Baird of the land

I assume Tella would move up front for initial friendlies.

I don't really have an issue with them striking but wouldn't really say i support them either. They are never going to get scale of increase they are asking for but i can understand why they'd want to try and get more than 3%. Equally i can see why network rail etc would want to get agreement to some element of modernisation alongside a higher than cap increase.

Just like you don’t want to buy just any 20 yr old, you want to buy player with right sort of experience/leadership qualities. we signed Fonte when he was 26/27 and I don’t see what’s crazy about looking for a player with that sort of profile. Actually I think it would likely benefit younger players development, certainly bednarek’s hasn’t been helped by saints shambolic defenses.

That's sort of nonsense. We signed bednarek when he was (21?), Redmond (23?), Shane long was a good experienced player we signed(under Koeman) who we have then kept way too long. Yes we can sign good younf players. No one is suggesting a team full of 30 yr olds but more of a balance. Stuart Armstrong & Danny ings were both 27 when we signned them and both have been/were very good for us. Ok, sign a 20 yr old keeper but maybe get a CB with a little more experience/know how to complement that rather than a 22 yr old.

Hmm disappointed but hardly surpised that we're being linked to a 22 yr old CB rather than someone with proper experience.

Welcome. While i've got some concerns he does clearly have talent, let's hope we can get him to fulfill it.

As long as we aren't signing Carrillo back.

Horrid start to the season for Saints. Beating Leeds in our first league game might be needed to get us going,

Not the experience profile of gk I was hoping for. Clearly he's got some talent so if he does sign hopefully he can maximise it and we can help him in signing a more experienced leader at cb and a new screen at dm.

Reminds me of Kevin Davies situation. Get a great fee from Blackburn, then feel guilty and bring him back.

I know nothing about him but was a bit put off by description of him when his name was first linked.

Not sure i see that Russia wanting to come back for more given the losses they've suffered. Seems to me likely they are more focusing on rushing to get minimum acceptable goal domestically and then just holding it.

His assist for Parrott's goal was fantastic too. It'll be interesting to see how he does next season given he has had such a hot 2nd half of the season. I really hope saints have a sell on clause included.

Annoying how good Obafemi is looking

Response feels really over the top. Someone uses a word in an acting improv session, not as a personal insult. Doesn't feel like appalling racism to me, someone inadvertently offending someone while trying to act in character. Also curious are they trying to claim the phrase 'he spoke as if his mouth was “full of chocolate cake”' was racist. Feels like a reach, oh he said chocolate, i'm black ergo he was being racist. Been listening to John McWhorter talk about this and it really resonated. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jun/10/top-drama-school-apologises-paapa-essiedu-michaela-coel-appalling-racism-guildhall

It will be really odd if we re-sign Long. For a club that's meant to be all about the pathway re-signing a 35 yr old makese zero sense. He was a valuable member of Koeman's team and a decent servant but time moves on.

Yeah does seem odd given the current hyper healthy and safety culture. F1 used to be interesting to watch when it rained but now it's a safety car. The grand national fences used to be tough but they got neutered somewhat to limit bad publicity when horses died.

Don't see why wisdom doesn't come into it. If Russian prisoners are put on trial and sentenced to life imprisonment it hardly gives Russia any pause in regards finding reasons to conduct show trials on prisoners it has. Maybe Russia does it anyway but yeah they were most definitely going to do it after.

Did wonder if it was wise for Ukraine to be trying Russian soldiers when Russia has a bunch of prisoners of its own to stage trials of. Wonder how many more of them will be sentenced to death.

Flowers arrived as understudy to a very good goalkeeper in Peter Shilton, which is a bit different than our situation with a struggling Mccarthy where there isn't going to be a 2/3 year acclimatisation period to much higher level football.

I'd say the opposite. Keepers by and large reach their peak much later than outfielders.

He has very little experience. Angus Gunn had more impressive experience and that turned out awful despite being highly rated. It's not because its not burnley it's because it's league 1 and league 1 is very low level. In comparison someone like Dragowski we were being linked with has played both in polish and italian top flight.

Did they say ‘Angus Gunn’ is a pile of garbage when we were buying or more likely did they come out with similar inane platitudes.

Nonsense playing for the third best team in Scotland at the time is loads higher than league 1. Plus he’d played in Denmark as well as Finland, unless you think utd should never have signed that bloke schmeichel from brondby either.

Not the sort of signing I was hoping for at gk. Massive gamble to take imo to go with a kid with no experience outside of league 1 when the team has just come off a season of conceding 67 goals and the other keeper hasn’t exactly been pulling up trees.