Saint86

The average age of our team this year is 25.6years (transfer market). Which is the 4th youngest in the league. Arsenal have the youngest at 24.3years and Burnley have the youngest at 28.9years. Teenagers playing regularly in the prem are few and far between these days.

Thought we were linked with Gaga? Would be a pretty decent signing given he is one of the best up and coming players in MLS, was linked with Chelsea before Ukraine kicked off, and is very hotly tipped.

Sky bet offering 80-1 for saints to get relegated. Or 151-1 for Saints/Norwich/Watford to get relegated as a treble... Same odds in all reality - or near as damit.

Who said we need to beat Liverpool? 🧐

I think a point will see us through for certain. Everton's form is up and down, and leeds have at most 7points left that I can see them getting. Burnley play villa twice, and vila's other fixtures are pretty tough, would genuinely be entertaining if they wound up stuck on 40points on the final day - but that would mean burnley are above us and unless we beat Brentford we'd be in for a tense final day!!! Am i the only one still holding out that saints will be the team to ruin Liverpool's season?

You're missing out. I tend to bet on us to draw or win, then cash out when we're winning. And bet on the opposition to draw or win.

Think that's horrific myself 😅

Is he following Carl Anka? Its almost like he lifted that from a thread I started on this forum about our squad quality? 🤔

The season ends in 3 games. If we haven't sorted out our summer shopping list by now we're a bit fooked already - don't you think?

Oh well MLG, you can't get them all right 🤷‍♂️, and it certainly looks like the money wasn't on your side re the relegation points totals. Always seemed like there would be an uptick in form for some of the bottom teams (I just couldn't see them all not making changes and continuing their their first half of the season form - something had to change). But even I am slightly surprised by quite how well Burnley (currently) and particularly Newcastle have done. Could well eclipse even the 34/35 points I was expecting - saints may even end up 17th with Dalek being delighted, and I'm sure there are some saints fan's getting a bit nervous with us on 40points as well at the moment.

Point in case being Inter Milan this week 😆

For me it was evidently a good window. I feel like some of the more negative views of the window are using it as an excuse to have a dig at the club/manager - rather than being objective. We absolutely robbed villa for Ings, we got paid a great wedge for Vestergard (and haven't missed him), and we replaced bertrand with 2 full backs who are both huge improvements for our style of play. Plus i imagine we significantly reduced the wage bill as we lost 3 first team starters in doing all of that. Incoming wise - Tino is a bargain. Perraud is a cracking player in the making imo, doesn't get the credit he deserves and i think that's mainly because we've been playing Tino over him (as part of our youth pitch for future transfers?). Broja is a cheap loan to add depth - worked well, and again - strategic pitch to raise our attractiveness for young talent. Lyanco has been a good addition, no worse than vestergard - indeed he is faster so frankly as a CB he is better. But granted he doesn't score headers or ping delightful 40yeard diagonals. Horses for courses i guess. On the negative Adarma hasn't worked yet - personally think he'll come good. Theo was free but has added nothing this season - although we aren't privy to his impact behind the scenes. Worth noting though that our recent transfers seem to bed in the first season and then become regular starters the next one, so always a bit quick to judge them within the first season. Che, KWP, Salisu are good examples of players that have improved significantly in their second seasons.

JWP, then KWP. Then Romeu.

I find myself excited by the links to Gaga, easily one of the hottest young keeper prospects in world football. The carrot of only having Macca in front of him and a promised taste of first team football might well work for us on that one. Etienne is also a great one for us to have been linked with.

Fans tend to get very invested in players leaving etc. Provided they do so in a reasonable matter its all part of the game these days. Its their careers and the club's business. If we end up letting players go for a free then that's technically the club's choices and planning that bring it to fruition - whatever the reason. The only exception to that is when a player messes the club around - i.e. negotiated in bad faith, low effort, doesn't train etc. So in fairness to Forster, he is fully entitled to see his contract out and leave, he's never kicked up a fuss with saints and stayed professional throughout - despite being in and out of the team and shipped out on loan. So i do think there is an element of him doing his time, feeling like he's had a rough ride without grumbling, and no one really being able to argue with him leaving. The club could have addressed the keeper position in any transfer window of the past 3 years frankly. It isn't the blame of either Macca or Forster that it hasn't been resolved. Also agree that Macca has had a similar time at the club (albeit without the loans). Ultimately we've got two professional (if not spectacular keepers).

Have to hope he makes a good recovery. Can be a terrible injury to get over, but at least he is young. Saving grace for him may be the winter world Cup and summer break. Should mitigate quite how much of the season he misses?

I am surprised so many posters think he has done a bad job tbh. We've been tipped for relegation every season and been clear of it at the end of every season, generally being in the mid / lower mid table bracket of teams. He's also improved the squad with next to no funds by shifting literal millstones, and done it whilst transitioning us to one of the youngest squads in the league - and with good potential. People are slating him for the 9-0s, kind of fair. But the second one was certainly a fluke, and the first one had mitigating circumstances let's be honest - plus he rallied back from that very impressively. And flip it around, we could do what Everton did against Liverpool - Park the bus and time waste for 90min, have no chance of winning the game, and look like we're going down with a whimper. As for the dropped points, yeah also semi fair as he could set the team tactics and mentality to manage games better. But we've seen that more recently, and at least we've had a go and got ourselves into winning positions in those games, even if the small squad / lack of depth / setup hampered us in seeing them out. I guess opinions will vary as to whether fans think it is realistic for us to have been winning those games with the squad we've had. He deserves the summer under the new owners at any rate. Not even a doubt on that for me. Does that mean I don't think their aren't better managers out there? No. But there is no guarantee we'd find one or that it would work, and it's clear we've made progress under Ralph for me. I'm personally excited for this summer as I feel like we're now only a few obvious signings away from having a good team. Whereas previous windows it's been critical that we improve basically all positions on the pitch. Getting a quality striker, a good GK, and a good no. 10 / creator will make us a very different proposition.

