If we get back to the prem…

[Saint Marky]

Be fantastic if we manage to get back on our first attempt, but do you think we would just do a ‘Burnley’ and struggle in the relegation with our current squad. Who do we have under contract that look premiership quality? I’d say KWP, Taylor ( obligation to buy apparently), Bednarek, Stu, Sulemana, maybe Adam on current form. Downes and Fraser definitely, but not ours. Also Edozie, Charles,  Alcaraz, Dibbling and Amo- Ameyaw all with huge potential, but no way near ready for that step up yet.Che is good enough for the second striker role, but highly unlikely he will be here come the summer and Bayern sniffing at KWP amongst others, so would it be a big rebuild like Forest?

Edited January 20 by Saint Marky

[Colinjb]

It would serve us well to keep the core of the side that won promotion together. So that would need us to sign THB, Downes and possibly Fraser as well permanently. Trying to sign KWP on a new contract, although would understand if he wanted a new challenge, would also be a significant step. 

From there try and add some extra quality.... A Striker being the most obvious need. 

But, all ifs and buts right now. 

[SNSUN]

My guess as to which players would feature:

 

Bazunu - has improved immensely but still occasionally worry. Would be first choice but I’d want a good experienced back up.

Lumley - good in the cup but an unknown quantity. Good enough for the Prem? Maybe need another. 3rd choice.

McC - see ya later.

 

KWP - would be first choice 

Bree - competent back up at best.

THB - first choice

Bednarek - would do a job as first choice but ideally he’d be back up and we’d bring a new CB in. (Or ABK back!)

Stephens - back up at best, 4th choice.

Holgate - probably gone but would be decent back up.

Manning - back up at best.

Larios - we may never know

Meghoma - potential.

 

Downes - may not be here but would be pushing for first choice for sure if he stayed.

Charles - potential but back up

Smallbone - tricky. Back up IMO but could be more.

SArmstrong - back up/rotation if he stays

Charly - should be good enough but doesn’t seem favoured at this level presently so…

Aribo - was crap last year but may be good back up now he’s found his feet.

 

Fraser - I think he stays and is a good back up but pushing for first choice

Edozie - pushing for first choice

SAA - potential but back up

Sulemana - not sure off he’d be here but would be pushing for first choice. Needs end product.

 

AA - not Prem quality but he deserves another shot after this season. Pushing first choice if not there.

Che - May not be here but does a job. Back up but pushing.

Ross - who? 

Mara - back up at best

 

A lot of work needed but we’d do better than last season. CB, LB, CM, Winger and striker minimum. I’d also be hugely surprised if we held on to KWP. Promising youngsters like Dibling could help.

Long way to go though, I dread to think what our team will look like if we don’t get promoted.

 

[S-Clarke]

Let's worry about it when we're there, so much water to go under the bridge yet. 

Let's just enjoy the second half of this season rather than worrying about how we compete next year.

[Turkish]

Hopefully we’ll get relegated straight away so we can go up again

[SNSUN]

2 minutes ago, Turkish said:

Hopefully we’ll get relegated straight away so we can go up again

Instead of Boing Boing Baggies it’ll be See Saw Saints

[JRM]

19 minutes ago, Turkish said:

Hopefully we’ll get relegated straight away so we can go up again

Failure to go up will soften the blow knowing we get to stay in a VAR-less league , won't be the end of the world 

[Saint Marky]

39 minutes ago, Turkish said:

Hopefully we’ll get relegated straight away so we can go up again

(*) can’t find the twat emoji 

[CB Fry]

And so will begin the greatest era in our history.

[Turkish]

13 minutes ago, CB Fry said:

And so will begin the greatest era in our history.

Aren’t we already in it?

[Turkish]

15 minutes ago, Saint Marky said:

(*) can’t find the twat emoji 

I’m sure you can write a song about it

[Turkish]

36 minutes ago, JRM said:

Failure to go up will soften the blow knowing we get to stay in a VAR-less league , won't be the end of the world 

Imagine todays game, 3 minutes drawing lines to disallow our goal, the. They’d be there for 10 minutes checking all the stuff on the Swansea goal whilst both sets of fans are singing V-A-R. 

