Saint Fan CaM

Saw a FB group post this morning claiming we’d gone to Celtic with a €28m bid for O’Riley. Not sure if I believe we’d go that high, but he could be seen by RM as make or break part of his system and success for the season so has pushed hard for it to be done. Perhaps KWP deal has been done with Spurs providing the funds?

That’s a pretty horrible starting 11 - suspect RM will be gagging to make changes. Somehow doubt we’ll see Lallana or Stewart.

Can’t deny there’s some useful looking players in there that would instantly improve the team, but it’s the wages that will scupper any potential deal.

Yeah definitely - a loan with option to buy at end of season for £18/20m would be good business, but far too risky otherwise.

You may be right, however if the clubs stance on Tall Paul is anything to go by (holding out for €10m) they’ll not be gifting these players away bearing in mind how much Sulemana cost (£22m?).

Sweet Mary, that third kit is diabolically shite. 🤢

Lavia - top player, sold for a good wedge Baz - out badly injured but statistically the worst GK in the Championship, little chance of offloading for a decent sum but expected to return to 1st team duties when fit. £4m? Larios - out badly injured, so has had little to no chance to prove his worth. £8m? Edozie - has a chance of starting against Newcastle, albeit a small one or at least featuring off the bench. Still has good value…£15m? Mara - agree…useless and unlikely to get better in the system, with little value…£3-4m probably too much for a L1 club. Alcarez - at club while management change happened so playing style doesn’t suit…hence his loan. Still got good value in him…£15m? Sulemana - not really happening for him in RM’s system, but a chance he could feature off the bench and a player with good value still…£15m? Think £75m for that lot despite their issues, is actually not exactly a disaster in terms of strategy, however it does serve to illustrate very clearly how spending big on a number of youth is a huge risk for a club of our means, relying on at least one of them to be good enough for immediate 1st team appearances AND to command a high selling price.

Corrected for you…he has neither to a level we should expect. Thankfully it’s being reported that Brest are interested in him, but likely a loan.

And therein lies the problem…Lavia was exceptional for his age and there are plenty more examples (not just in our team). The issue lies in the initial scouting and then the crazy deals given, as shown by previous regimes who squandered so much on the hope of a big payday when the youngster is snapped up by a ‘big’ team. Which the best strategy - Saints take the risk signing a youngster for millions with the hope of a big payday…or, let the ‘big money’ teams take the risk by signing these players, then Saints step in and buy those that don’t quite meet the ‘big money teams’ expectations? I would suggest the latter is best and seems to be more the approach we’re taking lately, however that’s not to say we abandon the Academy and produce solid talent like Tyler.

Transfer silly season is well and truly on us. We’re linked with any attacking forward or GK that’s touted as sub €25m. It’s a lottery predicting who we’ll end up with, but I’ve a feeling it’ll be players that are left-field - largely unknowns and probably not predicted by the CoT.

At this point it’s a bit difficult to predict given potential incomings. I think we’ll lose, but not sure it’s going to be the huge drubbing everyone’s predicting… probably 4-1.

I think we probably have…many examples of long contract lengths at Saints over the years, particularly in the Les era. Problem comes when they’re actually dogs and the value goes down rather than up!

Perhaps that’s why he’s valued at €20m now?

I would agree, however the signs are he wants a move and who could blame him - he’s been left out in the cold and loaned to the club who wants him. Having said that, he’s been seen in training vids/pics I’ve seen.

Can see Tall Paul being here for the season, although game time will be little to non-existent I expect. There’s only one club interested in taking him and they want to pay peanuts. Maybe he’ll be the one that ‘feels like a new signing’? 😳

Understand your point, but what I’ve described is a hypothetical strategic position and not one involving just one player whether that’s O’Riley or any other. There’s more than £30m in the pot…not much more perhaps, but certainly more. We’ve seen many times in the past where stockpiling lesser players ends in a relegation scrap…it doesn’t work.

Good point. I also believe that it’s not just about the GK - playing a high line with two wing backs so far forward that our defence is compromised, is as much to blame.

I think what some are concerned about is that rather than spend £15m on two average players that may well be unimpressive at EPL level, why not spend £30m on one outstanding player (by our standards) and utilise Academy youngsters as backup? That’s surely as close to the club philosophy as any other approach.

Tell you what, when you write something that’s remotely interesting I’ll get back to you.

That’s true - he has it in him perhaps, but think about the number of times that happens as a percentage of all the passes he makes…it’s a very low number. Why do you think he doesn’t do that more? I think it’s because they’re conditioned to always look for the perfect pass and don’t position themselves in a way to create enough chances. The emphasis is on possession…not chance creation. Great management saying - ‘don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good’.

I think he’s getting better at it - possibly learning from Downes - but neither have the front facing killer pass in them.

If the 1st team stays as is we can expect the type of bad performances and results from last season, but amplified in goals against and frequency. Last night I watched several attempts from Arma and Charly to run between defenders and no-one took a chance to thread a ball through, preferring instead to re-cycle the ball backwards or sideways. Then we had Manning attempting to be some kind of Declan Rice, but with no spacial awareness of what’s around him or more importantly what’s in front of him. He’s just too Poundland to have the skills to operate in that position or any position in the Prem. McCarthy is a disaster waiting to happen, which means a defence lacking belief. Many of the players in possession don’t look around them or get a call from a team mate to turn and pass the ball in the opposite direction to that which they received the ball…that is they only seem to pass for the sake of passing in the direction they are initially facing. Consequently the ball gets passed backwards or sideways ad infinitum. The lack of creativity is frighteningly poor, with Alcarez being the one bright spark. Sulemana and Edozie have no end product…Tyler is a little the same, but at his age/experience he can be cut some slack. Mara is just a waste of a shirt. With all the talk of spending millions on the next best attacking forward, I do wonder why the club don’t push to offer a better deal to KWP and put him in front of Suga. He can terrorise defences with his mazy runs and can shoot very effectively coming in from the right. Might actually save a few £’s. In summary, huge amount of work to do and the new season is just around the corner.

Maybe. By what - a week or two? And what about the supposed higher level of the players or did our lot turn into lazy slouches since Wembley? I mean surely we should have at least matched Oxford. Let me say that again….Oxford Utd.😏

And I guess that would suggest Oxford were not suffering pre-season exhaustion as they were superior in many ways?

I think this evening we’ve seen why Saints should push - very hard - to get O’Riley over the line. We desperately need his creativity and goals. Otherwise BBD and any other potential forward will be stood around waiting for a chance that never comes.