Jack Stephens

[SouSaint]

Failure of a transfer window if he's starting for us this season. 

[Andrew Watson]

God knows how many goals Stephens will give away in the championship with passes like that this season, a very frightening thought.

[BarberSaint]

16 minutes ago, Holmes_and_Watson said:

It's that ability to instill standards across a multi-club model that makes him irreplaceable for SR. 

It's like he's never been away.

 

 

Alas.

[Holmes_and_Watson]

Just now, BarberSaint said:

It's like he's never been away.

 

 

Alas.

Soon we can shed a tear of pride, as SR teams in France and then Turkey make catastrophic defensive decisions.

Fans of certain clubs in France and Turkey will be shedding tears of a different sort.

[Harry_SFC]

1 hour ago, trousers said:

 

 

How often does he do this? He's a complete liability. Extending his contract is up there with McCarthy levels of stupid. 

[benjii]

When's his testimonial?

[Midfield_General]

1 hour ago, trousers said:

 

 

Well, that's a shock that no-one could possibly have seen coming 

[ChristopheVAFC]

😅

[ChristopheVAFC]

49 minutes ago, Holmes_and_Watson said:

Soon we can shed a tear of pride, as SR teams in France and then Turkey make catastrophic defensive decisions.

Fans of certain clubs in France and Turkey will be shedding tears of a different sort.

Let me reassure you, we've already had players who, when they had the ball, I can tell you we had cold sweats in the stands haha

[Weston Super Saint]

33 minutes ago, benjii said:

When's his testimonial?

3 more years.

Sadly.

[Mixedkebab]

On 18/07/2025 at 18:34, Weston Super Saint said:

3 more years.

Sadly.

Spors’ credibility is utterly fucked before it began with the Stephens 3 year extension- only a disturbed, or possessed fuckwitt would give Jack 3 years. 
Even if Stephens miraculously has a good, non error strewn season and Saints go up, the 2 extra years are pointless curly turds. Spors seems a halfwitted helmet already just based on this single decision.

Edited July 20 by Mixedkebab

[John B]

7 hours ago, Mixedkebab said:

Spors’ credibility is utterly fucked before it began with the Stephens 3 year extension- only a disturbed, or possessed fuckwitt would give Jack 3 years. 
Even if Stephens miraculously has a good, non error strewn season and Saints go up, the 2 extra years are pointless curly turds. Spors seems a halfwitted helmet already just based on this single decision.

Perhaps we will not go up in May 2026 but go up in 2027 or 2028 with a young team led by Jack which could stay up in the PL.

That could be the plan as at present the standard in the PL is probably the highest ever

[Smirking_Saint]

4 hours ago, John B said:

Perhaps we will not go up in May 2026 but go up in 2027 or 2028 with a young team led by Jack which could stay up in the PL.

That could be the plan as at present the standard in the PL is probably the highest ever

I still don’t buy the leadership bollocks, @stevegrant summed it up better than I could on the latest pod (can’t remember exact statement but) - If he was the leader in what has been our most rudderless period its fairly damning on him

Besides, ive both played and coached at a reasonable level… a leader in sport needs to have an aptitude at that level, as well as the qualities needed to lead, or else a rot sets in and ‘better’ players lose motivation 

If it was a year or two extension… fine… but 3 years puts the current DoF under the same scrutiny as his predecessors by burdening us with mediocrity 

[ally_uk]

Should of sold and upgraded 3 seasons ago, not extend the contract by 3 years 🤣

[coalman]

 

On 18/07/2025 at 18:10, ChristopheVAFC said:

😅

 

Bearing in mind he's trying to pass across his defence in the picture, who the hell is he trying to pass to? From that angle, even if he didn't get caught by the attacker for being too casual I struggle to see how it's not giving away possession in a dangerous area.

[Badger]

On 18/07/2025 at 17:18, Andrew Watson said:

God knows how many goals Stephens will give away in the championship with passes like that this season, a very frightening thought.

