Johannes Spors

[Doctoroncall]

Surely any assessment at any time will have its limitations and can only judge on what has happened, even then fans will not have all the facts. That’s one reason companies continually assess and make adjustments to the ways of working to improve. I’m sure folks will make another assessment at the beginning of October to see how the team are performing and the new team mates are adjusting.
 

one thing to note compared to last time Saints went down is the circumstances are a little more challenging with a large squad and more players to go out. 

[hypochondriac]

Just now, Doctoroncall said:

Surely any assessment at any time will have its limitations and can only judge on what has happened, even then fans will not have all the facts. That’s one reason companies continually assess and make adjustments to the ways of working to improve. I’m sure folks will make another assessment at the beginning of October to see how the team are performing and the new team mates are adjusting.
 

one thing to note compared to last time Saints went down is the circumstances are a little more challenging with a large squad and more players to go out. 

Of course any judgement will have limitations. I don't think it will happen but I'm happy to say that Spertsyan looks to be a really good ambitious signing for a club like us. He may sign and then be rubbish but I can still applaud the club for their dealings in the transfer market. Similarly someone like fellows with a proven record of success in this division is likely to do very well for us this year if we signed him. 

[Willo of Whiteley]

MLG has it time stamped into his calendar about when you make a judgement on who. 

[Doctoroncall]

18 minutes ago, hypochondriac said:

Of course any judgement will have limitations. I don't think it will happen but I'm happy to say that Spertsyan looks to be a really good ambitious signing for a club like us. He may sign and then be rubbish but I can still applaud the club for their dealings in the transfer market. Similarly someone like fellows with a proven record of success in this division is likely to do very well for us this year if we signed him. 

I’m glad you agree. It seemed that some only wanted to assess at a certain time. 

[Fabrice29]

47 minutes ago, hypochondriac said:

Of course it's a big two weeks for him. It's his job to improve the squad. Two years ago we brought in two players in particular who were starters and improved the team immediately without any need to acclimatise to the country or develop. That's the standard that he will be judged against. Can we bring in those two or three players that will hit the ground running, slot straight into the team and be decent replacements for those who will inevitably leave. We will see that fairly soon after the window closes if not earlier. We don't have to wait till the end of the season to make a comparison to between those types of signings. 

I’m not entirely sure I agree that we should be judging Spors on how well signings fit into the team and when considering that’s Stills job but I am glad you agree that seeing players play first is decent way of judging them.

[Fabrice29]

41 minutes ago, hypochondriac said:

Of course any judgement will have limitations. I don't think it will happen but I'm happy to say that Spertsyan looks to be a really good ambitious signing for a club like us. He may sign and then be rubbish but I can still applaud the club for their dealings in the transfer market. Similarly someone like fellows with a proven record of success in this division is likely to do very well for us this year if we signed him. 

Then again 🤣

[hypochondriac]

5 minutes ago, Fabrice29 said:

I’m not entirely sure I agree that we should be judging Spors on how well signings fit into the team and when considering that’s Stills job but I am glad you agree that seeing players play first is decent way of judging them.

I don't agree with you that it's rash unless you wait until the end of the season to judge players. Of course we should judge Spors on how signings perform. Still has some responsibility as well of course. 

[hypochondriac]

4 minutes ago, Fabrice29 said:

Then again 🤣

You're making no sense at all. Hypothetically if we signed Haaland I'd be applauding the club for their ambition and for signing a good player. He could still turn out not to play very well for us. How is that a difficult concept for you to grasp? 

[Fabrice29]

Just now, hypochondriac said:

You're making no sense at all. Hypothetically if we signed Haaland I'd be applauding the club for their ambition and for signing a good player. He could still turn out not to play very well for us. How is that a difficult concept for you to grasp? 

Well I’ve seen Haaland play for a start so I’d probably applaud too. Fair play, you’ve won me over. 

[hypochondriac]

7 minutes ago, Fabrice29 said:

Well I’ve seen Haaland play for a start so I’d probably applaud too. Fair play, you’ve won me over. 

Right and I've seen Fellows and Spertsyan play. What's your point. 

[Fabrice29]

2 minutes ago, hypochondriac said:

Right and I've seen Fellows and Spertsyan play. What's your point. 

