Saint86

So far it seems to be getting us relegated and selling off club academy stars and valuable players for as much as they can... And that's enough to "restore their reputation" 🤣😅. What reputation that is exactly i don't know, they've demonstrated no serious footballing acumen to date, all we can really say is that they're managing to float at the top end of the championship with the 2nd best budget and squad in the league 🤣. Okay, joking aside, i think they'd look a bit ridiculous talking about European football given their track record so far, plus some of the diehard SR lovers would be unbearable chatting about an exciting European project on the horizon before we've even been promoted. I'm far more content for them to first focus on at least rectifying last years horrendous fuck ups and decision making that got us relegated. Get us back to the prem and then we can start talking about long term potential for the club.

The reality is that they came in, shredded all stability in the first team squad and coaching staff, and basically unsettled the entirety of the background and academy setup. We were a prem team, now we're only starting to recover - we're 3rd in the 2nd tier with easily the 2nd best squad and with no surety of promotion and a dubious financial position.... We've been forced to sell or offload so many gems from the team - players that would still be here otherwise (JWP, Lavia, Tino, ABK, Tella etc etc.) - and we may be forced to lose even more before we make it back (KWP, Sulemana, Alcaraz etc). So as far as i am concerned, until we're back to being an established premier league club, their balance is firmly in the negative. We've also lost (and sadly will likely continue to lose if we don't get promoted) academy players under their tenure, and the financial health of the club, investment in facilities/staff, and our future recruitment are all suffering as a result of our reduced stature! Even if they get us promoted this year, that relegation has set the club back 3-5years minimum on what could have been achieved in the premier league if they hadn't shat the bed over managers and player recruitment. What i will give them credit for, is at least making a decent fist of the championship (i could easily have seen them continuing their absolute car crash of decision making into this league 🤮... so thank god that hasn't happened). But they do seem to have learnt from their lessons, and made solid appointments in people like Wilcox and Martin... The club has at least turned things around, once again has a defined style, and has a togetherness and momentum within the squad and fans - all good and welcome things. But , it does beg the question, if this is the style that they wanted all along, then wtf was that absolute spasm of shit decision making they put us through last year!! 😶

Right look, reality check for the happy clappers. It wasn't brilliant / phenonomal / insert other hyperbole. Yes, it was very easy on the eye, and yes, we were all over them... But we were also complacent beyond measure. We scored 3 goals for all our chances... And of those - One was offside and one was a wicked deflection that put it straight into the bottom corner. We were so profligerate it is painful. Second half, our midtable opposition outplayed us and should / could easily have scored 2 or 3 goals. Against the sides that we will have to beat - Ipswich, Leeds, West brom, Leicester etc. etc... We lose this game playing like this 👀. If the objective is to look good with an obscene budget and squad vs championship plodders, then sure... We managed it. But I want automatics if not the title. So, yeah, take the 3 points. Enjoy our build up play first half 😍, but we wasteful in the final 3rd and not solid enough at the back! And performances like today, if repeated, will lose us key points in the hunt for automatic promotion / the title - or God forbid, in the playoffs. Thank God for baz today imo. And eitherway, saints can certainly do better (which is a great thought as well). Personally I would chalk today's up and down performance up to the whole Martin/Swansea affair, and having the record hanging over us. I hope we're far more ruthless in our next games.

What is Martin playing at? Messing about upsetting the back line with Stephens, using this game for bedding in Rothwell when he's only just signed... Too complement!! This game should have been dead and buried long ago, and then he can make changes and bed players. With Ipswich vs Leicester coming up, these 3 points are key.

Ah yes, The Stephens Experiment almost coming back to haunt us again. Martin has made a bit of a problem for himself making him captain and needing to have him in the side as a result - sadly for Jack, he's rusty and it upsets a very settled back line now.

Yup, we should be burying teams for 6 or 7 goals when they play like this, maybe even more. Its crazy to think we've been as complacent as we have up front and could still have had another 3goals that half... Although saying that, maybe we should be grateful given one was offside and the other was a deflection 😅. Eitherway, if Martin can improve our ruthlessness in front of goal, we really will be a terrifying prospect to play against.

