Saint86

What happens, is roles are advertised all over south asia (for example) with promises of a good job and a good salary (that can be sent home to support families in poorer parts of the world). Often with free travel out to the middle east as part of the offer. Then they land, their passports are confiscated, often phones are confiscated, and then they're shipped off to work long hours and/or hard jobs for minimal pay (if any) - that can be anything from maids living in windowless box rooms and working long hours, or labour on construction projects with minimal safety / welfare provision, long hours, and terrible conditions. They don't get their passports back either. Happens all over the middle east, and the Saudis are certainly guilty of it - they go out and target the vulnerable and desperate. Grim.

The Saudis were aligning themselves with Israel against Iran before the October attacks. I for one would enjoy watching an Israel vs Iran group game hosted in the tolerant police state that is saudi arabia. Guaranteed entertainment both on and off the pitch.

Broja?! get real man. He is a shadow of his former self after that injury. His physical attributes have declined and his confidence is through the floor. He needs to go to the championship (or similar) to try and resurrect his career. He's nowhere near good enough to carry a poor team over the line to survival. The love in for him is mad, the only thing he's done at this level was a short purple patch at saints in a very specific tactical setup.

very good acquisition for them in fairness.

Second call for feedback on this!

First 60min pretty much the backup team and newer players. Conceded 2 goals through sloppy errors passing around at the back - rather here than in the important games, and as per the start of last season, i guess the style needs to bed in. After most of the starting 11 came on (last 30min or so) we looked comfortably the better side, don't think they had a shot, carved them open a few times - but no finish applied / no one on the end of a cross. BBD and a new striker will make a big difference. Macca did not impress between the sticks, albeit with a fairly makeshift / new defence in front of him.

To me, that says we're playing the squad players to start - it's their chance to try and impress / or let themselves down.

Yeah, i just googled it. I think its fully prohibited in France so they couldn't even invest in Bordeaux as a minority shareholder.

Are there any rules that stop SR also taking over Bordeaux? Massive club at rock bottom right now, great heritage, and great academy! Surely would be a fine addition to any portfolio of clubs.

If we do end up doing that he's got to deliver straight away and make it last across the whole season. Its a big ask for someone who's never played at this level 🤷‍♂️. Thats not to write him off, but its risky. Maybe i've just been burned by too many Sulemana, Carillo, Boufal, Lemina style signings over the years. We've certainly spent fortunes on lots of players that never really paid back the investment.

If we can get Carvalho then it would be a good bit of business. The kid is quality and certainly has potential. Too good for the champ and needs to start playing serious squad time in the prem. The fact he's seemingly turned us down already is concerning however (particularly given last year it would have been as part of a promotion team). He's also a signing that would fit our current strategy of having the best of the championship should we go back down 😆. Personally i am not that convinced by the Celtic lad. Its a lot of money, and given the opposition he plays against in Scotland i'd expect to see more from him in his highlight reels. £25-30M is a lot of money for us this window given we also need a keeper, another CM, and a striker. I'm just not convinced its the best use of our funds. Plus equally, how often does a record signing really work out well for saints?

Just leaving this here...

All comes down to whether we have an effective style of play as well. Right now i don't think anyone knows exactly which saints we'll see next season - will it be the 4-3-3 possession and attacking side, or will it be the more defensive 5 at the back we saw at the end of last season, or perhaps a mix of the two. I agree with Harv's post above though, i think we've done the right thing by keeping the key men from last season, and then acquiring strong characters across the team. Bodes well for a good, positive, and determined dressing room next season.

I think they might get away with it this year because of Leicester's massive points deductions. Which basically means its only 2 other spots open. But unless they make some signings they'll be flirting with it. Sean Dyche or no Sean Dyche. No one really knows how Ipswich and Saints are going to do at the end of the day (although I'm being optimistic and think we'll stay up without too much trouble). Similarly, Ipswich do have a good manager and might surprise a few team (saints did when we did the bounce). Or put another way - if you write Leicester off and assume one of saints / Ipswich stay up, I think its hard to make a case that Everton are certain to stay up as it stands. Both them and forest are certainly teams we should be targeting to finish above.

His move to Genoa has just fallen through over wage demands

I notice De Gea is without a club...

