Saint86

Are the ITKs are keeping stum on this one? That in itself is interesting.

You're lack of faith disappoints me! He's not called Nathan "Henry" Redmond for nothing...

Yeah right, meanwhile for some of our fans, their biggest fear is only that Ings will join Tottenham...

You jest, but you have to wonder whether Chelsea will look seriously at Ralph partly because of the Werner angle. Who better to improve their misfiring striker than the manager that developed and made his reputation?

It looks like a sunday league kit to me! 😅

Having a go at Ings is very unfair IMO. The guy is a class class player, but his best years were ruined by injuries. He's got one final crack at playing at the highest level, and also has the Euros and World Cup to think about. Its just not reasonable to begrudge him that chance. All you can reasonably expect from him is that he gives his all to saints until he maybe leaves. Besides, as Ralph has said himself - if Ings is on fire until the end of the season, he may get CL football with saints next year.... 😆

I mean, i did state this when the accounts were released So, i certainly agree with going for someone like Daka. "If it comes to it, we should sell ings whilst we can and get the money in for him. Then go and get someone like Daka and be proactive. I love ings and he is a quality player. But he is starting to get old, he has injury niggles, and his value will only decrease from here on. If he wants a release clause that means he's already thinking about leaving (and no issue with that - its fair enough especially give the above points), but saints have to do what is best for us as well. By this, i mean sell him when we want strategically, not wait until an offer comes in and then potentially miss out on other players."

Sell him for £30-40m in the summer and sort out a deal to sign Daka immediately.

1. Home shirt is nice. 2. Its nice but a little too "Sweden" for me. 3. That mock up gets a run out every year ^_^

You've seen our benches recently. These days our "reserves" is basically the u23's (plus maybe Shane Long and forster). So I'm curious, do you confortably expect a starting 11 made up of our u23's and Shane long / forster to win or not? I'd personally expect something along the lines of: Forster Vokins Stephens Bednarek Valery Diallo Chauke Tella Armstrong Long N'Lundulu As a starting squad - but only if we are resting players / rotating.

If it comes to it, we should sell ings whilst we can and get the money in for him. Then go and get someone like Daka and be proactive. I love ings and he is a quality player. But he is starting to get old, he has injury niggles, and his value will only decrease from here on. If he wants a release clause that means he's already thinking about leaving (and no issue with that - its fair enough especially give the above points), but saints have to do what is best for us as well. By this, i mean sell him when we want strategically, not wait until an offer comes in and then potentially miss out on other players. Technically i'd have thought we can just restructure and service the debt / pay it down slowly? Ultimately the issue is that most clubs are going to be in serious trouble financially - and trying to raise funds whilst not spending much..... So i personally don't expect there will be much wonga sloshing around to justify transfer values like we've seen before. Or perhaps only in the cases of financially flush clubs. I'd expect to see a reduction in average transfer spend / spending trends.

Meanwhile Tottenham took out a £150m Bank of England loan with 0.5% interest 😅

Would quite happily see us continue with this season's shirts, although very doubtful that would happen. First we had the fiasco with the sponsor, and very few fans have been able to actually wear the shirt to the games.

The Shrewsbury game should be forfeited by them. Harsh as it is, their club clearly broke covid protocols and the price of that shouldn't be additional fixture congestion for saints. People looking at games in isolation. But as the number of postponed games stack up, the fixture list will be just as "intense" later in the season. And sod saints potentially missing out on Europe because of match congestion, jaded players / injuries etc. for something that wasn't our fault.

Daka to west ham, great signing.

