spyinthesky

At the game I was was surprised and quite disappointed that JWP didnt have a go at goal, especially in the last minute . However having thinking about it, the two free kick ploys were quite clever and could have led to a goal if the receiving players had been more alert. I think the challenge for JWP now is that opposing teams are looking to put a player back towards the goal to defend the area JWP would be aiming at. This might put more pressure on JWP but will offer up more opportunities for clever free kick options. I suspect though that at the next opportunity JWP will revert to his tried and tested option.

Not something that will resonate much with the whipper snappers on here but those of us oldies will remember the many songs that dear old Burt composed and produced with a whole range of performers and along with his original writing partner Hal David.. A proper musician and composer was Burt. Ironically I only finished reading a book on the Motown composers Holland- Dozier-Holland yesterday and realised how much music I have enjoyed from song smiths of that generation.

Any season ticket holders having problems accessing their seats? I have just gone on to book mine but its not available for some reason

Apparently most of the salaries are estimates based on a variety of sources. However some figures were noted to be correct and KWP and Che Adams were amongst them which I have to say surprised me.

We played Grimsby in 1978? and drew at home and away with a 2nd replay at Filbert Street, Leicester. A car load of us were amongst a hardy band of Saints fans vastly outnumbered by members of the 'Cod Army' We won, thanks to a brace by Phil Boyer, but the Grimsby fans were very enthusiastic and I reckon there will be a decent turnout from them at St Marys

Enjoyed the game. Some decent performances but, typical Saints, nervy at the end BUT WE WON...HURRAH

PLAYER WEEKLY PAY COST TO BUY VALUE CONTRACT TERM JWP £100k Nil £30m 6/26 ORSIC £80k £8m £5m 5/25 WALCOTT £75k Nil Nil 6/23 ARIBO £70k £6m £5m 6/26 ARMA S £65k £7m £3m 6/24 DJENEPO £65k £12m £6m 6/25 ELYOUNOUSSI £60k £12m Nil 6/23 BEDNERAK £60k £6m £8m 6/25 ARMA A £55k £15m £8m 6/25 DIALLO £55k £12m £6m 6/24 MCCARTHY £50k £1m £2m 6/25 CALETA_CAR £40k £8m £8m 6/26 MAITLAND- N £35k Loan Nil 5/23 LYANCO £35k £6m £4m 6/25 ADAMS £30k £16m £18m 6/24 PERRAUD £30k £10m £8m 6/25 LAVIA £25k £12m £25m 6/27 SALISU £25k £15m £20m 6/24 MARA £25k £13m £8m 6/26 CABELLERO £20k Nil Nil 6/23 BAZANU £20k £14m £10k 6/27 KWP £20k £12m £25m 6/25 EDIOZE £15k £7m £8m 6/27 LARIOS £15k £6m £3m 6/27 BELLA-KOTCHA £15k £11m £15m 6/26 LIVRAMENTO £8k £5m £15m 6/26 BREE ??? £750k £1m 6/26 SULEMANI ??? £18m (£18m) 6/27 ONAUACHU ??? £18m (£18m) 6/27 ALCAREZ ??? £15m (£15m) 6/27 £275.75m £291m Above details have largely been taken from the Capaology and Transfer Market Web Sites so, apart from the contract dates, which seem to be Ok, the salary and values are generally estimates. It is interesting to see the comparatively low wages of KWP and Che Adams but, according to the site from which they have been taken, they are confirmed figures. Transfer values will be affected by a number of things amongst which are age of player and proximity to the end of their contracts. No mention of Loaned Out Players but likelihood is that, apart from Tella, there will be minimal or no transfer value in them. The above may provide a guide who will be here next season in the Championship. Forum members can make their own minds up who are likely to go (to save wages and also bring in much needed revenue) and those likely to stay on half wages in the Championship!!

