Sidney Fudpucker the 3rd

Amazing!!! I've been a member for 25 years. This year they wrote to me to says that as I was living overseas they wouldn't be renewing my membership, as they wanted to give membership priority to people in the local area. I was completely stunned. I could understand the logic if we were a club who were selling out games every week and demand for tickets was so high that they had to prioritise, but to withdraw my membership without any real explanation other than the fact that I now live in Ireland seems absolutely absurd. I wrote back to the club asking why 25 years of membership is no longer seen as important to them. I'm awaiting a response...

We are absolutely ****ing ****e.

What odds can you get on us being 5 games in with 0 points?

I don't, but the priority was glaringly obvious and has been for 2 years. Once again it's been failed to be addressed. If you worked for a struggling business and your boss told you to sort things out, do you think he's tolerate the same problem still being an issue two years down the line? You'd be long gone. Are you not sick of teams like Brighton and Burnely opening the cheque book and attracting players, whilst we **** around and hope we get lucky with the next wonder kid? We need some experience in the squad. All this stuff about building a squad under the age of 24 is great in principle but won't work when put into practice. We've not got the class of '92 or Sir Alex at the helm! Burnley got Drinkwater on loan. He'd have been ideal for us. So would Wanyama. Cahill was available. Again, he'd have done a great job and the young player would benefit from having him in the squad. Djenepo, Adams and Danso are nothing more than massive gambles that have cost us in the region of £40m. Most managers know who their strangest 11 is. I don't think RH has a clue who ours is. Neither did MH, MP or CP. Too many average players in nearly every position in the squad. Look at it. Gunn or McCarthy - Average. On their day either could have a blinder or cause a major **** up. Valery or Soares - One better at going forward, one a slightly better defender. Who do you pick? Doesn't matter really, they're both average. The CB situation is the same. He can't play 2 because we don't have 2 quality CB's, so he plays 3 and can't decide who's the best of a bad bunch. LB - Same as RB, although we sold one because he was just average so Bertrand is the only realistic option here. CM - Romeu, PEH, JWP, Armstrong, Lemina - Lemina's off so forget him. PEH should start every game but he was on the bench at Burnley. Why? Because again, the manager doesn't know who his best option is. PEH looks like a decent player. JWP can be but he's so inconsistent. RW / AM / LW- Redmond is probably the only cert in the whole team. Who do you pick for the other positions? Djenepo - completely unproven at this level. Boufal - Christ knows what you'll get so how RH is supposed to know is a mystery. Adams - Unproven at this level. Ings - Hit & miss. Long - Hit & Miss. Obafemi - Lacks experience. I don't believe anybody knows our strongest 11 because we don't have one! The spine of a great team should pick itself. Ours doesn't because we don't have a spine.

Average, yes. Started well but the last 10 games were very worrying. We should have been home and dry with 5 games to go but in typical Saints style we left it right until the end. The opening game this season just reminded me of some of our latter performances from last season. I like Ralph, I really do. I think he's a great character. However, I don't think he's got a clue when it comes to setting up a team to defend. Who in their right mind would play Jack Stephens when we have two international defenders in the squad??? Strikes me that he's from the Keegan school of management... You score 4, we'll score 5. Although that doesn't look to be going to plan at the moment.

Dream on. We'll concede at least 4. I'm going for 0-2 at half time. We get a man sent off in the second half (probably PEH) and the final score being 1-8.

Ralph has completely ****ed up. The defence should have been the priority in the close season. A complete re-build was needed. Probably 4 out and 3 in. Ralph seems to be obsessed with us not creating enough chances and has completely missed the fact that it doesn't matter how many you score if you're leaking goals at the other end. The selection was completely wrong for an away trip to Burnley. You need grafters like of Yoshida, PEH and Long. Even Soares would have been a better choice that Valery, defensively for this game. We have 2 international CB's in the squad yet we play Jack ****in' Stephens. Come on. A schoolboy could have picked a better team. I was optimistic about this season but the opening result has just quashed all of that. I look at our run in last season where we should have had 18-20 points and finished above the likes of Newcastle. Our form for the last 10 was shocking and we look no different at the start of this season. Face facts, we are ****ing ****!

