gio1saints

If MLT was famously able to cheat the pre season weighing scales by leaning against a wall I don’t see the problem with some of our more vertically challenged players using platform shoes and inserts. If it’s good enough for the POTUS after all. Think the games up for Fraser though. Sadly. Even in platforms he only reaches 5ft. The upside is he never bashes his head on the ceiling of the changing rooms though that’s scant consolation I suppose as he considers his future career options.

Saints new pre season fitness testing :

Holmes you do know he’s not joined as a footballer right? He is obviously way too short to be a footballer ~ in the Spors image. My ITK says he has been recruited primarily as an IT assistant, first line. Apparently he got a GSCE in IT and can work an IPHone. During his interview he helped restart the catering managers laptop which was a big plus. He is also only on probation so Spors has got up to three months to suss out wether he can help the cafe manager ( and others - there’s also the shop to consider) to switch the till off, take the plug out then reput the plug in and switch it back on. My only concern would be if there is any plug socket located at higher than , say 6ft, as he won’t be able to reach it -and that might be the end of his career. Might have to go back to being a footballer. 🫢

Right about Shea -I’d forgotten him! Joe is just about 6ft not a massive 6ft plus and I would not say his aerial ability is his biggest strength-at all - though he is one of the few we have hard to push off the ball that’s true - but the point about Saints future propensity to assess a players worth by height and athleticism before passing skills remains highly likely however - and should make identifying the new players to arrive - and those who will go - quite transparent.

Few likely implications on the horizon: Given Spors desire for a more physically robust game I think it’ likely Adam will not be a part of the new coaching set up next season. He is the antithesis of a robust physical game player. And If we have to give Les back ( as we will unlikely be asking Chelsea for another loan) then we literally will have NO 6ft plus midfielders. I don’t count Tyler as a MF but Will, Joe, Flynn, Mateus etc do not fit. Maybe one can be shorter ( Mateus) but the minimum in a three or four man mf will be two “big “ guys for Spors -at least, I think. Those players who are too ( relatively) small slow and weak but are still probably good enough at Championship level- like Flynn, Will and Joe, will all probably leave for a fee that will fund bigger stronger faster replacements. These are unlikely to be finished articles - so expect to see a bunch of big guys being recruited for size and speed first, skill second. In Defence Ronnie Edward’s is too small to be a Spors CB. I expect him to go. THB will also go but it’s not inconceivable Jan stays on. Unless say, a Bundesliga club fancy giving him a run. Do not think he plays at any other EPL club unless it’s one of the newly promoted This means I expect at least two new bigger centre backs to be recruited. NOT left backs that can play CB! The Full or wing backs is where we may have some internal options used and I think we may see that in these last few games. Players like Larios and Robinson for example given run outs. Manning and Bree do put some mileage in so I think they may still hold the starting spots, initially. Assuming of course KWP is off to join Brighton or similar. Up front I think TP will leave as will Archer and RS will have a chance shortly to show if he can be relied upon in the championship next year. I think Kameldeen will be sold but we may see Sam Edozie back and given a proper run. Can also see the next Liam Delap being bought after we sell Tyler ( if we sell Tyler). What’s for sure is that we will not go into next season without at least one new bigger front man. The days of us playing only midgets, or nobody, at centre forward are over!

It might be said that our “ optimal “ starting eleven ( players playing in mainly preferred roles) was good enough to be beating a team at home that’s in FA cup semifinal and is safely mid table. When we put the subs on our quality dropped. Despite our big squad one of the most obvious conclusions one can draw from this season is that our quality depth is crap. If we could maintain the quality for the full match it would not have been such a foregone conclusion we are relegated. Instead of retaining/recruiting fifteen -twenty championship level players for the squad we should have gone for five -ten EPL quality. Hindsight’s a great thing. But our recruitment has been pretty rubbish let’s not pretend otherwise and a big if not the biggest factor in this failure of a season.

Got a nice price on both Flynn and Captain Hack getting booked…😁

In retrospect, I think the biggest mistake with appointing Juric was that he has no skin in the game. He fails- he fucks off to Croatia or Italian football for 1/4 ££ if what he is on here. No harm done he’s got no domestic or international rep to be too bothered about. IF we had let Rusk continue it was his big chance. IF we had picked a domestic based manager they would understand the situation. Being a non speaker relatively offish and culturally largely in the dark has been to his great disadvantage. It does not look like he has received full hearted buy in from any of the squad.Even the ones like TP and KS now getting games. Players are NOT bought in to Mr Juric and are going through the motions now. Terrible to see as a fan.

