Saint86

We hadn't fucked our wage budget up a wall back then Also, that was our upwards momentum curve - young squad, selling and improving, a great shop window for players and knocking on europe. Then we signed an absolute pile of awful for high fees, on big wages, with long contracts. And we've been fighting the decline ever since.

It will be fine as long as Romeu is fit 😘

I reckon we'll pull Ings' bluff to be honest. That or we get an offer we're happy with. He has no choice but to play well for a move / world cup, and if he doesn't sign and gets a bad injury he is done / without income for a while. Takes more balls than the club showed since Cortese was here though.

Well, it could have been another midfielder at said club, especially given the Manchester connection and age. But yes, it does appear pretty certain as to who it is. Especially given his club have released a statement as well. Got to give said player the benefit of the doubt at any rate. Innocent until proven otherwise.

He isn't being named in the UK press or even by his club in their player suspension note... So I'm not sure it's the kind of information saintsweb wants to be sharing/hosting.

Daily mail were saying his contract was up in June! Good to see him out and about, pretty terrible what's happened to him.

Fair enough, time will tell i guess. I really rate Tella as an attacking player and think he was one of our best outlets towards the end of last season. He also seems like a pretty level headed young player. I'll be happy enough provided we get to see what he can do with more and more game time. Always find him to be exciting to watch and dangerous for the opposition.

Our starting CAMs next year should be Armstrong and Tella. Then you have Redmond, Walcott, Djenpo, and maybe Mo (not seen enough of him) as back up. Also Perraud can play left wing extremely capably if needed. Strikers will be ings and/or Armstrong, Adams, and Obafemi. Its a decent enough team for a mid table finish and will again come down to injuries and squad depth - but at least this year the covid rules on recovery facilities etc should be relaxed! The reality is that we're very much in transition even now - we're still trying to balance the books and off load Les' long contract squad players, whilst building a new team and remaining stable. its by no means easy task given our financial state.

I'd give him a loan and a contract extension myself - but we don't see him every day. Ralph did play him consistently last year when he could have played Tella/Redmond up top or not loaned out Long (not saying much with that latter comparison). And hell, its not like we've got much choice eitherway! Personally think we'll keep Obafemi as well, he offers blistering pace and reckon Ralph likes him despite criticising his focus etc.

Don't think Lowe was all that bad tbh. Kept the club going with a small stadium in a very competitive league. Shit hit the fan when the loan was called in. But he gave us the academy and SMS, thought outside the box (ala woodward), and his tenureship saw some great players and managers over the years. I don't think we'd be the club we are today without him, and i doubt we'd have been taken over by ML/NC without the stadium and academy - but purely speculative. He didn't saddle us with several multimillion pound championship level squad players on long contracts or ruin the academy - so his legacy maybe looks better with time? Maybe if he'd called Woodward the Bald Box he'd have been more popular? But also, i was too young to really follow all the fallout at the time so fully prepared to get shot down for the above 😊... I do seem to recall it wasn't his fault we didn't resign hoddle at least?

Fancy it will be a loan deal for him? He's got potential but he needs regular games and a chance to learn and develop at senior level. He isn't going to get that here.

Not just that. Ings has one last chance at a world cup. He will play his arse off next season if he wants a move and a world cup space.

Not sure if its been said. But my translation of all this is (that if it is tottenham), this is just levy trying to get it done early and for cheap, before they sell kane and everyone knows that they're loaded. Hoping we don't fall for it and get a good price. If its Tottenham i think we should be especially nobbish and push for £30m.

That's a great summary of the financial situation re player trading!

So so far we've shifted Gunn for circa £5million (+wages) Bertrand and Hoedt are off the wage bill. Signed RP for circa £11m, and Theo for free + wages. Possible further incomings are Williams for a rumoured 65k/week (+ loan fee?), and Armstrong for somewhere in the region of £10-15m. Means we're down around £25m on transfers and have increased the wage budget (with 4 players in and 3 on their way). I assume Vestergard is going for circa £15m at a guess? Then maybe Lemina (say £4m if we're lucky)? Does that still leave us slightly short with respect to both the net wage and net transfer front? Or do people think we'll be increasing wages and having a net spend? And if we do sign a new CB as well, i wonder where that money is coming from? - Thinking Obafemi (who i think has potential) and maybe Ely could be on their way? Or of course, are we simply selling ings?

