John B

8 minutes ago, BARCELONASAINT said:

I totally agree with this statement. What exactly was our track record against lower league sides in the Cup competitions last season!!!

We are losing our best players and still have so much dross to shift with little quality left behind. I honestly think we could be off to a very bad start to the season.

So what you cannot do anything about it as there is no fucking guarantee that the team you support has to be successful

6 minutes ago, Farmer Saint said:

It's ridiculous. Yes, SR have bought badly in the past and we've also had some shite managers. However, I don't remember us not getting decent money for players.

Look at how much we got for Sulemana. We got £6m for Bednarek with a year left on his contract and £65k PW wage. Get rid of ABK and Aribo, and then we're in great shape financially. I won't mention PSR, I promise...

What do you mean get rid of them for players to leave they must have a decent contract to go to I get the impresssion that ABK is a knob and no one wants him Airbo apparently is on a decent contract with no other clud wanting to match it 

So it is not easy to get rid of some players 

On 30/07/2025 at 15:19, Andrew Watson said:

144 FOR 0 to 293 all out is a pretty awful performance and I accept that Varma and Brown cannot bale them out evey time.

The conditions changed completely after the rain break with the ball swinging and Worcestershire bowling well

Southampton reject Everton's £27m bid for Dibling according to the BBC

How much should we expect to receive not sure when his contract ends

Tyler Dibling: Southampton reject Everton's £27m bid for winger - BBC Sport

40 minutes ago, Smirking_Saint said:

Im at odds at this frankly..

Armstrong - 30+ G/A last EFL season

Archer - 18 goals last EFL season bookies top goal scorer favourite 

BBD - 22 and 14 for blackburn in the EFL

Stewart - 36/70 for Sunderland (albeit league 1)

Dibling/Fernandes/Robinson - The former two looked largely excellent in the prem, with a slight TD drop off and JR has been excellent so far in pre season

Downs is an unknown quantity, and of course we could lose people, but we aren’t in the premier league anymore, even if the above output is halved I think we have more than enough… do we have to build on the above ? Of course

But I really don’t think, comparative to other squads we are in bad shape at all… we can afford to ‘wait’ for the right targets, where as the likes of Brum and Wrexham, as good as their recruitment looks, cannot

Add a few top class loanees and we could have a decent season if Still is any good as a manager

Just now, Turkish said:

If you’re a 21 year old Portuguese guy then no way are you turning down Atheletico Madrid or Juventus to play for West Ham, Palace or Leeds 

Or Sothampton in The Championsip either

27 minutes ago, Football Special said:

Agree, I've got a feeling we'll still get some good loans in 

Most top teams in the Championship get in loanees like we did recently

2 minutes ago, Teamsaint1 said:

And they might think that if all else fails they will be adequate at least.

 

Makes you wonder why they didn't offer Lumley a new deal, as AR was likely to go, and Baz can likely be loaned out again if we do get a new first choice in , and JL is a perfectly good 3rd keeper  at this level.

They did not offer Lumley a contract as we are in the Championship and they are happy two have the goalkeepers who took us promotion

I doubt Leicester and Ipswich will win so many games this year and there do not seem to be teams of the calibre of Leeds around

But only time will tell

7 hours ago, Saint Fan CaM said:

Anyone who thinks getting rid of our best players (e.g. Rambo and Fernandes) rather than losing the worst players (e.g. Stephens, Manning etc) is a delusional fool with half a brain. There, I said it and I fucking stand by it. #drunk

Unfortunately players like KWP Adams Ramsdale and probably Fernandes and Dibling do not want to play for Southampton whereas Stephens and Manning do

23 minutes ago, coalman said:

Porto came for THB but left with Bednarek. They sure wanted part of our record breaking defence. But you know what's better than one Saints defender? Two of them. Porto have a chance to buy a ready made partnership. Forged in the fires if the Premier League. Come on Porto, you need a Stephens to pair with that Bednarek.

The same FC Porto that were in the recent World Club Championship Jan seems to have landed a decent contract with a Top Europen club

Others like KWP Adams and to some extent Suleman who long with Jan helped us to Promotion in 2024 have also moved to top clubs along with Managers Juric and Martin

Meanwhile we recruit new players and a manager from lesser known clubs and hope they will develop into decent players 

However our track record for this is not good with only Fernandes currently deemed to be a success although we made a lot of money with Livramento and Lavia.

Our Academy has not produced a regular PL player for sometime and our current star Dibling has escaped once and seems to want to do so again as he has not signed a new contract.

Although the squad is poor compared with previous ones it is probably one of the best in the Championship and all the players could be replaced by better ones we need to support them an Will Still as I believe they can be in the promotion shake out in May.

1 minute ago, bangkoksaint said:

Gunn and Baz cost us circa £25M…..let that sink in

That is a good reason why not to sign young players for loads of dosh happens at most clubs I would have thought Sancho at £70M is a good example

7 hours ago, Weston Saint said:

Are the bowlers getting accustomed to using the Kookaburra ball! 7 of the 9 results this round ended with a win/loss.

