austsaint

Yes, it has to be this. Juric gets the rest of the season to sort out the squad, demonstrate he has the capability to be at a level approaching a Benitez, Bielsa, or a Silva, otherwise he packs his bag at the end of this season and a new Manager is recruited.

Indeed. No one doubts we have a poor squad of players - many of whom lack the Prem quality required. But let’s not forget the crazy dogma of Martin’s game style, and also that he was responsible for many of the poor players recruited, especially after Wilcox left. Juric deserves the rest of this season to straighten this mess out before any judgements are made.

Retaining Charles and offloading Smallbone would be my preference. I can’t see WS fitting into Juric’s set up - even at Championship level.

Might be a good time for you to have a spell. Fernandes, aged 20! Looks like one of the most gifted young players seen in a Saints shirt. Up there with Lavia - and like Lavia has had to get to grips with the Prem in a weak, ill fated team. He will surely progress to another Prem team and represent Portugal in the near future.

I know it’s time to let go of the frustration of the Martin era, but watching Les Ugo and Onuacho today, and the return of an orthodox set up and style of play confirmed the suspicion that Martin misjudged and mismanaged players and didn’t have the wit to see beyond his farcical obsession with possession Football.

He (Martin) did blank him. The minutes v Cardiff (where Bella-Kotchap did well) were quoted by Martin as evidence for prospective buyers that ABK was healthy (after the failed medical) and in the shop window - the game was played in late August - and he wasn’t selected by Martin again. That’s about as “blanked” as you can get!

You’re right about Traore. Seems to play out of his skin against us. Always starred for Wolves v Saints, and nothing has changed.

No, what I was talking about were long Ramsdale clearances initially won by a Fulham player but intercepted or regained by a Saints player high up the pitch.

Glad we didn’t lose the battle for Wellington.

Along similar lines; I noticed that of the many Ramsdale long clearances which didn’t find touch - around half resulted in Saints regaining possession in Fulham’s half.

Yep. If that recent quote is accurate, it reinforces the suspicion that Martin was too quick to judge and overlook players. ABK, Les Ugo, Sulemana, Tall Paul, Taylor, even Cornet strike me as players Martin couldn’t get a tune out of, or wasn’t interested in trying to. I’m expecting several of them to get an opportunity and show improvement now, should they survive the transfer window. One of Martin’s legacies will be the poor judgement he showed in believing players like Smallbone, Stephens, Bazunu and Manning were first choice players.

Good call. Happy to see Sugawara and KWP retaining the wing back roles too, rather than Manning. Dibling was below par today, so a sub role might work better. Depending on the state of the game I’d welcome cameo roles for Tall Pall and Sulemana. Very interested to see if Les Ugo can build on his impressive performance yesterday. Suddenly a bit of interest and anticipation in watching Saints has returned.

Somewhere between that and one of Robert De Niro’s un-hinged characters. I haven’t felt this encouraged about some sort of Saint’s revival since the better days of Ralph….before he hit the wall.

It’s certainly time he did something - Big Ben.

That’s a gem. …”I know, it’s only Danny Rohl, but I like it, like it, yes I do”.