CamSaint

Ollie Wright has joined Accrington Stanley on a season-long loan.

It will be interesting to see if Edwards is included in the squad for Spain. Still mentioned in his interview yesterday that he and Fernandes were back and had done a couple of light training sessions. Also possible that Downes & Dibling may not travel if they are injured, which will set the rumour mill going!

Yep, training camp in Spain next week & playing Espanyol behind closed doors next Saturday.

Another RB?!!

One interesting comment (IMHO) from Still's interview was: "We're being hard on them, especially physically, which they're not used to, or weren't used to in the previous years. They've run a lot, we've worked incredibly hard and we're going to keep working incredibly hard." It reinforces what many people thought about fitness levels under RM, especially last season, and suggests that it is a key area that they are working on. Fitness levels at the start of pre-season are usually pretty low in general, but it sounds like there is a fair way to go to get to where Still wants them to be.

Who was the on-field captain in the 2nd half?

True, but Bazunu, Edozie, AA & BBD have also come back from their loans and we've since added Quarshie & Downs.

Also Big Les & Groenback

Fair enough, I didn't realise that. I thought that perhaps Burnley were being ruthless, as probably we should have been last year with AA, as stats-wise (I know, I know) Brownhill wasn't anywhere near as prolific in the PL in 23-24 when they got relegated.

I've seen Josh Brownhill mentioned on here before. Currently without a club having been released by Burnley. 18 goals and 6 assists in 42 Championship matches last season and 7 goals and 8 assists in 41 matches in the 22-23 season. Could he fit the midfielder profile we're supposedly still looking for? Obviously Burnley don't fancy him as a PL player, but bags of Championship experience (and end product). A 2 year contract might work (although in fairness, the last 2 year contract we offered to a player released by Burnley (Taylor) hasn't worked out very well).

I notice that Bryan Mbeumo joined Brentford (then in the Championship) in 2019 from French Ligue 2 side Troyes. He scored 15 goals in 42 league games for Brentford that year and one in the play-offs. I wonder what the reaction would be on here if Saints signed a striker from Ligue 2?

Thanks. As you say, it could be earlier as the Eastleigh friendly is July 12th.

Does anyone know when the players report back for pre-season training? That will be Still's first opportunity to look at the squad at first hand, which will presumably influence some of our transfer dealings. I assume those on international duty will come back later than the others.

My brother (who was a goalkeeper) played in a game featuring Ron, and those were exactly the words that he used!

His contract expires in 2026, so next season is absolutely pivotal for him. If his injury problems continue, he will be available on a free, presumably with not much prospect of getting another club. If he can stay (relatively) injury free and start scoring, he has a decent chance of continuing his career somewhere.