Saint Pete

Interesting Charles still there on the bench. And good to see that Azaz must be close. Not sure about this giving BBD another spin, hopefully itt is just putting him in the shop window as I don't think he has what it takes to alternate with Larin in the same way as Stewart did. Well, not if our aim is to contend for autos from starting on -4.

I suspect you are right that there wasn't really an option for him to stay when we went down. He was our biggest signing when got to Premier League and would have been on big wages, so suspect we were keen to offload those wages once we were a Championship club again. I certainly don't remember any noises about him demanding a move or that Saints were reluctant to let him leave.

Not really worried about them while they keep the same manager.

I reckon he will go once the FA charges are resolved. Maybe Dragan doesn't want to be seen firing the CEO while that situation is still ongoing.

I guess there are 2 sides to every story and we have not heard both. I imagine Stewart might see it that Saints weren't 100% committed to him when they chose not to trigger the extension at any earlier point before we were expelled from the play offs? Whatever, time to move on now. It's not the end of the world that Stewart hasn't stayed - he wasn't our most important player and would always have been a risk with his injury record - just as long as he is replaced with a striker of equal or better abilities to help the team. Over to you Johannes!

Yeah, it's just that line that "I can say there are no more allegations" in response to a direct question about whether we broke the spying rules more than 3 times kind of implies to me he knows that we did but it just hasn't been alleged to this point! Would have been better to avoid the question altogether on the basis investigation is still in progress in my opinion.

Totally agree. If he's such an expert on the legal side of things, he wouldn't have 'fessed up to Gibbo in the way he did, would he? He comes across as out of his depth for a job at his level and I would be surprised if he' s still with us for long after the FA investigation is concluded.

Just catching up. Crikey, did he really say that?!! What he should have replied is something like: "I'm very sorry, but while the FA's investigation is still ongoing, it wouldn't be right and proper for me to comment further on the circumstances of the charges, but I can tell you about the process we are expecting ..., blah, blah, blah".

Me too. I know people were not that excited by the Azon link but from the descriptions of how he plays and contributes to the team, he does at least sound like the kind of striker we need with physical strength and hold up play. I think our strategy is to get a decent spread of goals around the team and the signing of Dobbin helps that, alongside the likes of Azaz and Scienza (if we keep them). So, it's just as important the new man links up well with those other scorers in the team as it is that he scores regularly himself in my opinion (although someone who can do both well is the ideal of course, although that will come at a cost!)

Fair enough really. I don't think you can blame him for seeking to get the security that a 3 year deal gives him with his injury record, if someone was prepared to offer him that. Good luck to him.

It always seems a bit disappointing when promising young homegrown players move away from the club so I'm a bit conflicted about this one. At 19 years old, he has potential to improve quickly so a shame he won't get the opportunity to do that for us at Championship level this season. But I guess if Tonda's view is that he won't use him much at this point, this could be a really good experience for him if he gets enough game time in Italy. I wonder if this means Edozie is staying as it was really his reintroduction into the squad by Tonda that limited Robinson's chances to get on the pitch so much?

If that's true, it begs the question what on earth will the FA be doing between now and September in order to come to their judgement that they couldn't have done already in the last 2 and a half months?! It's nuts that they took 2 months just to charge him when most/all of the facts were already known in May!

Remember we have also already signed Larin, Peretz and Dobbin this summer though. And if we are selling Charles and one or more of THB, Scienza and Jander, those players will need to be replaced using the money that comes in. I'm sure we will sign a replacement for Stewart, but Vipotnik is surely out of our range as he is Championship top scorer and contracted to Swansea until 2030 I believe. Also, if Swansea do sign Stewart they are getting him for £0, so they can hold out for big money for Vipotnik.

Doubt it, would be very expensive you would think as he was championship top scorer last season and I believe signed a contract extension at Swansea earlier this year.

Yes, seriously bad miscalculation on this one by Infantino! After what went on in the World Cup with the Balogun/Trump debacle, UEFA were already well on the way to gunning for him so this has given them an open goal to get more support from outside Europe for getting shot of him! You never know with Fifa but surely his days are numbered. Whether his replacement is any better is another matter of course.