saintwbu

Appreciate that quote probably seems silly now, but I think he’s right in saying Mario Lemina could be world class. But there’s reasons he isn’t and why he ended up with us, but on his day he was a class above. I also remember him absolutely dominating Pogba for us on at least one occasion.

Maybe it’s playing on the same pitch as us that raises his game, maybe he’d been amazing every single game for us in that case.

And whenever he plays us, he’s got Olivier Giroud syndrome where he scores against us no matter how shit his form is. Even scored against us for Liverpool!

I think this in principle is okay, but the problem was that if Spurs did take that approach then Rose would’ve been one of the first players replaced. Poch saved his career, he was about to be binned by Spurs but Poch’s system got the best out of him. He didn’t pull up any trees at Newcastle and has found himself not even registered in Spurs’ squad this season. He’s not right for us imo.

Is this the new ‘people think we can do better than a European Championship winner in Cedric!?’ - how’d that one work out? Rose is not good enough for us, his attitude stinks, and we can do much better. Bertrand is a far better player, letting him go to replace him with Rose would be so stupid.

He’s only a couple of goals behind Watkins despite only playing about 28 games this season. Minutes per goal he’s almost identical to DCL and Bamford, all of whom are much better than Watkins in that regard. I’m very surprised that in a 33 man squad Ings didn’t make the cut, I would’ve understood him not making the 26.

Would be a shame to give up on him, shows glimpses of brilliance. Ralph seems to play him mostly to try and shackle a winger rather than for his attacking ability, which leaves people saying ‘he hasn’t done anything’ when actually he’s been doubling up on the oppositions most dangerous player all game. He’s normally done a good job in that regard this season.

I don’t think they really spent the £50mil they got from Wan-Bissaka, and they’re getting some high earners off the books with a few decent young players coming through. Potentially, it’s a good opportunity for a manager to come in and build from scratch. Equally, it’s a big risk and more often than not wholesale change for small clubs ends in relegation.

People bemoaned us not taking the £12mil for Targett from Fulham, only to sell him a year later for £17mil having probably only played about 5 games more in that time. Selling him was a good deal for us, he wouldn’t be the player he is now without leaving us, we needed the money like we always do. I’m pleased for him, he was decent for us, but he was never going to replace Bertrand and needed games.

It always felt like he would be an easy sell this summer. I don’t think the club expected him to come good, hence why he didn’t start the first couple of games, they got lucky that he suddenly transformed. Presume the intention was for Salisu to be Bednarek’s partner, but then Jannik stepped up. So it’s an easy sell we weren’t expecting to be able to make. He’s had a good season, shown why he was signed, but he’s one we could probably get a decent few quid for in a market short of decent CB’s who can play a bit.

I’d take him again on loan, i’d hope we aren’t looking to spend any money on him

Doesn’t seem much of a coincidence to me when it’s the same shit group of players that have struggled for years

In the first 28 minutes, Ralph’s tactics had us dominating the game and creating 3 or 4 great chances that should’ve been scored. Then some poor individual defending and goalkeeping results in two quick goals in a couple of minutes. Which part of that is Ralphs fault?

When I opened this thread I was really hoping to find a deep analysis of whether Wesley Hoedt was signed to keep Virgil Van Dijk happy. Thankfully my prayers were answered.

Their squad isn’t bad at all. Trossard, Webster and Maupay cost over £60mil combined, former England internationals Welbeck and Lallana, Ben White who’s been touted at over £30mil and Lamptey (albeit injured a lot) who’s been linked to Bayern Munich, as well as numerous other internationals in their squad. The ‘hipsters favourite team’ means the sort of team that people watch once, see they can pass it about a bit and say ‘Potter’s doing a great job there’ when the numbers simply don’t back it up. They’re average at best, Potter has done an average job at best.

They’ve dropped the most points from winning positions of any team this season, more than even us. It’s definitely not just strikers that are their problem, they sometimes end the game with 6 or 7 defenders on the pitch but still can’t hold onto a lead. He’s the hipsters favourite, they’re the hipsters favourite team at the moment, they play ‘such great football’ but don’t score goals and don’t win many games, and haven’t done for two seasons now.

Fair point!

Maybe for once the club has realised that not every single signing you make can be made with a view to what you’ll sell them for in a few years. Jonny Evans, Gary Cahill, Craig Dawson, all have signed for similar size clubs to us in recent years with no future value but adding immense value in the immediate term. Resell value doesn’t mean much if you get relegated 👍🏻.

Josh Sims was the last player to get me on the edge of my seat who’s come through our academy. Can’t remember who his debut was against, I want to say home to Everton? But he was electric that night, and some other games too.

I’m hoping that Bednarek’s disastrous form since January has made people realise that there really isn’t much between him and Stephens. Both on their day can be great, both are prone to lapses. Personally for me, Stephens has never had a run of form as bad as Jan has been on this year, and Stephens is more of a leader/fighter, so he’d be my preference to be honest. Bednarek gets away with murder on here imo.

That was really interesting, thanks.

Sad to see him go, I was very underwhelmed when we signed him to replace Shaw in that summer of upheaval. He’s gone onto be one of my favourite players of this Premier League era, definitely could’ve played for a bigger club at his peak but always seemed happy here. Good luck to him, likely to get a move to one of the big boys now even if just as a deputy. Shame he can’t get a proper send off.

Maybe so, but to follow it with ‘definitely a penalty, clumsy from Redmond’ whilst simultaneously basically saying that Zaha dived/cheated seemed somewhat contradictory. Benteke was decent in the first half. But as players on the losing team never get MOTM, and his opposing striker scored twice, whilst his partner scored one and assisted one, i’m not sure he was even close to being MOTM, personally.

Haha that’s literally the line I had in my head when I typed that!! It was in the FA Cup replay against Derby at St Mary’s, couldn’t believe my ears.

Normally like Ekoku on commentary, was a little bit annoying last night as seemed to be impressed by Zaha’s initiation of contact for the penalty, and almost gave Benteke MOTM somehow! But normally he’s good, feels like he actually watches teams like us and knows about us. Most other pundits just seem to make generalisations about any team outside the top 6 based on the actual game they’re commentating on.