site so that I never get anywhere near them......

Not true - silly quote. One of those people who rate a player purely on the transfer value not the quality of the player...

Fox doesn't help lallana either! Fox continually drifts way out of position excluding lallana from the passage of play. It is Fox who is a misfit that presents the biggest problem. The FOx issue will be further exasperated with the different system this year......FOx cannot defend and his positional play is very suspect. Whilst lallana may not be the best defender nor is Fox and it's his job! A new left back is rightly a priority.....

Sorry I know it's not fashionable to say this but I really do thing that Dan is better than Fox. Watch fox stand yards away from opponents wide player while he crosses- he never goes to close him and stop the cross coming in. He also rarely overlaps-cutting inside which often leaves AL removed from the passage of play while Fox dithers around between penalty area and half way line looking to play it inside. I know he has lots of fans on here but I'm not convinced at all and predict he will be a liability in the prem.

I would love to bring him here just for the joy of rubbing their conceited arrogant Saints hating Warnock's nose in it...................A baffoon! Tallent wise though I agree with lots on here that I'm not sure Snodgrass would give us more than we have already - it's pace which we do not have in bucket loads and neither does Snodgrass though he is a good player.

Very harsh on Seabourne who was not as bad as infer. This season he has looked very assured so far and has shown more potential than Fonte to be very fair. Certainly deserves a good run out against Ajax at the very least. Fonte is the one that is worrying me, he looks nervous and edgy too, he finished last season slightly off the pace and has continued similar. Keep thinking it's a blip but not sure about that now.....

Thought Jack did ok though he plays within himself rather a lot which is why at times for Saints he doesn't effect the game as much as he is capable of...

Correct

De Ridder will not be good enough for the Premier League - end of..............He doesn't know the offside rule for a start!

Well I think lets give it a go. I'm not as sure that we did defend corners that well last season. Off course we have a goalie who likes to stay on his line so this does put a lot of pressure on the defenders at corners......Corners are tough for us so yes it could be a good idea.....

To be honest he wasn't a bad little player imo..