Saint Fan CaM

Third corner.

Out wide today and he’s still been poor.

We are Saints - we’ve got a corner!

Battling performance from Manning - err, hang on he’s just taken out Bednarek. Idiot.

Dibling is looking like a freaking passenger!

Sibling looks so sluggish - given the ball away cheaply twice now.

Can see the officials have already been bought - Lino scared to make the right decision.

That’s a side picked to sell! Fucking Manning as a third CB FFS!

Think their bench + coaching team would give us a tough game.

Oh he’ll try, just that he’ll be too slow and miss the ball in favour of the player.

I think we both know the answer to that! 😉😂

I was going to say that, but MLG would probably claim a day constituted 12 hours rather than 24 and didn’t want to give him the pleasure. 😊😉

Odds gone up after tea sheets were released?! 7-0…perhaps worse. Oh yeah, who’s going to see red today? Smallbone must be a good bet.

OMG….just when you thought it was safe to see a team sheet! Where did I put the lube?

I’ve just had a bit of watershed moment reading that. I’ve just realised or perhaps re-realised that actually I don’t give a shit about what league we’re in. I don’t care about relegation or indeed promotion. I just want to watch a game of football where my side has a reasonable chance of gaining a point or three because all the players look like they give a shit and perform at a level befitting the league they are playing in (or better).

The way things have been going Tall Paul may feature or even the Lockness Drogba! Actually come to think of it…. ….nah, perhaps not.

Oh I’m sure we won’t because SR are not good enough to make that happen. Ask yourself this - if the player is contracted for more than a year and SR decided to offer enough money to keep the player in place, why would that not be a good thing? Other teams have been relegated and kept some of their best players in the past. It probably will not happen because we’re talking about SR, but it’s not impossible if the will/vision is there.

Every broken clock is right once a day. 🤭👊🏼

I largely agree with all of that, although I don’t think Bazunu is good enough - he was the worst keeper in the Championship, he’s been injured since and from what I’ve seen he’s not improved an iota. Get rid. I’m obviously not advocating replacing the entire squad with Prem level players in the summer, however we are so sub-standard now that it seems to me to be imperative that the overall squad is improved beyond the best players we have now - i.e. our best are not much better than top Championship or perhaps lower Prem players anyway. We should be attempting to keep Ramsdale, Welington, Fernandes, THB, Dibling and Archer, then buying or loaning better quality from there. Why would anyone want less for our club?

110%! 👍👌🤞

Very little of real value?

Let me remind you of some pertinent facts… 1. We finished 4th, scraped the final and frankly some of the wins/draws getting there were hardly convincing, often going behind and seeing awful gaffs at the back between a flapping Bazunu and slow defenders. OK, so we got promoted…but then so did Ipswich and Leicester who were better than us in the league below and still find themselves staring at relegation. I suppose the income for the Prem will be useful keeping the three relegated teams afloat. 2. With a supposedly improved team from the one that got promoted, we’ve achieved the huge haul of 9 points and have shown they’re too fragile to beat supposedly weaker teams on occasion. Yeah, this team are World beaters alright! 😂 3. Whatever has happened to the squad since SR took over has to be unpicked and repaired in substantial fashion, because whatever the strategy has been, it’s been an unmitigated disaster. 4. Any team with serious intention of promotion and making even a moderate success of a season in the Prem, needs to preferably start building a Prem team in the Championship as that allows bonding and on-field empathy early on and so morale will be much better. The majority of the players in the squad are just not fit for purpose if we want a SUSTAINABLE return to the Prem - it’s as simple as that. Outside of Rambo, THB, Dibling, Fernandes and perhaps Archer and Welington (assuming KWP is going anyway), I’d love to see your list of players that you think will be good enough for next season. To my mind, if you start arguing for Downes or Bednarek for example, there’s no reason for not including 7-8 others of equal (poor) standard and then all of a sudden you’ve got the entirety of a shit team staying for another round of unremarkable displays and loser mentality. I’m sick of it and while I doubt it will happen, I want to see a cull of epic proportions so I get to see my team consist of players who are capable and give a shit.

I understand the idea that retaining some of the ‘better’ Championship level players from this season and selling the players that might be considered ‘Prem’ level might be the right way to go about things. The problem is, very few of the current squad are Prem level players and in fact I’d argue that some are not good enough for a team attempting to be in the top 6 of the Championship. Of those listed, IMO Bazunu, Bree, Smallbone and Edozie are not good enough and I’m thinking that if keep that level of player we’ll not be challenging for promotion. In terms of CB, you can get away with one of the pairing being sub-Prem standard, but not two as with Woods/Edwards, so for me one of those would be out along with Bednarek, Stephens and ABK. THB I would keep if possible. Onto the £100m worth of ‘talent’ you’ve listed. I’m less bullish - based on this seasons performances and selling as a relegated club, there’s not going to be that much coming in… Dibling - £30m, Rambo - £20m, Sulemana - £10m, THB - £10m, Onuachu - £8m, Downes - £8m ….so £86m tops. Having said all that, as per usual I am preparing myself for another summer of utterly underwhelming trading. Players that have contributed to bringing the club into disrepute will be given a chance to redeem themselves in the hope that they’ll suddenly shake off the shame of this season. There will not be the appetitive to cull some of the culprits of the dogshite performances over several seasons. Unless Spors is a ruthless MF and does what’s needed to exorcise the ghosts of SR’s incompetence. In short, I’ve always thought that a newly relegated side must strengthen its squad for a serious promotion push as there was a good reason for the relegation! In our case, that’s as plain to see as the nose on your face.

Not saying Rohl is the answer for sure but there are two points I’d make. Firstly, my SW supporting friend doesn’t want us to poach Rohl - they think he’s a top chap. Secondly, despite their current position and results, I reckon they’d have a good chance of beating this current Saints side.

Feeling a bit touchy? I didn’t accuse anyone of saying we’d get to 25 points - however you were talking about 25 points being enough for safety, which I found mildly amusing under the circumstances we find ourselves in. Read the room. 🙄😘