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Reply | signings
at 12:48 21 Jul 2025
We were a play-off team last time and lucky to get promoted. We should be aiming to do a better job this time and part of that should be about having better players.
Bazunu was only in the side because he could play with his feet, which was a major priority for our old friend RM. As a goalkeeper AM was better and we were fortunate that Baz was injured, allowing AM to come into the side. By some miracle RM relented on his total possession tactics with AM in goal and we got through the play-offs.
If we want to get promoted we need a better keeper than either Baz or AM, but I don't think we'll get one because WS hasn't really had a chance yet to see how fallible they both are in a competitive match. |
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Reply | Attacking midfielder
at 11:31 19 Jul 2025
Whether or not he has what it takes, I doubt he is what they're looking for. "Attacking midfielder" sounds like a no. 10 rather than a winger, someone who'd play in the middle of a 3 in a 4-2-3-1. That's a lot of responsibility to put on the shoulders of a youngster who hasn't been groomed to play there. That's not to say that he couldn't do it but it would be daft to start out with him as your plan A.
I hope he goes a long way, but as we've seen with Dibling, youngsters are inconsistent. |
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Reply | Euros
at 11:04 19 Jul 2025
As I said on another thread, that's now been shown to be untrue.
The club world cup final (top quality men's game) clashed with a group game at the women's euros. Both were free to air. It turns out 3 times as many people chose to watch the women as watched the men.
The quality of women's football isn't great but those who say that nobody's interested are just wrong. |
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Reply | England ladies
at 10:40 18 Jul 2025
The point is that there was a direct choice between a big money, hard fought, top quality men's world final, versus a group game in the women's euros. Three times as many people chose the women's game than those who chose the men's. |
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Reply | England ladies
at 09:16 18 Jul 2025
I didn't watch, but I've seen other matches in the group stage which have also been low on quality. There's no doubt, a lot of the football is rubbish in comparison to the men's.
But those who say "nobody's interested" are just wrong. For example, the other night the England v Wales match had an average audience of 2.9 million, which was nearly 3 times as much as the club world cup final (1.1 million) which was on at the same time on an equivalent free to air channel. |
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Reply | Will Still interview with Adam Blackmore
at 15:55 13 Jul 2025
Yes, he says "we're being quite hard on them physically, which they're not used to, or weren't used to in previous years". I'd say that's more than just implying they weren't working hard enough before. Great to hear someone who will say that.
Also, he talks about "interesting behaviours, attitudes and body language" and people who want to move on. Sounds like some of them are yearning for the cushy life of previous years and hugs from their mate Rusty while he tells them how great they are. Hopefully there will be buyers for the useless tw*ts, otherwise this could take a long time to turn round. |
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Reply | Is it April 1st?
at 12:16 10 Jul 2025
No a 1 year contract would be plain daft. Why do you want to pay him higher wages than we have to if we offer him 3 years and then have his contract run out in 12 months?
He'll now be on championship wages - if not that would also be plain daft. So if we're promoted we sell him and there will be buyers at that wage rate, if we don't get promotion we keep him and avoid having to pay a transfer fee for a different championship CB. |
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Reply | Saints Award Jack Stephens A 3 Year Contract.
at 17:53 9 Jul 2025
He'd sign because that can be a better deal for him. He and the club (should) know that if we're back in the PL he won't be playing. That means he'll get zero bonuses which typically make up about 20% of total compensation (I'm told). If he signs for another championship club he should be on similar wages but he'll also be picking up bonuses and a signing on fee. Plus he'll have the professional satisfaction of playing and the possibility of extending his career. If he signs for a championship club who get promotion, he could get a very decent bonus.
The important thing here is really the wages, not the length of contract. So long as we've only given him championship wages there's no issue either way. In the worst case if we spend the next 3 years in the championship we'd probably want to keep him. |
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Reply | Saints Award Jack Stephens A 3 Year Contract.
at 17:29 9 Jul 2025
I can see a 3 year deal making sense. For a 31 year old player there is a trade off between the length of contract and his wages. If we'd offered a 1 year contract we'd have had to pay higher wages. JS would accept a bigger wage cut if he gets a longer deal because that offers him security.
Hopefully what happens now is we're promoted next summer and sell JS to another championship club. The lower wages should then mean that there will be potential buyers who can afford him and with 2 years on his contract we get a few quid too. He isn't good enough for the PL but he'll be able to play in the championship for another 3 years.
So I can see how a 3 year contract on championship wages could make sense. Whether or not SR have played it like this, who knows. I don't have much confidence in them.
As to whether it makes sense to keep him at all, I think it does. We get a decent championship level CB for zero transfer fee. I hope we have better ones who keep him out of the side, but we need back-up players too and he's good enough for that. |
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Reply | Where is Juan???
at 09:51 9 Jul 2025
Goztepe and Trabzonspor are similar teams. Last season they finished 7th and 8th - basically identical. The season before, Trabzonspor finished 3rd but that was because they had Tall Paul banging in the goals for them. The season before that they finished 6th. So, Goztepe last season were at a very similar level to Trabzonspor.
