Saint86

Its pretty mental to me that 3 games in there are people discussing him getting the sack, let alone wanting him to be sacked. Get a grip ffs - he's earned more than 3 games in the prem 🤣

Seems like an absolute joke of a decision tbh.

How on earth have they been allowed to escape punishment for this. Makes a complete mockery of the entire thing. Some clubs have stuck to the rules (undermining their performance), and others have been punished. Leicester have cheated and escaped any punishment. Everton and forest in particular must be fuming. Leeds as well I imagine - given all their sales to meet PSR limits...

Reckon you've gone at least 4months early with this comment 😅

So we should sign him because he's been shit since he left us and is therefore affordable? 🤔😅

Agree with this. I think Martin (rightly or wrongly) is guilty of deliberately opting for a more defensive approach whilst the side (and he) find their feet. I think the natural progression will be one of us opting to 4-3-3 and taking the game to sides. Newcastle away the 5 at the back was understandable. Forest at home less so. I would anticipate us changing it up sooner rather than later and taking the game to sides more... It does have to happen and the sooner we realise it the better. He (martin) talks about being brave all the time, but so far we've been as cowardly as it's possible to be tactics wise. But he is a young manager and it's his first time at this level. He deserves his chance, and he showed last year that he can learn and adapt, I think he'll demonstrate that again this year. Some of the bed wetting and the negativity from the fans has been laughable. This club nearly went to the wall 15 years ago, yet loads in the fanbase act like we're entitled to being an established mid table prem side, despite hounding out the last manager capable of that (in ralph - who genuinely loved the club as well), and now calling for the head of the man who got us back to the prem 😒

Goal should have been ruled out. Joke. But another game where we don't look like scoring.

Streams gone?

Makes complete sense when you phrase it like that?

Agreed. Not someone i thought would be available or within our budget range - Was back to being their #1 at the end of last season. I haven't been this optimistic about a goalkeeper signing in a long long time, could be the best keeper we've had since Niemi if he can get past the injuries. I don't think Baz will find it very easy to get back into the side over him.

Ah i see what you're saying Upwey. Fair point - it will be interesting to see how they get on.

Broja?!? 🤣😂 Ipswich are wasting money on wages there. Let alone the fact that Archer is our player for half the price.

Chelsea are basically a temp agency at this point. You can bet that every single player they've signed is part of a business plan to turn profit first and foremost. The few that are good enough for the first team all benefit from uplfits in their contracts - the rest generate loan fees and are sold for profit to rival clubs.

I mean, isn't this a bit of a state the obvious comment? Did those teams have a net spend of circa £160M at the start of the 3 year cycle ending this season? Did they get relegated suffering a huge drop in income and allowable spend/loss under PSR? Let's not even start on Brighton and their very impressive player trading in recent seasons. Ditto wolves and Bournemouth have both had high sales this window -so all in, I think it's hardly that surprising that all 3 of them can go out and spend - it doesn't necessarily mean it's the right strategy though. PSR in particular works to screw over prem clubs that get relegated and try/managed to bounce back - we'll have done very very well if we manage to bounce back, stay up, and avoid any PSR sanctions...

They would have said he failed the medical if this was the case, not announced that they basically tried to change the terms of the deal (which is effectively what they've done 😅🤦‍♂️🤷‍♀️) and couldn't reach an agreement. Fully on Saints' side with this one. They announced a routine heart condition publicly to the press (zero need for this) to try and force our hand and reduce the value of the player and further pressure us, and then they've tried to renegotiate the terms. We've seemingly told them to Foxtrot Oscar. 3rd time they've done it this summer as well. Extremely bizarre to then try and turn what is a collapsed player sale (to a club taking the piss) as yet another opportunity to beat saints around the head. Some crazy toxic narratives out already this season - we've just been promoted, and yet anywhere you look you'll find people having a go at the club, the manager, macca etc. Sad state of affairs.

Not at all sold on O'Riley, so will be very happy if we don't spunk £26M (of our very tight budget) up the wall on him.

Yeah, they're a horrible team. Niggly, every decision they are onto the refs about. Always giving back chat to our players. Basically scrapping and giving out from the word go - and its been this way for years. Their fans are no different. Absolute Mongrols the lot of them. Still we did absolutely outplay them - there is no denying that we only lost because of 1 mistake. Given we will improve significantly from this point i feel a lot more positive about the season. Pretty funny how pissed off newcastle got only having 32% of the possession before the red card.

Unreal bed wetting. Talk about a laughable agenda to be trotting this shit out in the first game of the season when we've outplayed a champions league contender for 44min.

Hah, i'm not the only one getting defoe vibes then!

Archer reminds me a little bit of defoe in his highlights clips.

Not sure if this link will work, but interesting if that much is going on in the background - the article gives previous few details. https://www.thetimes.com/sport/football/article/why-this-could-be-the-most-absurd-premier-league-season-yet-xrff5q50p https://archive.ph/KDBJS

This is the best 11 for me. We have to play to our strengths... The keeper is the weak spot so protect him - 3cbs. Nothing else we can do with this as it stands. Our first choice wingbacks are good frankly, especially on the attacking front. Having 3 cb's and cdm frees them up nicely to cause problems. CM - I actually think flynn is a quality CM engine room for most prem teams (outside the big boys). He's a great midfield anchor for us. Only issue is there is only one of him in the squad. But charles has looked good. Other CMs - smallbone, aribo, and alcaraz... This is okay for a bottom half team. Not great. Not bad. I think they work well together within the tactics and alongside Downes and arma etc. We'll be effective against sides. Arma and bbd. Good movement (which suits our style), pace and a bit of a live wire threat from AA. BBD has a bit more guile and control about him. They compliment each other / the side quite well. Will be okay again for a bottom half side. --- 5-1-2-2 is the right starting formation for us. Edozie and SAA allow us to switch to a 4 with wingers. And dibling gives us some attacking CM cover. We have a weakness at GK, and zero cover there. Lose flynn and we're in serious trouble. We've got no real cover for AA or BBD frankly. The likes of Flynn, AA, BBD cannot play every game all season. We need depth badly.

We aren't poor at development. SR just don't know how to use the academy / don't care. We've lost nearly all our top talent (for peanuts) because we didn't want to pay them a bit more per week or give them minutes... and then we've also gone and spunked tens of millions on other players (that don't care about the club and who haven't kicked on), not to mention their far higher wages than academy kids. Fortunately dibling came back (although I am still none the wiser as to what happened there).