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Post by choixkoix on Aug 5, 2024 15:09:24 GMT
Carvalho = O'Riley. You're not signing an unheard-of player or someone who isn't coveted elsewhere. Get close to what they are asking for, and do it relatively quick or a fatter, sexier vulture will take over. They're both going to take 25mil + some clause-related shenanigans to get. I would suspect with O'Riley that it's likely we have blown any window of opportunity now Chelsea are sniffing. Buonanotte is an attacking midfielder too, very highly rated, though not the goals and assists so far to be the finished article. Of the three attacking midfielders we've been linked with, it's questionable if he would be willing to permanently move (?), although maybe the agent has indicated so. It feels like we know we need the Stu replacement asap, and that we're up against it. Pursue all three until one sticks. It's August, the asking prices on all of these will creep up week by week. We need to get aggressive, but if we're trying to sign these kinds of players you need your money where your mouth is. Which might be helped by accepting the latest Onuachu bid. The Stu replacement is an interesting one isn't it. We've got that position right so infrequently - Stu was definitely right for a season or two, but we always seem to replace the less glamourous Stu Armstrong / Steven Davis type really good all around football brain and I'd say our most successful progressive MFs since being back in the PL with a Alcaraz, Aribo, Boufal, Clasie, Elyounoussi, Orsic none of which have worked out great - Aribo did well in the Championship and Alcaraz is likely to follow the route of Boufal, massive football talent but wasting it. I feel like RM sees the value of the Davis, Armstrong, Smallbone type player and so he's looking to make sure that the balance is right in there because we've had some huge flops from players with European Cup competition pedigree There probably is one, but I'm struggling to think of an example of a player for us who has blossomed so much by change of manager as Stu did. Sure Fraser picked us up with some key direct attacking in late autumn, yes KWP was unplayable at times, yes Adam had a huge number of goals and assists, but really last season, the player who elevated us from passy-passy to penetration was Stu. It might not have led to him getting an assist all the time, but he was often the key pass before the assist. The bottom line in all the CMAs we're looking at is ability to go past a player centrally with the ball and ability to pass it through the line. It doesn't really compare well with central midfielder's pre Russ - either they were high on the workhorse out of possession side of their role or they were more of a baller who wasnt really trusted within the pressing system to play football. (I wonder what Russ would have made of Clasie had he managed him?) Having seen a season of Russball, the places the money needs to be splurged look to be all down the spine - DM, CMA and ST (and probably GK, ha). At our shittest last autumn, everything was down the wings, with limp attempts to cross to no lethality. What changed? It's simplistic, but big factors were Downes regained fitness after food poisoning and imposed himself, we settled on a midfield threesome and Stu got to break lines, and come the 2nd part of the season, Che was much more dominant in the attacking play. I look at how undangerous we were when the football was focused on the wings to how Stu and Willy gave us much more threat through the middle too as the season progressed... his football is attacking, it needs the opposition to be worried about threat from the sides and the middle to overwhelm them.
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Post by crazydanny on Aug 5, 2024 17:05:18 GMT
This is interesting. Although the original article said Saints showed interest in him weeks ago. The word in Rotterdam is that Feyenoord is looking at alternatives, because Saints are the favorites to loan him. He prefers to stay in the Premier League and he would probably be second choice at Feyenoord.
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Post by crazydanny on Aug 5, 2024 18:49:45 GMT
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Post by Frankfurt Saint on Aug 6, 2024 8:36:28 GMT
Time to stop messing around then.
Get TP off the wage bill as he’s clearly never going to play for RM.
Shift Alcaraz if he doesn’t fit the system either.
Teach Sulemana to pass and shoot or get rid of him too.
What was that about wanting a Ferrari for Fiat money?
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Post by Furry Frank The Combat Wombat on Aug 6, 2024 9:07:13 GMT
We never learn.. it's fine to take your time and scrimp with the gamble players that noone else wants, but if we go in for a player that's attracting interest we have to get it done quickly or a bigger team (which is now everyone else in the league) will jump in. I understand that we haven't got much money, but acting like Trabonspor only annoys the selling club and they won't deal with you.
Having said that, nearly every player we've paid more than 15m for has failed, so maybe we'd better forget it and look elsewhere...
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Post by saintsfan73 on Aug 6, 2024 9:24:02 GMT
Time to stop messing around then. Get TP off the wage bill as he’s clearly never going to play for RM. Shift Alcaraz if he doesn’t fit the system either. Teach Sulemana to pass and shoot or get rid of him too. What was that about wanting a Ferrari for Fiat money? Sulemana is injured for the next 4-6 weeks so that's the chances of getting him off the wage bill gone. I see the Echo is reporting that Russ had a meeting with the Dyson bloke and the SR 'brains' trust last night to discuss transfer strategy. It's becoming more apparent the club is planning for relegation this season which is why we have used this window to establish next season's tier 2 squad. I would have thought, after signing his new deal, Russ has bought into this, but the fact that this meeting occurred may hint otherwise. I guess no manager likes to have a relegation on his record and it will be a long season of drubbings as things stand. With McCarthy in goal I could easily see us conceding 5 or 6 next weekend.
