Oh no, I'm sure they'll bring in one of their many other multi-million pounds strikeforce to rip us apart.
Rather face them than Lukaku (who's just phenomenal) and Werner (who always scores against us). Besides they don't that many options up front. Certainly not CF like Lukaku. Ironically he may have given Broja a chance if he wasn't on loan to us!
If both are out they're probably looking at playing Havertz and Ziyech as forwards. Both are more like playmakers rather than out and out strikers so they'd certainly miss a presence up front.
If that's the case then I really hope we go strong enough to potentially take advantage. A win Saturday would help.
Charlton have sacked Adkins. No doubt a nice guy but not a particularly good manager TBH. He just had a great squad to work with at Saints.
He was the perfect man for us at the time. Like you say, we had an excellent group of players, but what he did so well was create a group that loved being at the club and an atmosphere that allowed them to flourish.
I don't deny he was the right man for us. Right man, right time. But Cortese could see he wouldn't take us any further when he sacked him. And his managerial record since us is not great.
Highest win % of any post war Saints manager, back to back promotions is why his legacy is secure and will always be "our Nige". I couldn't give a crap about his record at other clubs.
In all honesty though we should have won both League One and the Championship rather than finish 2nd both times. I'm not disputing he did a great job for us, just that he simply met expectations. I will always be grateful that he led us back to the PL but most managers with the amount of financial backing that he had would have done as well as he did, or better. I don't think he ever was an elite manager.
The thing is, we’ll never know how Nige would have got on in the Prem, and it’s not really true he had fantastic financial backing once we got there. We were certainly richer than any of our rivals in League One, and than most of the Championship, but that wasn’t the case in the Prem. Even so, that squad was beginning to hold its own after a difficult first half of the season when Nigel was sacked. I’ve long held the belief that Nigel knew at the end of the Championship season that his days were numbered, and Cortese was just waiting for Poch to become available. Poch was undoubtedly a better manager for us, both tactically and fitness-wise, but I’ve always wondered if Nigel could have at least kept us up in that first season.
We maybe were the big fish in League One but the Championship? I don't think so as it was essentially the same squad minus AOC. We rode the wave of momentum and spirit that Nigel and his staff helped to engender and all of the fans were riding it too, it was just one of those magical times at football club where the chemistry was just right. The big achievement and the one we should be most grateful for is getting promoted to the PL ahead of schedule. The Championship is a brutal league with many ex PL clubs in it and if we hadn't made it that season then there is no telling how long it might've taken to get out of it and how much it may have cost in trying.
That squad had Lallana, Schneiderlin, Fonte, Rickie and Cork in it. All of whom went on to become established PL players or better. Not many Championship squads could boast that quality in it, let alone one coming up from League One.