Dman

Long gone are the days under Poch and Koeman, where we went into every game thinking we could get something.

More based on what we’ve seen from Che and Armstrong to date. Armstrong looks completely ineffective as a lone striker and Adams is Adams. Broja and Armstrong would be our strongest partnership, but all round, Broja offers more than Armstrong for me. Broja is going to be a serious player.

Why? He’s better than them both.

Sounds like that American chancer in the press a few month back. De Grosa was it? If they thought we’d reach or get anywhere near the level of City, they’re either incredibly rich or incredibly naive. Given FFP rules basically making it impossible for a club like us to be that size now, I’d go for the second. The amount of investment needed would be staggering.

Wouldn’t we all, but currently, that’s impossible for a few reasons; 1. The transfer window is shut, we can only look at players who are currently without a club. Imo, we’re desperate, we can’t wait until next season. 2. Were skint. Good up and coming keepers will cost a decent amount of money, we don’t have that. 3. With an up and coming star in our price bracket, there is risk. We tried that with Gunn, he was highly rated but ended up being rubbish. We cannot afford another Gunn situation. Romero seems an absolute no brainier.

He doesn’t need to be a world beater, just better than the current dross we have, which isn’t hard. He’d improve us, without a doubt.

I believe SKD lost his contact at the club a while back. Very found memories of the Poch years in particular and said the club lost its ‘family feel’ when he left. (I get the impression everyone at the club was a huge fan of him as a person, not just a manager). Also he was a Friend of friends of a couple of players who have now left.

Agree, however The vestergaard replacement should have been the upgrade on Stephens. Sounds like this new fella will need time to bed in. Time is something we don’t really have.

Fine is an understatement. Fantastic start. The trouble is, will We keep this up for 90 minutes? We’ve seen how these usually end up. Oh, also, Djenepo is a terrible footballer.

Playing further forward than JWP it seems. Certainly our weak link atm. very good start, need a goal whilst we’re on top though, not really created much of note for all our dominance

I’m not from Glasgow/Kenya/ a big fan of breaking bad, if that’s what you’re getting it. Southampton (well just slightly north) born, bred and still living. I am a genuine fan (not just on a wind up), probably more so than most on this site in terms of actually travelling to watch games (I keep all my ticket stubs/old season tickets so happy to prove 😉), just maybe more pessimistic than most on here. As for the well ran club comment, it was more in relation to previous years, people have been peddling the well ran, net spend champions, sustainable club as some kind of achievement. Using cases like Pompey if we dare to spend more than we make in player sales. I do agree that the current board are running us as well as they possibly can, but are obviously working with their hands behind their back with Gao’ slack of investment.

And yet people still bang on about how well we are ran as a club. So well ran, we have to downgrade on every position we sell and can’t afford to add quality to a vital area for us (GK).

What qualifications do you need to be one of these FM researchers?

They’re both shit. Both pretty stupid deals for a club as skint as us. However, if I remember rightly, Long, for large parts of the season we offered him a new deal was keeping Adams out the team and developed a decent partnership with Ings. Theo has been rubbish from the moment he re-signed. Which was obvious to be fair, he’s been pretty substandard for years now.

Agreed. A terrible footballer, with a questionable injury record as well. Adds nothing to our squad other than more averageness. I get this, however, it’s such an important position for us it seems a bit of a risk going into the season with 2 substandard goal keepers and a ropey back 4. Id have thought we could have found 5m or so from somewhere to pick up a free agent, like Romero. I’m sure if we subsidised the wage of Fraser or McCarthy, we could find a home for them on loan. Feels like an area were really neglecting and not appreciating the importance of. Just more proof of how poorly we’ve been ran for the past 5 seasons (excluding this and the last where we’re seemingly getting, or at least trying, our act together).

I always thought he’d kick on under Ralph and would suit a role a bit narrower in our 4222. Not blessed with pace, but neither were Lallana and Tadic. Does Moi have the technical ability of those 2? I guess time will Tell. Clearly has something about him, but is he good enough / suited to the premier league is a different question. Personally, I think he deserves a go. He can’t be any less effective than Theo is. No better time to give him a go than off the back of a hat trick, all be it against pretty poor opposition. He’ll be full of confidence. A big weekend ahead for him I think.

Personally, I find it amazing anyone can look at that list and say we have no need for a striker. Especially given behind Armstrong and Adams (both pretty unproven at this level), we have one ‘being eased in’, one being managed out (obafemi), Tella who’s probably our best winger and Long who put simply is no longer effective at this level. Yes we may have numbers, but we certainly don’t have any really quality there. The general feel at the end of last season was that we needed Ings, Adams + another then a youngster. Effectively, what that would look like isArmstrong replacing Long, Borja to replace Obafemi, imo we still need a striker to replace ings. That being said, we also need 2 CB’s and a goal keeper. The trouble is in recent years we’ve stockpiled a lot of very, very average players to the point where we’re lacking quality in depth across the park.