Home Away 5/3 Villa 0-4 Newcastle 1-2 10/3 Watford 1-2 13/3 2/4 Leeds 1-1 Chelsea 0-6 9/4 21/4 Burnley 0-2 24/4 Brighton 2-2 C Palace 1-2 30/4 7/5 Brentford 0-3 Liverpool 1-2 17/5 22/5 Leicester 1-4 P11 W0 D2 L9 F8 A30 Pts 2 Season so far P21 W4 D3 L14 F17 A38 Pts 15 Total since Villa P32 W4 D5 L23 F25 A68 Pts 17 Up until Villa last March the team was doing well. From the Villa game, apart from the occasional Cup game eg West Ham, Man City, the team's form has been abysmal and the only home League win in 15 games has been against Chelsea.

Out of interest are you a season ticket holder?

It is presumed that the players contracts include a relegation clause which reduces players salaries by 50%. If so JWP will see his salary reduced by £50k a week. I think JWP is an admirable individual and a decent player but I wouldnt expect him to stay. Also the club will need to sell him, and other saleable players, to help balance the books. Some of the foreign players may be keen to return home or move on. The average wage for a Championship player is around £20k pw with the highest earners on £40k pw, so Saints would be in a reasonable position for the period they benefit from the parachute payments. After that they are basically at the mercy of continuing funding by the owners. I reckon the club could sell around £100m worth of players fairly easily based on high player values at the moment. However if all the inward transfer fees are added up, I reckon the club has spent a combined figure of £280 million on the current squad (plus Agents fees) To my mind that is a sobering figure set against 15 points gained this year and a run of pretty poor League performances since the Koeman days. That said, I reckon that if all players were sold off then the club could recoup all of the investment plus a profit.

I reckon we now have 30 players in our 1st team squad. I think we are allowed 25 plus any U21's who are probably Lavia, Edozie, Larios, Livramento and Alcarez?? The player wage bill was around £57m last year. It must be more now. According to information from the site Capology Premier Wage Bills are as follows: Chelsea £202m Man Utd £196m Man City £195m (+ £25m bonus to Haarland) Liverpool £162m Spurs £109m Arsenal £100m Villa £91m Newcastle £85m West Ham £82m Everton £80m Leicester £78m N Forest £72m C Palace £67m SAINTS £57m Fulham £54m Leeds £53m Wolves £51m B'mouth £42m Brighton £39m Brentford £32m If the figures are correct goes to show how much Bang For Bucks Brighton and Brentford are achieving

I reckon we now have 30 players in our 1st team squad. I think we are allowed 25 plus any U21's who are probably Lavia, Edozie, Larios, Livramento and Alcarez?? The player wage bill was around £58m last year. It must be more now.

Whenever our keepers have to hoof the ball upfield, which they have to do fairly regularly as playing short is often risky for us, it immeadiately comes straight back. Hopefully with someone who has the height to challenge in the air that wont always be the case......hopefully. Crouchie did OK for us so I am hopeful the new guy will do so too. As a (very) long standing Saints supporter, unfortunately I tend to contemplate how our (remaining) players will be suited to the Championship.

What a disappointment Alcaraz was last night. Hardly did anything good with the ball and didnt track with Longstaff for the second goal. Shame as he looked a player in his first appearance. Bit like Mara who looked decent in his first game and has been mediocre at best since then apart from the well taken goal v Man City

What we dont want to do is to concede early then it could be a route

When I trained at The Dell a schoolboy (Tuesday & Thursday nights) we used to run round the perimeter of the pitch for a few laps and then either had a small sided game in The Dell Car Park or inside the small, smelly and dusty Gym. Mind you we all had to make our way back & forth by bus (or by train for the lads coming up from Pompey, including the dear departed Bobby Stokes) Much as we would have loved to train at facilities like Staplewood, quite how we have got there is another matter.