Compounded by a more frightening thought is Smallbone tackling in front of him, and Bazunu behind him.

Any bets on conceding 60+ again this season ? 

[Matthew Le God]

31 minutes ago, Badger said:

Compounded by a more frightening thought is Smallbone tackling in front of him, and Bazunu behind him.

Any bets on conceding 60+ again this season ? 

I think that is unlikely. Will Still doesn't want his players to take the risks Russell Martin did. Still's teams have pretty good defensive records in comparison to Martin.

Edited July 21 by Matthew Le God

[Holmes_and_Watson]

1 hour ago, Badger said:

Compounded by a more frightening thought is Smallbone tackling in front of him, and Bazunu behind him.

Any bets on conceding 60+ again this season ? 

And BBD to complete The Spine of Victory 🙂

[Harry_SFC]

9 hours ago, coalman said:

 

Bearing in mind he's trying to pass across his defence in the picture, who the hell is he trying to pass to? From that angle, even if he didn't get caught by the attacker for being too casual I struggle to see how it's not giving away possession in a dangerous area.

From that picture you either pass it back to the keeper to punt upfield or just do it yourself. Clearly no team mate free so don't fuck around with it. 

[Saint Fan CaM]

2 hours ago, Harry_SFC said:

From that picture you either pass it back to the keeper to punt upfield or just do it yourself. Clearly no team mate free so don't fuck around with it. 

Stephens doesn’t think that fast and has no inherent footballing brain to instinctively know what the least riskiest play should be. In his own mind he has all the time in the World to choose his pass. He’s as thick as…

[Whitey Grandad]

8 hours ago, Harry_SFC said:

From that picture you either pass it back to the keeper to punt upfield or just do it yourself. Clearly no team mate free so don't fuck around with it. 

It's something that's drilled into players at all levels all over the world.

"Don't pass the ball across your own penalty area"

[saintant]

2 hours ago, Whitey Grandad said:

It's something that's drilled into players at all levels all over the world.

"Don't pass the ball across your own penalty area"

If he hasn't learned this after all his years in the game we can safely assume he never will.

[Guan 2.0]

A long-term problem that has been rewarded for a lack of improvement, and bizarrely, has only seen his influence grow.

A loan, with a view to a contract cancellation/free transfer, would be best all round. 

 

[Jack]

He’s fucking terrible. Great banter though, apparently 

[Badger]

13 minutes ago, Guan 2.0 said:

A long-term problem that has been rewarded for a lack of improvement, and bizarrely, has only seen his influence grow.

A loan, with a view to a contract cancellation/free transfer, would be best all round. 

 

Has there ever been such a thing ? 

[Guan 2.0]

5 minutes ago, Badger said:

Has there ever been such a thing ? 

Ryan Fraser, Newcastle to Southampton. 

[trousers]

If he's "great to have around the place" and "cares about the club" then how about giving him some pom-poms and a ra-ra skirt and put him on cheerleading duties...?

[Andy Hill]

To be fair to him - the penalty today was a complete joke. But he is clearly not a competent centre back at any level.

[sfc4prem]

He's gotten slower and more rash as time has progressed. He's a liability now. I truly hope he plays little part in the season.

[Verbal]

53 minutes ago, trousers said:

If he's "great to have around the place" and "cares about the club" then how about giving him some pom-poms and a ra-ra skirt and put him on cheerleading duties...?

That's quite the image. Did *someone* just pass their age-verification test?

