George Long - Official: Loaned from Norwich

[gio1saints]

How many of the starting eleven we have are good enough to be going for automatic promotion then? 

[Midfield_General]

8 minutes ago, gio1saints said:

I understand where you’re coming from - but the last time we were in the championship and Bazunu got a bad injury McCarthy become first choice and…did brilliantly. Alex performance has not got really bad in the intervening period. He’s hardly played tbf. 

See below. I sincerely hope we don't have to find out. 

Edited Tuesday at 09:31 by Midfield_General

[Midfield_General]

5 hours ago, Lighthouse said:

It’s barely a year since everyone was declaring McCarthy as ‘the only reason we got promoted’. Now, apparently he’s not fit to be back up to back up to Bazunu.

He’s absolutely fine as cover for any hypothetical injury to Bazunu, up to January if nothing else.

Goalkeepers get injured all the time. On top of the general risk, Bazunu specifically has not long ago been out for 10 months with a ruptured achilles and then another two and a half months with a meniscus injury. He could easily get injured again at any time - any footballer could. 

In that not exactly unlikely scenario, if you think that a 35 year-old Alex McCarthy is good enough to be starting for a team that is meant to be going for automatic promotion, or that we can potentially afford to put out a weakened team until January and still be serious contenders for promotion, then we are just going to have to agree to disagree. 

We've just brought in at least £35m. We could have brought someone perfectly competent in for £3-£4m who would have pushed Baz and been better than McCarthy. Instead we've taken a massive, stupid and unnecessary risk in the goalkeeping position by putting all our eggs in one far from reliable basket, and wasted a valuable loan spot into the bargain. 

I 100% want Spors to succeed, but this on top of the decision to give Stephens a new contract, bringing in a rookie centre back and apparently pinning our goalscoring hopes on Downs, means that as far as I'm concerned he's now made a series of massive gambles concerning three absolutely critical positions. 

Maybe the Spertsyan signing will make it all worthwhile? Oh no wait, he got played like a complete fool for that as well. 

I hope the rest of the window is fucking spectacular because as it stands he appears to be making us less competitive with every decision he makes. 

Edited Tuesday at 14:43 by Midfield_General

[Saint Fan CaM]

4 minutes ago, Midfield_General said:

Goalkeepers get injured all the time. On top of the general risk, Bazunu specifically has not long ago been out for 10 months with a ruptured achilles and then another two and a half months with a meniscus injury. He could easily get injured again at any time - any footballer could. 

In that not exactly unlikely scenario, if you think that a 35 year-old Alex McCarthy is good enough to be starting for a team that is meant to be going for automatic promotion, or that we can potentially afford to put out a weakened team until January and still be serious contenders for promotion, then we are just going to have to agree to disagree. 

We could have brought someone perfectly competent in for £3-£4m who would have pushed Baz and been better than McCarthy. We've taken a massive, stupid and unnecessary risk. 

I 100% want Spors to succeed, but this on top of the decision to give Stephens a new contract, bringing in a rookie centre back and apparently pinning our goalscoring hopes on Downs, means that as far as I'm concerned he's now made a series of massive gambles concerning three absolutely critical positions. 

I hope the rest of the window is fucking spectacular because as it stands he appears to be making us less competitive with every decision he makes. 

You’re absolutely correct - the trajectory of squad quality is downwards, but that’s been the case for at least 4-5 years now. In reality since Kat sold off her shares to Gao and allowed a sub-standard group of individuals to tear apart her Fathers legacy. What’s gone is gone and while there’s always a chance of renewal and re-growth, I don’t believe we’ve seen the worst of SR’s incompetence yet. Spors had a hard enough job sorting out the terrible contract legacies, but to then also persuade decent players to come to a club in decline…we’ll, it’s a massive task.

[Football Special]

43 minutes ago, Midfield_General said:

Goalkeepers get injured all the time. On top of the general risk, Bazunu specifically has not long ago been out for 10 months with a ruptured achilles and then another two and a half months with a meniscus injury. He could easily get injured again at any time - any footballer could. 

In that not exactly unlikely scenario, if you think that a 35 year-old Alex McCarthy is good enough to be starting for a team that is meant to be going for automatic promotion, or that we can potentially afford to put out a weakened team until January and still be serious contenders for promotion, then we are just going to have to agree to disagree. 

We've just brought in at least £35m. We could have brought someone perfectly competent in for £3-£4m who would have pushed Baz and been better than McCarthy. We've taken a massive, stupid and unnecessary risk. 

I 100% want Spors to succeed, but this on top of the decision to give Stephens a new contract, bringing in a rookie centre back and apparently pinning our goalscoring hopes on Downs, means that as far as I'm concerned he's now made a series of massive gambles concerning three absolutely critical positions. 

I hope the rest of the window is fucking spectacular because as it stands he appears to be making us less competitive with every decision he makes. 

