Rebel

Songs have come and gone. I like the newer slow version of 'Oh when the Saints go marching in' but I miss the old faster repeated version that would go on and on and on. We very rarely sing that now. Other chants like 'Oh Wei! Oh Wei! Oh Wei! We are the Saints! We are the Saints' seem to have completely disappeared (maybe not a bad thing in this case).

I am sure people were singing 'Saints are on fire! And your defence is terrified!'

An assumption 🙂

Personally I wouldn't take back any of the players on loan - they didn't want to be here when it mattered. We should cash in on them now and put the money raised back in to the squad. And that includes ABK, Perraud and Alcaraz. Hopefully getting promoted back to the premier league means we will get a bit more money for them all now though. And I think its time to let Adams, McCarthy and Stuart Armstrong move on. I'd also sell Mara and Sulemana back to France. We need to try and keep the core of the team together - and build on it. But we need to keep one eye on having a team capable of getting promoted again if the worst happens next season. We'd obviously lose players like Bednarek and KWP next summer if that happened. For the same reason we should make full use of the loans we are allowed - is it still 5 in the premier league? - to make sure we don't get ourselves in a financial mess if that happens. Fraser on loan for the season again makes sense to me - but I am not sure I'd spend a lot of money on a permanent transfer. Downes is a must for the defensive midfield role - but we need to strengthen here whatever happens. Maybe we should go for Ampadu and play him in his best position at CDM. Maybe will go in for Hjulmand again. A key signing for us will be a new number one to replace Bazunu - Kelleher or Ramsdale on loan possibly. What about Matt Targett on loan to fill the hole at left back? And he would add some passion, experience and leadership. Ben Johnson on a free at right back perhaps? But will KWP stay? If Spurs or another club offer £35M do we cash in? Or do we sell James Bree and upgrade? We will also need to add another CM or two to replace Stuart Armstrong and add a bit more depth - we've been linked with O'Riley at Celtic before so that one is a possible. But we probably need 2. The key signing above everything else will be centre forward - and we probably need 2 to compete with Ross Stewart and replace Adams. If we our going to get the best out of Adarma he needs to play as a second striker or wide forward. Bojan Mioviski has been linked so he seems likely - but who else? We also need 2 centre backs to add to Stephens, Bednarek and THB. Nathan Woods from Swansea has been linked a couple of time and I could see this one happening. I've seen Rodon suggested but I am not sure about that one. Maybe a signing from Europe we've never heard off. And then we come to AMs or wingers/wide forwards. We need a couple of these. Jack Clarke from Sunderland or Whittaker from Plymouth perhaps. Bereton-Diaz on loan? Reiss Nelson? It was always going to be a summer of change again - but now it will be a much more exciting one! I do think it makes sense to sign the best players from the Championship - I think they have more chance of making it in the premier league than players from other leagues outside of the big 5 leagues.

I read that as 'mad f*cker Jonson' for a second! Worth signing just for the song potential?

I think maybe Bednarek, KWP, and Adarma only having a year left on their contracts will make a difference - the buying clubs can afford to buy them out of the last year of their contracts or we will be able to find the money to pay them off as part of any sale we might be stuck with Aribo and his £70K a week I had hoped they all had relegation clauses cutting their wages by 30% or more which would have made them easier to sell - but it doesn't sound like they did. They should be mandatory in all footballers contracts!

he got sacked by Valencia in his first year and by Estudiantes after 2 years, and then was at Independiente for less than a year before he moved to Alaves - and then was only there a year before moving to Saints. Not exactly a great track record. Pochettino was a gamble - but it worked. I think Pellegrino was a bad appointment - and not really based on any great decision making or analysis - or indeed the black box. I think it was more Les Reed thinking how clever he was finding another Pochettino. Can't help thinking they used to the same method to replace Van Dijk with Wesley Hoedt (a 6ft 4 left footed Dutch centre back - he will be great just like Virgil!)