I’m not comparing why I’d be slightly more happy immediately if we signed Haaland than if we signed Fellows or Spertsyan with you. 

[hypochondriac]

5 minutes ago, Fabrice29 said:

I’m not comparing why I’d be slightly more happy immediately if we signed Haaland than if we signed Fellows or Spertsyan with you. 

It was a hypothetical extreme example to make a point. Using your own logic we'd be unable to make judgements about players and the people who brought them to the club until we had seen them play for a long period for saints- possibly even the end of the season. 

[Fabrice29]

4 minutes ago, hypochondriac said:

It was a hypothetical extreme example to make a point. Using your own logic we'd be unable to make judgements about players and the people who brought them to the club until we had seen them play for a long period for saints- possibly even the end of the season. 

Yeah, well in your hypothetical world you’ve proven your point. 

[Weston Super Saint]

2 hours ago, Matthew Le God said:

Wouldn't actually seeing any players that are signed play a decent sample of games make more sense than just waiting until the end of the window?

Likewise, wouldn't it make sense to wait until your brand new car has got 30 or 40 thousand miles on it before making any judgement about how it performs?  After all, you need time to consider it fully right?  Bloody car reviewers and their snap judgements.  What do they know?

[S-Clarke]

10 hours ago, Willo of Whiteley said:

Johannes Spors - fraud, failure or fantastic?

How would we all rate his first window?

Why are we rating a first window which hasn't ended yet? Seems a bit daft.

I've always said the best value comes at the end, loans, dominos falling into place and all that. If we're sat here in Sept with Dibling sold and the same squad, then yes, we can be a bit concerned - but you can't rate him yet.

I'd also add that it will take a couple of windows to cycle through the squad. Some players we want rid of won't go this window, it may be January or next summer - so that has to be taken into consideration. This wasn't an overnight window fix job, the squad has been entirely fucked for years and needs a reset which will take a couple of windows to cycle through.

We'll get an idea how things have started by the start of Sept for sure, but I don't think it can be a full judgement even at that point.

[Gloucester Saint]

35 minutes ago, S-Clarke said:

Why are we rating a first window which hasn't ended yet? Seems a bit daft.

I've always said the best value comes at the end, loans, dominos falling into place and all that. If we're sat here in Sept with Dibling sold and the same squad, then yes, we can be a bit concerned - but you can't rate him yet.

I'd also add that it will take a couple of windows to cycle through the squad. Some players we want rid of won't go this window, it may be January or next summer - so that has to be taken into consideration. This wasn't an overnight window fix job, the squad has been entirely fucked for years and needs a reset which will take a couple of windows to cycle through.

We'll get an idea how things have started by the start of Sept for sure, but I don't think it can be a full judgement even at that point.

We need to get tougher though with the obvious want-aways like Aribo plus dropping the asking price. Make it clear that the u23s beckons in a WC year and give him a week to get his arse out of the door. 

Edozie I don’t mind so much as it’s more the club’s decision and was decent in the Champ last time.

Edited Tuesday at 19:53 by Gloucester Saint

[Charlie Wayman]

1 hour ago, Gloucester Saint said:

We need to get tougher though with the obvious want-aways like Aribo plus dropping the asking price. Make it clear that the u23s beckons in a WC year and give him a week to get his arse out of the door. 

Edozie I don’t mind so much as it’s more the club’s decision and was decent in the Champ last time.

It's not really Aribo's fault if nobody comes in for him with a sensible bid so why the need to punish him for not leaving?

[Dusic]

In some ways I think we are in the best place we have been for a very long time regarding the level of deadwood/dross.

Acknowledging the very specific ABK situation I find it hard to get worked up about the likes of Aribo or Smallbone, both of whom were very good last time at this level. Due to contract length it represents a good business time to move them on but if we end up with Aribo for another season we wil certainly find a use for him and he seems a good character.

BBD and the couple of RBs would be ideal candidates to move on if we could but as with Aribo & Smallbone they are largely players who can do a job at this level rather than being a total waste of space.

All clubs talk about getting rid of their dross but not sure we are any different than the norm tbh.

The sales that will make more of a difference to who we bring in will be Dibling and Fernandes.

