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Reply | Dibbling on his way to Spurs ?
at 09:08 1 Feb 2025
Two proven top flight players won't want to come here and play in the Championship next season unless they are so bad now that no other club wants them. At best, you'd get one with long-term injury problems and another whose last decent season was a few years ago before his lifestyle issues took their toll. £50 mill for a couple of Cornets? |
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Reply | Will we beat Derby's lowest points record
at 12:45 31 Jan 2025
They've struggled ever since. Their finishes in the Championship in the 3 seasons after relegation: 18th, 14th, 19th.
It must be hard for a team to recover from a season that bad. I guess you need to completely rebuild the squad, as well as morale at the club, when the losing habit has become that deeply ingrained, and a club so obviously on the way down is not going to attract ambitious players. Recruitment of anyone looking for more than just another pay day would be difficult. [Post edited 31 Jan 13:07]
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Reply | Leeds After a bowman?
at 07:59 31 Jan 2025
Instead of all these wingers and inside forwards who we could experiment with playing at centre forward in the hope that it might work, we should have bought one proper striker: Ayoub El Kaabi. He's a real centre forward and his goals would have won us games.
Did anyone really believe that Archer was the answer to our need for a centre forward?
Last summer, we really could have got El Kaabi. Anyway, I guess he's dodged a bullet. He's the top scorer in the Europa League this season and gunning for another trophy. [Post edited 31 Jan 8:07]
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Reply | Are Saints Fans
at 09:05 30 Jan 2025
No. Saints' league home games and away allocations are selling out. We've got as many fans going to games now as we've ever had.
There is bit of moaning from internet fans though, but they're still posting as much as ever so there's no lack of interest there either. [Post edited 30 Jan 9:16]
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Reply | Pompey Lose
at 10:32 29 Jan 2025
The 0-0 draw between Burnley and Leeds was even worse, and they're supposed to be 2 of the best teams in the Championship. There wasn't one shot on target from either team until the 89th minute. The standard is abysmal compared to the Premier League. [Post edited 29 Jan 10:35]
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Reply | Football Clubs Supported By Bands/ Singers
at 22:11 28 Jan 2025
His older brothers supported them. There are a lot of canals in the West Midlands. Maybe that's where they were before they moved to London. |
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Reply | Football Clubs Supported By Bands/ Singers
at 21:55 28 Jan 2025
Hull City- Sinitta (She's been in the home dressing room. I don't know what she was doing there.)
West Brom - loads of them including Eric Clapton and Ronnie Wood. [Post edited 28 Jan 21:57]
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Reply | Pompey Lose
at 21:48 28 Jan 2025
They went more than half a year without a home win before that.
I remember a few years ago they published an all-time home win percentage table and Pompey were near the bottom of it, way below Saints and even below teams like Reading. Merson was on Sky SportsNews bigging up their home form before the game. The facts tell a different story. [Post edited 28 Jan 22:28]
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Reply | Dibbling on his way to Spurs ?
at 12:26 28 Jan 2025
Go to London and seek your fortune young man. It's a well-trodden path followed by Ramsey, Chivers, Bale and now Dibling. |
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Reply | Tyler Dibling Could Be Sold By Saints In January But loaned Back
at 10:37 28 Jan 2025
The careers of nearly all professional footballers embrace several clubs. It's always been like that, even going back to the days of C.B. Fry. Every player wants to play the longest he can at the most successful club that will take him. That's why Alex McCarthy and Jack Stephens have been here for years whereas Gareth Bale and Virgil van Dijk weren't. |
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Reply | Juric
at 14:00 27 Jan 2025
it's easy enough on transfermarkt to see what players his previous clubs, Genoa, Hellas Verona and Torino, bought after he became their manager.
[Post edited 27 Jan 16:10]
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Reply | If Bournemouth can do it with gates of 11,000 why can't we.
at 11:03 27 Jan 2025
I have been looking at their transfer activity and the people involved in their recruitment. There's no simple answer.
It wasn't that long ago that they were taking the likes of Shane Long and Jack Stephens on loan from us.
