Saint86

Can't be. The all knowing footballing experts on here wrote him off months ago and ridiculed those of us who said he had what it takes to score at this level. He is an excellent signing for Ipswich - a quality striker for years to come or a tidy transfer profit. Either way, he would certainly have been a good buy for Saints, doubly so given the amount of money we've wasted on strikers.

Allow me to state my immense surprise at this rumour turning out to be complete horseshit.

With his fitness issues, its 2months more like.

If we all do that, sods law we'll win 😂

Time wise - My first game was when we beat Arsenal at the Dell 1-0 in 1994... interlude to that actually being basically 30years ago to the day (😨!!) and now i feel old 😂. Niemi Clyne Fonte VVD Shaw Morgan Wanyama Mane Le Tissier Tadic Lambert Honourable mentions to Dean Richards, Michael Svensson, Toby (we've had some damn decent CB's in our time) Beattie, Bridge, KWP (and full backs) Pelle - All of which immediatley sprung to mind as contenders but didn't quite cut the mustard. The joys of awful teams is that you tend to forget them. Doubtless i could plumb the depths of our championship and premier league relegation seasons and find some stinker picks mind.

Sadly, i think that lineup is fantasy land - there is no way we will consistently get 90min out of both lallana and dibling, so the time you'll see those two and fernandes on the pitch all at the same time is limited (tasty mind - but hence me calling it a fantasy). And besides, Fernandes should be played in the attacking positons behind the striker. What makes more sense is a rotation between fernandes/dibling/lallana, such that we have 2 of the 3 on the pitch in attacking positions as much as possible.

Shame - You'd like to think he is one of the ones we'd keep hold off and try to build around... But i guess sales are going to be required over the summer 😕

Where is the rest of your player sales? We will be ripping the squad totally apart following relegation - all saleable assets will be removed. We raised £160M last time around, and we will be in a similar financial state this time out as well. Trying to summarise where on earth that money can come from is pretty bleak... I've approximated some valuations below, although we'll be in a far weaker negotiating position this time around without the likes of big money sales to bail us out. Obviously we won't get takers for all these players, and similarly we may have to sell a couple we don't want... Ramsdale - £25M? THB - £25M? Dibling - £20M? Fernandes - £15-20M Archer (if we're lucky) - £10M? Onuachu (if we're lucky) - £5M? Sulemana - £5-10M ABK - £5-10N Reckon we could feasibly get somewhere in the realms of £95-115M all in - its unlikely we're realise maximum value for every player we sold, we'd need to cut wages, and we'd need to balance getting them out the door with trying to fill gaps... but all said and done, it leaves the squad pretty threadbare as it is and doubtful we'd have much money to strengthen. GK - Baz/Macca (Average champ) FBs - Bree, Taylor, Manning, Suga (Autos level)) CBs - Stephens, Bednarek, Woods, Edwards (Playoff level) CDMs - Downes, Charles, (Autos level) CMS - Smallbone, Aribo, (Play off level)) AM/Wingers - Edozie, SAA, Fraser (Top half) CFs/St - Armstrong, Stewart (Armstrong is playoff level, but zero depth) That is a squad that would challenge for the playoffs, not the top 2.

I mean, they only won because var gave them a 2goal advantage. They're fecking useless 😆

No it wasn't cleared, the commentators are having to assume it because it has been allowed. They show decisions that var check.

Another dubious VAR game for us. Fucking disgusting to not even show it. The complete lack of transparency and unequal application of var is awful for the game.

Foul on archer surely?

Fernandes really can't cross can he :Z

I'd like to see anyone deny this is all down to Martin's coaching as well!!! Credit it where its due 😆

I absolutely cannot wait for this one to come home to roost. Lammy is an absolute imbecile - i'm still chuckling at his master mind answer... "who followed henry VIII?"... "Henry VII" 🤦‍♂️... Sadly though i suspect he won't be foreign secretary by the time Trump is president, and certainly not by the time of any potential state visit. But between Starmer and Lammy though, honestly what a pair of absolute diplomatic imbeciles - The USA is the UK's most significant ally, and they've acted like a red flag to a bull in baiting Trump. Talk about not knowing when to keep your mouth shut and playing the smart game in politics 😂

I watched them play palace and they were absolutely atrocious. Worse at the back than us.

