kitch

14 hours ago, Holmes_and_Watson said:

It took them until 87 minutes, but Celtic got a winner against St. Mirren. Martin no doubt hoping to be remain on equal points with them. 

Even had St Mirren (quite changed with some strong, smart recruits) held on, the reasons would have been quite different. Celtic hit the bar, and the post twice. They didn't just dominate the possession (76% to Rangers 65%), they dominated the game. Rangers managed 1 more shot in their game, but it was Motherwell who nearly got the points. While St Mirren had a couple of half chances, Celtic were the team hammering for a win.

That's what Old Firm fans, or any fans of clear favourites, expect to see. A big game already for Martin on Tuesday, as the club need as many Euro-pennies as they can get, in their long chase to get closer to Celtic.

I watched that game yesterday, St Mirren (my adopted Scottish team) were, at best, mid-L1 level (though they defended like lions). Anyone who says the PL is broken hasn't seen the SPL!

Of all the players and all the performances in pre-season, Bazunu isn't one of the ones I'm worried about.

Just now, Bakovnetski said:

Suggestion appeared on t'internet that we could go for Dubravka in return deal

I'd take that, as long as we were sufficiently financially compensated.

4 minutes ago, beatlesaint said:

I see Sky Sports understanding is Howe wants a keeper to compete with Pope, NOT replace him. 

Christ, imagine being a team that were comfortably being beaten by Southampton not 10 years ago, now buying one of their prized assets simply as a squad player.

Not sure if it reflects well on Newcastle, or badly on us. Probably both.

3 hours ago, S-Clarke said:

Somewhat agree, it was a signing at a time when the general quality of our transfers fell through the floor. But for £5m I still don't think we can complain too much, he was a decent enough servant at times and we paid a pittance for him, so for what he cost, what we got (200 odd apps) and a profit 8 years later - that's a decent scouting result to me. I don't think it was necessarily his fault that we signed Hoedt and Vestergaard as the 'main men', but they didn't turn out good enough which thrust Bednarek into the team when I don't think he was ever signed to be first choice.

That's a better way of saying how I feel about JB to be honest. None of it's his fault, and he's been excellent value for money. If he'd remained a squad player, he'd have been a great success, but that's a reflection on the club and the people running it, not him.

Best of luck to him, but not sorry to see him go in the slightest. One of the first signings to me that signalled all was not well with the club. Bought in as a squad-level player (same as Martina, McCarthy, Pied etc) who was some way off the quality of the established starters, but ended being up first-choice in the PL when he should never have been (though still ahead of Stephens, easily).
That signalled the drop of quality of the team to me, as opposed to an issue with Jan B - the fact he shouldn't really have ever been a starter. He was too slow for the PL. Proved a good CB at Championship level, sure, but he's been part of the same squad of losers for too long now. He needs a new start, as do we.

That's a great move for him, no doubt about that.

20 minutes ago, CSA96 said:

 

Some finish from Downs, that.

4 hours ago, bpsaint said:

To think we gave Stephens a 3 year contract extension. If Still thinks he’s worthy of a place in the starting XI come Wrexham then questions are going to be asked of him immediately.

By the fans (the people who watch this team week in, week out) sure, I agree.

By the club? No chance. They seem tone-deaf to the issues at hand, i.e. half of the squad not being good enough.

51 minutes ago, trousers said:

"Championship standard".... 

Scottish Championship, sure.

I worry about this Gibbs-White situation. If Spurs (or anyone) prise him away, how tempting is Matty F going to look to Forest? 

3 minutes ago, Fabrice29 said:

45 minutes vs Eastleigh btw. Where can I get odds on Matsuki delivering more than 7 goals and 4 assists next season?

I dunno, a bookies?

11 minutes ago, ecuk268 said:

Bit of over analysis on this thread.

Will Still said before the game that he just wanted to have a first look at his squad in a reasonably competitive match.

A better time to judge will be the Brighton match when they have had a few games under their belts and the manager will have a better idea of his preferred squad.

Quite possibly, but we've not had football for a while and we're all (well, most of us) are scarred 😆

Had a brilliant seat over in the main stand next door but one to Alfie House, so be interesting to see if his thoughts are similar to any of mine.

Game of two halves (duh). First half gave me the heebie jeebies. No pace, no character, no hunger - just totally flat. Charles looked tidy, BBD was trying hard but looked like could have been one of Eastleigh's players, the youngster in defence was an absolute unit, fuck knows what they've been feeding him and Smallbone's mishandled pass was what started Eastleigh's breakaway to get their early goal, so nice to see nothing has changed there. Eastleigh set up deep and surrendered possession and deserved their lead until a questionable penalty gave us an equaliser. "It's all just for fitness" ...is what I kept telling myself.

Second half the entire team changed and with it, the entire pace of the game. First half looked like what we've been used to for the past couple of years, but second was fast, direct, energetic and determined...for about 30 mins, at which point they looked out of ideas.
Quarshie is FAST and a bit nasty, but some of the passing was concerning (keep telling ourselves it's pre-season). GReat signing though. Woods looked more a leader in defence. Downes is Downes - different gravy. Matsuki is an upgrade on Smallbone, good close control and lots of movement. Not a PL player by any stretch but he's a decent squad addition for the Championship. Dibling had a couple of moments but looked like he had the handbrake on a bit, or his head was elsewhere. Edozie looked like he'd forgotten how to beat a man, which is a concern because that's all he ever really had in his locker to begin with. 
Standout was Jay Robinson. Yes, it's against a National League team, but none of the others stood out, whereas he did. Good control, decent pace, good positioning...he's going to be useful. 