I think you have summed that up well, also possible we're playing 5 at the back to provide more cover due to weakness in goalkeeper position 

[S-Clarke]

3 hours ago, Midfield_General said:

Goalkeepers get injured all the time. On top of the general risk, Bazunu specifically has not long ago been out for 10 months with a ruptured achilles and then another two and a half months with a meniscus injury. He could easily get injured again at any time - any footballer could. 

In that not exactly unlikely scenario, if you think that a 35 year-old Alex McCarthy is good enough to be starting for a team that is meant to be going for automatic promotion, or that we can potentially afford to put out a weakened team until January and still be serious contenders for promotion, then we are just going to have to agree to disagree. 

We've just brought in at least £35m. We could have brought someone perfectly competent in for £3-£4m who would have pushed Baz and been better than McCarthy. We've taken a massive, stupid and unnecessary risk in the goalkeeping position, and wasted a valuable loan spot into the bargain. 

I 100% want Spors to succeed, but this on top of the decision to give Stephens a new contract, bringing in a rookie centre back and apparently pinning our goalscoring hopes on Downs, means that as far as I'm concerned he's now made a series of massive gambles concerning three absolutely critical positions. 

Maybe the Spertsyan signing will make it all worthwhile? Oh no wait, he got played like a complete fool for that as well. 

I hope the rest of the window is fucking spectacular because as it stands he appears to be making us less competitive with every decision he makes. 

Yep you've nailed it. It's not that we have a personal problem with George Long, it's that we shouldn't have been targeting squad filler for GK when the GK's we have already aren't good enough. We should have targeted someone who was better than both, or at least with the ability to be better than both. We've now got 3 really poor goalies, one less poor than the rest, but it's put us in a really awkward place.

McCarthy helped us get over the line in our last Champ season, but that was over a small sample period. He's now 2 years older and he's not someone I want in our goal for a prolonged period of time.

As you rightly point out, Bazunu has recently returned from a serious long-term injury. It really isn't beyond the realms of possibility that he'd pickup a knock or a tweak which could put him out for months.

 

[Midfield_General]

31 minutes ago, S-Clarke said:

Yep you've nailed it. It's not that we have a personal problem with George Long, it's that we shouldn't have been targeting squad filler for GK when the GK's we have already aren't good enough. We should have targeted someone who was better than both, or at least with the ability to be better than both. We've now got 3 really poor goalies, one less poor than the rest, but it's put us in a really awkward place.

McCarthy helped us get over the line in our last Champ season, but that was over a small sample period. He's now 2 years older and he's not someone I want in our goal for a prolonged period of time.

As you rightly point out, Bazunu has recently returned from a serious long-term injury. It really isn't beyond the realms of possibility that he'd pickup a knock or a tweak which could put him out for months.

 

Even if Baz doesn't get injured, he essentially now has zero competition for his place. However badly he plays, we've painted ourself into a corner where we basically now can't drop him. What sort of DoF wastes a loan spot to knowingly create that situation? 

I've been giving Spors the benefit of the doubt until now but this is absolute amateur hour. I really hope I'm eating my words by the end of the window, but the cumulative effect of all his decisions so far mean that I'm now rapidly losing faith that he knows what he's doing or knows what a successful, promotion-worthy squad actually looks like. 

Edited Tuesday at 13:54 by Midfield_General

[Lighthouse]

I think many of you are grossly overestimating the calibre of player who is willing to be backup goalkeeper at Championship Southampton. They're the same pair we had last time, McC is fine as cover in the Championship and signing someone better would just be a waste of money on a player who many well not play a minute of league football.

 

I've still yet to read an explanation as to how our Wembley hero and 'the reason we got promoted' is now suddenly so bad he's incapable of playing at the same level.

[spyinthesky]

Just now, Lighthouse said:

I think many of you are grossly overestimating the calibre of player who is willing to be backup goalkeeper at Championship Southampton. They're the same pair we had last time, McC is fine as cover in the Championship and signing someone better would just be a waste of money on a player who many well not play a minute of league football.

Fair comment.
Just hope that Long has come on a low wage otherwise it would have made sense to keep Lumley

[trousers]

2 minutes ago, Lighthouse said:

I think many of you are grossly overestimating the calibre of player who is willing to be backup goalkeeper at Championship Southampton. They're the same pair we had last time, McC is fine as cover in the Championship and signing someone better would just be a waste of money on a player who many well not play a minute of league football.

 

I've still yet to read an explanation as to how our Wembley hero and 'the reason we got promoted' is now suddenly so bad he's incapable of playing at the same level.

[Turkish]

5 hours ago, Matthew Le God said:

Not completely wrong, I said 'or' instead of 'and' by mistake. 

[Midfield_General]

46 minutes ago, Lighthouse said:

I think many of you are grossly overestimating the calibre of player who is willing to be backup goalkeeper at Championship Southampton. They're the same pair we had last time, McC is fine as cover in the Championship and signing someone better would just be a waste of money on a player who many well not play a minute of league football.

