Saint Fan CaM

Stephens doesn’t think that fast and has no inherent footballing brain to instinctively know what the least riskiest play should be. In his own mind he has all the time in the World to choose his pass. He’s as thick as…

Talk about simple! I didn’t say don’t sell players, but it’s certainly a recipe for continual decline if you keep selling your best players and replace them with inferior quality. If you don’t believe that is the reason we’ve just witnessed the worst season in the history of this club (and indeed almost the entire history of the PL), to find ourselves relegated with a bloated squad, then you my friend are not just myopic - you’re blind! By the way, we’ve been successful before without incurring the wrath of FFP (and so have plenty of other ‘smaller’ improving clubs).

See, I just don’t get this logic…in my mind it’s utterly bonkers, even if it were possible to raise that much from three mediocre PL level players, which I don’t think we would. I mean what benefit do you think supporters will get from that? Even if £100m were raised, how much would be spent on new players - 20%, 50%…it’s never been 100%? We should be doing everything possible to keep hold of our best players and replacing the weaker players with better. It’s how a team advances, improves, stops the endless roundabout of managers, wins competitions, etc…etc.

There’s Aribo too that could do the #10 role.

Take out Wright, Bednarek, ABK, Lawrence, Sesay, BBD, Fraser, Dipepa, Ballard = 9 = 27 man squad to go. Easy. Personally I’d take Fraser instead of Manning or possibly Taylor, but I doubt that’s going to happen.

Exactly what I previously said - he can shoot (hit the crossbar with a lovely strike in the Gills game), pick out a pass and I think Stills will value those attributes.

And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain: and when he was set, his disciples came unto him. And he opened his mouth, and taught them, saying, “Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.”… 🤭😉

I would like to give Edozie a go - low risk. I also think Aribo was not used to his strengths last season and has a shot on him - he’s much more aligned to a no.10 than a CB FFS! I’d add to that list Bazunu, McCarthy, Manning and Wood, but I doubt any of those will go any when soon.

Isn’t he Club Captain rather than Team Captain? I thought there was a difference but I may be wrong. Generally I would argue there are too many quiet ‘nice boys’ on the team and not enough with a vocal ‘scrapper’ mentality. It’s the one useful attribute Stephens brings - poor otherwise.

My word, makes you realise how poor team management has been. As far as Manning is concerned I hope Still is saying… ”The boys that want to defend can get back to defend. Yes Manning, that means you”!

You said it pal.

Well that shows how little you know about the subject. Autism is not determined by professionals - it is diagnosed and the extent to which the patient is affected is determined so appropriate support can be provided as necessary. Nobody here is stating categorically that Tyler is autistic - that’s an absurd accusation. There’s been speculation that he might have been diagnosed, but if that’s the case he can clearly function as a pro footballer with appropriate support. And fair play to him if that’s the case.

He heard they were going in for Bednarek! 😂😂😂

Well he certainly knows how to pick clubs that will provide the maximum amount of controversy - not sure which set of fans will hate him most.

All I saw in the background was the subtle two finger salute! 😂

Gotta say - 2nd kit looks great. And modelled by Fernandes so he must be staying right? 🤞🙏🏼

We’re all on the autistic spectrum and there are an infinite number of ways it can manifest itself in an individual. Struggling with change is remarkably common among the population, whether that be in home life, in work or just living in general - it’s just that some have better coping strategies than others. It’s not a taboo subject and nor should it be swept under the carpet. I have direct experience with a family member by the way. Whether the condition affects Tyler Dibling is speculation, however the club should be commended for bringing him ‘home’ after his Chelsea experience didn’t work out. How far that ‘nurturing’ stretches now he’s an adult on a senior contract remains to be seen, however my feeling is both parties would like to see him renew his contract…the terms are as always the issue.

No transfer news then? 😏😉

Arguably that’s not correct. Lozenge…suck on that if you will!

The context I’m thinking about is over several seasons - not just last seasons relegation. I would argue that overall squad quality has drifted in a downwards spiral since the days of Koeman’s departure (roughly speaking). Yes, we’ve added some individual quality where needed on occasion (Ramsdale / Fernandes) and that has helped to boost the overall squad quality, but those additions have been restorative - not building an improvement. Take them out and overall squad quality will plummet again. On the flip side, retaining Stephens, Manning, Aribo, Taylor, BBD etc, diminishes overall squad quality but they’re still with us. Each successive season squad quality has been depleted to the point where last season the deficiencies were displayed in all their graphic ugliness. I would argue that to get promotion this season and then stay up, there is an significant improvement in squad quality required (without the loss of our best players). Whether that transformation happens this window, the next two windows or atall is questionable. Is it too much to expect a decent sized club like SFC to retain 7 to 9 players of Ramsdale / Fernandes quality, even in the Championship? I don’t think so…

I think we all know that Stephens and Manning will still be stinking the place out!

My guess is that Tyler’s contract situation is somewhat unique to Tyler. My only hope is that if he stays it doesn’t affect his ability to show up this season - for many of us that’s the critical point I think.

Let’s hope that’s a positive. As per the past, it’s the best players that have left, replaced with lesser players meaning the overall quality of the squad drops. That’s been happening for some years resulting in the shitshow of last season.

There’s an important factor missing from that analysis - the timing of outgoings. It also doesn’t factor in the need to refresh the worst performing squad in PL history - i.e. was the previous post-PL seasons window as in need of a refresh as it is now?

Well that’s just like saying ‘irrespective of how Dibling and his agent feel/think, we should not nail him down to a long term contract on low wages’. In reality there’s no scenario where Dibling and his agent would allow that to happen so the point is moot. As you say, there’s likely no acceptable deal being presented at the moment, however he doesn’t want to go due to personal reasons. Clearly he and his agent think they can hang out for a better deal from Saints at some point in the future. A simple impasse that may get resolved if he smashes the upcoming Championship season and raises his real stock value. Even then he’ll have limited options if he’s not willing to leave Saints.