Saint86

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.

Honestly, if you are going to make expectations for the season over a saints side that lined up without THB/Schlotterbeck or manning in defence, without any of Downes/Jander/JWP in CM, and without both azaz and Larin in attack, then i can't help you - you need to be realistic. That is a gutted side, not something to base your season expectations on. Our full strength side was averaging 2.46points over our unbeaten run... 113points. Without severe injuries or a huge tonda ban, we are waltzing into the playoffs. Enjoy it mate. The one silver lining of spygate is that all the people that "prefer the championship" (aka: they like winning and think its sustainable forever in the 2nd tier vs parachute sides - it isn't FYI), get their wish for another season. We are the best side in the 2nd tier for 2026 - we should have been promoted, we weren't, and now we're everyone else's problem.

Really does have to be said.. he's okay defensively, better than Stephens and wood, and happens to be very good at offensive set pieces (if bang average at defending them), he also gets bullied by physical attackers and isn't particularly fast. I think it's mad how people are so traumatised at losing him. He was dog awful for 75% of the last 2 seasons. Needs to be reiterated, we were always likely to lose 2 of our best players as a minimum... I picked Charles and THB right at the start of the summer, and to get £60M for two luxury players in the champ is good businesses... Everyone wetting the bed should instead be bloody grateful it's not Peretz, Larin, azaz, scienza, Jander, or downes we've lost... Because they are all more critical to this side winning than THB. No team in the 2nd tier needs a £20M CB, let alone a £30M one. We've got 3 solid CBs on the books as it is, and the young forest lad is a good player and prospect (I'm actually really surprised that basically no one on here as even heard of him!). They'd likely all start for most championship sides... I think people are forgetting just how good our team is for this league - we will waltz into the playoffs - and if this means we don't overpay and keep money available to strengthen where needed in January, then so be it 🤷. Teams evolve.... We are already in better shape than we were at the start of last season under Still. We are going up. And I for one and looking forward to abbot and schlotterbeck becoming the starting CB pairing for us 😎

Personally think it's a bad move for him (but he deserves the chance), I just don't think he's good enough for the level of villa expectations I'm afraid - and on top of that, I fear they could be in for a shit show season - huge squad turnover and unrest, awful first game, and expectations of champions league footy again next year and a tilt at some more silverware. The reality is that villa are desperate, which will likely end in tears for all the players they end up signing.

He's out Bruno Fernandes tbh, absolute class for the division and (if he stays fit) I suspect he'll be player of the year.

Just another Sporsy end of window treat? This year's scienza?

Okay. Let's get this guy.