saint1977

So has SFC to some extent but they have Zaha who if he is going to move to one of top 6 is this summer or bust. Probably in the log jam of other big transfers holding it up.

Charlie, we know you really rate Ings or maybe are in his camp and I’m as pissed off at the deteriorating state of SFC as you are, but as I’ve written in here before with his injury history he is taking an equal risk letting his contract run down. Because if gets another serious injury he will be getting free access to Staplewood in 2022 to recuperate, at best. No contract. If he avoids injury, he will get a good wedge signing on as back up somewhere else but at best it will be like Owen at ManU eg cameos or at worst, back to where he was at Liverpool eg competing with the likes of Origi and Minamino for 8 games a season. I don’t think Levy will go for Ings to replace Kane, he would never be allowed back in the stadium. Danny was brilliant and top 4 quality in 20/21 but post Villa injury and COVID he was very poor bar the odd goal in second half of last season. So were most of the team tbf but Adams outshone him as a footballer and with a bit more composure should have scored a few more. Danny is still the better finisher but needs to be fitter. That’s the reality of it. Tbh I’d rather sell him to Everton or West Ham if he actually he wants to play football as he isn’t going to sign on at SFC. Be a more realistic move for him if not just about the money. For Saints, I’d take a risk and sign Armstrong on the basis either Vesty or Ings are going and say to Danny ‘if you want to compete with Adam and Che this year you are welcome but they are first choice’. Gentle encouragement out of the door as he isn’t seeming to sign a new deal.

Exactly this for me given the state of the club and rudderless ownership. Realistically this is absolutely best case. Vesty sold to Roma and replaced with a DCR with a bit more mobility but not as good as passing range. Delaney to add robustness and quality to the CM pool but doubt that will happen. Ideally Adam Armstrong regardless of Ings situation but unlikely.

216 games missed in last decade for Man U and Blackburn https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/phil-jones/verletzungen/spieler/117996 Has played around the same number of games for Man U over that time.

Piers Corbyn, David Icke, Andrew Wakefield and QAnon/Trump - those are some of the sources for the Anti Vaxxer movement. Just a hint of the proof that the MMR jab data linked to autism was highly flawed and in the words of the BMJ fraudulent https://www.bmj.com/content/342/bmj.c7452 yet Wakefield is front and centre again, especially in the US Look at the weirdos in the movement, probably the same boneheads who were attacking 5G masts last year https://news.sky.com/story/how-covid-conspiracists-and-anti-vaxxers-are-getting-organised-and-making-money-12206707

Celtic shipped six at home to West Ham today, hopefully they will push the boat out to get Fraser in on a 3 year deal. Substitute the fee for 100% of final year’s wages and that’s another of Les’s Sanatogen moments gone at long last.

He is the one Reed/Wilson signing that I can see the sense of where he did have the attributes to kick on and be sold for £40-50m. He just doesn’t have the staying power oppress level of focus for the PL, did ok for Fulham but not the level to move to bigger things, should do OK again in Ligue One. Hoedt - free transfer and Lazio fringe player for £17m was lunatic territory by comparison and Carrillo rationale had all the business sense of George Best on an all dayer. Gunn - who knows what they were thinking of?

I wouldn’t normally agree with this approach but there’s been so many people that have benefited from Les and co’s shocking mismanagement that the vessel needs a chance to right itself again. FF gained from poor performance and that’s wrong. Can’t wait until there’s a new owner that clears decks totally of the rotten culture at the club but dread to think what division the club are playing in by that point.

I wouldn’t normally agree with this but the player has benefitted from the totally inexplicable and frankly iffy-looking second contract extension after a poor year under Puel. Rumour was Claude wanted rid but Les got rid of him instead. Which I could live with but not the absolute muppet he then appointed. FF did OK when he came back in last season but only OK, not top wage level. Time he moved on with a year to go. He could do a Bogarde and sit around but in his shoes I’d rather have a 3 year deal with Celtic earning a bit more than the value of his last year with SFC. City he knows and not far from his native Northumbria. Ditto Shane Long for his last year as well, can’t even blame Les for that one. Another totally stupid but less costly extension decision which wasn’t warranted.

