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Where we will finish in 2012...

Guided Missile

By Guided Missile,
in The Saints

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Super_Uwe

Super_Uwe

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Posted
That's where we completely disagree, and the management would disagree with you. You and some others seem to think we need an overhaul. IMO, if we keep this squad then we'll do well. If we make a few decent signings, we'll do very well. I think a lot are underestimating how much quality we have, and how much the expectation took its toll, and the off the field changes last season.

 

If ever a club was in a good position to keep the momentum going, it's us next season. Lots of signings would be counterproductive. Personally I see Fonte, Schneiderlin, Chamberlain and Lallana playing in the top flight in the near future, and I'd like to see Lambert, Guly, Barnard, Hammond given a chance to shine at this level. They're unproven, but surely they've earned the chance? Beyond that, Butterfield, Davis, Jaidi and Harding have done it before at this level.

 

So I don't see where an overhaul comes in. Good new centre back, new central midfielder, more competition out wide, a new striker, great. But much more than that could be counter productive. 4 good signings IMO, not vital by any means, but they'd give us a great chance.

 

I'm looking forward to seeing a league where more teams attack us, less sitting back behind the ball and fewer dodgy grounds/pitches to deal with. I bet the players are too. Adkins didn't come here to sit in the bottom half of the Championship.

 

As for 'no rush' - this is our best chance. Yes, we need patience, but let's be honest, we now have momentum, we'll improve our squad, we'll have bigger attendences and more optimism. Next season, if not already gone, we lose Chamberlain. We probably lose Lallana, I can't imagine Fonte sticking it out, Jaidi will retire, Connolly probably too. It will get more difficult.

 

Quite right.

 

We should have momentum on our side and that will count for a lot. The gulf in class between League One and the Championship is, in my opinion, nowhere near as big as the gap between the Champ and the Premier League.

 

It will be difficult next season but with a couple of additions to add to what is, quite frankly, a very settled and committed squad, we may surprise a few people.

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mikee

mikee

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You know things have changed at Saints when its the fans being accused of lacking ambition rather than the board!!

 

I'm gonna reserve judgement on next season until I see the quality of signings we make but I am optimistic that we will go all out for promotion again - and if we do, I wouldn't bet against Cortese and Adkins, backed by 30,000 passionate fans making it.

 

Jack Cork would be a great start!

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St Marco

St Marco

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The Championship is a difficult league let's not deny that. However i don't think Swansea have a better squad then us and look what they did.

The stand out player for them is Sinclair. If he had got injured the team would not have done nearly as well in my opinion. He scored 19 goals. The next best scorer for them was Dobbie with 9. In top scorer terms that would put him 47th...

If you look further into their stats your see their top assister was Nathan Dyer with 7 assists. Way down in 32nd place. However where Swansea shine is that they keep goals out, they have the 2nd best record for clean sheets. But they still lost more games then the top 2 combined.

 

Point being i don't think we have much to fear from this league. With the squad we have right now i think we are a top 10 team. We have Lallana and AOC who are quality players. We are talking maybe £20m beween them. In terms of a left and right winger i think we have the best two currently in the league. Strike force wise we have Lambert who has scored 56 goals in just 2 seasons. Barnard who has scored 24 in a season and a half. Add to that Connolly and Do prado and i think we have a very strong strike force. If we added a fast striker it could be one of the best. Defence wise again i think we have among the better defences in the league. 20 Clean sheets last year which is a club record and was the best record in league one. If we can get a defender in off Fonte's caliber to replace Jaidi then again we will have a strong back line.

 

The only areas i am concerend about is central midfield and goalkeeper. Davis did make a fair few mistakes last year. If that continues into next season then we will have to get in a new one or give Bart a chance. Which personally i think he deserves.

 

As the squad is right now anything to far below 10th and i'd think we didn't do so well. If we get Cork in, a quality pacey striker and a new CB then i don't see why we can't be going for a top 6 finish.

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ghq

ghq

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This might well be branded as heresy but, the manager's record after gaining promotion is anything but glorious is it? I realise the circumstances are different in terms of

 

finances, but is it possible he could have too much faith in some of his players? I'm not in a position to say one way or the other, but the thought has crossed my mind

 

once or twice. Conversely, it is also a possibility we could be out of sight by Xmas in terms of promotion! Who knows?

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Junior Mullet

Junior Mullet

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Between 5th and 8th. it will be a good season. Championship isnt such a massive step up from League 1, especially with the quality of our squad. A few good signings should see us be very competitive. I think a very good striker to complement those we already have would be key.

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