Transfer Rumours JANUARY TRANSFER THREAD

If we didn't have Ralph, I'd be very, very worried about relegation, given that transfer window we've just had.

But we do have Ralph, thankfully. I'm confident he'll keep us up.

 

I am really excited about the summer, Get out the players who are not commited, Bring in 5 First teamers and I think Ralph will have us playing very well indeed.

 

Thought you were going to say playing 5 a side

 

I am so up for next season.

 

You may be in luck then as we may be starting a week earlier

 

What’s changed there? Gabbi who wasn’t playing (despite my belief in him, he just was hardly picked). Wes, Steve and Cedric weren’t in that department, so we’re left where we were. Obefami to return and the long anticipated opportunity for Sam to have a chance (a bit of sarcasm there from me, because I don’t think he’s going to cut it, but lots of people think he may).

Now if you mean you wanted a new striker, then I did too, but the “cull” hasn’t really effected that department.

 

You may prove correct HR, however why do you say there is only so much we can get from the squad? He could get even more yet for all we know. It’s currently unknown at this stage as he’s only been here two months. The fact you are amazed we got through January unbeaten shows you how well Ralph has done, but we don’t know if it is the end of what he can do with these players. It might be, but it might not be. He is a good coach and the more he works with them, he may improve them more. He may not.

I’m not all rose tinted glasses, but many times in the past a good coach had got more from a group of players. Good coaching and/or man management can make a huge difference. If in October or November someone had listed the names of the players who have played Ralph’s games as core, you’d have laughed and said no chance.

The new coach bounce has worked. It may end now, but I see no need to worry about it, because even if we hadn’t got rid of those four players, it’d be the same situation.

The club seem to be cleaning up an old mess and that takes time. No sticking plasters. They seem prepared to do this whether we are in this league or the next league down as mentioned at the time of Ralph’s appointment, so my view is that I should be prepared for that too.

 

Me too and if he doesn’t, I’m confident he’ll reshape us and get us back up.

 

I'm confident that Ralph can see us to survival, barring the unforeseen, but beyond that will take improvement. Merely surviving with this squad is an achievement! Expecting that he will make this squad consistently good at football is perhaps too much.

 

The squad needs reshaping. Stage 1 done. Couple more stages to go.

 

Sure. But it's kinda like "we're going to the moon. Stage 1: design the mission logo, done". We succeeded in selling exactly one player, and that's the one who you and I would agree was the most likely to do good football things. Loaning out the others raised a couple mil. We failed to acquire anyone. We probably don't have any excess money. The bit where we get players who are good to improve the team remains purely notional at this point.

 

Going to the moon was notional once too.

 

It was. But right now, we have no rocket. We have no astronauts. We have a hand-drawn picture of the moon with a bullseye drawn on it.

We might get to the moon. It's very questionable whether the decision-makers at the club are aiming for the moon. We currently have no real reason to believe that we will get to the moon in the near future. We've also been over this all before a couple years ago, where it turned out that all of the talk about our ambitious ambitions were just PR to keep the fans off their back while they tried to ensure that the rich person who owned the club got richer. Until we see some actual concrete efforts toward our purported goal, I'll remain unconvinced that it's actually what we're aiming for.

I think that we'll probably survive this season. I also think that surviving is effectively our aim. Sure, we'd love to be in a European qualifying spot, but it's purely aspirational; I doubt anyone in a position of authority actually expects to be here in three years, never mind be overseeing a top half club.

 

What if we've already landed on the moon? Perhaps we've lost the blue prints and now find Van Allen standing in our way. Do we really need to go back, as we've been there already. Perhaps we should lower our target, how about Cornwall instead.

 

Totally agreed. Saints are living off the good will of one fantastic signing (Ralph). We have been told we can reinvest sales into the team but fail to actually sell the majority of our unwanted players. I think anyone cautious about the club's ability to bring in good players has a point. We all want to believe in Ralph's magic wand, but we will need a fairly (scrap that - extremely) impressive Summer to get our team anywhere near competitive for the top half of the league. We are still a club owned by someone with no money, with or without Ralph.

I also think we will stay up, but calling this a "good window" is really just wishful thinking. We got an excellent Ralph and a bum window.

 

Why all the talk of the moon? Clearly we’re not aiming for that. For the first time in a couple of years I’m actually seeing some actions that may help the club improve.

Les Reed out
Crap manager out
Highly paid/underperforming players out
Progressive coach in
Performance of individual players improved
Results (points total) improved

We’ve moved from looking very likely to go down, to now having it firmly in our hands (not safe by a stretch). We’re taking a gamble that our coach will deliver what we need over the next 4 months. I’m ok with that.

The fact we haven’t brought any players in his window is not what I wanted, but it is what I read into their comments that would happen. I am not sat here saying we will spend well and bring in all great new players, but what I am saying is that I’ve seen some positive steps being taken.

I’m not one to sit here and moan or point out that everything hasn’t happened in one go (nor saying you are) because I don’t expect that. I am also looking at things from November onwards (not ignoring the past, but not letting it rule my head now).

 

I can only recall one person calling it a good window Spacedsaint. I’m certainly not saying that.

As in my post above, I’m saying that I can see positvity in the steps and actions we’ve taken since November. I’m not dancing on the rooftops though. I’m just pointing out the flip side.

On the non sale of those players, it seems clear to me the club wanted them out. No takers, so surely the next best move is loaned out? We may have a problem down the line if they come back, but that is better than having them here now. Do you see any positivity in Ralph being able to move out (even if temporary) some players he didn’t want here?

Sometimes life isn’t smooth. It’s not smooth now for Saints, but they seem to be trying to deal with the situation.

On the good will of one great signing in Ralph, isn’t that a good thing? Don’t the club deserve credit for that? We can’t ignore it when balancing things up.

Hopefully you see this as me trying to answer a lot of your points and don’t take anything as aggressive, or passive aggressive. It’s just a bloke posting on a forum.

 

I wasn't disagreeing with you. I was supporting the idea it was really a pretty poor window. Wanting rid, but "doing our best" is failure, however we dress it up! Now I am not upset about it as this is still failure of the past entrenched in our present dealings. However, I think people are quite entitled to have expected a decent loan in during this window. Our squad is weaker now than it was before the window. Yes, we can spin it and say we removed dead wood - but losing our first choice right back and replacing him with no one is clearly not a positive.

I am hoping we find some cash from somewhere and spend a good chunk in the summer.

 

Embarrassing!

I think Vestys ok but didn’t realise we paid that much

And what did Ricky cost? Just over a mill wasn’t it. Legend

 

Perfectly stated FLT. That’s exactly as I see it. I’m rather bemused by all this talk as what we’ve got, is what we’ve got. Now I know one of you will say “discussion is good” but the reality is above. Personally I’m ok with the window but really pleased with RH & the progress we’ve made in such a short period. Long may it continue, especially in the next few weeks.