Saint Fan CaM

Looking good - especially the surprise left back!

I find that meme somewhat offensive. Granary bread all day long.

With Shea Charles or any other incoming player the key is where they’ve come from and what past experience they’ve had to be considered for our squad. Who’d heard of Lavia or Alcarez before they joined us? Orsic came to us with supposedly an excellent pedigree and rep which most fans had been aware of, but look how that turned out! I don’t think the club is in any rush to agree to a huge drop in Salisu’s value with weeks still left in the window. My guess is he will go at a tad under our purchase price, but possibly with a sell-on clause or similar. JWP is an enigma. I don’t doubt he wants to play in the Prem/Europe and I don’t doubt that the club will see this window as an opportunity to make money on a saleable asset. For all his prowess in free kicks, his corner taking is not all that and his job as a DM is…well, standard. For all his high pass stats, his corresponding assists have tailed off dramatically. I’ve never been particularly convinced he’s Captain material, although I suspect the dressing room of the last three seasons has provided a ‘safe son-in-law’ environment for him. On balance, anything over £35m and we bite.

Seems a no brainer and a good signing for a free. He mentioned the need for squad depth given the numbers of games that will come thick and fast, so perhaps there’s a plan to play both Perraud and Manning at LB - square pegs in square holes and similar quality…better than relying on a lesser player in the advent of injury.

I don't doubt this lad has all the potential to be a top player one day. He may even hit the ground running and perform well for us. However, where is the experience and guile coming from? I can see these lads being kicked around trying to play keep football by numbskull cloggers and consequently facing long periods in the medical centre. And when they return they'll be a little more wary of playing keep ball and we'll lose possession more, in turn losing more games. When they're out injured for long periods the lack of depth in squad quality will start to tell and performances will drop. There's some huge risks coming our way, even if Martin gets the team playing like Brazil. Could be big fun or it could be another season of pain - who knows?

What's in a contract and what the Club decide to enact are two different things though. If they want to keep certain players they can easily amend the contract terms to whatever they feel the player deserves...e.g. JWP, Alcarez - amend to 0.1%, KWP, Tino, Sully - amend to 2% etc., Aribo, Diallo, Orsic, Tall Paul, Djenepo - leave well alone at 40%!

Well that’s my point…there is no ‘clarity’ yet to us bringing in “decent names” for departing players. Yes, Tella may well be a better player for his time with Burnley (assuming he doesn’t get sold back to them towards the end of the transfer window when they find themselves short and panic buy). And Armstrong and Adams are not the same players in the same team to when they were scoring for fun before joining us. Based on the last three years I’m not sure our style of play (or Martins) suits some of these players. Perhaps the last 3-4 years has left me feeling too pessimistic (which is hardly surprising!), however there’s a long way to go before I’ll be convinced the club have got it right this time around to the point where we look cohesive, score goals and remain competitive over 90+ minutes in a very tough league.

Well yes and no. Clearly the squad last season was awful - bloated with mediocrity, unbalanced and devoid of quality, with the exception of Lavia perhaps but even he had some bad games. My point is that the squad needs a major overhaul and extra quality brought in to be in with a shout of success, rather than any further dilution. Sure, it will be difficult to find a direct Lavia replacement and this guy might be the best we can get, but that just serves to emphasise the need for major overhaul and quality improvement without which this season will be a lot more difficult than some seem to think.

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!