Saint86

Absolutely hilarious 🤣

Its a chicken/egg scenario. You could easily argue that no one wanted to pay more for them based on their performances/quality vs what we would ask, and that all the contract running out does is mean that we'll accept a reasonable bid 🤷‍♂️. You say PEH is a £35m pound player, but I doubt many teams would pay that for him. The season before, Ings was basically the defacto golden boot winner (zero pens) and there wasn't a sniff at him. He misses half a season with injuries and scores 12 goals, and we get £30m for him with a year left on his contract. The implication is that frankly, teams just weren't prepared to pay more for those players. Another example being that JWP is still here...

Nothing against vest and hope he does well as it reflects well on saints. But couldn't care less that he's gone and look forward to us investing the funds in a replacement who better fits the role under ralph.

Eh? Pure speculation.

The "cult" is simply people who support the team.... Absolute weirdos apparently 🙄

Only 2-3 of those players would have been starters last season though - KWP, maybe perraud, and one of Adams/Armstrong. He's had to assemble the squad he has whilst being in a terrible financial situation with limited resources - having to shift high wage dead wood, and selling to release funds to buy. Those players above were largely all signed as promising young players that could develop into first team players / starters - and he's had to (and still is) managing the transition. To get to this point, he's/we've had to sell/shift; Ings, Vestergard, Bertrand, Cedric, Lemina, Hoedt, Carillo, Gunn, Hojberg, Reed, Yoshida, Boufal, Target, Austin, Clasie, Austin, Gallagher, Davis. Plus we still have Ely 😅 And listing your signings above; KWP, Salisu, Perraud, Livramento, Diallo, Walcott, Djenepo, Adams, Armstrong, Broja Not to mention he's had to keep team cohesion with that level of churn - as well as totally changing our style of football from the puel/mope/hughes days. So yeah, its his team.... But fair play to him for keeping us in the league and out of relegation scraps i'd say - we have been chronically mismanaged before him and he's barely had a pot to piss in. I'm sure he'd love a good goalkeeper - but fortunately forster and Macca are capable and certainly not as useless as players like Hoedt/boufal/lemina etc for saints. Like i said before, he doesn't have many places to hide this season. But we're certainly a work in progress, and i for one will judge him with the knowledge that he's assembled the team he has on one of the lowest net budgets in the league.

He's been forced to replace key players like ings and vestergard under strict financial circumstances - so whilst he's signed the players I still don't think it's the squad he really wants. I would say we're midway through a work in progress tbh. If we're abysmal he has few places left to hide though imo. But I'm prepared to be patient with him and the team. I still think he's a good manager and that last season was a culmination of terrible injuries, a small squad, and players looking at their next moves. Excited to see how this new look and younger team gets on. Think we've done some very good business atm, but will Ralph get the time to see some of these players mature 🤷‍♂️

I agree. I just don't think jwp is leaving. Didn't he say in an interview at the end of the season, that his dream is for his kids to see him lift a trophy for saints or something?

Pilchard are you itk on this?

Tempted to say that if Vestergard stays, we might see the two CB's as him and Salisu with Bednarek dropping.

Duplicate

6 players?!?!?!?! Can't be. People were saying we hadn't signed anyone and had no depth.

If we sign anymore players from chelsea and we're going to start getting ridiculed 😅 - But then, if they're all good, who cares?

That's the key part of this. I know lots of villa fans and people from around Birmingham, they're all pretty nice decent people, and i actually couldn't say a bad word about a single villa fan that I know in real life... but that all changes as you venture into the city proper 😨 😛

Nearly there but not quite for me. If JWP really isn't fit then: Forster; KWP, Bedernak, Salisu, Perraud; Armstrong, Romeu; Walcott, Redmond; Adams, Tella. 9 subs don't forget - McCarthy, Livromento, Stephens, Diallo, Broja, Armstrong, Djenpo, dymel + 1 new signing I think Tella will start up front alongside Adams, with Redmond in the CAM spot. If JWP wants to maintain his record for playing every minute then: Forster; KWP, Bedernak, Salisu, Perraud; JWP, Romeu; Armstrong, Redmond; Adams, Tella. McCarthy, Livromento, Stephens, Diallo, Broja, Armstrong, Djenpo, dymel/+1 new signing, Walcott.

Why are people down on Saints?!?!? We've cleared out some dead wood, made/making some very astute signings, and had a decent pre season. Plus we've got a pretty good manager who looks like he'll be going into the season with a team of players the majority of which he signed for once... And perhaps more key than all of the rest, some squad depth.

The one you've basically answered Seems relatively cheap though - makes the price we've got for Ings even better imo.

Tammy signed for roma for £34m?

Could sort of see him at West ham when they finally sell rice next summer. Will come down to wages and the right project I think, and whether he feels its time for a move. He's always been happy at saints and in this part of the country, and I don't think he'd just move for money if I'm being honest.

His expected goals from last season was 27.74 (info goals), and he scored 28. This doesn't suggests he needs 4 chances to score a goal? 😉🙄 Also, in response to the posts about his poor 1 on 1 finishing, his highlight real for last season included plenty of 1 on 1 goals, either lobs or placed shots 👌 And also, he scores 28 goals... but needs 4 chances to score a goal...? Just not good enough! 😅🙄🤔

BBC5 live have just been discussing the predictions for the season. Might have been Chris Sutton, but whoever it was "fears for us" as a relegation side this year 🤫🤫🤫🤫🤫 Personally think we'll be midtable - somewhere between 8th and 13th.

Good business - as I think was expected by most sensible fans, and as is in line with our transfer activity in recent Windows! Got to take your hat off to the club so far with perraud, Livramento, Armstrong, plus another promosing Chelsea youngster on the horizon. Not only that but we've managed to shift some of the deadwood. All whilst operating under a very onerous financial situation. But the absolute state of some of our bed wetters in recent days 🤣😆. Hopefully this will help them calm their teats so the rest of us don't have to read through pages of negative swipes at the club at least.

Weren't they technically in different youth teams?

Don't stop the bed wetters embarrassing themselves Clarke. This thread will be golden by the time the window shuts!

Basically reads like this forum. Says no one could believe the Aston villa offer that amount for ings (enquiries has been for half that). We won't meet the Blackburn valuation so have submitted a "final offer". Obafemi has returned in good condition and with a better attitude.