rubberman Posted August 13, 2021 Share Posted August 13, 2021 2 hours ago, ender4 said: I think if we look like finishing 10-12th then Dean Smith will get sacked. Im pretty certain that the owners are looking for European qualification this season, so 7th as a minimum. That means improving by 7 (?) points from last season. Assuming that Jack might have stayed if we had European football, and Dean said we are 18 months behind where we could have maybe kept him, my detective work surmises that this year we'd like an improvement (obvs), but next year is the target for hitting Europe. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JAMAICAN-VILLAN Posted August 13, 2021 Share Posted August 13, 2021 People are forgetting that Ollie, scored a chunk of his goals, with little to no support. With all the supply outlets available to him now, he should score even more. So I wouldn't base our estimates just on his stats last season. Ings, scored loads, in a poor Southampton team. There are variables of scale to judge Gow much we've actually improved, with ALL the combined cogs in the wheel. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Danishlad Posted August 13, 2021 Share Posted August 13, 2021 2 hours ago, KevinRichardsonsMoustache said: Buy all the Chukwuemekas!!!! How many are there? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ender4 Posted August 13, 2021 Share Posted August 13, 2021 Just now, rubberman said: Assuming that Jack might have stayed if we had European football, and Dean said we are 18 months behind where we could have maybe kept him, my detective work surmises that this year we'd like an improvement (obvs), but next year is the target for hitting Europe. Yeah possibly. The qualifying for Europe might have been with Grealish staying and now they think a smaller increase to say 8th might be acceptable. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aston_Villan4 Posted August 13, 2021 Share Posted August 13, 2021 1 minute ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said: People are forgetting that Ollie, scored a chunk of his goals, with little to no support. With all the supply outlets available to him now, he should score even more. So I wouldn't base our estimates just on his stats last season. Ings, scored loads, in a poor Southampton team. There are variables of scale to judge Gow much we've actually improved, with ALL the combined cogs in the wheel. Yep. On paper we are a vastly improved team. Now it’s just down to Dean and the players to see to it that the stats on paper show up on the pitch Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tommo_b Posted August 13, 2021 Share Posted August 13, 2021 2 minutes ago, Aston_Villan4 said: Yep. On paper we are a vastly improved team. Now it’s just down to Dean and the players to see to it that the stats on paper show up on the pitch And if Dean doesn’t… VillaLad will be all over him. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jareth Posted August 13, 2021 VT Supporter Share Posted August 13, 2021 4 minutes ago, Danishlad said: How many are there? Depends, you must not feed them after midnight or spill water on them Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post OutByEaster? Posted August 13, 2021 Moderator Popular Post Share Posted August 13, 2021 It'll be disappointing if we don't strengthen in the middle of the park - perhaps it's a vote of confidence in Sanson, but I think the squad is fine for numbers but light on quality right now. With Dean backing up the suggestion from Purslow that we're done in this window, I think we're looking at a finish somewhere between 8th and 15th. I think if we flirt too long in the bottom half the manager might regret not getting another couple in. Ah well, what we've got is decent, we've spent money on replacing the strength we had in Grealish and I think we've done that quite well, but we've not spent on strengthening in the areas where we weren't as strong - so I think what we've got is a different way to get 11th. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sam-AVFC Posted August 13, 2021 Share Posted August 13, 2021 12 minutes ago, rubberman said: Assuming that Jack might have stayed if we had European football, and Dean said we are 18 months behind where we could have maybe kept him, my detective work surmises that this year we'd like an improvement (obvs), but next year is the target for hitting Europe. If next year is the target for qualifying that would mean we wouldn't actually play in Europe for another 2 years, so I think it's still the aim to get there this year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TRO Posted August 13, 2021 Share Posted August 13, 2021 14 minutes ago, rubberman said: Assuming that Jack might have stayed if we had European football, and Dean said we are 18 months behind where we could have maybe kept him, my detective work surmises that this year we'd like an improvement (obvs), but next year is the target for hitting Europe. Jack wants Champions league, not any old European Football. