HarvSFC

Key quote from today - "If you're good in the Championship, it doesn't mean you're good in the Premier League." If only the decision makers realised this in the summer when they decided to give Adam Armstrong a new contract, instead of selling him when his stock was high. Contracts to McCarthy and Fraser too, while persisting with Jack Stephens and Jan Bednarek at the back. All of which have struggled in the Premier League previously. Rewarding a team for finishing 4th in the Championship. The Downes and Harwood-Bellis drop offs were at least surprising.

His redemption story ended a lot quicker than I expected it would after he was given the Wolves captaincy.

Ex-academy player Jason McCarthy has become a coach for Brighton Under-21s. https://www.brightonandhovealbion.com/pages/en/media-article/mu21-academy-jason-mccarthy-january-2025

The worrying thing is, is that a lot of our successful signings last year can be attributed to Wilcox/Martin, and they're no longer here. Shows the need to get a good footballing person in, who knows the Championship. Manning - Not so good last season, better this one, a Martin signing. Charles - Still got potential. Wilcox signing from the City academy. Downes - Key last season, Martin signing. Fraser - Did a job as a squad player last season, ex-roommate of Martin, his signing. Harwood-Bellis - Wilcox signing from the City academy. Brooks - Wilcox worked with him within City's academy and Brooks mentioned him in his signing interview. All of these players barring Charles, who had the least influence last season also had Championship experience. All speculation, unsure if true, but we'd be better off getting Romulu rather than another right-back. Goztepe are 4th and still chasing a Europa League spot. It would be a bit worrying if SR are willing to sell their top scorer for less than £10m mid-season with a lot still to play for.

Nice win. Despite the opposition, these results aren't a foregone conclusion, as we've learned all too well in recent years. Scraping through against Cardiff and Stoke's reserves earlier in the season under Martin, getting soundly beaten by Gillingham last season under Martin and losing to Grimsby under Selles. So, at least today we met expectations and restored some pride to the shirt in what has been a very dismal season. Sulemana wasn't shackled this evening by the need to constantly turn back and retain possession. So, he can do it against Championship opposition, as he was a bit underwhelming last season. Doubt he'll give another Championship season a go though, if all these European sides are interested. But, Edozie could do similar. At least it shows the side's confidence isn't completely shot to bits and we are at least still able to comfortably dispatch Championship opposition going into the next season. A former assistant to Russell Martin, is the Swansea manager and we took full advantage of those awful tactics that gift goals away for fun.

Archer really pissed the club off with that goal against Liverpool. Alcaraz used to do the same. Five at the back and no striker at home against lower division Swansea. Credit to anybody who's going to this one.

Yes. Another example of a decision that the club has made, that makes no sense regarding McCarthy's contract. There's no sell on opportunity, he's 35. He spent most of last season as our third choice goalkeeper, Lumley was our cup goalkeeper and then he came in at the back end of last season, playing a good role in getting us promoted, but all were aware that he isn't good enough to be a Premier League number one. He could have left the club in a good light. However, the decision makers thought we could go into the season with McCarthy as our number one and it soon become apparent that we could not, hence the Ramsdale panic signing. A good signing, but one good signing among plenty of other poor decisions. McCarthy must have been one of Martin's favourites, is the only explanation I can find and now we're stuck with him until 2026 when he's had around two contracts too many here.

Championship signings can work, but like with many signings we've made, it's all about who you go for. Crystal Palace and West Ham have recruited from the second division well with Bowen, Olise, Eze and Wharton to name a few. Ipswich also signed a Championship super team. The top scorer in Szmodics, two that we were linked with, but reportedly outbid on in Delap and Clarke and then one of the centre-backs in the team of the year in Greaves, while we were going for Swansea and Peterborough centre-backs. Now signing Philogene also, who also looked decent in the Championship. If Ipswich go down, they're the best setup to go back up.

Vincent Pericard and Gregory Vignal - Two more capped at youth level for France.

As crap as he has been, I think Martin let him down a bit by telling him to hug the touchline and play as a traditional winger, rather than an inside forward, coming in off the left, where he has been most successful for his other clubs and I think he could have been some use for us next season. Armstrong, Brereton-Diaz and Archer all have good records at Championship level and could all play together in a front three. It's just Premier League football that they aren't cut out for, but we're a Championship club in a few months, so logic would suggest we keep hold of these guys while we're a Championship club. So, not fully on board with the option to buy. But, SR don't really do logic.

Hopefully he goes back to Europe in the summer. We've had plenty of good full-backs over the years - KWP on his day, Bertrand, Shaw, Clyne, Bale, Bridge. Probably an obvious one I'm missing. He's not one of them.

