Divin Mubama

[saintant]

On 03/09/2026 at 09:17, saintant said:

Mubama has played around 80 minutes league football and scored one goal. That's a decent record considering he's only getting 20 minutes per game. As others have said we need to adapt how we play when he is on the pitch. He's more of an Ollie Watkins (not suggesting he's on the same level) than a battering ram so requires the ball played on the deck into the channels and down the flanks to get the best out of him. Plus he needs more game time as 20 minutes doesn't give him enough time to hone his game or for his team mates to learn to play with him. 

Again we bring him on and fail to adapt our game to suit his strengths.

[gallaghert366@yahoo.com]

5 minutes ago, saintant said:

Again we bring him on and fail to adapt our game to suit his strengths.

He's a donkey - full stop.

[Stu Man Do]

12 minutes ago, James said:

I’ve thought all summer we’d regret not pushing the boat out for Lankshear. 

Scored again today. Would have been in a far better situation had we managed to get him in as well. 

[trousers]

On 01/09/2026 at 22:01, trousers said:

Yes, I know it's early days, and I'm not about to write him off, but I'm yet to see any signs of what he has to offer... I certainly don't see him as a Larin understudy, which makes the choice of Mubama as our second main striker a tad head-scratchy... 

Still scratching my head...

[Osvaldorama]

Agree with the above….

 

With our calibre of wingers and attacking players, we don’t even need a good finisher as Larins back up at this level. We need someone that is good with. Is back to goal and can bring them into play. This lad doesn’t seem to be able to do that at all. 

[JohnnyShearer2.0]

Did well today I thought. Made the right decision in regards to passing to Azaz and was strong to win the ball initially.

Hopefully will get better. Whereas at Lincoln he was useless.

[CSA96]

Agree, looked decent today. Bullied that defender out of the picture, nabbed the ball and then used his athleticism to carry us up the pitch and put it on a platter for Azaz. That's what we want to see more of in his cameos 

[RedArmy]

Needs more minutes. Larin’s legs had gone after his second today and he’s got a busy international break. 
 

[ant]

The lad's had 118 minutes of league football across 7 sub appearances, delivering a goal and an assist. 

It's a fair return - and while he may have looked lost at times, it's on the recruitment team's heads if we wanted a 1:1 Larin replacement. 

There's early evidence to suggest he has something to offer. Depends whether we choose to play his strengths or not.

[Football Special]

15 hours ago, RedArmy said:

Needs more minutes. Larin’s legs had gone after his second today and he’s got a busy international break. 
 

Agree, Larin had nothing left in the tank and even gestured to the bench to suggest his game was done, worried when he went off....no need we went and scored two more.

Mubama did exactly what we'd want from him when coming on

Lack of minutes for big money signing Dobbin is a shame , needed a first team ready player for that fee 

Edited September 13 by Football Special

[SouthWalesSaints]

Even for the Under 21s he looks horrible. Shite hold up play, poor against the ball and missed a sitter. Looks a horrid signing at this stage. 

[sfc4prem]

6 minutes ago, SouthWalesSaints said:

Even for the Under 21s he looks horrible. Shite hold up play, poor against the ball and missed a sitter. Looks a horrid signing at this stage. 

SR strike gold again!

[SouthWalesSaints]

Just now, sfc4prem said:

SR strike gold again!

Spors signing. Many he has got correct. Just a shame we had Stewart and Larin. Great times. 

[disconnect]

1 hour ago, SouthWalesSaints said:

Spors signing. Many he has got correct. Just a shame we had Stewart and Larin. Great times. 

Although Stewart not being with us this season isn't a big problem so far, as he's barely been fit, playing a massive 9 minutes for Swansea. Going off that, I'd say I'd rather have Mubama who can actually be available to play (and has scored and made an assist). Of course, if fit you'd probably choose Stewart, but Mubama at least has some time on his side and is likely to get better, whilst Stewart always will have this massive question mark over his fitness. 

[trousers]

1 hour ago, SouthWalesSaints said:

Even for the Under 21s he looks horrible. Shite hold up play, poor against the ball and missed a sitter. Looks a horrid signing at this stage. 

How come he played the full 90 minutes if he was that woeful? Not doubting your observations (I didn't watch the game myself) but seems odd that a player who played that badly would stay on for the whole match?

[trousers]

6 minutes ago, disconnect said:

Although Stewart not being with us this season isn't a big problem so far, as he's barely been fit, playing a massive 9 minutes for Swansea.

Playing devil's advocate to a certain degree, but I wonder if that's partly down to Swansea not knowing Stewart's limitations as intimately as our medical / physio team got to know them over 3 years, and therefore aren't as adept at fine tuning and managing his injuries through a season like we were able to do in his last season with us...?

Edited 15 hours ago by trousers

[Sheaf Saint]

Well he's going to get plenty of game time for us if the injury Larin picked up in training with Canada is even remotely serious. So maybe a full 90 mins for England U21s will do him some good and help him gain some match sharpness.

[Lighthouse]

1 hour ago, sfc4prem said:

SR strike gold again!

He's a 21 year old, 6'0" Man City youth prospect with 26 Championship appearances last season. He's clearly talented and not a bad signing as an option to Cyle Larin, it just doesn't seem to be happening for him yet. I think people need to accept that we're not really going to get a better player to sit on the bench in the Championship.

[SambaMaverick]

He's only played 120 mins of football in the league ffs, have a word

[Saint Fan CaM]

46 minutes ago, Sheaf Saint said:

Well he's going to get plenty of game time for us if the injury Larin picked up in training with Canada is even remotely serious. So maybe a full 90 mins for England U21s will do him some good and help him gain some match sharpness.

