Saint86

Yeah fully agree. A very tidy bit of business that one. Less sure about Wood's ultimately ceiling, but together they're a solid pair of squad centrebacks to have as backups with potential.

Our #1 target was Flynn... and rightly so. Followed up by Sugawara. Both positions were higher priorities than another attacking midfielder. I'd argue BBD was a more important signing as well. We've made 4 good signings (when you include THB) all of which were more important than an attacking midfielder. And whilst were on the subject, i'd rather we sign a GK and probably a striker first as well.

I am curious as to how you think Brighton got their money...

You lot are so very negative at times! FWIW I think we'll do alright this year unless injuries screw us over. The core team are solid enough for this level (bottom end of the prem) and well practiced at keeping the ball. We're going for 5 at the back, hard to beat, knock it around a lot to recycle possession, and lots of low scoring games. We have a style of play that works, that is somewhat unusual for the league, and which works for us. When the full strength teams came on vs lazio and getafe we dominated possession, looked far more assured, and held the sway over chances in both matches. Yes, we will get bad beats in some games - but we've got a very good morale in the team and we will be able to grind out results. We're not competing with the top team at the end of the day... we're competing with the dross to be 17th. There are clubs in this league that have been circling the drain - forest and Everton to name a few, wolves and Bournemouth have both just lost key attacking men. Leicester look set for whopping points deduction, and ipswich shouldn't be expecting to do any better than us - and for both us and them, a good start with early momentum will be important. Do we need to strengthen attack and GK, yes. But there is still time left. I also think 2 things will go on our favour over the season - 1.) we'll likely be seen as "easy points" or a rest game for the bigger sides in their busy periods. 2.) the team have been forged in the fire of the promotion chase and the playoffs. We won't bottle big game matches vs rivals. And that is where points will really matter. But we aren't going to be rock bottom and adrift with this side, we'll be in games more often than not, BBD and arma will get goals, and as others have said - if the worst happens, the squad will be very solid for the championship. Hopefully the fanbase can stay positive and support the team throughout, our new "kop" can make SMS a bit of a fortress (I have my doubts there mind 😅), and with a bit of fight we find ourselves the right side of 18th place come may!

Any recommendations for overseas coverage providers (that may or may not be accessible over a VPN, not in anyway suggesting i would make use of such a thing 😇)

Seems unlikely he'd move to spurs to be a backup, not even guaranteed to get ahead of Spence for that either.

Last year for PSR though right? I.e. the 3 year rolling period won't matter after this year's accounts?

We have a better squad than Ipswich, no question at all. On top of that, a lot of our players have significant Prem experience (and international). As for "so why are Ipswich managing it", they're not sitting too badly on the financial muscle side of things - Ipswich have something like £8-10Bn backers. They posted frankly huge losses for League 1 (which allowed them to build a core squad that could go up the leagues) and they'll no doubt post losses last year as well. They were jammy as hell to beat us, and i've got no doubt we were the better side by the end of the season. Take all the early season upheaval (players coming and going) and our change of tactics out of it, and we'd have been fine for automatics over the season - which is the advantage Ipswich had in building their squad in league 1. But going into the prem, we should happily consider ourselves as having at least as good a chance of survival as they have (in my opinion better).

My take is that Martin is spending a lot of time getting the squad as prepared as he can with his system and style - He knows that Downes, THB, Arma, Bednarek etc. can all do it (and when they've come in any friendly we've instantly had control so far). So outside of that he's just been giving them minutes a lot of the time (25-30min per game). I'm sure the last friendly will be a much stronger starting 11. We've had a shorter break than most sides and we've kept the core squad together. Reckon its been a decent pre season all in all. Or look at it another way - do people really want a repeat of Sunderland (a), Leicester (h), from last season to happen in the prem? I don't, so i'm okay with the likes of Wood, Edwards etc, getting more focus in playing our system where mistakes don't matter!

Lazio had been dirty all night, Alcaraz was just standing up for Shea (good lad), the lazio player then puts him in a choke hold and tries (maybe succeeds) to punch him in the face. Far from Alcaraz being the aggressor, he was just defending Shea and therefore Lazio started it in my book... and a small scrum of players stopped Alcaraz ending it (although fair enough, his head was gone by that point ). I like that fire in him personally, although he is a to easy to wind up. Easy to forget as well though that he is a young lad along way from home that moved over here and hasn't had a settled start by any stretch of the imagination. Joined a rotten dressing room (and shone himself), got relegated, mass unrest in the team and players all wanting to leave (whilst he committed himself), got loaned out to Juve (another country/language) and couldn't get much game time, and back now trying at Saints. He was pretty good last night as well (assist for the goal, some nice carries and often looking for the long/diagonal pass), especially considering that was largely the 2nd string lineup. I hope this doesn't damage his prospects under Martin as there is enough there to suggest we should keep him and get him working in our system - Some of the stuff he does is class and levels above what our other midfielders offer.

Why would an Italian journalist be a reliable source for a transfer between a team in scotland and one in england? If they're regurgitating a more reliable source then i'll take more interest.

Yeah agreed, he's been looking good in the last few appearances. Stepped on from last year, much more confident in possession and carrying the ball.

Harsh on Alcaraz that, got put in a choke hold and punched in the head. All he did was give a slight push and then attempt a rugby style turnover blocked by a scrum of our own players 🤣. And het gets set off. Done pretty well as well. I fear this wont help his chances with Martin.

