Team for the championship - likely exits, and what will be required for promotion and staying up

[Gloucester Saint]

13 minutes ago, hypochondriac said:

Didn't want to play for us I think January is pretty harsh. Maybe the club would have preferred he stay where he is for his development? Maybe he didn't feel ready to play in a rubbish team in the prem yet? 

Arguably beneficial to stay with the incoming manager/approach as well as avoiding the shitshow for 6 months.

[Saint86]

51 minutes ago, Fabrice29 said:

Yeah I was being silly because of the the same poster previously getting upset over Downes/Martin and Charles making clear he preferred to be at Wednesday in January.

Eh? I wanted Charles recalled previously because at the time relegation wasn't assured, Lesley had also been rubbish up to that point, and I thought Charles could do a job for us. I was disappointed he was briefly in line to be sold in january as well (given we could certainly do a job for us in the champ). Equally I don't have an issue with him staying there, playing regularly, and avoiding this car crash. Curious as to which part of that you disagree with. 

If I recall, I think you were a huge ralph out advocate at one point - but either way, how do you feel about his #2 potentially coming back in? 

The situation with downes and Martin is entirely different as well... He absolutely was one of Martin's golden boys, wanted out once Martin went, and had a sulk and refused to play. Would be a weird take to not be pissed off with his attitude 🤔

Edited yesterday at 13:49 by Saint86

[Fabrice29]

2 hours ago, Saint86 said:

Eh? I wanted Charles recalled previously because at the time relegation wasn't assured, Lesley had also been rubbish up to that point, and I thought Charles could do a job for us. I was disappointed he was briefly in line to be sold in january as well (given we could certainly do a job for us in the champ). Equally I don't have an issue with him staying there, playing regularly, and avoiding this car crash. Curious as to which part of that you disagree with. 

If I recall, I think you were a huge ralph out advocate at one point - but either way, how do you feel about his #2 potentially coming back in? 

The situation with downes and Martin is entirely different as well... He absolutely was one of Martin's golden boys, wanted out once Martin went, and had a sulk and refused to play. Would be a weird take to not be pissed off with his attitude 🤔

I have no issues with what has happened with Charles. I was merely pointing out you were annoyed at Downes wanting to play for his mate which is a just a theory and then I was being silly pointing out Charles might want to play for his mate and just wondering if you would remain consistent. 

As for Ralph, I think I was probably up for him leaving by the end. I’m not a big fan of the style of football that he and Rohl advocate but that’s subjective and I can see the plusses and very happy to get behind it, for reasons I’ve explained in the Juric thread. 

[Forester]

I assume Rambo, KWP, THB, Fernandes and Dibbling all get moves to Premier League clubs.  It may be that one or two don’t, which is great, but that is my assumption.

What I think many of our fans don’t recognise is that every one of the following would all be picked up by top six championship sides, every one, a total of 19 players:

McCarthy, Bree, Sugawara, Stephens, Edwards, Wood, Bednarek, ABK, Manning, Downes, Smallbone, Aribo, Charles, Kamaldeen, Edozie, Tall Paul, BBD, Armstrong and Archer

In addition there are others who could still be valuable squad players for the season, fitness permitting, such as Baz, Taylor, Larios, Fraser and Stewart.  Clearly you cannot rely on these five as core players.

I think our main aim should be to retain as many as we can, and minimise the number of purchases we need but spend it on real quality.  A goal scoring winger, another holding midfielder and another number ten would be on my list.  Then if we go back up the majority need to go, for reasons vividly played out this season.

[Suhari]

46 minutes ago, Forester said:

I assume Rambo, KWP, THB, Fernandes and Dibbling all get moves to Premier League clubs.  It may be that one or two don’t, which is great, but that is my assumption.

What I think many of our fans don’t recognise is that every one of the following would all be picked up by top six championship sides, every one, a total of 19 players:

McCarthy, Bree, Sugawara, Stephens, Edwards, Wood, Bednarek, ABK, Manning, Downes, Smallbone, Aribo, Charles, Kamaldeen, Edozie, Tall Paul, BBD, Armstrong and Archer

In addition there are others who could still be valuable squad players for the season, fitness permitting, such as Baz, Taylor, Larios, Fraser and Stewart.  Clearly you cannot rely on these five as core players.

I think our main aim should be to retain as many as we can, and minimise the number of purchases we need but spend it on real quality.  A goal scoring winger, another holding midfielder and another number ten would be on my list.  Then if we go back up the majority need to go, for reasons vividly played out this season.

We'll have a pretty strong team for the Championship, from an ability point of view. My question is how many have the mindset we need? The clubs been a shitfest for a while and th is must have impacted morale, motivation etc. We'll surely see some turnover just to get some new faces/fresh minds onto the bus.

[Football Special]

5 hours ago, Saint86 said:

With the news that Rohl seems to be incoming, i wonder what it will mean for the team in the championship next year.

I haven't really been following them in detail this season - i.e. typical formation and key players? Does anyone have much insight on them? I know Ralph played the 4-2-2-2 high press, are Wednesday in a similar muold? Do we think its likely we'll see Charles and Downes (if he sticks around) as our 2 CMs/CDMs?

This was quite insightful in the Echo 

https://www.dailyecho.co.uk/sport/saints/opinion/24980768.rohl-southamptons-top-target-new-manager/

[Matthew Le God]