Asset stripping was slightly tongue in cheek as I'd love it if they sold the club. The rest isn't wrong though. We bought a load of championship players I'm the summer and are getting rid, not exactly planning for the future is it?
Fernandes and Ramsdale, are both Premier League quality, no question. Harwood-Bellis and Downes were our best two players last season, and the fans would have been distraught had we not signed them permanently. Archer is Prem quality but just not being given the service/enough starts. Wood has been decent for 3m. Suga has been disappointing admittedly, but it's his first season in the Prem. Brereton Diaz was crap, but we didn't once play him in his actual position. That just leaves the players we got for free. Bit unrealistic to expect a bunch of freebies to come in and improve the team much though. Lallana, Fraser, Taylor were all basically signed as squad players. Ugo has been excellent since we got a competent manager in. The window wasn't that bad. Biggest mistake imo, was not signing another DM. The main problem was keeping Martin. So carry on banging that drum, by all means.
I absolutely would not want any obligation or option to buy included in any loan deal for Archer. But a straight forward loan to Leeds until the end of the season I think would be a good idea. Gives him four months to hopefully get the goals flowing, ahead of a return back to us, whilst also hopefully helping to take Leeds out of the division for next season. (Yes I know we beat them three times last season. But they still finished above us, and would still be one our strongest competitors next season if they weren't to be promoted.)
*Get promoted. *Striking options have previously been shown to be inadequate in the Premier League, a PL capable striker is required. *Buy striker who is still largely unproven and a gamble at PL level. *Sign him with the intent of being main man in the PL. *Underperforms and looks unable to compete at PL level *However, said striker is proven in the Championship. *On course to be relegated back to the Championship. *Now is the time to get rid. It might be bollocks, but I have to say that sounds like quintessential Sports Republic era Saints logic.
There is a lot of sense in the post but the summer signings were a disappointment and have not really worked out well other than Fernandes. I would be up for offloading Archer and selling him is a better option than loan. I am hoping we do not sign any new players as they are needless. Much better to save the money and invest wisely for the Championship. I agree about Martin. It may have been unpopular at the time but feel he should have been binned after promotion .
1) How much would we have needed to shell out for a proven Prem striker? Probably 40-50m 2) What striker would score regularly for this team? (Especially under Russ-ball) 3) Archer would be doing fine for a better team than us. Most people on here gave a resounding 'no' to the idea of signing Delap for 20m. Now I bet those same people are the ones envying Ipswich for signing him. Well, Archer was ahead of Delap for England u21s, and he was more prolific at Championship level. Speaking of Ipswich, our fans were jealous of them signing Jack Clarke. Well, turns out he is pretty sh*t at Prem level too. So it's not just us that gambled and got some wrong. Happens to every club. *(Obviously Clarke will now score on Saturday)
Disagree. I'm not saying he can't deliver in the Championship but 40 games is less than a full Championship season. For me that's nowhere near proven. I wouldn't be trying desperately to sell him precisely because he might perform in the Championship next year. Ultimately though, we have a squad full of players like Archer who aren't good enough for the Premier League and - depending on the fee we'd get - losing one of them doesn't seem to me to be a major disaster. He might be our best finisher at the moment but that's a very low bar. This idea he's some high quality finisher who'd be much better in another team doesn't seem to me to be based on anything factual. If you look at a stats website like whoscored they actually list finishing as one of his weaknesses. If he's so good why is the only reported interest from Leeds? If there's a chance we'll let him go why aren't other Premier League teams in for him?
The rumour seems to be that the obligation to buy would only apply if they get promoted, so I don't think we'd be agreeing to strengthen a competitor next season.
Anyone seen much of Sheffield Weds and their strikers? How they use them? Is there a big lump or a channel runner up top?
They have Jamal Lowe and Ike Ugbo, who are both 6ft-6ft1in and athletic, run the channels well but don't score often. Ugbo got 7 in 18 last season for Rohl on loan, signed him permanently and no goals in 26 games this season. Lowe has 3 or 4. They then play Windass in behind them or sometimes up top, and he's scoring plenty by arriving into the spaces that the two athletic, pressing strikers create for him when running the channels
I wouldn't draw too many conclusions about his preferred type of player based on what he has at done Wednesday. He hasn't even done a full season there yet and I think they are quite limited in terms of what they can do with transfers. It could just as easily be him having to make do with what he has got.
To add to this, Wednesday's second highest scorer behind Windass is Michael Smith, who's a 6'3" target man. The point about them having a limited ability to bring players in may be valid though.
I’d still like us to find a loan for SAA, he should have been out playing all season given his lack of involvement with us. Surely it makes sense to get Baz a loan too, and there’s no point in having all of Manning, Taylor and Wellington either…particularly when KWP plays there regularly over all of them anyway (if he’s staying). I assume we’re just going to leave the second PL loan spot open in case a particularly good option becomes available at the end of the window (like with Cornet lol). I’d prefer we use it, low risk and could make the difference between being just another awful PL side or the new worst PL side ever.
Not sure Swansea is the best place for him at the moment, all seems a bit unsettled there atm, even Grimes handed in a transfer request and left! But probably still better than just getting U21s games. Also looks like Spurs are going all in for Tel, which presumably rules them out of testing our resolve for keeping Dibling this window.
That would be an interesting move. He never really got a run of games for us in the Championship so it would be a good chance to prove himself and show us why he should be starting next season. Swansea aren't safe either so it'll be a competitive end to the season..
