Not necessarily a criticism of Martin, but I think every player needs another look. Any manager with such a specific style of play will have a system that really suits some players but not others.
Yep, even David Brooks didn't look that effective for us. Now he's starting games for Bournemouth, who are one of the best attacking teams in the country.
Yeah, players like Sulemana and Edozie are much better suited to a direct, counter attacking style of play. I'm still not convinced by Edozie's end product but he is only young so would like another look at him.
6 goals and 3 assists in just 16 starts last season. That's great for a wide player. Suggests he could be on 15+ goals a season if played regularly.
Really love the man's professionalism and dedication. I also agree that he'll be invaluable to us next season, but I hope to god if we get back to the PL that we don't renew his contract. Other than his championship goals (24 if you include play-offs), the most he has ever scored in the premier league for us is 2 (a total of 6 goals from approx. 73 appearances since '21).
It is a tricky one. I completely agree he is and never will be good enough for the premier league. However, if we do go up, there will always be the strong possibility that we will go down straight away, in which case you would still want him. The ideal situation would be to keep him after we get promoted again, but loan him back to a top championship club for a decent loan fee and wages. But I doubt Arma would be content with being passed around like that.
Only 3 goals and 3 assists in 21 appearances (13 starts) for Anderlecht this season though. He seems to have picked up a hip injury recently as well. Hopefully nothing too serious. With a bit of luck the experience has been good for him. I'd expect him to be a useful player for us next season but I doubt he'll be first choice.
Were all of the goals and assists in games he started? If not, we have to factor in all of the sub appearances too. Genuine question, as I don't know the answer!
The worry for me with Armstrong (and some of the others) is that they might well have the hump with Saints for effectively relegating them as an individual. Can't imagine he's going to be too pleased with the club for openly saying he's not PL quality. Why wouldn't he actually push for a move to the club who wanted him? I don't think it'll be very straightforward in the summer
He played a total of of 1,364 minutes, which is actually only the equivalent of about fifteen full 90 minutes. So yeah, the goal/assist ratio is still impressive.
I get your point but Saints aren’t the only ones who have eyes and can see how he struggles in the PL. I doubt he will get many more attractive options than staying with us next year. We absolutely should want him next year, it’s what’s beyond that that people have concerns with Only thing I can see is if he wants to go to another promotion contender and hope they give him a chance in the PL (rather than stay with us, have a good season and hope we give him another chance)
Speaking of players badly used by RM - there's a good article about Charly Alcaraz and his Everton move in the Athletic. Be very interesting to see how he gets on there (if slightly sad to watch too). https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/61...rce=dailyemail&campaign=601983&userId=5781672
With Armstrong I would think it'll also depend on who the manager is and who we sell. Under Juric he seems to be something like 3rd choice in two positions. If we have a different manager and sell Dibling, Fernandes and Sulemana that obviously changes things quite a lot.
