Saint86

There is no scenario where i want to see Jan Vertonghen playing left wing back for saints. Talk of this is just mental to me.... can you even imagine him running up and down the wing? Let alone continuously...

hah, he is you're right!!! In that case i like him even more 😅

What I think they're doing is a decent strategy but carries risk. They look to be investing somewhere in the region of £60M-£100M this window (subject to remaining transfer business). That's going to be a loss on our books in our 3 year accounting window for FFP. But that investment is almost entirely into good value players that we can develop to a level / value that exceeds what we paid for them. They then either contribute to the team, or, the ones that we sell generate increased revenues which can be used to pay off debts / and reinvest, and also boosts our limits under FFP at that given future date. A cycle which we can then hopefully repeat (aka Brentford). These players will all likely have lower wages (than equivalent standard players) for most of their time here as well. The obvious risk is they don't develop as expected and we don't end up with a first team of either good quality players or players that we can sell for profit - at which point we'll be treading water without further investment. I suppose the worst case beyond that is that we get relegated and/or they don't develop to the required level and we need to strengthen to survive and sell them at a loss - but i think that is unlikely.

Looks like a pacey and reasonably well built striker that can finish well with decent composure and is good with his head. Likes a scissor kick. Edited - he's a lot taller than i thought he was 😎

I don't think you'll get accused of bed wetting, one fit full back and 1 point in August are both reasonably possible, albeit I think slightly unlikely/conservative given I reckon we'll pick up points out of Leicester / United, perraud is surely back soon, and we'll hopefully address any residual squad depth issues at fullback. Also don't forget Tino is in training so hopefully back by the end of the year.

Yup. Gabbi is green, whilst Austin is red... yet Austin cost a lot less and scored more goals Whilst Gabbi got loaned out when we couldn't sell him. Too early to put Salisu in the green column, he missed his entire first season basically, and hasn't yet played 1 season's worth of matches for us. Within that he's shown great promise and some spectacular errors. So amber for me, but i think he'll be green by the end of this season. Bednarek is a in amber is probably about right given what we paid for him and how he's become a mainstay Centre back.

I'd take both Diaz and Pukki at the right price 😅

Was DS a pompey fan??? I guess that would make some sense retrospectively - i always felt he had no real passion for writing about the club, and he also published a couple of less favourable articles (not least when he wrote about us feigning injuries for tactical / recharge breaks). But he also had a tough act to follow (in Anka), as I think he is a quality sports journalist. At any rate, I've really enjoyed Jacobs writing since he took over from Dan - there has been some very good reads from him lately, in particular some tactical breakdowns on individual players and a couple of good interviews/pieces on club strategy. The Echo has also stepped up its coverage as well, although not to the same level.

He's conspicuously been off the forum since basically his last involvement in this thread as well. The shame must be too much.

I'm afraid it may have already left the station.

Zaha to Chelsea was rumoured recently, wonder if there is something in it.

Has something gone on that i've missed? This is football and Leicester need the money and are going to get handsomely rewarded? As long as he behaves respectfully and honours his contract, i don't see the issue?

Whats the buy back clause with City? Because if he's as good as he's looked so far, i can easily seeing him ending up there.

Was this all that was said? I know he can be a cantankerous old bar steward, but the public lynching over it seems quite harsh.

I think What Suhari is trying to say, is that Broja's joining via underwater train?

Agreed (F'ing obviously 🤣😭). Hopefully though we can stay up this season and all of a sudden the future looks a bit more rosy. We've definitely got some high potential/return players on the books now, and with Shields in charge of recruitment you have to think we won't waste that money again.

In my mind I always had Carillo at £22M - What's important is that its basically impossible for us to top that and get a worse return 😙

Forster 6 years at £100k wasn't it? And I'd argue that that players like Boufal/Lemina/Hoedt even having contracts was both "long and excessive"... 😆. I bet Redmond has earned a pretty penny for his overall return on the pitch, and isn't Stephens on 50k per/week? Didn't someone say on here that Macca is currently on £70k as well? We've had an issue paying players their worth historically imo, and when coupled with a similar affliction with transfer fees, its definitely hurt our ability to spend competitively 🤷‍♂️

Transfermarket report is as Ings at £22.59M, and Vestergard at £22.5M, then Mane at £20.7M and good old Carillo at £19.8M 😭 I imagine those include realised add ons as I always thought Carillo was our record buy.

In fairness to them, the past 2 seasons they've had a net spend of circa £5-7m each window (excluding wages). This window they currently have a net spend of circa £55m as it stands. Which isn't that dissimilar to saints so far? However, we now seem to be struggling to flog our squad players to fund further additions, whereas some reports indicate wolves are just going to casually pop another £40-60m on their net spend then... I don't know how the rest of the finances work out though - We historically had a lot of "prem" players on long and excessive contracts, whereas I doubt that is the case for Wolves, who probably still had some players on more championship sized packets over some of those windows. Teams like Brighton are sat on a £70m wedge...

Oh come on kraken 😂. Yes, obviously i think every saints supporter who is negative about the team is a pompey fan... Or maybe I was making a faceitious point about the toxic atmosphere in the fanbase lately? 👍

Nailed it for me. Sometimes wonder if there are now posters on here who've just reached the point of actively looking out for this new/young team making mistakes / dropping points / losing, just so they can pile on / be right if he gets sacked. Almost makes you wonder if they're either Portsmouth fans or just toxic saints fans given their "support" 🤣. The board are certainly capable of making informed decisions on that front, and with a view to future strategy for the club as well, without the toxic atmosphere from the fans. But regardless, whilst the manager and players are still trying and show passion for the club, the fans should show them support imo. If the manager isn't up to it then he'll get sacked ultimatley - but we'll still owe him better than some of the abuse he's been getting lately. We'd likely have been in league 1, with an impoverished Chinese owner, record debts, and no pot to piss in without the job he's done.

The fact that we can't shift half of last season's first team squad suggests they should tailor their expectations somewhat 🙄. That and it is widely accepted that last season's squad quality was relegation scrap standard. Don't have much time for people creating a toxic atmosphere for a young team that is clearly still putting the effort it.

It was very even.