Saint86

I don't quite know how you're saying that, perhaps its a misunderstanding Manji? What i meant, is that we are many millions of pounds worse off on the revenue front due to a relegation and reduced TV deals - all of which came about through the awful management of the club last season. We might be able to ride it better than Leicester/Leeds (a silver lining of the recruitment strategy that relegated us - plus SR backing financially) - but no amount of positivity over the coming season should excuse last season's shit fest. And it sounds like you are falling into the trap of just blanking out that that we are fundamentally far weaker financially than we would otherwise have been? Like it or not, we are having to sell players and/or are at risk of selling some of our other best players, whilst equally we are a lot less attractive a proposition for own or for target players. Long term its a dent in our ability to effectively recruit and retain players, and ultimately therefore our competitiveness - which obviously gets worse the longer we're in the 2nd tier.

Hence the new set piece coach surely (or at least i hope that's on his list!) 😆

Yes, regardless of any positivity this season. Its important to remember that the fact we're in the championship, suffering financial pain, and losing players like lavia and tino, not to mention possible departures of JWP, KWP, Sulemana, Alcaraz, Tella etc, is nothing but an utter shitfest. I know we had a lot of injuries last year and late business throughout the season, but really is a trainwreck that we went down. Our starting 11 on friday (if lavia had played) would have been stronger than half of last season's....

If not, easy enough to get yourself on discord or similar, screenshare, and watch the game together. If sky and BT haven't cottoned on to that i reckon you're safe...

They're going to get relegated at this rate. European football, no Rice, no Lanzini, Antonio and Ings another year older, Scamartist out the door... And now they're signing Maguire with no other business in sight? Self harm central for their prem chances... (i know they're going to sign players, but currently it has all the hallmarks that they're about to engage panic stations, and commence a run of bad buys and wasted Rice monies.)

Will love it when he stays and leads us to promotion 😎

I don't think he will be going to West Ham, and certainly not for less than we want. We've sold Tino, we're selling Lavia, the pressure will be entirely on West Ham on this one and we'll be pulling their pants down if we do sell him. Its also entirely irrelevant whether people think £35M is a good price for west ham... We aren't desperate to sell so it comes down to how desperate they are for him (by all accounts they aren't) and whether we're happy with what we can milk them for re making a sale attractive to us. I personally think he'll still be here come the end of the window. I suspect he's done a bit of a mental juggle and decided that there is little point joining a club like Fulham vs staying until at least January with saints and potentially taking us up, probably a similar equation for West Ham tbh as they are not in a great place and have the demands of Europe as well (although they would be far more attractive than Fulham re prestige and opportunity). He will still be on a decent wage with saints, if we're on for promotion he knows he's got a good chance of returning to whatever he was on previously, and he has his rumoured highest earner clause. As a few footballing people have said, he might also enjoy winning week in and out and fancy his own "promotion moment" like Lambert and co before him. He is a Southampton man through and through, and his stated aim 2 years ago was for his son to see him lifting a trophy for saints. However, if a club like Spurs comes knocking he'll be very keen to take it obviously. There was an interesting comment that came out of the club that implied we may need to encourage people out of the club for the club's benefit, but i can't believe that was JWP related as opposed to numerous others. But who knows i guess. There is also no way he is making the euro's squad lets be honest. Philips played about 8min last season and still went ahead of him. He'll be behind the likes of Gallagher as well this year. His time in an England shirt is sadly finished barring a move to a top 7 side.

Sure whitey 🙄👍. Penalty not given for Sunderland vs Ipswich today that should have been as well. Not going well for the bin var brigade. There really is no logic for having technology that affords refs a better chance to make correct and fair calls, and then just binning it off. I just hope saints can go through the season and not get screwed over in an important way.

