Saint86

I never said his form hadn't dipped (everyone's did), just that people can't blame the manager for what was a fluke injury (24th April) - Looking at the fixtures - he was rested for the two previous games (against Burnley and Arsenal), featured against Chelsea, Leeds, and City before that, but was then rested for Watford (13th March) before that. So in the circa 5-6weeks between Watford and Brighton, he played four times (including Brighton when it happened). He was also subbed off in some of those games so they weren't full 90minute appearances. Yup - see above.

This argument is right up there with people saying Tino's injury was Ralph's fault for overplaying him 🤣. Both of them are absolute non starters! 😅

Lyon seem to be really difficult to deal with by all accounts. Didn't Newcastle have a lot of trouble with them when signing Bruno? Be interesting to see where this goes as I think we've definetly had a sniff at him.

Thats why we signed Aribo - he plays everwhere 😆 (but yes we need a bit more quality up top to make us really competitive).

In the event that we sold him to Spurs, i could see there being a convenient "buy back clause" for whatever amount was agreed - saints look like we had no choice, Levy looks shrewd. Personally i wouldn't sell him for £35-40m ish. He's a great player for us and i really like him, but our model relies on sales and I can't see that we'd ever get significantly more than that for him; plus it gives us enough to invest in a good replacement, and to strengthen our attack.

Furious? Crikey, I feel for you! Fortunately most of us don't get so badly triggered by these kinds of things. Before you get too upset by this old thread that you've dragged up, you may want to just scroll up just a few posts on this page and you'll see a post directly about saints as well 😉! Hope that helps! But regardless, I'm not going to disagree with you thinking the women's euros thread is "clogging up" the saints page, you're welcome to that view 😘 Its certainly this summer's finest example of argumentative name calling...

Any indication of what compensation saints will get? Doubt it will be much (relative) if he's as good as rumoured and we end up watching him in the champions league and playing for england in 5 years time. Feels like the developing club routinely get shafted in these deals.

All I'd say is that our first team has significant involvement in international football and tournaments, ditto players they play against feature in those tournaments. There is certainly more saints fc relevance to say discussing Philips' wrongful inclusion over JWP in the England squad, or Che's involvement in world cup qualifiers to the "discussions" on this thread about the popularity in standards of football, or whether people like watching non league or lower league football 🤷‍♂️. I don't think there is anything wrong with expecting a thread about saints players in the Women's euros to be saints related on the saints forum...

what percentage of the posts on this thread have discussed Laura Rafferty By all means, create a thread about Laura Rafferty (or saints players in the euros) - which would be worth reading about... but sadly it seems that is not what this thread is largely about now.

I have no issue with there being a thread for our Women's team on the saints page. But i checked in on this thread yesterday evening, in amongst the constant arguing about women's football, the standard, and whether or not "its being rammed" down people's throats, the only recent post relating to saints was a reference to Hounslow and how uncompetitive the league was last year... So other than a few games being played at SMS, this really shouldn't be on the saints section of the forum 🤷‍♂️. Or did we also have a thread on here for when The Killers player at SMS? Or do the rules not apply on the forum anymore 🤣😨😁 "100% Saints discussion. Please keep it on-topic and civil. Abusive behaviour is not welcomed."

It does sound like he's in the mix yes. Its a good thing if he's interested and wants to join saints. But i really do hope we don't overpay for him.

Actually agreed. My biggest grumble is it isn't saints related and yet the top thread on the saints section of the forum is people arguing about something not saints related. I get it, we've had a good window, people can't have their usual arguments about saints etc.... But this thread should be in the lounge where the rest of us can remain blissfully ignorant to it.

Supersaint was on it i suspect...

That is a very negative way to view it. I'd argue its more nuanced - we're now coming out of the back end of our league 1 youth recruitment for u8s etc, and what was a period where the academy was underfunded and the coachingf setup etc was picked apart by other clubs such as Fulham (who then went through a top quality academy setup). 10years ago we had only just returned to the prem, and it's after this that money started being put back into the academy, the facilities, the coaches, player recruitment etc. Fast forward 10years, and we're back to having one of the best u18s sides in the country. So to say that our u18s just end up in league 2 ignores entirely our track record going back decades and focuses largely on the end product of a team crashing down the league's, in administration, and of a 3rd tier teams player / coaching recruitment setup. We are only really shaking up coaching properly this summer for the first team etc. I have little doubt that the academy sides will be of a much better standard going forward.

Was a big fan of Flying Without Ings last season - hopefully true this year as well 🤣

I can think of a few where he's falling over trying to get any body part in contact with the ball in order to get it over the line? Is that what you mean? 😅😛 But joking aside, he has scored some absolute beauties. I've just always felt that on instinct he knows where the goal is and will score belters - these are his best goals where he hasn't stopped to think about it. But then equally, when he has too much time to think about it, he lacks compsure / decision making and is likely to balls it up. As far as opposition defenders go, our attacking numbers pair well with Adam's pace / power - and you usually see him dominating individual defenders. A striker with good finishing who can feed off the space and knock downs that Adams creates would do very well. Which is where Armstrong has been particulary dissapointing. I think thats partly why Danny ings did so well with us.

Agree with what you and the others say re Che, always thought it harsh as to how he gets criticised by some as I see him as an important player for us, and one that gets better the more he plays - If he can sort out his composure in front of goal he'll be a very good striker for a lot of prem teams. I also think Armstrong has the potential to make it in the prem. He has pace, is two footed, and knows how to score. But for whatever reason its not worked last year. But... If we can get things clicking for those 2 (and CAMs), then in an attacking sense, the pair have all the attributes to cause a lot of problems. On that, I thought playing broja so much last season was odd. I felt Che offers more than him, and that ultimatley Armstrong is our asset and needed development time. I can therefore only assume that broja's game time was partly a marketing ploy for this summer - I.e. Game time for youbg players from top academies. But I won't be too disheartened if we do start with Adams and Armstrong, but we need additional cover (delap?) regardless.

Seems odd that we'd go down the loan with option to buy route, and then include a buy back clause for spurs. Bad news if this is the case however.

Consider as well that people want us to spunk £30m on broja, who scored 6 goals in 33 games last season (2000minutes).

Agreed. I actually really rate him for saints and think he's important to the team. His strength, hold up play, and work rate never fail to impress, and he gets amongst the goals a fair amount as well despite our poor service to him last year.

I didn't specify who he was a fan off, just that he was a football fan 😏. I think someone implied a differing meaning to that 😌. But I'm confident he is also a saints fan regardless. Lots of people have second clubs and he obviously likes saints... 😅😉. Also none of this makes any bearing on the point myself and Steve were making, which was about his showing as an journalist, nor does it have any bearing on MLG insinuation that a person's accent is reliable evidence of which team they support 😛.

Not sure what's going on here... I'm already finding myself impatient for the next signing... 😅 Also, I'm expecting 3 more in total at least! 😁🤗 Great summer so far 😎

Yes, 2009 for sure. Fonte, rickie, seaborne, jaihdi, Harding, papa waigo, trotman, Hammond, murty, puncheon and others. Was a total rebuild that summer from memory. Good memories though. Lee Barnard as well! Edit - and a certain west ham centre forward as well! Absolute bullet at Wembley 🤗

I'll never forgive the balding idiot for that (and many other dealings). Took us from Europe to being financially stricken and a relegation contender in his climatic 12-18months of horrendous of dealings 🤮😵😩💔

Well with aribo joining we've gained another one! 😛