[Osvaldorama]

We are the only club in history that thinks we can be successful signing our worst players on the longest possible deals, whilst simultaneously selling all our best players, every season 

Ridiculous 

Edited Saturday at 13:57 by Osvaldorama

[Turkish]

32 minutes ago, Osvaldorama said:

We are the only club in history that thinks we can be successful signing our worst players on the longest possible deals, whilst simultaneously selling all our best players, every season 

Ridiculous 

We do things differently. We don’t buy success we breed it

[saintant]

About that 3 year contract - was there a cooling off period? Gotta hope so 🙂

[Gloucester Saint]

On 21/07/2025 at 13:11, Smirking_Saint said:

If it was a year or two extension… fine… but 3 years puts the current DoF under the same scrutiny as his predecessors by burdening us with mediocrity 

Crucial month or so for Spors now, good start with Sulemana and Onachu sales but huge misjudgement on Stephens, Downs looks alright but Still believes, as do we, that the squad is severely lacking in creativity and also acceleration in wide areas. Not seeing an obvious improvement on 8 years of shockingly bad and slow/casual transfer windows. Moreover, some obvious higher earning departures eg Bednarek and Aribo are still here.

Edited Saturday at 14:53 by Gloucester Saint

[ally_uk]

Absolutely calamity of a decision extending contract......

Should be nowhere near this squad 

 

[OnceaSaintalwaysaSaint]

On 22/07/2025 at 01:10, Saint Fan CaM said:

Stephens doesn’t think that fast and has no inherent footballing brain

That's so true. The best players, as they're receiving a pass, are looking up for opportunities. Not our Jack. First he has to focus on receiving the ball before it bounces off his shin and that takes time. By then, players are on him so he's either knocking it sideways hoping his other centre back with collect or hoofing it back to the goalie at varying speeds.

Disappointed he's our captain again. Hopefully someone else in the team can prove to be worthy of taking on the armband which will make Jack's place in the team even less tenable.  

[RedArmy]

8 hours ago, Osvaldorama said:

We are the only club in history that thinks we can be successful signing our worst players on the longest possible deals, whilst simultaneously selling all our best players, every season 

Ridiculous 

[saintant]

12 hours ago, RedArmy said:

To think people fall for this bullshit and pay to listen to it or read it.

[S-Clarke]

On 22/07/2025 at 01:10, Saint Fan CaM said:

Stephens doesn’t think that fast and has no inherent footballing brain to instinctively know what the least riskiest play should be. In his own mind he has all the time in the World to choose his pass. He’s as thick as…

That's sadly it in a nutshell really. There's no instinctiveness in his game, or proactiveness. He's a pure reactionary defender, he's passable in games where you're backs to the walls and you're always reacting, but when we're more 'dominant' and we need to be aware of potential breaks and such, he is an absolutely enormous liability for any team. 

I just wanted us to be rid of these sorts this summer. They've tarnished every season for last few years, but for some reason we keep trying the same over and over again, it's the definition of insanity really - he cannot defend in a decent team, if he plays next season we will concede stacks and stacks of goals. If we shoehorn him in for someone like Edwards, then force Edwards at right back then I'm absolutely done.

Yep he's signed a new contract (ridiculous decision), but it doesn't mean he should automatically be the first name. Anything more than a squad player for us this season then we're doing it wrong and these new guys are as clueless as those before.

Edited Sunday at 12:33 by S-Clarke

[Patrick Bateman]

On 26/07/2025 at 14:41, sfc4prem said:

He's gotten slower and more rash as time has progressed. He's a liability now. I truly hope he plays little part in the season.

Absolutely this. Just watch the highlights ... if he's in the team every week (apart from playing teams like Portsmouth when I WANT him to play), we'll give away more and more of those types of goals, ugh.

 

[Lighthouse]

4 minutes ago, Patrick Bateman said:

Absolutely this. Just watch the highlights ... if he's in the team every week (apart from playing teams like Portsmouth when I WANT him to play), we'll give away more and more of those types of goals, ugh.

 

Why? He seems like the kind of player who would get easily wound up and sent off for something rash.

[Juneau]

I agree passion is what we love to see as fans, but does anyone genuinely trust Captain Jack to not lose his head and get sent off in either of the Pompey games??
 

I’d put money on a red in atleast one, it’s too emotionally charged. 
 

You want to know that out of all of your players your captain will be the one who stays on the pitch, and not only that ensures that everyone else keeps their heads… I don’t trust him to keep his own.

