Lighthouse

The off season is always sh*t, at least we can go back to having actual football to discuss and we can start getting a picture of how good this team actually is. Got my ticket for Burnley and looking forward to it. Win, lose or draw, I'm looking forward to a day out with my mates and watching a competitive match.

Personally I’d find his brand of ‘lads banter’ rather tiresome after a while, if I had to work with him for a prolonged period of time but that’s just my personal taste. He seems fairly well liked in the dressing room, according to most sources.

I doubt he is worse but I doubt he is much better either, which is imperative for us after how poor we performed last season. Being as good as Boufal is of little use to us, he needs to be a significant upgrade and based on what we've seen so far, there is little evidence of that. He's had chances and aside from one good game 2 years ago, never really seized them. He's come of the bench several times and despite the advantage of being fresher than everyone else, has made little impact. If he was good enough, he'd have been starting for Saints. If he was more than good enough he'd be at Anfield by now.

Not sure how you got to that bit. It doesn't matter how poor some of our foreign signings have been, if academy players aren't up to it then giving them game time wont fix the problem. It reminds me a bit of the Burley/Poortvliet years. Everyone moaning about journeymen like Euell, Skacel and Viafara under-performing, saying let's give the kids ago. Then we did and got relegated. One good game against a sub standard Everton team, coupled with one good run at Anfield (against tired legs who had committed forward, when he had been on the field 10 minutes) is not enough to say he is ready. Otherwise we'd all be championing Forster's cause based on his 4 clean sheets last season.

I’m not entirely sure he is ready for the Premier League. He had a decent game against Everton 2 years ago but has done little else since. Last start I can remember was the 0-0 with Stoke where he contributed nothing of note.

Like JWP and Stephens, two of the most heavily criticised players in the squad (and quite rightly a lot of the time). If the club had academy prospects who were close to being as capable as £15m signings, they'd all be in the team but we don't. JS and JWP are the best of the bunch, the rest simply aren't ready.

So he did it once - right before he injured himself and missed the next 3 months. That doesn't prove anything. It would be a complete failure to address a position which is an obvious problem, if we didn't.

We've been through this on another thread. The BIB is never going to happen. "When fit," Austin is incapable of starting consecutive games and is usually dragged off after 60-70 minutes.

Looks more like Ant McPartlin to me.

No, it's the concept of a 'marque signing' I disagree with. Signing a big name just to make people say 'wow' is a bit West Hammy if you ask me.

Bingo.

Puncheon was here for half a season before falling out and being loaned to half the football League. He eventually had a decent season with us in the Prem but his attitude caused all sorts of problems before that. Fox was in a team so good that he didn't really have to worry about defending but when he did it was questionable.

Like Osvaldo, Boufal and Gaston you mean?

He played in 24 League games last season and scored 7 goals. That's less than 1 in 3. I'd say 10 goals is a more realistic target for him.

£40m (ish) for a player who has: 1. Played one season in England 2. Scored 5 goals - 2 against relegated teams, 2 against Everton and West Ham when they were dog sh*t and one against Bournemouth 3. Not scored in his last 26 PL appearances. Wow

I don’t disagree, although on paper at least Boufal, Hojbjerg, Hoedt, Redmond and Lemina all looked like decent signings. Redmond has done alright as a squad player, the problem is he has been relied upon too much because other players have been so poor. As a sub coming on to change things, he’s decent enough for a club our level. Hoedt, Lemina and Hoj could yet come good if well managed, I’ll reserve judgement for now. Boufal just isn’t suited to the English game. Agree that the sales of Fonte and Virgil, coupled with the Carrillo signing were an absolute mess and I haven’t a clue what was going through Les’ head.

Even in the lower leagues we signed Trottman, Mellis, Dickson, Forte, Puncheon, De Ridder, Lee, Fox and Seaborne, who were... mixed, shall we say. It's never been 100% sunshine and daises.

1. They would only care if they're getting more money. 2. 'Bigger club' is ambiguous and completely meaningless these days. Brighton are signing better players than Leeds, Forest, Wednesday and Villa. 3. Bigger stadium - SJP is bigger than Stamford Bridge. Do you think anyone gives a sh*t? 4. No idea what short term potential they have which we don't. We're both coming off the back of a very poor season. 5. We've spent money to try and improve too.

I don't see why. We've finished above them in 5 of the last 7 seasons and they were only narrowly in front in the other 2. They chuck their money around recklessly, giving the illusion of being bigger than they are but in reality they haven't picked up better players than us, or achieved more success. They've had one cup final in nearly 40 years.

One thing is for sure, watch him mysteriously disappear from the England squad if he does sign for us.

Just had a look and the whole ground apart from blocks 1-3 is showing as 'nearly sold out' in red. Had a quick look in the Northam, I'd say there were about 150 or so seats dotted across 3 blocks. Not bad, 3 weeks before kick off with many people away on school holidays etc.

Fair point. We basically do. JWP, Stephens, Sims, McQ, McC are all decent young prospects but even they have their limitations (some more than others). We've done it with foreign talent too, the problem is for every Mané and Wanyama, there's a Boufal or Gaston. I think we're pretty good for not buying mercenaries. I'm struggling to think of the last player I thought was only here for a pay cheque. Probably someone like Euell or Stern John.

Just had a look at Isgrove's appearances for Barnsley last season. For the games he started, there seems to be a common theme of being subbed off in games they aren't winning. Seems he's struggling to make an impact even in a squad as poor as theirs.

We're a professional football club, not the Make a Wish Foundation. Saints don't exist to give sub-standard players the chance to play Premier League football.

If he ONLY scored against Panama and Tunisia then yes, he would be. The difference being Kane has just scored 30 Premier League goals, whereas Welbeck scored 5 and half of them were against our shower of sh*te.