Anyone know what his situation is? He's supposedly in talks but at the moment we haven't heard anything and now Crystal Palace have confirmed they are interested in him. I personally think he's worth keeping as he is only going to get better atm
As he was on our discussions list Saints must be interested. His difficulty will be that any purchases we make will push him down the list. He may need to move on to get first team action. No point in loaning him out as I understand he will still count towards the permitted number of players (willing to be corrected on that point).
What do you mean by permitted number of players? I'd let him go, he's never done anything to convince me he's actually ever going to be good enough to be a regular starter for us. League 1 is probably his level, so i'm surprised Palace are interested.
I gather (and don't quote me) that there is a limit to the number of players you can list for your first team..about 25 I think. Under 21s don't count so that may help. It will have an effect on the number of players we can sign in the summer. I'm sure someone else will have the facts at their finger tips.
I'm pretty sure you are right Fran, however I don't think the squad list has to be submitted until the end of the transfer window so in theory we could sign 25 players over the age of 21 and submit them on the last day of the window. So if Gobern were to go it would have no impact on the squad registration process.
Yeah the 25 man squad rule is Premiership only, so we don't have to worry about that until next year.
Probably shows how few top players you get from a class of promising youngsters. Hopefully the academy will give us some players that will save us a fortune in the transfer market and others that we can sell on after giving them a good start.
If he was going to break into the first team, I think he would have done it by now. We are almost certainly going to be strengthening the midfield (Jack Cork, Brian Howard possibilities) so his chance may have gone at Saints. We'll still get money for him as he is under 24.
we needed our whole squad last year, well maybe not a certain A Pulis, and Gobern played his part. The Championship will be even harder, and we will need a large squad, and strength in depth. We should be looking to strengthen, and only then reassess whether our so called "fringe" players can step up. personally I dont think Adkins uses phrases like fringe. Your either on the bus and in the building, or off the bus and out of the building. Gobern needs to be on the bus!
The proportion of Saints academy players that have a good career in the game is very high, it's just that the previous regime had a policy of 'cashing in' on them as early as possible to appease the shareholders. This is a team from our academy products..... Bart Baird, Cranie, Matt Mills, Bridge Dyer, Surman, Morgan, Bale Walcott, Blackstock subs Best Ranger Joseph Mills McGoldrick Not bad is it? over 50 million pounds worth of talent at least.
I'd put Adam in for Morgan as he probably isn't an academy product...possibly same about Bart (Blayney?)
I'd have Kenwynne Jones kicking about somewhere in there as well. It is interesting to think what sides teams would have if transfers were not allowed.
I know that you only included the young stars of recent times, I think it would be worth a mention of adding one Alan Shearer to that Acadamy list as well. And just to remind some of you he scored a hatrick on his debut against Arsenal of all people. So no mean feat........Worth a mention or what?
I think it's worth giving Gobern a new contract. He may not have set us alight like Lallana and Chamberlain but he's massively improved this year.
i like gobern, think he could do well, who can forget when he came on as a sub against preston at deepdale in the famous 3-2 comeback?