We'd be idiots to settle for that. He's got 4 years remaining, is out captain and best player, and would be class for most teams. Plus he has every chance of going to the world Cup, where he might end up shining and raising the club profile. Rice has 2 years remaining and is being talked about as a £150m signing for city.

Well, he's been kicking about too long to be the cure at least 😅

I assume you mean me, in which case thanks. And thanks also for not adding an "h" into that typo 💩 😅 Its interesting, looks like most people roughly share the same kind of sentiment squad wise - Which is somewhat at odds with the extreme element of the ralph hate/love divide we get after almost every result atm. On the bracket front, i know some posters have included top 6 etc, and I debated splitting "top half" into top 6 etc, but then in reality this year I think 4th / 5th-8th are all similar quality, and we don't have anyone you could put forward as top 3 quality i don't think. So ultimately i went mid table and top half, and ignored top 3/4. Anyway, I want to think we are one window away from a very good squad. If we can "just" get a good CB and a good CF it would make big difference for us. But we need to do it at the expense of losing some of the poorer squad players, not first team players. i.e. not having to compromise first 11 quality like last summer - by trading starting defenders (albeit shite ones) and our main standout goalscorer (Ings) for A.Armstrong, Livramento and Perraud. We need to improve the first 11 and move the ones we replace to be squad players. And if we can do that and add in a quality GK or a quality Ralph "No.10" to that then even better.

I saw something today that showed owner wealth. We were 10th - No source currently available.... dum dum dum!!!!

Long post warning 😨 The season is effectively over for us, and rather than engage in the whole sack/defend ralph bi-polarised debate we have most weeks, I thought i'd do an exercise to see where I personally think the team/squad stands. I.e. I’m aiming to do this without turning it into a Ralph debate, and also not to intrude on the summer transfer thread - but if the MODs think it’s better suited to those threads, then fair enough ofc. Either way, it would be interested to see if people significant disagree on the quality of the current squad, or the quality of the players we’ve let go? And therefore, where they think we should realistically be finishing? In summary, I think we have a very average to poor squad overall, and one that will need to improve if we are to stay away from a relegation scrap for certain next season (my working/justification for that is below) – I am not saying we won’t improve. In fact, I do think in each season post Hughes/Reed so far there has been marginal squad improvement. But we’ve been hamstrung by the quality of the league constantly improving around us, whilst we have had relatively no money to spend (i.e. the net spend trophy and I think Burnley were the only long-term club with a lower net spend?). We’ve been wrestling with having to balance the books and improve the squad with no owner input and a growing debt. But now we do have the 10th richest owners in the league. Hopefully these new owners will give us the bit of extra financial muscle we need to make a jump up and establish ourselves as comfortably mid table, because incrementally improving year on year is a risky business and we'd only need a couple of serious injuries to key players to relegate us as it stands, I think. So anyway, this is all my opinion, but i do think it’s a useful exercise to have done. Looking at our team (and ignoring Broja who won’t be here after the summer), I’d summarise it as follows (*all based on perceived current ability, not potential). Top half standard players: JWP, KWP. Comfortable mid table standard players: Romeu, Salisu, Livramento, Perruad, S.Armstrong, Che. Bottom half standard players: Bednarek, Diallo, Forster, Redmond, Ely, Stephens, Relegation level: Stephens, Lyanco, Macca, Djenpo, Long, A.Amrstrong (this season), Tella, Championship Valery, Caballero, Small, Smallbone, Walcott, Lewis As above, for me personally that's a squad that should be aiming to avoid relegation and pushing for mid table in a good season (which is what we are achieving). It would be very easy to wind up in a relegation scrap with these players with injuries. Fundamentally we don't have a top-class goalkeeper or forward, and our 10's are very average if we’re being honest (and as much as we like Stu who is a technical gifted grafter). If we could have the 20+goals a season Ings back in the side alone then we would be a very different proposition this year. And beyond all of that, we really do have no serious strength of depth. I feel also like a point that shouldn't need to be restated is that we have had to sell to buy for years now...and we have had to sell utter dross generally to both cover operating losses and raise money to maintain / improve the team. This is who we have sold (and/or loaned out for financial wage bill reasons) since Ralph took charge (and lets not mention the money wasted on wages and signing fees for most of this lot): Carillo, Lemina, Boufal, Hoedt, Reed, Soares, Yoshida, Hojberg (would improve squad), Ings (improves squad), Vestergard (any better than we currently have?), Gunn, Obafemi, Bertrand, Gallagher, Targett, Austin, Davis, Claise, Elyonoussi, Tadic (well duh), Gabbi (improves squad but left 1month after ralph). Conclusion: We’ve shown a general trend of getting rid of older filler players that weren’t good enough and replacing them with younger players with potential (both talent/resale), so I expect that to continue – certainly with the financial backing and comments from the new owners. But to really push on an be comfortably mid table / pushing top half - we badly need to sign a better CB, better No.10s, and a quality CF this summer. And then if we don’t think that Forster is going to sign and maintain his current level, we need a quality keeper as well.

I can only assume we're trying to relegate Everton, whilst simultaneously putting our cb's in the shop window, and trialing forster for a new contract. Also, think how happy Jay and corky will be if they stay up 🥰 Otherwise this makes no sense 😑

KWP has been on of our best players ffs. We're losing 2-0 with 10min to go... Take of one of our below average cb's ffs.

No he's still on 🤣