chiknsmack

24:45

Fits the SR plan of Bijlow and Sellhij. He looks like a good keeper for our system and in general, and I personally love an aggressive/decisive keeper which he seems to be.

Fernandes isn't a DM. He was an AM for Sporting's age group teams, he's now a CM. He's much more Alcaraz than Downes, and is taking his spot (YHGTI, hopefully displacing Aribo/Smallbone before selling for two or three times what we paid for him in a couple of years) rather than being Downes' backup's backup.

My first time watching Valenciennes and early on one player stood out. Of course it was the only one I'd heard of, Kayi Sanda. He handled his individual duties with some obvious class and was telling people what to do like he was running the show, which is impressive for a 17yo. Poha also stood out (not just for the obvious reason; he defended really well too) and the keeper did well when called upon. I thought Buades and Venema also played well, and if someone teaches Oyewusi how the offside law works he could be alright too. The left side is a bit of a concern; the defending was average and the better attacking plays - bar the goal - came down the right. They could've done a better job of seeing out the game too, with more focus on ball retention and maybe going to the corner flag in injury time. But you can never be too upset with a win and a clean sheet.

September 13th, vs August 30th for England. Two games before the English window closes, one more (the day after that) before the Turkish window closes. So if we bring in a deadline day loan striker who isn't ready to play vs Brentford the next day, there's the option to play Onuachu and then still sell him to Turkey.

I've gone looking for stuff other than shirts (the "wine" coloured travel gear from two seasons ago, the yellow third training shirt with the trees from last year) and couldn't find it. It's hard to justify £25 or £30 for shipping on one or two items (even if two or three days to get to my doorstep on the other side of the world is crazy if you think about it). And it's hard to justify paying full price for any of it, even if the stuff other than the kits (the "cast iron" training gear, that shirt, the "alpine snow" third goalkeeper's kit) is all of interest to me.

Here's some more. Dreams are free. BBD in the PL last year scored 6 in 14, the equivalent of 16 in 38. Stewart in the Championship scored 5 in 7 (with three assists) before doing a hammy, then came back to score 5 in 6 before doing an achilles. 10 in 13, or the equivalent of 35 in a season. BBD scored 14 that season - 40% of the total Stewart was on pace for - so if he's good enough to then be the equivalent of a 16 goal winger in the PL the next season then Stewart is a 40 goal striker in the PL. "We have a 40 goal striker waiting in the wings" is more fun than "We have a National League keeper keeping the gloves warm for a Sunday league keeper and haven't had a decent striker since 1982". And just as true.

BBD scored 6 in 14 for Sheffield Utd last year - a club in a similar situation to what people are expecting for Saints this season - which over a full season is ~16 goals. Is he better playing off the left of a front three than playing centrally? Yes. Would he still score plenty of goals up front with Arma in a 3-5-2, with RWB Sugawara's great crosses from the right and either an attacking LWB doing the same on the left or, more likely, a defensive LWB sitting in beside Downes and two midfielders pushing up (probably Smallbone centrally and Aribo/Dibling/Alcaraz/whoever drifting to the left) to aid the attack on the left? Also yes. If Ross Stewart ever comes right - having looked far too good for League 1 and even too good for the Championship in limited appearances - he could well score 10-15 goals himself in the middle of a front three.

Re-signing him was a wise move, but we don't know if he's capable of being good enough to fill in for 6-12 months? Those things can't both be true. The wise move would've been letting him go and bringing in someone who is definitely good enough to fill in, especially as the club are apparently sticking with Bazunu once he's fit so we don't need to find the money to buy anyone but instead just get a loan in. And ESPECIALLY since, as you rightly say, without a top class keeper the whole enterprise is doomed from Day 1.

It's not that McC is any better than Baz. It's that the whole gameplan and formation changed with us being less able to play out from the back due to McC's shortcomings, and the changes that were made are the reason we were promoted. "We only got promoted because of Bazunu's injury" doesn't mean "Bazunu got injured and a better keeper came in". It means "Bazunu got injured and a worse keeper (wrt playing out from the back) came in, so the gameplan changed to involve the keeper less and play three CBs".