You’ve missed the point. Arguably because your aggressive impulse to hit out at me got the better of you. What you call grandeur nobility and higher meaning I call what every Saints supporter actually really wants. IF they had the honesty to admit it. We all want Saints to win more than lose, of course but, and this is my point, ideally, to win playing the game beautifully. I get one man’s meat is another man’s poison and for many his style of play was poison not even close to beauty but that’s not the issue. We had a Manager who tried to win and win well - and it was successful enough in the Championship but a failure in the Premiership. Russ carried on playing the same way with pretty much the same players hoping to replicate it in the EPL. He made some minor adjustments but went down with his ship rather than abandon them. Scorn him as a loser scorn his as obstinate but you cannot scorn his idealistic beliefs. THAT was/is admiral imo.

No, your memory is incomplete. Rewriting history is common practice but just to refresh your mind : Rus did not reinvent anything - he just took some commonly approved ( not so much as of this season) and successful football principles - see Barca, Man City, Spain, - and applied them to there extreme with Saints - with sufficient success in the Championship level - but abject failure in the EPL. Aspiring to reach the highest standard of football possible and destined to do so are not the same. Nobody has said it was destiny. But not daring to dream is not worthy of a Saints Manager, imo. Being pragmatic is not cowardly either I hasten to add - but few have the willpower to know what you can do unless you try and persist until you get the chop like he did? Russ was victory or die trying. He and team - and support let’s not forget - died trying. Should not be a matter of scorn but of pride. Aspiration is a dirty word for some if you lose matches whilst on the journey. For others it is a reason why we support the team. There has to be some hope some thought some reason for the team and why/how it plays. With Russ in the championship he achieved that. Did not work in the EPL. Currently with Ivan I’m struggling to determine anything- good or bad. Also struggling to find positives despite my instinct to be optimistic unless there is a big reset. I think it was obvious now that the Board should have made better decisions in close season - especially with regard to replacing Wilcox. Hopefully lessons learned ahead of our Championship season next time out. 🙏

Totally agree. There IS a case for him playing another season in the Championship with Saints but it is much weaker than the ones you’ve shown which all are upwards career trajectory rather than, technically , backwards a level. Only thing I could think that might make him stay is the reason he came back from Chelsea. ..if that still exists in his head …But it’s so unlikely now he’s that much older experienced etc it’s not worth seriously holding out for that. He should join a club where there are other good players around him, not for him to be the immediate stand out player. Go to Bayern or Dortmund for example and I think he’d do very well.

Tyler Dibling is one of our best players both actually on the pitch now and in future potential. Watch him as much as you can because he’s gonna leave end of season. I remember watching Theo’s last game for us with a foreshadowing awareness that another good un was leaving us. Same with Tino. The two others are Mateus and Aaron. They have all shown they can play high EPL level. Mateus will be a top international al player shortly imo and Aaron is already one of the best English goalies anyway. The rest of the squad and the tactics have simply been not good enough for them.

I don’t watch to watch this Juric no identity no clue football and a no guts team next season. When /if there’s a new Manager and when / if the squad changes and grows some collective balls I will renew my ST- but starting with this guy out at end of season please. I may be stupid sometimes or often but I’m not a masochist.

Like Saints, here’s a Few points: 1. Ivan Juric will not be Manager next season in the Championship. I’m 95% certain of that now. 2. There’s been NO sign of any improvement in any aspect of our game. Not fitter not faster not pressing not attack not defence not possession not passing not heading not tackling not throw ins ( ffs they take 3 minutes each time god why??) not team spirit not more flair. 3. Okay, exception: TP has shown he can score if he’s on the pitch. KS is a fast tricky winger - that still cannot score or assist. 4. It’s fairly certain next manager will be Rohl. Because he’s cheaper selling to a championship club ( like Swansea and RM remember) 5. The rest of the season may determine how we start next season- these no guts displays we are seeing better not be there start of next season. 6. My personal opinion is that’s as much as Ivan has not worked I say that it’s also the players being weak. And we should get rid of MANY of them. Restart the entire squad. Keep a handful sack the rest. Give new manager his choices for the new team and off we go. 7. I’m worried if we keep too many of “ The Walking Dead” next season will be truly horrendous. Rohl- or whoever- needs his own new fresh optimistic positive willing to run through barriers players unfettered by the misery of our EPL failure(s).

Very Cute answer - I do not think anyone would disagree- I know I was shaking my head when I saw the team pre kick off. I was surprised we took Mateus off for TP - who wasn’t? If the tactic was to take off our most creative offensive mf player replace him with a big guy up front I would have thought the instructions would be go long every opportunity? Instead, we did nothing much. Indeed when Flynn came on we actually had a rewind back to Russball for a while- coincidentally our most possession and best period of the game but let’s not dwell on that - so putting on another big guy up front t in injury tine when we’ve not really tried all that much to get the ball to TP first opportunity we have was pretty much doomed - but if the players had just hoofed it forward and gone all out blitz it might have worked. Too many just don’t have the stomach for the fight anymore.

It’s poor. No team spirit evident.

