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Post by threehundred on Jul 22, 2024 11:59:05 GMT
I’m thinking about all this and slightly freaking out, here. I’m usually pretty optimistic and I’ve been really happy with Saints’ business in this window so far. But: Comparing the squad today with the one that got relegated, it’s arguably weaker. We need strengthening in Midfield and we have a peashooter front line. If Bedders is AWOL, we are hugely lightweight and inexperienced in defence. I love Downes, but he’s not going to play every game and is unproven at the highest level. I’m nervous about our creativity. Who can play the clever balls in the final 3rd? Baba O’Riley not only seems an exciting option, but a fairly essential one. And who is going to score..? We need to keep strengthening - that is clear. How much money do we have left in the pot..? I think the squad is weaker than the one that got relegated... but the club was broken and we seem to have a manager and team now.. I think while weaker we are better.... if that makes sense. I do think we need a striker and a little more creativity behind the front men / man.... but as I said before.... I'm happy... if we go back down... so be it... I'm ok with that.. Like RM says, lets just do our own thing, if we get beat we get beat but stick to the plan. We need to build the club back up, be that staying in the Prem or dropping back down. I really hope I can see past the frustration of getting battered some weeks and throwing points away... and stay true to this myself! I bet most younger Saints fans will be calling for heads after a bad start.. (if we have a bad start) I hope we keep being careful and no panic buying / over spending You, sir, are a wise owl.
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Post by jickster on Jul 22, 2024 12:15:21 GMT
Fair points. But one thing that I've heard a few times now is that for clubs like Saints at this point in the window it is much easier to sort the defensive side of things rather than attackers. The attackers tend to be a bit more difficult to pin down as they know that there's a chance of a big club getting twitchy and taking a gamble on them towards the end of the window, they keep their options open. As we get closer to the end things start falling into place and selling teams and the players themselves settle for a bit less, you get a bit of a domino effect from the top stars downwards. Our two best attacking signings of the last decade, Mane and Ings, were both deadline day deals. I think we've done well so far getting the basics right, Taylor, Sugewara and Downes are good additions. Assuming Adams does go then that clarifies things in terms of what positions we need and we can start working on that plus O'Riley who sounds ideal for what we need. I also think that whatever the club might say in public, they will be looking at a gk on loan. Hope so anyway. Totally agree. But I will say that for every Mane / Ings, there is a Paul Onuachu (also a deadline day deal, if memory serves…). Pellè wasn’t a deadline signing and I’d put him in the same bracket as the two you highlight - although his recruitment fell just (just!) outside the last decade. It wasn’t the club’s fault that Delap chose Ipswich. I hope they can identify and secure a suitable alternative PDQ and don’t leave it to the last moment. Oh wow, yeah, Mane was 10 years ago next month! That makes me feel old. It's not a hard and fast rule that attackers all get transferred later than defenders, but it is something that seems to happen more often now as a general trend. And yes, it isn't a sign of quality either good or bad in terms of who you end up with, Onuachu was clearly the bottom of the barrel as we were linked with quite a few strikers that January before his name cropped up in the last few hours.
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Post by threehundred on Jul 22, 2024 12:17:49 GMT
Totally agree. But I will say that for every Mane / Ings, there is a Paul Onuachu (also a deadline day deal, if memory serves…). Pellè wasn’t a deadline signing and I’d put him in the same bracket as the two you highlight - although his recruitment fell just (just!) outside the last decade. It wasn’t the club’s fault that Delap chose Ipswich. I hope they can identify and secure a suitable alternative PDQ and don’t leave it to the last moment. Oh wow, yeah, Mane was 10 years ago next month! That makes me feel old. It's not a hard and fast rule that attackers all get transferred later than defenders, but it is something that seems to happen more often now as a general trend. And yes, it isn't a sign of quality either good or bad in terms of who you end up with, Onuachu was clearly the bottom of the barrel as we were linked with quite a few strikers that January before his name cropped up in the last few hours. Me too…! Where did that decade go, FFS?
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Post by choixkoix on Jul 22, 2024 13:19:43 GMT
McCarthy - he got through that month at the emd of last season with some excellent handling, and far better than I expected distribution with the ball at his feet (who'd have thought it, keeping the passes out simple bred more confidence in the defence?) What he didnt have to do was stop a lot of shots. And thats where I'm worried based on his PL performances before. He's an inconsistent shot stopper. Ultimately in the PL for a bottom half club you usually spend more time stopping shots than dealing with high balls ...
