Saint86

Lovely one touch break up field by Brighton there. Ominous start.

Martin wants a Christmas pay off?

My goodness. Even the pundits are openly laughing at saints' getting their pass completion stats up. Ffs.

This is not going to go well 🤣

Inclined to agree. Its not just on him as SR have blocked pathways and allowed the best kids to leave... but the fact Dibling can school the best defensive players in the prem on a frankly routine basis but couldn't get a game last year in the champ is beyond a joke. Thats one hell of a transformational summer for the lad... 🙄.

Exactly this. Dibling is superb and i'm glad we got to see him play, but we've lost so many others. JJM and Gomes represent huge failures by the club (particularly the latter). Whats happened with the youth academy on their watch is shocking - its a core characteristic of the football club and part of the fans bond with the team that we will develop and bring though exciting young players. It shows a fundamental lack of understanding of the club and fans that they do not grasp this - but sadly, they seem more interested in signing players like Wellington (for Goztepe 🙄) than they are in keeping and developing a top top talent like Gomes - and to lose him for peanuts with minimal compensation (as he moved abroad) is doubly poor. Ditto the likes of Meghoma and co - why couldn't we have used the multi club model to develop them rather than losing them on the cheap to replace them with mercenaries that have no loyalty to the club and are on higher wages anyway...

That's partly because SR have failed to keep any of his peers from that u18s team. A real travesty given we'd finally managed to rebuild the academy after the league 1 and championship years.

Agreed!!! Attacking players where i consider we've wasted money (for what we've got) and that we've signed during the time period where we have been linked to Delap... Mara (shocking buy), Onuachu (i actually think there is a player in there for us), BBD (cheaper but you get what you pay for), Archer (might come good eventually but hasn't yet), Sulemana (extortionate amount of money for what he's returned) Ross Stewart (shocking buy), Orsic - see BBD, cornet (wages - pointless loan), Delap has 6 goals... isn't that at least as many as the above have all contributed as well? Note - it doesn't have to be delap that we signed... any reasonable striker would have sufficed!!!!

Yeah i'm not debating that - by all accounts we've been after him for a few windows. Yet another example of what happens when trying to save a couple of million likely ends up costing us tens of millions upon relegation. Arguably more so given there are also numerous cases where we then gone out and spent circa £10-20M on backup signings that aren't good enough as well.

Can't be. The all knowing footballing experts on here wrote him off months ago and ridiculed those of us who said he had what it takes to score at this level. He is an excellent signing for Ipswich - a quality striker for years to come or a tidy transfer profit. Either way, he would certainly have been a good buy for Saints, doubly so given the amount of money we've wasted on strikers.

Allow me to state my immense surprise at this rumour turning out to be complete horseshit.

With his fitness issues, its 2months more like.

If we all do that, sods law we'll win 😂

Time wise - My first game was when we beat Arsenal at the Dell 1-0 in 1994... interlude to that actually being basically 30years ago to the day (😨!!) and now i feel old 😂. Niemi Clyne Fonte VVD Shaw Morgan Wanyama Mane Le Tissier Tadic Lambert Honourable mentions to Dean Richards, Michael Svensson, Toby (we've had some damn decent CB's in our time) Beattie, Bridge, KWP (and full backs) Pelle - All of which immediatley sprung to mind as contenders but didn't quite cut the mustard. The joys of awful teams is that you tend to forget them. Doubtless i could plumb the depths of our championship and premier league relegation seasons and find some stinker picks mind.

Sadly, i think that lineup is fantasy land - there is no way we will consistently get 90min out of both lallana and dibling, so the time you'll see those two and fernandes on the pitch all at the same time is limited (tasty mind - but hence me calling it a fantasy). And besides, Fernandes should be played in the attacking positons behind the striker. What makes more sense is a rotation between fernandes/dibling/lallana, such that we have 2 of the 3 on the pitch in attacking positions as much as possible.

Shame - You'd like to think he is one of the ones we'd keep hold off and try to build around... But i guess sales are going to be required over the summer 😕

Where is the rest of your player sales? We will be ripping the squad totally apart following relegation - all saleable assets will be removed. We raised £160M last time around, and we will be in a similar financial state this time out as well. Trying to summarise where on earth that money can come from is pretty bleak... I've approximated some valuations below, although we'll be in a far weaker negotiating position this time around without the likes of big money sales to bail us out. Obviously we won't get takers for all these players, and similarly we may have to sell a couple we don't want... Ramsdale - £25M? THB - £25M? Dibling - £20M? Fernandes - £15-20M Archer (if we're lucky) - £10M? Onuachu (if we're lucky) - £5M? Sulemana - £5-10M ABK - £5-10N Reckon we could feasibly get somewhere in the realms of £95-115M all in - its unlikely we're realise maximum value for every player we sold, we'd need to cut wages, and we'd need to balance getting them out the door with trying to fill gaps... but all said and done, it leaves the squad pretty threadbare as it is and doubtful we'd have much money to strengthen. GK - Baz/Macca (Average champ) FBs - Bree, Taylor, Manning, Suga (Autos level)) CBs - Stephens, Bednarek, Woods, Edwards (Playoff level) CDMs - Downes, Charles, (Autos level) CMS - Smallbone, Aribo, (Play off level)) AM/Wingers - Edozie, SAA, Fraser (Top half) CFs/St - Armstrong, Stewart (Armstrong is playoff level, but zero depth) That is a squad that would challenge for the playoffs, not the top 2.

I mean, they only won because var gave them a 2goal advantage. They're fecking useless 😆

No it wasn't cleared, the commentators are having to assume it because it has been allowed. They show decisions that var check.

Another dubious VAR game for us. Fucking disgusting to not even show it. The complete lack of transparency and unequal application of var is awful for the game.

Foul on archer surely?

Fernandes really can't cross can he :Z

I'd like to see anyone deny this is all down to Martin's coaching as well!!! Credit it where its due 😆

I absolutely cannot wait for this one to come home to roost. Lammy is an absolute imbecile - i'm still chuckling at his master mind answer... "who followed henry VIII?"... "Henry VII" 🤦‍♂️... Sadly though i suspect he won't be foreign secretary by the time Trump is president, and certainly not by the time of any potential state visit. But between Starmer and Lammy though, honestly what a pair of absolute diplomatic imbeciles - The USA is the UK's most significant ally, and they've acted like a red flag to a bull in baiting Trump. Talk about not knowing when to keep your mouth shut and playing the smart game in politics 😂

I watched them play palace and they were absolutely atrocious. Worse at the back than us.