Myinteresting”( to me anyway) bet of the day is to buy total penalty minutes with spreaderx. Currently at 9-12. After the two we conceded other day plus the ones Ive seen at SMS I reckon there may be at least one in this game. I’m on it anyway., And I feel it’s our turn to be awarded one- and score!, at least. ps both teams to score is also favoured by me. pps. Do not gamble it’s unwise. Usually you lose ultimately you WILL lose your money. Only gamble ( if you really insist on being an idiot) what you can afford to lose. If it’s for your entertainment ensure you keep to your budget.

A cursory google might have saved @CSA96 the admittedly minor discomfiture of being unaware of TP penalties’ record. It’s hard NOT to go for self deprecating humour as a Saints fan these days…anyhow I think TP over Cameron, in my eyes anyway, taking the pen on Saturday 🙏

Now that AA is gone who is the designated taker? If there is one that is. I’ve got a feeling we may be due one at home v Wolves. My guess is that if TP is on the pitch it’s him. If not and Archer is on the pitch then him. If both on the pitch I’d have TP take it. Any other realistic contenders? I’d laugh if we let Rambo take it lol. Least you know it would have some welly!

I cannot get annoyed at defeats either . I was miffed though like you that I Lost my nap bet on Will being carded - but more than made up for it by having him down for 2+ fouls. NB First time in my life I ever placed a bet on total minutes penalties ( buying) with Spreadex. Had a feeling that Saints would succumb / concede a pen to those cheating scousers at Anfield and was proven right. Getting two was a surprise bonus. Priced at 19-22 and closed at 143 - so that was something of a touch. Extra NB : Do not gamble on football. It’s ultimately a bad idea and you will lose. If you persist in being an idiot Stop when it’s not fun and absolutely do not stake more than you can afford or can treat as an entertainment expense. Watching Saints no longer qualifies as an entertainment expense so one could say they’ve driven me to gambling in a sense!

Will smallbone to be carded is 4-1. My bet of the day.

And this is one of the most obvious negatives from the current durection of traffic for football. The players the manager the style of play even the colour of our shirt all bring uniqueness to our support. Once it’s reduced to an algorithm which says new squad for the EPL new Manager, new style of play and new shirt required even obligatory each season - there is less and less of a chance of a lasting relationship being developed or even created in the first place between supporters and team. it’s simply just another transaction in a transactional impersonal world. Pretty soon it will be just generic red team versus generic blue team in a virtual stadium but with a worldwide paying audience. Or a stadium filled with the corporate sponsors on freebies more likely.

I would have thought it fairly obvious what the SR play is/was. It looks misguided in retrospect but I’m uncertain many of us would have done different if it was our own money. You get more hits at finding a future £50M + player the £10m a player route. Buying one supposed “ banker” for £30m then potentially selling for £50m + has less upside ~ and arguably equivalent risk as it’s all eggs in one basket. What if that £30m player has a career ending injury? With three players for £10m each at least you got two others who could help recoup your losses. We have an inverse example, possibly, with RS. The policy looks a mistake but it’s forgivable for a club our size. The particular aspect that should be questioned is that it seems hardly any of these “bargain” buys are proving any good under SR ( MF excepted). Which in turn suggests a scouting / talent identification then development problem. That obviously includes the Managers too! Bournemouth, Brighton, Brentford and Forest appear to have much better talent identification and development than us for example -and are (or were ) in our kind of price shopping category. The buy cheap buy twice adage is often true - look at how many FB’s we have….and the opposite when we actually pay market price for a proper keeper in Ramsdale. Incidentally the reason that Ramsdale is a success is because we did not need scouting reports or data analysis to say he is a good player NOW - too much weight has been given to obtaining players who might be a good player IN THE FUTURE. This has clearly exposed and undermined first team competitiveness - and our club league status has been taken for granted essentially. That’s the big Mistake.

Krafts badly handled resignation(s) occurred in just the same way he has overseen the club. Not handled it particularly well. Resigns as Chairman in January then steps down from the Board in February. WTF? Chairmen usually are primus inter pares when it comes to decision making voting so this seasons rubbish decisions OFF the pitch (especially not replacing JW imo) must in large part be laid at his door. Our recruitment strategy pre season being a fundamental error. My impression is that Krafts has done the right thing in leaving - but sadly that's not going to help us this season. Spors seems to have the cred for his role but do we have a new chair lined up yet because surely it cannot be Dragan next season? I'd absolutely prefer a footballing industry professional with mucho league experience rather than the money man.

From what I understand ( and no big surprise either) he is going to have a lot of work to do. Juric only fancies 5 or 6 in the current squad. Would not be surprised to see 15 + out and 10+ incoming during post season. That may or may not include the manager and his sidekicks. I think the latter will largely depend on what Spors thinks if Ivan’s ability in these last few matches and his assessment of wether he has got what it takes to get us out the Championship. It seems ever more apparent that we may need one team, including management, to get us out the championship, and another, probably including management, to make us competitive in the EPL.. Hell of a lot of buying and selling and inducting and integrating -ahead.