Saint86

What? Its a total non issue imo 😅. I can't see any real danger of a Saudi Arabian league threatening the established European competitions - its just like china and the MLS before them with the exception that they very likely corrupted a world cup to get help launch their initial PR. Fact of the matter is that they are paying huge sums to lure aged players into a league with no meaningful competition/pedigree/prestige, and into a country where players are unlikely to ever move their families or settle for any meaningful amount of time. And okay, money talks... but they aren't going to take out champions league and EPL tv monies by having a low standard leave with geriatric players and no established fanbases / brand names. The whole thing is frankly quite weird, football isn't golf, i cannot see what they're trying to achieve.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2023/06/17/chelsea-pay-30m-villarreal-striker-nicolas-jackson/ Chelsea are preparing to pay around £30 million to secure the signing of Villarreal forward Nicolas Jackson, with the deal advancing quickly. Villarreal do not want to sell Jackson, who scored 12 goals in La Liga in 2022-23, but Chelsea are ready to activate the 21-year-old’s release clause. Talks are ongoing between the two clubs over payment structures and the finer details of the transfer, but there is now an expectation that the striker will be moving to Stamford Bridge. The move could even be finalised in the next few days, after Jackson has played his final game of the season, for Senegal against Brazil, on Tuesday. It is expected that Jackson will sign a long-term contract similar to those handed to previous young signings since the Todd Boehly-Clearlake Capital takeover of the club. Jackson moved to Villarreal from Senegal in 2019 and can play as a central striker or on the wings. He finished the season in sensational form, scoring nine goals in his final eight games of the club campaign. The forward almost signed for Bournemouth in January, in a deal worth around £25 million, before a hamstring injury prevented him from making the move.

Would be an absolute shocker by the club to lose some or our best academy plauers. Hopefully nothing in this.

Hah! Yes I did! That will teach me to peruse twitter in the early hours 😂😅

Alfie house has tweeted to say he is off on holiday and doesn't expect to miss any announcements... I hope some people can take another week with no Martin announcement... 😅🤣

Looks like Maresca is heading to Leicester... And people were worried Leicester would poach Martin from us 🤣

Yeah it's funny. Let's be clear here, this is a manager that no statistically significant proportion of the fanbase are excited about. The bed wetting is all very predictable, but it does bode well for general spectator entertainment over the summer. On the logic behind some of the panicking - We can only assume that some fans consider that Managers are not allowed to have a holiday... also that new Southampton employees would never ever even dream of discussing their new job whilst essentially on gardening leave / seeing out holiday time for their old job 🙄🤣😂. Some of the same posters that said he couldn't possibly be doing this are the same ones that have been assuring us that wilcox has been working for saints for months as well 😂. And that's ignoring the fact that it happens all the damn time in all walks of life 🙄🤣. And aside from all that, is he even back from holiday to do all the PR / interviews / announcement guff that will be required to sate our bipolar apathetic/impatience as fanbase re his appointment?

Yes, because chelsea signing any player right now is a sign of good scouting 😄

How did you gleam all that from that article? Basically says he's settled in swansea, that we've been a basket case club lately, and that they'll be a lot of pressure and uncertainty at saints - particularly if things don't go well.

I've set my expectations at David Brent cross Puel. Which is a pretty low bar. The saving grace is that we should have a very competitive side for the level, so we can afford imitate his Swansea side (who had the most shots, missed most of them, and had the 5th worse defence in the league) and still challenge for promotion... In Rasmus we trust right? 😂

I know there are arguments about the merits of promotion vs player sake value, but I think we should be giving him an extension, and we probably should keep him any longer without signing one.

Now you're arguing a different point though. His finishing reel for recent seasons is a horror show. I like Che, but he can't shoot for shit - well not if he has time to think about it anyway 😂🤣😅.

Both this site and twitter are anonymous for starters and no one has the right to an unopposed opinion. This is great. Also very much on Andrew's side 😄

wowsa, i had no idea Torquay had slipped to the 6th tier!

You don't think his "miss reel" is a horror show?

Imagine if somehow our midfield winds up as JWP, Lavia, Alcaraz. Plus Tella and Sulemana on the wings 🤩. (I know this is very unlikely).

Bizarre. Swansea are well known to be a nightmare club, and them behaving stupidly won't influence anyone's opinion of saints other than we will not be bullied 🤷‍♂️. Also, as predicted, all that is happening is Swansea have made tits out of themselves paying his wages for an extra couple of weeks whilst he's on leave and whilst both parties wait for a formal confirmation of our relegation that they would actually accept 🙄🤣. I am actually very pleased we haven't needlessly wasted a more money when the entire squad is on holiday regardless. And if anything, RM has probably been working for us for free whilst on his own holiday. Also this. And are there even any saint fans that are desperate to sign him? Not sure why some of our fans were be getting upset over it when its the off season and basically everyone is on holiday for a couple of weeks. Especially when 1 week before it all got delayed the fan consensus was broadly one of disappointment that he was the linked manager 😅

We really should be able to have a "good" summer (its still an overall shitshow mind).... There is a lot of guff to sell that will now want out due to wage cuts and drop in standing. That in itself will allow a rebalance. Then we have a group of high value (or potential) players that are all on decent contracts - we can either keep them together (in which case we should tear up the champ in all seriousness), or sell 1 or 2 and have a lot of money to spare. Main task is shifting the fillers and rebuilding the squad effectively so that we don't need to flog the jewels.

Yes 😆

And they'll be trotting out the same old line - "guns don't kill people, people do". Mental country.

Wondering if the perpetrator will be one of Merkle's millions (he's reportedly a Syrian who has refugee status) - feels like it could easily be some deranged lone wolf extremist that's snuck into Europe and waited to strike, ditto radicalised by one. The reports of pushing adults out the way to specifically get to the kids its horrific.

No way!

Unless he is going to be really unhappy and kick off then we absolutely should keep last year's player of the year and a title winner. His value to us is quite high - we had an absolutely awful attack last year, and we're struggling for a winning mentality - what we absolutely need is players that know how to win, and more than that, players that know how to win the league / get promoted - as that is our fundamental objective. So unless its for silly money we should be keeping Tella - we have more than enough other players to shift / replace / improve on without busying ourselves shifting a player that is nigh on perfect for what we would be going out and looking for anyway ffs - not to mention the absolute utter turmoil that is our upper management and recruitment teams at present.

A 60k stadium with London price tickets where SMS is, and with the associated terrible transport links? Nah probably not. But built somewhere a bit more accessible with proper transport links? I reckon we could get up to 50k if the increased revenue led to improvements on the pitch (i.e. not being utter shite). Ultimately the London stadium is extremely well served by public transport and has a dense population around it. Saints have fans travelling from across Hampshire, Wilshire, Dorset and probably some from Somerset - to a stadium with no direct public transport links and in a city with limited parking (near the ground) or rail access 🤷‍♂️. Our fanbase isn't as small as people make it out to be, but getting to the ground is a challenge. People said we'd never sell out SMS when it was first proposed, and yet we maintain a decent attendance even when its been dirge for a year and despite it being a pretty uninspiring stadium and a cost of living crisis.

Yeah can't seeing it have much impact. Fees are largely set by the player's value to his club, remaining contract length, club's resolve. Feel a bit for Brighton, losing him for £35M is far worse than us losing Mane for £35-40M. They look to be following a similar path to what we set under Koeman (and also Leicester), albeit not quite reaching as high. How many players can they sell before their recruitment falters? Will they be the side that bucks the trend, or in 5years will they be battling relegation like every other team that dares to knock on the glass ceiling.