Snap both their hands off. In fact lets just get him on plane immediately. If we can get £4m or so then thats as good as i think we can expect at this stage.

Yeah, hope he has a good career and that we've got a sell on clause in their somewhere. Bit of a weird one given the buzz about him from some of our fans, but then him never really getting a chance to show it.

Exactly this, the better side won and fairly comfortably sadly. But at least we got some good memories from the tournament.

Ducky, try not to get so ruffled and Damn right i was cheering them on. Obviously most pundits, betting agencies, fans were expecting JWP to get the nod after TAA. It didn't happen. Its disappointing and i know it hurts. But its okay mate, you can let it go now alright 😘

I mean, this is totally irrelevant to England's tournament outside of the unknown fairytale realms of JWP getting a magical free kick moment. But. I would say its widely accepted amongst football fans that he deserve to go over Henderson/white who really shouldn't have been there. Now either you agree with that view or not, but if you go down the line of assuming JWP was in the squad over hendo, then he would have come on when hendo did over rice. And even outside of that, JWP is a designated free kick taker and was southgate's designated 2nd pen taker in the warm up friendlies (so said the man himself) - I.e. given we were bringing on pen takers at the end, he'd have come on had he been in the squad. Now... would he have scored? Anyone's guess. I sure as hell don't envy those players having to take those kicks under that pressure staring at a wall of england fans and being reminded that the country is watching. I'd like to think that with JWP's dedication/concentration to dead balls and general focus, that he'd fair better than the guys that missed. But we'll never know. But i'd certainly bank on him more than poor saka at the end.

Another one who fell out with Ralph. They don't last long after that. 🤣

Because failing to win is "good enough" to win 😅 That's some salient logic you've got their Trousers. 35% possession and 6 shots to 19 - whilst managing the better squad.

Exactly this. He's achieved basically the bare minimum given how both tournaments unfolded and he simply isn't good enough to win a tournament - so all we're doing is wasting another generation of players and introducing another period of knockout football psychological scarring - it only took 15 or so years to get over the 96/98 disappointments. The FA's stated aim is to win Qatar in 2022 🤣

Nice mature response their Ducky - sadly you've not convinced me to change my mind. No amount of consternation changes that he's a terrible manager tactically - and I was Southgate out before the tournament and at the last world cup. We've got a great generation of players here, we shouldn't be wasting it with Southgate imo. He's a nice guy, but not good enough. And I honestly think anyone who thinks England have a chance of winning a tournament under Southgate is kidding themselves as it stands - and that won't change barring an actual tactical renaissance taking place in his brain. This run was a parallel of the world cup - easy group, worst German side in 30years, Ukraine, Denmark... then once again, the first decent side we've played and we sat deep, stood off them, let them play, and then act surprised when they scored. Their best attacking players are Insigne, Chiesa, Jorginhio - England have level of quality sat on the bench. Yet our subs were poor and came too late, and he just ignored the very obvious pattern of play and pressure we were under, that or had no idea how to change it. The reality is that with our squad and attacking players, that we should be the team attacking the others and causing them problems. Press Jorginho to stife the forward passes, push up and stop them playing, get at their aged back line etc... Not playing with 11 players in our 3rd of the pitch. People might say he's not lost a game etc, but the point is that Southgate goes out to not lose, and consequently doesn't win against good teams when it matters. Which basically means his plan for this final was to not lose, hang on for penalties, and then try our hand at basically a 50/50 shoot out (i'd argue our record in penalties is far from 50/50. Maybe i'm too negative, or its too soon after for some fans. But I can see no hope for england under Southgate.

Hoping Southgate resigns but obviously won't happen. Sadly England will never win anything under him. He's a nice guy but he's also a serial loser and tactically awful.