You often quote goal scoring statistics yourself to make a point (e.g. Broja) so how come all of a sudden they don't matter? They do matter of course, but I'd agree they're not everything. One thing you have to take into account alongside the goals is, as you say, chances created. That's why Tall Paul's goal scoring record with us (which, again, you frequently quote) means nothing, because there were hardly any chances created for him.
I think Tall Paul and Juan's goal scoring record in Turkey does mean something. It means that if what we want is a centre forward banging in the goals in the Championship under a manager who likes crosses, then Tall Paul would be a better option than Juan, who wasn't even Goztepe's main goal scorer.
Juan, if we ever see him, is probably not a real centre forward. He's probably a utility forward like AA, Archer and Diaz. We've already got too many of them now we don't play tippy-tappy, so I think it's unlikely that he will add anything to our squad. |
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Reply | Where is Juan???
at 21:57 8 Jul 2025
Juan - 8 goals in 28 appearances in Turkey
Edit -
Tall Paul, the year before - 17 goals in 25 appearances
So, Tall Paul scored at more than 2 times the rate that Juan did. [Post edited 8 Jul 22:01]
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Reply | Interesting Reading The Squad Profiles on The Official Website.
at 19:39 8 Jul 2025
"Can we read anything into this"
Yes, what we can read into this is that the club is sh*t at communicating with fans. There is no reason not to communicate when deals are finalised or contracts are extended but there have been several instances of both over the last few years.
It's clear that this squad list doesn't mean much (e.g. Larios is included but they've said he's gone, Trollope is not included in staff) but even if the absence of players from the list means nothing, it's still sh*t communication. |
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Reply | Diego Jota
at 17:26 8 Jul 2025
Not just consequences for themselves and their families. Every year speeding drivers cause the deaths of mutiple other people. I've had a few speeding tickets in my life so I'm not perfect, but I've never gone way over the speed limit or risked people's lives. They say this was likely "high excess of speed over the permitted speed of the road". To me that is on a par with drink driving. So I have sympathy for his family but not much for him. |
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Reply | Is promotion this season possible?
at 14:45 7 Jul 2025
Of course promotion is possible. We have a decent chance because, on average, football these days is all about money. Where you finish in the league is strongly correlated with your wage bill i.e. on average you get what you pay for.
Look at the PL last year, there were some clubs who over-achieved their budget (Brentford, Forest, Bournemouth) and some who under-achieved (Man Utd, Spurs, Leicester), but by and large clubs finished about where their budget said they should. If you look at it on average over many seasons, the link between budget and results becomes even stronger. We were 18th based on budget i.e. we should have been in a relegation scrap instead of being fecking useless, but we were always likely to be relegated.
This year we will have one of the biggest budgets. If we don't get a play-off place we will have failed. That's always possible the way SR do business, but they really have to feck up monumentally for us not to have a chance of promotion. |
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Reply | The Ugly Inside Verdict On Southampton.s 2025/26 Kit
at 16:47 4 Jul 2025
I agree with you Nick, particularly about the back of the shirt, and I think the vast majority of Saints fans will too. So, that means this is another own goal by Sport Republic. They don't need to take a good shirt design and spoil it, but yet again they do. It's not the biggest issue we face as a club, but it shows how Sport Republic just go on making stupid mistake after stupid mistake.
p.s. there is absolutely no requirement for a plain back, but this gives the best explanation I've seen as to why some use a panel and some just have stripes without a panel:
https://www.footyheadlines.com/2025/01/explained-why-some-striped-backs-are-forb |
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Reply | Top 3 Saints players who fans wrote off but ended up being half-decent elsewhere
at 09:19 2 Jul 2025
Tall Paul might already be in this list. He was written off by Saints fans at the end of the 22-23 season. The next season he scored 17 in 25 appearances in Turkey. I wouldn't be surprised if he goes on to qualify a second time.
Does Andrew Surman qualify? Not universally admired at Saints but did pretty well elsewhere. |
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Reply | Ramsdale, Fernandes and Harwood-Bellis - prediction
at 13:50 30 Jun 2025
As I say, they've had ROI players before, plus Italian catholics etc. - and I can't imagine Rusty having any qualms about taking him if he wants him. Rusty doesn't pay much attention to what other people think. |
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Reply | Glastonbury Thread
at 19:56 29 Jun 2025
More hypocrisy from Eavis. Now his empire is threatened he decides it's time to condemn hate speech and changes his tune from "if you don't like our politics don't come" to "there is no place at Glastonbury for.... incitement to violence."
Bob Vylan's lyric's are basically one long incitement to violence. Here are just a few:
"kill the f*cking queen"
"Lynch your leaders"
"Landlord just raised your rent
Better get yourself a gun"
So, apparently now it's ok to incite violence against landlords, royalty and politicians, but not the IDF.
The Eavis's knew exactly what they were giving a platform to but it wouldn't have been a good marketing move for them to exclude the acts that are trendy with the yoof. Now they're saying oh dear we didn't realise. It's just more double standards and hypocrisy. |
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