 

I've still yet to read an explanation as to how our Wembley hero and 'the reason we got promoted' is now suddenly so bad he's incapable of playing at the same level.

I can't believe you need it explaining that he was bang average and unreliable to start with (hence not having been a first choice for years), which a couple of competent games a season and a half ago doesn't change, and at 35 is now 18 months older and highly unlikely to have improved. He was awful whenever he played last season (yes, in a poor side, but he was still personally poor), and poor in pre-season too. 

And the point isn't about who we should sign as a third choice to not get any minutes. It's about having credible competition for the goalkeeping spots and trying to actually improve the squad across the board. This point has all been set out above, I can't be bothered to explain it again. 

Mind you, I seem to remember you a couple of months ago confidently stating that Armstrong, Archer and BBD would all be good for 20 goals each in the Championship, so let's just say that we probably have differing views on the quality of some of our players and leave it there. 

Edited Tuesday at 14:39 by Midfield_General

[Matthew Le God]

Struggling to find what squad number George Long has been given. Anyone able to help? 

Not currently listed on here...

https://www.southamptonfc.com/en/teams/mens-team

[tdmickey3]

9 hours ago, Matthew Le God said:

Struggling to find what squad number George Long has been given. Anyone able to help? 

Not currently listed on here...

https://www.southamptonfc.com/en/teams/mens-team

Doesn't need one because you said he would never play

[Matthew Le God]

23 minutes ago, tdmickey3 said:

Doesn't need one because you said he would never play

I didn't. I said he is unlikely to play, that isn't the same thing as saying never play.

Plus if he is ever on the bench, then he will need a squad number. Will Still said last night that had the cup game not been against Long's parent club he would have been on the bench. So Long may well be om yhe bench for round 3 in mid September and require a squad number.

Edited Wednesday at 07:20 by Matthew Le God

[tdmickey3]

13 minutes ago, Matthew Le God said:

I didn't. I said he is unlikely to play, that isn't the same thing as saying never play.

Plus if he is ever on the bench, then he will need a squad number. Will Still said last night that had the cup game not been against Long's parent club he would have been on the bench. So Long may well be om yhe bench for round 3 in mid September and require a squad number.

Tut Tut

Ok, So there is a good chance he could play then?

[Zorba]

On 25/08/2025 at 17:52, egg said:

Who did people honestly expect us to get as 3rd pick? 

We didn’t need a 3rd pick though, we have that in McCarthy. We needed a decent second pick capable of displacing Baz.

[egg]

5 minutes ago, Zorba said:

We didn’t need a 3rd pick though, we have that in McCarthy. We needed a decent second pick capable of displacing Baz.

You're confusing what we needed with what you wanted. 

We have 2 senior keepers. We had a kid as 3rd pick so needed a grown up. That's what we got. 

Anyways, it seems that people now think McCarthy is ok. 

 

[Zorba]

1 hour ago, egg said:

You're confusing what we needed with what you wanted. 

We have 2 senior keepers. We had a kid as 3rd pick so needed a grown up. That's what we got. 

Anyways, it seems that people now think McCarthy is ok. 

 

I didn’t want that but it would have made more sense to me. 

McCarthy did well against Norwich and I dont dislike him, but they were poor. I wouldn’t want to see him face a decent Championship or Prem side if we were lucky enough to have a decent cup run though. He’s 35 now, and won’t bounce as well as he used to. I just hope Baz doesn’t get injured or that will mean the old man in the league and Norwich No-Arms in the cups.

[skintsaint]

2 hours ago, Zorba said:

We didn’t need a 3rd pick though, we have that in McCarthy.

No chance that one of our highest earners will be a third-pick keeper. Keeper wage liability at the club is already quite high I would imagine, for what we have.

[S-Clarke]

11 minutes ago, skintsaint said:

No chance that one of our highest earners will be a third-pick keeper. Keeper wage liability at the club is already quite high I would imagine, for what we have.

He was third pick in our last Championship season though, he was never on the bench. Didn't play cup games.

Only came in randomly out of the wilderness when Bazunu was injured.

[TheSoundman]

I find it strange they allowed us to fanfare this signing just days before our big game with them.

Usually with these marque transfers they'd be embargoed until afterwards so as to not upset the fans of the club the players leaving...

Confused

[skintsaint]

1 hour ago, S-Clarke said:

He was third pick in our last Championship season though, he was never on the bench. Didn't play cup games.

Only came in randomly out of the wilderness when Bazunu was injured.

Played over twice as many games as Lumley that season according to Wiki (which isn't trusted tbf)

[tdmickey3]

48 minutes ago, TheSoundman said:

I find it strange they allowed us to fanfare this signing just days before our big game with them.

Usually with these marque transfers they'd be embargoed until afterwards so as to not upset the fans of the club the players leaving...

Confused

Mate, it was to good a transfer coup to not shout it from the roof tops....a real statement of intent 😉

[Sheaf Saint]

Some of the early comments on this thread are looking pretty hilarious now, given today's developments 🤣