Dusic

Not really?????????

Tell that to the 3 Saints Managers who have ignored him and all the other PL sides who let us sign him with limited competition. Just because Long is utterly **** and Gabbi not suited to a no9 role, it doesn't suddenly make Austin the answer.

He will score in the Championship because, should we make him available, no PL sides would want him. Telling that.

http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/sport/saints/news/15652128.Soul_searching_for_Saints_academy/?ref=rss

All considered, Austin has been a signing that hasn't worked out. Not been a consistent first choice under three Managers and unavailable for quite a long time. If on the alleged sort of money touted then definitely wise to move on. His best days are behind him I think and jury still out as to his ability as a PL player in anyrhing more than a poor QPR side. Not worth 80k a week.

Just relaying what the Gaffer said Simo. I would also add a personal belief that when used as a sub this season Austin has usually looked very much off the pace at PL level.

Pellegrino has said Austin is useful when the game is "chaotic" but I don'!t think he sees him as a viable starting option due to his poor movement. Lets be honest, away at Anfield with probably 30% of the ball he would just be a passenger.

Slightly suprising to see Adams sign a new contract for next season. Good to keep Edwards though. Very good bowler when fit.

Gardos situation is bizarre. He will obviously be released at the end of the season and it will be interesting to see if he signs for anyone or just gives it up - he looked awful in the pre season games and hasnt really played for the entire four years of his contract. Bednarek also wasting his time at the moment. Playing U23 games won't help his development. If we don't find him a loan move in January then we will have not done right by him. To have 6 'senior' CBs on the books and only 3 strikers and 3 attacking midfielders is quite odd.

Crook is a joke. A good Scouting twitter acct said we were watching a Monaco game last week so thats his source. He is an absolute shyster and its not worth reading any article with his name on it.

I think L1 is his level, possibly Championship. Good finisher and will always get goals but lacks either pace, strength or superior technique. Most good PL strikers have one or more of those attributes. Not too unlike Billy Sharp.

I've spotted a flaw, Dave.

He is the least of our problems and by a mile our best player.

Some absolute muck on this thread. Do people actually follow football? Adkins? Bilic? Emery? All equally bizarre suggestions in their own right.

Summer transfer window of 2016 has got a lot of mentions. Anyone got our full set of ins and outs of that window to hand? I wonder what percentage of the ins get in our first XI now?

Anyone expecting Reed to fire him anytime before Christmas will be disappointed!

It seems pretty clear this will be our worst PL season since we got promoted, and certainly a major drop in league position versus the last four seasons. Given the complete **** up we have made of such a kind start, many will feel that just avoiding relegation would be a decent outcome from her as we will almost certainly be in the shake up at Christmas. So, when do people think the decline began? A few possibles as follows: 1. Koeman being easily tempted away after we finished 6th. No question that he would have done a better job than Puel or Pellegrino despite the PR mudslinging in the aftermath of his departure. His departure signalled that our ambition wasn't especially strong although he had a few poor runs of form along the way. 2. Poor managerial appointments from Les Reed. For a team that had just finished 6th in the PL we simply didnt need to take such a risk as Puel represented. Does Reed place too many restrictions on Managers, meaning better ones aren't interested? He admitted his mistake by firing Puel after one season but now looks to have made an even worse call. 3. Failure to replace the goals of Mane and Pelle. Its clear our issue is in the final third and we simply didnt replace the output of these players. Both Puel and Pellegrino have a squad with few recognised goalscorers and it really hampers them. To say Austin was Pelle's replacement was odd as we already had him and neither Redmond nor Boufal look near scoring 10 PL goals, let alone matching Mane's record. That we were so poor in front of goal last season and didnt sign a sigle attacker in the window is borderline insanity. 4. Losing Paul Mitchell and bringing in Ross Wilson. Wee Ross definitely has a lower success rate but how much does he actually decide? 5. Selling the soul of the team. This season is terrible for fans getting on the back of players who already lack confidence and it definitely doesn't help. There seems no real connection between the fans and the players because so many are open about Saints just being a stepping stone club and we now have only Davis & JWP of the Pochettino era which I think had a strong bond with the fans. 6. The ludicrously awful My Way song. We have got worse with each airing of it. In truth it is probably a combination of all the above, maybe minus the song, but the biggest factor for me would be the awful replacements for Mane and Pelle's goals. Puel would have had a much fairer chance to suceed if this had been done properly and would likely still be in charge. He was majorly hamstrung with the squad he inherited and Pellegrino has been given the same pool of attackers that didn't produce for Puel. The rest of our team functions pretty well but we are so clueless in the final third and that also puts pressure on the defence as unless we keep a clean sheet we never win. I think Reed started believing the club PR a bit too much and tried to be too clever and it could backfire spectacularly for him.

Reed won't fire him. It will totally shatter the illusions he has spent yesrs building, that everything is expertly planned and controlled. We are in a relegation battle though, with a flaky squad and a Manager nobody trusts. Will be interesting.

All the hallmarks of a relegation season. Poor home atmosphere Players getting stick from fans Goalkeeper woefully short of confidence Can't score Concede late goals Teams expected to struggle haven't Lots of ****y PR videos going about

What do you think? Given who we have played and who we have to play before the end of 2017 I think probably 19th above Palace, possibly 18th above Swansea. Highly likely to be bottom 5 at Christmas now and probably in a relegation battle after 4 top 10 finishes. Wins: Palace (a), West Ham (h), West Brom (a) Draws: Newcastle (h), Brighton (a), Hudds (a), Swansea (h) Defeats: Watford (h), Man Utd (h), Stoke (a), Burnley (h) ****ing absymal start against those teams. Only Utd are a team with better players than us.

We have failed to beat Swansea, Watford, Stoke, Huddersfield, Newcastle and Brighton so far this season. Combined with the upcoming games then its a must win game today for me. Draw or lose today and lose against the majority of the top 6 as most teams do and by Christmas we will likely be bottom 6 and that means a relegation fight whether people want to believe that or not. Today is huge.

He won't play two up front until Lemina is back and it makes little difference anyway. Two up front isnt the answer to us being more of a goal threat.

Its more than a fair question I would say and surely something the club have noted and are probably concerned by, in addition to that fact no young players who have not yet played in the first team are anywhere remotely near doing so. Not that I would expect the Duncan Castles of Saints FC to acknowledge that of course.

Definitely easier to stay in. My mate got verbally abused by a group of builders in Selco a couple of days ago because of that weird Halloween video about the Black Box!

Considering how many players also get recruited in between age 12-20, rather than being with us since age 6 then yes, its suprising. Alao the likes of Slattery who was U16 captain and then now can't make the squad. Poor coaching?