Saint86

Joking aside, he'll do well there and suits them for where they are at (they shouldn't have got promoted really - and its an achievement for Jones and his (pretty dire) football/tactics. The fans love him, they don't have much money, and at this level his football is effective - They should be favourites to come 24th, but i suspect he'll keep them in the mix and wouldn't be surprised if he kept them up. He was still an awful manager for saints, and his PR side is shocking for any club that has the media exposure of being in and around the top of the championship and premier league.

If this was true, Saints' wouldn't have sacked Martin - the key figure in implementing that strategy and signing the players 😅

Charles was one of the best CMs in the league last season. We aren't putting a very competent and promising CB in CDM to replace him.

Yes - and tbf that point was said a lot on here as well. I was listening to the Second Tier podcast from a couple of weeks ago. They were raving about Ipswich, and saying how their business last summer was specifically geared to replace their league 1 players with a championship dream team for this season - on the basis that they would get relegated and need to go again. In some ways (and i don't think its by design), our business has worked out like that - Edozie, Charles, Edwards, THB, Downes all look to be quality players for this season coming. We still have Armstrong who was the best attacker in the champ last time out (and who can certainly play high energy pressing football - Hassenhuttle signed him at the end of the day). And tbh, i personally think players like Bree and Manning and smallbone are good enough to be the weaker starting 11 / squad players in our side (and we will blatantly strengthen in general vs all of the above as starting 11... If we somehow keep Ramsdale and one of dibling/fernandes i think we'll be sorted for automatics personally.

Looks monstrous, albeit in the French league - seems to win basically any cross, through ball, or loose ball that comes near him.

High press. Onuachu. 46 game season. I'll have what you're smoking 😜

There has always been a pecking order in football and that will always be the case. Even liverpool get picked apart by Real Madrid etc. But I struggle to see a world in which the owners/board, backroom staff, and players of VAFC don't want it to do the best it can!! It helps VAFC, it helps the wider group, and if there is a situation where we have all 3 clubs in the top flight of their respective leagues it would mean a lot of quality things have happened.

Whenever anyone asks this question, this is my immediate thought. Very special.

Edwards, THB, and Quarshie - we're going to be great next year 🤩

How do RoI players get on at rangers?

I get the loss of "fan affinity" for the side, but then equally, is it any different to having some random owner come in that has no affinity to the club? At least you're getting an established club/ownership group in those examples - people with resources, ambition, and know how. Strasbourg were taken over in June 2023 after finishing 15th in Ligue 1. Prior to that they were generally a lower mid table club in Ligue 1 over a fair few seasons, and then before that they spent most of 2006 to 2017 in the 2nd and 3rd divisions. Since the takeover they've had 2 seasons, both of which yielded and improvement in league position - finishing on the 15th place of 2023, and they've just qualified for Europe this season. Seems a bit strong to write a letter over the #Senseless recruitment... Maybe they want to try out Sports Republic's recruitment for 2022-24 ffs. As an aside, if we've just loaned SAA to chelsea for sod all money and he comes good i'll be doubly annoyed. HCDAJFU!

Stockport to get promoted from League 1 this season i reckon, would give them an outside shot at being champions without the mega millions of Brum and Wrexham. Only question is whether luton decide to spend or not.

Sorry but statistical data is objective, or at worst and honest attempt at being as objective as its possible to be. Its the interpretation of data that is subjective. But is there a parallel universe i'm missing where data lies but a random scout's interpretation of a players finishing (insert other attribute) is entirely objective and factual - as opposed to not being remotely subjective based on that scout's own limited experience 😂? Also, what do you mean, "done from a video signal" - are we meant to be banning scouts from using video analysis now?! I really don't know why this is so hard for some people to accept/understand - if clubs want to look at a given player in a given league, then stats like xG (and conversion rates) can give them a broad overview of players that perform well at finishing criteria (as an example). It could similarly be progressive passing, interceptions, heading stats, ball carrying etc etc etc. Its not like they then don't go out and marry that up with traditional scouting work on identified players - it just lets them cast a wider net with less resources. At the end of the day, whoever reviews video footage, writes match reports, and/or reviews the data puts their own subjective stamp on it - you just have to hope they're suitably qualified to do that and to know why they're using those tools in the first instance.

