norwaysaint

People always forget that we struggled to offload the underperforming high wage players last time we dropped. We lost the players with a little promise and quality and had to build up a squad with whatever average journeymen we could manage to attract.

From reading this site, the impression I always had was that pretty much everyone agreed that Tadic was one of our most talented players, but that he didn't perform regularly enough. I don't remember seeing anyone doubt that he was a very good player.

What's clear is that three of our defenders, who are regularly in the first team are seen by large proportions of our fanbase to be weak at best and a liability at worst. The only player most people think is definitely good enough has played a total of one match. The only other player seen as a competent choice isn't widely rated as being particularly good, just "good enough". Our good teams in the past always have always been built around a strong, regular defensive pairing. We'll be a weak team until this is sorted properly, I think.

I'm assuming Vestergaard is first for most, but let's see the rest rated 1-4 out of: Yoshida Hoedt Stephens Bednarek

Really don't feel we can call it yet. Last year was a pretty clear survival brief with a low morale mess of a team, now he is starting his first season doing things as he intends it to be. We've shown problems and we've shown potential. We won't know properly for another ten games or so. His past record? Well, as has been shown, it depends how you read it. Lots of good seasons, a couple of poor ones, so take your pick and judge his record through your choice of spectacles. Strachan was poor everywhere but here, Redknapp generally did okay everywhere but here, Koeman was arguably one of our best ever managers, but failed at Everton horrifically, so is he great or terrible? It's not that easy to judge.

One of the first people to even acknowledge he exists.

Utterly confused about Bednarek. Everyone sang his praises when he played last season. He had a good world cup, now neither Hughes nor anyone here seems interested in him.

Nobody?

There tend to be more MoM polls after a win.

I haven't watched enough football recently to have an opinion on it here, but at the end of last season everyone was going on about Bednarek being the only decent centre back we had, now everyone is calling for Yoshida, Hoedt or Stephens to play. What happened? Is he injured?

They all seem pretty reasonable for a team that just avoided relegation, haven't made any major signings and have a manager who last managed a team that wasn't doing well in the PL. We can hope for more, but it would be a surprise to most neutrals.

Thanks

Didn't Rodriguez and Ramirez start the same season? With Ramirez being the record buy, not Rodriguez. Ramirez had the better season of the two, statistically as well. Not one of our best though. Surely Keegan was a record signing though?

Was Keegan a record signing?

I'm saying that coming to saints doesn't guarantee a starting place. The other post implied that it would be the case. Why are you calling me pal?

Because all of our big signings get played week in and week out and never get left n the bench?

Do we know if we're competing against anyone for this signing?

Wow, I've been watching Pointless lately and have been really wondering why every person who gets introduced begins their introduction with "So", eg "So, I work in market research.". I guess it's become a thing.

I know Wanyama was the better player individually, but I always felt Cork and Schneiderlin was the best ever pairing I saw in midfield for us. They just worked perfectly together. Just like Lambert, Lallana and JRod really clicked beautifully, even if they aren't the best individually.

That's some defence if it doesn't have room for Pocchetino, capped 20 times by Argentina.

This brings up the usual query of do we mean Shearer at his saints peak or his career peak? Because for saints he was pretty good, but went on to dominate the PL. The same with Bale. For us he was a promising left back in the championship, who the following year couldn't hold down a regular starting place for Spurs, but obviously he went on to join the world elite. If at their very best, then they are obvious choices, at their saints best, they probably wouldn't cut it.

Poch had us playing really nicely, but it's easy to forget that Koeman had us winning about 50% of our games, which is incredible for saints in the PL. We were lucky to get those two straight after the general feel good factor of rising up quickly with Adkins. My favourite season was Adkins second, where we felt head and shoulders better than every other team we played, even if we fell at the final hurdle. I was around for the early eighties, but didn't get to actually see many games, which means I felt less involved.

Someone who was a great young prospects for the Belgian league champions, making some impressive appearances from the bench last season. 12 million.

As has been said, he won't actually complete the three years. If he does he'll be the first since Chris Nicholl.

So Hughes' career win % is about the same as Strachan had at saints. Most people were happy when he was here.