We've actually scored the same number of goals as Leeds, who many people consider to have the best attack and only 7 fewer than Leicester.
I would imagine a loan is the most likely scenario in January. Saying that (and I know people will say "but it's NOT his first two games" etc) but if we'd just signed Mara and he came on and played like he has the last couple of games, we'd think we had made some kind of genius move and unlocked a gem. I think he'll play a big part this season.
Yeah I still have hopes for Mara. He is still young and you can see there is a player there. I think he doesn't believe he is as good as he is.
Lol I get you, but I feel he is suffering a bit from 'imposters syndrome' when he gets on the pitch. He has talent, but in he doesn't really believe he is a professional footballer. I don't know why i feel it, but I just get that impression. He is young and away from home. He was also introduced last year to an awful side with no confidence.
I was being a bit facetious, but French confidence is something I am kind of jealous of. They all have something of the Cantonas about them. Mara, however, is a human individual and maybe has feelings beyond what we normally see in the French!
Lol I knew you were. However, behind the most outwardly confident individuals are very insecure people sometimes. Cantona included.
Yep almost definitely a loan. There’s no way SR will be buying big in Jan (said before) especially after this “bad luck”.
This stuff that thr club put out through The Athletic always reads very well and suggests we are in very capable hands. But actions speak louder than words and so far the ownership group have made many more **** ups than good decisions. This talk of the main target of january being to replace Tella is a prime example. We must've known there was a risk he was going to leave so the excuse for not having time to replace in the summer is crap.
I think it’s more likely that Swansea were not prepared to be reasonable and that there was no way of us getting him for anything close to what Leeds paid. Look at the talk around Wood. They wanted 10-12m for someone with two years left (max) who had (I think) played one season for them I expect that means they wants 20m+ for Piroe. They were clearly super petty. The whole manager thing is and was absolutely absurd and they look to have been chancing it the whole time. And it’s not like we were the only bidders meaning their petulance got in the way of a big pay day and resulted in them losing him for nothing. They got a good fee and also sold to one of our promotion rivals It all seems quite deliberate to be honest Add in - Stewart and Piroe are very different players. All the talk was that Piroe was considered to be a very similar player to Armstrong. Neither have been really played as the out and out focal point striker. Which is what we were after. So all this talk (and sometimes hysterical hand wringing) over not signing Piroe falls down for me on two different counts - that Swansea were never going to sell him to us and that he wasn’t really the player we were after. Had we sold Armstrong to Ipswich as rumoured - maybe. But looking back that would have been a catastrophic decision
I think the need to replace Tella is only because Sulemana has been so underwhelming. If he'd scored half a dozen, like we expected him to, then no one would care about Tella. And in fairness I think most of us would have said Sulemana is better than Tella before the season started. Can't blame the club for every single player who underperforms.
Not sure about that. We have not really had a winger who wanted to play on the right all season - since Tella left. That has meant most of our threat comes down the left and we look a bit unbalanced.
Friday, 29th December 2023 Southampton v Plymouth Argyle (18:00) Referee:- JAMES LININGTON Assistants:- Andrew Fox and Alex James Fourth Official : Sam Allison
Bloke who broke the sports republic takeover news on TUI has posted that the club have decided to move away fans and will be consulting STH's in the second half of the season.
Hmmm, that would seem quite tricky to do mid-season for various reasons. I would assume it would be after this season finishes.
