Saint86

People who enjoy their job, or want the chance to develop and know they can reach even higher levels? 🤔

Yeah exactly this. Hopefully we use it to motivate us. They've cheated / fudged the rules - pure and simple.

Spot on. They're a dead club now. Also, as a fanbase - They've been crying about how much money Ashley spent, but they've had a net spend of over £120m under him and have spent circa £500m on players since he'd been in charge. Their record spend is £40m. There are plenty of clubs in the country that could only dream of that kind of outlay. What about us, Brentford, palace, leeds, norwich, west brom, forest (a bigger club imo trophy wise). Then you have how they treated Bruce, which was absolutely disgusting - and he isn't the first manager to get that treatment from them. Plus ofc, they all started wearing Saudi headgarb to celebrate the arrival of blood money from one of the most oppressive regimes on the planet, whose countless crimes range from ordering the murder and dismemberment of Khashoggi to funding/supporting the yemen civil war. League wise - There is no way that Eddie Howe and old players like trippier and wood will get them into the top 6. Which means they're pouring money down the drain re FFP. To get top 6 they have to displace one of United, City, Leicester, Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal, West Ham, and even teams like Wolves and hopefully ourselves. Can see their owners getting bored and putting their money into Inter Milan instead (rumoured to be buying them). https://www.sportspromedia.com/news/inter-milan-saudi-arabia-pif-takeover-suning-serie-a/ Ultimately PIF are only allowed one club in European competition and Inter would get there before Newcastle.

Everton have spent something lie 500m though? And they didn't one around signing players like wood or tripper with only a couple of years left in them at top level.

He's tactically incompetent.

Personal rose tinted perspective granted. But I'd be astounded if people (who were after a JWP type of player) chose to look at philips instead - JWP is a far better all round midfielder, he has better fitness, and ofc his set peice delivery / threat is the best in the world. He is a class player who really doesn't get the credit for what he does. A bit of a milner I guess. But the way he's playing recently he is getting up there with rice for best English CM and imo he really should be starting with him for England in 4-2-3-1 (which fits England's players perfectly). Pobably would be if it wasn't for the utter dog shite that is Southgate as manager. If he wants to move (which isn't guaranteed), we can expect bigger fish than Newcastle coming in for him this summer. Hate to say it, bit Liverpool need to replace Henderson and milner as it is. United's cm is dog average as well, even city could use him as one or their plethora of squad players (plus ofc he is home grown). Imo, if JWP is interested in a move this summer, it will be to a top 4 team. I hope it doesn't happen as I'd love to see him do a MLT (and win something) with us. But I would also wish him all the best of he did get a good move. If he moved to Newcastle I'd be pissed off though. Just don't think he'd move for money as he must have had the chance to do that basically already.

Wait what!?!?! I've been living under a rock the past day....

TWAR would say that, he is Ralph.... 😆

Who would he replace? Romeu or JWP? Or even Diallo?

Came here to share the same thing! Almost scored a pretty tasty scisoor kick earlier on and his goal was well taken and placed in the bottom corner. Good to see him doing well.

Tadanari Lee as well 🎯

yup also agreed 100%

Prescient.

Yeah for sure. I think tino is getting played partly as a marketing stunt, and partly because we are confident that he will develop well. Kwp is the better player and was dropped for to many matches early on for him to have been happy. I wouldn't be at all surprised if his agent put out a few feelers earlier in the season.

FC dallas would be nice.

https://theathletic.com/news/fifa-announces-new-loan-rules-to-clamp-down-on-player-hoarding/wuM4m5NzCPic/ Could well impact on broja if the fa follow suit for domestic loans (would cap Chelsea at 8 International and 8 domestic per season. Reducing to 6 and 6.

Don't think we should be afraid of city. We've shown in the past that we are more than capable of taking points of them, and we were robbed at the etihad earlier this season. Fancy that with a rocking St Mary's and a little bit of luck, we might have a Saints win incoming. At the very least I don't think we are going to lose.

Hopefully they disappear from out society as quickly as possible.

Saints win incoming. We aren't going to lose anyway.

I am surprised we are so strongly linked. I guess we will offer him clear first choice football. But then so might others, and some (Newcastle) will frankly blow saints out of the water wage wise.

They should just take their medicine and be demoted. They cheated the books and WW got relegated in their place - That should be put right. They deserve no sympathy as a club until then.

I think its very unlikely we're signing Dean Henderson this window (given United's keeper backups).

Absolutely incredible goal. To get that power and flight from a dead ball, tremendous strike!

Maybe, I don't necessarily disagree I suppose. But I also think you've got to assume that some of those teams are going to pick up (i'd guess most of us would predict that to be Newcastle and then one of Watford or Burnley - who have 2 games in hand). I do think the safety total will be around 34points, and certainly nearer to it than the 28 some posters have mentioned. Time will tell I guess - I suppose to reach that amount it means that the teams above will have to drop points to the bottom 4 which will drag them back into it. Eitherway, on the basis that we'd need about 2-3 wins and a couple of draws - i think as Saints fans we can basically look forward to a stress free end of the season now, with hopefully a cup run and maybe an outside chance of a top 10 or top 8 finish.

Yeah, but it upsets the project. They'll have to buy another tier of players (on top of the trippiers/woods of this world) to get them out of the champ. And then they've got to work their way up the league. By which point FFP will bite to a degree - ala everton/villa and hamper their ability to ever really break into the top 6. If they stay up this summer, then they can just whack down a couple of hundred million on a bunch of star players (all in it for the "project"), and immediately buy themselves a top 6 squad. To be clear, i think we're in a pretty good spot to go back to our "underdog punching above our weight" routine now. Debts under control, stable backroom and scouting setup, good manager, young squad, and a clear identity - but we don't need teams like Newcastle buying their way above us 🤷‍♂️