Playing devils advocate, if the more attacking subs don't come on, we don't open up the game and get what should have been a blatant penalty putting us 3-1 up... Instead a couple of minutes later we're 2-2 and with 10men... mostly thanks to insanely inconsistent (best case and being nice) Video Assistant refereeing (most would call it openly biased as a minimum). Don't get me wrong, i am one of the ones that bemoaned those subs post match - but i can only moan about it because we didn't get the pen and instead got shafted. Had the pen been given, we probably would be here saying it was a good performance, rather than having people pointing to it as a bad defeat. As others have said, its fine margins. It certainly feels like there are some in the fanbase that can't enjoy the win because they refused to step back from wanting martin gone for even a few minutes. And tbh on the set piece front (thinking Ipswich), we've looked pretty solid from most corners and set pieces despite immense pressure at times. The two goals that have cost us (Leicester and Ipswich) were both because of player errors where someone didn't do their job and cover/close down out side of the box. The result is we all sit here and lambast Martin for awful defensive set up on corners... but actually having seen us do that setup most games now, we actually look very solid with it generally. Reality is its a championship squad and a championship manager - they need time to step up... whether they can is very much a doubt... but they've got the first win now, they beat stoke as well, there is a bit of momentum there. I watch wolves palace the other night, they are utterly abysmal defensively and wasteful up front - they are there for the taking even if its going to be a low standard nerve biting mess of a game... and win that and things don't look anywhere near as glum. And get that the above is looking for the positives (such as they are) and hoping we improve and get a bit more luck - but its evident Martin isn't going anywhere... so whilst he (and the players) are trying, you may as well try to find something to support and enjoy in being a saints fan - Its not all going to be back to back promotions, top 10 prem finishes, and flirts with europe. Think some forget perennially being in the relegation zone and pulling off last minute escapes was our typical MO for quite a few seasons.

Dibling is 18 having played circa 10games of men's football, lallana is 36(?}... For obvious reasons we won't be getting 90min out of either of them regularly. The squad depth / quality will need to be improved on January specifically in the attacking areas if we're to have any serious chance of staying up playing like this.

We played like this last season, difference was confidence levels and relative ability of the teams. I've said it elsewhere, but dibling and fernandes are massive for us as they're the two players than can genuinely deliver attacking play like Martin wants at this level - sugawara and kwp as well. We're a totally different team when they're all on the pitch. Lallana as well to a lesser extent.

This was a fantastic save as well. How we've missed a shot stopper of his ability... And we're talking years, probably since niemi bar foresters brief "wall" stint.

Interesting stat on today's stream. It took Dyche 11 games to get his first win in the prem, he went on to keep Burnley up that year. Martin has done it in 10... A glimmer of hope?

Agreed. One of the most blatant "tight" offsides you could get. What really through me was when the red line was drawn beyond the blue line and i thought they'd give it... a bad choice of colours to indicate the attacker was offisde. 🤮

Having Dibling and Fernandes on the pitch together at the same time is massive for us. As is KWP and Sugawara. Thats the reality. A lot of our players don't have the technical and attacking quality to fluidly threaten at the top end, and equally the confidence is low... If players are lacking both ability and confidence they're on a hiding to nothing. Hopefully we can get a win at Wolves and we'll at least tackle the confidence side of things.

He's going to be a proper crowd favourite if he sticks around. Came here just to play, and his stated ambition is to keep us up and try and re-establish us in the prem. Hard not to like someone prepared to do that for us, as opposed to sit on the bench at a big club earning a packet and winning trophies.

A win and a clean sheet, and a bit of luck perhaps (for once this season). Will take that (obviously). Lets see if we can get a win out of Wolves somehow - would be absolutely massive.