Teamsaint1

That was my last visit there to see Saints, though I did see City 4 Wrexham 4 in the cup a few years later, which was fun. The cup really mattered in those days. Anyway, perhaps Jay R will turn out to be the new Channon

I’m as impatient as anybody to see an upturn in our fortunes. Not seen a win since Wembley, and thought we were very patchy today. Maybe the defence is gradually improving, which with such a mediocre bunch of strikers it really needs to. And hopefully the manager is working out which players he can get the most out of. But Still is following three or four years of mostly shambles and constant change. We do really need some stability, cohesion, team building. Promotion this season isn’t the be all and end all, but building for the future is absolutely vital. I’m not overly impressed with Still at the moment, but if it is going to work, he needs time and the support of fans whose patience is already worn very thin.

Going via Basingstoke/Reading isn't too bad ?

One of the lessons of the utter ( and unnecessary) shambles of last season was that , terrible though we were, and ordinary ( very ) though Onuachu was at PL level , when we had an actual CF who could do at least some CF things, we looked rather more like a proper football team. With the money at our disposal this season, we didn't need to buy a CF genius , but we did need somebody who could be there to do a proper job when Ross Stewart isn't . If we could have got hold of somebody of real class so much the better, but if not, somebody decent would have been enough to spearhead a proper promotion challenge . So you are right.

And this could be a relatively easy season to get automatic. Toothless up front, and the present back three have at least 3 big errors in them every week. We just do basic stuff badly way too often. And the bench we have for this level needs to be used much better.

I know that formations have to be fancy these days,but the thought had occurred to me that while we are struggling, just going old fashioned 442 with those two up front might not be the worst idea. Would be a struggle to fit Azaz in, but with our squad some players will be disappointed each week.

Smallbone making a decent impact as a sub.

I can’t see how Still”s plan is any different from Howard Wilkinson era 4-2-4. in which case you need to keep it simple, have our least bad big CF ( Stewart) with AA alongside, the two “ best” wingers, the two toughest CMs, and let the back four concentrate on defending, supposing that they are up to the task, which is dubious at this stage. I see nothing at all that suggests that WS can create a playoff team out of this expensive mess. Almost nothing looks any good.

And we matched our result against the skates from 2011-2012.......

Even before that injury I was saying that one of ours could usefully get an “injury” because we really needed to sort a few things out. Not that I approve of such tactics of course

Awful weather didn’t help.nobody anywhere near me on the Milton . I think it had rained all afternoon. Looking at the team sheet, we seem to have started with Matty as a lone striker, until Moody replaced Terry Hurlock at HT !!!! Those were the days……..

The game v United in 1974 had 30789 , so not sure why that isn’t on the list. I was there . It was very unpleasantly overcrowded.

For those who were there in the happy days of the mid 70s and our four consecutive league wins over the skates We had joy we had fun we had pompey on the run But the fun didn’t last cos the bastards ran too fast. to the tune of Terry Jacks ( and Brel’s) Seasons in the Sun .

The loan fee looks very reasonable indeed compared to the option to buy , assuming he is even half decent. Or is the “option “ to buy binding in some way, making the loan payment effectively a downpayment ?

Alfie is very good, worth following, as is George Rees-Julian

Not sure if he is the " right kind of winger", and of course the recruitment people know better than me (!!) but I'd choose Edozie over him right now. Of course he may be of similar quality and save us some money, which seems the likely reason for this to happen. Hopefully he'll be great for us......

You'd have to assume that any 4th/5th choice CM isn't going to be much better that Smallbone, so we'll only sell him if we can make good money and replace with a cheap loan. Either that or they will buy a quality CM to add competition for Charles/Downes and hopefully MF , which seems a bit unlikely, but I suppose you never know.

Think Everton will be very pleased with him and the fee. incidentally, what happens to the add ons if Everton sell him before they are triggered ?

So if Matty F, Smallbone and Aribo all leave that leaves us with Matsuki and Sesay as cover for two MF slots. I’d make an assumption that we may want to play 3 in MF at times so we need 5 minimum, and would need at least one , probably 2 senior midfielders to come in ?

And if the other forwards don’t learn from him, there is no hope for them. if he wants to come back it is a no brainer. We have plenty of options to do the running around, but we simply will not find anybody else of his quality.

I bet if we were offered David Brooks on a season loan at a sensible price we’d be happy to take him . Not that he is likely to be available , just as an example.

What we need is a little less conversation....since he clearly isn't way down our hit list.

Looks like replacing Edozie , maybe similar level but making a few million ?

Which might mean having to sell MF at a discount in a hurry unless we can get a great prices for THB . We must have to raise a good chunk of cash this summer .

Re the skates, I doubt we have all that many members for this season, and nobody except members who satisfy the criteria can buy ATM. I'd imagine they will go to season ticket holders and a few other groups ( non members with an away ticket purchase history ?) next. At a guess, the cost of buying pompey, ( not cheap) one of the home games and a membership all together may be putting a few people off.