S-Clarke

It certainly made a difference to have two 'big' men on the pitch at the same time, I think Leicester's defence was already at 6's and 7's, and it just pulled them all over the place. Larin had a shot just before our 2nd or 3rd goal as well, so he was causing a nuisance. And Stewarts movement in and around was also causing a problem, his assist for the winner shouldn't be understated. Cute touch and an awareness of what is around him.

Pressure is an interesting point, last night by all accounts was a team playing without any real pressure. 3-0 down at HT, nothing position in the league - nothing to lose, just go all out and give it a shot and see what happens. We'll certainly encounter some 'pressure' if we do remain in the conversation over the next few weeks, and I'm still not 100% convinced we have the players or the coaching setup who have the experience to handle the pressure - but last night at least showed they have some character and fire in their bellies.

The Birmingham result was an added cherry on top last night, that was entirely unexpected - and going by the highlights, shouldn't have been a 0-0. A few of the teams around us and above us play each other in the coming weeks, so if we keep our heads and get 7-9 points from the next 3 we'll be in an interesting position for sure.

He won't, but if he did get the job that would be ultimate box office.

They're owned by the same entity, but the son took sole control after the father died - the son and father were always active during their winning years though. Obviously they've won more than many of us will ever experience in our life, in that quick 3-4 year period, but their decline should be studied for sure - in many ways it is very, very similar to our own (they've even copied our scouting) - they just had some huge achievements during their highs. It's the same arguments really - poor recruitment, poor manager selection, keeping failed managers too long etc etc. It spirals and it's very hard to get yourself out of it. PSR has made it 10000000 times more difficult for anyone who isn't a mega club, as the scope to 'fix' the mistakes you made with scouting and managers is limited - so the decline is often accelerated, whereas clubs like Utd, Spurs etc can just write off 3 or 4 players and multiple managers and go again. One of the first suggestions I'd make to them though - stop signing our castoffs, it's really not going to help.

His energy and fight is infectious, that's what I see he brings more than anything else. He's always buzzing around, always pressing, always hassling. He's not the quickest nor the strongest, but he's the sort of guy who injects energy and life into a side - and it showed in that 2nd half. Sometimes you don't need amazing skill or pace, just a bit of tenacity and energy can be enough to tilt the momentum. He's not an every week type of player, but his energy is so important at times we're lagging. We could do with a few more players with his style, as we do become passive from time to time.

That club is such a poisoned chalice for anyone. They've gone through Conte, Mourinho, Frank, who are clearly not bad managers given their records elsewhere. If you stuck Emery in charge there, he'd be out within 10 months too. I couldn't tell you what they need, it's fun to watch their decline though as their fans are a bunch of entitled morons. They're not too big to get relegated, just like West Ham and Newcastle of yesteryear. They're in big trouble.

He's a bit of a nut head, he does run out of his area quite a bit - I thought he should have saved the first one to be honest, 3rd looked like he should have saved it, but I reckon that hit the net at some serious speed it would have taken something extraordinary to stop that. I like his character though and I genuinely feel he's added some life to our defence in certain respects. He can't be 'too' perfect, as we'll end up losing him in the summer to another club - so throwing a goal in now and then this year will hopefully draw the eyes away. I'd be signing him.

Well holy fucking shit, that was incredible and slaps us all who doubted the character of players and individuals in this team. The first half was just like the last Champ encounter against them at their place, I thought it would end up 4 or 5 as they were rampant. We just weren't there at all. It didn't help as we were playing with 8 or 9 men for that first half, Jander probably had the worst game of his entire career in those 45 mins. Archer, as we know, cannot play as a loan man and was a lamb to the slaughter really - but he still has to be tons better than he does, he offered us no out. Fellows didn't keep the ball and there was no width. Those 3 subs made sense at HT, presence up top, extra steel in CM and a slightly different profile coming off of the right. It took us a while to truly settle in, but we were so much more comfortable in that 2nd half. Stewart provided us with a shape and a structure to 'attack' around, and players like Leo came alive - and Azaz to a degree. Matsuki isn't someone I'd pick for wide right every day of the week, but it was his energy which was so important to us. We've been on the end of some honking results in my lifetime, last min defeats, 9-0's, and that horrendous Leeds 4-3 home game in 2005. Something like this was due, but it still takes character and belief to actually turn it around - and this is where the players and everyone in the coaching and management sphere should take enormous credit, because at 3-0 down we should have folded given how it's been going. I feel for Leicester a little bit, as we've been there - it's just horrendous to lose a game like that, but I cannot remember a team imploding like that. They were in bits in those last 10 mins, and if I were one of their fans I'd be seriously worried about relegation on that showing. They won't be able to deal with a proper battle given by what I saw from them in the 2nd half. Turn arounds like this are quite often defining for a team, not just in a season, but over a longer term - let's hope it's the first genuine green shoot we've seen in a while. Can we play them every week? Oh yeah, we can.

This is just what you have to accept with players such as Azaz, it's very similar to how Tadic was perceived by some fans during his time here. They will go missing, they won't always be in the game, but they'll have moments in the game which can potentially change it up through a bit of imagination or forward skill. These players don't run at that output 90mins a game, but you play them and get them into as much space as possible, because they have more chance of doing it than others.

