UpweySaint

He wouldn't excite me as a signing but he is an experienced pro possibly available at a reasonable price. We 100% could do better but might be able to do a decent job.

No actual links but in the HCDAJFU spirit ... Ludwig Augustinsson 27 attacking left back at Werder Bremen, decent amount of caps for Sweden experienced in a good standard league well known to our manager. The reliable source that is wikipedia seems to suggest he's played CM in his youth teams days so again maybe a bit of versatility. Milot Rashica 24 Attacking midfielder more often than not a winger also at Werder and we've been linked several times in the past. Werder have been relegated and apparently need to clear the decks due to financial concerns. I expect we might have a younger player than Augustinsson in mind but both probably not out of our price range - articles linking Villa to Rashica seem to suggest £14mil might be the going rate. £20 mil for the pair?

Show me a post saying they are excellent? Neither having good games. Valid to question them but some of the hate for Redmond on repeat is OTT - you'd think he'd sh*gged some posters wives. Our defending today has been shocking, nobody on the pitch or on the coaching staff coming out with much credit.

Behave. I didn't say our players never cheat so drop the sanctimonious nonsense. I would be embarrassed if one of our players did that too but let's not pretend Zaha is not a repeat offender. Bundles of talent and tricks but spends half his time winging or throwing himself to the ground. I fully reserve the right to consider him a bit of a knob while respecting his footballing skill.

Half time they are talking about how well Zaha did to 'win' the penalty by manufacturing contact. F*ck me can't we just call it is, cheating? Gamesmanship? Being a total c*nt?

I'm speculating but I can't imagine Blackburn's finances are in great shape. Should Ings go I would like to see us testing their resolve with an offer of £12-15 mil. Much like us with Danny I expect they can't afford to let him run down his contract and potentially leave for free.

What is he? England international, one of the best set piece takers in arguably the world's best league, a fitness marvel playing 98 consecutive games (including filling out of position and having Zaha in his pocket), a consistent performer, a goal scoring midfielder, a captain before even hitting his possible prime and a product of the academy who has had to earn his place in the side while managers played musical chairs around him. Honestly, what else do you want from the lad? How else do you want to measure his ability? Of course he's not De Bruyne or Fernandes ... if he was there is no way he would still be in a saints shirt.

Well not really. His set pieces add value and make us a threat in games when we struggle to break down teams in open play (which happens often!)

Agreed. Diallo has had a few poor games of late but has shown enough to make me think he develop into a really effective box to box type midfielder. Salisu looks very classy. KWP, let's just say Spurs must be wishing they still had him. If Ralph is backed with the right signings in the summer it will very much be put up or shut up.

I do consider myself a bit of an idealist so fully expect many to disagree but my view is one of faith in what Saints under Ralph could be. We've seen glimpses, we know it's there and could be possible. At points under Ralph we've gone toe to toe with the best playing a distinct style and some of the best football I've seen from us since Poch. We were going into games each week actually believing we could pick up results. Ralph has plenty of flaws and his stubbornness can frustrate but I can envision a scenario where we are better than the sum of our parts and punch above our weight rather than just hoping we get to the run in without relegation snapping at our heels. Much the same with Poch he gives genuine hope. While lots of circumstances have conspired against him/us even those of us who back him can acknowledge a more pragmatic manager may have done better in spells. We will never be able to compete on a level playing field with a significant number of clubs in the league in terms of spending power so we need to gain an advantage in other ways. The club are trying this with a long term approach based on buying in to Ralph's philosophy and it being embedded throughout the club.

Fuck me this is poor. Can't name a single player who is coming out with any credit. Tactics not working either. Credit to WBA who are playing some good stuff and are determined to win every ball but we need a rocket at half time.

The fact that he was third choice as Spurs is irrelevant. The way he has played this season I would be quite confident saying he is better than any of the right backs at Spurs. Broadly though I agree with your point we can't be so reliant next year. Our lack of depth at full back is no plain for all to see and we've been trying to remedy it in the loan market.

Adding ‘with respect’ doesn’t make the sentiment you express respectful, it actually comes across as callous. If a football club is no bigger than the 11 players on the pitch on a Saturday what’s the point of even supporting a club? May as well just rock up at any given ground and watch the spectacle.

Not much between the sides and there fans must be scratching their heads with the position they are in. They play some really good stuff at times, very fluid and possession heavy. I think we may just edge it, 2-1. I expect them to be having a few nerves with Fulham catching them up. It’s been nodded to by others on here and Sheldon on the Athletic said it but I tend to agree Ralph’s decision to rest KWP, Diallo etc against city will only look sensible if we get a result. I’d settle for a point here but 3 and even the twitchiest fan has to feel we’re safe! It would be great to see the pressure of and start building for next season.

I think generally the most positive thing about Che is that he acts as a positive partner for Danny (when both on song). He’s ‘okay’, shown flashes that suggest the could improve and IMO be a 10 goal a season prem striker. If he was our main goal threat I’d have serious concerns though. I’m a bit of an apologist but I find it hard to be too critical of individual players when collectively the team is in such a funk. Very few coming out with much credit at the moment. Armstrong aside I think we’d all struggle to agree that anybody else is performing consistently well. Also, in mitigation Adams was relatively cheap for a young English striker. The fee paid for Watkins and the mooted price tags on Armstrong and Toney suggest as much. His goal record is inferior but if he develops into a 10 goal a season striker for us £15mil will seem like small beer.

