Saint Fan CaM

The Newcastle rumour seems to be sticking a bit, but I can’t see him going until the summer. There’s been no news coming out of the club about Bazunu for months now and I’m wondering if the injury and/or recovery is much worse than originally expected. What does that leave us with? McCarthy - as no.1 what does it matter…we’re dead anyway. But what about a decent no.2 / 3?

I refer you to the first sentence of my post. 😉

Yeah well that’s not going to happen too much if you’re a Saints supporter is it? 😜

Zzzzzzzzzz. Have the Board woken up yet? Surprised there’s been no leak from the transfer meeting on Tuesday yet.

I’ll be watching this one via stream with dignified apathy. God help/bless those hardy fools with a ticket.

To be fair I think my fucking dog would work that one out (only if there’s a bone or biscuit on offer mind).

Doesn’t that ignore the fact that there are scouts at different competency levels too? Do you have to be a Liverpool scout to know that the fitness and skill levels of a potential player will match the expectations required of the EPL?

I watch some lower league games and see fit, strong strikers put in some really nicely created shots on goal and think - why can’t they do that at a higher level? Lambert managed it. Is there another Lambert out there somewhere?

Got to agree with @Turkish on this one - it’s not clever or funny to resort to abuse just to attempt to belittle that person especially without actually providing a counter-argument. I’m sceptical of the veracity of the information provided, however I cannot deny the entertainment value these posts bring and if there’s an element of truth in the information then better still. Keep on keeping on @Turkish and friends.

That’s one of the reasons these players go to the top clubs - not just to play at that level, but to be associated with the name etc. I do wonder if the likes of Carvalho would come to a club like Southampton and are we always going to be a stepping stone club? I suppose KWP and Rambo did, so why not a really decent striker?

Moneyball done the right way?

Keep on saying it - a decent wedge of money has been spent. Trouble is how it’s been spent - some players bought for ‘the future’, some for SR’s other clubs and then a glut of others for our squad that don’t do so well, rather than 1-2 marquee signings that really lift the collective quality of the 1st team.

Maybe, but those guys are not youngsters. Not only that it’s hardly fair to judge Charles based on an entire teams performance’s. Fact is he’s improved under a different manager/system.

Don’t mean to be overly argumentative, but we do know that Charles looks better under a different Manager. That’s exactly why he’s getting starts at Wednesday and their fans love him surely?

Yeah, you’ve made some sound points, but I think the key part is the spend of the £44m as an example. It’s clear Fernandes was a good buy at £13m and Suga is worth £6m in my view, although I’m not sure he was needed in preference to other positions/spend. The £29m spent on Archer/BBD, Edward’s and Wood (plus the £8m wasted on Stewart) in my view would have been better spent on a decent striker - Delap would have been a much better alternative. My overall point is that whenever we’ve sold our better players subsequent trading has ended with a weakened squad and it only needs that to happen 2-3 times for big problems to materialise. Having a bloated squad in itself provides increased pressure on the Manager to over-rotate meaning on-field relationships are less likely to form resulting in a team of strangers.

What I meant was, if the players employed by wants to go and the price is right then SR can and will sell. The main point was that based on history the funds from that sale will not be utilised to improve the 1st team. If they get top dollar, replacements will be brought in at top dollar / 3.

OK, perhaps found out is not quite the right phrase, but Martin clearly didn’t think he was good enough for his system. Beyond that you’re conveniently ignoring the fact that players don’t operate in isolation. For example, if a ball is passed backwards to a player under pressure from a press, especially a younger less experienced player, there is more chance they’re going to make a mistake. We’ve seen a lot of that have we not? And nowhere have I said Russball is shit - that’s your simple narrative at play - what I’ve said is that the players employed by the club were not good enough to sustain Russball in the EPL and that it was in general boring to watch - even in the Championship.

The point I’m making is Les has improved (albeit marginally) with Juric and the system employed. I think had Charles been given that opportunity he too would have looked better than he did.

If SR can sell Dibling then they will - and then buy 3 players each worth a quarter of the value of Dibling. Quantity over quality is the way ahead lads.

My view is that as a young lad learning his trade, he suffered the Russball system imposed on him and got found out. Not really fair to judge either him or Big Les based on the chaos that system presented the team.

I get it, but how many times does it happen? Not too many I would wager and if it were possible, then why are the likes of ABK and Stewart still hanging around wasting wages etc.?

Mmm, if that’s true and I’m not disputing it, it makes you wonder if that little nugget of information was ever factored into the recruitment decision in the first place? Not to mentioned being crocked for X months. How many relegations do each of the Bournemouth players have on their CV’s I wonder? Genuine question.

I’m genuinely interested in knowing how you would cancel player contracts without huge cost to the club (even if it was legally possible)? And even if the club managed to ship out players in this manner, what kind of message would that send out to prospective incoming players? If we’re not the most unattractive club in the top 3 divisions of most European countries right now, I reckon that would do the trick. The best we can hope for is that Juric is telling certain players they are no longer needed and they’re working furiously with their agents to get a move away before they have a relegation on the CV’s.

Obviously he had a part to play in being chums with the squad, utilising the sub-standard players by persistently playing slug football. But let’s not dress up what was boring to watch and which saw us only just make it through the play-off final by one goal. It did a job yes, but SR/Martin didn’t recognise the gap in fitness and skill level that existed between the Championship and EPL and the level of player that would be needed to sustain survival. Martin was so naive that he thought he could make the likes of Manning and Stephens into winners against the best in Europe playing the same slug tactics. On the other hand, Adkins achieved two successive auto promotions with a smaller budget, playing expansive entertaining football. And he kept us out of the relegation zone when we went up to the Prem. You need to have a re-think if you can’t see there’s a world of difference between the two and I know which era I derived more pleasure from (not Martins).

Not even Rasmus has those levels of stupidity. Has he? 🤔😳😬