StrangelyBrown

BBD really is crap. Looks terrible against a league 2 side. McCarthy equally dreadful. Sooner we dump the pair of them the better.

Lol. Great fishing... I'll bite. If you watch every chance that Wrexham had in the first half Stephens was in the wrong place. He had a poor game other than the goal and the 2 tackles - 8 out of 10 my arse.

Pleasantly surprised. We did things today that we didn't see last year: we attacked a lot, we showed real character to deal with adversity, substitutions were all positive and most importantly we didn't just sit back and accept it wasn't our day or even accept a draw. Focusing on the positives - Charles and Downes are going to boss most games this year, Robinson is looking already like he will develop into a serious player and Baz pulled off one of the best saves I've seen in a while. Well done Saints!

I wonder how much it costs Disney to sponsor the ref?

Perhaps it's because of the excessive bellendery of Martin and his media lovies? Just like Liverpool - they get more than their share of hate because of the same thing.

To me it seems like a good deal for everyone. It's clear he has tonnes of potential, but I'm not convinced our playing style suits him at the moment (his work rate isn't high enough) so I don't think he'll develop as well here. We get some money to invest in players who are better suited to what Will Still is trying to achieve. Plus we've still got Robinson who as you say seems better suited to us at the moment.

Ha ha. Looks like Martin has lost it already and the Rangers fans have already worked him out... https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/c6276r0v470o You'd think he might have learned something from him time here, but apparently not.

I remember reading analysis about 5 at the back when Conte was at Chelsea and the really key thing is having intelligent players at CB who know when to step up into midfield and how to mark effectively when there is one or more men spare. This for me is our downfall - we've relied on players like THB, Stephens and bednarek to be those intelligent players.... Hopefully Edwards and Quarshie have a bit more about them.

Even with the "dross" we still have a very good championship squad - the only major concerns for me this season are a decent keeper and some creativity when Fernandes and dibling inevitably go. Defensively we look ok, the central midfield engine is pretty strong at this level and we have plenty of players who can score in the championship. Next season however we need to start thinking about and we really aren't anywhere near other than Ramsdale maybe coming back.

Great stuff!!! Well done to the saints boys.

Why do we have to gamble? We've spent a lot of money, but we've spread it across a lot of "investments". The only sensible thing we've done recently is sign Ramsdale for £25m - showing we are capable of buying PL quality. The gamble paid off with Fernandes, but that's it. Just imagine if rather than wasting money on Onuachu and sulemana we'd put that same money and wages into one better forward. Or instead of spending on BBD and Archer we'd have pooled that money and wages into another better player. I'm pretty sure we'd be in a stronger position. I can't see what we're trying to achieve by gambling on vast numbers of players unless somehow we think we're cleverer than everyone else and that somehow we're going to unearth gems that somehow no one else has spotted.

Oh yes we have... We've tried to sign hidden gems from Man City and Chelsea's academy with mixed success, hidden gems from mediocre European teams with little success, half decent championship players for the premier league with next to no success, loans of formerly good premier league players... We've had a number of failed strategies and as a result there have been far far more misses than hits.

This. We need to sign some quality in some really key positions. Dragan promised some of them, but so far what have the team delivered??? A young CB who might be good and a young CF who might be good... So many years of trying to be cleverer than everyone else has resulted in a bloated mediocre team, we seriously need to stop speculating on footballs equivalent of penny shares hoping to accidentally invest in a unicorn.

3rd in a 2 horse race seems more realistic for Russ

I'm the scenario where Still sticks with the new keeper it renders the loan completely pointless - from my perspective we should either keep or sell. So either: - we stick with Baz and McCarthy and hope that miraculously they've improved - We get someone new and discard them in a year and have Ramsdale back - probably a waste of money - We get someone new and Ramsdale ends up not being number 1 and we end up selling him One way or another it just doesn't strike me as a good deal for us.

I can't help but think that it will make bringing a replacement in more difficult - I wonder what decent keeper is going to want to come here knowing that if all goes well in a seasons time they will lose their place to Ramsdale? Which to me suggests the club are thinking Baz and McCarthy are good enough for the championship.

Agreed. Same with WGS - we seemed to be fitter than every other team and punched way above our weight as a consequence

Which poses the question why on earth did they already extend jack Stephens' contract?

What about Will Smallbone? Will, yes you can jog about a bit doing not a lot? 😄

Hopefully if the club suspect players will be going they will be moving mountains to line up replacements rather than leaving it all to the last minute

I agree with most of this but I'm not sure he's got a good engine - he looks like he's blowing within a small number of minutes and can't keep up with the pace of the game. It's actually one of the things I've been most surprised with as an athlete with his build ought to be able to keep running and running.

It's exactly that reason why I'd like Stephens to move on - id love it if it forwards played against him

Please tell me what you see in him as a footballer - I genuinely couldn't find anything other than you waffling on about character and experience?

So purely based on character and being a good guy to have around? What utter nonsense

What is it that you think is great about Stephens? He ball watches, he's poor at heading the ball, not particularly great at distributing it, frequently loses concentration, loses his head and gets himself into trouble and is a consistent part of our failures... Even in the championship he was bang average.