Will Still looked pissed off on the touchline for most of it. Maybe that's just his demeanor?

On 09/07/2025 at 09:11, saintant said:

Read this on the Rangers fans forum today;

"I'm excited by Russell Martin talking about players not wasting time dropping deep and looking for the ball when their job is final third chance making/shot taking/chaos creation.

The new signings and targeted players are exactly what we've long needed to replace wingers who think it's their role to take the ball off the fullback, run 5-10 yards, check back/in and pass the ball to someone behind them to essentially kill all momentum of a move.

I feel we have a Manager who at least understands how we need to play and who we need to help us achieve it - that alone is a major shift in the right direction."

 

There was someone else suggesting Martin will play 4-2-3-1

They clearly have no clue about him.

Drinking before 10am isn't a good look.

On 06/07/2025 at 09:44, coalman said:

That's the first true test of Will Still's management - if he keeps Stephens as captain something inside of me is going to die.

'Foreshadowing'

3 minutes ago, Stripey McStripe Shirt said:

Captain Jack. Here til 2028.

Whatever your feelings about the guy, I don't doubt he loves the club and will be an asset in the Championship.

I love the club too, doesn't mean I should be playing centre back!

I fucking despair of this club sometimes. 

21 hours ago, sfc4prem said:

 

Pretty sure he was with us when DG was at Everton though...

On 04/07/2025 at 17:26, Matthew Le God said:

In terms of goal output, only 4 goals in 47 games in Saudi Arabia suggests otherwise

And who was he playing with? It's not as simple as looking at stats. On paper, plenty of players who look great often end up falling over.
Demari Gray was at Everton not long ago, regularly starting in the PL. For Birmingham, that's a good signing IMO.

20 hours ago, skintsaint said:

And another...

That's a hell of a signing for them

25 minutes ago, Saint Fan CaM said:

So far SR have done their utmost best to model the club on the proverbial Titanic - perhaps this is the final jigsaw piece in that aim?

In all seriousness, to be fair this is a good move as it’s nice to see a proper connection with the city instead of the dubious branding of recent years.

(…yes MLG, I know P&O were not connected to the Titanic 🙄).

There's a tenuous link, to be fair, as Carnival own both P&O and Cunard. The latter bought out the White Star Line sometime after they got into financial troubles because one of their boats sank. 

On 22/06/2025 at 18:49, for_heaven's_Saint said:

Dejan Lovren. Refused to return for preseason and declared he already felt like a Liverpool player whilst still under contract at Saints. 
IIRC he got subbed off early on in our 3-2 comeback win against them after crumbling under the abuse he was getting from the Northam. 
 

Chuck VVD in there for the same reasons. But at least he was actually good. 

That's not an irrational dislike, to be fair. Lovren was a cunt.

I've got a hatred of a lot of the current squad at the moment 😒

Got to be Toby Alderweireld, surely? 

Ings, Bertrand and KWP all started on loan here, too. They were all deemed so good the club wanted to sign them permanently, so you can't get much more successful than that.

14 minutes ago, gio1saints said:

Does anyone truly believe that Martins EPL squad was good enough to finish anywhere other than the bottom three? If you do just look at the squad lists of the other epl teams…

Supposedly star managers like McKenna could not do it for Ipswich.  The best you could say for the EPL campaigns of Man Utd Spurs and West Ham was that they avoided relegation - ignominiously - and with way better squads - and  supposedly way better managers, than ours. 
 

The single biggest factor in our relegation was failure to upgrade player and squad quality upon promotion. And yes, maybe, that should have included RM himself. But We would have gone down playing any formation and style you wish under any Manager with that squad. 

So, this whining about how shit Martin was or still is may actually be a massive red herring obscuring the real key factor. Keep crying about Martin and forget all he did was play the cards he had only real way he knew how. You need to look upstairs for the real people at fault. 

 

 

Agreed, the squad wasn't good enough and a lot of managers would have struggled to keep us up, but that's not the issue with RM. He was a poundshop Pep who was in it for himself, and he took at lot of us in (myself included) because he talks well.

The issue is that he put his 'belief' ahead of the good of the club, its staff, its players and its fans. He dogmatically refused to adopt any other means neccessary to grind out results here and there, which is what proper managers are supposed to do. Ipswich and Leicester ultimately failed, too, but especially in the case of Ipswich they did it with a lot more dignity than we did. The odds were against them, but they went down fighting. We went down with a whimper, packed with a squad full of emotionally damaged players who'd been hung out to dry and made to look like absolute clowns on the biggest national football stage in the world, all to satisfy one man's ego. We got away with it in the Championship, just, and nearly bottled it before scraping over the line with what must be the only case of him bending that I can remember. Even he realised his stupid approach wasn't going to work in the final, yet he didn't consider it might also happen in the PL, did he?

It didn't matter that he got the boot when he did, the damage was already done. None of those players believed they could do it, thanks to him. It didn't help that SR replaced him with a personality vacuum who wasn't really any better, just in different ways.