Yep, wish the carrot dangling would stop. So much will depend on what happens between now & season end. If his progress continues he’ll probably price us out. We actually “need” him to only show a tiny bit now. Strange situ to be in.
Will we be safe from relegation in August? Mind you, if Broja can help fire us to a top half finish - there's a palpable upward momentum.
I do wonder how much of a lure the europa league is. I understand the champions league but I don’t know how much weight gets placed on it And most sides aren’t going to be consistently and reliably in that competition as the big 6 will usually take up one or two of the slots. So I don’t know if someone would hinge their signing on a club being in it that coming season. Especially as the early rounds are often time for rotation
Before he established himself in the team I made the point that what we don't want to do is promote a loan player at the expense of our permanent striker/s. Yes it helps us thru the season but we end up further behind when he goes back/moves on. If we couldnt get the deal done in Jan then it will be a hundred times harder in the summer when there are a dozen options available to Broja. He has turned out to be very good but our money is bench warming and come the end of the season we will need to have Armstrong back playing and get him scoring.
Yeah I did wonder if Broja (and Livramento) surprised the coaching team by just how good they are. When Broja was brought in I think the fans all assumed he would be backup to Adams and Armstrong playing a rotational type role and not being our best striker. I don’t know if the coaches/scouts always knew he was going to be such an integral player for us. You are right about the risk of having such a key player on loan. I’d even be tempted to just bench Broja for the majority of the second half of the season (unless we get really involved in the relegation fight) to give Armstrong a proper run of games and see if he is a player who can get us goals. I feel like we are going to do the opposite and give Broja all the starts and minutes to try and convince him to stay as my plan would almost certainly piss him off and make signing him very unlikely
When we signed him, I said that we should treat Broja like our player and not a loanee because there was every possibility we would have the opportunity to sign him if he succeeds. I'm sticking to that; he might have other choices available in the summer but signing with a club that already highly values him and knows how to use him makes the most sense. Look at Lukaku: he was in high demand after excelling on loan at Everton, both in the UK and abroad. Where did he sign? Everton. Because it was somewhere he knew he could succeed because he already had, and a club where he knew that he'd get the consistent playing time he wanted.
What we need from any striker wearing a Saints shirt, is goals. That’s goals this season, now. As long as Borja is delivering them, let’s enjoy it; next season can look after itself, for now.
You don’t bench your best player because you don’t think he will sign for us. We will play him because he’s our best striker and we need to win games, not because if we play him he might sign. If Adams and Armstrong aren’t good enough then I suspect we will bring in other options, should Broja not stay.
Exactly, and Ralph isn’t the type of coach who would do such a thing. Ralph always plays his best possible team to play the opposition, and as far as I can recall, he has never done otherwise.
Yes but we won’t really know if Armstrong is good enough if he is only playing a bit part role due to being behind Broja. If Broja doesn’t sign permanently/on loan again in the summer then we will be in a position where we know what Adams is but are still unsure on Armstrong. I’m not expecting us to be prioritising giving Armstrong minutes over Broja just pointing out that if/when Broja leaves we could likely be in a position where we still have no idea really if Armstrong is what we need up front
I'm not suggesting this as a permanent solution, but how about, just for the Coventry match, Saints start Armstrong and Broja, with Adams on the bench? This would give people an opportunity to see how Armstrong performs, or is the issue whether or not Armstrong can form a partnership with Adams?
But he's only playing a bit part role because he was quite bad when he started. And he started plenty of matches...it's only recently that Armstrong was relegated to the bench, and fairly notably that period corresponds with us suddenly being able to score goals. Benching the guy who can score goals (and seems interested in joining us because he's playing regularly) in favour of a guy who can't seems like some pretty galaxy-brained logic.
True, those uncertainties are unlikely to be resolved as things stand. Yet, there could be case for us to be prioritising giving Armstrong minutes over Adams.
I trust their assessment of him in training. I’m not saying that Armstrong isn’t good enough, but he has had chances and just because he’s not first on the team sheet atm it doesn’t mean he won’t improve or can’t step up next season. These days contracts only mean 2 seasons so I don’t really see much distinction between a loan and permanent player. If he plays well he’ll go to a bigger team anyway.
I don’t see that he was bad as much as we were bad. I would certainly like to see how he does now that the side is playing well but it’s not going to be easy to find form or to replace Broja. I wouldn’t want Broja replaced at this point, he has shown his colours and earned his place in the side but Armstrong hasn’t really had a look in and that needs to change. I like what I saw from him fundamentally, it maybe that he doesn’t fit into the side now or maybe that he just hasn’t had the chance. Time wil tell.
Armstrong started 12 of our first 14 league matches. He's second on the team in minutes played by attackers, behind Redmond and ahead of both Adams and Broja. He has played quite a bit, really, and he's been decidedly our third-best striker.
