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Targett Let Go Too Soon?


Lee On Solent Saint
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Just caught some of the Villa-Leeds game earlier. Have to say I was pretty impressed with Targett and got me thinking whether, in hindsight we should have kept him and allowed Bertie to leave. Might be that he might just be going through a decent patch, but have to say he looks more athletic and more aggressive than I remember him being when he was here. At the moment, compared to Bertrand, think I would prefer Targett at the moment. If I'm being honest, I didn't expect to say that.

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No, at the time we sold him Bertrand was much better than Targett and probably still is. The excellent fee we got enabled us to sign Adams to replace Austin.

Ideal world we kept him and Bertrand but we have no money so needed to generate cash to improve other positions.

Good to see Targett doing well, but the issue was not his sale but the fact we haven't replaced his role as backup LB.

Edited by Dusic
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He's a pretty solid, reliable left back. No more than that. The club had two issues at the time of his departure.

1) We had Bertrand playing regular, he was clearly at that time the better and more established option

2) We wanted to buy a striker to add competition, replace Austin and add a forward with more attributes towards a Ralph system.

In an ideal world we'd have kept Targett and he'd have been used as part of the squad, he'd have ended up playing a lot of the last couple of years tbf. But, we felt at the time that a first choice attacking option was the priority. We made the decision to cash in (For a very decent fee, it has to be said) on a squad player to bring in a first choice player to another position. If we'd have kept Targett, we wouldn't have brought in Adams.

The problem with this approach is that over time you reduce your squad depth, as we have found.  You're also relying on your first choice option remaining injury free and as good. We weren't able to bring in a Targett replacement which added to the risk.

Edited by S-Clarke
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He wanted first team football, we got a decent fee for an academy player who wasn’t getting first team football. He wouldn’t have developed like he has at Villa if he’d stayed. Seems to me like all three parties were a winner here, no need to put a negative slant on it. Besides, I don’t think he’s anything astonishing.

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45 minutes ago, Lighthouse said:

He wanted first team football, we got a decent fee for an academy player who wasn’t getting first team football. He wouldn’t have developed like he has at Villa if he’d stayed. Seems to me like all three parties were a winner here, no need to put a negative slant on it. Besides, I don’t think he’s anything astonishing.

Is the correct answer.

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7 hours ago, Lighthouse said:

He wanted first team football, we got a decent fee for an academy player who wasn’t getting first team football. He wouldn’t have developed like he has at Villa if he’d stayed. Seems to me like all three parties were a winner here, no need to put a negative slant on it. Besides, I don’t think he’s anything astonishing.

he is miles better than our current reserve LB and would probably give Bertrand a run for his money/oust him from the team this season

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11 hours ago, Lighthouse said:

He wanted first team football, we got a decent fee for an academy player who wasn’t getting first team football. He wouldn’t have developed like he has at Villa if he’d stayed. Seems to me like all three parties were a winner here, no need to put a negative slant on it. Besides, I don’t think he’s anything astonishing.

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! 

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3 hours ago, AlexLaw76 said:

he is miles better than our current reserve LB and would probably give Bertrand a run for his money/oust him from the team this season

Because he has left and forged a decent career as a first team player at Villa. Chelsea fans probably thought the same about Bertrand when we signed him and he started putting in consistently excellent performances. Likewise Spurs fans are probably moaning about KWP being so good for us this season. At some point a young player has to move on for his own career and start playing regular football. Not play reserve football for years and wait for someone better to get injured.

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5 hours ago, macca155 said:

He'd already had 2 loans, he wanted 1st team football.

Do we sell every player who “wants” first team football? No this was all about getting 13m in the bank and was a mistake. Ralph didn’t rate him, so we let him go and now we will probably have to spend more than 13m to get a player the same standard. 

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1 hour ago, Fitzhugh Fella said:

Do we sell every player who “wants” first team football? No this was all about getting 13m in the bank and was a mistake. Ralph didn’t rate him, so we let him go and now we will probably have to spend more than 13m to get a player the same standard. 

Yes, eventually. I can’t think of a single academy player who’s spent his whole career being backup at Saints. Of course it’ll cost more than £13m to find a player of the same standard, he’s had 1.5 years of consistent football and has improved significantly.

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1 hour ago, Fitzhugh Fella said:

Do we sell every player who “wants” first team football? No this was all about getting 13m in the bank and was a mistake. Ralph didn’t rate him, so we let him go and now we will probably have to spend more than 13m to get a player the same standard. 

Managers discretion I guess. He thought we needed more presence up top and decided to cash in on a squad player to get that player.

Edited by S-Clarke
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Henry Winter of The Times had a centre page spread on Targett last Saturday week, having chatted with him on Zoom. Ambitions of England recognition etc on the strength of this season's form.

Opened the paper last Saturday and this time he has a centre page spread on Harrison Reed - the 'heartbeat of Fulham' etc.

A bit galling to see two former Academy players improving so much away from Saints but good luck to them. 

 

  

  

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5 minutes ago, Marino said:

Henry Winter of The Times had a centre page spread on Targett last Saturday week, having chatted with him on Zoom. Ambitions of England recognition etc on the strength of this season's form.

Opened the paper last Saturday and this time he has a centre page spread on Harrison Reed - the 'heartbeat of Fulham' etc.

A bit galling to see two former Academy players improving so much away from Saints but good luck to them. 

 

  

  

Target. ....... England team..... 🤣🤣🤣

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Letting Target go was a poor Ralph decision. Not to say strange. 
In the Gabby category I’d put it .....

Still I suppose we have a ready made left full back replacement in errrrrrr Bednerek anyone ..... None of us saw that one, still that’s why Ralph is paid the millions I suppose !!!! 
 

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