[Block41 Saint]

2 hours ago, Saint Marky said:

Be fantastic if we manage to get back on our first attempt, but do you think we would just do a ‘Burnley’ and struggle in the relegation with our current squad. Who do we have under contract that look premiership quality? I’d say KWP, Taylor ( obligation to buy apparently), Bednarek, Stu, Sulemana, maybe Adam on current form. Downes and Fraser definitely, but not ours. Also Edozie, Charles,  Alcaraz, Dibbling and Amo- Ameyaw all with huge potential, but no way near ready for that step up yet.Che is good enough for the second striker role, but highly unlikely he will be here come the summer and Bayern sniffing at KWP amongst others, so would it be a big rebuild like Forest?

Sulemana doesn't look Premier League quality.

[Jack]

5 minutes ago, Block41 Saint said:

Sulemana doesn't look Premier League quality.

Or Championship quality tbf 

[Saint Marky]

36 minutes ago, Turkish said:

Imagine todays game, 3 minutes drawing lines to disallow our goal, the. They’d be there for 10 minutes checking all the stuff on the Swansea goal whilst both sets of fans are singing V-A-R. 

I think both would have been ruled out fairly quickly, plus I think we’d have the penalty for the foul on Che given. I’m not a fan of VAR in the slightest, but todays game highlighted how poor the officiating is and overall it’s been very poor.I think it we have benefited from the lack of it at our games though, with tight decisions going our way on the whole. Sorry, can you just confirm, is it a song  you would like about getting relegated, or about twat emojis? Thanks.

[Whitey Grandad]

On 20/01/2024 at 15:45, Saint Marky said:

I think both would have been ruled out fairly quickly, plus I think we’d have the penalty for the foul on Che given. I’m not a fan of VAR in the slightest, but todays game highlighted how poor the officiating is and overall it’s been very poor.I think it we have benefited from the lack of it at our games though, with tight decisions going our way on the whole. Sorry, can you just confirm, is it a song  you would like about getting relegated, or about twat emojis? Thanks.

The officiating is not poor. It’s just operating to a different set of tolerance levels. The sort that football has always had before TV stuck its nose in.

[Bad Wolf]

On 20/01/2024 at 17:08, Colinjb said:

It would serve us well to keep the core of the side that won promotion together. So that would need us to sign THB, Downes and possibly Fraser as well permanently. Trying to sign KWP on a new contract, although would understand if he wanted a new challenge, would also be a significant step. 

From there try and add some extra quality.... A Striker being the most obvious need. 

But, all ifs and buts right now. 

I think we have to buy TBH if we go up don't we?

[Maggie May]

I don’t think it’s a coincidence we’ve become a formidable force without Sulemana in the team.

[S-Clarke]

Just now, Maggie May said:

I don’t think it’s a coincidence we’ve become a formidable force without Sulemana in the team.

What, the same Sulemana who has also been part of this 21 game unbeaten run?

Why must people always look to pick out someone to moan about.

[Maggie May]

2 minutes ago, S-Clarke said:

What, the same Sulemana who has also been part of this 21 game unbeaten run?

Why must people always look to pick out someone to moan about.

I’ve been saying this since last season. Sulemana is a colossal waste of money and I don’t think anyone can say otherwise when judging his return so far. 
 

A lot of fans wear rose tinted glasses because of his performance against Liverpool. A match where the term “dead rubber” doesn’t even do it justice. 

[benjii]

We would struggle massively as it stands but probably only need three or so quality signings to change that, assuming THB, Downes and Fraser sign. We have very few players that could excel at PL level (prob just KWP and potentially THB and Downes, but we have plenty that are good enough as part of a good team set up: Janny B, Stuey, Alcaraz, Fraser, Edozie etc.)

We would need to sign a good left back.

We would need to sign a CB as well as THB, or I guess we could bring Bella Kotchap back.

We would need to sign a combative centre mid. 

We would need to sign a striker.

If being greedy, a GK too.

If we got those signings right, I think we would have a fair chance of staying up.

Baz

KWP - THB - New - New

New - Downes - Smallbone/Stu/Alcaraz

Arma/Amo/Dibbles - New - Fraser/Edozie

That leaves Stephens, Bree, Manning, Charles, that other striker we signed as options.

Sell Sulemana and I assume Adams will have left.