I think we'll start to see the guilty teams forfeiting or a draw being awarded if both teams are unable to field a team. Particular clubs have taken the piss and should be punished. A lot of our fans basically advocating the Klopp protests almost a year on. No more fixture congestion 😅 https://www.theguardian.com/football/2020/jan/28/jurgen-klopp-unrepentant-over-decision-to-field-weakened-liverpool-side-in-fa-cup-replay-shrewsbury

And why we press and how we get chances and territory 😄

Its a really good piece on Hassenhuttle's tactics and how well drilled his teams are. To me as a relative layman, I would expect it to require a similar level of prep (as saints have) for teams to adapt their games to avoid our traps, which means they are invariably reduced to trying to defend against us and wait until we are worn down to try and get their goals. That is a huge credit to our entire set up given we don't have the biggest or most illustrious squad in football. When combined with assets like Ings and JWP, who can get you a goal from nothing, it isn't surprising (but remains impressive) to see us competing. As I was saying the other day after the west ham game. Our bad patch (with thread bare squad), has included narrow loses to in form united and city, goalless draws with west ham and fulham, and a victory over League leaders and defending champions Liverpool... People should be dreaming of a top 4 finish because we do actually have an outside chance of managing it. And top 6 is certainly a good possibility. If sky wanted to offer me 650:1 for us to finish 1st or 2nd who was i to refuse ^_^ (if you aren't going to take those odds on a season like this, then when would you?)

I can only really remember the offside call being bad about that final? And tbf to Marriner - he was at the mercy of his lino for that. I generally think he's a decent referee.

Had real issues visiting the site today and couldn't get on at all earlier having tried on a couple of devices.

West Ham are a good side. They're well coached, have good players, and have been able to make decent big money signings (in Bowen and Benrahma) that would get into our starting 11. Contrast against this, we've got a threadbare squad with about 14players suitable for first team prem football. This is our bad run of form.... narrow defeats to United and City, and draws vs rapidly improving arsenal and fulham, and a strong West Ham. We'll come through this run and pick up the other side, and despite being on a bad run, other teams aren't pulling clear of us. Relax.

So good or bad deal?

I don't disagree. Teams are figuring us out now in so much as they are setting up to mitigate our style. Against sides with quality players like Man United, Arsenal, Wolves its showing. We've looked leggy in all of those games, and its led to dropped points in all those games!. We are pressing and winning back the ball in dangerous areas, but they're defending in numbers and slowing down the tempo which is limiting how many effective chances we actually create. The when we're tired, they hit us 😕 We're then tiring and it is very evident in all of those games that we are movement is dropping off up front, and that are runners start making sloppy passes that give away the ball or stunt attacks, often under no pressure - and okay, we press back and usually win the ball back - but this requires more energy and gives dangerous sides opportunities to catch us in the transition and break. Above all things, i really think Ralph needs to start rotating to a degree. Its not possible for players like JWP, Romeu, and Armstrong etc. to play at the same output game after game. Rotating for players like Redmond, Djenpo, Diallo etc will keep the players fresher and improve our overall effectiveness for me. Secondary point, if we don't rotate, then when we do need the "squad" players, they won't be as fluid within the team. And by rotate, i simply mean that for example, we start Armstrong one game, sub him on 65-70min for say Djenpo, and then reverse that for the next game. (I.e. start Djenpo last night against Arsenal, and start Armstrong against city) etc. With the heavy fixture congestion currently I just don't see that its feasible to play the same starting 11 every game multiple times per week - especially when we're playing teams like city that can rotate. Maybe Ralph will play Djenpo and Redmond starting over Theo and Armstrong against city? But i can't see him playing anyone over JWP and Romeu as it stands, and those 2 do need a bit of a break! Loving Saints at the moment, and really enjoying our success and fair play to everyone at the club. I know we have limited means compared to the teams we're up against... but we do need to be smarter with our squad for me!

Think we're looking in leggy in games well before the end. First half performances against United and Arsenal have both been lackluster for much of the half. We just don't have the same movement up front and a lot of lazy passes going astray with no pressure. There were periods in this match were I stopped moaning about misplaced passes only because Arsenal were just as liable to give it back to us...😆 Ralph needs to rotate. It was crying out last night to start Redmond/Djenpo/Diallio. Unless we're going with those 3 vs man city?

Deals long been done. This is just theatre to sell it to the people.