Squad - we're basically at even par or one over par with last season. One step forward with an upgrade at LB, and one step back because Stu isn't replaced, another step back because Che is gone, although Stewart must be seen as the in-house replacement and barely played last season.
Attack - we have the same attacking unit minus Stu, Brooks and Che, maybe Fraser too. That's a lot of shortfall. There's no doubt we will sign players and its notable that apart from THB, we've gone cheap. Surely to save money for right signings in the attacking unit. We're toying with signings beyond our station in a player like O'Riley. It's going to take some figuring out, and I wouldn't discount loan signings happening again.
My fear is we are going to spend 2 or 3 weeks chasing O'Riley and lose out, and then be having to rejig all our attacking business in the run-up to transfer deadline day. If we are serious about O'Riley, we should just cut to the chase and put a 35m rising to 40m bid on the table. They wont accept anything less than that unless close to the deadline.
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Post by saintsfan73 on Jul 22, 2024 13:27:46 GMT
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Post by earlscourtsaint on Jul 22, 2024 14:15:45 GMT
Let’s not panic too much yet Gents!!
As a club we are in a far better position than two years ago, when we got our fingers well and truly burnt, we’ve built solidly from the back so far which I’m fine with, I think we will sign another keeper and Lumley or Lis will be off, we need to offload a few to buy a few, which I am also sure we will, but it’s poker time to drop a few cards while hopefully drawing a couple more aces!
Almost 6 weeks of the window still to go, no panic yet, I remain confident that we will eventually have the creativity and firepower to get those 10 wins and 6 draws we need, anything more than that this season is a bonus!
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Post by lorenzo on Jul 22, 2024 14:19:27 GMT
I have been eagerly awaiting the announcement of a good dominant No.5 but so far not a whisper, a proper stopper with leadership qualities would give me a lot more optimism for the season ahead
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Post by Furry Frank The Combat Wombat on Jul 22, 2024 14:23:51 GMT
I have been eagerly awaiting the announcement of a good dominant No.5 but so far not a whisper, a proper stopper with leadership qualities would give me a lot more optimism for the season ahead I wouldn't hold your breath... unless Bednarek goes, and possibly not even then.
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Post by threehundred on Jul 22, 2024 14:25:37 GMT
I have been eagerly awaiting the announcement of a good dominant No.5 but so far not a whisper, a proper stopper with leadership qualities would give me a lot more optimism for the season ahead I’ve said that every season for years…
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Post by choixkoix on Jul 22, 2024 14:45:42 GMT
Again, why has no journalist properly asked the manager about this player? We got a default line from Russ near the end of the season that the promotion run-in wasn't a time for the young players. But why did Meghoma disappear from view after looking pretty useful in the Cup in January? Given when we signed him we wanted to get promoted to the PL... what was our expected pathway for him? You can always tell something by the nature of the clubs interested in the transfer...why is this player not being integrated more, especially given it was a problem position last season?
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Post by jickster on Jul 22, 2024 14:52:53 GMT
Again, why has no journalist properly asked the manager about this player? We got a default line from Russ near the end of the season that the promotion run-in wasn't a time for the young players. But why did Meghoma disappear from view after looking pretty useful in the Cup in January? Given when we signed him we wanted to get promoted to the PL... what was our expected pathway for him? You can always tell something by the nature of the clubs interested in the transfer...why is this player not being integrated more, especially given it was a problem position last season? Good questions. Manning is the Danny Fox from our last promotion side and won't last long in the PL. Is Meghoma the Luke Shaw? Maybe not quite at that level, but having Charlie Taylor as the experienced player to ease him into the team isn't a bad idea... but we're still hearing the talk of Welington either this summer or January and I'm not sure what the point of that is unless we don't have any plans for Meghoma.
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Post by THE BEAST on Jul 22, 2024 15:05:22 GMT
Wellington looks shit… Unless we think we can develop him a lot, he looks like one going straight to Turkey!
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Post by vectis on Jul 22, 2024 22:55:02 GMT
Wellington looks shit… Unless we think we can develop him a lot, he looks like one going straight to Turkey! I read somewhere that Welington is being signed for the Turkish club not Saints. He will spend 2 years on loan there along with the Japanese lad and another player (Juan?) from Sao Paulo. Not sure what the benefit is to Saints in all this but there you go.
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Post by choixkoix on Jul 23, 2024 4:31:32 GMT
Noise seems to be gaining that
a) we're going to drop a 25m second bid for O'Riley b) we're going to step up the interest in the young Palace winger c) agreement is close on Onuachu
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Post by earlscourtsaint on Jul 23, 2024 5:36:12 GMT
Seems pretty accurate TBF!!
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