Edited Tuesday at 21:04 by Dusic

[Gloucester Saint]

1 hour ago, Charlie Wayman said:

It's not really Aribo's fault if nobody comes in for him with a sensible bid so why the need to punish him for not leaving?

One of the biggest earners, always stories from his agent about not being happy or wanting to go to Turkey, Saudi, wherever it is.

Did reasonably well it has to be said in 23/24 but for a senior player hasn’t delivered consistently overall and want to see the back of his agent. I’m not sure he’s suited to Still’s system either. A data-influenced Ankerson signing. 

Don’t dislike him but he isn’t signing another contract and don’t think he’ll be offered one. Take the money elsewhere and go. 

Edited Tuesday at 22:04 by Gloucester Saint

[Weston Super Saint]

8 hours ago, Gloucester Saint said:

One of the biggest earners, always stories from his agent about not being happy or wanting to go to Turkey, Saudi, wherever it is.

Did reasonably well it has to be said in 23/24 but for a senior player hasn’t delivered consistently overall and want to see the back of his agent. I’m not sure he’s suited to Still’s system either. A data-influenced Ankerson signing. 

Don’t dislike him but he isn’t signing another contract and don’t think he’ll be offered one. Take the money elsewhere and go. 

Why would he do that?

It's not his fault we offered him a lucrative contract with big wages.  Nothing to stop him running down his contract and pocketing the cash if we don't want to use him.  Then he can get a better 'signing on' bonus elsewhere when his contract runs out which will make up for the antiipated lower wages.

Can't really blame him for doing what's best for him financially.

[Gloucester Saint]

29 minutes ago, Weston Super Saint said:

Why would he do that?

It's not his fault we offered him a lucrative contract with big wages.  Nothing to stop him running down his contract and pocketing the cash if we don't want to use him.  Then he can get a better 'signing on' bonus elsewhere when his contract runs out which will make up for the antiipated lower wages.

Can't really blame him for doing what's best for him financially.

If he knuckles down this year and his agent shuts up for a season, and gets us promotion, I personally don’t mind at all if he goes for free in the summer. Not as if his fee was especially chunky. KWP just did the same and went with our best wishes. I’d suggest there’s a reason or reasons why he’s training separately though. I’m not sure he’s right for Still’s system though and does he want to be a squad player during a year when he wants to be in Nigeria’s WC squad? Better for his agent to walk the talk this month.

[sockeye]

He has signed nobody who looks like they will improve our squad so far. There remains an incredibly blunt attack. Sort it out, or we will be nowhere near the automatic spots this season.

[AlexLaw76]

More of the same with Sports Republic

[S-Clarke]

I mean it's a bit daft to judge him before the windows shut.

Let's see where we are in a week.

The 'biggest' deals were always going to happen towards the end of the window, they always do.

[Badger]

2 hours ago, S-Clarke said:

I mean it's a bit daft to judge him before the windows shut.

Let's see where we are in a week.

The 'biggest' deals were always going to happen towards the end of the window, they always do.

Agree with this. Review it in just over a week.

But as things stand he appears to be gravitating to the Semmens/Ankersen end of the spectrum. 

[Gloucester Saint]

26 minutes ago, Badger said:

Agree with this. Review it in just over a week.

But as things stand he appears to be gravitating to the Semmens/Ankersen end of the spectrum. 

Tick tock. Too late in the day to say ‘we tried to get X and Y’. Monday and Tuesday we need to be into multiple bids accepted and medical by midweek. 

Edited yesterday at 22:08 by Gloucester Saint

[Wade Garrett]

He looks like another fucking charlatan to me.

[Patrick Bateman]

From another thread, but simple message to the recruitment team at Saints - buy some players that are instantly good enough for the first 11, PLEASE.

 

No more "might be good enough" or "potential youngster", I mean yeah, they can be great, but your track record is appalling and when it's worked, we see them for about 3 minutes in a Saints shirt (Lavia, Livramento). 

Downs might become decent, but right now, we need a striker who is a proper '9' and who will walk into the first 11 and make a difference. Get on it. Best regards.

 

[Coastal]

Get this fraud out of the club.