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Post by saintsfan73 on Aug 6, 2024 9:35:02 GMT
The Crock Ness Monster is still crocked then...
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Post by crazydanny on Aug 6, 2024 9:39:05 GMT
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Post by crazydanny on Aug 6, 2024 11:53:49 GMT
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Post by Frankfurt Saint on Aug 6, 2024 13:17:52 GMT
We’re still rooting around at the bottom of the bargain bin and going “We found BBD down here the other day!” I’d rather we paid up now than made panic buys in January like we did last time we were fighting relegation.
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Post by jickster on Aug 6, 2024 14:06:53 GMT
We’re still rooting around at the bottom of the bargain bin and going “We found BBD down here the other day!” I’d rather we paid up now than made panic buys in January like we did last time we were fighting relegation. To be fair, Miovski is one of those who we've been linked with for a long time. Whether he's at this level and it pays off is another question, but a bit like we have had our eye on BBD for years (I saw someone quote a transfer rumour that we wanted BBD back in 2018 I think, and we have had a few mentions about him over recent summers), it's a good idea generally if there's a player we have watched over a long period. Miovski goes back at least 2 years that I can recall, so there can't have been any red flags in that time from our perspective.
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Post by saintsfan73 on Aug 6, 2024 14:20:29 GMT
The Battle for Miovski was in WWII wasn't it?
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Post by choixkoix on Aug 6, 2024 14:47:57 GMT
I don't think it's coherent to simultaneously wax lyrical about previous windows' wasting of money and the recruitment this summer being for a stint in the Championship next year. You're having your cake and eating it. What is the recruitment you'd expect us to have done at a superior level to this? And please lord, if anyone is going to mention Ramsdale again, pass me some LSD before you do mention him.
I think we've recruited this window as well as could be expected - (caveat) so far. We were promoted in the playoffs. We did have a lovely day, but we didn't exactly win that match through pulsating football either. So, under any normal season's reckoning, we are therefore not just the favourites for relegation, but to finish 20th. That prediction is muddied by the fact that we are in relative terms a fallen PL club rather than a plucky Championship backwater. But make no mistake, with the money splurged on talent since the pandemic by bottom half PL sides, we will do very well to finish 17th or above.
CM(A) is the key position we need right now (baring in mind Russ thinks McCarthy is viable, lol) and we're clearly bumping our ceiling with the peeps we're aiming for. Again, how freaking attractive to a prospective signing is the club who last-minute squeezed into the PL by a buttcheek's width, having not really looked the part during the run-in? Fair play, we're not trying to solve a key position through a risky but expensive French 19-year-old who may turn into the next Ngolo Kante, but probably will be the next Sekou Mara. But we're hitting our freaking ceiling in targetting MOR or Carvalho... cos...drumroll.. it's hard.
To be fair, I think we're all varying degrees of shit scared about GK, and yeah, manager needs to put some substance behind his supposed backing. I think we're stuck so hard on the need for the Stu replacement that all budget is subsumed til that is sorted. There's a pecking order, and rightly or wrongly, GK has been relegated to an afterthought.
But given that we are starting from a bad start in that we've pissed away significant chunks of money and FFP room in previous windows, we've done great work this summer. It's still very much up for grabs... or for dropping, but I think we need some perspective on how hard it is to do what we're trying to do.
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Post by choixkoix on Aug 6, 2024 14:56:11 GMT
We’re still rooting around at the bottom of the bargain bin and going “We found BBD down here the other day!” I’d rather we paid up now than made panic buys in January like we did last time we were fighting relegation. To be fair, Miovski is one of those who we've been linked with for a long time. Whether he's at this level and it pays off is another question, but a bit like we have had our eye on BBD for years (I saw someone quote a transfer rumour that we wanted BBD back in 2018 I think, and we have had a few mentions about him over recent summers), it's a good idea generally if there's a player we have watched over a long period. Miovski goes back at least 2 years that I can recall, so there can't have been any red flags in that time from our perspective. If we calm down from the faintly ridiculous links with Moukoko and smell a bit of reality, targeting a player like Miovski as squad depth up front makes a lot of sense when we are clearly aiming to splurge most of what must be our remaining budget on a central midfielder.
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Post by saintsfan73 on Aug 6, 2024 15:40:42 GMT
It's difficult for us to gauge how well we should be doing as we don't know how bad the financial situation was/is.
However, there was the study that someone linked to on one of the forums which said the average spend of a newly promoted club to stay up was around £80m.
I think the signings we've made are ok but we need an O'Reilly and/or a established striker to have any real hope of avoiding the drop.
But we're Saints so instead of paying Celtic et al what they wanted we'll play hardball - get spanked 6-0 by Newcastle and then spend the final days of the window trying to panic buy the next tall Paul.
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