beancounter saint

Well there isn't much point arguing about it but I stand by my comment that Saints are currently underperforming just slightly based on league position, IMHO. Klopp and Liverpool are a pretty obvious example at the moment of a side that are further below their expected level based on budget. It may not be a happy situation but at the Premier League level, the performance of a team over any length of time correlates pretty directly with its financial resources and I'm sure the owners appreciate that.

Logically, that's correct if another manager would do so but I don't personally think there's too many managers that consistently get the maximum out of a team

Probably fair comment. There seems to be some collective hysteria at work on this forum. Ralph may or may not get sacked and, if so, results may or may not improve subsequently, but to suggest that it's self evident that he should be sacked and that this will guarantee improvement is patently nonsense. Saints are probably underperforming slightly currently in the table compared to budget but things are incredibly tight. The owners have decided on a fairly risky strategy in terms of player recruitment which may or may not pay off, such is life.

In that picture he looks almost exactly like Aubameyang! 🤣

Maybe because there is one premier league football season each year?

I thought he looked pretty good playing or the B Team and, as Steve mentions, was heavily involved in organising things at the back. Difficult to know the true quality of a player though until they come up against stronger opposition.

Obviously disappointing to go from winning to a draw in the end last night but I thought it was an entertaining game of football and Saints maintained the standard and energy levels much better than in most games this season

I've only seen the B team live once, a very dominant win against Villa a couple of weeks ago. Small and quite a few others looked good but for me it was Simeu that really stood out as a strong and vocal presence. I do think you have to pace things bringing through young CBs though as, like keepers, any mistakes do tend to come under the spotlight.

There was something similar said about Twisted Sister, I think - built like dockers, dressed like hookers!

It struck me for the first time that we had 3 French speaking players starting today and a further 2 on the bench. Don’t know if this is coincidence or a deliberate strategy but it’s the highest number of speakers of a specific language other than English I can recall. Not quite at the Wolves level yet though!

Seems like we paid £11.50 for Redmond!

Call me a pedant, but Dylan's lyrics were exactly the opposite: Flung down by corpse evangelists, unthought of, though somehow Ah, but I was so much older then. I'm younger than that now A self-ordained professor's tongue too serious to fool Spouted out that liberty is just equality in school

I wonder how many teams have fans that believe they “should” be at least a top half team in the premier league, a lot more than 10 I’d wager!

Sorry to be pedantic, but the catheter is the method by which they access the heart via an artery, likely what was fitted was one or more stents. I had open heart surgery a couple of years ago for a valve issue and have had angiogram via catheter so it's a subject close to my heart, if you forgive the pun!

Good luck to him, hope he can get his career back on track. He was the only senior player to stay out signing autographs for all who were waiting after the open training session earlier in the Summer.

Hate to be a pedant but Ralph is 5 years older than Poch!!

I thought Prutts and Beatts on Saints Radio were a genuinely entertaining double act, guess it was around 2004, probably just before all top league footballers were "media trained" to essentially say nothing interesting at all (though Charlie Austin may have missed the course!) I recall them discussing haircuts and Beattie accusing Prutton of "not believing" in haircuts!

Yet you and all the other sages on this forum would no doubt keep a club with the financial clout of Saints in the Premier League year in year out with no trouble at all?

The funny thing is that, had we held on to the lead last night rather than being on the end of a pretty dubious penalty decision, this thread almost certainly wouldn't exist. Such are the vagaries of a game like football. Personally, I thought some of the attacking play showed a fluency we haven't seen for a long time and I'm fairly optimistic this season will end up better than last. One thing I can't understand is why he perseveres with Hoedt rather than Yoshida. I would have thought that Yoshida and Vestergaard might complement each other well as a pairing.

Yes that is a useful distinction. He may or may not be average in terms of top speed as a previous poster claims but he’s certainly above average when it comes to getting past an opposing player, even if he’s no Ronaldo. I’d say he’s the best we have at Saints when it comes to that skill, even if the competition isn’t that stiff!

Yes, apart from pretty well all the levels at which he has operated with Saints

I’m really not sure who’s worse of Hoedt and Stephens as it’s pretty difficult to judge centre backs in isolation rather than as a pair. However I’m convinced Yoshida is better than either of them which makes it surprising he hasn’t come back in if he is fully fit.

I remember the Sheffield Utd game as a cold one. Can’t remember anything at all about the game but remember walking past frozen burst water mains on the way to and from the game.

I liked the cut of his jib. Reminded me of Beattie in some games when he would start off haring around like a mad dog. Didn't achieve a great deal yesterday but showed promise and it was refreshing to see a player so obviously busting a gut to try and make something happen. My friend and I have christened him "Mad Dog" Carrillo, hoping he proves worthy of a nickname!

So's VVD, I'm looking at January now!!