Saint Fan CaM

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.

Agreed - and yet Dibling is still with us, with no new contract signed or a new deal offered from another club. Why is that do you think?

Very selective memories IMO. There were occasions when he made excellent interceptions (as well as covering for substandard CB’s), plus being left exposed because the likes of Dibling left him stranded upfield after another failed pass or running into a blind alley. You can’t have it both ways - if he got into advanced positions on orders to cross, then there’s less chance defending adequately in a system NONE of the fullbacks were entirely comfortable with - but who covered for him? Even KWP came under criticism at times under Martin’s system.

Outside of Fernandes and Ramsdale who did? Also his manager(s) were not up to the PL job were they? Seems a bit disingenuous judging him against such a backdrop.

I’m 50-50 on whether it’s worth keeping him or not - he’s seemingly got loads of potential, but there’s little evidence that he has what it takes to realise that potential at the moment. Maybe that’s something that happens at Championship level who knows. I’m not sure he really wants to leave and I wonder whether the stupidly high £100m price tag is an indication of that rather than anything else, although it’s baffling why he’s not signed a new deal. If it’s a game of cat and mouse I don’t think his agent is in a particularly strong position frankly.

For me Suga is not the worst defender or indeed player in a team of misfits. Manning is worse in my opinion for a start as he’s not got the attacking delivery and is useless in defence. Suga has been playing for the most part under a system that was totally unsuitable for the squad and as such was placed into difficult defensive positions when the likes of wonder boy Dibling fucked up and gave the ball away in our half. In terms of the handballs - yes, it’s not great - but there’s a definite argument that on another day/time, it’s judged as a “ball to hand” accidental thing. There has to be a scapegoat I guess, but to my mind there’s at least 16 other first team players that fit that mould too.

So what you’re saying is the club deliberately bought players not good enough for the PL because it was nailed on we’d be in the Championship this season? 🤔

Southampton’s player? Might as well be Göztepe’s player for all the good he’ll do our club!

Can you imagine the heyday the skates will have when dear Baz flaps around and gifts them a winning goal or two? It’ll be too painful to watch. I thought he’d gone off on loan to prove his fitness following injury? And actually ended up proving he’s actually quite shit.

In a way I’m glad that Still had the opportunity to witness the lack of fitness and ability across the squad this early in pre-season. If he has any sense of the overall deficit that exists in the squad (which I think he’s starting to realise) he’ll be begging Spors to shift most of the first half team out the door plus a few others and recruit some real talent in. Even if a player is willing to stretch himself and attempts to put the effort in, does not mean he has the capacity to get fitter or suddenly develop a better footballing brain. Or to put it more crudely, you can’t make a purse out of pigs ear. Example of how this works…Stephens - not improved over how many seasons?

It would be quicker listing those who might actually be worthy of a start. And from the post match interview Still thinks the pretty much the same - he was clearly disappointed in the performance (don’t think his comments on the 2nd half excluded that team). What he will find out however is these players were selected to play a different, much slower system - they just don’t have what it takes both in physical and mental attributes to play a fast, pressing, goal scoring game. Yes this was the first pre-season game, but it was against a relatively lower level side. It’s going to be a shit show unless there’s a significant improvement in either the players or new players arriving. And I predict neither will happen…there I said it.

Still sounded a bit pissed off in his post match interview - lots of work yet to be done!

Very good - thanks. Trouble is the two signings we have made are not on there and not one of those listed have been seen anywhere near Staplewood! Serves to demonstrate the value in the media rumour mill and highlights the massive value of the CoT - isn’t that right @Turkish? 😉

True, but mine has not updated for a couple of years now?!?

Even with those players gone, there’s far too many hugely mediocre players in that squad and not enough creativity/dynamics in midfield. Still a big job left to turn things around IMO.

Working for me at the moment, but not sure how long my subs last for. I seem to remember contact via email previously.