[Mboto Gorge]

Our 2 main signings so far look like bench players at best in Quarshie and Downs. I mean we may aswell have kept Tall Paul as sign Downs, who although it’s still early days, looks absolutely fucking useless. His career record to date had me a bit concerned when we signed him, 11 goals in the German second division wasn’t exactly going to excite anyone. And he’s now showing us why . He’s fucking pony, and looks like he doesn’t want to put himself about much either.

I am not sure what it is about this club not wanting to sign players who’ve played in the league we are competing in but it’s pissing me off big time. I know we are apparently now trying to sign top end performing championship players but surely that’s we we needed our main striker signing to be. Now we seem to have wasted that on this fucking donkey . He may prove me wrong but at the moment it’s looking like Yet another string to the ever increasing cluster fuck bow that is sport republics recruitment 

[SouSaint]

Yet another dud from Sport Republic. 

[S-Clarke]

36 minutes ago, Coastal said:

Get this fraud out of the club.

Piss off, seriously. Go and support your own team you weirdo.

[LoyalSaintSO50]

Get spors gone, he’s spent all summer coming up with absolute shite. I watched Quashie via the mlt link in his last game in Germany. Straight away wouldn’t trust him in a 2 at the back, liability at times and we had 5 other centre back options anyway. 

We’ve got breezy mark 2 today with the lad from Brentford. 
 

We’ve wazzed 10 mil on a downgrade from marra which is special 

How do wankers like him get a job in a field they know fuck all about? 

[CSA96]

24 minutes ago, LoyalSaintSO50 said:

Get spors gone, he’s spent all summer coming up with absolute shite. I watched Quashie via the mlt link in his last game in Germany. Straight away wouldn’t trust him in a 2 at the back, liability at times and we had 5 other centre back options anyway. 

We’ve got breezy mark 2 today with the lad from Brentford. 
 

We’ve wazzed 10 mil on a downgrade from marra which is special 

How do wankers like him get a job in a field they know fuck all about? 

Not sure, but you must be thankful that it will keep you out of the dole queue, based on the above 

Edited 21 hours ago by CSA96

[LoyalSaintSO50]

5 minutes ago, CSA96 said:

Not sure, but you must be thankful that it will keep you out of the dole queue, based on the above 

What do you think he’s done well so far then? 

[LGTL]

Makes you wonder what the fuck he’s been doing since January. Window has been open since June and he’s managed to find us two completely irrelevant, pointless reserve players after the witnessing the worse season in our history. Not fucking good enough. 

[LoyalSaintSO50]

5 minutes ago, LGTL said:

Makes you wonder what the fuck he’s been doing since January. Window has been open since June and he’s managed to find us two completely irrelevant, pointless reserve players after the witnessing the worse season in our history. Not fucking good enough. 

Another shite appointment. Likes to eat out at lunch times I gather, so that’s the Dibling money gone by Xmas 

[hypochondriac]

Give me one reason why we aren't looking to ship out one of our strikers and slapping down big money for Sargent? Fellows, Sargent, Azaz, Johannson and a winger on loan would actually all improve us immediately and probably win us the league. We won't though because we lack ambition. We aren't going all out for the league. 

[Harry_SFC]

13 minutes ago, hypochondriac said:

Give me one reason why we aren't looking to ship out one of our strikers and slapping down big money for Sargent? Fellows, Sargent, Azaz, Johannson and a winger on loan would actually all improve us immediately and probably win us the league. We won't though because we lack ambition. We aren't going all out for the league. 

I'd certainly sell either Armstrong or Archer to facilitate Sargent. He'd cost £20m. Johannsson is available for £2m apparently. No brainer. Azaz available for £12m.

That would be 3 of the best players in the championship and combined they'd cost £10m less than what we are getting for Dibling.

Edited 14 hours ago by Harry_SFC

[aintforever]

The cunt has had over 6 months to prepare a side for this season so the fact we are in this situation now is a fucking joke. Dibling could have been sold and the money invested months ago, the team should be settled and playing the way the manager wants now, not in a month’s time.

[Whitey Grandad]

1 minute ago, aintforever said:

The cunt has had over 6 months to prepare a side for this season so the fact we are in this situation now is a fucking joke. Dibling could have been sold and the money invested months ago, the team should be settled and playing the way the manager wants now, not in a month’s time.

It's straightforward.  Don't play five at the back and only one forward. Especially at home and when that one forward is AA.