For me its a bit like the situation we found ourselves in with Claude Puel - we either need to sack him or back him. With Puel we failed to back him and then decided to sack him late in the summer replacing him with a last minute panic decision in Mauricio Pellegrino - so be careful what you wish for. I still think Les Reed went for Pellegrino as he looked and sounded a bit like Pochettino. Only he was far from that and his track record was terrible. I believe in playing out from the back as opposed to lumping it forward - but I get frustrated that we do it all the time, with short passes to the centre backs or pinch passes to the CDM, particularly when the opposition have figured it out and are pressing the back line waiting for the mistake. At times it looks like suicidal football. But we still seem to have holes in the squad - we have missed a centre forward all season, as well as cover at left back, centre back, CDM and in central midfield. How many times have we needed to close a game out by putting on a ball winning box-to-box midfielder but we just don't have one? I'd stick with Martin - but tell him he needs a plan B as well as be a bit more pragmatic about how we play. But also they need to give him the players to play his way - but also have a plan B. If we don't go up a lot of players will leave - those on loan but also players like KWP, Aribo, Bednarek and Adarma - partly though cost cutting and the need to raise money but also partly because they want to play at a higher level

If we don't make it back up I think there will be a few more players leaving than people think. McCarthy, Adams and Stuart Armstrong will all be out of contract - and I think will be leaving whether we go up or stay down. Adams will probably end up back in the Midlands at Wolves. And it sounds like Stu will head to the warmer weather of Italy. Fraser, Downes, TBH, Brooks and Rothwell are all on loan and will be heading back to their parent clubs. I can see Fraser coming back on loan whichever division we are in next season as it seems he wants to live on the South Coast more than anything else. I would love us to sign Downes and TBH permanently - but I can't see us getting either of them if we don't go up. I don't think we will miss Rothwell or Brooks that much. KWP will be gone - to a bigger club in the premier league - hopefully for a good fee - whether we go up or not. Bednarek won't stay for another season in the Championship - probably end up in Italy or Germany at a top flight club. And I am not sure we could afford his wages if we don't go up anyway. Similarly if the rumours are true and Aribo really is on £70K a week we will need to sell him if we don't get promoted - and he won't want another season in the Championship either. And Adam Armstrong will have just a year left on his contact so I think he is another one that will push to leave for a low end premier league club. It looks like Sulemana and Mara don't really want to be here and I think they will head back to France this summer no matter which division we are in next season - and good riddance to both of them to some extent. Same with Alcaraz. And I don't think he or any other of the senior players who have been out on loan will want to come back (Tall Pall, Lyanco, Perraud or ABK) Bazunu is out injured for most of next season - so I think Lumley will sign for another year if he hasn't done so already. So that leaves us with: Lumley? Bree Stephens ? Manning Smallbone Charles ? Edozie Stewart Fraser? and the young players like SAA, Meghoma, Ballard, Abu, Dibling, Lawrence, etc Doesn't look great does it. Looks more like a side that will be fighting a relegation battle or lower mid table than one mounting a promotion challenge. We are going to need to make much better use of the 5 loans than we have done this season - and be much better at recruitment than we have been in the last couple of years. But the clubs coming down don't look to be in good shape so maybe with 5 good loan signings and 5 or 6 good permanent signings we could be in with a fighting chance nest season.

But he has no end product - no final pass or shot. He's got pace and some tricky feet - but no awareness or game intelligence -and his positioning is terrible. And I get the impression he doesn't really want to learn those things - or out the work in to get better. He seems to think he is the best there is already. How we managed to pay the best part of £25M for a player who only played 34 games and scored 5 goals across 2 season with Stade Rennais in the French Ligue 1 is beyond me. They are terrible stats. We paid more than double what he was worth. For potential I guess - but based on what!? 42 games and 2 goals - and maybe one or two assists - for Saints. I just hope we can get more than £10M back for him when we sell him in the summer - whether we go up or stay in the Championship we need better players than Sulemana. Even if we paid £5M for him it would still have been a waste of money.

I also think Shea Charles will come good - he is young and has some good moments and some bad moments but that is the inconsistency you expect in young players on a game to game basis. But he is a 'unit' and he shows a lot of potential. I'd play him in a double pivot for now or as an 8 rather than a loan 6 until he has more first team, experience but I think in time he will turn out to be a great player for Saints. With Wilcox I don't think its a great loss - he has done some bad and some good things. He made some great sales over the summer - but we failed to replace Tella, bring in the centre forward we needed or the second left back to provide cover and competition. Signing Sulemana and Ross Stewart and loaning out Alcaraz all look like big mistakes though. And I think we need to keep Martin whether we go up or down - we need some managerial stability so we can build on the team we've got rather than have to do a rebuild again.

