WALK DMC

Is there any concrete (or even flimsy) sign that he is going to sign another contract ? Unlike Ings & Bertrand, I've seen no rumours of an extension. I think that I am right in saying that in 6 weeks time (1st Jan) he can start negotiating with foreign clubs as his contract is running down. Maybe he has plans to return to Spain ? I'm sure that a mid-table La Liga team would snap him up and present him with a big contract on the basis that he is effectively free and brings years of Premier league experience. I know that we have a great team spirit at the moment, but sometimes players in the latter part of their careers plan for one last big move. Until I see something more material, I remain suspicious that he will depart in the summer. I have an uneasy feeling about Bertrand, and also Bednarek (only 1 year left in summer). I suspect that Ings, as a local boy and with the team doing so well will take the plunge and sign an extension, but I noticed that even in Ralph's interview last week he hinted that agents could influence the situation in a negative way. I've no idea what is going on behind the scenes, so hopefully I am completely wrong, but each month that goes by our bargaining position with these players reduces (although of course, the longer we stay top 6, the more attractive we are as well 🙂 ).

Wolves have only scored 8 goals all season which only the exceptionally poor bottom 4 have done worse than. They sold their 2nd Top scorer (Jota) and their equal 3rd top scorer (Doherty) from 2019-20 and apparently Jimenez hasn't been in great form this season. This isn't to under estimate them; they are a solid team with good players, but if we can nick a goal they may struggle to score.

One of my favourite Friday night victories was the 16th March 1984 against Liverpool where Danny Wallace scored a wonderful overhead kick and outjumped Hansen for the 2nd. Not sure why it was a Friday game, I don't think it was very common day for footy in those days. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MKxUbtKvqA

Instinctively I'd rather keep a winning team and not make any changes, although I agree that Armstrong wasn't his normal self on Sunday. However, Matt Target is almost certain to be the Villa left back and while a strong crosser of the ball he certainly lacked pace, something that Walcott could exploit. Alternatively, Grealish will be playing down our right, so we'll need to give KWP some cover, which Armstrong is better at than Walcott. It will be interesting to see who Ralph goes with .....

Yes, it's difficult to tell from Youtube, but he certainly doesn't look Bednarek or Vestergaard slow which would definitely be an upgrade. Plus like you say, having two physically imposing centre halves will be interesting to see - hopefully it will work well against certain teams. I'm also looking forward to seeing Diallo in midfield, for the past 3-4 years we seem to have had a series of one paced (and Romeu's one pace is extremely slow) midfielders. Again, difficult to fully judge from Youtube, but he certainly looks nippier than our current stock and may help some of our recent difficulties, particularly at home of being caught on the break. I can dream.

I noticed that Boufal started for Angers at the weekend, although he was substituted after an hour. In the summary of the game it mentioned that Angers "lost possession often"; it all sounds too familiar.......

How about Danny Ings ? 😀

On the whole I'm pretty happy with the transfer window although much will depend on the performances of Salisu and Diallo. However, it could be a VERY difficult summer next year, if we continue to base our outgoings on our incomings. As a worst case scenario: Neither Bertrand or Romeu extend their contracts and leave. This means that we have to find replacements without generating any income from their sales Lemina, Elyounoussi & Hoedt return after failed loans and indicate that they want to stay with Saints for the remainder of their contracts so that they can "fight for their place in the team". Bednarek, Vestergaard & Stephens all enter the last year of their contracts and inform us that they won't sign extensions. We decide to sell 2 of them to generate income to replace them and Bertrand/Romeu. The sales are well below market price due to being in the last year of their contracts. Vokins & Valery prove conclusively that they don't have premiership potential when filling in for KWP/Bertrand this season Diallo struggles with the pace of the EPL. Salisu proves a good buy but is unsettled by a derisory bid from Tottenham of £1.5m. He goes on strike and demands a transfer. Shane Long & Frazer Forster indicate that they are happy to extend their contracts for another 3 years .......... Obviously we all hope that a new owner is in place by then and will support additional investment, but there is no certainty. While the above is a little tongue in cheek in places, it isn't completely unfeasible and does indicate some of the big issues stored up for next summer. It may still be another 2 years before we really have totally recovered from the mis management of the previous regime. PS I didn't want to make the worst case scenario to tempt fate by adding a line about our star striker doing his ACL in the last game of this season .....

