Saint86

It is mad that this has to keep being said 😐

I'd rather win the playoff final than finish 2nd, but i'd rather finish 2nd than lose in the playoffs... I guess we'll see what kind of season its been on May 4th or May 26th. I know people are feeling very confident at the moment, but we've got harder fixture than leeds and they're on great form at the moment. I think there are a lot of twists and turns ahead, and we've got to go to Leeds last game of the season.

Hah! Fair, although we signed him as like a 10-11 year old though, which is a bit different to signing him and putting him in the first team a year later and claiming he's an club made academy player 😅 Or put another way, Spurs signed Bale at 17, it would be a bit of a cheek if they'd been calling him their academy player.

Fortunately FFP / Sustainability rules mean its advantage to saints over clubs with filthy rich owners... for now at least... even if we had to sell £170M of players to balance the books... But again, it highlights the need to get promoted, and further hammers home the point (for the few that strangely desire it) that its very unlikely there is a happy ever after where saints stay in the championship long term and keep pace with the top end of the league.

Meghoma isn't really from our academy. We signed him from Tottenham in 2022. Don't get me wrong, its great to see us developing and playing young talent, but lets not do what fans of bigger clubs do and start citing saints youngsters as their academy products. Would be like Chelsea saying JJM was from their academy, or Brighton trying to do similar with Doyle!

Trying to set a new club record... A reasonably avoidable loss before Liverpool away would therefore be very dissapointing.

Agreed. Needs a song!

https://www.foxestalk.co.uk/topic/133863-who-can-catch-us/ Despite actively disliking Leicester as a club over the whole Vardy VVD Injury, the 9-0, the Wes Morgan foul goal that possibly cost us CL... I think their fans are actually alright. Been trying to see what's going on with KDH's potential transfer, but this thread highlights just how good they've been this year and what an achievement it will be to catch them (if they don't implode). I think we'll catch them for the record. (EDIT: or catch them enough that the pressure will tell and it will be a tight run in). Also, "is it possible to lap Rotherham" did make me laugh 🤣

I am excited by Brooks, but he is new to the system and will play on the wing in a position where he have relatively good strength. Rothwell doesn't interest me at all as a starting 11 player. Maybe early days to write him off but wasn't excited when we signed him and haven't been impressed so far. I hope he is purely here to add depth rather than to become a starting 11 player. Alcaraz is a class player, puts his all in whenever he is on the pitch, and has that ability to turn and drive with the ball or pick a defence splitting pass or quality finish. So he gives it away a few times... Equally he tries to do what precious few other players do, and often moves fail because other players just aren't as quick as he is / on his wavelength. Long story short, i think we've effectively weakened the squad somewhat over the window. Rothwell shouldn't be in the side over the alternatives we already had on the books, and Alcaraz should have been getting more minutes imo. Only conclusion i can draw is that either Martin doesn't really fancy him, or that Alcaraz wants out (but then why the contract extension). Brookes is an uncertainty re how he will impact the team, he was a very good player and i like that we've signed him, but is he any better than Alcaraz?... and equally we're 22 games unbeaten with Adam Armstrong largely playing on that wing, that will change with Brookes if he plays there, and there are no guarantees that will make the team better or more effective. And underneath all of that, Alcaraz seemed to be committed to the club and a player with great potential - someone we could have developed and built a team around in the future - so i'm disappointed to see him leave, although hopefully he can come back a better player. Perhaps, flipping it all around... we're going to get promoted with a lot of loanees, many of which we'll struggle to sign or who will need replacing. Alcaraz might benefit a lot from 4-5months in italy and then come back in next year, and perhaps the seemingly very high transfer clause is to discourage a transfer / make it worth our while.

Can Juventus realistically afford him for that much? Who knows, maybe we get promoted and Alcaraz is starring for us in the prem next season. Eitherway, a side with Aribo or Rothwell starting over Alcaraz is a weaker side... let alone factoring in future potential.

He's been getting more game time recently with the cups, and he's done alright tbf. I think he's got potential but just needs a solid run of games - which he is unlikely to get.

Looks like he's back for for Blackburn, just put them 2-1 up against Wrexham!

Not really. We put out a very disjointed and much changed side that struggled to perform at tempo or string many cutting passes together. He's already showed he can do it at this level, and indeed the prem level... what he needs is a good run off games. If he was playing (rather than Che), in front of our normal midfield, then i would expect him to be more than fine at this level.... the issue being that we are playing very well and its hard to get into the side. Indeed, if we don't get promoted then he is exactly the kind of half decent striker i could see a long time championship (occasionally flirt with the playoffs) southampton side fielding... He's a fine 3rd choice for this season.

Extremely disappointing from Martin tbh. Historic moment to set new club records, winnable cup tie, decent chance of a good cup run, 5k away fans... and he fooks around like this. Impressive disrespect. Needs to fix it second half. I will never have any time for saints managers that throw winnable cup games with shit like this. True of Poch vs sunderland, and its certainly true of Martin - who has no right to be cocky about anything yet.

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 😂