I think Adam Armstrong will be gone with only one year left on his contract at the end of the season whether we go up or stay in the Championship. And I think Fraser will want to stay with us on loan for the last year of his contract whichever division we are in.

I found it a bit embarrassing last night - losing to what was effectively Liverpool's B team / youth team. We played well in patches at the start of the game and really should have scored 2 or 3 goals - but we didn't. But that doesn't excuse the way we basically capitulated to a bunch of teenagers at the end of the game. Mara, Edozie, Charles and Sulemana all seem to lack the edge you need to succeed in top class football - whether it was aggression on or off the ball, having pace and and knowing when to use it, or the killer instinct in front of goal. They all seemed to lack the desire needed to really win a game. Surely it was the opportunity they have all been wanting and needing to go and perform and show how good they were against a bunch of kids slightly younger than them- and really impose themselves on the game. Charles was great one minute - winning the ball or turning his man and making a great pass - but the next it didn't look like he could arsed to close down a player or he gave the ball away with a hospital pass. Hopefully he will come good. As for Sulemana - I just don't understand why we paid £25M for him - he just has no end product and it doesn't look like he ever will. But as a team we have got to stop trying to play it out from the back every time - its so predictable - and more often than not we play ourselves into trouble - or put more pressure on ourselves than we can cope with and end up collapsing just like we did last night. I am all for passing football over just hoofing it forward but we need to find a balance. We used to play out from the back under Adkins and Pochettino - but we were never as one dimensional about it as we are now. The fullbacks used to go wide, the centre backs would split and one of the CMs would drop deep to receive the ball. This gave the keeper 3 or 4 options for the pass out. The difference being the player that got the ball would aim to carry it or pass it forward - not pass it back to the keeper or across the box or into the corner - and we weren't afraid to use the full backs to get the ball down the pitch or pass it long. But we were normally stating the play 20 or 30 yards further forward - not in our own box or on top of the keeper. Mind you we had Lambert up front who was more than capable of dropping deep and wide to receive a long ball and then turning and playing it forwards or carrying it from there. It made a massive difference for us. We are desperate for a centre forward or striker to lead the line - and do the same kind of thing, as well as score goals. We really should have bought one in January.

Both Edozie and Mara showed a lack of desire last night. To be honest at times they were both plain lazy. There were several times that neither could be bothered to make the run - or drop deep in to space to receive the ball. But KWP was not innocent last night - his defensive positioning was terrible - and on more than one occasion he couldn't be bothered to track back when Hull were on the counter attack.

Hull certainly had the right plan and tactics to beat us last night. But Martin should have seen that coming and started with a different team and set-up. I was expecting a hard game against Hull, just like the West Brom game and was expecting the same team or at least the same set up as that game. Similarly we should have had a proper plan B in place if plan A was to play out from the back with the 'pinch pass'. Plan B seemed to be to kick it long to Mara or one of the wingers and hope for the best. But when that didn't work - and it obviously wasn't going to - we should have had a plan C. It could have been as simple as moving the full backs out wide and using them to carry the ball forward to get out from the back. Ignoring the lack of a plan B or C, it was big mistake to play two attacking full backs in KWP and Manning - neither of whom are good enough defensively - against a team as good or as attacking as Hull who had just come from a 4-0 win. This mistake was made even worse by playing Smallbone as the sole defensive midfielder which meant the defence was not getting any real protection. If we had started the game with Stephens at left back and Charles and Smallbone as a 2 in defensive midfield and Adams up front - effectively playing 3-2-4-1 we probably would have won. That's ignoring the fact the players didn't run enough or fight hard enough for the ball last night to earn the right to play pretty football.

What are you going on about Lancashire for? Huddersfield is in West Yorkshire - or in old money the West Riding of Yorkshire. In the borough of Kirklees (which sounds like it should be in Scotland). Policed by West Yorkshire's finest! Its also the home of Rugby League which was founded at a meeting in the Royal Hotel next to Huddersfield train station. And the Town Hall is quite special when you get inside. Its also home of the famous Huddersfield Choral Society. Its also where Last of the Summer Wine was filmed - in the outlying village of Holmfirth and occasionally in the town itself. And Patrick Steward aka Jean Luc Picard from Star Trek hails from Huddersfield. I studied there in the 90s and although the University was good and the student scene was fun the town was a pretty grim place overall. It really was a beneficiary of Thatcher's legacy. Some of the villages in the surrounding area were very nice though. When Huddersfield Polytechnic became a new university the students union proposed they call it the First University College of Kirklees. It took a while for the 'management' to realise this was a joke! I think Huddersfield has consistently been voted one of the worst places to live in the country - which is pretty bad for a place that in the 1920's was one of the wealthiest places in England and had one of the most successful football teams of the period. But it now has a violent crime and major drug problem. This was an interesting read and watch for me - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/extra/595fH2sGQh/How_did_my_hometown_become_a_violent_crime_hotspot - I recognised many of the places.

