Saint Fan CaM

You would have to question the sanity of anyone accepting that deal! Lyanco is a seasoned pro with great stamina and heart - ok his stats may not match the best in the Prem, but at least he’s shown up there. Got to be worth £8-10m in todays market.

Being a developmental and selling club means even when on long contracts, players ultimately hold all the cards. Let’s face it, when we promise the player and his agent that we’ll sell when the big clubs come calling, that’s exactly what we have to do. If we don’t do that for whatever reason our reputation of developing and releasing the best young players goes down the toilet and the model implodes. It won’t take long for the pro football grapevine to starting talking about how Saints Academy is failing youth.

I think there’s going to be one or two of the relegated sides that will struggle and Saints will be one of them. It’s going to take a huge effort to eradicate that losing mentality that became so pervasive over the last 2-3 years, particularly against ‘lesser’ teams.

I’m amazed that Aribo still has a place in our squad…those stats are shocking for a player that supposedly is an attacking, forward thinking player. And his work rate is demonstrably poor too. I hope we don’t need to see him in the match day team because that would be a sign of gross mis-management in my eyes, however with a new coaching staff it will take a while before he’s found out.

Zzzz….zzzz….this waiting for news is as tedious as JWP’s pass completion stats from last season! 🤣

Really? You think Jones is not a decent human being or indeed a thinker - on what basis? Think you’re either being facetious or overly harsh. Of course their preferred football styles are quite different, but I believe they are ‘emotional’ characters.

I have a horrible suspicion they’re cut from the same cloth! Hope I’m wrong - this appointment is huge for us.

Very true. I should add, I’ve still got mine and its still looking good.

Obviously there are many that have saved their ‘proper’ red & white striped shirts of years gone by, hence any new shirt that is like that will sell worse than something a bit different or indeed radical. Arguably the most radical design but also the best quality shirt was the promotion run red sash shirt which I believe was the best seller ever. Quality wins every time.

^^^ this…

I’ve said before…our main problem last season was a lack of goals scored rather than those conceded. With the attacking pace of most other teams, coupled with the style of football we played which led to too many turnovers in midfield, it was inevitable we would concede a few. But given the number of 1-0 defeats that would have not been so much of an issue if our attacking prowess was a lot better. I know this probably doesn’t sit right with some here, but Lyanco was most definitely not the reason we were relegated.

Standard Saintsweb response to SR managerial appointments seem to follow a well trodden path… Denial…(it’ll be someone with a great pedigree) 😘 Anger…(what the fook are they doing?!?) 🤬 Resignation…(oh well, it could be worse I suppose!) 🤨 Acceptance…(its happening, there’s plus points, might as well get behind the bloke)😐 Impatience…(what’s the hold-up…we need this guy now?!) 😉🤣

Well I have to say the club are doing a good job of trying to bore the pants off their supporters in this close season. There’s been no hint of anything official and newsworthy regarding Wilcox, the retained squad list, new manager, coaches, development of facilities etc., just media speculation. I know relegation is a kick in the teeth and there’s lots of stuff to sort out, but surely they must realise supporters want to be kept informed about how the ‘big rebuild’ is progressing? 🤔 Or would that be impatient and too much to ask? 😉🤣

How to stretch a short paragraph out to a full article using just speculation and an unsurprisingly emotional view from a fans blog that has no bearing on reality.

Bad stuff doesn’t happen to clubs like Everton…rules are bent to accommodate them.

A shame when one player gets singled out, but he is synonymous with the degradation of the quality and balance in the squad over the last three seasons. I’m sure he tries hard to deploy what is asked of him by poor managers, but ultimately his performances have been sub-standard to the level required.

Difficult to get excited by this news - the guy left an age ago in relation to the priorities of the current re-build of the upper echelons of the management team, the coaching staff and the squad. SR's tagline should read, "...no news is good news"!

And particularly if as reported the lad is happy to be back playing with us, presumably if he gets playing time assurances.

That’s how I see it. Saints hold all the cards on this one and don’t need to negotiate downwards. We’ll struggle to buy the experience and goals this lad will offer at the price, which is a concern in itself because there’s going to be some knob who thinks they can pick up a player of equal ability for £15m (again).

One things for sure, I’d rather keep Che than Tall Paul and that’s from a Che doubter.

Sometimes an average manager comes together with an average team and their sum is better than the equal parts, so magic is created. Such as it was for Rodgers and Leicester until time took its toll and so I wouldn’t be surprised to see Rodgers fade away over time. Saints couldn’t keep hold of their decent managers and so a different type of decline occurred - bloated squad and ever decreasing poor managerial appointments. Ultimately both clubs faced the harsh truth of poor tactical leadership in the face of unrelenting financial pressure in the EPL. Both clubs have now got hugely important decisions to get right in the next managerial appointment. It will be fascinating to compare the outcome of the appointments in terms of player trading, adopted playing style and the results over the coming season.

I wonder which Prem club is looking for a pre-season friendly against a soft Championship team to get their strikers used to firing on all cylinders? Softie Saints always a good bet to bag a few goals and come off unscathed without injuries.

Yes agree with this to an extent, but I think fans will be a bit less accepting of a third failing manager being appointed, especially if we find our team bottom of the table after three games for example. The tolerance levels are historically low right now I reckon. Everyone is hoping Martin and a new look squad will tear up the Championship - personally I think there will a rude awakening for many as we’ll struggle to adapt and another season of failure, changing management etc will ensure an even more toxic atmosphere in SMS.

The difference is there’s only one player in that group prepared to get stuck in and tackle, rather than stand-off and watch opposition players stroll past. Guess which one?!

Nothing wrong with data and statistics - it’s how it’s interpreted and used and by who…that’s the issue. It’s no good giving stress analysis data for a bridge construction project to a baker…you’ll end up with a fucked up bridge. Same with football…give a bunch of data to a non-football man like Rasmus and he’ll end up relegating the club. What I’m saying is, perhaps this is a smarter move than it initially looks…get a football stats man in to analyse the data and make decent INFORMED decisions.