RobM

I might be late to the party… but I’ve just seen we’re advertising on TV now, Sky One to be precise. Somewhat suggests ST sales aren’t superb.

I’d keep if the price was right and his motivation to play for us and succeed was strong. But in reality, he hasn’t shown he’s capable of succeeding in the Prem, and coming from Liverpool elevates his price for no good reason, so I doubt he’ll join us. One thing worth saying is any move, however cheap, should come after we’ve put serious money into priority positions such as a striker and fullbacks. If there’s money left, sure, sign him up.

Does anybody know the likely routine for getting into the game? Will it be like the games between lockdowns where you had a specific gate and very specific entry time? Or, more like normal and just turn up as you wish? I'm hoping and assuming the latter, but haven't seen anything concrete either way.

Same, but I've ended up in the Chapel. Still, quiet football is better than no football...

The fact he called out our board and not Ralph, and the fact he made specific reference to playing style, ability to express himself, etc, suggests some significant misalignment with Ralph. I have huge respect for Bertrand and what he has done for us, but if any player can't get fully onboard with the managers style, it's right to move on. I wish him well.

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And therein lies our constraint, which is why we're playing Adam's as a first choice striker. That's the balance we as fans need to remember; we can't afford to buy EPL-proven quality unless it comes with risks, e.g. Ings and his injury record when we signed him, or Adams and the risk that he won't carry his goal scoring levels up from the Championship.

Adams does everything right, up to the point he needs to shoot. Everything else he offers us is great. The problem is the fact he's our main striker this season (given Ings' injuries and lukewarm performances when coming back from injury) and that isn't good enough if we want to be comfortable in the Prem. Bring in another striker who can match Ings at his best and Adams is an asset to have around for competition, cup runs, cover, an option from the bench, etc.

Agree with this. An odd comparison perhaps, but I’ve always said the Championship is the most entertaining and competitive league, as it doesn’t have a traditional group of clubs with a financial advantage the FFP rules prevent other clubs competing with. If the ‘big 6’ leave the EPL I can’t help but wonder if the league will be more competitive as a result. I fully expect the best players won’t come here, money will still talk just as loudly, but what we’ll be left with is a more even ‘best of the rest’ league.

Are we a good team who sometimes has bad spells. Or, a bad team who sometimes has good spells? Our win, goal scoring and defensive records under Ralph are so hit and miss it’s hard to tell. It has often felt like we’re better than our performances suggest… but after a while of lacklustre performances, shit defending, an inability to score, and no idea how to win games if our normal style doesn’t work, I’m not so sure.

Watching Ings recently feels like VVD all over again. Much less twattish behaviour off the pitch, but similar half-effort performances reliant on natural ability to shine occasionally.

As nice as it would be to have more money gifted to us, it's not sustainable and its unrealistic to think we'd make such huge progress that we could replace one sugar daddy with another if the first one got bored and left. With Gao forcing us to be sustainable, he could walk away and somebody else come in and our future wouldn't be threatened, unlike when Lowe and the circus that followed left and we nearly went bust. As for that article... the negative bias is obvious when it blames the board for appointing Puel and Pellegrino, yet considers appointing Hassenhutl an 'incredible stroke of luck'.

Mine was checked. If you’re thinking of chancing it with somebody else’s ticket you might get lucky, but you should be prepared to be sent away. I think the stewards who check are the ones who won’t be convinced to turn a blind eye. The whole system worked really well inside and outside. Still plenty of chance to meet others if you wanted, atmosphere was decent considering how empty it was - better in fact than some pre-season games with much larger crowds.

There's 38 games in a season, Liverpool and Man City will be OK at the end of it. They weren't the sort of team I had in mind when I made that point. Everton have clearly improved and we finished ahead of them last season. I'd be surprised if we finished ahead of them again. But on the flip-side, I can't see Burnley or Sheffield Utd finishing as high as they did last season, so it balances out at bit and may leave us in a similar position. Other teams like Newcastle look better. I doubt they'll finish ahead of us, but it's not a certainty and I think they'll push us all the way. We haven't improved to a significantly greater extent than them, so nothing suggest we'll run away from them this season.

11th again. Not because we haven't improved, but because most other teams have as well.

None of our 'keepers are suitable for a high-line sweeper keeper role. McCarthy is a reasonable all-rounder (decent shot stopper, comes off his line OK, not terrible distribution, etc) but isn't superb at anything. Forster is a very good shot stopper because he's essentially a brick wall, but he moves like a brick wall too. Gunn has the potential to be a good all-rounder, but hasn't got enough real-world experience to turn that potential into ability. IMO we either need to play to the strengths and abilities of the players we have, or replace them. We're doing neither at the moment and we're being exposed.

It is definitely getting progressively worse. It's fortunate for SaintsWeb that there is practically no competition, as putting this much effort into accessing a website would ordinarily lead to people giving up and going elsewhere. That said, the SaintsFC Reddit sub has been a pretty good alternative of late.

Boufal is a mystery. I agree, I think he is one of a few players in the squad who could make a difference against teams that want to sit deep. He has good close control and can work through defences. Granted, what he does next isn’t always helpful, but against teams like Palace he’d be a better bet than Djenepo.

No creativity and not enough from midfield. Worryingly few options to change the game from the bench too.

It has gone backwards for me today. Getting to the main forum index is quick, but it then takes 30seconds to get into a subform. Once that's done, everything is fast other than submitting a post, which takes 10seconds.

I'm finding it very consistent now, but not perfect. The initial access takes circa. 30 seconds, it just sits and waits. Once it loads, everything is flying as you'd hope and expect, even if I leave the site for a short while and come back. It's just that initial connection that's the killer, which makes me believe @Plastic is right, and the subsequent TTL means it has to repeat the process each day.

Moving to Everton after declaring you want to leave to play in the Champions League is one of the best examples of what modern football is all about.

Frustratingly, a player of his style would be a great addition with Hojbjerg leaving. Shame he can’t be bothered to do it week in, week out.

100% this. If we end up with players who have the potential to be too good for us, coming willingly knowing they have to perform well to get the move they really want, but also knowing that move won't be blocked (so they remain committed, positive and not a disruptive force) we will be a lot better off for it. All players will think they can go on to better things - we probably don't want the ones who just want to settle somewhere comfortable - so as long as we maintain a continual pipeline of them, buy well, sell better, it's a sound model for a club our size.

Either Targett has a very hard working agent and all this paper talk is their work, or, other clubs see something in him that Saints fans are blind to.