If we're dreaming that big then let's get Lunin. He was fantastic for Real Madrid last season in the absence of Courtois, but he won't be unseating Courtois as number 1. He's in the last year of his contract. Perhaps, if we can't find the money to buy him, Real could sign him to a new deal and then loan him to us to put him in the shop window in England and prove he can do it in the PL.

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He might not still have that speed, but he's had a growth spurt since you've last seen him.

Underrated player.

He scored six league goals for us three seasons back, in nearly 2000 minutes. He looked like a good prospect at that time. He tore his ACL two seasons ago, and even before that he'd scored just one goal in 466 minutes that year. Last season he scored two goals in 776 minutes, one of them against PNE. Chelsea shipped him off on loan to Fulham, where he didn't even play 100 minutes. He is on six figures a week for the next four years. I can see CF being a position where we buy an unproven cheapie and then look for a loan late in the window; you pay through the nose for proven PL strikers unless there's something wrong with them, and if there's something wrong with them you're better off renting and not buying. In that case Broja would be a reasonable gamble (with no loan fee and Chelsea covering half the wages) but even then we could probably find better bets.

What's wrong with the colours? It's red and white stripes, just very close together.

He can say he's obviously not in politics for the money, instead he's generously donating his time and energy to Make Yarmouth Great Again. Plus, by directly having a positive impact on local causes through his noble generosity, perhaps he can convince a few more voters that he's not any worse than most labour or conservatives MPs and thus be re-elected in a landslide next time around.

Both would be good. Having at least one of them on the park for every single minute of the season is important; for years we've struggled when our one good DM has been out injured. "Having two good DMs" has been just as obvious a need as "Signing a new striker", but for whatever reason hasn't been done. Sulemana has a bit of pace. Rui Patricio is available on a free, having just left Roma after losing the starting job midway through last season.

Mara to Valenciennes for £950m, Sanda to Saints for £950m. Sign them both to 1000-year contracts (the first few years being paid like a normal contract, the remaining 995+ years being paid £1 a week, with a player option to opt out once the wages drop to £1 a week) so the transfer fees are amortised over the course of a millennium (£950k a year; peanuts really). Saints can then afford to spend more than £1b over the next three years without FFP/PSR danger. Use that £1b of wiggle room to buy our way into the Champions League spots.

Two seasons ago he scored a goal every 200 minutes in the PL. Last season he was one goal shy of doing the same again. Che Adams has never done it in four seasons. No-one in the squad has ever come close. 10 goals in 2000 minutes for £10m. When our current lineup of strikers is Stewart, Mara, and Onuachu. I can see the appeal.

Burnley had 64% possession in the Championship and won the league, then had 47.4% posession in the Prem and got relegated. Saints had 65.5% possession in the Championship and finished 4th, and will be able to do the same in the Prem? (Man City had 65.2% possession last season, for context.) Or maybe we won't play Russball and having some (counter)attacking-minded ball-carriers rather than tippy-tappy passers will prove useful. We needed different tools for the Championship (where we were a big fish in a small pond) than we'll need in the Prem (guppy in the sea). It's not as simple as "He didn't tear up the Championship for us so he can't handle the Prem".

Will we be able to play Russball in the Prem? (Burnley couldn't, and their manager is so much better than Martin that he's now off to Bayern.) If we can't, will Martin be pragmatic enough to change the gameplan to a counterattacking one with less possession than the opposition? (He showed some pragmatism and willingness to change late on this season.) If he will, can we do much better than an attacking quartet of Alcaraz, Sulemana, Arma, and (insert striker here)? Those first two did nothing in the Championship because they're better at dribbling against disorganised defences than passing against organised ones. If the plan is to stick with Russball we can cut bait on them, but if it's not then they have their place. I believe that in the right setup (which isn't Russball) they both have the capacity to be very, VERY good players. They arguably have the highest upside of any players in the squad.

https://cdn.footballkitarchive.com/2024/02/22/1pQ4upc1Plm1ZqN.jpg https://cdn.footballkitarchive.com/2023/07/29/6ehvVnNuTsm5nik.jpg (Can't get them to post as images; is that a subs-only thing?)

The thing is if you're inflexible like Kompany you get the boot from Burnley and your fall from grace takes you all the way down to... Bayern Munich. Doesn't seem so much like guff in that case.

Oof. They did him dirty there.