Excellent work from Adam's, McNally and the rest of the team. Happy the defence is now sorted especially the centre back area. Also it's good to see Adam's building for the future Thompson will hopefully learn a lot from Tettey's and Johnson then one day take their place.
We've got a gruelling schedule especially the run in around Christmas time, I'm glad we're well staffed. I think Bennett is going to take a long while to get back to 100%, we have five centre backs Turner, Bennett, Miquel, Cueller and Hooiveld, Rusty can play it well in an emergency role but by the way he talks to the press at the moment he seems to think his Mat Hummels.
He was on a minimum of £30k p/w in the Premier League, factor in a generous 30% relegation clause as standard and for six months he'll cost us £567,000 or £1.2m for the year. Overall I'm happy though. Feel we've got the squad to be top two, playoffs if we go on a poor run. But as we've played some top teams and Ipswich that we've already shown we're going to be competitive. If we get promoted the Bassong money won't matter, it probably won't anyway. Just seems a waste.
I still think a decent RB would have been useful, but I guess one can be loaned in later if required. Must admit to not getting my head round signing a young player then depriving ourselves of his services for an entire season by loaning him straight back to his former club, but : Becchio in the shop window out on loan, : Hooper and Redmond both still here, : Experienced and youthful defensive cover added, So, apart from the fact there were no takers for Bassong, I think we can pronounce it an excellent transfer window for the club - well played, Adams and McNally So, the crusade for next year is to get the dorks at the F.A. to ensure the window closes the day before the season commences in anger. Thereby effectively rendering pointless both Jim White - and that bloody yellow tie!
one would have to assume that adams signing both miquel and hooiveld in particular, that martin will now switch to right back. hooiveld won't have come here to sit on the bench. i also think bassong will go out on loan in the foreseeable future
Hi guys, Saints fan here. Very good piece of business by you guys to sign Jan Hooiveld, we has been a very good player for us, especially in the Championship, strong, solid player who pops in a few goals as well, he's also very, very popular in the dressing room and we all wish him well. Want to see you guys and Jan next season.
So to roughly put a first and second side together: Ruddy Whittaker Hooiveld Turner Olsson Tettey Johnson Redmond Hoolahan Lafferty Grabban Rudd Martin Cuellar Miquel Garrido VOO O'Neil Bennett Howson Murphy Hooper With Ryan Bennett to return, and McGrandles, Jerome, Callan-McFadden and Loza in reserve. With the possible exception of Cardiff, surely no team in the league has anywhere near that kind of depth?
I think we should make a rule on this board that you can't get away with posting "VOO," you have to use his full name! Points will be lost for poor spelling!
IMO I think our strongest team will end up being something like: Ruddy Martin Hooiveld Turner Olsson Odjidja Johnson Redmond Howson Lafferty Hooper With a bench of: Rudd, Whittaker, Tettey, Hoolahan, both Bennetts, Grabban Amazing that in our strongest team I can't start Tettey (though I'd see him as interchangeable with Johnson, depending on opposition) or Hoolahan and Murphy, Miquel, Cuellar, Jerome, Garrido and McGrandles I can't even fit into the squad, despite being barely weaker than players in the starting line up. We are essentially able to carry six injured players without blinking (as long as they're not all in one position, obviously...)
Long time lurker here, just been looking at Hooiveld on Twitter as I don't know much about him and came across this. Had me in stictches! "Jos Hooiveld (Dutch pronunciation: [jɔs ˈhoːifɛlt]; born 22 April 1983) is a Dutch footballer who plays for English side Norwich as a centre back. Hooiveld is known for his strong physical performances. Build in the frame of a mountain, Jos was recently linked with a move to FC Barcelona but decided that he would tear up the league with his awesomeness, leaving the likes of Gareth Bale and Cristiano Ronaldo in his wake. Jos doesn't use beard trimmers because he's a trend setter and almost certainly would look less manly without one, Jos therefore is a tank and could single handedly destroy any team with and would leave the likes of Eden Hazard in his wake, trembling with fear. Jos and Johan Elmander are good friends and regularly exchange phone calls as to how to they should go about terrorising defenders with their beards. Tim Howard was rumoured to have rung the pair for advice as his beard was never quite as awesome as he thought it was and this left Jos feeling good about himself knowing he had done a good deed."
it is a staggeringly strong squad for this level of football. its difficult to tell at this time without having seen everyone in the yellow shirts but i personally think our strongest line up will include tettey. he's been fantastic this season, an absolute beast. not necessarily our strongest team but i'd try something like this to begin with if everyone was fit: ruddy martin - turner - hooiveld - olsson tettey - howson redmond - odjidja-ofoe - grabban lafferty you could play lafferty wide left and hoops up front when fit or swap lafferty with grabban and play him up front. ideally i'd want all forward players to interchange during games. perhaps harsh on hoolahan and definitely johnson but i think howson offers the team more going forwards and tettey is good enough at this level to hold without him. different story at premier league level. hoolahan could come in for odjidja-ofoe who could play instead of howson a bit deeper. who knows! so many choices!
