Hodgey

So building on that MLG - would you expect Armstrong to score over 10 league goals to us, if he replaces Ings this season ? Do you think he could have the same impact for us as Watkins and Bamford have straight from the Championship ?

Most of those players were with the same team / style. Much harder to adjust to a new league / style / team. Plus Bamford and Watkins had Rafina and Grealish to feed them - we have Redmond.

Finally a good batting performance, but it wasn’t really the batters who did it ! Like the looks of Organ - surprised he was batting so far down. Getting Amla out twice is going to be very tricky but they’re in a great position. What’s going on with Vince - confidence looks shot.

Terrible situation to be in. You need to score goals to avoid trouble esp when you can’t defend. He wins games - simple as, we’ve got to hope the attacking midfielders step up and actually contribute - and that Che learns to use his left foot (unforgivable for a pro footballer). I think we will sell and will face a huge relegation battle - lots of championship quality players in our squad - Walcott, Long (actually l1), Bednerak, Adams, Redmond, Djenepo, McCarthy, Forster I could go on. Personally I think the gamble of keeping him for another year and risking injury / low effort is a gamble worth taking. In a year one of the youngsters could step up / Adams might improve / we might have a new owner. Or he might resign in Jan !!!

It’s all a bit odd - doesn’t seem that they have any real strategy or direction - what are they trying to be ? Clearly they didn’t take t20 seriously - so are they aiming to be genuine championship contenders?. One minute the likes of Soames, Stevenson and Northeast are the future the next they are gone. Are they going to stick with young players like Currie, Weatherly and Prest ?. They can’t keep relying on ageing players like Edwards and Barker and The Kolpak angle we relied on so much is not available.

Just watched the Somerset game. We are really poor, without the 2 overseas players we would have been absolutely hammered. Weatherly isn’t a t20 player - just nurdles it around and doesn’t have many shots, Prest looked way out of his depth and McManus isn’t a batsman. Again felt bowling was ok - Currie decent, not trophy winning but at least competitive. Compare our youngsters with theirs - Banton and Smeed looked a class above.

This T20 team looks a long way short - once Vince and Short are removed you have a load of non-explosive players getting 10s (Fuller exception). The bowling line up seems OK but the batters are giving them impossible numbers to defend.

17-19 the problem - 2 disasterous transfer years - effectively wasted all the £60m VVD money and saddled ourselves with another c £50m of wasted wages. The rest overall to be fair the expected hits and misses. Also add on a fair few million in manager compensation and agents / signing on. Also puts paid to the myth that we don’t net spend - as clearly we have although nowhere near as much as some. Biggest worry now is looking at current squad you don’t see many profitable assets and the few we have are basically irreplaceable and if sold would see us go down.

We’ve got a strange obsession with English keepers which is one of England’s weak spots. So we pay an unnecessary premium - even recently we’ve been linked to English keepers in the main (Buckland etc). Not sure why this is but it isn’t helping - especially when we seem incapable of improving them.

Elynoussi isn’t the answer. He’s worse than Walcott, Armstrong, Redmond and Tella. He was woeful under Hughes and then immediately shipped out by Ralph (twice). He’s been in and out of an out of sorts Celtic team in a poor league. Best thing we can do here is get a few million cash and get him off the wage bill - although I doubt you’ll get many takers.

Hard to tell if it’s the coaches or players. There is a number 2 - Richard someone who finally replaced his old number 2 who went to Germany. You could argue the coaching team have improved some players - JWP / Romeu / KWP / Adams / Tella / Salisu / Vestigaard and we seem above average at set pieces (even though that offside trap terrifies me) and have a decent plan A. Evidence suggests clear issues in defensive work, final 3rd decisions, youth/reserves, in game tactic changes. I don’t think we have the right coaching set up personally for those reasons so getting some proven talent here (even if that means compensation) would seem a good use of money.

Has to be JWP - 4 more goals and one more assist than Armstrong despite playing deeper, always available with an unreal work rate. I’m truly astounded there are still many who seemingly don’t rate him. Stu, Ings and KWP hard to set apart for the other places - each provide something unique and important to this team.

If Kane leaves - him going to Spurs for £15m sounds about right. Personally I don’t think we should sell unless we get £30m - how much is a year in the Prem worth ? That’s what we are talking here so keeping him then letting him go on a free and getting another £80m or whatever you get for being in the Prem seems like good business to me. Only risk is he gets injured or plays half arsed - but the second is unlikely if he wants a decent final club. Also that will mean I can watch much less of Walcott or Long doing a bad impression of a striker

Good to see Redders making an effort as my general scapegoat he deserves credit. Never understood the Stephens hate but he deserves credit too. Also McCarthy for some great saves and Salisu for looking genuine class. Adams put a massive shift in as did KWP. In fact only Minimino really looked out of sorts - not that he wasn’t trying he just doesn’t look like he suits this team (or maybe league). Finally Ralph - got his tactics right today for me.

