the route for youngsters should be youth then U21 if they are deemed good enough then they get involved in the first team, if not then they should be loaned to a good champ or L1 team. Can not have players in the U21 for 4 years, do believe that someone mentioned that in the u17 group and below there seems light pickings in terms of quality which may mean that more of the u21 team will be kept on.
The u21s didn't have a proper right back last season. So he is not blocking the path of any youngster and as Les Reed said we were lucky that Clyne was a virtual ever present last season with only Toby & Yoshi to cover. We can't expect Cedric to be our only recognized right back ahead of a long season. This is a low risk signing and hopefully it pays dividends. I also fancy us to play 3 at the back more next season and this type of player would fit the bill
I'm not really a big fan of Koeman's tendency to pad out a squad with average players - Elia, Djuricic and Gardos (and whisper it, Long?) are good examples of players who aren't good enough to be first choices, and don't appear to have the potential to improve as people like Mayuka and Gazzaniga who once looked like they may have.
I'm sure they can improve as people if we give them a chance ;-) All of those players you mentioned made contributions last season to varying degrees and two of them were just loans. We need to bolster the squad as we've struggled to cope with premier league seasons without the added stresses of Europe and in positions like right back where we have no recognized younger player, then this sort of signing is necessary
The loanees both contributed (as saintlyhero said) and have left. I don't think you can include Long as he is a regular first teamer...you have to have more than 11 players. His speed is a huge asset,,,who can forget his goals against Villa which included a great goal where he stole the ball before shooting. Mayuka was here before RK and isn't good enough...so the only truly weak link is Gardos (though even that may be due to lack of playing time as he is a back up player). We aren't in for the big stars because even if we could afford them, they wouldn't come, so we are after promising players that we hope to develop. At that level, you will win some and lose some.
See, that's where you're wrong Fran. We should have 23 players who are all perfectly capable of playing week in, week out for us. I mean, the wages and trophies that we can offer those bench players means that they'll never decide that they'd be better off getting first team football elsewhere, and leave us for Swansea mid season.
I know what you mean, kind of. But really, Cuco is the only one IMO that is truly a depth signing. I mean, I don't think we would truly sign anyone with zero upside potential but he's more of a "high floor" reasonable backup. Soares and Juanmi I think are two players id'ed by the black box that we wanted to sign. Even if Clyne hadn't left (and at the time we weren't sure he would), I think we felt Soares would push him for a place. And we all should probably be more excited by Juanmi than we are. It seems like the majority of pundits and neutral observers from other clubs feel like we got ourselves a real bargain there. I think we are all a little jaded from the excitement of meltdowns, or premier league relegation, or CL aspirations, etc. The last 2-3 summers have been rather eventful. This summer was always going to seem a bit boring in contrast, although boring isn't always bad. Alderweireld last year was a "HOLY ****!" signing, even if only on loan. That was pretty massive. But Mane, Bertrand, Pelle, Long, Tadic... most of them were seen at the time as either makedo's or perhaps uncertain gambles. Players that would at least keep us from being relegated but probably not more than average at best. And we got some pretty good work out of them. In retrospect, those were all good-to-great signings. So yeah, I confess to feeling a bit blah about the window so far (though still plenty of time). But I think that is probably more due to what we've been through and not a fair reflection on the actual quality/intended use of the players we've brought in.
This is a bit unfair on Sammy Saint - he must be ****ting himself right now. Hope the crowd will be safe too.
From Saints Twitter: CONFIRMED: #SaintsFC have completed the signing of defender @CucoMartina on a two-year deal from @fctwente. amp.twimg.com/v/57236ee2-616… Time to change the thread title to Official!
Blimey, talk about writing someone off before they've even set foot on the green stuff! You think Gardos has no potential to improve? He's not been terrible by any stretch, and may well have a big part to play next season. You're calling Martina average already. Can we give people a chance here? EVERY team has squad players, particularly ones near the upper middle/top.
