Saint Fan CaM

Just managed to grab a ticket for me and my 8 yo Grandson (his first Saints game)…£30 & £15. Thought that was not too bad to be honest.

I wonder if it’s Downes himself who has requested the loan deal as at least then he’s still contracted to a Prem team. I completely agree with the stance that SFC are taking on this…pay up £40m that JWP is worth to us or walk-away. Even if Downes is a good player, it’s difficult to imagine him being anything more than a down-grade on JWP and as I keep on saying, we need a better squad than last season to stand a chance of promotion. That is unless we assume that even the better players in the squad like JWP are responsible for the relegation?

So I’ve bought a video stream pass - mail received to say money taken. But no link supplied to watch the game and can’t see a clue on the website, so any idea how that’s supposed to work?

Ings or Antonio? Would have either TBH…they both know how to score a goal in our type of system.

Going to be a bit weird as will be sitting with my Wednesday supporting friend in a home stand…I’ve not done that since the mid-70’s when me and a mate had a dare to stand in the middle of the home end at Farton Park, with our Saints shirts and scarfs safely tucked away inside our coats! We were just 15 so pretty intimidating for the both of us and to be honest I didn’t enjoy the game and couldn’t wait to get out of the sh*thole! 🤮 Think the Wednesday game will be a whole lot different in terms of atmosphere, but I’ll be very respectful even so for my friends sake. I’m not so sure we’ll be dealing out anything like a drubbing…I reckon they’ll be right up for it and of course the TV cameras will be there to record a ‘giant killing’ performance.

I see the Sun (?) have a story linking us with the Sunderland striker Ross Stewart. Doesn’t look like any where near a reliable story thankfully.

And if I had a golden throne I’d sh*t in it, but I don’t and we won’t get another Lambert…he’s not the type of player I suspect this crowd will look for. Thinking on it though, it makes you realise just how fortunate we were to get SRL when we did…the stars aligned and all that…and that kind of stuff probably only happens once in a lifetime and I for one feel very lucky to have witnessed it at first hand.

And some further still to be hung out to dry cure in a smelly kind of way. 🤢🤣

Not far off what I would think, although would not expect Manning to start ahead of KWP if he’s still with us. But that line up is a scary prospect given that Tella is the only change in the forwards.

I’ve resorted to getting a ticket in the home stand with an Owls supporting ex-work colleague (£47!)…travelling up on the Thursday evening and coming back Saturday. It’s a ground I’ve always wanted to visit for the historical value. I’m just going to need to forego colours, sit on my hands during the game and stay politely quiet (should be easy as we like losing our opening games right?).

I would argue that if we continue to look toothless in attack, that will be a legacy issue that has plagued us for months/years and one that will be extremely difficult to reverse. The last three seasons bears witness to this.

Good luck to Romeu…great Saints player who often just got on with the job without flair, but with passion. If we could have kept hold of him we should have, but by all accounts he wanted away and deserved his opportunity.

I’m going to the Bournemouth game and hoping to see a much more cohesive, balanced and forward thinking team of players that have one key objective…score goals and win a game of football. That’s entertainment value, but if we lose it doesn’t matter as long as that objective is demonstrated - it’s a pre-season friendly after all against Prem opposition. What I expect to see however is a sad reflection of a rag-tag disjointed squad of players, most of which operated at a very low level of quality in the Prem and worryingly also, against lower league opposition. A group of players inherited by a Manager who expects them to play like Man City, but don’t have the attributes to convert the few goal scoring chances offered into goals. No new proven, commanding striker added and the prospect of losing our ‘best’ players so further depleting squad quality. You may have guessed I’m not feeling particularly upbeat about the coming season at the moment (although that’s not stopping me travelling to Sheffield for the opening game). The one glimmer of hope I have is that somewhere in this squad there is a key that unlocks a performance like the last Liverpool game. Let’s just hope he or they are not sold. After the Bournemouth game I believe we’ll be in a reasonably good position to tentatively predict if the past 3 years of timid, lifeless football has been exorcised and whether there might be a chance of promotion.

^^^ This all day long! 👍 But mostly in relation to the attack minded players…the ones supposedly scoring the goals!

Well you might imagine a £15m player would be a regular starter, but that’s not always the case. What about Larios, Edozie, Mara, Sulemana…none of them have featured consistently? Who knows, due to our asking price Lavia may end up staying another year (lovely but highly doubtful)!

Take it it’s not Fonte then!?! 😉🤣

That would be a good idea to bolster the midfield backbone. Need a fighter or two in amongst the ‘son in laws’.

Bednarek and Stephens likely first choice, although my choice would be DCC instead of Stephens. Whatever, that’s one ‘spare’. Salisu and ABK want out and are supposedly off (but no clear and firm interest yet). That leaves Lyanco. As I say, I’m not confident we’ve got enough pulling power to get someone better than him. Interesting that he appears to have more suitors than the two alleged want-aways. Dont get me wrong, if the money is there to attract a very good CB better than our current crop that would be preferable, but I don’t think that’s going to happen and it’s certainly not a section of the squad that needs extremely urgent attention (I.e. the strikers).

With Diallo gone and Lavia almost certainly on the way, who do you think is going to play next to JWP (assuming he stays)? OK they may risk Charles, but is he too young/inexperienced? It wouldn’t surprise me to see Smallbone starting games and utilising that level of player will put paid to a promotion push IMO.

I think there are some who are massively overestimating the pull of Saints in the Championship to attract a backup CB better than Lyanco. As always with these scenarios, be very careful what you wish for.

I’m still of the opinion that our defence is not the most pressing problem and Lyanco is a good enough player for the Championship. With some focused training around the system Martin wants to play, there’s even an opportunity to improve further. We urgently need more of a goal threat to win games…no team wins games of football 0-0.

Smallbone is one of those players I would look to move on…he’s not shown enough in either a DM role or an AM role and for me is just a very average ‘Jack of all trades’. He certainly can’t shoot. Stephens is another player who has some ability but ultimately is not at a standard required for a solid dependable CB. Regardless, what Martin needs to do is decide soon who his main CB pairing is so that experience and an understanding can be built up as his system starts to embed. It’s not a position that works well with tinkering IMO.

Agree that overall squad quality improvement is essential, however I don’t think Lavia or JWP could be classed as top quality Prem players at this time. Lavia COULD be as his performances have shown much promise, but he’s not had the opportunity to shine in a top team yet. JWP was a poor version of an average midfielder last season in my view and I’m not sure he’ll be any better in the Championship, although he is better option than Smallbone.

Saw an interesting table of squad value on FB. Had Saints top with a squad value of circa £370m and Sheffield Wednesday with a squad value of circa £8m!!! I somehow doubt those values will be reflected in the match result at the end of day one of the season.

Yes that’s true and even more profound given we were gash last season, even against lower league opposition. To have a chance of promotion this coming season the old Prem squad actually needs to be improved IMO. I don’t predict a step change coming from these players due to Martin’s appointment, so the one glimmer of hope is that we bring in a really dominating and experienced striker which the club does have a choice in.