st alex

You started a thread about something you don't want to talk about?

Any chance Fraser Forster will be fit for this?

So clubs should either only ever have 2 goalkeepers, or they should have a 3rd choice goalie who is good enough to start a run of games in the PL? You realise if a keeper were any good he'd be unlikely to want to be 3rd choice?

Reading between the lines that seemed to be what you were alluding to. Think you'd have to be more than decent to get the Liverpool and/or England manager job in the future. Klopp and Southgate have been the most successful managers in those roles in the last 30 years by far. Not really interested in splitting hairs over what defines a top manager or good manager or whatever. My point was that I think it's far too early to be lining up top jobs for managers still cutting their teeth. It feels like there's a large degree of bias based on them having had a good playing career at a top club. Even the other managers you've used as compassions reinforce this (Vieira, Arteta, and Lampard). The likes of Darren Moore and Scott Parker I think have done excellent jobs as up and coming managers but they're not even getting what you're calling 'lower level jobs' (which are actually at mid-table PL clubs) because they don't have the reputations or connections or whatever from their playing careers. They're having to get actual lower level jobs and are having success yet I'm not seeing them touted as future England or Champions League level managers. Lampard came in to Chelsea and did alright for a bit steading the ship before floundering. Gerrard, Vieira and Arteta have been chucked in and are just treading water for the time being, time will tell whether they sink or swim. I'm happy to wait and see how they do before preempting them into a top job or writing them off. I just think it's far too early to be lining Gerrard up as the future Liverpool manager, I know he's a one club man who was a great player for them, but as we've just seen with Solskjaer it takes that bit more to be successful at that level as a manager. I would imagine that for both Vieira and Gerrard their time at Villa and Palace will end either in success and they'll leave because they're offered a bigger job, or they'll be sacked because they're at the wrong end of the table. So far the assumption seems to be that they can only go upwards. We've seen in recent years that many of the best managers were rubbish players, or didn't play at all (Klopp, Tuchel, Sarri, etc). Maybe being a Saints fan means I'm biased for underdogs and the under rated but I'd sooner talk up the likes of Graham Potter or Scott Parker as future England mangers than preempting Stephen Gerrard.

Presumably for a number of players over the course of a season the reserves/B team/U23s (whatever they're called) is useful to have. To build back fitness when coming back from injury and for fringe first team players and up and coming youngsters to maintain fitness and match sharpness and push for the first team. I'd imagine some of the players would challenge for the first team whereas others will be there to make up the numbers. Would have thought the likes of Ward-Prowse and Tella would have had a spell in the reserves before progressing to the first team.

The club did have some renderings done a few years ago on what a possible redevelopment could look like. Not sure if they're much better than this newest proposal. http://stadiumdb.com/designs/eng/st_marrys_stadium

For the reserves?

Expect he's lacking in Premier League quality though. There's a huge gulf between the Scottish Championship and the Premier League. I'm all for giving youngsters a chance but not Jan Poortvliet style where it's at the expense of our performances, they have to actually be good enough. Tommy Forecast was also our 3rd choice/reserve goalie - doesn't mean there was any intention to ever play him in the Premier League. It looks like he stopped playing at 28 because he couldn't get game time at Chelmsford. While Lewis might be better than that he's clearly not considered Premier League quality.

Mcarthy. That useless shite has only got 5 clean sheets in 12 games. First goal was poor play by KWP being weak on the ball and loosing possession, leaving us exposed down the left, Romeu then not closing down the cross on the cover and Salisu not challenging the man he's marking. But yeah the GK not saving a shot from point blank is the reason we were beat. EDIT: watched the highlights - Mcarthy should have saved both, still doesn't exonerate the other poor play that led to the first goal. He has also had games this season where he hasn't been bad.

Worth a mentioning the officials. Norwich scored their winner from a corner. Saints missed out on 2 additional corners, (only won 4) that were wrongly given as goal kicks. Thought there were quite a lot of the small decisions that went against us that make add up to make the difference. Probably just sour grapes though.

Thought the point was if he carries on scoring his value will go up? In other words, if he improves he'll be a better player. And his value would go up regardless of who other teams have up front. Especially if he starts out scoring other team's strikers then in all likeliness they'd want him (whether they'd get bid for him or get him is a separate matter).

If he does well at Villa he might be in the frame for an England/Liverpool job in the future. That's a very big IF though. The PL is far more competitive than the SPL. Managerial success at one club doesn't make him a top manager just yet. His success as a player is irrelevant.

Only just realised we resigned Olly Lancashire. Was reading that he scored for the B team last month and thought to myself I can't believe he's still at the club. According to wiki: 'Signed as a support player role that will see him play and train with the clubs B team and under 23 side in order to help progress the players mentally and set a standard of good behaviour.' Unusual sort of move.

Wrong in your opinion maybe. I'll continue to believe that gambling firms base their companies in tax havens, because um... they do. https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/markets/article-8605137/Betting-giants-Flutter-Bet-365-William-Hill-tax-haven-row.html

Very much doubt that online gambling sites and their owners pay much tax, they're all based offshore.

I think we've got decent enough strikers given a chance. Trouble is rather than play Adams, Tella, or Broja we're starting Redmond up front. My area of concern in the summer was the quality of our attacking midfielders, hopefully in January we might get that Fulham youngster who already looks streaks ahead of what we've got.

Was hoping we'd go for him in the summer. Will be in very high demand, would be a great addition to the squad though and hopefully an improvement on all the inconsistent wingers we have at the moment. He's already got 3 goals this season which is the return I expect we'll get from Walcott, Djenepo, Redmond, and Elyounoussi combined over the course of the whole season. Also, we'll need to improve our form if we're going to entice anyone to join us.

If you were to do this (there could also be the potential for this the way VAR is used now), and play continues while decisions are being reviewed then what happens if the other team goes and scores a perfectly good goal from open play, only for VAR to pull it back to an earlier incident down the other end of the pitch some two minutes previously? For example it's pulled back for free kick which leads to nothing, meanwhile the opposition have their 'good goal' cancelled out by the decision to award the innocuous free kick, and the passage of play that they would have had from that position that led to the goal is then gone.

Thought he played better than Salisu - who was terrible first half at least.

Can't stop scoring at 69 mins FFS, pop a couple more in.

Looks as if it'll mainly affect the South American players based in the PL who might be playing matches in Brazil, Argentina, Columbia, etc. https://www.gov.uk/guidance/red-amber-and-green-list-rules-for-entering-england#red-list

Thought this playbook thing was about getting all ages levels within the club playing the same style of football, (read same tactics). That way when they get to the first team they don't have to spend ages trying to adapt their game. Presumably it's not something every club does, or does to different degrees?

I wonder if he were to sign a new contract with us (in a year or two), whether that would invalidate the buy back clause, just as any release clause would be reevaluated?

Would Fabio Carvalho be out of our league from Fulham? Impressed against us at the end of last season and has started this season well enough. Looks like an upgrade on Redmond/Walcott/Djenepo. I guess we're just doing this one centre back and then deciding the rest of the squad's good enough to scrape by.

Not bothered which of the two start. They’re both alright and both have limitations. Very little between them. FF might be more vocal but has struggled with coming for crosses and commanding his area and short distribution. I probably feel a bit more nervous when FF plays, but really don’t mind which of the two is in goal.