SaintJackoInHurworth

Great to note all these northern-based supporters! As my name suggests I am based in the village of Hurworth near Darlington. Previously I also lived in Northallerton and in Wakefield. I grew up in Hythe and also lived in Farnborough and Basingstoke. I am sure I will have met some of you who are part of Northern Saints. I tend to attend a few matches each season - mostly up North, though in recent years I have tried to take my youngest daughter to a match at St Marys each season when visiting family. To answer the questions about Northern Saints... The club has a presence on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/groups/2450705627 The club itself can be found on Google Groups at https://groups.google.com/g/northernsaints And... to answer another question: As well as Northern Saints, there are a number of other regional Saints groups - some of them with official links to the club like Northern Saints. Personally, I know a couple of other Saints fans in the Darlington area - one lives on my estate and the other is also a member of Northern Saints with whom I sometimes go to matches.

Maybe we should have a sweepstake. Everyone selects a striker that the club could look at and suggest him on here. First one to name a player gets that player as their nomination but only one nomination is allowed. If the club buys that player, the person who nominated them is the winner. Anyone who knows the winner should buy them a pint next time they see them in the pub. I'd go for the player I mentioned earlier: Vangelis Pavlidis. Here is his YouTube video: Hehe!!!

Following the failure to sign Gakpo after Leeds annoying intervention I guess we are all wondering if anyone else might suddenly pop up as being linked with Saints. I imagine it will be some left-field up and coming player who has recently been called up as an international having got some good goal scoring stats with his club. It could be someone like Vangelis Pavlidis who is near the top of the goal scoring stats in Holland: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vangelis_Pavlidis No idea if he is any good, but I am sure the club will have scouted players like him. Let's hope they can pull something out of the bag!

I think the Gakpo situation is all a perfect example of why the club like to do things in private: we have a well-established and successful recruitment policy which identifies good players while some other clubs like Dirty Leeds just pounce on deals being made by other clubs and use the money saved to make a higher offer. It seems to me that the deal was going through until Leeds decided to interfere and that just left the player unsure so that he has decided he can't cope with all the hassle. Leeds and PSV don't come out of this with a great reputation if you ask me. If we don't manage to save the deal then I kind of hope he stays put and PSV get into financial difficulties as a result!!

We have been linked this morning with Man City striker Adedire Mebude: Spurs, Newcastle and PSV are also linked with him.

I believe that if Romeu is leaving (as seems likely) then we will definitely bring in either Garner or Maitland-Niles. I think/hope it will be Maitland-Niles and feel that our formation tonight would have been a great advert for how he could fit into the Saints set-up. He also provides an extra option if needed as full-back cover. I am loving the rumours about Gakpo and would love it if we sign him. It seems he is definitely moving somewhere and we have been in the driver's seat. However, I am a little concerned with the increasing number of clubs being linked with him but a lot of the links seem fairly weak, so I am hopeful we will be the ones to sign him. Our interest in Caleta-Car is also exciting, but I think it's dependant on quick progress in negotiating to sign him and in selling Bednarek. I hope we don't sell Bednarek without a replacement. Unfortunately, this all still leaves us with no clear link to a striker. My guess is that they have realised that it is a choice between either an average striker and winger or one good player in one of those positions and I think we have decided to go for Gakpo rather than Ramos. I don't think Broja was ever seriously on the cards as he is neither creative enough nor a 15+ goals-a-season striker. It would be amazing to sign AMC, Gakpo, DCC and also a striker and a full-back, but I doubt very strongly that it will happen!!

So, if we sign both Maitland-Niles and Caleta-Car will we have the most double-barrelled names in any one football club ever?!! Bella-Kotchap Walker-Peters Ward-Prowse Caleta-Car Maitland-Niles We could also technically include Lyanco Neves-Vojnovic in this list. That ignores the B Team player Zuriel Otseh-Taiwo and under 18 players Fedel Ross-Lang and Ryan Chavez-Munoz. For good measure you could also include Lexi Lloyd-Smith from the women's team and the head of women's football Marieanne Spacey-Cale!

Some of the links to Saints this summer have been fascinating and the link to Gakpo seems one of the more amazing ones. By the sounds of things (and I have no idea personally) it would be great if true, but it sounds too good to be true! It sounds like a smokescreen to me. I would anticipate we are more likely to sign someone like Vangelis Pavlidis who scored a decent number of goals in the Eredivisie last season and is a Greek international. At 23 he would be a very Saintsy signing!!