I'm still annoyed at this. Yes, the players are shit, fair enough, but if you're shit, at least work hard. We don't. Slow, pointless, low tempo football when in possession. Half jogging at players with the ball when out of possession. Not one Southampton player broke out into a sprint yesterday, on the ball, or off it. Complete joke. How many times over the last year have we seen Bazunu, McCarthy, Lumley and Ramsdale in possession and immediately getting swarmed, either giving a goal away, or conceding possession by kicking it in a hurry. The Brentford goalkeeper had the ball countless times and Sulemana and Onuachu just stand still, waiting for him to do something, when he's happy to keep the ball for a period of time because they're 1-0 up and can then just ping it to whoever he wants. Makes you long for the days of Shane Long, who scored the fastest goal in Premier League history by closing down a defender. Sulemana and Onuachu should have been hooked as soon as they stopped moving when Brentford had the ball near them. No excuses for that. Also, still, our players are afraid to make tackles. Keep backing off and backing off until the attacker finds themselves in our box. Attack the ball. The man with the ball is the most dangerous player on the pitch. It's basics of football that we've got wrong all season. Be it passing backwards, playing around our own box, not threatening the opposition goal, jogging half arsed around and refusing to close down a player with the ball. This awful three centre-back formation too. Watching Fulham vs Ipswich earlier, Fulham 1-0 down at half time bring off a centre-back for Smith-Rowe. Us, 1-0 down yesterday, bring off a centre-back and play Charlie Taylor there. We're getting overrun in the middle. Brentford played against Arsenal on Wednesday evening, we had extra days to prepare (probably took them off) and they completely outworked and outclassed us. They're also in poor form themselves, no away wins this season before yesterday and had one win in their last six, with four defeats. But up steps Southampton. On the topic of individuals. Sell Sulemana to whoever this window. Auction Onuachu off to Turkey, bidding starts at £1m. No good saying teams haven't bid high enough when he's awful like we did in the summer. I'm unsure of how he showed skills against Liverpool as he hasn't been able to control a ball since and doesn't win anything despite his height. Get both of those wasters off the wage bill. SAA's better than Sulemana. Sell Aribo in the summer. Downes and Charles can be our midfield next season, no space for him putting in a half arsed act on the pitch. Get Bree back as a backup. I wouldn't want him starting regularly in a good Championship team. Then if we do come back up sell Bednarek, Armstrong, Manning, etc. No room for sentiment. Hammond, Chaplow, Sharp weren't giving this kind of charity when we came up under Adkins. It's time we started acting like a Premier League club. We've been one for enough years. Two years ago under these owners we signed a load of youth and asked them to become immediate Premier League regulars and then appointed Nathan Jones and Ruben Selles. One year ago we signed a crocked striker for £10m in the Championship who's played about 90 minutes in total. Didn't replace our set piece coach, and now concede from set pieces for fun and fail to beat the first man in attacking set pieces. Replaced our DoF by promoting from within and giving a new title, has worked out as predicted and we scraped promotion through the play-offs, never threatening the top three. This summer we gave new contracts to McCarthy, Armstrong and Martin, who are all not good enough. And, on top of this, this summer we signed Lallana, Taylor, Edwards, Sugawara, Brereton-Diaz, Archer, Fraser and Cornet. Eight players who can't get into our team, so they aren't getting in any other team in the Premier League. Even Ugochukwu and Wood have only recently got into the team and Wood was subbed at half time, rounding it up to 10. One successful signing in Mateus Fernandes. We're a laughing stock both on and off the pitch, and that includes the Armstrong video that came out yesterday. Suppose it's all a show for those who buy the hospitality tickets. They're the ones SR are most interested in. If Juric has anything about him, he'll be tearing into the team this week, getting them doing fitness drills, demanding that they press the opposition and whoever doesn't want to run gets dropped out of the team and can find another club to play for. We saw us go down without a fight under Jones and Selles and its happening again with many of the same group of players, funnily enough.

Edwards gone, Cornet going, BBD and Charlie Taylor available. What a brilliant summer window.

Stewart - £10m Onuachu - £18m Sulemana - £22m Brereton-Diaz - £7m Archer - £15m Total - £72m Next learning curve for SR, if they can't get their scouting right, is that signing a bunch of players at relatively small fees (for the Premier League) isn't a good plan. £20m doesn't get you much these days, as we're seeing. Bet we could have put all our eggs in one basket and got a good striker for £45m and still had change to spare. But, don't let Ankersen sign the £45m player. Only let the person who found Fernandes. Our best times were when we signed proven players from Europe - Van Dijk, Alderweireld, Tadic, Pelle, Wanyama, Lovren. Osvaldo had quality, he was just a bit of a nutcase. We then couldn't afford that calibre of player under Gao. But, now we can again, but for some reason we're trying to "breed" good players and turn average ones into good ones because they require lower wages. Well, you can't. When Forest came up they signed Gibbs-White for £42m and plenty of others. It looked a bit silly at the time, but now look how it's working out for them.

Where's his coaching staff?

Considering the goal we had disallowed against Wolves, how's pushing the goalkeeper not a foul?

