Saint Fan CaM

Meh. Thats all I’ll say on this.

Looks like a decent acquisition and for that money I would imagine he’s been told he’ll be a first team starter meaning Lavia is definitely off. However, from the UT clips he’s not as good as Lavia and that in itself gives me a little cause for concern. Unless other positions are strengthened we will once again find the overall squad quality diluted a little more and that’s something we cannot afford to happen if promotion is a serious aspiration. Last seasons squad was a mess irrespective of the league we were in - what’s not certain is how much of that was due to such poor and inconsistent team management/coaching. I’m hoping a lot.

He could play for any of the top six in the EPL, then there's Madrid, Barcelona, Borussia M, PSV, etc. etc. - why Liverpool?

I truly hate our best players going to Liverpool - it's irrational I know, but nevertheless they've pillaged our squad too much in the past thanks to Reed and Co who must have had a 'special' relationship with them. And they're an entitled bunch of ****s too. You'd think Lavia would have higher aspirations. If it were my decision it would be £60m and a sell-on fee clause of 20% - fook 'em.

Based on general observation that elder players will in general get taken to the cleaners by agile younger attackers.

Nothing if you think he’s going to have what it takes for a promotion place. He doesn’t (now).

Madness if he’s brought back at 39!

Clearly Lavia is a talent and no mistake and the other City youngsters are good players too, but let’s not also forget that these players were part of a squad that couldn’t prevent relegation. I’m not saying Lavia was the cause, but he was the only youngster who had the quality to help prevent relegation…we needed more players (youngsters or otherwise) of that quality, which we failed to sign. That’s the big learning point from the last three years and a downside to the model…it’s very easy to progressively dilute the squad to an extent that it fails spectacularly and last season was not the first time…Lowe did it too. We’ll probably be OK in the Championship, but unless the club IMPROVES on last seasons overall squad quality we will not match the promotion hopefuls this season.

I’ve decided not to respond to this inane drivel. Oh.

Has to be Lyanco. I refuse to accept any other solution.

Agreed again. Like others I was sceptical he was the man and there’s clearly a long way to demonstrate he’s the right fit, but so far he’s coming across very well and I like the way the club are once again giving us a small insight into life at Staplewood. The first big test for the Board is replacing our best leaving players with as good or better rather than diluting the quality even further…that’s going to be as key to Martins success as his managerial ability.

I don’t disagree that your scenario might happen, but history has a habit of repeating itself.

Ah, one of those injuries that mean you MUST attend a contract signing??? 😜

Got to agree. Kid has lots of potential, but there’s a reason the best keepers in the top two tiers of Brit football are mostly not youngsters. We (and he) deserve better from the club.

Long way to go yet and I suspect Saints will be left waiting until the last minute to offload some of our better players in panic buys, leaving Martin in the lurch regarding filling gaps. There’s a good two thirds of the squad I would not be unhappy losing, but I don’t see that many players getting decent moves elsewhere…they’ll end up staying and stinking the place out unhappy that they’re still associated with a relegated side with high performance expectations. They’ll get picked because their stats look good and then they’ll perform terribly on matchday when the chips are down. It’s going to be a tough old season ahead I fear (unless we have a spectacularly successful summer window).

Personally I suspect Moore’s agent has told him to hold out for the 3 x deal and the Chairman, rightly, has called his bluff. To be fair, the club offered an increase but we don’t know what the starting salary was - 3 x £10k a year is still a bit of a piss-take, but I doubt that’s anywhere near the case.

It was ok..as to be expected. Although there were one too mentions of being aggressive!

I expect repeated cries of "we don't have the players to suit the required style of play", followed quickly by the realisation and recognition that SR have royally screwed up once again because (a) the already bloated squad was not pulled apart enough, (b) time ran out to bring in the players needed to improve the 1st team, (c) not enough money was spent resolving the lack of quality in certain positions in the squad (e.g. strikers), (d) Martin and his coaching team fail to eradicate the losing mentality ingrained into the squad. Other than that, promotion preferably as champions.

Agreed, but that’s part of the problem - where is his best position when he’s persistently been played deeper than his potential allows? I don’t think it’s just that we’ve not had personnel to sit besides Lavia…I think there’s more attacking intent offered by other players such as Alcarez. I’ve thought for some years that JWP has some useful attributes, but not enough in one particular area to make him indispensable…he’s a ‘luxury’ player and when he’s got lesser teammates around him, his shortfalls are amplified. For example, he looked SO much better when he had Romeu beside him.

One for the future?!? 🤔

Depends which valuations you believe, but if you’ve got between £30-45m to invest in a defensive midfield player, do you pick JWP or Lavia? Yes, they’re different types of player, but I can’t see any club stumping up the £m’s being bandied around for a 28 year old JWP and that’s not taking into account that he may actually want to stay faithful to Saints as a big fish in a smaller pond.

Yes, I think we agree that there is one specific that will go a long way to determine success or otherwise and that is he gets the backing of the Board to re-build the squad to a high standard and one that exceeds the squad of last season. Trying to emulate Swansea will just not cut it.

You've missed from that list Stephens, DCC, Edozie, Mara, Sulemana, Alcarez and a number of youth such as Ballard who made it into the first team on occasion. There's nothing to suggest any of these players will stay or leave - so that's one hell of a bloated squad full of mediocrity with 3-4 stand out individuals who will be sold if offers come in (only Lavia appears to be getting solid interest, but at this point no offer).

Do you mean from the Prem or the Championship or both? Can you name them (I can't!)?

But you see that's my point - everyone is pinning hopes on his previous stats with a different set of players in a different club set-up. Going forwards he's got a different set of problems to overcome, not least a demoralised relegated squad which is in danger of losing its best most influential players in Lavia, JWP and so on. Despite the fact that financially we're in a better place than our previous relegation to the Championship, this feels like it has the potential to go the same way in terms of squad improvement, bearing in mind that the bloated squad of recent times has been a shambles and needed significant strengthening. And I don't buy the argument that the Championship demands lesser quality - obviously it demands performances of Premiership quality to enable promotion. So my question remains - in the shadow of our best players leaving, how will Russell Martin and his team achieve the stated aim of the Club which is immediate promotion? What attributes does he have to match the demands of our club and 1st team squad? His style of football appears to be more of the slow and predictable type of game we've become so bored with, so getting supporters on-side will not be an easy task. Why did the defensive side of his game fail at Swansea and will that hurt us given we've suffered a poor defensive record ourselves in the past? You could argue that he's re-built failing squads in the past, however that's been at a level lower than Saints aspirations and ultimately those teams have not really stood out as exceptionally good. You could argue that he's got Championship experience which is a definite plus, however the task ahead of him cannot be underestimated. Expectations run high and when things go wrong like they did for Jones, will he crack under the pressure?