Credit where it’s due. Ralph made the right sub / setup and we’ve dug in. Let’s see if they can keep discipline in 2nd half

Where to start !. Firstly we’ve tried to clear out players before and got nowhere (indeed Hoet Lemina and Elynoussi continue to return). So if we managed to move on a couple of players we don’t want that would be a good result. More likely is we lose players we do - Ings, JV and Redmond which may free up some wages and transfer budget. Next question is how wisely can we invest - recent history suggests we’ll buy a couple of £15m players who will need a season to bed in and may or may not be of the quality required. So you lose 3 1st team and replace them with 3 players you already know to be inferior for a season. How about the youth ? With both U23 and U18s bottom of their leagues and pretty abject - nothing doing there for at least 2 years. So what is the answer ? Firstly we have to nail the loan system - we’ve seen with Lingard and AMN it can be done but we’ll need good loan fee and wages signed off. we need 1st team starters on loan and probably need them to be the spine of our team - so a cf / cm or cb. Then we have to hope that Salisu / Diallo / Tella / Djenepo improve and buy a few more ‘potentials’ (I’d start with the championship). finally we may need to dip into the free transfer pot for some cover in key areas (ie full back) which I can see having more quality / volume than other years due to Covid. It’s all a very tall order though - get it right we could be lower mid table, get a couple wrong i can see relegation. oh and for goodness sake have a strategy on squad balance. Aim should be a prem quality player on every position with someone who could at least do a job for a few games in reserve. Not no full backs but a load of gks and wingers

For me after that Walcott, Redmond and Bednerak played themselves out of the semis. We cant seriously play the same 11 again after that. Forster will be a lucky boy to keep sticks and the only reason Diallo and Bertrand get in is because there are no alternatives. Forster KWP Vest Salisu Berty Diallo JWP Armstrong Djenepo Adams. Ings

This has been a few years coming - I was surprised at the defensive response to the comment from the Burnley new owner when it was pretty clear he had it spot on. What’s more worrying is it looks like it is a base talent rather than training issue. First stage of solving an issue is admitting you have one - I’m hoping it’s crystal clear to those who matter in the club or we’ve got 4 years of nothing coming through - which is a big problem if youth is your declared sustainability policy. Thing is we don’t need to produce Prem quality players - that is incredibly hard to do and takes patience, with our set up however we should be producing championship quality players who can bolster the squad when injuries hit (and hopefully the odd Prem standard player)

SKD - no WE wouldn’t get a champs league and euro league player for £2m. But that isn’t the way it works. Nobody who would pay £50k a week wants Elynoussi as he isn’t good enough. others at a lower level might buy him for a reduced fee to subsidise the fact they would have to pay a very high wage. I’d be happy with £2m cash plus £5m saved in wages. Yes it seems like a bad deal (and his book value is still c £7m so it is) - but better than us trying to find 2 more loan deals and he leaves on a free anyway in 2 years. If you think he is genuinely good enough to be a decent squad option fair enough. I sadly don’t - and whilst I admit I doubted Vestergaard could be a prem player due to his pace, pace isn’t as important for a cb if they learn positioning and his arial ability and passing have always been decent. the fact Celtic fans aren’t bothered - and he has been in and out of a poor Celtic team doesn’t give me confidence despite some half decent stats. BTW - same opinion on Hoet. Lemina has at least shown he can be a prem player so someone might nibble if Fulham go down

There’s lots of value in doing that. Firstly I think having him around blocks Tella progress - and I think Tella has something you need in the prem (pace) and potential. Secondly if we want Walcott as a reserve striker / lw then we can’t afford both given his wages. And lastly he’s just not very good - and if he’s around we’ll be tempted to play him, and he’ll inevitably continue to disappoint. I’d take anything above £2m

Not sure if injured or not but neither Valery nor Vokins could make the 1st team squads today.

I still don’t get the 100pc certainty we cant win it. If we beat Bompey, we could easily have a semi vs Everton or Leicester neither of which are forgone conclusions. Then yes we’d probably face a Chelsea or City - but then it’s a two horse race in a one off game and our form could have changed by then. I don’t remember being played off the park by Arsenal or Utd in the last two finals. if this isn’t a decent chance then I’m not sure when will be, are we going to get a year where we outspend everyone, or the top 6 suddenly become really weak ? Good luck waiting for that. I’m not expecting to win it, of course not, but we’ve got a good chance here of getting to the final and should be all out going for it. I mean resting those players against City didn’t really pan out did it ?

Just consider that if we beat a team a division below, with injuries, who need to go up, we are then 2 wins away from our first trophy in 45 years and therefore most Saints fans life. This is one of the best chances we’ll have so I’m shocked by the amount of fans seemingly non plussed. I can only assume winning things isn’t of interest - as I don’t see another great chance coming along anytime soon !.

I mean who knows who was doing what from that corner. In any case putting a full back against the best header of the opposition doesn’t strike me as too clever. But agree could have done better

I’d still sign him up for another 2 years if wages are right. Zero trust in us getting a competent lb, we’ll end up playing Salisu there or some such. Not sure about the scapegoating - neither goal down to him and set up our one attack, certainly not brilliant but no worse than KWP and better than all our attacking midfielders