The most average Saint

[a1ex2001]

1 hour ago, Saint Fan CaM said:

Redmond?

The perfect example in this category for me, Redmond is a decent footballer who has and continues to do a job for us.  Every now and then he has a good spell or a bad spell and is never going to move up the football pyramid but is probably too good to for the tier below.

I think a lot of fans these days seem to forget that as a club we need some average players.  Those that stay around and give us consistency as a team over a number of years like the Benali’s and Telfers of days gone by!

Not convinced by those including Jason Dodd as an average player give him a yard more pace and take Gary Neville out of the picture and he would have had England caps!

[Saint Garrett]

Jack Stephens
Jan Bednarek

Shane Long

Steven Davis 

Edited 8 September, 2022 by Saint Garrett

[Hawkswood]

Surprised more people didn't  mention Steve davis

[egg]

10 minutes ago, Hawkswood said:

Surprised more people didn't  mention Steve davis

I'm not. He was far from average - great player for us. 

[Lighthouse]

2 hours ago, Saint Garrett said:

Jack Stephens
Jan Bednarek

Shane Long

Steven Davis 

None of those players were average. Davis was excellent and a key part of our most successful team in recent decades. The other three are poor players at this level and a whole team of their quality would get relegated.

[Saint Garrett]

8 hours ago, Lighthouse said:

None of those players were average. Davis was excellent and a key part of our most successful team in recent decades. The other three are poor players at this level and a whole team of their quality would get relegated.

I guess the word average is completely subjective. Just for the record, I loved Davis he was class for us. 

[Hawkswood]

11 hours ago, egg said:

I'm not. He was far from average - great player for us. 

Fair enough. I suppose I was thinking more unsung. Just quietly went about it 

[farawaysaint]

Claus Lundekvam, never a world beater but always solid and I have very fond memories of his time with us.

[sydney_saint]

It's kinda amusing to hear the "Davis - underrated" comments all over again. Think back then there was just about a weekly thread with everyone saying he was underrated, which in turn made him incredibly rated and appreciated 

[mynameisthehulk]

Jim Magilton

[SNSUN]

IMO average defines someone who played quite a lot for us but rarely did anything of note, yet kept playing. Someone reliable but uninspiring. I'd go with a midfielder since their priority is neither to score goals nor be the last line of defence. 

 

One player screams average to me since I started supporting Saints and that is our former record signing Rory Delap. Yes we paid £4 million for absolute bog-standard average blandness. His goal record was poor (with his overhead kick showing that no matter how average the player, you can have the odd moment), I don't recall him getting many assists and he didn't even develop his throw in technique until after he'd left us. 

 

 

[Badger]

2 hours ago, SNSUN said:

 

One player screams average to me .., Rory Delap…,and he didn't even develop his throw in technique until after he'd left us. 

 

 

Not entirely true. I think we beat Sunderland with a last minute goal from one of his (later) trademark long throws. 
That said, it only after he left that it became known. Perhaps WGS just chose not to use it. 

Edited 9 September, 2022 by Badger

[sandwichsaint]

Average players - they held down a place in the team, they could hold their own at the level they were playing at, some good games, some not so good, no danger of moving up a level.

Paul Jones,

Telfer,

Williams,

Tessem

Oakley

Anders Svensson 

Ripley

Ormerod

Gully sp

Wooton

Holmes

Waldron

Lloyd James

 

A pretty harsh list, all these DAJFU!

 

[Chewy]

Mark Draper

Graham Baker

George Lawrence

Nicky Banger

Jo Tessem

[Miltonaggro]

On 08/09/2022 at 09:23, The Left Back said:

Agreed, Peach was the first left back I followed and loved him..  I was happy with the line up apart from left back.  As I've posted before, and hence my user name, we've been blessed with left backs since I have started watching us play and I struggled to find an 'average' one.  Most on my mind are too good, some not good enough, for the average tag.  Perhaps Derek Statham?  But he was a legend at WBA so not sure he qualifies on my criteria.  Actually, just seen Simon Charlton on someone's list.  He'll do.

Peach was a great player way above average and Saints were lucky to keep hold of him late 70s at his peak, think Chelsea and Man Utd made enquiries.  Statham too was earmarked as one of the best young players in England when at WBA, also Jimmy Case rated Statham as the best left back he played with during his entire career (MLT the only other Saints player in that 11.  Thus, Simon Charlton is indeed the natural choice at LB for that defence.  If someone does the most dogshit Saints side, Lee Todd is a shoe-in.

[Midfield_General]

On 11/09/2022 at 23:37, sandwichsaint said:

Anders Svensson 

He was a funny one. 

Most capped player of all time for Sweden playing 148 international games, many as captain, and often brilliant for them, yet routinely bang average or anonymous for us. 

There was a proper player in there, but we just didn’t seem to be able to work out how to get it out of him. I remember him being a fixture in the team for quite a while, but off the top of my head can’t remember a single significant contribution. I’m sure he did some good things for us, I just can’t remember any - all his moments of brilliance were for Sweden. 

[david in sweden]

On 06/09/2022 at 15:16, Midfield_General said:

Nathan Redmond, Alex McCarthy, Jack Stephens, Brett Ormerod, Chris Marsden, Paul Jones, Guly, Rory Delap, Simon Charlton, Micky Adams

Mmmm.. you have only 10 names and  two of them are goal keepers. Think I might rate Paul Jones a bit better as he was a keeper for Wales also).

IMHO .Chris Marsden was better than average, and Brett Ormerod was a good partner for Beattie and  gave him many assists.                                           

Rory Delap was a better player than some, and was often forced to play in many positions when we had injury crises and got little credit for his efforts. 