I don’t often go in with the ‘must win’ game but we clearly need to stop the rot. Heads have dropped and losing to the leagues bottom side would dent fragile confidence. While of course there will be more opportunities to get the last few results we need to completely ease any relegation mutterings this is clearly one of the better ones. Worth nothing Sheff Utd have injury worries of their own at the back and look blunt up top. I would hope if we hit 36/37 points soon tension would ease and we can start playing with more bravery. It would also be good to give Tella, Nlundulu and Jankewitz (possibly even get Ferry off the bench) a few run outs to get a view to their squad roles next year and hopefully have a small positive impact on their overall development.

Playing poorly and on current form should not be starting but then you could say the same for a fair few right now. Reality is we don’t have a plethora of choices in the squad to replace him with. For me the frustration is I genuinely believe he is better than he has shown this season. The worst thing is peak redmond (admittedly we’ve not seen him for a while!) is exactly the sort of player we could do with to give us something extra in the final third.

This. Everton shaded it, small margins prevented us getting a point or more. If we can dig out a result from somewhere we'll stop the rot.

I expect we could make a similar point about Reed. He would have seen a fair bit of game time this season but unfortunately several factors made we felt compelled to cash in. I may be misremembering but wasn’t there a lot of hype about Vokins? May have all been bluster but I seem to remember talk that he was seen to have a lot of potential and would kick on this season. Shame it’s not worked out thus far, hoping he gains some experience from his loan and can have a good preseason. If either him or Ferry could step up it would be a real bonus!

I’m not missing it, I just don’t agree. I think it’s speculative to suggest we’d have faired any better than we did with a Noble type player. The Leicester game was a shocker, we capitulated spectacularly, it happens. The 9 is the bit that stands out but you’ll find plenty of examples of teams in bad shape collapsing. But it led to Ralph and the players turning around and going back to a style of play thats had us playing above our level for the most part, does the form in 2020 not speak to positive characteristics within the squad? The Utd game was what it was. Down to ten in minutes, injury ravaged against a superior side at their best with a twelfth man on their side. What outcome did anybody expect? If we only lost 5-1 would we not be having a collective meltdown? Without Mike Dean/VAR the game would have never finished 9-0. Can we honestly blame the players for having their heads drop during that fiasco? Broader perspective where should we be as a club with the financial mess we are in and the squad we have? The fact relegation is almost unthinkable this season and we’re still going in the cup is really good going in my eyes. Surely the players get credit for this as must as they deserve criticism for the poor form?

I’m not missing the point at all. If we had Noble instead of JWP we would have far fewer points and two drubbings would be the least our worries. I don’t agree with the assumption that because JWP doesn’t yell he’s not demonstrating leadership. If that was all it took to achieve results on a football pitch Roy Keane would be berating Sunderland to a league and cup double from the sidelines rather than becoming a parody of himself on social media. Our recent run aside we’ve had some top quality results and performances this season. Even taking into account our current run we’re still overachieving.

If we had Noble in our side instead of JWP we would be in, or very close to, the relegation zone.

He’s not a shouter but I rate Prowsey as a captain. He directs play on the pitch, he’s brave receiving possession in tight positions, he’s won us games almost single handedly with his dead ball prowess, he has a top example of player development at the club (making the shirt his own despite some set backs), he doesn’t stop grafting despite a superhuman run of games and he’s added a bit of b*stard into his game (see Wilf Zaha or a prime example of him doing this). We don’t have many ‘shouters’ and leadership is not ‘innate’. As players grow in a squad they develop into leaders. I get the frustration that there doesn’t always seem to be that drive when things go wrong, as they have lately, but I don’t attribute our poor recent form to lack of leadership on the pitch or ‘drive’ for the players to keep pushing. Can we honestly blame the players for heads dropping lately? If we take the Wolves game we are playing really good football and barely giving them a look in for almost an hour. Again we’re done by a decision that at best is inconsistent, if not down right b*llocks, and it must be hard not to think ‘here we go again!’ - we are feel it and I suspect the players are not immune.

It’s easy to do ‘ifs’ and ‘maybes’ but I think some genuinely baffling refereeing aside we would be on 33/35 points and the faint murmurings of crisis on the horizon wouldn’t be surfacing. The football we have played under Ralph has been some of the best I have seen in years and it’s with a side with nowhere near the talent Koeman had. He’s had the team look much more than the sum of its parts and I go into every game genuinely believing we could get a result. it’s fair to say his game management can be criticised but, in mitigation, the squad has its limits. I would love to see what Ralph could achieve with a little backing. As others have said, who would be doing better with this squad that would realistically come to us? It’s the same as when many slag Redmond for being inconsistent. If he wasn’t so inconsistent I feel confident to say he would be playing for a bigger club, much the same goes for Ralph, if he was the finished article he wouldn’t be with us. He’s developed in his time with us and the players have too, my guess is this will continue to happy particularly as Ralph presents as reflective and self aware (comparative to say a Steve Bruce type manager).

It’s odd, but understandable, that Gunn has fallen so far he’s not even in the discussion. lots of talk about replacing next season but with all three on our books there is no chance we are adding a fourth without any movement. FWIW I don’t think there is much between Macca and Forster ability wise (confidence is key) and Forster should get a chance to claim the shirt if he performs well in the Wolves games. Macca hasn’t been great but his drop in form has largely coincided with the drop in form throughout the side. At the start of the season he was pulling off some top drawer saves and was an outside shout for the England squad.