Saint Fan CaM

Just a thought - perhaps premature, but worthy of discussion. Chaplow is an articulate, hard working and skillful player that gets around all over the park. I've watched him - he talks to other players and likes to motivate. I think he could be a great Team Captain - better than Hammond who seems a bit...well...quiet, not commanding of the team and hardly sets the world alight with his very few interviews to date. Thoughts? Poll?

Actually, like they need it?! They have more dosh than some L2 clubs.

Good man.

I mentioned this on the match thread, but thought it worthy of mention here. I saw Guly leave SMS on crutches last night. It didn't appear that he had a leg or foot bandaged etc., so hopefully it's just precautionary. There were some photo/autograph hunters milling around him, so did anyone else find out how he is?

There is just one massive issue that we can take from yesterdays game - this team needs to get out of L1 to see it perform at it's best. Nothing else matters this season.

No need to get defensive - you THINK the Northam was loud because of where you sit. In the Itchen centre the MU supporters were loud enough to drown out much of the noise from the Northam. And anyway, my point was (as previously noted in other threads) that our support is nullified by the sheer fact that every large game our most vocal supporters are fragmented to other parts of the ground to make room for the visitors. THAT to me is just plain stupid and needs to be addressed by the club as a matter of urgency IMO.

We are L1 at the moment and they are the most successful club in the World. It's not his place to jiz over how well Saints played for 65 minutes. He was not really disrespectful so that's fine. When we have the depth of squad to match them, I feel sure that within the next 10 years we will be on level terms and beating them again. PS edit: I do believe the ref was spoken to by Ferguson at half-time though. Not that he had anything to complain about, but he does that to unsettle the ref and ensure when a decision needs to be made there is no question of him siding with Man Utd's opposition.

Very proud of the team - 1st half we could have been Prem opposition I thought. Got very leggy after 60 mins and Fergie knew it would happen which is when the supersubs came on a cut us a new one. That said, it was two sloppy passes from Dickson and Gobern that let the side down (and Gobern showed he is nowhere near the standard required for this team now). Outstanding performances were from Butterfield, Chaplow and Schneiderlin (surprisingly). When we left the ground a couple of players came out and Guly was on crutches for some reason - hopefully precautionary. New lad Dany hardly touched the ball when he came on which was a shame. All in all a fantastic days footie - got to shake hands with Nigel Adkins, Franny Benali and one of my heroes Mick Channon. Did the stadium tour before the match with Nigels A's Mum and Dad (very nice down to earth people) - he came into the corridor outside the changing rooms to take a photo of our little group on his i-phone! Jimmy Case did a little turn on the mic and we had John Motty Motson do a little bit of talking at the end to auction off his match notes (he was commentating for 5-live) - he got £600 for the Saints Foundation. Only one grumble and that was that from where we were the Man Utd supporters made more noise than us for large parts of the game. Northam was not at the races today, but of course it was half decimated. This needs to be corrected by the club IMO. Also, there were no chants for Markus which was a bit disappointing. Oh well. Proud to be a Saint today. COYS!

This. Make it so.

That's a great article. No judgements. No guesswork. Just the players talking about their club.

This.

Think we might see a few more bench appearances in the youth side for Mr Puncheon - he needs to learn he can't be a petulant little turd. Having said that, I would rather he did his sulking on Pardews time and budget so hopefully NC will sell. Even if he does well to start, he will sulk sooner or later - his reputation precedes him and it will only be a matter of time before he's sold again back into the CCC or lower.

Looks to me as if Cortese is setting out his and the club's stall ready to demonstrate we are a BIG club and will not be knocked around by any other club. If that's the case then hats off to NC - he really has shown us what a fantastic CEO he is time and time again. He's got so many decisions right and my feeling is there will be many more.

Pacy? I don't think so, however he can head the ball, is strong, can dribble with the ball and unlock situations (even 2 to 1 man sometimes). All in all, probably one of the best winger loanees we are likely to get in this window - only problem is there does not appear to be a buy clause if he does well and fits with the team. Welcome to Saints Dany...hop on the bus and hold on tight!