Not for the first time, shear complacency this half re finishing / ruthlessness.

Offside, and then handball by the Swansea player.

Got to love Che "Barn door" adams... How much time/space does he want 🤣

I think that is broadly acknowledged, but its an issue with the ground and an inability / lack of willing to change things and use more of the itchen stand. Creating a home end could easily be achieved by putting the safe standing in chapel and ensuring saints always have a vocal end. Or as others have said, concentrated pockets spread around the ground. Moving the away fans significantly out of that corner is not a good solution and is will upset a lot of the fans. I've not seen anything that says standing tickets will be cheaper? My understanding was they're putting in safe standing on a 1:1 basis in place of standard seats - primarily to allow standing without the safety concerns. Its still going to be rail seats with the same number of seats? So, given that, i can't see why the club would charge less? I imagine it will continue with the current status quo, or they'll increase prices to cover the cost of installation / charge for the novelty. As to your second point - if the club move the away fans to chapel - either the vocal fans move to chapel or this will quieten the atmosphere. Over a couple of seasons (max imo) we'll end up with the chapel / Kingsland / family etc. fans moving away from the area (because, as you say, they want to sit quietly and watch the game largely minding their own business) - which will result in either a diminished atmosphere full stop, or our more vocal fans taking their place and the quieter fans moving to the other end of the ground. So once again, safe standing - cool sure, sounds good. But moving the away fans to the other end of the stadium - bad decision by the club.

In short, its just a badly thought out idea which is hampered by the stadium as it is. Only sensible place for the away fans really is where they are right now, or to try and shift them right into the Itchen corner proper, which causes issues with the boxes. A wider change to the stadium should be looked at... which won't be cheap. If the club simply wanted a "home end" with safe standing, the simplest way to achieve it would just be to keep everything as it is and used the chapel. As it is i think the club are mixing two different changes together here. I.e. they could just put safe standing seats in the back rows of chapel - and voila, home end created. Then, if our more vocal fans actually move there (away from the current away supporters), look at moving the away fans properly to somewhere else in the ground and making wider changes to the stadium. But, and as has been said to death - our vocal fans chose to be next to the away fans and not in chapel, which is consequently fairly quiet. So moving the away fans to chapel will in all liklihood result in a net movement of the current northam fans, and northam becoming quiet in a few seasons and chapel / kingsland noisy, and all the club will have achieved is pissing off a load of impacted season ticket holders, the entire family section, and giving more of the shitty glare seats in itchen / northam corner to the home fans rather than the away fans 😂

Liverpool, Everton, Portsmouth - they're my big 3. Have developed quite a strong dislike of Leicester in recent years. And i guess Newcastle, incredilbly toxic fanbase that seem to turn on every manager, they pissed and moaned about no investment under Ashley and how they had it worse than any other club (what was it £40M just on Joelinton?), then they dressed up in head scarves to celebrate being brought by one of the most vile regimes on the planet. Yeah, newcastle are in the 5.

Fair point re kingsland corner and access. In some ways itchen corner would work better if not for the corporate boxes. Re discussions, we'll see if they actually listen, i have my doubts as with most consultations like this the decision is made long before it is ever shared. I think if anything, they mixed up having a "home end" and safe standing, with moving the away fans. Reality is that moving the away fans seems like a seperate issue and there is no material difference between keeping them where they are, and giving them effectively the opposite seats at the other end of the ground. Either the club just install safe standing in chapel end in a "build it and they will come" approach to a "home end". Or do likewise at the top of northam and accept that the most vocal fans will just follow the away fans.

