Saint86

Another goal last night starting against nice in 7th (level with Lille in the champions league places and 3 points of second). Would have been an ideal player to keep for the champ, probably CHDAJU as well. The fact we've loaned him out for free was pretty stupid. The fact there has been no mention of the agreed fee / any sell on clause doesn't bode well either. I wonder what will happen if we get Rosenior as manager.

And that is the beauty of "propaganda football" in a nutshell.

What?!?! No one blames him surely? He was still a colossal waste of money on wages, transfer fees, agents fees, and signing on fees. But that isn't on him.

Revisiting this for where the team is now.... Potential line up next season: GK = Bazunu (or Ramsdale - if by some miracle we keep him), Lumley and Maca as backups. RB = new 1st choice, Bree ------- KWP sadly gone, and I would also assume Sugarwara will be sold given there have already been rumours, but if he stays thats adequate for the champ with a non Martin style of football. LB = Manning and Wellington, Larios -------- Charlie Taylor to leave? CBs = One of Stephens/Bednarek/THB to remain (the others to leave I would guess), Edwards and Wood, new CB signing, Sanda (squad) ------ ABK will be gone for sure. CMs = Downes, Shea Charles, Smallbone, Aribo (can see one of smallbone/aribo potentially leaving, but would keep both unless a good deal can be made). CAMs/Wingers = Edozie, Fraser, hopefully we keep one of Dibling and Fernades for the year, suspect this area needs strengtehing tbh, even with the goztepe loanees --------- Sulemana to surely leave Strikers - Archer, AA, Onuachu (I would personally keep all 3 of these, unless we can get an upgrade or good money in with which to strengthen) -------- stewart to leave on loan. Have no idea what the Matsuki / Juan's long term strategy is... so will just leave their names here in limbo land... In terms of what i would call the safe/definite sales... Sulemana and one of dibling/Fernandes should hopefully bring in about £50-60M for 2 of them. Maybe we'll get about £10-15M total for bednarek and ABK? Maybe... THB would land us £20-25M if anyone actually wants to buy him (i cant see he's impressed enough to warrant the outlay). £5-8M total for sugawara and taylor? If we sell him, £25M for ramsdale. Onuachu we've struggled to shift every window... i would just keep him at this point, far more effective than Che was. Would like to see him played with 2 pacey / clever players running off him.

People can't have it both ways on Martin. 1.) He was a manager who was going to play his style of football for his own sake, regardless of what it meant for his club's performances. 2.) His style of football was flawed, giving away far to many chances to the opposition albeit at times we were very pleasing on the eye. I would say we got away with it in the championship last time because we had one of the best squads. The end. I would probably give him an average score for promotion. 4 teams could have gone up in 3 spots, and he got the last of those spots. Fair play - and thank you to him for a great day out at Wembley and a season as a whole. But equally, if we hadn't got promoted you could only view last season as a failure. He then showed in the premier league that he was going to refuse to change, and that he would quite happily continue losing with his style than to adapt and try to grind out points. Similarly, last season there were warning signs of this attitude, where we were shocking and didn't make any kind of change. In summary then, i think the people that highlight martin as a sign of great recruitment are incorrect. Neither Wilcox nor Martin were great appointments, they were average. (Jury out of Wilcox frankly - not left a great legacy, our recruitment last year was suspect re building for the prem, his manager couldn't hack it in the prem, and he pissed off the first chance he had). What i will say for Sports Republic, is that Wilcox demonstrated and acknowledgement that they were out of their depth and needed an experienced person to head up the recruitment side of the club. Lets hope Spors will prove better than average and that he'll stick around - its badly needed. Also not convinced Rohl is going to be the best man, but he's done a decent enough job at Wednesday, and he was Ralph's deputy during a decent period. Can saints afford another philosophy manager though? Or is it time to be realistic and get someone like cooper, get promoted, get established, and then start faffing around with styles and philosophies (aka Brighton).

https://www.thestar.co.uk/sport/football/sheffield-wednesday/sheffield-wednesday-unpaid-wages-transfer-ban-5069571 After 2 months non payment, the players can give notice and a payment deadline, and then terminate their wages. Anyone know if the same thing applies to managers / coaches? That deadline is today, and as of yesterday there were still players that hadn't been paid according to that article anyway. If the club really do want Rohl then Juric is a dead duck going into the summer. Rohl is for certain leaving Wednesday after his interview on the weekend - therefore we really should make that move and get him in before the end of the season (assess the squad / plan for the summer). Wednesday sound like they are in dire straights and would surely bite our hand off for any kind of financial compensation if they're struggling to pay wages which will give them a prolonged transfer embargo... its a no brainer on that front. All of which will only increase the noise the longer Juric is still here. I.e., maybe he's the preferred manager for SR going into the champ?

I could be wrong ofc, but i think Wednesday have missed the pay deadline on 31st March, which makes 2months pay, which means staff/players are free to leave?

How many teams promoted out of their league? They're only 2 points of 4th?

Hate to break it to you, but that will have been a fairly common appearance this season...

Hasn't played football in a year, so ofc he scores. Game changed from when Dibling came on and Sulemana went off, we lost all threat from the pace/power of Onuachu/sulemana. Palace have pushed up since then.

We absolutely should keep him next season. He's an absolute weapon and will only dominate more at championship level (against weaker players, less pace, and with less pressure on our passers and runners). For the small amount of money we'll get for him, he is an obvious player to keep.