Rubbish. He was a young lad, He made a mistake, was late into a tackle and got sent off. He was properly buzzed up with adrenaline and keen to make an impression. It was a bad one, granted, however many players make foolish mistakes yet go on to have fantastic careers. Look at beckham in 98 as an example. Ralph has his card marked long before the United game, loads were shouting for him to get a chance even before that game.

Every need for a striker when our option off the bench Saturday was Shane Long. Where is this lad from Chelsea? Is he injured? Tella can do a job up top, however I think he’s (along with Armstrong) needed to be our wingers. We won’t be spending 13m on another player though and if we did, I’d rather we prioritised a keeper. On that note, Romero is still available on a free. Seems like a no brainier to me, even if it’s a short term deal.

The thing I really don’t understand is why we’re obsessed with trying to find players under £10-£15m to make a huge profit. You can still sign players in that 20-30m bracket and still make a profit, as Leicester have shown. I get the risk / impact is higher if they flop, but CB/ ST are 2 positions we really can’t get wrong in terms of quality. It feels like we’re trying to be smart and I really think it’ll backfire. If we’re worried about the risk, we obviously don’t trust our scouting team to get a player right, which begs the question of why the hell are we employing them? West Ham have agreed a fee in the region of £30m for Zouma. Proven in the PL, young and seems to have the quality to improve. A good season or 2 he’ll be worth 50m +. I can almost guarantee they make more money on him than we do on Salisu or this new fella. Regardless of fees, the most concerning thing for me, is our lack of ability to see that we have no leaders and old school defenders in our back line (Stephens aside who isn’t good enough unfortunately). We’re so obsessed with having ‘ball playing’ CB’s who look lovely on the ball but are shite off it (which is more often than not at a team like ours).

The vultures are circling. I’d imagine we’ve probably put feelers out around a replacement and no doubt he’d be a name we’d be interested in. Personally, I reckon he’ll be our manager come Christmas time (not saying that’s who I want, just what I think - I know he fell out with a LOT of players in his last year at Bournemouth). On to Ralph, you have to give credit where it’s due. Generally speaking got it all right yesterday, made the right changes at the right time and was willing to move away from his 4222 formation. Whilst a draw was probably fair, We finished the game the stronger and could / should have won. That being said, it’s still another lead thrown away. For me that’s an issue with the mentality at the club rather than the manager though, we’ve been at it way before Ralph arrived. Until we get a commanding CB and captain, we’ll continue to do the same.

Eh? He was 3 yards out, you don’t have to be Alan shearer in the air to put that away. We brought him to score goals, which he should have done yesterday. Disagree with the first being a good read by the keeper. It was straight at him at a comfortable height. He almost rushed the effort and could have taken an extra touch and found the corner. That being said, I’ve no doubt he has the ability to score goals, he showed this last week. Is he consistent enough, at the moment I’m not sure. Agree with what others are saying in that he works his socks off and is brilliant off the ball, hence the Adams comparison. Personally speaking, from what I’ve seen so far, I think without a clinical proven premier league striker, we’ll struggle for goals this season. The ings comparison is a bit of a shit one as he didn’t want to play for us, so we didn’t really have a choice but to sell. We’re certainly weaker at the top end of the pitch now though as a result as generally seems to be a trend across the pitch for those we’ve sold and replaced.

Ralph changed formation / tactics / reacting in game and we don’t get a pasting… who’d have thought it aye.

More evidence today that continuing with these 2 clown in the sticks all Season, will cost us vital points this season. upgrade needed ASAP. Why were not all over Romero is a mystery.

Today has shown the gulf in class between a PL striker and a top end Championship one. Ings scores both of those, very easy, chances. Feel like we’re gonna have another Adams. Getting into the right positions, but not quite got the ability to take them. ***Edit as only have 3 posts and would like to expand on this** Im not saying either Him or Adams played poor or aren’t good players for us, they did and are both useful. Im pointing out the difference between the levels and the impact that could have on us. We simply cannot afford to waste chances like that. RE ings, of course he missed chances and it’s impossible to say for certain, however if he was out there today, there’s a very, very strong chance we walk away with 3 points rather than 1. And no @OttawaSaint, I’m not Glasgow / Kenya / Hesinburg etc. And it’s not a poke for bites.