Sadly, Guly's career ebbed away painfully, but at his peak his goal-scoring stats. were near equal to Rickie Lambert in the first half of the Championship season.

 

[david in sweden]

On 08/09/2022 at 17:16, Fabrice Fernandes no.1 fan said:

This is sort of what I had in mind! I've been a fan since 02, so have a few more prem years, so this team seems a little weak to me in places. I think mind would be:

Alan Blayney

Richardson Yoshida Higginbotham Fox

Telfer Cork Quashie Elyonoussi

Ormerod Rasiak

 

I think that team probably gets relegated, but has some

Think I'd disagree a bit about your back four.  Richardson and Fox racked up around two dozen assists in our Championship season, although 

they weren't anywhere near Prem. quality , but you do Yoshida a great disservice as he was good when playing alongside Fonte, and had to endure a 

list of  "rather indifferent partners"  in the time after Jose left.   NOTE:  Maja is also the most capped player in Saints' history (near 100 times for Japan),

and Greg Rasiak did get 20 league goals in his best season.

[Midfield_General]

12 minutes ago, david in sweden said:

Maja is also the most capped player in Saints' history (near 100 times for Japan)

Nearly, but not quite - Anders Svensson got 148 caps for Sweden and Shilton got 125 caps for England. There might be a couple of others who got 100+ too. 

Bale's also had 100 caps for Wales and will get a few more at the WC, so will also shortly join that club! 

[Fabrice Fernandes no.1 fan]

2 hours ago, Midfield_General said:

He was a funny one. 

Most capped player of all time for Sweden playing 148 international games, many as captain, and often brilliant for them, yet routinely bang average or anonymous for us. 

There was a proper player in there, but we just didn’t seem to be able to work out how to get it out of him. I remember him being a fixture in the team for quite a while, but off the top of my head can’t remember a single significant contribution. I’m sure he did some good things for us, I just can’t remember any - all his moments of brilliance were for Sweden. 

I look back and think we just never found the right spot for him, or didn't play in a way that suited him. He played for us in a period where we only really ever played 4-4-2 but he always seemed best pushing forward rather than in the box to box role we required of him (which more suited players like Oakley), or he was tucked out wide which didn't work either (although that was less frequent). 

1 hour ago, david in sweden said:

Think I'd disagree a bit about your back four.  Richardson and Fox racked up around two dozen assists in our Championship season, although 

they weren't anywhere near Prem. quality , but you do Yoshida a great disservice as he was good when playing alongside Fonte, and had to endure a 

list of  "rather indifferent partners"  in the time after Jose left.   NOTE:  Maja is also the most capped player in Saints' history (near 100 times for Japan),

and Greg Rasiak did get 20 league goals in his best season.

I suppose that is average for Saints though isn't it, to have some quality but not hit the heights of the top ten that much. Maya only played more than 25 league games in one season with us, and he was an important player but across his career I think he represents the average ability of a Saints player. He wasn't the focal point of the defence like VVD or Fonte, but was a reliable top level player.

[31cc]

3 hours ago, Midfield_General said:

He was a funny one. 

Most capped player of all time for Sweden playing 148 international games, many as captain, and often brilliant for them, yet routinely bang average or anonymous for us. 

There was a proper player in there, but we just didn’t seem to be able to work out how to get it out of him. I remember him being a fixture in the team for quite a while, but off the top of my head can’t remember a single significant contribution. I’m sure he did some good things for us, I just can’t remember any - all his moments of brilliance were for Sweden. 

I think this counts as a moment 🙂

[Midfield_General]

Nice! I don’t remember it, but that’s great. Just a shame we couldn’t get it out of him a bit more often. 

[Barsiem]

4 hours ago, Midfield_General said:

He was a funny one. 

Most capped player of all time for Sweden playing 148 international games, many as captain, and often brilliant for them, yet routinely bang average or anonymous for us. 

There was a proper player in there, but we just didn’t seem to be able to work out how to get it out of him. I remember him being a fixture in the team for quite a while, but off the top of my head can’t remember a single significant contribution. I’m sure he did some good things for us, I just can’t remember any - all his moments of brilliance were for Sweden. 

If you watch our season highlights from the time Anders played for us you'd see he was involved in the majority of the goals we scored, but yes actually watching Saints at the time you'd hardly ever notice him.

[Sheaf Saint]

1 hour ago, 31cc said:

I think this counts as a moment 🙂

It does, but not really down to anything out of the ordinary on his part. The defenders just backed off and invited him to run at the box, and the keeper should have done better with the final shot. There was nothing exceptional about it really.

[david in sweden]

On 13/09/2022 at 10:29, Midfield_General said:

Nearly, but not quite - Anders Svensson got 148 caps for Sweden and Shilton got 125 caps for England. There might be a couple of others who got 100+ too. 

Bale's also had 100 caps for Wales and will get a few more at the WC, so will also shortly join that club! 

Of course I meant to say that Maja Yoshida clocked up his tally whilst he was a registered player with Saints...no other player has come anywhere near that number whilst playing for Saints

Edited 15 September, 2022 by david in sweden
Facts

[david in sweden]

On 13/09/2022 at 14:05, Barsiem said:

If you watch our season highlights from the time Anders played for us you'd see he was involved in the majority of the goals we scored, but yes actually watching Saints at the time you'd hardly ever notice him.

In equality-minded Sweden Anders comes a poor second to a woman who played even more international games for the Swedish Women's side.

[Thereisonlyonemickychannon]

On 06/09/2022 at 13:00, Victor said:

Fabrice Fernandes - definitely!

I loved Fabbers.....

Strachan took him out of the cup final.

That destroyed him.