goodymatt

All sounds like a great fit, like others I’m cautiously optimistic. Hopefully this is our sustainable model with that bit more of a foundation and financial flexibility to make it work for us. I wonder if this is actually more likely to prevent Broja staying on though. One of my close friends is Albanian and he just messaged me “say goodbye to Broja”. I’m sure the association would be seen as unacceptable in his family. The hatred against Serbia is unwavering and for good reason.

As Salisu was a red, does that mean his ban is served in this fixture? Think I read accumulative yellows are competition specific but reds are still for all domestics? Can anyone confirm?

They’ve removed the function to change it unless you sign up to the paid membership. I’d like to change it, but I’m not paying a fiver for the privilege!

Does anyone know how this Covid declaration thing works? I’ve got 3 tickets to Wolves away (should a potential circuit breaker not close the stadium). One of the tickets I purchased with my Dad’s supporter number but he can’t go now and my friend wants to take the ticket. We are all triple jabbed and have Covid passes we can show at the stadium, but I can’t register a declaration against my friends name on the Saints OS as the ticket was purchased against a different supporter number/name. Would that info even make it to wolves on the day or will they just check Covid passes and let him in? Appreciate this is a new process so maybe I’m not the only one wondering how this works and if I need to call saints and make changes? TIA

Jinx!

Absolutely. I did try as soon as Danny jumped ship, but I think you need to be a full member to change avatar these days… Might have to just pay the £5 fine!

I’ve just checked each Villa PL game on Flash Scores. 4 yellows total including today, so not suspended unfortunately.

Any streams for the game tonight?

Tino is an absolute baller. Redmond miss might have been even worse than Djenepo at Newcastle. As if we have 2 miss of the season contenders already… Come on Saints, carry that momentum through into the second half and get the win! Please.

Didn’t work out for him at Fulham despite spending a fair amount. Wouldn’t say Ranieri is nailed on to keep them up. Sadly I’d agree that we are in that lottery group of teams that could go down. Hoping we can still avoid the drop though.

Quite possible. Hoping this isn’t the case and it is just an injury, but there’s usually no smoke without fire and that Sun article (yes, I know it’s The Sun) was concerning and so out of the blue.

Think his contract runs to 2024. Didn’t he sign a new one not long ago? Just checked, he signed a new 3.5 year deal in January 2021. You wonder why he would now suddenly want to leave?

Interesting thread on Ralph’s managerial stats since he joined us.

You make a valid point on changing Ralph out because the results are just not acceptable. I would say the majority of Premier League clubs would come to that decision despite any extenuating circumstances. Hard to argue after 4 wins in 27 league games, but I’ll have a try… I think our decision makers look at it with a pragmatic view. For example that having 8 senior players fit for good chunks of last season won’t present a true representation of Ralph’s ability. I saw a graphic last season that showed when we played games more than 3 days apart our results massively improved. I’d attribute that to reduced chances of injury and the style we play is quite draining (when we do it properly). If we can ‘write off’ the second half of last season due to fixture congestion and injuries having a significant impact, which might be seen as very generous to Ralph, then how have we done so far this season? I think we have shown promise and have only really got 1 result (Wolves) that we can argue with. I think the signs are there that we are capable. The question is how long can we wait. You’re spot on when you say there will come a point in time when a decision must be made. The question is, is that now. We still have more points from the same fixtures we played last season, and the fixture list hasn’t been kind to us for the start of this season. The difference with your work example is you perhaps know this colleague well enough to know it’s just not going to get turned around and I’m not sure if there are as may extenuating circumstances if any to make you think twice about whether replacing them is the right decision? Overall, we’re probably not too many games away from no longer being able to give Ralph the benefit of the doubt. That was written from quite close to the fence!

Ralph is an odd one. It is very unusual to go on a run of results like this (2021 results) and keep your job at this level. 2021 as a year has been a disaster for us. We’ve lost 9-0 twice under Ralph in 2 seasons and had the longest run of defeats in our league history. There are many records you don’t want to have that have arrived during his time here. I’m sure points lost from winning positions is a record too. On the other hand, you can see what he’s trying to do, injuries second half of last season were unbelievable and contributed massively to our form. There is a reason that despite our 2021 form, the fanbase remains split on whether he’s the right guy for the job. Most other managers would be unanimously wanted out by the fans. He’s a likeable guy, when it works it’s brilliant and he fits well with our youth angle and therefore budgetary constraints from an acceptance point of view at least. He’s turned Prowsey into a much better player and improved many others, some have left to play for bigger clubs and others have returned to their previous form like Redders. I agree with @TWar that unless there is an outstanding candidate, a change for change sake is pointless. Personally don’t think Howe is the better manager. I’d love Ralph to turn this around as long term I think he can improve us. Our financial constraints may never give him the tools to prove that though…

Interesting to hear from Tony Adams that Ralph called him a couple of years ago when we lost our assistant manager to Bayern.

I understand that he had options to play at a higher level but didn’t want to relocate from the South. Surprising to see him not be the first name on the team sheet at that level. I was impressed enough when he featured in a Saints shirt to be surprised he only got loans to league one and didn’t become a championship level player. Shows how small the margins are in football.

“I know that’s right!” What a guy.

I was at the game last night and thought Lyanco looked composed and calm on the ball in the main, wasn’t all bad and it was his first game in England. Agree with other posters that neither CB had a great game. The worrying thing about Lyanco was that he should have given away 2 goals. First one he was just holding off their player and another came in, stole it, megged Salisu (very poor from Sali too there) and then somehow narrowly missed. Second one an unforced error lead to their equaliser. On both occasions he’s taking unnecessary risks. He’s young and hopefully we can develop him to take those risks at the right time, something that Vestergaard learned eventually after similar moments of being too calm on the ball at the wrong time.

Offside VAR review was after the 90th minute I think so excluded from the initial 5 mins on the board. It would have been horrendous if they had robbed the win in the dying moments.

The offside review by VAR took over 2 mins so I’m guessing this is why 5 became 8. Made for nervous viewing!

He does so many things really well, just that final decision or hesitation that scuppers those big opportunities at the moment and this was a problem last season too. When he was our player of the season he was much more decisive and had that confidence in his decisions. He does seem to show this against lower league opposition in cup games. Just wish he could get that confidence back at the top level. Only thing I know for sure is fans getting in his back is not the solution to get him there. Appreciate he’s had a lot of opportunities to reach that consistent level by now. In the context of yesterday’s game, he may have not picked the right pass on those few occasions but his general play and work against the ball was excellent.

Looks like Sheffield United have started to find some decent form after a disappointing start to their season. Might be a more difficult task than expected. Hoping like others that they will prioritise their league campaign. From a Saints perspective I’d like to see Lyanco start for this one and I’d expect to see Perraud, Broja and Diallo starting too. I very much enjoyed my first live game post Covid this weekend at City and looking forward to going to Sheffield for this one too. Rude not to when living in the north west!

Nice video compilation of Tino’s very impressive start in a Saints shirt. We’ve only seen him play 5 games, but already looks like he’s going to be a top player. £5m is a joke, absolute steal!

I’ve not received mine either, post for today has been and gone. I ordered City away tickets on the same day and they arrived on Wednesday of this week. Saints are leaving it a little later than usual for this one…