HarvSFC

Does it work the same way as appealing red cards? Get a stronger punishment, rather than the initial one? Just looking at the forwards they had two years ago - Vardy, Mavididi, Iheanacho, Fatawu, Daka and they still had room to bring in Tom Cannon for £7.5m. That's a lot on the books, while they also had an experienced midfield and defence also. They gambled on breaking the rules to get back up instantly, similar to how Forest gambled in the Premier League, but it hasn't worked out for Leicester.

I thought Archer would show up this season and give us a view of the player he was at Preston and Middlesbrough. A few nice finishes in his first season here also, in the league and cup, but he was feeding off scraps in the Premier League, so with a few more chances I was of the belief we could have one of the better strikers in this league. In the same way that Adam Armstrong revitalises in the second tier. However, for whatever reason nothing is coming off for here him now and when he isn't scoring, similarly to Armstrong, there isn't much point on him being on the pitch as he isn't doing anything else. There have been two games this season where he has actually seemed up for it and that was Birmingham home and away. So, maybe if we tell him we're playing Birmingham every week now, that might work.

He backed away from Shawcross very quickly.

Also have a confession to make in that I think I'm enjoying Jack Stephens again. Give him another three years.

A lot of focus has been on Larin getting ready for the Canada World Cup squad. But, surely Stewart is also an outside bet for the Scotland national team should he finally remain fit. George Hirst and Lyndon Dykes in their most recent squad alongside Che Adams and Lawrence Shankland, and a fit Stewart is at least better than the first two. Just needs to do the hard bit for him and remain fit.

The triple half time subs worked as well.

Incredible win. We were still 3-1 down on the 80th minute. Stephens' finish for the second goal was probably my favourite of the night and gave the faintest belief. But, we went and done it! Got away with starting Archer. If it isn't Birmingham, he isn't interested. Never again. But, yeah, what a win. Up the Saints.

We fucking did it lads. What the fuck.

Norwich's new striker has three goals tonight now. Four goals in his first two. Shame we don't have the resources to compete with Norwich and can't identify such players.

At least we've got six months to prepare for next season now.* *Which we also had this time last year having only signed Gronbaek on loan in January and we still didn't do anything until late August and several matches into the season.

On the topic of Norwich appointing a better manager than us. They also signed a striker in the January window. He has 3 goals in his first 2 appearances. 2 tonight. While we're persisting with Archer because our new striker can't possibly start 8 days after signing. Oh no, he has to the whole learning how we play thing, so can't start games this soon. If we didn't already know it, our whole setup at the club is so wrong.

Opposition teams don't seem to back off and let us have a shot on goal. Probably why we're 3-0 down.

We'd never have had a player named Izzet Furkan Malak without Goztepe.

Needs the same conversation Pardew had with Lambert.

Red cards cancelling out goals is an interesting precedent.

It would be nice if we could find someone you actually feel confident in scoring a penalty again.

Surprised he passed his medical given the knock he suffered.

What a stat.

The one positive you used to be able to say about Solak/SR was that they were at least investing money into the playing side. But, since the first season scattergun it has actually been quite minute in football terms. Indeed, we did spent a fair amount last season. However, that was funded heavily by the sales of Livramento, JWP, Lavia and Tella pocketing us over £100m the summer before having only spent money on Ross Stewart and Shea Charles across the season. We didn't exactly break the bank on any one single player in the summer of 2024 either and missed out on a host of targets (Delap, Carvalho, O'Reilly to name a few). Similarly, this season has been funded by the sales of Sulemana, Dibling and Fernandes, while Amo-Ameyaw, Onuachu, Bednarek, Ramsdale's loan fee, Edwards, Bella-Kotchap and soon to be Armstrong have added a few more million to our net spend title hunt. The frustrating thing in the summer was that we had no movement on incomings, barring squad players in Quarshie, Downs and Roerslev until we got the Dibling and Fernandes fees. While, this January, we've known we've need a physical centre forward who can remain fit since the season began. We loaned out Downs earlier in the month, but needed to sell Armstrong and potentially shift Archer out of the squad to obtain one. Should have been a priority, but again it's being left until the last minute. Also, can't understand why we haven't utilised the Premier League loan market again. I know Solak criticised this strategy in the summer, but it played a big part in helping us win promotion two years ago - You just don't have to put a £20m buy fee on each one. With the clear out we've made this month, you'd hope that we'd be able to go into this summer a bit more proactive and decisive. However, we all hoped the same would be the case for last summer with half a year to prepare for it. So, you know this will now be our squad with a few contract expirations until August 29th and four games into next season season. A couple of miserable nothing January's in a row, but at least there wasn't any hope last year. You can also see why no manager with any credibility would go near us if this was our pitch for January to them and Eckert was the only one to accept such conditions. So, what are the positives of an SR ownership now? Level One?

Now that I've had a bit longer to think about it, selling our top scorer midway through the season is a pretty big risk/gamble. As with all gambles it can go one way or the other. But, given SR have lost a lot of the support after the shitshow of last season and this one you'd think they'd be playing a few less risks and taking a more sensible approach to managing us. If this one also goes wrong and our season squanders into nothingness as we sit 7 points off the play-offs right now then there isn't a chance season tickets sell out next season and St. Mary's will start looking like Stoke's did at the weekend. Only leaves McCarthy and Stephens as the pre-SR players in the squad now, not including Romeu after his return and surely McCarthy goes this summer. Lascelles is a good get for Leicester. Leadership and physicality. Stephens and THB have been playing well since moving back to a back four, but I don't want to see Wood in the team for a long while.

Should've been sold the summer we got promoted, leaving on a high when his stock was at its highest, rather than being rewarded with a new contract. We know Armstrong will never be a Premier League striker, we have to look for better and there is better out there. The issue lies with can SR identify it? As due to his goal output we can't get this one wrong. We definitely can't go for another hopeful punt here.

Wolves selling Strand Larsen for big money and replacing him with Armstrong for a fraction of the fee is like us selling Ings and replacing him with Armstrong.

Great goal. Fellows - Azaz - Scienza. Been calling it all season, causing them all ends of trouble down either wing.

I LOVE LEO SCIENZA!!!!!

As predicted, can't get a foothold on the game and struggling to maintain pressure. Nobody in the team apart from Scienza, and he's hardly been in the game and the frozen out Edozie can travel up the pitch like Fellows does. So, we're missing that. While the ball just doesn't stick with Armstrong upfront. Very much liking Peretz. Cleared multiple balls out of the box coming off his line with punches and constantly talking to the defenders. Huge improvement on previous.