They have sold some good players too, like Aaron Ramsdale, Callum Wilson, Nathan Ake and Dominic Solanke. The Solanke fee has funded their recent recruitment.
This is their current recruitment team:
Phil Antwi is the Head of Emerging Talent 1st Team Recruitment
Joshua Dorlikar: Academy Head of Recruitment
Lewis Prior: Lead First Team Recruitment Analyst
Carl Robson: Head of International Scouting
Antwi has only been in the job 4 months but he appears to be focusing on young West African footballers at the moment.
Carl Robson, who's in charge of their international scouting, studied Leisure Management at Solent University in Southampton.
Lewis Prior is their 'Black Box' man and he appears to be, like Paul Mitchell was here, the key to it all. His background doesn't stand out. He studied at the University of Chichester and used to be the Portsmouth U16 Ladies' coach. But, if I were looking to replicate Bournemouth's success, he's the man I'd poach from them.
As to Prior's strategy, it is similar to Mitchell's. He looks at small/medium clubs, mostly in Europe, and analyses who their best young players are. Most people with a professional football background wouldn't do that; they'd look for players who'd already proved they could do it at a higher level.
Dango Quattara, who scored a hat-trick in their last game, is a typical example of the players he targets. He comes from Ouagadougou in Burkina Fasso, a place that doesn't have a record of selling footballers for big fees. He went to a small club in France, Lorient, and soon became their rising star. That's when Lewis Prior and Bournemouth pounced, in the January 2023 transfer window, before any of the big clubs had even noticed him.
Lewis Prior would also be the man who pinpointed their latest manager. Andoni Iraola, who was managing small European clubs, Larnaca, Mirandes and Rayo Vallecano, and so had not yet reached the attention of the big clubs (again the same strategy).
To sum up, Bournemouth target players and managers who've been successful at small clubs in Europe, who most people here are unaware of, whereas Saints target players and managers who've been mediocre or failures at medium/big clubs, especially in England, where they are already well known. Our recent managers are good examples. Jones and Martin were mediocre at Championship clubs and Juric failed at one of the biggest clubs in Italy. Bournemouth would have steered well clear of them. They buy success; we buy failure.
Ankersen' recruitment strategy - Embrace Failure: recruit people who've failed in the past because they'll have learned from their mistakes - is the fatal flaw which has led to our spectacular failure.
[Post edited 28 Jan 10:30]
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Reply | Has any other club ever had a worse Premier League record than Saints?
at 18:01 26 Jan 2025
No, not even in the history of the Football League, since there have been 3 points for a win.
We are about to break every record in the book as the worst top flight team in history.
But, in 1899/1900, when there were only 34 matches and 2 points for a win, Loughborough finished with 8 points in the old Second Division. That record still stands. [Post edited 26 Jan 18:08]
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Reply | Juric
at 11:21 26 Jan 2025
"Many of the issues surrounding substations and trying to pick the best 11, emirates from the depth of quality and consistency throughout the squad."
You're not sending this message from Arsenal tube station, by any chance, are you? |
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Reply | Walker-Peters - off to Galatasaray??
at 10:00 26 Jan 2025
I wish him luck wherever he goes. He runs his heart out every game. I feel sorry for him, being stuck in such a terrible team. He deserves better. |
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Reply | Under 21's
at 09:57 26 Jan 2025
It will probably never happen. 3 of them will be leaving at the end of the season anyway. |
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Reply | Under 21's
at 01:13 26 Jan 2025
It's such a shame that Amo-Ameyaw doesn't even get on the bench for first team games now. He's far better than some of the players that do. I remember seeing Amo-Ameyaw play alongside Dibling pre-season and thinking those 2 are going to be great together for us this season. Likewise, when he came on and played alongside Sulemana in that 4-4 draw with Liverpool.
Have Sulemana and Dibling playing in front of Amo-Ameyaw and Fernandes and you have yourself an exciting attack. Instead we get the likes of Smallbone, Aribo and Armstrong. |
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Site Scores| Forum Votes: | 641 | | Comment Votes: | 1536 | | Prediction League: | 0 | | TOTAL: | 2177 |
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