Mixed thoughts about this. On the inclusion of safe standing for 50% of a stand as part of plans to increase atmosphere... Basically everyone stands in Northam anyway, so safe standing in itself will have zero impact on atmosphere. By inspection this is just nonsense from the club. But equally, it will improve safety, so no loss there regardless and a good thing if anything... although i know there are people that argue about "safety" (or behaviour) in standing areas. The change that will create an atmosphere is creating a home end. But with respect to creating a "home end", Chapel is an entire stand dedicated to saints fans. Why is this not the home end already? In fact it was originally intended to be the home end, but (everyone who was so inclined) moved to the Northam stand and itchen corner to be next to the away fans... The only conclusion that can really be reached here is that the most vocal fans are associated with the away fans, and so will follow them wherever they move to in the stadium... so just like they've migrated to northam and itchen corner, they'll now migrate their way next to the chapel kingsland corner. And again, if all the club wanted to achieve was a full length of stand with safe standing... chapel is right there. So seems poorly thought out from the club. In addition, they will now have pissed off the baulk of chapel, family members, and the chapel end of kingsland due to a lack of consultation and consideration. Another issue is ofc that policing is far trickier for getting troublesome away fans to and from SMS from the chapel stand. Given its an unnecessary change in the first place. Ultimately, what I think is likely to happen is an opposite of where we are now. I.e. that the fans in Kingsland and chapel that don't want to be sat next to the away fans will now all move to the equivalent seats at the Northam end of the ground - and they will sit - and the club will for certain enforce seating in non "safe standing" areas as there will now be no excuse. In parallel to that, more vocal fans will move back to be near the away fans - Where there will not be safe standing 🤦‍♂️. We may even end up with a worse atmosphere, with a split home support, and a very vocal and unopposed away section - this happens a lot now even as it is - often with home chants only developing after a chorus of shit support from the away fans etc. Sadly, it doesn't feel like this change has been well thought out by the club at all, and they're pushing through a poorly considered change without even really discussing where to move the away fans to properly with season ticket holders and members that will be most effected. I do think the club really need to open this up to all season ticket holders and members for their thoughts on where to move the away fans. Clearly it would be easier and more effective to make the top half of chapel as standing - and not have to move the away fans at all. Or, if the club are intent on moving the away fans (which i do support if done well), move them to the Kingsland Northam corner? Also, the lower northam corner / itchen corner seats are the worst in the ground... Give as many of them to the away fans as possible imo.

Absolutely superb!

Whenever he has too much time to think about what should be a simple finish, you can bet he'll fluff it 🤣

Che "barn door" adams back in the house....

Never a penalty on Fraser then, Martin going ape about stuff like that (and potentially picking up cards) is not worth it.

Talks really well. Adds further fuel to the fact that Rasmus wanted hassenhuttle out and was responsbile for jones and selles. AKA relegation.

Good news... We've beaten an FFP hamstrung Everton and a name dropped league 1 side to his signing. Heck of a coup this. Hopefully he's hungry!

All of which means he doesn't have many miles on the clock, is very determined and resillient, and will have a burning desire to make the most out of his career. Danny Ings-esq i hope. Plus he was bloody class technically.

That isn't really a question for me - it's for the club and for the sell Che crowd. I wanted openda when he was about £8M 😭😂 I think he's an experienced lower prem level striker - and therefore a very good option as a squad striker in the championship. I have confidence he'll continue to score important goals between now and the end of the season. The reality is that top championship strikers / lower prem strikers go for circa £15-25M. It's doubtful we'll spend that and upset AA's role in the squad and the current balance to the side. More likely we'll take a punt on a lower quality Scottish player (or similar), an unoroven kid with potential, or a former league 1 player with a handful of goals at this level and a bad injury record... (based on SR's track record anyway 😂). Flipping the question, who do you want to replace him with (that you think is a reasonable target for a similar fee)? And are you confident that they'll hit the ground running and score the odd goals in tight games to win us the points that get us promoted? There are no certainties in football, but for £5-10M I have more confidence in Che than SR's attacking recruitment.

The situation hasn't changed. Its silly to sell him for minimal fee unless we've got an adequate replacement lined up - If his goals fire us to promotion then any £5-10M fee we get this window is negligible in comparison. I would think this should be so bleeding obvious that it shouldn't need pointing it out?

Brookes was absolute quality when he was breaking through at bompey before his illness. I'd snap their hands off to have him at saints permanently (let alone as a loan). Although obviously only if he's fully recovered - I guess a loan with a purchase agreement might be a good deal all around.

No need to rush it. Keep it nice and easy for now ideally, allow some squad rotation / resting and bedding in the kids. Keep winning and a premier league side is inevitable basically.