Saint86

This could spawn the best random summer thread yet... The middle aged men of saintsweb vs Andrew and Rob!

In fairness, we're about to replace the overwhelming amount of the squad, you'd like to think we'll buy players that at least suit his play style 🤞

The fact we're in the championship and about to appoint Russell Martin is a shit show. The End. All we really needed to do last summer was sign a decent goalscorer. But here we are 1 CEO, 2 managers, 2 first team coaching setups, 1 director of football/academy/finance etc., and £160M later, and we've got fans excited about selling players like JWP, KWP, ABK, Lavia etc. and starting again in the championship with a seemingly 2nd rate manager with no achievements to his name 😄. Its an utter travesty of cumulative avoidable fuck ups sadly - no disrespect to Mr Martin ofc... he could be the best manager in europe for all i know! Sad reality is he is seemingly our level now 🤮🤮🤮

We should only be selling JWP, Lavia, Sulemana, and Alcaraz if the offers are too good to refuse. They're on long contracts and are like as not our best assets. Who are you thinking we'll loan Mara to? If he isn't good enough for the championship then it really was a bad buy sadly.

May or may not have given some token "confused" reactions 😬

Wasn't he saying that the clubs we signed them from won't be happy that we've reneged on our side of the deal (by getting relegated), and can now tell us where we need to loan them to etc?

He's put £20M in over the last few months sure? the £15M and the extra £5M more recently? But £400M? Not seen any reference to that anywhere.

Think we can safely say he is off after today then.

I'm merely saying the option is there. Nothing I've seen from SR makes me believe we'll ever keep hold of a player when we can sell them for a profit 😢 Reality is that with the wage cuts, a few high earners leaving, selected transfer sales, and parachute payments - we should be able to keep our best young prospects - they're on comparatively low wages and on long contracts. If we wanted to do well in the champ we'd fight tooth and nail to keep our best players... But yes, agree, I don't think it will happen. Suspect we're still in the "break it" phase, and only when everything has been rebuilt in rasmus' brentford mould will Rasmus be able to say that his plan works.

City are rumoured to have first refusal on any accepted offer, and they have a buy back clause (rumoured at £40M) that comes into affect next summer. They're also rumoured to have a sell on clause. Whatever happens they have the option to match (and likey get an effective discount on) whatever any "rivals" may pay this summer. But saints still hold the cards - we can decide to keep him if we wish (knowing we'll still be able to demand £40M next summer), or we can cash in now... City don't get a say. Also didn't lavia sign a 5-6 year deal when he joined? If we can afford it, we should put our foot down and keep him - unless someone offers silly money. But this stuff you're saying about saints breaking the 'deal' because we get relegated, and for city then having some controlling say over saints' transfer policy because we're relegated... that is just pie in the sky talk. Its also bordering on 3rd party ownership to say stuff along the lines of, "city won't be happy with him playing championship football" etc etc. He isn't their player anymore, regardless of what securities they have in place to facilitate a buy back.

How soon is soon? 😂

Back to back promotions *and a net negative spend...

https://talksport.com/football/1306867/pep-guardiola-mikel-arteta-arsenal-barcelona-vincent-kompany-burnley/#:~:text=Three people who have learnt,the way in the Championship. Would be foolish to dismiss anyone who has spent significant time learning from Pep imo.

From the swans fans, he sounds like a but of a claude Puel clone that can't break down defensive sides - which we'll face a lot of given we'll presumably be the big fish with higher quality players etc. Surely he'll be less likely to put us to sleep during an interview / press conference though, so that's a positive at least.

His contract is till when, the last game of the season? end of June? How much is he on? We have a huge overhaul ahead of us - all sentiments aside, i personally would want to give the new manager as much of that time as is possible - certainly at the expense of some minor compensation.

If this deal is as good as done, i can't see why we've not appointed him as early as possible and given him this time with the squad and before the Liverpool game.

JWP's strengths aren't holding midfield though - he's better as all round central midfielder or playing further forward. He's played there for us because needs must (alternatives being diallo or AMN). If a team is out for a holding/defensive midfielder they shouldn't be going all out for JWP imo given what we'll ask. Newcastle already have Bruno and Joelinton as CMs, yes they are different players, but i can't see the value for Newcastle in signing JWP when they already have two very good central midfielders. I agree though, they might well go out and sign a ready made holding midfielder - like philips or say... lavia.

They started the year with Tuchel and were fine. They would be going down if they had started with Lampard.

Limited value to Newcastle though surely? Not better than Bruno or Joelinton for the roles they perform, and they have Trippier for set pieces.

Should be in everyone's list surely? if not no. 1!! That is what it was all for - saints back in the big time, the culmination of years of strife in the lower leagues. Big man comes on and boom, queue scenes. Most memorable moment of them all for me.

Because he clearly loves the club, is well grounded, and has a happily family life settled in the area? I think he'll only go to be a regular at a top 10 club and preferably he wants European football. If he can't get that, he'll have to weigh up what his legacy will be when he retires - what will be be able to look back on, what will give him the most satisfaction? His only chance at all with england is playing regularly at a top club and performing well (and that's if its even possible over the likes of Philips, Rice, Bellingham, Gallagher etc). After that he'll want European football... and he'll want that free kick record... Will he trade the possibility of leading saints back to promotion against just playing premier league football for another club? That's clearly a decision for him and i doubt many really know his mind on that - but i bet it would be a tough choice for him. FWIW, I think he'll try to hold fire this summer, see what the rebuild looks like, and make a decision on his future at the back end of the window depending on whether he thinks we can get promoted or not - If SR mess about doing another 18year old investment team he'll definitely want out.

Would be curious to see how many goals, assists, and chance creations etc. per 90 does Lavia have to his name? how many 90min does Lavia manage - bearing in mind JWP will be running for 90+8min etc every single game of the season for what, 4 years now? Against that, how does Lavia perform defensively in comparison to JWP? I suspect the answer is that yes, JWP is the better player for saints right now. Ideally we keep both and Alcaraz - we know Lavia is going for circa £40M next summer either way. We have parachute payments, players like Ely and Walcott are on relativley big wages and leaving, the young players are on lower wages and long contracts (so aren't a liability), and the squad has circa 40% wage reduction clauses... If saints are ambitious and want to build a "young" project, then we should be trying to build and gel a team by winning the champ. If we sell players like KWP, ABK, Salisu, Tella (rather not), Orsic, Onuachu, Adams etc - but kept Lavia and JWP, would anyone actually complain? How many sales do we actually HAVE to make given the parachute payments and wage reductions? Sod it, you can chuck in sales of Lyanco and Perraud for all i care - JWP, Lavia, and to a less extend Alcaraz are our stars. Also shifting the above off of the wages and replacing with cheaper wage players would help - and that can absolutely be achieved in a summer rehaul. IMO we should be keeping those 3 and doing trades on basically every other player in the squad (if it comes to it) before we consider selling them - if we have any actual ambition to go up this season.

I hope he stays and guides us back to promotion even if it takes a couple of years.... If only to see him getting praise and true legend status whilst the boo boys have to grumble miserably amongst themselves in the corner 😎. Anyone suggesting he shouldn't be one of our (or the championship's) highest paid players is smoking some bad crack. Reality is that he's far too good for that league sadly. It wouldn't surprise me if he waits to see what the owners do this summer re ambition and promotion chances before he makes his mind up. As much as relegation hurts, guiding saints back to the prem would be pretty special for someone as committed to the club as he is.

I find myself siding with MLG in that particular social media debate... 😄

I seem to recall a Rob that was asking questions at the Fans forum and claimed to be leading voice of the saints fanbase?