Who said anything about him being back up? He is clearly a much better central defender than Salisu, so I would see Salisu as back-up - albeit his frequent indisciplined runs up the wing last season may suggest he would be better employed in that role anyway! As others have said, if we sell Bednarek, I would be worried about having Lynaco or Stephens as back up. Give Salisu the time to develop as back-up and maybe he can develop into the central defender some people believe he already is.

So... just a thought... there are rumours saying that Bednarek is in talks to sign for Aston Villa. Meanwhile there are also rumours that Tyrone Mings has fallen out with Steven Gerrard. Is there any possibility that Mings (a former reject of the Saints academy) and Bednarek might be involved in a swap deal?

There seem to be far too many people on this forum that believe this rubbish and I don't understand why! A look at the statistics may help: Goals conceded in 2021-22 while playing in matches where they started or played more than 45 minutes: Bednarek: 51 goals conceded in 31 games = 1.65 goals per game Salisu: 57 goals conceded in 34 games = 1.68 goals per game Lyanco: 19 goals conceded in 9 games = 2.11 goals per game Stephens: 19 goals conceded in 9 games = 2.11 goals per game Valery: 7 goals conceded in 5 games = 1.4 goals per game Those statistics actually suggest that Valery had the best defensive stats last season of these four, but it must be noted that in most of those games he played as part of a centre-back three rather than a two. It is also worth noting that Salisu's stats would be slightly worse if we were to count the goal conceded against Spurs after he was sent off. What is absolutely clear is that Lyanco and Stephens had far worse stats than Bednarek and even Salisu's stats were slightly worse than his. With this in mind, I reiterate the point that while Bednarek is not a great defender the obscene way that he has been derided by some is completely over the top and we should not be rushing him out of the door until we are completely sure that we have adequate defensive cover. FWIW, I am extremely hopeful that Bella-Kotchap will prove to be the first genuinely quality central defender that we have had since Van Dijk and I hope that Salisu will also continue to improve.

Ten days to go and despite being linked with a number of players, none of the rumours seem to be very strong that we might sign those players - in most cases the players seem to have been linked with other clubs who would seem more likely to be successful in signing them. Is this where Saints suddenly make a left-field signing (or several) completely out of the blue? I certainly hope so!!!

You are spot on with this, but sadly too many people cannot see it! Bednarek has been our most consistent centre back for years and a lot of the blame that has been piled on him from last season is just wrong! I'm not saying that Bednarek was without error, but, as I have said numerous times on here, a fair number of the apparent shortcomings of Bednarek last season were actually situations where he was covering for the inadequacies of Salisu and others - not least Salisu's annoying tendency to think that he can play like a wing back and forage up the wing. It was no surprise on occasions that Bednarek was not able to stop goals when he was covering the roles of two or even three players asd well as his own defensive duties. For me, Bednarek is better than Stephens, Lyanco or any of our other back-up centre backs and we would be foolish to let him go without other decent defensive recruits.

It seems to mean Elite Development Squad (E.g. See www.mancity.com/news/eds-academy/shea-charles-eds-v-leicester-preview-63795989)

Hammer... Nail... Hit! Spot on! And don't give me the crap about some sources being more believable than others. Sky, The Athletic, The Daily Fail, The Scum, The Torygraph, even Fabrizio Romano - they all make up stories when they have nothing to write. That's how they make their money! Case in point: The Athletic - the other day they were saying that Forest were in talks to sign Adams, but now suddenly they are going for Emmanuel Dennis! The reality is probably that someone, somewhere, associated with Forest may have mentioned an interest in Adams and suddenly that is changed to become 'they are in talks'. It is all crap and some of our fans need to get a life if they believe everything they read! We have seen it with the media backing for this dreadful government and we see it every season in the transfer window. My advice: Don't waste your money buying them! Again - spot on! I just wish we had more positive fans who would get behind the club and our players instead of criticising at the first opportunity. All we are doing when we do that is falling into a narrative set by the blue few down the road. Sadly, I suspect there are a few of those among us who, embarassed by the failings of their own tin pot club, can only find pleasure by nurturing division and criticism among the Saints fanbase. I'm not saying that we shouldn't ever say anything critical - but it does concern me that there are some fans who never have anything positive to say; and this forum has probably got more than your average number of fans who are that way inclined! Sadly, it is why a fair number of loyal Saints fans cannot stand to read this forum or any of the other ones. Anyway, rant over!!!!! Let's get back to what this particular stream of the forum is supposed to be about - transfer rumours! Anyone got any good ones? Of course, let's take whatever they may be with a little bit of a pinch of salt!!