I understand your disappointment, but it isn't a fair comparison. Lallana signed for a 3 year contract at Brighton and I suspect on more than the £50k per week that we will pay for Walcott. If Walcott doesn't work out in the next 34 games then we can buy someone else in the summer; at least we're not going to be stuck with him like we have with the other failures. It's not exciting, but it is low risk.

From The Guardian: 9) Slick Højbjerg looks a good fit for Spurs It was largely forgotten among the late controversy but Pierre-Emile Højbjerg was integral to Tottenham’s near-total control against Newcastle. The midfielder’s £15m arrival from Southampton last month did not especially stir the senses but he has settled in quickly and forged a promisingly balanced partnership with Harry Winks. Højbjerg adds stability but he can deliver a ball too, an outstanding first-half cross that should have created an opener for Harry Kane being only one example. Last season Spurs struggled to move possession on quickly enough but Højbjerg has added urgency and drive so far in 2020-21. Yesterday his own poor luck mirrored that of Spurs, given he was very harshly penalised for the free-kick that began the chain of events for Newcastle’s leveller. The early signs are promising though and Højbjerg, billed as such an exciting talent when a youngster at Bayern Munich, looks well equipped to thrive among the stars at last."

Even if it is only London, on a free, there are other clubs such as Palace who could be interested and even the bigger clubs might consider Bertrand to be a safe bet squad player if they got him for nothing. I'd also be really surprised if Romeu wouldn't have a host of Spanish mid/lower table sides chasing him - he isn't 30 yet and has years of premiership experience. Both Bertrand & Romeu's lack of contract extension is beginning to remind me of the Hojbjerg debacle.

Despite some of the negative reactions, your point makes perfect sense to me. As well as Ings, we also have Bednarek and Armstrong in the same position of contract finishing in 2 years. That could mean three players that we'll want to sell next summer if we want to generate any income. I personally suspect that due to their ages, both Armstrong and Ings will sign extensions - but nothing is certain. I'm even more worried that neither Bertrand & Romeu have signed extensions, this means that both may leave for nothing next summer. On the basis that our current business model remains - we only spend what we bring in, how do we replace two first team regular when we get nothing for them ? While next summer seems a long way off, I think that they can start negotiating with foreign teams from 1st Jan, and for someone like Romeu I suspect that would be very attractive. Maybe we'll be under new owners by then, but unless they want to make significant investments the slow decline of our first team squad of premiership experienced players will continue.

Great info - thanks for producing this ... In summary Sangare and Diallo are both genuine defensive midfielders while Veerman is more creative but limited physically and defensively. As they are complementary it would be nice to think that we could buy both Diallo and Veerman. (I know, I'll wake up from that dream in a minute). Thanks again - very interesting.

I agree. I also feel that people don't always appreciate what he does off the ball with his runs and covering. I really feel we miss this aspect of his game, particularly away from home. Sure, it isn't going to feature on a highlights reel on Youtube but it really does improve our team play. Djenepo tried to play that role against Burnley and had to sacrifice his creativity and adventure, when Redmond is on song he can marry together both defensive discipline and cover with some good attacking play.

Thanks for taking the time to explain your rationale. I'm in agreement with much of what you have written and think it is a decent summary. I recognise others have different opinions on this - rating goalies isn't an exact science, but your arguments make sense to me, although I don't see any simple solution to the problem.

One player that I'm surprised that we haven't been linked with is Lerma from Bournemouth. His first season in the Premiership was very successful although his performances seemed to drop last season. He has premiership experience, is a defensive midfielder, plays the high press and is probably available due to their relegation. I cannot see any rumours linking him to any other team in the last week. Maybe Bournemouth are asking too much, hence the absence of clear suitors, but in the absence of anyone else he would be the type of individual we could be looking at (particularly as we are getting pretty desperate for a DM). He wouldn't be my first choice, but seems a logical possibility.