 

[HKsaint]

2 hours ago, benjii said:

We would struggle massively as it stands but probably only need three or so quality signings to change that, assuming THB, Downes and Fraser sign. We have very few players that could excel at PL level (prob just KWP and potentially THB and Downes, but we have plenty that are good enough as part of a good team set up: Janny B, Stuey, Alcaraz, Fraser, Edozie etc.)

We would need to sign a good left back.

We would need to sign a CB as well as THB, or I guess we could bring Bella Kotchap back.

We would need to sign a combative centre mid. 

We would need to sign a striker.

If being greedy, a GK too.

If we got those signings right, I think we would have a fair chance of staying up.

Baz

KWP - THB - New - New

New - Downes - Smallbone/Stu/Alcaraz

Arma/Amo/Dibbles - New - Fraser/Edozie

That leaves Stephens, Bree, Manning, Charles, that other striker we signed as options.

Sell Sulemana and I assume Adams will have left.

 

How about Ross Stewart? 

[Dman]

53 minutes ago, HKsaint said:

How about Ross Stewart? 

Pretty much written him off. Clearly made of glass. 

[Patches O Houlihan]

2 hours ago, Dman said:

Pretty much written him off. Clearly made of glass. 

 

[Saint Marky]

I think the question was answered in last nights performance unfortunately…

 

[so22saint]

19 minutes ago, Saint Marky said:

I think the question was answered in last nights performance unfortunately…

 

If we had a decent striker, we would have won last night (or at least scored 3).  This is the fundamental issue and has been since we lost even Pelle (and certainly Ings pre-last injury).  Burnley's issue as well.  If we do get a striker like that tho we'll lose him in the Jan transfer window anyway 🤣

[S-Clarke]

36 minutes ago, Saint Marky said:

I think the question was answered in last nights performance unfortunately…

 

Nah, i wouldn't read anything into it what so ever.

The most obvious takeaways for me is that you have to play your best players (i.e KWP, Armstrong(s), Adams, Fraser, Downes, THB etc). We didn't do that yesterday for a start.

And the other takeaway is that we'd need to purchase attackers of the right quality, our approach play last night was pretty much spot on and it showed what you can get out of the way we play - but the quality at the top end killed us. I reckon we'd have done better with Fraser in there.

[Toussaint]

2 hours ago, S-Clarke said:

Nah, i wouldn't read anything into it what so ever.

The most obvious takeaways for me is that you have to play your best players (i.e KWP, Armstrong(s), Adams, Fraser, Downes, THB etc). We didn't do that yesterday for a start.

And the other takeaway is that we'd need to purchase attackers of the right quality, our approach play last night was pretty much spot on and it showed what you can get out of the way we play - but the quality at the top end killed us. I reckon we'd have done better with Fraser in there.

He is the only player we have who will take on the first time shot. 

[Saint Marky]

Well, we’ve made it back, first attempt, so I think it’s time to reopen this and see what everyone now feels about the current squad.So who are we culling and who do we want to keep. For me desperately want KWP to stay, give stu another year, get Fraser if free and wages not too much. Flynn, if not ridiculous money, can forgive him for the drunk irons comment, Lallana if it’s true, at the end of the day, he’s an experienced pro, who could be a good sub and was an important part of the journey back to the prem. Think it’s a thanks and bye to Rothwell and Brookes, if Che goes, need a striker, no need a striker if he stays! Goalkeeper, wouldn’t personally mind if we give Alex another year, if wages sensible, I certainty felt a lot more comfortable with him in the sticks. Still not sure about Sulemama, is there a player in there, would prem football bring it out? Ross, got to be given a shot, if he can stay fit for more than 25 minutes. Don’t feel Manning is prem quality, or Bree. Fantastic we’ve signed Bellis, would like to see him with Kotchap, though made of glass. The rest are squad players, hopefully a good enough standard to stay up. Don’t know what sort of money is available and what Dragon intends to fund, but goalkeeper and striker and a defensive midfielder if we don’t get Flynn, bring back Oriol?

[verlaine1979]

I watched the likes of Bournemouth and Forest play a few times last season, and came away fairly convinced that the level of Premier League also-rans is higher than it's ever been, unfortunately.

There are plenty of ropey defenses still, but lots of these lower half teams now have real power, pace and technique in the middle of the pitch, which we've lacked pretty much since the Wanyama/Morgan pairing.