Face facts. Ralph has got it totally wrong. He's gone on about us not creating enough, which is true, but the priority should have been a proper rebuild of the defence. It doesn't matter how many goals you score if you can't defend... Let's be honest, we didn't look any better up front today than we did last season. We've leaked goals for the last 2 seasons and somehow we're started the season with with the same shambolic mess that we ended last season with. As if a 20 year old Austrian defender signed on deadline day is going to be the answer to our problems?

Absolute ****ing disgrace. Liverpool next week. That'll end 8-1.

Just sing 'Danny Nedelko' by Idles and change the name... He's made of bones, he's made of blood He's made of flesh, he's made of love He's made of you, he's made of me Unity Fear leads to panic, panic leads to pain Pain leads to anger, anger leads to hate Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, ah, ah, ah, ah Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, ah, ah, ah, ah Kevin Dans-oh Now watch the deal fall through. ?

Just seen a press report that said he's not coming. Barca want to keep him as a back up option. Valverde doesn't want him to go, even on a short term basis.

I totally agree. A CB should have been the number one priority. Very surprised we've not seen the likes of Hoedt, Soares, Mo, Stephens, Austin, Carillo and Boufal moved on already. Maybe, Boufal and Soares still have something to offer? The rest seem to be surplus to requirements. Maybe they'll all go on deadline day, which doesn't leave us with much time to strengthen with quality.

I'm not convinced we'll see any activity in this area. Shame as I think it was glaringly obvious that this was a problem area for us last season and for whatever reason Ralph and the club haven't been able to find a solution. I hope I'm proved wrong. I still think we're 2 players short.

Just sell the bloody shirt without the sponsor. West Ham are doing it this season and I hear sales of the non sponsored shirts are massively outselling the sponsored one.

You beat me to it. I would have gladly posted it there but that thread seems to have gone a bit off topic. Far easier to start a new thread than dig through 20 pages of old material.

Will we sign a new CB and if so, who do you think it will be?

Don't think there's a game planned. I'm sure it would have been announced if it was happening. Carton House is in Kildare, about 30 mins drive from Dublin. The place is fenced off for training sessions so the chances of seeing anything are slim.

It's a great club. My wife is Dutch and her family are all Feyenoord supporters. It's actually cheaper for me to fly from Dublin to Amsterdam and get the train to Rotterdam to watch Feyenoord than it is to go to a Saints home game. Went to a good few games there last season and really enjoyed it.

Any update on this? I know they're due over today. Just wondered if anybody knows where they're staying / training or if they've got a local game arranged?

And Coventry get a reboot of the classic Hummel shirt from '87. http://www.footballshirtculture.com/19/20-Kits/coventry-city-2019-2020-hummel-home-kit.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=facebook

I know some of the squad are coming to Ireland for pre-season training between July 22nd and 26th. Does anybody know where they'll be based?

I think you're right. I would expect to see 3 or 4 players leave before we sign anybody else. I'm sure they're working hard behinds the scenes to move on the likes of Carillo, Cedric, Hoedt, Stephens, Gallagher, Mo & Austin. Oh, has Classie gone yet? If we can shift all of these payers in the next month then that should give us time to bring in one or two more defenders, which I thing we desperately need. I've a horrible feeling that a lot of these deals won't be done until deadline day and then that puts the pressure on us to make quality signings at the last minute.

Whoever is responsible for the kit at Saints, are you listening? It's not difficult. Just keep it simple. Stick to tradition and keep it classy, just like Feyenoord have done with their new shirt. Most Saints fans would kill for something like this... https://www.footyheadlines.com/2019/03/feyenoord-19-20-home-kit.html

Just need a couple of defenders now. Disappointed to see Targett leave but I guess Ralph feels that we have enough cover in that department. A young CB must surely now be a priority.

£8m. Poor decision to sell IMO. Out of interest, who will be our cover at LB if Bertrand gets injured?