[hypochondriac]

6 minutes ago, Harry_SFC said:

I'd certainly sell either Armstrong or Archer to facilitate Sargent. He'd cost £20m. Johannsson is available for £2m apparently. No brainer. Azaz available for £12m.

That would be 3 of the best players in the championship and combined they'd cost £10m less than what we are getting for Dibling.

A thousand times this. Sell Fernandes if we have to for financial reasons. Even if Johannson cost 4 million that feels achievable. Add in perhaps another 10 for Edozie and Aribo so we can get a Fernandes replacement and that's the transfer activity of a team going for the top. 

Edited 14 hours ago by hypochondriac

[AlexLaw76]

7 minutes ago, Harry_SFC said:

I'd certainly sell either Armstrong or Archer to facilitate Sargent. He'd cost £20m. Johannsson is available for £2m apparently. No brainer. Azaz available for £12m.

That would be 3 of the best players in the championship and combined they'd cost £10m less than what we are getting for Dibling.

The Stoke keeper..how infuriating. So many were pleading for his signature as he is simply brilliant. He even had an auction when Rotherham played at SMS, even then he was available for £1m. Now, we could probably buy him. 

Azaz is one we need to get done. Excellent No.10, with proven ability in this league.....

What is the connection here? Both are proven championship star quality!

Edited 14 hours ago by AlexLaw76

[gio1saints]

9 hours ago, Mboto Gorge said:

Our 2 main signings so far look like bench players at best in Quarshie and Downs. I mean we may aswell have kept Tall Paul as sign Downs, who although it’s still early days, looks absolutely fucking useless. His career record to date had me a bit concerned when we signed him, 11 goals in the German second division wasn’t exactly going to excite anyone. And he’s now showing us why . He’s fucking pony, and looks like he doesn’t want to put himself about much either.

 

Downs was desperately disappointing yesterday poor service or not. He looked frightened to me. What runs he attempted looked weak and unconvincing. On the ball he looked rushed and swarmed. He did not exude confidence and simply did not cope. He was never in control of the ball. It was a bad performance. 

We DO need a big centreforward - and it’s either him or Stewart. Nobody new is coming in until either or both are proven failures. And that will take more than one bad half of football. So, if there’s a new CF don’t expect it until the Jan window - which should be long enough to ascertain whether either of those two are worth persevering with. Or indeed Cam and Adam. 

[hypochondriac]

Johansson 

Mads THB Stephens Manning 

Downes Charles 

Fellows Azaz Robinson 

Sargent 

Would win the league. Probably too much to spend all at once so maybe replace fellows with a prem loan but we could do that if we really wanted to. 

[AlexLaw76]

Just now, hypochondriac said:

Johansson 

Mads THB Stephens Manning 

Downes Charles 

Fellows Azaz Robinson 

Sargent 

Would win the league. Probably too much to spend all at once so maybe replace fellows with a prem loan but we could do that if we really wanted to. 

we'd have to ditch 3 at the back first (we could have done this already).

So far, it is like Juric/Rusk have never left

[Gloucester Saint]

19 minutes ago, Whitey Grandad said:

It's straightforward.  Don't play five at the back and only one forward. Especially at home and when that one forward is AA.

Both you and @aintforever can be right here. Spors has been very poor so far and underdelivered massively but Still got schooled by Robins yesterday.

[hypochondriac]

2 minutes ago, AlexLaw76 said:

we'd have to ditch 3 at the back first (we could have done this already).

So far, it is like Juric/Rusk have never left

I don't necessarily agree with still but he's said he's been doing that because he doesn't believe he has the players to play his preferred formation. He won't have that problem if we get those players in so no reason to play five at the back. 

[Toussaint]

7 minutes ago, hypochondriac said:

I don't necessarily agree with still but he's said he's been doing that because he doesn't believe he has the players to play his preferred formation. He won't have that problem if we get those players in so no reason to play five at the back. 

I thought he’d previously stated he wasn’t wedded to a particular system, therefore, not having the players to play his “preferred” system shouldn’t mean he has to default to five at the back? 

[saintant]

14 minutes ago, AlexLaw76 said:

we'd have to ditch 3 at the back first (we could have done this already).

So far, it is like Juric/Rusk have never left

Agree with this.