Smirking_Saint

You realise we have Jack Stephens on the books right ?

Svanberg looks a sensible signing but Im not entirely sure where he suits our current system really, he’s not a No.10 and he isn’t a DM He’s played the majority of his football in central midfield, more than likely more suited to JWPs position He’s tall, athletic, good progressive passer of the ball… Im just not sure who he is replacing

You can keep the jaffa cakes im on a diet

I now, more than anything in the world want us to sign Lis and send him out to Le Havre

I agree… again it’s different if we have 100m or so, I still find 20m a large chunk when we probably need a significant spend at CB/ST but I suppose we’ll see Popes likely to have suiters though, not sure what his wages are either

I suppose it depends on a lot of things, what our overall budget is, how much Burnley value Pope, what we want to achieve this window But in answer to your question I wouldn’t want to spend 50% of our budget on our GK knowing we still need to fill outfield positions Id suggest if we only have £40m to spend we’re in danger though

I said it is our most ‘concrete’ rumour, so in essence, the rumour that, compared to the others keeps coming back and seems to have the most legs Its not that difficult to comprehend what Im saying unless you are frantically digging for something to fill your void in this afternoons pedantry quota

Which is exactly what I said 🤷‍♀️

I don’t want to be one of those guys, of course this is a ‘forum’ after all and the rumours are here for us to discuss From the outside we’ve been told that this is a #noholdsbarred summer, and every position is being looked at.. I can only hope this is the intention from the new board, although, as a ‘Saint’ over these last 5 years I find this hard to believe Ill give them a chance Im happy to wait and see what we bring in really, because the proof really will be in the pudding here and we need signings that are going to kick us on, so Im not completely depressed at the moment But… despite MLG telling us these are all rumours and he is possibly correct, it is ‘agent’ season after all… its hard not to become demoralised when we know the work that needs to happen this year and the most concrete rumour is a 25 yr old GK from Turkey that couldn’t catch a cold

Id love to gk back in for Sangare, we were apparently in for him before we settled on Diallo, but there were issues with a work permit… sensational talent and plays with the athleticism and technical ability combined that our midfield needs, unfortunately Id imagine he’s out of our reach now

Good player but he really really has struggled with injuries managing under 20 games in his last 4 years Im not sure in our state its worth the risk and I woukd imagine he’d still want a top wage

Winks would be a very dissapointing signing made even worse if the fee is anywhere near or above 10m

So what to we reckon ? Shill them Smallbone and then hope that enables us the opportunity to jump ahead of them for Garner ?

Im not ‘continually complaining’ not at all, if anything I tend to be one of the more optimistic of fans, but this is a forum within which we discuss the club’s limitations and areas of concern On our day we are a capable outfit, we have shown that with significant purple patches throughout the last 2-3 years, unfortunately though this is interwoven with periods of dross, now, this of course is down to a multitude of factors, tactics, player ability and mentality Ill support Stephens every time he wears the shirt, Im not the sort to ever boo, but Im not going to just pretend he isn’t the limited player that he is because I bleed red and white, I want the best for this club, and continuing on with starters of his ability is costing us whether we like it or not Do we have significant budgets ? No In some ways I would, in others I wouldn’t want the care free spending that City etc have, its of course exciting but I do think it leads to a breakdown in identity… however because of our low budget we need to make good decisions in the transfer market, and we simply have wasted what we have, in the main Im not sitting here bashing the club, or the players, or even Ralph, we’ve punched above our weight at times but we’ve also significantly under achieved too, and in order to reduce that inconsistency is to bring in better than what we have, thats football unfortunately and Im not going to apologise for discussing that

I didn’t understand that at all 😂 You even see him look over his shoulder, at the guy he has been defending against for 55 minutes… so he knows he is there Awful defending

When you put it like that then yes, it is good business, but ultimately him playing over 100 games for us, majority (if not all I can’t remember) in the prem shows where our level is and why we have never kicked on He seems a nice guy, is committed, shows plenty of passion… but he is very limited and if we rely on him for too long then we leak goals

Im happy to stick with awful if you like ? With the odd visit to average on days he plays above his ability ? My issue with Stephens overall is he is very much a reactive defender, he shows little to no defensive awareness really. He is reasonably good in the tackle, but lacks the ability to mark effectively or see any danger before it arrives, so yes, sometimes he gets away with it (average) but generally he does not (awful)

What the f**k is that 😂 That could be up there as the worst kit ive ever seen

So he is correct then ?

You’d be hard pressed to be worse tbf Stephens is about as average a prem CB you can get… awful

I don’t think we need experience, but I do think we need one or two around the place that are natural leaders, I just don’t see any at all in our squad But as per Drinkwater, he absolutely isn’t anywhere close to having any conceivable quality we need

I agree

I wonder hiw things will work with Chelsea in theur current predicament ? Surely the sanctions mean that they are unable to recieve any fees ? And probably unlikely to want to do significant business before they are able to appoint a new owner

The problem is neither of JWP or his ‘partner’ are necessarily there to provide assists, any goal inclusions they make is a bonus, we effectively set up to move into a sort of 3142 in attack with our primary attacking outlet being a pressing trap Of course Id expect more assists from both our ‘No.10’s’ or FBs but ultimately I quite happy with the double pivot Romeu was excellent early to mid season, but fell off later on which I think caused a fair amount f our issues both defensively and attacking because we didn’t have a significant base to build on Is OR good enough still ? Probably, but is he fit enough ? Im not sure

No but he was installed to, and we have heard plenty of hyperbole around how integral he was at delivering his masterplan to ensure the entire club is pulling as one towards Ralph’s signature style So not for the first time you’ve ignored the ball and instead attempted to take out the man for nothing more than to extend your position as Saints no.1 pedant