Saint Fan CaM

Have to say it would be a huge leap for the lad, however he does look a very tidy player albeit in a lower league.

Sounds like any and every club will be aware and use it if they’re after one of our transfer listed players

Is Bittencourt really what we need? If so, then does that signal a diminishing chance of getting Downes out of Wet Spam? It’s a bit of a concern that Manning, Mara and a few others are still with us…i.e. no news of transfer listings.

It occurs to me that the title of this thread is as good an oxymoron as you’re likely to see! 🤣

RM will eventually leave Saints - it happens a lot to many teams. Why? Because the club can’t match the aspirations of the Manager or the Manager fails to achieve expected objectives of the club. Guaranteed this will be the case with RM…the question is, how long before one of those scenarios plays out? The summers transfer business will be very telling.

To get into a position where he’s highly thought of as an England U-21 coach would seem to suggest he’s got the right stuff. I guess the club must be of the impression that he can do a good job within our academy and I don’t think there’s been any conclusive evidence that he’s going to rack up game time thankfully.

This is great news for Stewart - he’ll have a buddy to chat to in the medical room. Otherwise can’t see the point…he’s not going to fire enough goals to keep us up.

I worse kicking than Baz IMO and looked rubbish composed in possession kicking out from the back for a youngster.

Disagree. Although England hardly troubled him, for a youngster he looked composed on the ball when they were playing out from the back - very much out of the RM bible.

Yeah that performance was wholly uninspiring. I thought Iceland looked the better team in most areas. Wouldn’t mind us signing their keeper.

Thing with Lallana is that all the negotiations at the club were with a different set of people - why would the current hierarchy be concerned with 2014 particularly if there are known mitigations in Lallana’s favour? The one precedent that sticks in my throat is that he was the Captain and to leave for a rival club for me really stank.

Err, why? Source? Can’t see it to be honest.

Not my video! Blimey, if I was him I’d be taking that down and replacing it with something that does him a favour.

Thank goodness for that - the clips video was an awful collection of underwhelming L1 level football.

Funny, I watched the game thinking England looked like Saints with better players, but actually not as entertaining. I don’t rate our chances unless they improve their game by 20%.

My word, there’s silly season and then there’s the above ramblings. I think I’ve gone from euphoric after the final to thoroughly underwhelmed at the rumours so far (not counting THB as we had him already). Anyone else reckon we’ll get taken to the cleaners for Downes and Fraser?

Great player for the club and such a shame to be leaving when injury plagued. Good luck for the future Stu!

Yes, what’s gone before is over and if Lallana was the right guy then so be it. But he’s not, at least in a playing sense. My view is that brining him in as a 1st team player will be divisive and indicative of trying to get things done on the cheap. A coaching role fair enough, although I’m not sure what credentials he has to earn his crust.

I wouldn’t be upset if he came back to us, but a loan to buy seems the best option. Trouble is, if there was any chance we were interested then the journo’s would be all over it - but they’re not, so there’s little to no chance he’ll turn up here.

It seems Lallana has been forging a decent name for himself around the England U-21’s and beyond, so I can believe there is an attraction to bring in that expertise and experience into the club, particularly with someone who has past links. If the rumours are true it seems clear he’s not burnt bridges with the club, so any talk of bad blood etc. probably stem from Les Reed and others, who did a pretty appalling job dismantling a superb few seasons of building a great base. On balance, I think Adam L should be welcomed but not as a 1st team player.

Where would he go on loan and for what purpose? He’ll not go to a Prem team to prove his ability and going to a Championship side will risk further injury for no gain to us. Think the best bet is to give an opportunity to recover and be ready for pre-season games to prove both his fitness and ability. Of course many players in the squad will not have experienced life as a Prem player, but then as a professional it’s going to be a major ambition to prove yourself at the highest level.

Agree with this analysis - it’s very difficult to argue that Mara has anything like what a decent striker needs to operate at Championship level let alone at Prem level when his contribution will be wiped out by much better defenders.

What I find encouraging is that there are a good number of clubs other than the newly promoted clubs in the list. I’m surprised to not see Bournemouth in the list too - Brighton are too well funded/run now to be in danger of a bottom three place, but who knows what the new season will bring? WRT Saints placing, this will be largely determined by the success of our summer transfer business - break the squad up too much and lose the feel-good factor - sign too few or low quality players and RM’s system will be quickly found out at Prem level leading to a similar result to the 22/23 relegation season.

I’ve always understood “affordable housing” to mean publicly owned rented housing…what in my time was once called ‘council houses’. This made them ‘affordable’. They’re typically not so readily available to younger families nowadays thanks to the Tories introducing “Right to Buy” so they either fall into tenant private ownership or property developers buy up the houses and then rent them out themselves at higher rates.

Have to say those prices are not too bad - I half expected the club to take advantage of promotion to bring in extra funds from next season ST sales. And the new zones make sense too.