[SambaMaverick]

Seems like almost everyone is in agreement that he's gash but I'm genuinely wracking my brain for one thing he is good at...

One single tangible, football-related attribute that warrants him being in this squad for three more years. Anyone?

[lambtiss]

21 minutes ago, SambaMaverick said:

Seems like almost everyone is in agreement that he's gash but I'm genuinely wracking my brain for one thing he is good at...

One single tangible, football-related attribute that warrants him being in this squad for three more years. Anyone?

Is there a time limit on this?

[Gloucester Saint]

29 minutes ago, SambaMaverick said:

Seems like almost everyone is in agreement that he's gash but I'm genuinely wracking my brain for one thing he is good at...

One single tangible, football-related attribute that warrants him being in this squad for three more years. Anyone?

Most of us know our football on here but since SR came in, the club is run by people who quite simply don’t. We all hoped Spors and his team would be a departure from that, but the Stephens three years just drew bold and underline under the yawning chasm between the club and fans, on top of the arrogance shown by Semmens in our direction.

If they’ve any hope of getting at least a segment of the fanbase onside, they have to be perfect in the next month in the window and wins and draws at the start of the season. The Stephens debacle has cut off any realistic prospect of patience at a poor start and God help them if we don’t beat Pompey…

In the window, Ramsdale, Fernandes and Dibling, assuming one or all goes, MUST be replaced. 

Edited Sunday at 18:11 by Gloucester Saint

[Gloucester Saint]

6 minutes ago, lambtiss said:

Is there a time limit on this?

12 months as that’s how long his previous and what should’ve been his final deal had to run. I think we could’ve lived with 12 months extra with the second 12 months focused on his coaching badges if the club felt the need to be generous.

3 years was moronic and totally unwarranted. 

[BarberSaint]

47 minutes ago, lambtiss said:

Is there a time limit on this?

3 more years.

[saintant]

2 hours ago, Juneau said:

I agree passion is what we love to see as fans, but does anyone genuinely trust Captain Jack to not lose his head and get sent off in either of the Pompey games??
 

I’d put money on a red in atleast one, it’s too emotionally charged. 
 

You want to know that out of all of your players your captain will be the one who stays on the pitch, and not only that ensures that everyone else keeps their heads… I don’t trust him to keep his own.

Personally I'd prefer our captain to stay off the pitch.

[saintant]

2 hours ago, SambaMaverick said:

Seems like almost everyone is in agreement that he's gash but I'm genuinely wracking my brain for one thing he is good at...

One single tangible, football-related attribute that warrants him being in this squad for three more years. Anyone?

You got me. Can't think of anything.

[Dusic]

22 minutes ago, saintant said:

You got me. Can't think of anything.

I would think a factor is that they knew Bednarek was going and also that THB likely will too. They also knew we were going to bring in Quarshie (21) to go alongside Edwards (22) and Wood (23) and potentially may have Kayi-Sanda (18) as part of the squad too.

Unpopular as it clearly is on here, Stephens is a player with a lot more experience (frequently requested on here), who last time in this league captained a promotion winning side (experience of promotion frequently requested here), including playing very well in the pressured situation of the playoffs (undeniably good experience to have).

He has been at Saints for nearly 15 years and obviously those closer see the value that he brings, as Ryan Manning clearly articulated recently.

I think its absolutely clear that the contract is probably a year too long but I'm also sure the wages are affordable.

I am also certain that he is nowhere near as bad as the hysteria on here suggests. Last time in the Championship he played pretty well in various roles (remember him being solid at LB away to West Brom in an unfamiliar role) and as we saw with Bednarek who pretty much bossed every striker he faced in the Championship it is a much lower level than the PL which is where most of this judgement is Stephens comes from.

Personally think fans need to just let this go now, especially once the games start because getting on his back won't help anyone, not least our new manager!

Edited Sunday at 20:18 by Dusic