Had a look through some of the numbers today and whilst the headline figure (£5.7M profit) sounds good on face value but there is a bit more to it than that. Brief summary of key points: Total wage spend last season was £70.7M, whilst turnover (with parachute payments) was £84.8M. So circa 83.3% turnover. Turnover itself dropped by £60.7M to £84.4M, which was largely due to tv monies, but within that we also dropped our commercial revenue by £5.5M (35% reduction) from £15.6M to £10.1M. Amortisations of players was £51.1M in the champ (down from £52M in the previous prem season). Given the extreme outlay in 2022/23, i suspect we'll see similar again when this year's books are released in a years time. High level figures then, turnover of £84.8M vs wages of 70.7M and player amortisations of £51M (actual total operating costs of £122.4M, a loss for the year of £35.9M if player trading revenue is excluded). Some good news (i guess) was that we paid down our loan by £23.8M bringing it to £69.6M - However this is still a significant sum. I would guess we'll have done similar this year so it probably stands at around £45M going into the champ next season? Looking ahead to next season then: Based on the above, assume turnover will be similar at around £84M. Assume player amortisation will be similar at around £50M. Assume wages will be similar at around £70M. Therefore excluding the loan repayments, we'll be looking to make a circa £35M transfer profit to balance the books... I don't know what the terms are on the loan, but potentially another £20-25M additional on top of that, so £60M transfer profit to balance the books. Then whatever money we want to spend on strengthening the team will also need to come from additional wage reductions/sales. Add on agents fees... Could all be utter horeshite, but thats my take on it all anyway 😇

That Koke fella brags about being the founder of the Bereton Diaz for Chile movement on X... Surely that would immediatley disqualify him? 😅😂

"Romain Gasmi on loan from RC Strasborg was once dubbed “the next Zidane”"😅

He's been there barely 2 months, had to settle in to a new country, culture, and style of football, and I believe he had a bit of injury trouble as well... But when he's scoring against Lyon at his age i'd say your view is pretty poor / out of whack on this one. It's really poor business by the club. Doubly so as there is absolutely no mention of a sell on clause! Also, why should we condemn and 17/18 year old as not good enough because they can't step up to the prem at their age and In this dross team? Also, our new sporting director has basically come out and criticised letting both SAA and meghoma go... But hey ho, maybe we should have hired Lighthouse as the new director of football, what does spors know after all? 😅😂

SAA now playing and scoring against Lyon... But ofc, not good enough for saints this season or next season, and absolutely not worth keeping hold off for just a little bit longer as his value increased.. 🤦

https://archive.ph/fugYs

Would love Ralph back as i'm sure he'd get us sorted, but sadly there is no chance he would ever come back. Reality is that he's a quality manger who is now onto a good thing in Germany. Also, why would he even come back? Our owners have been appalling since they came in, undermined him on the coaching and player front, and frankly much of our fanbase treated him pretty poorly as well over that final season. If we want Ralph back, then Rohl is likely as close as we'll get - but what is truly bizarre is that SR have already done a great job of getting rid of Ralph, his style, and utterly changing our general player profiles/types - only to be seemingly going back on it all with Rohl? 😂

For comparison, the Newcastle tickets were £8 for adults, £2 for concessions. Ours were £10 and £4. Both Newcastle and Sunderland are significantly bigger sides than Portsmouth (both in the mens' and womens' game), and there is certainly more of a feel good factor about football at both Sunderland and Newcastle than at saints right now. But yes, i agree, it does put the attendance figures for the "south coast derby" (as the club billed it) into perspective.

If we kept most of them, then the squad would be even better than last season's squad... who came 4th in what is widely regarded as one of the toughest championship seasons in recent years. We barely even saw the likes of ABK, sulemana, Onuachu etc., last season, so selling them wouldn't even impact on squad comparisons.

Anyone that doesn't understand Dibbling is a top top talent in the making really doesn't know much about football 😅. He started the season as an 18year old with no senior football under his belt - and he immediatley had some of the world's top defenders either scared to close him down or he was going around them for fun - Gvardiol didn't know what to do with him when we played Man City away ffs!! And he isn't just a speed player, he's about skill and power - neither are going to be leaving him for most of his career and in fact will only get better - he's already got great feet and can bully fully grown men physically at 18/19 - he carries the ball with ease, shows no fear at all, and is already contributing end product in what is quite literally one of the shittest top flight teams english football has ever seen. The kid is absolute class - I can't imagine what he'll be like once he's physically matured and has had a few more years learning how to use his bod. If we could somehow convince him to stay, sign a new deal, and have a new team built around him it would be the best business saints have done since they signed VVD. Its extremely unlikely sadly, but then a year playing week in week out and dominating the championship (which he certainly would bar injury) wouldn't be a bad thing for him - it did wonders for players like Lallana and Grealish. For certain players it lets them hone their own style and develop a lot of confidence which they can carry into the next stages of their career. And Grealish might also be a good example that moving to a big club isn't all its cracked up to be. Hope he stays, but if we sell him for less than £50M and a sell on clause it would be bad business.

Pretty sure a Martin Saints team would have beaten that Wolves side (based on what i saw at least...)

Only managed to tune in once it was already 2-0, but that portion of the game seemed much better? Was the first 60min or so absolute gash i'm guessing? Wolves are a very poor side - probably the most likely team in the league to get relegated next season.

Nope, and that is a concern for us as fans I think. Sports republic probably see it as par for the course though 😂

I don't disagree on the "maybes and what ifs", but it doesn't change the fact that he wouldn't adapt when we absolutely had to - he was determined to put his reputation and style above the club's survival, and that is what fundamentally did it for me. He also tried to be best mates with the players which isn't going to cut it at this level. He was a nice enough guy who did what he had to do last year (and gave us a great day out and fond memories), but his time was up in the prem in the end. Its a shame he wouldn't adapt and try to keep it tight at times - would have kept the fanbase on board and then maybe we would have seen him next season in the champ.