Yep, hopefully the low contract renewal offer forces a move to Celtic and another Sanatogen special from Les gone. Still Ely, Long, Vesty and more recently Djenepo (post Les) and McCarthy to go. Bednarek and Redmond based on last season as well. Tbh bar the new Lb and fringe players like Tella, only established players good enough to wear an SFC jersey are KWP, Rom, JWP, Theo, Adams and Ings. Diallo and Salisu show the potential to do so.

Good news if true. Assume we have to pay them a development fee as he is 19?

Or if their new manager likes rotation, BOGOF

He improved a bit last season coming off his line but still looked fallible on anything low eg Burnley home. Of all the crazy running of the club since 2017, Fraser’s second extension was the hardest to see any genuine footballing reason for. The only reason for doubt would be the source of the article which is what you might be referring to. Mind you, there doesn’t seem to be any visible plan or pattern to recruitment. They’ve shifted some of the old fool’s worst garbage off the books this summer on the credit side but it all still feels reactive in terms of the level of business they were originally stated to do. CP have a huge rebuilding job to do but Olise for £8m was smart, even if they go down with Saints next season if the player does well they will make money. Bet you he has a better season than Redmond or Theo. Armstrong and not getting that done is playing right into Spurs’s hands with Ings as well.

I just don’t know what’s happened to SFC’s scouting or SFC in general. Just seems lackadaisical, slow and the reverse of proactive even post Les. When you are on a tight budget you need to be proactive and act quickly when your part of the market is active or where you have gaps. The gaps exist in virtually every age team and the lad has a connection to the area already. Yet money has been squandered on new deals for 22-23 year olds then loaned straight out to League One - why?! Maybe I’m being harsh and SFC has a plan for recruiting gaps in the first team and age teams but it certainly doesn’t feel like after Crocker’s nice words in the forum. Seems like the same old to me. Needs a new owner to kick it all up the arse.

While to go yet, CP rebuilding heavily but 2 good opening signings, Norwich have funds but because they sold a star player for big money so still weaker overall. Buendia starred for them in 2019/20 and still went down by a mile. There’s been progress on getting all of the pension day rubbish like Hoedt away and Ross’s cock ups when Les was having his afternoon nap. Lots of bits and bobs like Sims and Hesketh on decent money added together left. Finishing above 18th will be a tall order but time for further activity. Vest on post Euro holiday and almost certain to move on for a decent fee. Keen to get Adam Armstrong in as gives the club more options with Ings eg compete for a place or let’s see how good your agent really is.

Domestic arrests as well - Manchester, Leyton Orient and Wolves, and some from E Hants pending investigation as you probably saw as well. MI5 threat briefing yesterday now listing domestic far right extremism as second biggest threat now to UK security - https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/right-wing-extremism-terrorism-violence-uk-mi5-ken-mccallum-b1039501.html Says that whilst there is some activity from Russia etc, that it is too easy to write off or dismiss the domestic threat as bots from overseas. Also states that racism proving a fuel for this online and recruitment by extremists is starting increasing younger, as young as 13.

The players of major nations may well boycott, I hope so. The stadiums may not be ready - there’s been lots of reports of appalling treatment of construction workers for example - and a different FIFA regime (not much hope I know) might fail Qatar on their inspection. The political climate externally and hopefully in FIFA - in very different to 10/11 years ago when the award was made. Colombia were supposed to be 1986 hosts and failed to be ready, Mexico stepped in. Could happen again. Athens nearly lost the Olympics the same way.

They can’t ignore this though - quantitative evidence in droves and clearly racist content. Well they can, but we just ignore those posters instead. https://inews.co.uk/news/technology/instagram-racist-abuse-posts-england-players-after-euros-1102896 Really poor from Instagram - I’d punish the overall platform for poor moderation and management of content with a huge fine - hundreds of millions at minimum - and prosecution for enabling extremist content. Where’s Nick Clegg, is he still employed by Facebook? Get him in front of the one of the All Party Parliamentary Groups next week and turn the screw. Facebook and co fled Australia but they need to clean up their act somewhere. It’ll drive the worst extremists underground but we have GCHQ to pursue them. Cleaning up the platforms overall and millions of bans will mean at least the overwhelming majority of us normal people who aren’t violent far right or far left thugs can use the internet safely.

