Useful Idiot

It is the area of the pitch we're most bloated with players, 7 (Redmond, JWP, Djenepo, Boufal, Armstrong, Moi, Sims) for two team slots and two spaces on the bench (one of which Ralph would probably prefer to give to a youth prospect). I'd prefer to get rid of Moi and Armstrong but I can't see either of them going this season.

It's the 'hoping I get it right three years in a row' combined with your pretty consistent form of posting a 17th place finish that had me questioning your commitment. If you say you 'hope we'll finish top of the league' then surely that clashes with your other comment. Unless you're predicting we finish first, of course... in which case I admire your optimism and wish I could share your positive outlook. Personally, I also hope we win the league, but I think we'll finish somewhere between 11th-16th and play some fast paced, exciting football while doing so. I hope my prediction is pessimistic and we do better than that. We should score a lot of goals with the players we have now, but I can't see us keeping enough clean sheets to do much better than a lower mid-table finish.

You're hoping that Saints struggle and have a poor season again? Are you sure you're actually a fan?

For me it's Shane Long who massively over-performs, though. I've played the 2018-19 season three times and he's always my top scorer. He's managed 22, 17 and 20 goals. Still a fun game, but I can't ever imagine Long ever scoring that many in a season, let alone reliably being able to do so. Back on topic, I am slightly concerned about Rohl leaving and the increased workload that might lead to (not just in training, but also in the change in feedback Ralph would otherwise get from a trusted advisor). I'll wait to see what happens before I pass comment, though. Maybe he's had a family emergency or something equally horrible. I hope not, though.

Even talking them out of the equation, we are still 2 first team coaches and an assistant manager short. That's still 3 sections of the training team short of perfect training and lots of players unhappy with their training workload. This implies that the loss of an assistant manager would not increase the training workload and that you are happy with the current staffing levels.

You've got that backwards, I was actually attempting to prove the FM is unrealistic by using our example staffing levels in real life to prove the point.

Right, fair enough. Lets get back to the meat of the problem instead. We currently have 3 first team coaches and no assistant manager. In FM2019 you require 7 senior team coaches (including 2 fitness coaches) + manager + an assistant manager + (4 u23 coaches + the u23 assistant manager + an u23 manager) to get the full benefits of training. Disregarding the u23 staff, we are currently 4 senior coaches + an assistant manager short of being able to complete optimal training with the current Saints staff on FM2019, yet you said that the current staff numbers were sufficient. This seems to suggest that either FM2019 training is unrealistic or we are heavily understaffed.

Because on FM you can use the u23 staff as part of the senior training team to help the quality of first team training.

But in Football Manager you need at least 9 first team coaches (13 including youth team staff) to get all the team training down to light workload and keep all your players happy! He definitely needs an assistant manages as that doesn't count towards the coach limit, too... How is a real life football manager supposed to cope with such a small number of staff on the coaching team??? Required Coaches = 9 (13 total including u23 staff) Split of coaches: 2 x Fitness coaches, 2 x Goalkeeping coaches, 1 x Tactics, 1 x Ball Control, 1 x Defending, 1 x Attacking, 1 x Shooting Extra categories: 1 x Assistant Manager specialisation (14th coach, does not count to staff limit) 1 x U21 Manager Specialisation (15th coach, does not count to staff limit) 1 x U21 Assistant Specialisation (16th coach, does not count to staff limit) *not sure on this one* 1 x Manager (you) (17th coach, does not count to staff limit)

Hoedt's unique skill set is certainly nothing like that I've seen from any other defender since we've been back in the Premier League. His ability to concentrate, his reading of the game and his positional sense are all completely unique. Combined with that, his instinct about when to keep it simple and when to try something more adventurous with the ball is on a completely different level to anyone else currently playing the professional game. I've not even touched on into his tackling ability or ability to win areal duels, but watching him perform them both is a roller-coaster of a thrill ride I can not recall experiencing as a saints fan before. Overall, he's a really exciting player guaranteed to get the pulse racing every time he goes near a football.