This is a good point, but only if he’s receptive to any coaching given. Usually substantive game time would provide an opportunity to see where he’s struggling to make an impact and allow the coaches to help him. Let’s hope the opportunity is not wasted because there’s every chance he starts on Sunday.

[SouthWalesSaints]

1 hour ago, trousers said:

How come he played the full 90 minutes if he was that woeful? Not doubting your observations (I didn't watch the game myself) but seems odd that a player who played that badly would stay on for the whole match?

Because we were losing 3-1 so he opted to play two up. When he looked slightly better.  Missed a sitter, poor back to goal and looked weak and slow. 

 

1 hour ago, SambaMaverick said:

He's only played 120 mins of football in the league ffs, have a word

And the reason he’s only played 120 is because he’s been woeful. His mins have got less because of performances. Lincoln particularly. 

 

1 hour ago, Lighthouse said:

He's a 21 year old, 6'0" Man City youth prospect with 26 Championship appearances last season. He's clearly talented and not a bad signing as an option to Cyle Larin, it just doesn't seem to be happening for him yet. I think people need to accept that we're not really going to get a better player to sit on the bench in the Championship.

Loads of better options.  I’ll name a few who we’ve played against recently. 
 

Jebbison - Bournemouth/Preston 

Moore/Smith - Wrexham 

Vazquez - Birmingham 

B City - Ballard 

Idah - Swansea 

All of these have been sub strikers for their current teams and are far better than we have. Even if some have different profiles. 

Edited 13 hours ago by SouthWalesSaints

[HKsaint]

4 hours ago, trousers said:

Playing devil's advocate to a certain degree, but I wonder if that's partly down to Swansea not knowing Stewart's limitations as intimately as our medical / physio team got to know them over 3 years, and therefore aren't as adept at fine tuning and managing his injuries through a season like we were able to do in his last season with us...?

May be they need another 3 years to fine tune

[Saint_clark]

2 hours ago, SouthWalesSaints said:

 

And the reason he’s only played 120 is because he’s been woeful. His mins have got less because of performances. Lincoln particularly. 

 

 

No, it's because the striker ahead of him happens to be championship top scorer so far.

[Football Special]

12 hours ago, SouthWalesSaints said:

Even for the Under 21s he looks horrible. Shite hold up play, poor against the ball and missed a sitter. Looks a horrid signing at this stage. 

Interesting observation, when we signed him I asked a West Ham mate about him. Said he'd scored loads and looked good at youth levels where he looked physically dominant but questioned whether he'd make the step up in men's football. Obviously ran his contract down at West Ham and went off to Man City who have then loaned him out , I'm sure he's hoping for a run of games like he had at Stoke before injury. 

Definitely a downgrade on feb-May 2026 Ross Stewart but hopefully Divin will come good, we're going to need him to as seems unlikely Larin will play every game 

[hypochondriac]

13 hours ago, sfc4prem said:

SR strike gold again!

Still find it bizarre that we went for him when there were a lot of other credible alternatives.

[trousers]

3 minutes ago, hypochondriac said:

Still find it bizarre that we went for him when there were a lot of other credible alternatives.

Given a choice between a 'safer bet' and a 'calculated gamble', Sport Republic are always going to be tempted by the latter... It's in their DNA...

[Lighthouse]

1 minute ago, trousers said:

Given a choice between a 'safer bet' and a 'calculated gamble', Sport Republic are always going to be tempted by the latter... It's in their DNA...

If Peretz, JWP, Larin and the guy with 100 Bundesliga appearances weren't 'safe' signings, I'm not sure who you were expecting.

[hypochondriac]

3 minutes ago, trousers said:

Given a choice between a 'safer bet' and a 'calculated gamble', Sport Republic are always going to be tempted by the latter... It's in their DNA...

I suppose you could argue that with Larin it's the position we could afford to gamble with over others. Maybe he will be red hot later in the year and prove the club right?

[hypochondriac]

5 minutes ago, Lighthouse said:

If Peretz, JWP, Larin and the guy with 100 Bundesliga appearances weren't 'safe' signings, I'm not sure who you were expecting.

I don't think Larin was a safe signing in the slightest. He had looked thoroughly underwhelming for a lot of his career. Saints did very well to unearth him.

[Lighthouse]

2 minutes ago, hypochondriac said:

I don't think Larin was a safe signing in the slightest. He had looked thoroughly underwhelming for a lot of his career. Saints did very well to unearth him.

I was referring to this summer when we signed him permanently.

[egg]

6 minutes ago, hypochondriac said:

I don't think Larin was a safe signing in the slightest. He had looked thoroughly underwhelming for a lot of his career. Saints did very well to unearth him.

He was signed as back up, and was a safe bet for that role. If he'd initially signed as the main man, I'd agree.

[SouthWalesSaints]

9 hours ago, Saint_clark said:

No, it's because the striker ahead of him happens to be championship top scorer so far.

Larin was flagging against Wrexham at 60 mins and because Divin wasn't trusted he came on with 8 mins left ... cost us 2 points.   His mins would be double if he was up to it.  Hope he improves, gut says he wont. 

 

1 hour ago, egg said:

He was signed as back up, and was a safe bet for that role. If he'd initially signed as the main man, I'd agree.

Third choice striker, he's a safe bet.  Back up not.  Similar to Edozie, Long, Dobbin...