VectisSaint

Minnie Mouse surely. Two 9-0s, where have I heard that before? Coverage will not improve until at least they are in the Championship (next season). Even then coverage is sketchy compared to the top level (Super League or whatever its called).

It will go to tribunal if a fee cannot be agreed between the clubs. It is not a transfer fee it is a development compensation fee, because Small was a youth free agent. Very unlikely that tribunal will set the fee as high as £5m, Saints know that and are trying to second guess the tribunal outcome. Seems to me they may as well let tribunal decide if the valuations of the two clubs are this far apart.

Drew 1-1 with Arsenal in the PL Cup. Simeu captain, Caleb Watts returned and scored early on. Probably a decent result.

Goalkeeper, we did offload Gunn, so perhaps 1/10 would be more appropriate Centre Back - may not be applicable this season but we also signed Simeu for the future, is Lyanco an improvement on Vestegaard, depends which Vestegaard you compare with, the one prior to last season, most definitely yes, the one who had a good half season last year, no, unless he turns out to be a star, but with Salisu improving (and Stephens) then its fair to say we are certainly no worse off. We also disposed of Hoedt so that's a bonus. Midfield - failed to address critical weakness in defensive Midfield (cover for Romeu), think 5/10 is generous on this basis. Probably improved attacking midfield by losing Minamino, and the return of the new and seemingly improved Moi is reason for optimism.

Long covid?

There are one or two on here who will blame Stephens for goals that are conceded in games when he is not even on the pitch. They see what they want to see. One or two used to blame Steve Davis for everything in the same way, going back a bit Matt Oakley was often criticised by some for anything that remotely went wrong whether he was involved or not.

"I'm not slagging Stephens for the sake of slagging Stephens" says the man (?) slagging Stephens for the sake of it. I'm not "slagging" Tino or Salisu either, just calling out that if you want to apportion blame for recent goals (which is a completely pointless exercise) then at least apportion it to the right players and not avoid them because they are the current "cool" players.

Stephens was not seriously at fault for either Newcastle goal. If you really must apportion blame for their goals then the first came about because KWP let their player go, Salisu was also way behind Stephens and probably should have got it. The second Salisu was the player that lost St Maximum, but its hard to blame him (or anyone). Blaming Stephens for either let alone both of those goals smacks of playing the man and not checking reality. Salisu had a great game Saturday, but he did make two mistakes, quite frankly the way we play our 2 CBs are left horribly exposed at times, with no other cover, the reality is that they both actually do a bloody good job in the circumstances. Its obviously not cool to blame Salisu yet, just like it wouldn't have been cool to blame Tino for the Man U goal, but it did actually develop from his mistake which subsequently put Stephens under pressure to put it out for a corner, which then led to their goal. But the boo boys just see a Stephens mistake, because it suits their agenda.

Not going to say whether it was a brilliant save or not, but it is not the movement that is being praised so much as the reaction. Sure he didn't have to move that much, but he had no time to adjust and actually make the save. Its not really relevant but Forster wouldn't have reacted that quickly.

Did they mention it was in the League Cup? It was 2nd Leg, we won the home leg 4-0, and aggregate scores were level after 90 minutes of 2nd leg, so it went to extra time. Lost 5-7 on aggregate. I'm reasonably sure I went to the game, it was soon after I got back to UK after living in Australia for a while. Charlie George hit the woodwork. Watford were in the 2nd Division as well by the way.

No points to add to the most points lost from a winning position league, come from behind twice, completely outplay opponents, 2 VAR decisions go in our favour (wasn't Dean on VAR duty?). Not sure how some people on here think it was predictable or that it was scripted 😂 Good result really but could/should have been better.

He will be fine once he gets back to full fitness, but goes to show that we really haven't learned our lesson from last season and brought in a decent backup in such a critical position.

Now you're being silly 😂

Presumably there are no LBs even in the u18s, considering Small is technically an u17. Wonder why it has all gone so wrong for this position in the Academy, it used to be our strength, Bridge, Bale, Shaw, Targett, McQueen.

I did say 'if' anyone is to blame, and that it was quite reasonable for him to decide to stay. Can't really blame him at all, I'm sure I would have done the same, but there's no doubt he is largely the cause of the issue, maybe that's a better description rather than fault.

No. We haven't really addressed two of our biggest problems, cover for DM (Romeu) and Goalkeeper. Everything else is fine (would have been happier to see Redmond and Long go but there you go). Maybe Lyanco can cover Romeu, but then he's not available for CB so it's not really a solution.

Missed the Sunderland game then?

There is no way Saints were going to let contracts for all 3 keepers expire in 2022 (includes Lewis), you can't go into a situation of potentially having no pro keepers on your books. The strategy (in my view) was to get rid of Forster this window (more expensive of the two and in Ralph's opinion the more expendable), but Forster decided (quite reasonably) that he was better off financially seeing out his ridiculous contract than going somewhere else, no-one being apparently willing to take on his huge wage requirements for this year, when they could get him for nowt next summer. So Saints are stuck with FF, and without him off the wage bill cannot bring in the replacement/new keeper that they had planned. I still hold out a (very) feint hope that Forster might go this window but whether we have replacement locked in to come at very short notice is the problem (probably not). If anyone is to blame for this situation with the GKs its Les and FF, for stupid contract extension and FF deciding (quite justifiably) that he is better off sitting on the bench (and getting run outs in the Cups like tonight). Whatever anyone thinks of McCarthy, Forster is not the answer.

Vestegaard picked up a minor knee injury in training. Not thought to be serious.

You didn't read/translate the tweet did you. It is in Portuguese by the way. 🙄

What happened to him flying in at the weekend as previously reported?

Any sign of the Gorilla in the stands?

I'm sure that we were planning on bringing in a new (first choice) keeper, offered McCarthy extension which he looks like he will sign (if he hasn't already), offered Forster an extension that he was hardly likely to accept, in the expectation that someone would come in for him, but it didn't happen, or else Forster said no to the move (Celtic supposedly). So it turns out we are stuck with both, Ralph prefers McCarthy (mostly because he will be a better #2) and with FF not willing to sign the contract that was offered he will be backup for this season before leaving on a free next summer. Bit of a silly situation we have got ourselves into, but unless something comes up in the next week looks like we have to live with it. Interesting to note that the Accrington keeper that we were apparently linked with (Toby Savin) has been benched so far this season, not too promising to be after Stanley's #2. Haven't heard what has happened to the Greek Albanian that were linked with. Personally don't think Forster is any better than McCarthy, much of a muchness, but clearly Alex is the club's preferred player for the longer term. Can't fathom what is going to happen to Harry Lewis.

Any chance we could get this lad into the first team, after all he is about the same age as Theo was when he broke through. Surely a better option than Shane Long. Hadn't realised SKD's son was playing for the u18s (Sonnie).

Shouldn't the u18s have a separate thread. This thread is about the B team.