I certainly don't train goalies, but I can see that McCarthy made basic mistakes that led to goals in a number of games last season. Off the top of my head, Man City (a), Arsenal (a), West Ham (a), Newcastle (a), Arsenal (h). That's five goals in 28 matches. Of course the list doesn't include the bad mistakes that he made that he got away with such as Sheff U at home. If you watch the Man City (h) game, where he played well he still managed to nearly present Man City with an equalizer with 5 minutes to go (with an identical error to those at Arsenal and Man City away in the last few moments) - just watch the highlights. He just doesn't fill me with confidence. Better than Kelvin ? Yes, but both are number 2s and we are screaming out for a solid Premiership goalie. Forster probably isn't it, and for the moment in the absence of decent competition her deserves to remain as our number 1, but if the mistakes and few game changing saves remains the same we may need to consider replacing with Forster. BTW - I thought the 2nd half save last night was good (probably game changing), but his domination of his 6 yard box was awful all night and we got away with it on this occasion. I'm not sure we'll get away with it all season.

I agree with all your points - it almost feels too good to be true. I felt the same about Salisu too, but hopefully he will soon destroy any remaining doubts. I really support your suggestion about getting someone in permanently - there are no hints that Romeu will sign a new contract and can walk away next summer, so if we get someone now on a 12 month loan it could leave us with just JWP and Smallbone next season. Romeu has has faults, but I think it's good to have some consistency & depth in such an important part of the team. I'm less dismissive of Smallbone as some on here, but I struggle with what position he could play in a 4-2-2-2. He isn't strong enough for a defensive midfielder and has been anonymous out wide. He would suit a 4-2-3-1 better, but that isn't likely with Ralph. In summary - get a quality midfielder on a permanent otherwise we could end up having a complete rebuild of defensive midfield next summer.

Saints are a good team away from home and that if our high line isn't quite as ambitious as Sunday we can beat an injury hit Burnley team. We were ok against a Palace team who are good on the counter (and who also played like an away team once they went a goal up). It was humiliating on Sunday but football can turn around quickly and we're not as bad as the score-line suggested. Personally I think that it is the type of game made for Vestergaard (and not playing a very high line ....). A good result can change our season quickly (although I'd be much more confident if we got a top quality defensive midfielder in).

From the depths of my declining memory I do recall a couple of very notable errors by Shilts and Clemence: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncgwMnULG7E this clip includes a goal from Micky Channon too and how about this one from Shilton: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vi9vZCo215w i couldn't recall any mistakes from Gordon Banks but I'm sure that there 1 or 2 out there. Enjoy the trips down memory lane.

Worst 45 ? .... Worse than Leicester ? (first half or second .....)

Totally agree. Also I think that if we'd have scored first we'd have won it. Palace are very good at keeping a lead, I think the commentator said that they haven't lost in their last 22 games (inc yesterday) when they scored first (W 18, D4). It's easy to focus on how badly (averagely) Saints played but Palace are well organised and difficult to penetrate when they drop deep.

Some of us got in several months ago to write him off ..... I posted this video when we were first linked with him ..... The 2nd goal conceded was bad, but goals 3 & 4 are awful. Bring back Vestergaard .... (ps only joking, I'm sure that it was just an off day !)

I love many aspects of Boufal's skills and abilities and he has provided some great moments, but I don't think that we can keep making excuses for him year after year. It is no good explaining his poor contribution in the first half of last year but ignoring all the other years of non-delivery and I include his time at Celta Vigo here where he did ok, but again the goals and assist columns were again low. I'm not against keeping him to make cameo substitute appearances when we are chasing the game, but if the £5m saved by selling him now means the difference between a good defensive midfielder and a very good defensive midfielder, I'd take the money.