We lost today due to a lack of quality, specifically in the areas that matter with the chances in the first half. But, it was a better watch than losing due to the manager's tactics setting us up to give possession away on the edge of our own area and giving up goals for fun, while not laying a glove on the opposition goalkeeper. We made Fabianski and Areola work today, when plenty of goalkeepers could have taken the day off against us under Martin. We were at least in the game until they scored, and could have potentially got an equaliser if Dibling played the ball to Onuachu near the end rather than taking the shot on. Juric has no ties to Armstrong and like Stephens and Smallbone, who Martin also loved he just isn't good enough for Premier League level. Hopefully he'll drop out of the eleven soon. Ugochukwu was very good today. I reckon Juric will love him, he showed the quality that made Chelsea sign him today. KWP was also back to his best now that he's allowed to carry the ball forward again, rather than constantly needing to tuck in and play the ball backwards. But, yeah, just need a bit more upfront. Surprised Archer didn't get any minutes. Notable omissions from the match squad being summer signings Taylor, Brereton-Diaz and Cornet. They might be heading for an early exit next month, while Edwards needs a loan out. SAA needs to be loaned out too and I think he's worth a subs spot here, but the managers disagree.

I was interested to see how Fofana did there, but he has been a bit of a disappointment. There is value in the January market still, with the right scouting. Last January Villa signed Morgan Rogers for £8m and Jhon Duran for £14.75m the January before (The same January we signed Sulemana and Onuachu). While Bournemouth also picked up Semenyo for £10m, again the same January where we spent bigger money on worse players. The key thing is though, is getting the scouting right.

Found the Alfie House Tweet: https://x.com/AlfieHouseEcho/status/1866123374168047776 - Russell Martin is currently still in charge and the expectancy is that he will be for Sunday, Staplewood is quiet because Sunday/Monday have been days off this year. All back in tomorrow so if that changes it would only be down to conversations they've had together. Bizarre.

I first picked up on the whole days off thing when Alfie House Tweeted that nobody would be at Staplewood for a couple of days as they all had Sunday's and Monday's off after a Saturday game, which I thought was odd, as it's rare for footballers to get two days off in a row in season, but passed it off as a modern thing. Then there was the whole build up to the Liverpool cup game, where I don't think we prepared for the game due to days off and now another one has popped up! It's well known that footballers don't get Christmas Day off with a Boxing Day game the next day, they may get a lighter session, but not a day off. No wonder we've looked unfit for large parts of the season. Martin was too interested in being Mr. Nice guy, I fear. He needed an Andy Crosby alongside him, like Adkins. Anyway, Dean Thornton has posted a picture with Gavin Bazunu in his training gear. I know it was rumoured months back that he could be in line for a January loan out and I think that would be the best for him.

Just needs Romeo done at the end of it.

It's going to be harder to criticise the club for trying to emulate Atalanta's philosophy. A club traditionally associated with lower mid-table Serie A with the occasional Serie B season who for a number of years now have disrupted the status quo in Italy, winning a Europa League, getting Champions League football and currently sitting top. They also play exciting, pressing football whenever I've seen Atalanta on TV. Rather, than Manchester City's, a side funded by a state, the richest club in the world who can go out and sign any player they want to fit their system. Now lets raid Atalanta for their behind the scenes staff, their version of Shields/Wilcox. 😉

I think that performance was what we expected the season to be. Little to no quality, but we did manage to ground out a point in a hard-fought draw. Something that Martin's teams were unable to do with this being our second clean sheet of the season, after just one week of Martin being gone might I add. Whenever the camera panned to Juric it looked like he was hating every minute, which I think can only be a good thing, if he's able to get us to be a bit more creative in the attacking third.

Not the most inspiring first half, but it is still 0-0, as opposed to last week when we were 5-0 down. Been looking for the high press, as it's been a much needed tactic that we've needed to go back to for a long while now, but I haven't seen it. Dibling, there's a lot of noise about him being a poor trainer/a bit too relaxed and today I'm not seeing anything from him off the ball. He's not even breaking into a jog and on the ball he's being trying to do too much today. Playing like an individual, rather than a team player and I don't think his off the ball work would be accepted at a bigger club. Adam Armstrong, we all knew he'd be poor, but again he's not even running off the ball today. Several phases of play where Leno's just been on the ball unpressured. Man United closed down Forster in midweek and got a goal from it. Put pressure on the goalkeeper, sometimes they pass it to forwards, as we've become all too accustomed to. I think the two players that would have impressed Juric so far are two Martin favourites. Downes and Wood. Downes has been putting himself about well, received a very harsh booking. Give him some more positional discipline and I think he'll suit Juric. While, Wood has looked good at centre-back once again, following a Holgateesque debut. I know the three centre-backs is also a Juric formation, but I think we need more bodies up the pitch for some control and we also need an out ball up the field.

Happy to see Ramsdale back in. Not so happy to see Adam Armstrong starting up top.