Badger

Want to agree with the first part of your post. I didn’t blame Ralph for the squad he had at his disposal and feel the same for NJ. But .., remains to be seen if he can formulate the tactics, and provide motivation to get anything out of this bunch. Not holding my breath

And replace them with …. other pathetic cretins perhaps ? No way of breaking it to you gently, but our squad is piss poor.

Semmens will post it in the OS. Probably the day after they post Gao’s Five Pledges.

Unfortunately the calibre of player we need is unlikely to want to join the shower of shit the club has become.

Other clubs have new manager bounces. Ours is a new manager belly flop.

How are Goztpe doing today ?

Rather like Branfoot … we’re not even good at hoofball

Perhaps selected over a boozy Christmas lunch with guidance from his father-in-law.

This decision is among the best Saints clusterfucks of recent times. Along with: Letting Fonte go without securing a replacement (Reed) Signing Carillo (Wilson & Reed). Forsters second new contract Going back further: Delgado (no one admits to this, but probably Rupert). Tommy Forecast (Rupert) Not allowing WGS to strengthen after 2003. And a special mention from the Dell days to Dixon & Speedie.

Not going to disagree with that.

Ridiculous isn’t it ? I’m saving my meltdown until we’ve lost today, but will hold some in reserve in case we haven’t announced three signings by 5pm on 1st January.

Opened the Christmas sherry early in your house this year Will ?

Heard a rumour early this morning from some old bloke that we were looking to bring a striker in from Porto. No idea of the source, or if reliable though.

A fit Ings might be considered a guarantee to score goals. A fit Ings though is by no means guaranteed.

He's Swedish.

Think we were linked with Karlson in the summer. Karlson, or Kent though, from what I've read are creative -players who might make something happen. Still leaves us with the problem of someone to score from the chances they might create. Unless of course the idea is to give Che more chances to spurn.

The great escape seasons were longer than 20 years ago and were in the 1990's at The Dell. As Toussaint points out we had a half decent squad with some players to moitivate those around them, Dodd, Benali for two the genius of MLT, then Pahars, and Mickey Evans rising to the challenge. this along with The Dell crowd saw us through. ABK and Salisu may offer more in the long term, but I'd love for one of them to have a Dean Richards or KenMonkou alongside them in a back 4.

Isn't there a limit to the number of teams a player can sign for/be registered with in a single season ?

He's doing a good job to see that the men's team is going to reach the stature of the women's team in the English game at the moment.

Sad but true. We were a more attractive proposition in the summer, and still couldn’t bring a striker in.

Yet we spent c£66m in the summer, without a significant sale, and if reports are true we were prepared to shell out £20-30m on Ramos or Gakpo . (Whether that is in addition to the £66m is unknown and part of that could have been spent at the end of the window on Edozie and the Spanish lad). That is a lot less than West Ham (£140m), but it does show a willingness to spend. Problem as I see it is that rather than 2or3 key players to improve the team now, we go for an ‘investment portfolio’ approach of signing a number of young players who might be worth something after a year or two. No real thought as how it might pan out this season Source for figures (in case MLG asks) https://www.teamtalk.com/news/ranking-premier-league-clubs-overall-transfers-net-spend-2022-liverpool-11th-leeds-17th

20. A couple of ‘kick myself’ wrong, but a couple of wild guesses as well. Good quiz, thanks.

Isn’t this the Semmens way ? Or at least he’s the one that spouts it most now when given the opportunity. Annoying when you think Brighton signed a bloke for £8m, just played and won a World Cup, and regarded as an outstanding performer at that level. We on the other hand, talk a good game about recruitment. Unfortunately I think our recruitment dept are better at self publicity (Les, Ross, and it seems those that followed them) than they are bringing the right players in to improve the team.

Are we able to sell him to Chelsea or anyone else if we want to though ?If City have a buy-back clause that might prevent us from selling him. Too soon to tell, but with his injuries to date, selling now might not be too concerning if we reinvest properly. As for pissing City off, I’d like to think we’ve expanded our scouting network beyond this source which has been a mixed success.

Wasn’t it the prospect of being asked to play rb that influenced his decision to go to WBA rather than us two years ago ? Perhaps the problem is that in his own head he’s a midfielder, and an integral part of Arsenal. In truth though that’s not a position he shows anything in, and he’s probably now only a couple of loan moves away from a free transfer to Millwall or such. Hope we’re not committed to keeping him.