This seems a bit over negative even by saints fan standards after the season just gone. The notion we will go into next season with 3 players for 2 CB positions when there are a minimum of 46 games is just daft. It’s not going to happen. Sure the 4th and maybe 5th might be even less experienced but there is nothing to suggest we will try to get through the whole season with just three centre backs - two of which haven’t been involved in our first team before
I'm on board with this. Quick, tall, great physical attributes. Young so will be coachable and got relationships with the new recruitment team. At that price its low risk even if he doesn't adapt or fit in.
And this is quite besides the fact that Burnley have just set a Championship record with a young, physical, well drilled defence. Sunderland have just gone up with a very young team who they'll feel have another level in them etc. Winning in this league (and crucially having best chance staying up) I think is no longer about packing a team full of Ryan Frasers as it might have been 5 or 10 years ago. I'm excited about the direction we might take in building around Edwards, Charles, Edozie, Archer etc and think it's the best chance we'll have of staying up if we do go up. We'll need experience, of course, and will have but I can't get on board with criticising signings just because they are young.
By the time the season starts he’ll be the same age as THB was when we signed him, and he was an ever-present and one of our top performers, so I don’t have an issue with that. Suggests to me there’s likely to be a dramatic reshaping of the defensive options, given WS is likely to want a squad that can flex between two and three CBs, meaning he’ll surely need five options for those spots if THB, Bednarek and ABK all leave then we’ll have Stephens, Edwards, Wood, Quarshie and one more. And that’s assuming Wood doesn’t leave. I do agree that if there is to be one more, I’d like it to be a more experienced profile, though
It's worth keeping in mind that all assumptions around who will stay or play next season have the caveat that Will Still hasn't actually seen any of them train. After a month of pre-season he will likely have very different opinions on the entire squad and who he wants to keep and get rid of.
Agree. Though Charles, Sanda, Bree etc might give options too as part of a back 3/something more fluid. I'd absolutely love to keep hold of THB somehow, even if a new contract with a release clause if we don't go up. Think his injury has given me false hope though.
I still reckon THB will end up staying here too. Because who is going to spend £25m on an injured, overweight player who has just shown that he's not really up to the PL yet? Buying young promising players cheap, and focusing on developing our own talent again are the only realistic ways we can compete in the PL thanks to the shackles of PSR. As fans we don't want to think of players as assets, but it has to be part of the clubs considerations otherwise we will never get anywhere. Obviously you need the young promising players to also be ready to play a part now too but generally speaking, our best player purchases in recent years have been young promising players that it turns out, when given the chance, have thrived. Hopefully this guy can be the next one!
I don’t know if this is different due to PSR but for nearly every other premier league club 25m is not a super massive fee anymore. Most have records of 40+. It’s only us rooted at around that number and look at what it results in He wasn’t up to the premier league in an awful team that was not drilled on defending at all. It’s not impossible that with a more solid structure around him that some sides might give him a go. His injury is surely no permanent so him being injured isn’t really a point unless it is a multi month one that will impact pre season - the pre season where he can also theoretically fix the “overweight” part as well Wouldn’t be surprised to see some kind of creative loan that perhaps has another player coming our way on loan or permanently as I wouldn’t be surprised if he just doesn’t want to play here next season
Naming fun. Joshua in German is pronounced Yoh-shoo-ah. The Yoh rhymes with the poh in polite. Quarshie is the same West African name as Quashie and comes from the first name Kwasi. It means a boy born on a Sunday.
I wouldn't be shocked if a PL came in for him, but I agree with you in thinking that he'll still be with us next season. He wasn't helped by either manager this season - with Martin it was the suicidal passing out from the back, and with Juric it was the suicidal open play man marking. So I do think that there is a better defender there than what we've seen this season, and maybe there's a PL club out there willing to give him a chance. But if we stick to our guns in wanting something in the region of £25m - and historically that is one of the few things which SR can be given credit for - then I wouldn't be surprised if those PL clubs look elsewhere.