I agree. Red and White shirts with dark blue/navy shorts/socks/detailing is what i want to see us in for a bit. We just look like sunderland/stoke/brentford/sheffield the rest of the time. We have a legitimate basis to use a unique colouring in the football league.

Alcaraz didn't suit our system, but that was Martin's fault frankly. He was one of our most talented and dangerous players, but Martin was too inflexible to be able to utilise him. As an aside, just imagined Le Tissier being coached by Martin, and i think its safe to say he wouldn't have become the legend he was from the bench and being told to pass the ball backwards all the time.

What?!?! Its pretty much what you're describing - a tool to review how someone like Haaland's (and assumed better finisher for your example) has a higher xG conversion rate in comparison to another player in the same league, i.e. vs someone like Shane Long (and assumed poorer finisher in this example). That's all it is, a metric to showcase how well strikers get themselves into goalscoring chances in matches under a given manager / tactical setup, and then how well they convert those chances vs similar players. I daresay that clubs have access to more detailed data, such as xGs and conversion rates in different areas of the pitch / different feet, heading etc. In the same as they'll have their own way to measure "progressive passing", and then highlight who can do it successfully. Is xG the be all and end all? Obviously not - as with all stats, it comes down to how the user makes use of the data. But frankly anyone who just decides to ignore the available data is either a superbly intuitive scout, or is just being foolish imo.

The issue for me is that saints have been too volatile lately. What level players are we trying to sign for? One minute we're championship looking young potential players, the next minute we're after players with experience who can battle to help us avoid the drop - and who is identifying and signing these players (huge change at recruitment and management level). The business model would have made more sense had we been an established premier league side looking to recruit players that can become top half prem players and push us into european contention, similarly we would be able to send out our own promising kids to the other leagues for experience. As it is, our kids are being poached by the established clubs and/or we seemingly don't trust them to risk them in promotion / relegation battles, and on top of that, Ankerson and Kraft dismantled our existing recruitment structure - the same one that got in players like KWP, Tino, and Lavia. Sports Republic have shat in their own bed so far, multiple times. People are enthusiastic about Spors because he's so far made all the right moves re repairing the damage that SR have previously done to us - i.e., restoring our scouting and recruitment teams to something resembling the norm for a club of our size. If only it had been done sooner rather than us spending hundreds of millions thinking we had some novel football geniuses at the helm who could reinvent football recruitment with a teds talk

The sleeves / shoulder detail on the home looks shite with that red half merging from top and bottom. They always have to find some way to cock it up 🤦

Fancy us to win the champ. Yes... I actually think we might win something.

I have never felt so enamoured towards another fanbase as i do towards Rangers with this post. They really do get it 😂 In fairness, he would be a good appointment for them - he would dominate in that league no question at all - but as with saints, it would be flattery to deceive, and then being too soft against any serious side they met in europe / celtic.

Agree, but i think the vast majority of people are well aware of this, are pleased that we've got Spors in trying to rebuild the recruitment back to something resembling what we had previously (and after wreck it Rasmus and co dismantled it), and are pleased with the early signs (Will Still, finally singing a pacey and powerful CB, noises from fernandes and negotiating stance re Dibling) - there isn't much to fault Spors' new era on so far?

Looks great, which means it won't happen 😖

No he isn't/wasn't - he played in a shit side with crap service, most of which were bread and butter balls for CBs, and he won more than any other striker. He was also routinely (isolated which made it much easier for CB's to mark him and be comfortable in their positions). Had saints actually been getting down the flanks / to the byline, whipping in crosses rather than over the top balls of deep diagonal crosses, and had players off him, he would have won more and had better stats for assists and chance creation. We were shit, he's a limited striker, but to say he's poor in the air is needless revisionism.

He's a poacher / finisher, and a good one - and his off the ball movement / positioning is also very good from what I've seen. Put a player like that in a side that's dominant and he'll get you goals... sadly I also think his overall ceiling will be limited by his physicality - and by that I don't think he excels in either strength or pace. I hope I am wrong, and I would love to see us give him a go in pre season because the mental side of his game is for me above why of the other strikers we currently have, but as above, I do think he will have a ceiling of champ (sadly) - but we are in the champ, and he's a player that loves the club and would be on cheaper wages - use him as a squad player this year and who knows 🤷