gio1saints

There is a slight chance we may not lose Aaron entirely. 1. We make him best paid player in the Championship. And keep him at high EPL level salary or simply a one year bonus. Remove any financial reason for him to leave basically. Offer him a £5m bonus if we get promoted and EPL wages. Fuck differentials with rest of squad he’s a top gk. 2. OR a bit more longwinded - He might be offered an extended contract - then allowed to be loaned to Chelsea ( or similar European football playing team) for example in order to satisfy his top level playing and International aspirations for next season. This would mean his family could stay in the South and were we to get promoted at first opportunity he’d be able to come back to us and a part of the world him and family feel most comfortable with. Or sold to Chelsea for massive fee. Don’t see either myself and it’d be clutching at straws but good goalies like him are rare so I’d do pretty much anything to somehow keep him on board. Financially I think point 1. Is arguable. We can spend £12m including wages on a new gk who may or may not be any good - or basically pay what it takes to keep a gk we know will be best in the league from Day One. No brainer for SR imo. IF they can think in that pragmatic way.

If Gavin is not fit for pre season (IF) then I agree with the idea of recruiting a new first choice keeper for next season. IF he is fit then actual pre season should determine if he stays or if he goes. He is young still for a keeper don’t forget. With all due respect to AM -and GB frankly - especially a big “Thank You “ for the play off performances AM and to Gav for his crucial part in the unbeaten run and the fundamental “Russball” approach that got us up - but they have both trousered a lot of money whilst at SFC for not actually doing much goalkeeping last few years. That criticism includes JL who, good bloke that he is, if he cannot displace AM week in week out in training, cannot be good enough either. Im fluid about all of it except the first basic requirement- if /when Aaron goes we need a top quality first team starting new goalie. Not a kid not a reserve not a potential. A straight into the team starter.

He is injured.

yeah I see your (as per usual cynical) pov - maybe RM is airbrushing his history a bit about those recruits that did not happen. Maybe he did go on record at the time saying he loves those he's recruited. The latter if true ( probably 99% certain) is Manager talk 1.01 anyways. Thing is people knew at the time pre and early season he was not getting who he wanted - so I discount its retrospective PR work to make him look good for his next job ( though it does no harm). HE 100% wanted Delap -Who visited training ground and was happy with RM. And if we had Delap all that faffing around pre season with stupid formations without a proper CF - and getting beat every week - would probably not have happened. Maybe history would change. maybe not. So- the transfer fiasco was not his fault basically. He did not solve the stay competitive in the EPL puzzle with what players he had - that's his fault.

My understanding is that Russell really wanted : Liam Delap - Liam was happy but our ceo fucked it up, he wanted o’reilly but our ceo fucked it up, he even wanted Jordan Henderson and was refused. He got what he was allowed to get and they were not his first choice(s). Even the Flynn deal was nearly fucked up. To say the the bad recruitment was on Russell Martin is inaccurate. Guilty in other ways but in that : innocent.

Looks like we will need a new gk for next season or back to AM and JL….. Hoping Gavs injury is not a career threatening one if it’s an ACL …

I hope we get that draw-or better - but think that is pretty much the best we can hope for. West Ham under Potter will be DESPERATE for a big win and we could be the team to give it them. Our management clearly are not just chucking the kids on and going full on attack so it looks like keep it tight game ( yeah like we’ve not been able to do all season bar a match or a half or two..) has to be the limit of our optimism - to be all square going into the last third or so and hope to snatch a winner. Big up to all Saints fans going, keep the volume and humour up! 😁😇

with thanks to Siri and ChatGPT: The ten tallest players in the EFL Championship for the 2024–25 season are: James Beadle (Sheffield Wednesday) at 201 cm, Jake Cooper (Millwall FC) at 199 cm, Conor Hazard (Plymouth Argyle) at 198 cm, Lukas Jensen (Millwall FC) at 198 cm, Illan Meslier (Leeds United) at 198 cm, Harry Souttar (Sheffield United) at 198 cm, Josh Griffiths (West Bromwich Albion) at 197 cm, James Trafford (Burnley FC) at 197 cm, Jacob Zetterström (Derby County) at 197 cm, and Tom Glover (Middlesbrough FC) at 196 cm. At least one of these to get our average height up a bit.

He came out earlier did two great saves and has gone to neck a few beers before kick off whilst the rest do that running stuff

Love seeing Lallana shouting and being a super coach with his whistle in one habd ball under his arm in the other. He is personally training THB in the warm up. I think th.mb should have a word about that hair and thing though. Can’t be good for him. 😁 pS some super reaction saves from our Aaron in warm up. I reckon he’s good for maybe 6-8 saves today at least. pps : gotta laugh in a nice way at lallana. He doesn’t know wether to stretch and kick a ball or a sprint himself, clap the players or whistle/shout at them. He kind of does all of them at same time lol

Of course. Genius! Seeing the obvious before everyone else. IF Lallana can be an assistant I’m sure Crouchie could be Manager, easy, he’s got at least 6-10 inches height advantage. I mean, it’s a no-brainer for Spors. Crouchies agent needs to get going before TP’s money man senses the way the wind is blowing and puts TP up as player manager next season! Things are really on the up in the new Manager front I must say!

Villa are taking this pre match preparation super professionally😎. They will attempt to dismantle us in the first half to kill off the game ( and crowd) and then they will attempt to just hold us at bay to prepare for the PSG match. The longer we can keep it at 0-0 or tight- the better. They will not want to wear out there best players so there’s a sliver of a chance last fifteen if it’s still close. We can pressurise them. Sadly I think they will be well ahead by then but here’s hoping ! Think our starting line up will reflect the above likely way the game plays out so a solid starting 11 team and then if we are still in it to try to win. With attacking subs.

188cm. ✅ but only just and I’d recommend he wear lifts to bring him up to speed. Also don’t get caught shoeless as that would be damning evidence of his just-about qualifying vertical qualifications to be in top football. We’d be ridiculed in the media endlessly I’m sure. My dark horse is Arsene Wenger but I guess he is too experienced too tall and probably does not want to manage a team of players all shorter than him - though he might be motivated at the prospect of managing the first team ever to have the minimum height to be in squad as 191cm ( six foot three or so) if Spors can convince him. And if we fail in the Championship there’s always a chance we could do well in the Turkish Basketball Premier League next season anyway due to the exciting multi club ownership model SR have at present. Yes it’s all looking up!

I happen to understand, from my ITK friend, that Spors has a “ tell”. He tends to sing under his breath and if you are around him for long enough you can actually make out the words as he does it in a very identifiable English-foreign accent : 🎶“IF he is not six-foot-three he is not the man for ME”🎶

You’ve made a strong case for Rohl but I dont think Spors will be fooled by the bouffant hair. I think that even +10cm he comes in at around 183cm - which is still probably a tad too short and Spors will kick him out pretty damn quick for wasting his time.