 

 

Clearly not Hampshire's

10 hours ago, stevegrant said:

Yep.

Worcestershire lost in the end, so they're now in the situation of needing results regardless of conditions. Mercifully the last game of the Kookaburra at New Road next week, but I fancy they might try to prepare a pitch that'll produce a result as they need a win - if it means they end up losing instead, it's probably a risk they need to take now.

I do not like the Kookaburra but I expect Tilak Varma does

9 minutes ago, hypochondriac said:

What a dull summer transfer wise so far

 

I was thinking the same but we have enough players many of whom got us promoted recently and others recruited for the PL

Unless we move players out I cannot see many new players coming in

1 hour ago, Rebel said:

Nope the solution is to get rid of them - but take a calculated risk on signing the players we need before getting rid of the deadwood. 

It seems like we are always waiting to sell players before we buy - which leaves up playing catch-up and missing out on players. 

I am not saying don't get rid of them - just take a hit for a couple of weeks on the wages and a calculated risk we can get rid of the players we don't want.

Maybe it means we have to sell for a bit less than we hoped  or would have liked.  

But maybe we are just stuck with the crap players until they are out of contract and can't afford to buy any other players. But that's down to our terrible transfer strategy in the first place.

How are you going to get rid of them?

2 minutes ago, CSA96 said:

I would probably be trying to ship one of them out, for sure. Add some more quality out wide (where we are painfully lacking) and keep the other four together as our options. Given RS is unreliable with injuries, you'd effectively have three to compete for one spot most of the time and Ross being fit would be a bonus fourth option and help if you wanted to play two

These are players who are contracted to the club I doubt it is easy for them to be shipped out as you suggest

I do not disagree with your sentiments but Airbo and Fraser have contracts which end next year and they may wish to see them out

Likewise with Dibling he may wish to stay another year and see what happens 

2 hours ago, Badger said:

Inspired by John B to go further into the memory, and perhaps a bit obscure as a double name:

Frank Saul. 

Yes I thought that too he came as part of the Martin Chivers deal

2 hours ago, Badger said:

 

GK:

Here’s one I made earlier. 

Yes he is better than Tony Godfrey goalkeeper in the early 60s

9 minutes ago, CB Fry said:

How did you work that out when they played against Ferguson's United, Keegan's Newcastle and Wenger's Invincibles among others.

Clearly there were good teams twenty years ago but in general the standard of the PL has improved in that time do you not agree

41 minutes ago, saintant said:

Jason Dodd was a very good full back. Franny had his limitations but was a level above Stephens albeit in a different position.

Stephens is a better all round footballer than Benali Dodd was pretty slow from what I remember

The teams that Dodd  and Benali played against were far inferior than those Stephens played against

7 hours ago, Mixedkebab said:

Spors’ credibility is utterly fucked before it began with the Stephens 3 year extension- only a disturbed, or possessed fuckwitt would give Jack 3 years. 
Even if Stephens miraculously has a good, non error strewn season and Saints go up, the 2 extra years are pointless curly turds. Spors seems a halfwitted helmet already just based on this single decision.

Perhaps we will not go up in May 2026 but go up in 2027 or 2028 with a young team led by Jack which could stay up in the PL.

That could be the plan as at present the standard in the PL is probably the highest ever

5 minutes ago, sockeye said:

I don't know what was going on at Staplewood, but what I saw in every game last term was a strong start for 15 minutes before most of the squad began to blow smoke

So what do you think the fitness coaches were doing sports science is pretty advanced these days perhaps they were told rushing about was not helping so conserve some energy

On 17/07/2025 at 23:37, stevegrant said:

Basically came down to rubbish bowling resource management by stand-in captain Chris Wood, who has pretty much always been one of our death bowlers throughout his career but rather than take responsibility and get the job done he burned his final over with three to go, and then gambled that they'd need too many in the final over that Fuller or Howell bowling pies wouldn't matter.

A small ground easy pitch batsman in the form of his life nothing to do with bpwling resource management in my opinion Wood came on to get a wicket which he did shame it was not Cox

Cox is an excellent batter I saw him at the Bowl last season when he got a ton if Essex get relegated it would be great if we got him in and sent Orr to them

25 minutes ago, sockeye said:

Very glad Still is pushing the players' fitness hard and that he's playing them to their strengths. Simple ideas that were missing for far too long...

So did we not have any coaches monitoring the players fitness levels last season

8 hours ago, sockeye said:

thing is you can't fix '14 years of broken public services and an economy in tatters' by spending so much money just for people to tread water. I empathise with her position but tough decisions need to be made and Starmer u-turning to appease the ideals of those like her is not productive 

But you do not fix things that have been caused by neoliberal economics by doing the same thing as the Tories did

We were promised change but as yet nothing has materialised saying you are not going to raise certain taxes is economically illeterate