Saint86

So I didn't realise this, but I just checked. You get one guess as to who the VAR referee was when we lost 0-9 to Leicester.

It really is as simple as this. For any fans out there that don't think we can get 7 points from a possible 45, where are your "Hassenhuttle out" posts?

I think you mean, "In Djenpo we trust"!! 😆

We've got 16games left and we're 7points off 8th. We're nearly back up to full strength and have had our bad patch (form/injuries/refs) - no one wants to play a full strength saints! We should be giving everything we can for the league, i'd expect us to be challenging for top 8 as a minimum.

15min gone and I like him!

Nonsense, saints win tonight!!!!

Replace "clean sheet" and "scores the winner", with two own goals and "match abandoned" (specifically not due to a meteorite hitting Shropshire which Wolverhampton isn't in...) 🙈 Reckon that's about right and should make for an entertaining debut - Saints to win 4-3 by arbitration 👌

Well, I do consider it unlikely that Man City will let Leeds sell Harrison to us on their behalf.... 😆

Its unavoidable that McCarthy's confidence won't have been knocked surely? So i won't be too surprised to see Forster get some games.

Both good players that would do a decent job for saints. It would cause a small issue in that we'd be selling our only decent goal scorer and have no cash to replace him with though .... 🙈

Pitch was atrocious today, made it very easy for Newcastle to sit deep... but agreed. Worrying from the team that we lack this much creativity.

If the fans were in the ground for the next game, i actually think (given all that has happened), that he'd get a loud resounding show of support for his next appearance.

Hopefully all the guilty parties are named and shamed, and receive due punishment - which absolutely must include a lifetime ban from the club regardless of whatever the criminal charges are. I just hope it doesn't knock the lad even further. He waits his entire life to make his full debut, gets the chance at Old Trafford, and it turns out like this. Hope he can pull himself up from it.

Good post mate. The team basically stopped giving a shit after the bednarek red card - Armstrong laughed in Dean's face after he booked him for having the ball in the wrong spot for kick off (which in itself was ridiculous). I'm sure we all feel like they just gave up last night, that they didn't do enough to be professional and keep the score down. For my part, as soon as the first red card happened i had a sinking feeling, then at 1-0 and 2-0 i thought the whole affair had shades of the Leicester game, especially with the attitude the players were portraying. Almost like, "well this one has gone against us" / "ten men vs 12" etc. In a similar way, once we went behind against Villa and Arsenal in recent weeks, the players heads dropped a bit and you got the feeling that they'd almost had enough and just felt that things were too stacked against them. And to be fair to the players, we have very small squad riddled by injuries, have played consistently all the best teams in the league in recent fixtures (United and Arsenal twice), and have basically been bent over by the officials in multiple games. All that lumped on top of lockdown Britain where frankly they must just be at least as jaded as the rest of us. I feel like this is the low point in the season and that perhaps we needed something like this to happen. All we can do is wait for the Newcastle side and see what Saints team turns up. The danger ofc is that confidence / suspensions / injuries continue to take their toll and we struggle to pick up wins. If that happens for any significant period of time then we'll start dropping down the league and things could snowball in to us getting dragged into a relegation scrap (although i consider that unlikely). The whole situation lately (finances/injuries/form) has highlighted the precarious position of the club generally and in the short to mid term. Hopefully the fans realise just how well the team has performed since the Leicester 0-9 and where we could be otherwise! On the Ralph front. I feel for the man. He could easily go to a club with the means to at least support his ambitions. But saints can barely sustain a fit matchday squad of suitable calibre. We're also clearly so financially skint that we had to loan out 2 academy players and Shane long just to get in a midfielder that doesn't appear to have been a primary target. The recent period at the club will undoubtedly knock him back (granted he recovered superbly last time and was certainly happy enough to extend his contract) - but the last thing we need is Ralph of key players seeing saints as a club with no real future. Precarious times for the club. Will we look back in a few years time at a successful rebuild by Ralph? Or are we about to witness a period of financial trouble, losing our manager and best players, and a drop in quality and league status?

Yes, we'd all love an owner to prop us up at a great level financially... But the reason the club can't run sustainably is because Reed bought hoedt, Ely, boufal, carrillo, lemina etc... None of that is Gao's fault, and at least he got rid of Reed!

In his defence.... it was still 0-0 when he was on the pitch! After all his fuss about expecting first team football, he can at least walk away from that performance pointing out that he is untarnished by the 9 goals...

I think the blame for our financial turmoil and recent transfer losses can easily be laid with Les Reed. We still haven't shifted out all of his dead weight that we bought for the vvd and undervalued mane sales. Gao at least got rid of him!

My Dad took me to see us play Arsenal at the Dell for my birthday in 94. Sat in the chapel end and watched us win 1-0 curtesy of a second half Magilton goal.

Would be spectacular if we moan about having no squad depth, then let our two second choice full backs go out without reply. Is there some kind of small print clause on this loan were we don't want to finish top half as we'll pay higher interest.... How bad are the Diallo and Walcott injuries as well?

Would be a major error by the club if we let him go.

Not much, but the game was over as a contest by that point tbh.

I would have thought that the reality is he'd be benched for weeks until Ralph has him drilled. Which would give him a few games to earn a transfer (similar to KWP). Any loan deal the club would make is likely to have an option to buy in. Whether United and Brandon would accept all of that is anyone's guess. Ditto whether we can realistically afford a reasonably priced player right now? It is a shame we weren't able to get him last summer, as he'd have had a full pre season with us and certainly have been part of the action given all the congestion, injuries and suspensions.

Some fans needs to remember that we've faced some of our toughest fixtures in a period of high congestion, all coupled with widespread injuries (+ the odd suspension). Last night is the low point for squad availability: We were missing 3 of our back 4 (KWP, Bertrand, Vest) - and the first goal was directly Stephen's fault with that needless pass giving away possession from which they scored. No Romeu - The heart of our midfield has been a JWP/Diallo pairing that will struggle to be as fresh as teams that are rotating (although great engine on diallo tbf - looks a proper player). No Redmond, Djenpo for several matches now - Meaning that Armstrong (what a goal and engine) and Theo must be struggling for freshness. Ings and Che Adams have missed games with Covid and concussions! Even our younger squad players have been out injured in Tella and Smallbone. Some perspective needed for some of our fans i think. We've been on a run that included Arsenal (twice), liverpool, city (Top and on form), United (went top and on form), Leicester (were top and on form). For a squad as stretched as ours, this was the perfect storm - and despite all that we've knocked Arsenal out of the cup and beaten liverpool. And we are still very much still in the running because our players will gradually come back - and despite all of the above, we have still given a very good account of ourselves in the above games! COYR!

Is he blocked out in red because he is injured and unavailable? 🙈

The club could call ings' bluff on this tbf. Next year of his contract he'll be 30 and carries a bad injury history. His stock may not be as high then either... Leaves him with a dilemma over long term security should his form drop off or he get badly injured etc. Equally his suiters may look somewhere else if he doesn't move this summer. Would be a very bold call by the club and could back fire ofc.