I know its a running joke, but the catchment area for Southampton FC fan's is is pretty large - and mean for matchgoing fans. There was a thread on it recently this season where (some) people on here were actually looking down on saints fan's from outside the city... And i still think its mad that that outlook exists tbh. Do people actually walk around thinking the traffic through Millbrook and down the avenue on matchdays is for Ikea? All that should matter is we've got dedicated fans that attend matches. I grew up 15min from salisbury but have supported Saints my entire life, lived in the city for a bit, but then moved to Bristol and kept a season ticket going until Puel.... he (and kids) was the final straw for the season ticket. My eldest is 6 now, took him to 4 games last year including the play off final, and he's been in to Staplewood... (i'm doing my best to get him hooked before he picks a glory club), whereas pretty much all his mates at school support arsenal/city/liverpool etc. (🤮), and they'll likely never go and see a game... Also, when travelling up to Wembley we were sat near saints fans from Taunton and Devon that had been going to see saints all season (which following the dreadful relegation season is some effort). And yet we have fans that look down on them for being outside the city, weird. As for meeting saints fans out and about, we're generally great. There used to be a bloke on the bristol bath cycle ride that would yell "up the saints" etc when we'd go past each other on our commutes, and i'll always remember chatting to a fan in old Rhodes town many years ago. That atmosphere doesn't exist with the bigger plastic clubs, whereas saints are just big enough to have fans all over the place, but don't have glory fans (because we don't win anything 😅🤣🤘). Plus we benefited from the boon in 90's football and having someone like Le Tissier being broadcast all around the world showing of spectacular goals.

Personally think this is a class signing for the money. Fancy him to become a bit of a fan favourite at saints. He's got something about him for me - good movement, bursts of pace when he needs them, strength in holding off defenders once he's beyond them, a hell of a shot on him, but also a directness and calmness/composure to vary his finishing. Takes a mean penalty as well. This is a good signing for us. Reckon he'll bag 10-15goals (provided we aren't god awful next season 😅).

Just that we really do want to be man city 😂

I've only just clocked that Man City are with Puma... Of course they are... it all makes sense now 😄

We outperformed them on xG. Yet in the league, they're +14 on goals scored vs xG (which is the best in the league and far and away ahead of the other promotion sides). So much luck its unreal. Defensively they were beyond jammy as well. Take the last game against us, multiple clearances off the line where their players didn't even know where the ball was before blindly hacking it away, and scoring a winner from the worst touch/shot you'll ever see that afforded the player a tap in afterwards. That one game alone is a 6point swing. Nice story sure (if you turn a blind eye to their man city level spending for the 3rd tier), but jammy as hell to go with it.

Agreed. He's also a moron. Saints outperformed Ipswich as an attacking force last season, and equally Ipswich had a tremendous amount of luck to make the automatic spots in multiple games - not least vs us (twice) and Leicester. Don't get me wrong, i think they'll make a fist of it next year as they've got a lot of momentum and financial flexibility, but saints will do just as well as them. At the end of the day, very little separated the top 4 sides last year - and our squad has a lot more depth and prem experience - two critical assets in the premier league.

Wow

Just checking my list of urgent weak links that desperately need addressing or we'll get relegated... Nah hypo, I'm not seeing Smallbone on there i've got to be honest. I'm looking forward to seeing Big Willy smash some goals in this season, hopefully vs Forest to background chants of "You're just a shit willy smallbone" being directed at Shelvey 🤘. Smallbone will do fine. He's got a lot of minutes under him at the champ now and he's not fresh to the prem like Spiderman etc were. Plus he suits Martin's system and has good chemistry with the likes of Downes and Arma... i'm pretty damn sure we'll see him in and around the first 11 many times. We'll wind up with something Alcaraz / O'riley /Aribo in front of Downes and Smallbone. Its good enough to keep us up - Its still a striker, full back (assuming kwp goes), winger, and goalkeeper that really need sorting.

Alright mate, to each their own, but a significant proportion of our goals against occurred in 4 games. 3 of those were at the very start of the season when we completely changed the style of play, had to tackle squad morale, and had a hugely unsettled squad generally - with players arriving and leaving en mass. That made it a difficult period to bed in the team/tactics. If people want to consider those games as a basis for Martin's defensive record then that's up to them, but i don't personally. Similarly the Leicester game at the end of the season is quite clearly an anomalous result - intensive fixture run in (due to two postponed games), bad injuries to key figures in the squad, and our automatic promotion hopes were all but ended. Its really not that surprising what happened, albeit still disappointing. As for, "coached choice", its an interesting choice of phrase given martin very clearly chose to switch to a back 5 for the final 4 games of the season, which saw us conceded 2 goals in 4 games vs Leeds and WBA. Consider as well that the WBA game was a total consolation goal where everyone had switched off - including the wba fans themselves 😄.... To quote the commentator, "i've never seen a goal be less celebrated". People may not like it (whatever their reasons), but if you allow for just a few clear outliers our defence starts to look a lot more respectable. If you then look at the games where we set up actively to be more defensive we looked very solid. To come full circle - Martin's time with saints (and his maturing tactics and drilling of the team) is surely a better basis for next season than his earliest seasons as a manager with MK Dons and Swansea 🤷‍♂️. Obviously time will tell, but i can see us employing a mixture of attacking and defensive styles next year - and all that ultimately matters is that we get the points. If that means we tactically go for it in a few games and win 4-3, i don't have an issue, but equally i'll happily play a back five and get 1-0 wins or low scoring draws - martin has shown he's capable of either in the champ.