That ball is clearly over the line, the norwich player hasn't kicked it in that image yet which means it would have rolled further as well. But regardless, the view is square on looking along the line and it's out... The world Cup one (another great example of var being used to get a correct decision) was in when viewed square on from above / in plan. So that Norwich one is another example of what happens without var - already the points being decided by its absence and an avoidable ref error 😞

So change the rules or how it's applied. I personally just can't get on board with the particular viewpoint that, "they tried it, it was bad in that guise, and so the whole thing should go on the bin" 🤷‍♂️ - And I know that isn't everyone's stance.

Absolutely no way we should be ditching var. "Var gets some decisions wrong and we don't like it... so let's go back to a world where decisions were wrong all the time and huge errors were made on a game by game basis... it's okay really, we're happy gabbi's 3rd Wembley goal was incorrectly ruled out... the game flowed 🙄". Not to mention a plethora of other shocking decisions over the years that could have sent us down, Charlie austin's parklife rant, that doucoure hand of God goal for Watford etc. spring to mind. And those are just saints related. Which fan in the country doesn't remember our world Cup exit after lampard's goal was ruled not to have crossed the line vs Germany? A refereeing error is a refereeing error, but choosing not to use technology that can help the refs is just idiotic. The people asking for this are basically happy for us to lose the play off final due to a lack of var. The refs are the issue, not the technology.

He would actually have suited that Wednesday game a lot. The number of crosses we put into the box where it was crying out for a big forward to get in the end of them!

He's got a lot of skill, needs to learn some composure for the final product in the box, and he's far too weak currently. If he can improve both of those aspects he's got a bright future.

What is going on with KWP if We're signing Aarons? KWP was great yesterday and is definitely a player we should be trying to keep

Stats for Bazunu if people are interested. Fairs badly on shot stopping whichever way you swing it - see PSxG +/- (goals against vs post shot expected goals). Comes out fairly well for his kicking. 50% of passes and 67% of GKs launched more than 40yards. We played with him as one of the longest and most common kickers in the league (tactical), but he still had a competitive completion rate at 33.7%. Surprised me on the crossing front, one of the higher stop percentages at nearly 8%. Better than Macca and much better than forster (surprise surprise 😄). Does well for sweeping statistics as well (again tactical), but one of the higher avearages for completing defensive actions outside the area per 90.

I believe he's referring to post shot expected goals. I.e. a statistical breakdown of how likely a keeper is to save a shot after its been hit - i.e. for given placements, powers, ranges etc. statistically how many are saved.

That was only in December... Bit of a concern if Martin can lose his call that quickly as well. Will be tense moments this year like as not.

Arsenal and Brentford ranked 4th and 3rd for set piece goals last season, so on the face of it not a bad hire - Especially if we keep the FK GOAT.

Agreed. We've done very well here imo.

Why are you arguing with the boo boys, they'll find any reason to have a go at the club. May as well be skates.

No. Reality is that Bree has shown absolutely nothing for saints to imply he should be near our matchday squads. And would be pretty confident that KWP is off given his contract situation - surely we won't let him leave on a free.

I think it massively benefits us. Out of the 3 possible big sales, Tino would be the one i am least fussed about. Hasn't looked great in preseason and has suffered a lot with injuries in his time here. A large part of his game was his pace/athleticism when attacking down the right, and after the ACL there is no certainty right now whether he will ever fully recover that part of his game or what impact it will have on his ultimate potential. It also means we are in a much better spot now financially, and we really can wait until late in the window with transfer sales - which might well push up how much we get on Lavia/JWP or others... teams will know they've got to pay the asking price or risk someone else coming in.

The guy with 11months on his contract...

Selling one of our best starters is not, "slimming the squad down" - nor is signing a couple of new players with those funds. What we need to do is shed a load of our CB's and attacking players that are not good enough and surplus to requirements. We need to make one big sale, and since it seems highly unlikely we can keep Lavia here long term (and motivated) it is likely to be him. Especially if we can get £50-60M for him.

I think FFP rules are different between the championship/EFL and the premier league? But i don't know what happens re losses in the championship/prem years being considered once a team has been relegated/promoted to the other division.