I agree with you that our best players are the ones who have been at the club a while. It's to be expected really though. The longer a player stays with a club, the better he should get (in theory). Also, because we are not a rich club, we often have to be a bit savvy. We have to take risks on young players with potential. The reason we bought Alcaraz when he was 20 years old, is because if we buy him at his peak, he could cost 50m+. I remember our fans were annoyed that we didn't sign Gakpo for 40m+. Well, what if we signed him and he got injured? The fans would complain about putting all our eggs in one basket etc But being savvy in this game is very difficult. And you need to be patient. Yes, 10m seems like a waste of money on the likes on Charles, Mara, ABK and so on right now, but these are all players who after several seasons could easily go on to become top players worth 3 or 4 times that (not saying they will necessarily). Of course we all want players who will immediately improve the team, but we also have to buy players as investments. That's the only way a club of our size can make any sizeable profits. The money that we make on, say, Lavia, goes towards making us competitive in future windows. We tried the same thing with Charles, and it didn't work so well. Okay well, we could still sell him for 7-8m today, or we could just give him time, and see if he improves (which of course he will). Also, the fact that so many of the senior players stayed is obviously because they were happy with Russ coming in as manager. And they must have thought it was worthwhile sticking around with SR in charge. If we switched Farke and Russ around, or Maresca and Russ, I'm fairly confident the result would have been the same. Saints in 3rd/4th, Leeds/Leicester in the autos. They just have better squads.
There's some good points there. I'm not disagreeing, I just think they've tried to run before they can walk with it. Let's get a settled side & consolidate in the PL before going down the risky buy young route. It's great to buy players as investments. I've got absolutely no issue with that at all. As you say, itz how clubs like us need to grow. Its the fact that nearly all our signings are bought like that. There's nothing to supplement the potential, and all this potential is thrown together to the detriment of both the team and themselves. Bazunu, for example, has now been playing regularly for 2 seasons but seemingly hasn't improved much. Sulemana, Mara & Edozie, having been signed to play at PL level, you would have expected more of an impact this season in the Championship. Manning is probably the closest permanent player that SR have signed in that mould, and we all know that was a Martin suggestion having worked together before! Agree fully on Leeds / Leicester; we are where our squad deserves to be. Okay, I think we could be a little closer points-wise but I think our position and season is fair, but as i say, I think that's in spite of SR and their transfer policy with that core of the side mentioned above.
The whole 'run before they walk' thing is spot on. Absolutely. But they did still sign senior players with European and international experience. Joe Aribo and Duje Caleta-Car looked like very good signings at the time. Lavia was a hell of a signing, as was Bella-Kotchap until the injuries. Even Maitland-Niles looked a good signing. It's very easy with hindsight to say how bad it was, but at the the time a lot of us were in agreement that it had been a very good window. We had a decent enough group of players for Ralph to work with; a back six of KWP, Bella-Kotchap, Salisu/Caleta-Car, Perraud, Lavia, JWP; I think a lot of managers would be content with that at a lower-half Prem club. Everything that happened after Ralph got sacked was a nightmare, we all know that. But now I just think our fans need to let it go. SR f*cked up, for sure, but constantly moaning about everything all over social media isn't exactly what I'd call good support.
Only KWP & JWP had any prem experience, ABK & Lavia were teenagers and Salisu wasn't much older. I'll give you Caleta-Carr, he looked a good signing on paper. Combine that with a team severely lacking in goalscorers (which we've known for years) and it is no surprise we went down rock bottom.
I must admit, I am an emotional fan during / slightly after games. Does Martin piss me off, yes as I feel we’re not far off being really really good. And I think that infuriates me more. Do I enjoy the football we play, yes and no. The passing to death game can make us look slow and lack passion. But when it does come off we look bloody marvellous. Sadly there doesn’t seem to be any middle ground. Do I blame or dislike any of the players. Not at all, I feel they get a lot of inconsistent flack. Some players seem to avoid it all together, whilst others will get lambasted for a mistake or two. I don’t think the signings have been horrific. Not every signing will be perfect and we certainly have a theory where we buy young. These players will need time with few exceptions. Anyways, I predicted 4th at the start of the season. So you know, I’m great
Che Adams, Adam Armstrong, Stu Armstrong, Elyounoussi, Walcott, Maitland-Niles, all players with Prem experience in that squad.
We tend to think that Saints are the only club doing the buy young and cheap policy. My Sunderland mate complains that his team buy too many untested players to cash in later. He reckons they average 1 decent signing for every 10 they buy. Decent, not great. Lots of lower league teams are trying to find the unicorn in a field of donkeys.
We were alright at it for a time as well. It’s not sustainable long term but I don’t really see any other way a club our size could challenge the European spots, which I assume is most clubs our size long term goal.
They’ll be down with us in a few years. The big clubs have already begun the process of picking them apart
Yeah football is cyclical, bar a few teams. Was watching Cheltenham and Tony Bloom (Brighton owner) was interviewed as he owns a number of horses and talked briefly about football. He said it was basically impossible to compete with the top teams in the PL so was just enjoying it whilst he could. Pretty honest answer but also shows how ****ed football is as a competition
None of which are defenders, which is probably the most important position in terms of experience. Our squad was awful.
Most of the really bad players were not SR signings: Diallo, Elyounoussi, Walcott, Adarma, Salisu. Romeu, Bednarek and Redmond leaving was not their fault either.
Like I said in another thread. If only the top 6 had ****ed off to create the "We're so awesome and massive" league, English football would have been so much better off for it. The PL wants a closed shop
I think Charles is worth our patience for a bit longer yet. There’s a really good player in there somewhere and somehow Saints need to find a way to help him unlock his full talent. I accept others will differ from this view, but that’s football.
Yeah I don't think SR signings have been any worse than before tbf. But I do blame them for going into last season with a squad that was clearly the worst in the division and was only ever going to get relegated. They then left it until January to spend another £50m+ which was spent on crap.
The only thing I blame SR for is not seeing we desperately needed a good striker and a seasoned midfielder to replace JWP.
