Yeah but that's with a full squad....with my cynical head on, I'm thinking other teams are bound to target our creative players ie Lallana, AOC and Schneiderlin and we'll have to see how long Connolly can last (I hope a long time). Shouldn't have too long to wait as I expect Leeds's approach on Sat will be er, robust Seeing as there's no top flight games, at least we should theoretically get a decent ref I agree with others ref Forte, a handy squad player and a good impact sub
What a ridiculous thing to say. Any time we lost last season we tended to follow it up with five or so straight wins, so yes there would be a knock on effect but a positive one. We maybe wouldn't have lost to Rochdale! I don't see how MK Dons not being our last game is even relevant here lol...
I back you fully on this. Forte may not be a marque signing but he contributed when called upon and against the Dons he may well have saved us.It could have been that result that boosted us to get over the finishing line or shattered our confidence , so for that i am greatful.
Fair enough. But hey it's old news. Leeds come down on Saturday to play us in the Championship you know! If Forte comes on and scores then he will have single handedly saved our season.
It annoyed me massively. The same with N'Guessan. It was as if because we hadn't spent at least £1 million on each - when half the city were expecting Cortese to splash the cash - then they both must be worthless and rubbish. Forget that most people had hardly seem them kicked a ball, forget that some of them hadn't even heard of them before. They were written off before they even kicked a ball. Now ok yes, neither subsequently looked like Ronaldo or Messi. But that's not the point. You don't write someone off before they've even started. For what it's worth, I like Forte. I'm never going to really excited when I see his name on the teamsheet (like I am, for example, when I see Dickson's name ahead of Harding's), but that's only because we have some real quality forward players and thus if Forte is starting then one or two of them are presumably missing. I would like to see him get a regular place on the bench however, but unfortunately the stupid new rule will put paid to that.
With the new 5 sub rule, we may well see more of Forte coming in off the bench as he is a useful player that can play on the wing or up front. I have nothing against him like others do, he's got everything in the bag to be a quality player he just doesn't always play to his potential - he reminds me a lot of Wright-Phillips when he was at Saints in that respect
Younger football fans especially seem to judge a player on his transfer fee alone. Before he's kicked a ball he is judged. Paul Telfer springs to mind for me. Forte knows he won't be a first pick most weeks ,but i don't doubt he will work bloody hard to try and be one. Thats good enough for me at the moment.
Brendy has point..........When N'guessin and Forte were brought into the equation there was a lot of negative comments regarding both. When evenutally Forte was brought on for the last ten minute of one game......he probably didn't touch the ball more than a half dozen times. Yet he was deemed as a "duplicate of Pulis" and called a few derogatary names to boot. As for N'guessin it was clear he just wasn't used to the way we were playing the game. The small appearances he made were not a justification of the players worth. Forte was given a bit more "team time" and it showed. So all in all while I agree that possibly N'guessin may have not made the grade I somehow think that Forte may even overake Guly in the pecking order given the opportunity. We will just have to see........ May I just add that I have seen a few Newbies around....... I Would like to take this opportunity to welcome them to the saints board.......hope you all enjoy the site as much as we do.......
Well for me, I read these pages each morning upon waking, and then throughout the day trying to beat the boredom of working life - and the summer is hard when football is resting. So back to point - perhaps we live in a generation of too much information, too much media attention and too many xbox games that life doesnt really reflect reality. Let's face it, fans at every club around the country will be excited to see who they sign and will be debating on here or some place else - debate always has and always will be in existence - which is a good thing. The points here is about players being good enough or not. It has become amusing reading each day at polls and opinions about Forte, Jemal etc. One thread recently asked for best XI for Saints and people were suggesting Jemal - which is somewhat questionable as no-one would have heard of him prior but after the thread was put up I imagine his YouTube views shot through the roof. Forte is a good player but I doubt if Adkins brought him in Jan to become a 1st team player last season or even this. Team games are about the team and you need other players to come on/in due to suspensions, injuries etc. You cant expect a team of ronaldo, messi, rooney etc and have equally good players in reserve - look at the best teams and how they manage effective rotation - it has changed over the past 10 years - when I was playing I would have been furious if I was rotated - most players (apart from the top 10 in world perhaps) accept they will not always feature - the game has changed and Adkins seems to understand this with his intelligent style of managing. Anyhow - let's smile after the Leeds game...
It wouldn't be the first time that we have been scratching around looking to sign someone, when we had the answer in the ranks all the time.
Forte doesn't seem better or worse than the guy we had on loan from Reading tbh. He's just a bit older and doesn't have a long throw in his repertoire.