Is it though? His contract has one year left I thought? Newcastle are prepared to let him leave for free and sing a new contract with us, but like any other player leaving a club they shouldn't have to pay his contract beyond him actually leaving. Fraser has the choice - stay and get paid by Newcastle (maybe another loan) or leave Newcastle with a new contract at saints. Newcastle are actually being quite fair/generous in allowing him to leave for a free in my oppinion. Clubs only do that when they're desperate to get a player to leave. Now, Saints could pay Newcastle a fee if we really wanted fraser, and equally Newcastle could use that fee to offset his wage demands (if they really wanted). But the whole thing smacks of fraser digging his heels in with Newcastle, possibly related to whatever happened in the background between him/club/howe and having one last axe to grind. Alternatively, it could just be that he's 30 as it is, he wants to maximise his last big pay day (which would be joining us this summer). Fwiw, i think if he does stay at Newcastle he's in a risky spot. Another loan might be sanctioned somewhere, but then he'll be 31 next summer and is he really likely to get a prem money move at that point? Reckon we're his last chance on that front, I.e. He signs for us on a 2-3year deal this summer or he won't get a another prem contract. At the end of the day though, if they're prepared to release him early from his contract for free, it's more than likely he'll be leaving this summer. Possibly one we get late in the window.

Such a weird narrative to blame Ralph over SR for that season. He'd been operating on a shoe string for ages and yet we'd made some astute signings in recent years - such as KWP and Tino, and laid the groundwork for Lavia deal. But then that summer/season, SR came in and gutted the first team coaching setup, the academy setup, the scouting setup, they gave the manager a bunch of young inexperienced players with no real thought to squad balance / dressing room cohesion, we played the entire season with the very young/inexperienced Bazunu as first choice, and crucially they spent £160mwith and didn't give the manager the striker we so badly needed. Then, despite having a lot of our best players out injured (most notably KWP, Lavia, Armstrong, and Tino), and despite having to blood those youngsters in to both senior football and his tactics, we were actually in touching distance of survival when SR sacked the manager - with more money to be spent in January, and players coming back from injuries. Can only imagine what he'd have achieved if SR had signed players the manager actually wanted as opposed to "investments" they could sell on for a profit (doing well on that front with a lot of them aren't we). But ah well... SR's two golden appointments (Selles and Jones) were on hand to correct the failings of the manager and drastically improve our form to carry us to safety... Oh wait...! That entire season is entirely on SR imo. Everything that followed relegation - the loss of income, the selling of our best players, the damage to our academy and loss of our academy stars (the team that came runners up to City's u18 Galacticos) - Its all on SR. The buck should stops with the owners as standard, let alone when their fingerprints are on every single negative decision taken at the club. And until they re-establish us a solid premier league team, they should be firmly in the red with the fans 🤷‍♂️. But like i said, i think they've learned from that and i think they might well come good in the long run... But we might look back and see that we wasted a few years just to get back to the level we were previously at when they took over (i.e. whilst they learnt on the job basically). One thing i will say though is that they seem to be doing well for focusing on improving fan experience at the ground 🤷‍♂️, and they do seem to at least be committed and fairly open owners.

Thing is, loads of people will keep buying this crap. Needs a hard boycott on shirt sales until the club understand that they need to be maintained for more than one season, and they need to actually turn out quality designs. To be changing the shirt every year, churning out shit repeated year on year, and then to be charging £60 for it is just a piss take.

Quite 😅. It's impressive really. How much did they spend to completely imbalance the squad (and not buy a striker for ralph), lose so many of the backroom coaching/scouting/academy staff, lose many of our best academy talents etc. That isn't to say they won't come good in the long run, but so far they've not been great owners and it's hard to argue they've had a net positive impact on any of the 3 clubs so far.

How much money have they spent for each of their clubs to effectively go backwards from where they were before the purchased them? Last year at saints was the absolute bare minimum... Which we squeaked. Outside of that, they have set the club back years in relation to scouting, coaching, and particularly the academy. First team quality is also significantly below that of the prem relegation season. Tino, lavia, and JWP absolutely waltz into our starting 11.

Normally get these pretty accurate. Sadly this year I'm not at all confident if survival 😕. Think we'll have a shaky start, get found out defensively, have to make some adaptions, and ultimatley be playing catch up - but there is some dross in the league. Everton and forest in particular look poor, and Brentford have lost their big name striker to injury. Maybe it will all click, but I can't see us coming far outside 19th-17th at the moment. Maybe a couple more signings and some good performances in the last few pre season games may raise my optimism levels.

Given he's in the final year of his contract, the second he starts performing well in the prem he'll be gone, or as a minimum have the club over a barrel contract wise. Ludicrous situation to have out ourselves in, let alone the fact he wasn't given game time last year (but now looks set to play at a higher level). What's even more shameful is the number of academy stars SR have lost in recent years. He's a quality talent that clubs can sign up for free and keep and develop for years. That's PSR gold.

What happens, is roles are advertised all over south asia (for example) with promises of a good job and a good salary (that can be sent home to support families in poorer parts of the world). Often with free travel out to the middle east as part of the offer. Then they land, their passports are confiscated, often phones are confiscated, and then they're shipped off to work long hours and/or hard jobs for minimal pay (if any) - that can be anything from maids living in windowless box rooms and working long hours, or labour on construction projects with minimal safety / welfare provision, long hours, and terrible conditions. They don't get their passports back either. Happens all over the middle east, and the Saudis are certainly guilty of it - they go out and target the vulnerable and desperate. Grim.

The Saudis were aligning themselves with Israel against Iran before the October attacks. I for one would enjoy watching an Israel vs Iran group game hosted in the tolerant police state that is saudi arabia. Guaranteed entertainment both on and off the pitch.

Broja?! get real man. He is a shadow of his former self after that injury. His physical attributes have declined and his confidence is through the floor. He needs to go to the championship (or similar) to try and resurrect his career. He's nowhere near good enough to carry a poor team over the line to survival. The love in for him is mad, the only thing he's done at this level was a short purple patch at saints in a very specific tactical setup.

very good acquisition for them in fairness.

Second call for feedback on this!