So, judging by some comments on here, we would be better with Dyche as manager, Lyanco as CB and Adams as our lone striker!!! I just hope the club don't consult this forum to make their plans!!!! It also seems that every rumour we hear is absolutely true in its worst, most extreme form, e.g.: A player is open to transfer = the club are desperate to get rid of him, see him as the worst player in the squad and will sell him for a fiver to help raise the transfer kitty to buy back Danny Ings. We are interested in buying a player = the player must be coming to Saints tomorrow and is rubbish, injury prone, inexperienced and generally on a par with Carrillo. The fact is that even from the most believeable of sources these are just rumours; and where there is any truth in them it is more likely that we are preparing for the situatioin where a player wants to leave because they will drop to 2nd or 3rd in the pecking order and aren't happy with that - especially in a World Cup year. I seriously doubt we will sell any first team player without first bringing in one or two players who will replace them (and hopefully be better than them). Personally, I hope that we will not sell Adams or anyone else until we are definitely sure we are bringing in a player who is better than him - indeed I hope we will not sell him until that player has shown us he is as good as we had hoped.

Was today a wake-up call to some of our fans that Salisu is not yet all that some of our fans think that he is? Yes, he has potential, but once again he was at the heart of our collapse! Criticise what Ralph says as much as you like (and he clearly needs to accept a significant amount of the blame for what happened today), but in this one area he is right - if Salisu had not been so abject defensively for that goal we would still have been in with a chance in this game. I really think Salisu can become a quality player and I really hope he will, but he has got to improve sooner rather than later! Firstly, he must improve his discipline and stay in defence - he is not a makeshift extra striker who can abandon his duties to stroll upfield when he feels like it! Secondly, he needs to improve his concentration. Thirdly, he has got to sort his feet out - what a mess he made for that own goal! Fourth, he must improve his positioning. It is all very well for him to show skill in the tackle in crisis situations, but too often those crisis situations come as a result of his many other short-comings! Fortunately, these are mostly things that should improve with coaching, training, experience, etc. but it does concern me that other players are being criticised when they are having to cover for him and his failings. Bednarek, Stephens, Valery, maybe even Bella-Kotchap have all had to suffer playing alongside him and have been criticised, yet at times the difficulties they have had have been compounded by having to cover for him. Maybe if Salisu could improve then those other players too could have the freedom to improve themselves and get the fans off their backs.

I think this could well turn out to be almost prophetic after today's result! Ralph has certainly come out and said that we must sign better players. Maybe this will indeed raise the bar on the sort of signings we make in the next few weeks. Clearly, at the very least, we need both a decent striker and a decent central defender. I guess the question is how do we get such players? The clues to this may be in the signings we made under Poch and Koeman: Tadic, Pelle, Aderweireld, Van Dijk were all quality that we signed (or almost signed in Toby's case!) and maybe they should show us the way to sign quality. I suggest signing like Davis and Stu Armstrong are also decent examples, if not quite on the same level as the other four. What is significant about those players is that they were either players struggling for game time in top teams in major leagues (TA) or they were players doing well in top teams in slightly less major leagues (DT, GP, VVD, SD and SA). All/most of them had experience of playing in winning teams and in playing against top European opposition. For me this suggests we need to be looking at more players playing regularly at TOP teams (i.e. ones that qualify for European competition or equivalent) in Scotland, Belgium, Holland, France, Denmark, USA, Switzerland, Portugal, Turkey, Greece, etc. Alongside this we can also be looking (as we have been doing with English sides) at those top young players struggling to break into the first team at TOP sides in TOP leagues: Man City, Liverpool, Chelsea, At Madrid, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Juventus, AC Milan, etc. So who are the top up-and-coming central defenders and strikers at Ajax, PSV, Feyenoord, Club Brugge, Union St.Gilloise, Gent, Anderlecht, Celtic, Rangers, PSG, Marseille, Monaco, Copenhagen, Midtjylland, Silkeborg, Brondby, Zurich, Basel, Young Boys, Trabzonspor, Fenerbahce, Porto, Sporting Lisbon, Benfica, Braga, Olympiacos, PAOK, etc.? I know we have looked at players at some of these clubs, but maybe we need to broaden our search?

