Saint86

I'd be very surprised if they manage to make autos.

He's probably still the best keeper at the club, so I can only assume there is a financial reason we refuse to play him.

A promising young career ruined by bad injuries - sadly for him.

Is it hindsight? A great many of us have said he's a goalscorer who should have been kept and should have been re-signed.

Agree with all of that tbh. Peretz distribution and command of his box (after the west ham goal last week as well) was really poor last night. Put us under pressure numerous times with terrible passing straight to the opposition. There was one moment where we'd had about 20-30passes, Brum parked the bus in a compact shape and pushed us back up the pitch to the back line, who then played it all the way back to Peretz (under no pressure himself, only for him to play it straight to a Birmingham attacker about 35yards from goal, leading to an attack for them and then a corner. He can't be doing that. His first touch in particular was terrible last night - if he can't play that way then Eckert needs to realise it and stop trying to create a Russel Martin "Macca" error scenario. Also thought schlotterbeck was looking knackered 2nd half - can't really blame him - it's been a bit of a whirlwind introduction to English football so could see him being rotated for Lincoln (and Stephens and wood, maybe with an abbot introduction 2nd half should be adequate there). Schlotterbeck looks a promising player though, and it was a cracking goal. Bragg as well I agree, first half in particular he was struggling but he did grow into the game. He's young, this is his first season of starting regularly - need to manage his minutes and take him in and out of the side to protect his confidence and allow him to learn at a sensible pace. I think JWP will be taking his spot on the weekend anyway - bragg has played a lot of minutes this week. Dobbin a weird one - there is a good player there (last season shows this), but agree with hypo and others who query quite why we've signed him as he isn't going to replace azaz or Larin in the starting 11, nor does he favour the left wing slot or look likely to replace scienza. Could be one of those who needs some game time - perhaps we will see him start at Lincoln.

Don't disagree on your last part, but I think he also needs to be given time. Larin has a very good understanding with the other attacking players, and azaz in particular. It was obvious last night that the new players aren't quite there yet - there were numerous times where short passes or through balls were made involving jwp, schlotterbeck, or Mubama that went to a run that didn't happen or a player who had moved and wasn't there for the pass. I agree though, he (Mubama) could have started better - but the reality is that eckert wants to play a specific way and Mubama in particular needs to learn larin's role to be fully effective in this system (I think he has the attributes to do this though).

St Andrews under the lights vs a very tough and ugly Birmingham side. I think thats a solid point all in all. Especially given we're missing Jander, have had THB just taken out of the side with a new CB starting, and have JWP settling in. Onwards and upwards.

Didn't get to see the Millwall game, but i think Prowsey looks good for the level. Would like to see him start on the weekend.

I thought manning had good free kicks. But that was on another level even if the keeper saved it. You could see the fear and panic.

Ref has been weak on a number occasions with blatant fouls on our players just being waved away.

He's not been great today. Started very poorly but raised him game a bit as its gone on. Overall hasn't added anything special though. Suspect he needs a bit of care and rotating in and out of the side. Its his first season starting regularly and need to be careful with him.

Peretz has put us under real pressure with sloppy passing a number of times this game. Its a concern.

Gone to sleep there. Manning and scienza not doing enough defensively this season.

This is a horrible game.

West ham 4-1!!

Wanna bet that the better we do, the bigger Eckert's ban?

Yeah, i remember. Always feels like a grotty touch ground for us to go to. Don't think i've got any fond memories of us at St Andrews.

Taylor Harwood-Who?

Looks like terrible weather? Never seems to be a nice place to go for us.

Whats the betting Spors will be watching the game with a list of replacements to hand, just in case.

Hypo mate, honestly i mean this in the best way possible - I hope you can relax and enjoy this season in the coming weeks! I get it - its been a shite end of season / summer, but i don't think we could have done much better on transfers from where we were... Scienza, peretz, larin, azaz, jander are all still here. Thats fantastic. I think pretty much any thread going into the summer transfers was basically predicting we're lose 2 of "the core" as a minimum - and frankly Charles and THB are the most expendable of them. We've banked £60M for a squad player and a CB... a £30M CB is a ludicrous luxury for the championship - its not a necessity for promotion. Then we've added JWP for 800k - personally i think that is great business for any championship side, let alone saints. He isn't charles... okay... but charles was a squad player for us. JWP will bring a great engine, consistency, stamina, experience/quality/control, and arguably the best set piece delivery in the division / country. Schlotterbeck is a very tidy addition for the money... Stats wise he's a very similar player to THB (a player that, as above, i considered a luxury rather than a necessity). And Abbot is a very promising youngster. Mubama is a good addition up front as depth for Larin, although i share the concerns that we are a larin injury away from basically gambling on him doing the business. But then i guess, we have money to spend now in january if needed. Also worth considering - we have Larin in early doors and with a preseason (and therefore good fitness levels) behind him. Not like january when he came in unfit and having to be very carefully managed. Equally, Eckert showed us last year that he is very good at rotating players and managing minutes to maintain fitness through one of the most congested fixture run in's i've ever seen (post final international break). I really don't think we could reasonably have expected the club to have done much more. No one in this league is going to want to play us. And injuries and tonda ban aside, this is a team that (on paper) has what it needs to continue 2026's incredible form (which was the best of any division in england - and we haven't been promoted like Lincoln) and a run that was at 2.46ppg and 113points in a season. People should be looking at us in the championship like they do at Arsenal in the prem. We are a fluke with respect to quality - we shouldn't be in this league this year. We need to not be unlucky with injuries or Tonda, but outside of that this should be a great season... (touch wood!!! ';.;')

Good stuff!

Looked into this when it was reported. Turns out it was extremely lazy reporting - Not going to go back over it for the numbers, but if i recall correctly it was a "headline" figure of exclusively the money we owed on installments - and it ignores the money we had coming in, no least in light of the further sales we had made since those figures were originally published (which were substantial). So in short, only half the story or basically a non story. If saints were short of money or in any danger of breaching financial limits, we would not have signed Peretz and Larin prior to the end of the PSR 3-year cut off window this summer. Under Spors, i've been very impressed with how well we've navigated the tightrope left to us through terrible squad structuring and transfer deals under Rasmus / Wilcox / Martin - we've managed to assemble a very competitive first team, steadily cleared out the shit, and paid down the outstanding debt significantly (last years published accounts).

I think we'll quickly find that the Schlotterbeck pairings will be at least as strong, and we will quietly forget about THB.

Crooky 🤣 Regardless though, think this could prove to be a good bit of business.