I mention the PA sound levels every time I am sent an email from the club asking about the 'Matchday Experience' We we sit the sound levels are so loud conversation before KO and at HT is far too high Shows how much notice is taken with feedback. Also would be nice to hear a better range of music (but at a reasonable level)

Just thinking that if a Brighton (or Saints) player had committed the foul on Macallister when he was running through or the awful tackle on Ferguson which was reviewed by VAR and still didnt think it was a red, there would only be nine players on the field to play out the game. I was a bit surprised that VAR didnt rule out the winning goal for some reason. Brighton deserved their win and seem to be in a similar position to where we were a few years back. However they seem to be able to deal with the replacement of players and Manager than we did.

Disappointing performance from the players who should have been trying to impress the Manager (and us fans) My ratings: 1. Willy 6.5... .........Made a couple of decent saves but distribution poor at times. 2. Maitland Niles 5.0.............Not even average. 3. Peraud 7.0.............Two good goals in amongst a good performance. 4. Lavia. 6.5.............Best of the midfielders 5. Bella Kotcha 6.0.............Not sure about him. He looked a unit when he first came in but his performances have tailed off as the season has progressed. 6. Lyanco.....................6.5.............Always a mistake in him and distribution poor at times but defended well at times. 7. Edozie......................6.5.............Almost a 7 as things happened when he received the ball. He is getting better and will be a good asset as he develops. 8. Elyounoussi.............6.0.............Just average, as always. 9. Maria........................5.5.............Did absolutely nothing but set up the second goal so half a point for that. 10. Aribo.......................6.0............Difficult to quantify his performance. He did one or two good things with the ball but not much defending. 11. Orsic........................5.0............I think there is a player in there somewhere but yet to see it in his cameos so far. Subs Walcott, Adams, Armstrong(A), KWP.... Probably 2.0 spread amongst all 4. Overall a mid/lower Championship League performance

I know two lads who believe a lot of the 'theories' put out there by the likes of David Icke/Alex Jones and are quite keen to project their views. These include Covid jabs being part of a world wide conspiracy. Fair enough but what seems strange to me is that both lads and, presumably, their mates are regular users of mind changing substances, mainly ingested. There doesnt seem to be any peer review of each substance but that doesnt seem to worry them.

JWP is a very good club man and a very decent player. He is on £100k a week. Top earner for Saints but nowhere near what other players in the Premiership are getting. Even on half salary, which (hopefully) is written into all contracts in case of relegation, he would be a top earner in the Championship. It is a fact of life that our best players will lose value in the Championship and that means that JWP, KWP, Lavia, possibly Salisu and Bella Kotcha will attract decent bids from other clubs which will provide revenue for the club and allow the players to maintain current earning power plus a signing on fee to benefit themselves and their agents.

Havent read all the posts on the game but wonder if KWP's yellow card for 'Time Wasting' in the first half has been commented upon. What on earth was the Ref thinking about? No balancing up when Pope and others were wasting time near the end? With regard to throw ins, we arent particularly good at them whether they go in our favour or have to defend when opponents have the ball. Newcastle where far better at this phase of the game as they were on a couple of occasions when they played swift balls from free kicks as we dozed off. Whilst disappointed at the result, I thought it was a decent game to watch and a relatively good performance by the Saints against a side of the up, thanks to a shed load of investment.

You can imagine the kerfuffle if D Ings had signed for us and then got injured. btw as mentioned elsewhere I am reliably informed that an approach was made to D Ing's agent with an offer and this was turned down.

I didnt think it was a bad game. Villa had the better players and better use of the ball. That said Martinez pulled off two worldlies, especially the shot into the top corner from Djneppo near the end I was right behind it and it was heading for the top corner. Absolutely terrific save and the one from Adam Armstrong was top drawer too. I thought after the last three games, particularly Palace and Everton that we benfitted from a couple of pieces of good fortune. That wasnt the case today and having a poor Referee didnt help. I am afraid we are down and have to start making provisions, both on and off the field, for next year in the Championship.

It is interesting the comment you make on Corporation Tax. I was initially in favour of increasing Corporation Tax as a way of ensuring profitable companies paid a fair share of tax to help pay for the increasing demands on Govt spending. However it is noticeable that the Irish economy has blossomed since their Govt drastically cut Corporation Tax and attracted a whole raft of new businesses.