verlaine1979

You definitely need to be able to spend 30m when the position demands it, but it's not as if teams with better scouting than ours haven't been finding gems in the 10-15m range in the last 2 years. I can't be bothered to do an extensive search, but both Semenyo and Kluivert cost B'mouth in that range in 2023, and Hudson-Odoi went to Forest for about 3m. Our scouting is just fucking awful and has been for years (with the very small exception of when we've been able to convince high-profile youth players like Tino and Lavia to join, which isn't the same at all). (Obviously Hudson-Odoi also a known quantity, but he was just so absurdly cheap I include him for comparison anyway)

Ah I thought his name first came up during the summer 22 window when we ended up with Mara and still no obvious target man.

Lol wasn't Gyokeres rated as not good enough for us by some on here as he only played for Coventry?

On the contrary. He's very obviously shit in the PL and always has been.

Our recruitment really has been utter shit for a decade. It's not as if the likes of Bmouth, Forest and Palace have outspent us. Their scouts just seem to have clocked that you can't really make it in the PL without both strength and pace. Those are table stakes, and anyone who doesn't have them needs exceptional technique to make up for it.

Anyone got a clue why Archer never seems to get much of a look in at the moment? I can't think of a single instance where I'd want Armstrong on the pitch of he was available to come in instead.

Barely had a kick since the 20th minute. Getting absolutely rolled.

Lol, yup, Van Gaal told Gakpo he was already better than us and Leeds, and so it proved - quickly. Didn't he score a hattrick in the game when we were all waiting to see if he'd sign after full time? I've seen the Saints PR machine in action too many times to be taken in by those kinds of rumours. It'll be a long, long time before we're anywhere close to taking PSV or Benfica's best players off their hands.

Those would be the players who ended up at Liverpool and PSG within a window of us declaring our interest? That Gakpo and Ramos?

I'd rather watch talented mercenaries than shit that bleeds red and white.

When fit, he's a better player than either Bednarek (who we should've shit-canned seasons ago) and Wood (who has improved of late, but from a pretty ropey base).

I disagree. I don't see us taking up the positions or showing the kind of movement that would have us looking like a Pep team if we had better players. Better players would certainly make Martin look better, but mostly because better players look for the ball and know how to position themselves to find it. He's not a master tactician undermined by the quality of players available to him. He's an extremely limited poser who has latched on to maintaining possession as his only footballing ideal, but doesn't actually have any clue how to progress the ball up the pitch when we've got it.

There's no way SR bought us as a premier league club, saw us relegated with one of the biggest budgets in the Championship, and thought "you know what, we should stay down here for a couple of seasons to get our bearings". It's fucking moronic.

That's as bad as I've ever seen at this level.

It sounds like you're trying to argue that our strategy has now evolved into "get the ball to Dibling or Fernandes asap" - which bears no resemblance to what we actually do with possession (though being in the middle does mean Fernandes sees more of it than Dibling). US commentators on Friday were even lamenting how rarely Dibling got the ball second half.