I'd give the transfer window a B. We are still short at left back and centre back. But more than anything I'd have liked a centre forward. It looks like we are relying on Bree to provide cover for right and left back as well as centre back alongside Charles. I guess Meghoma could provide cover at left back but it still feels a little bit short to me. Keeping KWP was probably the most important thing. And adding Brooks to cover the gap at right wing was brilliant. Although I am not sure where he fits as Adarma is better when playing there. But I don't want to end up having to play Adarma at centre forward. He is so much better as a wide forward. Relying on Adams and Mara up front does worry me a bit. But hopefully now that Adams knows he is staying he will find his scoring boots a bit more often.

The only problem with that is we are getting the best out of Adam Armstrong as a wide forward playing off the right - with KWP providing the width and attacking threat as a very attacking full back/wingback. I think/hope we are looking for cover at right wing because if KWP gets injured and Bree or Holgate step in a right back we lose some of that attacking momentum down the right and probably need to play a more out and out winger than Armstrong in this situations. I hope its not so that we can move Armstrong to centre forward. Personally I think we need a centre forward more than anything with Stewart out injured - and that's even if we don't sell Adams. Adams and Armstrong are both second strikers - all be it very different types. Both player better off a centre forward. Mara is probably better as a second striker/wide forward as well in this league. So I'd like to see us take a gamble on Mioviski from Aberdeen.

I'd like to see us go after Josh Doig at left back as real competition for Manning - but with Manning, Larios, Meghoma and Vokins all on the roster I don't see us signing anyone there. Plus Bree and KWP can both play there. Vokins will be out of contract in the summer, and Larios won't be back for a while and Meghoma is probably too young for now so maybe we will see some movement in the summer. Unless we send Vokins out on loan for the rest of the season and bring someone in now.

I'd completely forgotten about ABK - but given his temperament last season I would sell him this summer whatever league we were in.

I think Brooks would be a good signing on loan for the rest of this season in the Championship. I wouldn't take the risk on a permanent transfer as he may never get back to where he was. But surely it makes sense to both clubs and the player as a 6 month loan. He will get more playing time with us - and get properly match fit - and a chance to get back to where he was. And if he does I expect Bournemouth will welcome him back in to the fold next season. And we get to fill a hole in the sqaud without having to commit to a permanent signing.

on loan for another season - yes - and them maybe a free transfer after that - maybe. As a permanent transfer on a 2 or 3 year contract - no. Same with Holgate.

with Ross Stewart out injured until the summer it seems (and no guarantee he will ever fully recover) don't we need another striker anyway - whether we sell Che Adams or not. Che Adams, Adam Armstrong and Seko Mara are all better as second strikers or wide forwards - what we really need is a centre forward which is what Ross Stewart was supposed to be if we have the money I'd be making a move for Bojan Mioviski from Aberdeen knowing that Adams will be off in the summer anyway leaving us with 4 strikers for next season

the Caleta-Car deal was definitely that way - and reading between the lines from the media reports at the time the Perraud deal with Nice was similar. But maybe I am just imagining that. On transfermarkt it says they have an option to buy. I don't think Perraud will come back to Saints as he will only have a year left on his contract in the summer. I think he will move to another club somewhere in Europe if its not Nice. He was a committed player and good going forward with the ball he wasn't the best defensively. Chances are with Meghoma, Larios, Vokins and Manning all on the books we won't buy another left back until we shift some of these. Vokins is out of contract in the summer and its doesn't look like we see Larios on the pitch anytime soon. Bith Larios and Vokins are a bit on the small side for the defensive side of being a left back.

I thought the Perraud loan deal to Nice was really a permanent deal - just a loan for now to help them out of an FFP hole - and it will be made permanent in the summer.