There was an initial investment in that first window, but even that was executed all wrong. That was the moment their entire model failed before it had even started. £160m spent and a load of absolute crap we've struggled to offload since (bar Lavia). Like you say, they benefited hugely from that relegation by selling JWP, Tino, Tella etc. We didn't spend much in the transfer window under Martin, the big 'fire sale' in 2023 was used to fill those mistakes from the previous windows. You'd hope they'd learnt when we got promoted, but they did it all wrong again. Splurged £120m on players we are now struggling to shift, bar Fernandes. They lucked out with Dibling, as he was nothing to do with them, and this has allowed us to splurge this year - jury is out to see if things pick up longer term with the spend this summer, but sitting bottom half of the Championship is a suggestion it won't. You'll see this summer that it'll be all about THB, Downes, Charles, Leo etc being sold - and we won't hugely reinvest as it will be used to plug the financial holes which are getting bigger by the month. Expect to see the likes of Bragg, Quarshie, Bree (he'll get a new contract), Robinson start to play roles in the team to fill the gaps of those who have left. I fear for the future of this club with these charlatans remaining in charge. They don't know how to run a football club, they have no footballing experience at the top levels and they are dragging us down at record levels. That 5 year climb from the abyss is about to be erased, and I don't think we come back this time. At least we have an arcade though.

And from their first window, the only player still at the club now is Edozie and he doesn't even play. They haven't got a fricking clue.

Replacing our top scorer with a player who hasn't got a league goal this year is a smart move, some clever outside of the box thinking from SR there. At this point I think we're some form of social experiment/trolling exercise. Not holding anything against him, hope he does well and scores some goals. But we needed more than him, certainly as we've lost Fraser, Downs and Armstrong from our attack in the window.

Thanks for those 2 games? But yeah, not going to be missed. So SR's first transfer window was such a huge success, the only player still at the club today from that 2022 splurge is Edozie and he doesn't even get into the squads. The writing was on the wall as soon as SR got their grubby fingers involved.

Someone needs to give Dragan's trusted football advisor, Rasmus, that memo then.

This is the SR model to a tee. In the SR mantra, this will go down as a huge, huge success in scouting, player trading and group movement. They don't care for the individual clubs per say, it's all about the group. To them, that will be a £20m profit into the group - they just used us to move him around to start with. This will justify the entire model sadly. We're just a pawn. We're not a football club anymore in any meaningful way.

We bring in two, I'd be happy for Archer to go. We need one anyway, so the Larin should be the 2nd if I'm honest. You can't remove Downs, Fraser, Archer, Armstrong from an attack in one month and just add Larin. Regardless of their quality and impact, it's about numbers too - as Armstrong was also a wide right option for us, who goes there if Fellows is injured? You cannot rely on Stewart, he will get injured again in the forthcoming weeks - it's inevitable. And that would thrust a young U21 kid straight into the spotlight, which we seem to enjoy doing with young players before they're ready.

If he was in addition to what we have, sure. But seemingly the likelihood is that we'll probably end up with him, Stewart and U21 Oyekunle. That's not enough. We were expecting a striker to backfill Downs position when he left, but it didn't happen and it slowly got forgotten about. So now we look to be moving on Archer and Armstrong to add a striker who doesn't score, who will join a strike force with a player who hasn't managed more than 7 starts in a season in 4 years.

I worked out that our money received from incomings is actually more than our spending since SR have been in, not by much though - so we've broken even in that sense. They outlaid when they first came in, but they got it all back through player trading. So I don't buy the argument that he's chucked a shedload of money in like some sort of sugar daddy, we've just reinvested what we sold. We're basically a player trading company.

I can only hope Larin is more of a squad addition, if like you say he's going to complete our striker contingent (Larin, Stewart and the young kid) then I have no idea what we're doing.

Never heard of the bloke, looks shit though - but we were only ever going to loan in this window. But seemingly only we can sign a striker who hasn't scored a goal this year to replace our top scorer. Only us. 'We do things differently' 'the Southampton way' Gone are the days of signing players like David Brooks for the 2nd half of the season.

Red hot with just 3 league goals . By all accounts he's been fairly awful for Derby in the main, I wouldn't want him back. I still have nightmares of him lumbering around trying to be a PL player, we need energy up front.

Yep that is true about Jander to be fair, that somewhat come out of nowhere on that Fellows/Azaz day.

I think that's the driver here to be honest, he's clearly made it obvious that he wants out and we've bent our valuation slightly to accommodate that. Like you say, we don't want a bad smell hanging around. He hasn't scored in 11 or 12. But to make this positive we have to sign a proper striker, this is now our opportunity and window to do that. A loan with an option, or even invest straight away in a signing for the future in mind. Pertez, Leo, Jander were all left field picks and they have been reasonable well received - they need to get the striker one as bang on now. What concerns me is that we have had zero links....nothing.

Up to 48m for Larson is just crazy, he really isn't that good. But equally getting £35m for Mateta is also crazy. Player valuations at the top level aren't reflectors of ability anymore you'd have to say.