Saint86

Don't disagree with you. We need an owner prepared to invest under that situation regardless, that or a very canny transfer window (or 2-3). As fun as it will be, this season has shown that we simply do not have enough squad depth!

I thought the intention was to shift the adjacent season dates around to create a break for the QATAR world cup? I.e. the euros will enforce a late start to next season (plus player breaks). Then The world cup requires a minimum 6 week pause for November and December 2022 - something that will force the start of that season to come forward into summer. All of which means that next season is going to go ahead with minimal breaks for players over the summer and then a more congested season. In short, this season's fixture congestion is going to look mild in comparison to next season's... and some players will be jaded before they start.

The worry is that next year will be another condensed season sandwiched between the euros and world cup. Also, lets not kid ourselves, COVID measures will be back in full force come autumn/winter and we'll have limited access to training and rehabilitation facilities. All of that coupled with a small squad, contracts expiring, and dogshit financials... Will he have an even weaker squad to work with?

Legend. Bring back the banner and get him on it!

Saints are fucked financially. This is a former top player with loads of experience and a real love for the club. He's also been prepared to take a wage cut to come here. He's also offered a lot of attacking threat when in the team. On top of all that, there is certainly potential for him to have an impact behind the scenes in the future. Provided the wages and contract length are sensible, its an absolute no brainer. Who else are we going to sign on a free (or not) with comparable wages and ability? We should be extending Bertrand's contract as well.

I'd say thats a fair summation.

Dan Sheldon was poached from the Echo though right? So i guess he's stepped up? But sadly he is still quite limited.

It's not stark though, its an incredibly narrow view to take if anything, and it assumes that preperation time is the main thing that may be effecting that run of results. Just speaking objectively, the reality is that generally the games we've had more preperation time and won also occurred at times of less fixture congestion and greater sqaud availability / less injuries. Prep time is important, but what's more important is not having the spine of an already small sqaud out injured for weeks on end - at a time with heavy fixture congestion and limited recovery time for the players who were fit. Yeah, lack of prep time doesn't help, but i don't see it as the governing factor in that scenario.

Looks like theo is staying!

You saw our first 30min right. Great preparation in action 🙄 But whilst I agree prep time is a factor for our small squad, a lot of the players have been away on international duty so I wouldn't consider this as a game with lots of prep time.

Its a shame, in order to save the squad this summer i think we need something in place ASAP. As it is, we're going to be losing Vesty and Ings on the cheap (both of which will need replacing), as well as needing someone to fill the theo/minamino/long shaped hole (which will be a separate net spend event), possibly bertrand as well - not to mention that we have no full back cover.... That's a lot of quality churn for a club with huge debt and ongoing monthly losses. On the face of it, there is no way we should expect to be doing anything but reducing squad quality across the pitch as it stands 😭. And next season will be even more condensed that this year, what the Euros and altered season for the QATAR world cup.

He looks like he's getting back to his best. When is his contract up?

Agreed. If we do make the final, it would be good to see a list of all the ones who wanted us to bin off the cup.

Is it time to get a list of everyone who wanted us to throw the cup games to stay in the league then?

Pieters is a big player for them. Since he's gone off we're getting in behind a lot more.

4min isn't seems a bit harsh. Was expecting 5min for the number of stoppages in this half. From this I translate you were happy with how we were playing upto 2-0 down?

Yup, looks massively off the pace.

Good response since going 2-0 down. Ings and armstrong both done very well! Redmond having a decent game as well (wont say this very often). But why oh why did we wait until 2-0 down to start playing like this.

I'm not surprised we're losing to Burnley, but I am surprised they've not had to get out of 2nd gear and we're 2-0 down inside 30min. Utterly pathetic.

Going down if we keep playing like this. Pathetic and no urgency.

What happened to Bednarek in their penalty area then, and why was there no replay? All the time focused on Peiters being fouled by his own man and we don't even to see the replay of the challenge on bednarek.

Men against boys in this game.

No point arguing with the modern left wing apologists. Also, merely as an observation, another point to come out of all of this is that the term BAME is now considered to exclusionary and problematic term

Would be good if we could have added this comment to the JWP specific thread. Sadly it was derailed and has now been locked 😕 I am confident he'll appear and make his usual 90min.

I said it at the outset when he took over from Anka (who is sports journalist i rate a lot), Dan just isn't of the same calibre. He posts the odd piece with interviews of former players etc (which are nice to reads), but his analytics of our play style/tactics, or player performances etc are basically non existent. Maybe thats being harsh, but they're certainly not very insightful as a general rule of thumb. I think the only one he did of note was discussing the evolution of McCarthy's positioning to that of a true sweeper keeper - and that is it... As with all things saints, we had someone of quality, they were poached by a top club, and we got was hoped could be the next Mane and turned out to be the Nathan Redmond of sports journalism. Flatters to deceive but rarely delivers quality end product.