Summarises it overall. England superb first 20 and then dropped deep too early and were hanging on a bit at times. Grealish should have been on much earlier for either Sterling or Mount, drew fouls and as well as getting us back in the front foot would have broken up Italian momentum. Rashford didn’t learn from the Kane and Maguire pens- decide where it’s going and commit fully. If Donnarumma pulls off a worldie so be it. Hesitation but treat it like you are taking it as you would normally for Man U. Hard though when only on the pitch 3 minutes as an emergency RB. Chiesa - what a player. Rice superb, Phillips very good as well. Sterling an off night after a great tournament. After the SFC shit show of the last 5 years I’d forgotten what work rate, team spirit, organisation, resilience and caring were in a football context so well done England for that. The referees are the big learning - need a top to bottom out clear out of the current PGMOL group over the next 2 years and VAR only used for the clear and obvious error. Ref tonight better than I’ve seen in the PL for 10-15 years and been a high quality bar Michael Oliver’s shitshow. English footballers 9/10 English referees 0/10

It’d make sense if Mowbray does want Obafemi as he probably would be valued at £6-8m so suddenly if Blackburn get Saints up to around £10m cash for Armstrong it might suit all parties. Pace is a real weapon in the Champ and there’s been no indication RH is going to offer Michael a new contract. Swansea wanted him before he got injured and he seemed set to go.

Matterface is the worst of the worst, I’d rather have Tyldesley still. He was a knob about Bednarek in one of the group games, saying he’d scored twice v Man U last season and then went ‘actually one of those was an own goal’. Will watch BBC for the final as although I like listening to Keane, Neville and Wright at HT, I can’t stand listening to Matterface during the game. I don’t watch Dancing on Ice but apparent he is no better on that. Not just us saying it either https://www.football365.com/news/opinion-matterface-tyldesley-off-script-euro-2020-final-england https://www.thenational.scot/sport/19428321.itv-commentator-sam-matterface-loses-plot-england-v-denmark/ https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/sam-matterface-commentary-englands-euro-24485791

The last point of your post makes more sense, it’s a societal issue. A bit like when Millichip said to Thatcher ‘stop your hooligans coming to our football games’. I’d use the big screens to urge people not to let the players down by being an idiot. It’s more likely to fire the opposition up to play better as try saying to the Italians their anthem is silly. Mind you, I’d much rather have Jerusalem than God Save the Queen. Nothing against the monarchy, but sharing an anthem with Lichtenstein isn’t the most inspiring.

Depends if you want England to be seen as the type of three toothed single brain cell dwelling insular island that this forum frequently accuses those in Portsea Isle of being, or a civilised modern nation that can project itself confidently in the world. I’ve been on Barmy Army tours watching cricket and loads of banter/singing during games, but where there’s anthems they are always respected. Same in rugby despite some ferocious rivalries and atmosphere on and off the pitch, especially Wales v England, anthems respected.

I like him as a player as well. Personally I think he may become more of a winger/striker in the Theo mode especially away from home, or just behind a striker, rather than an out and out striker but his composure may come on next season. Certainly hope so.

It depends who he is paired with. If Salisu was right footed, the partnership could work as it could with any decent DCR with recovery pace. The reason he got exposed is although Jan is right footed, he is quite slow himself and his game reading varies, hence the late challenges and interceptions. This was OK when Rom protected them but you could cut through the spine of the team like a hot knife through butter after the injury at Leeds. Vesty is a very good footballer, reads the game well and great in the air but always a risk of getting caught with the ball high up under RH’s system. In another environment he could work very well and as he’s never had pace he should have plenty of mileage left. As someone else posted, give him pace and you have nearing VVD level pre ACL.