Saint Fan CaM

First away - Man City First home - Brighton Get the tougher fixtures out of the way early doors

I think it’s pretty obvious his years contract is to help bed him into position for a coaches job ready to be Russ’s successor when he gets the call from a bigger team or more likely gets sacked.

What a complete shitshow for Scotland. Looks like Saints in our relegation season…totally bereft of ideas and/or skill.

This is nothing like the Walcott signing - he came in when the club was in terminal decline during a torrid season, whereas Lallana is coming into a squad on a high with a renewed purpose. I reckon if he scores a first goal he’ll be the darling once again. If he sits on the bench and does the same role as Armstrong and Rothwell in terms of offering experience and leadership then it’s probably good business. Now, having said all that and resolved my mind to where we are, I’m still of a mind that it feels uncomfortable taking back has-been players when you’d think we’d want fresh talent. Perhaps there’s some form of Brighton empathy for Russ & Lallana. Whatever, he’s here…he’ll be wearing the red and white again…he’ll need our support.

I would expect there’s some negotiation to be had on £20m, however even £1 would be wasted if he’s in the treatment room for the majority of the season.

Saints don’t do ambitious nowadays…more left-field, unknown, bench-warmer types. 😉

Absolutely this - hence my concern that it could take quite some time to bring Downes in. There’s no guarantee a Downes replacement will bed in as successfully as he did and waiting until no pre-season is available will make things very difficult indeed. Probably the most important position to resolve IMO.

Agree with all that…just would like to see Downes over the line sooner rather than later.

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!