I predict none of the predictions are right (except for this statement in itself and maybe one or two predictions about champions, sacked managers, etc.). That aside my prediction for the final table is: Man City Liverpool Chelsea Spurs Arsenal West Ham Man Utd Palace Newcastle Villa Wolves Saints Leeds Brighton Forest Leicester Brentford Everton Fulham Bournemouth Like others have said, Lampard will be among the first managers sacked, though financial constraints could cause them to delay until it is too late to do anything about relegation - not that they are going to be able to afford to buy anyone in January anyway! Other sackings will include Scott Parker at Bournemouth. My biggest doubt about the above placings is Fulham who have a manager who knows how to get the best out of a weak squad. However, they do still have a fairly weak squad, despite a few purchases that may help them. That having been said, I post this with Fulham having lead Liverpool until a few seconds ago!

Just going back to the actual topic of Saints signing someone... I tend to agree with this: With that in mind, maybe ally_uk has got the right approach (see below). I must admit I have done similar things myself in the past. I mentioned a few names that came out of doing so a week or two ago. Like ally, I focussed on top scorers in other leagues (especially younger ones) and I also looked at younger players from clubs like Man City and Chelsea. Even so, Saints will still bring a rabbit out of the hat that none of us have foreseen and I am looking forward to when they do! That having been said, I must admit I was momentarily fooled (and excited) by the fake Twitter post about Kalajdžić and would be excited if we did manage to sign him!

So four strikers at least have been mentioned and a range of opinions and hopes about who we will actually sign. Personally it feels to me that both Broja and Delap are unlikely - especially Delap - as their clubs seem to want to keep them. On the other hand I think I am right in saying that both Dembele and Kalajdzic have both said things which seem to rule themselves out of coming to Saints. I would say the most likely seems to be Kalajdzic followed by Broja, yet there is a lot of competition for both. I wonder, however, if the player we actually sign will be someone other than any of those four. It would not be the first time that news suddenly surfaces about saints signing a player that has not previously been mentioned. I've no ideas who it could be though and, before anyone says it again, I doubt it will be Ings!

Just putting aside the random rumours about us selling Che Adams for a moment, it seems to have gone very quiet in relation to us signing anyone and especially another striker. Indeed the strikers we have been linked with seem to be becoming increasingly more unlikely all the time: Armando Broja - linked to loads of clubs, not least Real Madrid, while Chelsea are short of first team strikers and seem to want to keep him. Liam Delap - strong rumours that he is about to go to Stoke on loan. Sasa Kalajdzic - linked to Man Utd, Spurs, Brighton, Roma and West Ham as well as Saints and rumours that he is only prepared to move to a 'big club'. Moussa Dembele - no recent news in relation to Saints; has recently been linked with Man Utd. Other than these, who else are we looking at? Is it still possible that we will sign one of the above? What does anyone think?

There is a lot of sense in these posts. Any element of gamble is no greater than the gamble of trying to repeat the (failed) policies of recent years. The fact is that the quality-at-an-affordable-price players that we have bought in the past are not available to us at present, as we are not seen as a club with any hope of European qualification any time soon. It is also worth saying that not all of these players are necessarily expected to be a success this season. It is more than conceivable that some of these purchases are part of a longer term policy of developing the next batch of players - for next season or the season after that or even after that. As such, we must be patient. Having said all that, there remains a slight concern that at present we may, possibly, be weaker in attack this season with the current crop of players due to the loss of Broja. I certainly hope that we will in the coming weeks address that concern.

Personally, if we don't sell Bednarek, I don't think it would necessarily be a total disaster; indeed, I could see him going on to prove wrong the many fans who criticise him and showing his true ability. However, it could well be a total disaster if SaintLondon is proven right and we can't sign any more players unless we get rid of a few. As others have said, it would definitely seem that we need at least another striker and winger and some extra quality full back cover for Livramento and Perraud. I hope that either we can shift Theo (and possibly some others) or that, nevertheless, we will still be able to make those three key signings (or even the five signings that has been mentioned!).

OK, but if we are talking of five more (I think that's what was said wasn't it?), who are the possibilities we know of so far? Striker: Delap or Broja or Kalajdzic Central Defender: Colwill or...? Full back: Marcus Pedersen or ?? Midfielder: Harry Winks or James Mcatee or James Garner Anyone else?