Sounds like he might turn out to be a bit of a gem.

At least he could have scored a goal or something. Redmond and Ings were far better!

Boufal never contributes anything!

These centre backs are obviously good enough to get us a mid-table finish. Without Romeu our midfield looks great, too.

Apart from the fact that Djenepo plays as an attacking mid as well, not as a striker. Useful to have some quality on that position again, though, rather than relying Redmond and JWP to consistently produce results. I think we really need four good players for those two positions, which we now have. That does mean that Armstrong, Sims and Moi are unlikely to get much game time, though.

Utd and Liverpool were after Ramello Mitchell, who is a goal scoring winger. We paid quite a bit for him from Brum. Rus is apparently a skillful attacking midfielder who moved to the UK from Romania when he was 9, while Olaigbe is a Belgian who was at Anderlecht. Jayden Simth is apparently a quick striker who is good on the ball. A couple of the others came from other academies, Chelsea and West Ham, I think. I think that Mitchell is supposed to be the hottest prospect, though its too early to tell if any of them will make it here.

I think the intensity of the Premier League could have had something to do with him deciding against coming back here. He's had a bad time with injuries over the last couple of years and he probably didn't want to risk spending the majority of his time in a physio room.

Ramirez was pretty good under Adkins as a central attacking midfielder (3 goals and 3 assists in 15 games), he just wasn't physically or mentally capable of adapting to Poch's pressing game or to playing out wide. Redmond was terrible under Pellegrino. He seemed to only be allowed to stay wide and recycle the ball infield for shots taken around the edge of the penalty area. It was as if he was told not to commit forward or risk the ball by taking anyone on. Boufal has great skill with the football and he works hard, but he tries to do too much by himself and has an annoying habit of beating the same player 2-3 times then losing the ball. I'm fine with him staying if Ralph wants him and believes he can improve him in that respect as I do enjoy watching him play, but I wouldn't be that upset if he left if Ralph wants to strengthen the squad in other areas.

There's a bloke in a saints shirt standing behind the guy who caught the ball. I think that's the link.

How many of the players that each brought in would you want in our squad? I'd have taken quite a few of Wolves signings (Jota, Boly, Mouthinho, Jonny Otto, Dendoncker... possibly Toure and Patricio too) but I struggle to think of a Villa player I wish we'd signed. Pretty similar for Fulham, maybe Seri and Schurrle at a pinch? Possibly Mitrovic as well? Think they overspent on average players and Villa's signings don't look any better than theirs on face value.

He's quicker and better on the ball than either of them. Not as dominant in the air or physically commanding, though.

True. To be honest, I only think we'll get a central defender in and leave it at that. If we do I can see us trying to shift Stephens out on loan as I doubt anyone would want to buy him. I'd quite like us to move either Armstrong and/or Elyounossi as well, I don't think either of them add much to the squad on current evidence and we have 6 players competing for only 2 attacking-mid slots (Redmond, JWP, Djenepo, Sims, Ely, Armstrong). Even if JWP ends up playing as a CM more, that is still one player more than we need and stops any youth players from getting into the squad in those positions. Ely at least was attracting attention as a loan option earlier in the window (I think it was to Turkey?).

I think after all the loans are gone, we'll have pretty close to 22 players. The 35 (actually 34 now with Clasie gone) already include Johnson, Ramsey, Slattery, and Obafemi who are all part of the youth system that Ralph wants to blood into the team. So that's 30. It also includes Barnes and Reed who we will definitely be able to shift one way or another. 28. I doubt McQueen will go anywhere, but he's also unlikely to be registered as a player as he'll be out for a while. That leaves 6 others to go from Carrillo, Austin, Boufal, Lemina, Hoedt, Cedric, McCarthy/Forster. I can see us selling 2-3 of them and loaning some of the others out. That will get us to around 22 senior players (including Valery)

He's probably been scuffing too many shots into the goal during shooting practice.

Fry has early indications of being susceptible to severe hamstring injuries, so he would definitely fit our tactic of signing players who are unable to play for large chunks of the season.