LOL - that's spectacularly good! LOL

This is the key question. The problem is we are 5-10 years away from being in a position to really be attractive enough to youngsters to stay. We need to be in the Prem challenging for a top 6 place, winning silverware and offering incredible personal contracts before we stand any chance of keeping our best. It's the dilemna faced by club academies that turn out top talent - there needs to be FA and FIFA intervention to stop a player from leaving his 'home' club until 21 years of age. That will sort this stupidity out once and for all.

Looking at the U-Tube clips, seems that most of goals are short range poacher type shots which concerns me a little as I am not sure we are as good putting balls into those areas. Looks a good prospect though and fast with the ball too.

It's being shown off at the Megastore and a couple of players will be there for autographs. Closest they'll get to it too I imagine! Not sure if this parading around is a bit pointless, but I suppose it's good for the kids. http://www.saintsfc.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10280~2271782,00.html

Oh no - ssssshhh! You're risking the wrath of Turkish by using those terms! lol

I just hope Berbatov doesn't play - he would rip a new one in our defence. Otherwise who cares - we're going to lose - just hope it's not a complete humiliation. Need to score early because they will be so much fitter than our players who will fade in the 2nd half.

My feeling is we need to get rid and for Adkins to find his own man. There must have been some winger talent at Scunny we could plunder?

Well if true this dilutes the concept of Saints keeping hold of the best youngsters coming out of the Academy to make up a Saints team of the future. Until the FA/FIFA assist the protection of clubs by mandating that home grown players MUST stay at their home club until they are at least 21, there will always be a terrible imbalance in football. I also think that clubs like Arsenal coming in and disrupting young players who are on long-term contracts should be made to pay ALL the money up-front. It would not only assist to quell the stupid fees commanded, but also make them think twice about plundering rather than building the infrastructure to find and develop their own talent. A real shame.

Mmm, interesting. How many times have we been linked with a player and then linked with another player to make it look like we don't need either, only then to tie up a deal shortly after. Is that a normal Cortese-like strategy? I would wager we'll see CML or Austin join us in the next couple of days. This guy could be better for Saints than Austin...a real live-wire, no personality issues and seems like he adapts very well to new higher expectations. Perfect for that step-up to the NPC.

Don't agree we cannot get someone as good as Lallana. By all accounts the boy Jennings ran rings around us yesterday. Ryan Harley is very much in the mould of Lallana - maybe as good with the right guidance and better players around him? Also, did Jennings cost Tranmere a fortune to buy - I think not? Some simple facts/common sense... 1. Signing a player that is as good or better than what you have is not diluting the squad...it's improving the overall competency of the squad. 2. The value of a player in terms of transfer fee does not necessarily equate to the improvement in overall competency to the squad that player offers...i.e. for a variety of reasons, a free transfer could turn out to be a far better player than one costing £1m for example. 3. Signing a player to the squad does not mean that player is mandated to start every game...that player will get a start or a bench place if they can prove that they deserve it in training. If they don't then they need to work harder. There is no such thing as "cover", "reserve" or "bench" players at Saints now...you get picked if you're (a) good enough (b) fit with the Managers game plan for that game. Puncheon is an example of a player 'not on the bus' with regards this strategy. 4. There is a minimum level of competency that all players need to reach to be considered capable of a 1st team place. The fewer options of players in the squad that meet or exceed that minimum level, the fewer opportunities are provided to the Manager to get the squad right for match-day. We do not have enough players in the squad that meet or exceed that minimum level PLUS we also have too many that do meet the level either injured or wantaway and de-motivated. I dare say someone will find something wrong with these simple truths though! (;

Well I know what you mean, however if you don't get to the root cause of pitiful performances you'll not identify how to improve. One last thing - it always amazes me how some seem to think that improving the squad by bringing in better players means spending huge amounts of money. I would wager that Tranmere didn't pay a fortune for Jennings, so where did he spring from as an example? Why should those players appear to be far more motivated than our players who I suspect are earning more money?