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChicagoVillan1983 Posted August 13, 2021 Share Posted August 13, 2021 1 minute ago, TRO said: Jack wants Champions league, not any old European Football. Who? 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JAMAICAN-VILLAN Posted August 13, 2021 Share Posted August 13, 2021 5 minutes ago, OutByEaster? said: It'll be disappointing if we don't strengthen in the middle of the park - perhaps it's a vote of confidence in Sanson, but I think the squad is fine for numbers but light on quality right now. With Dean backing up the suggestion from Purslow that we're done in this window, I think we're looking at a finish somewhere between 8th and 15th. I think if we flirt too long in the bottom half the manager might regret not getting another couple in. Ah well, what we've got is decent, we've spent money on replacing the strength we had in Grealish and I think we've done that quite well, but we've not spent on strengthening in the areas where we weren't as strong - so I think what we've got is a different way to get 11th. The middle of the park is the elephant in the room which has been ignored for way too long. As most People are waiting for Luiz to morph into Pirlo and Nakamba to morph into Kante. ( I like them both, but I'd rather not risk relying on them having improved significantly alone ) 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JAMAICAN-VILLAN Posted August 13, 2021 Share Posted August 13, 2021 2 minutes ago, ChicagoVillan1983 said: Who? Bacuna 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LondonLax Posted August 13, 2021 Share Posted August 13, 2021 1 hour ago, KangarooVillan said: I haven’t seen anything to suggest the owners expect Europe this season. I think the owners want Europe as soon as possible, but nothing to indicate that if we finish 9th or 10th Smith is in trouble. Especially considering the changes and preparation this off-season. How many years do you think they would be happy to wait? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rubberman Posted August 13, 2021 Share Posted August 13, 2021 3 minutes ago, Sam-AVFC said: If next year is the target for qualifying that would mean we wouldn't actually play in Europe for another 2 years, so I think it's still the aim to get there this year. Fair point - maybe that's why he said 18 months. Anyway - we'll never really know. I still expect we'll see another couple of bodies in - with the ambition of our owners, they won't want to miss the chance of getting ahead of plan by sitting on £100m with a negative net spend. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Indigo Posted August 13, 2021 Share Posted August 13, 2021 (edited) I don't think Smith's comments exactly suggest we're done this window and I definitely don't think Purslow's did. The latter was talking purely in terms of replacing Grealish, backed up by the fact that Tuanzebe was signed afterwards. Smith just said he was happy with the squad currently and essentially just didn't outright state "yeah we desperately need a midfielder in" as it wouldn't exactly be wise for him to do so publicly. Edited August 13, 2021 by Indigo 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TRO Posted August 13, 2021 Share Posted August 13, 2021 How I see the new campaign : Defence.....Good, confident. Midfield......Lets See what happens. Forwards....Formidable. European football.....NO. 3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vreitti Posted August 13, 2021 Share Posted August 13, 2021 3 minutes ago, LondonLax said: How many years do you think they would be happy to wait? You make it sound as if they've had to wait ten years already. Just consider where we were two years ago. A little perspective please. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KevinRichardsonsMoustache Posted August 13, 2021 Share Posted August 13, 2021 1 minute ago, rubberman said: I still expect we'll see another couple of bodies in - with the ambition of our owners, they won't want to miss the chance of getting ahead of plan by sitting on £100m with a negative net spend. Agreed: the owners will want to push on. I'm sure there is a 'warchest' (I've missed seeing that word reported), even if they don't want to publicise it any more than it already is. There's another factor in this, though: our owners are ambitious but they won't spend for the sake of it or get fleeced by arseholes. Supposedly, Nassef was directly involved in the negotiations over Grealish. When someone like that walks into the (Zoom) room, people just stfu. Bottom line: they're up for the challenge, but they won't be dicked about. If the numbers being discussed regarding JWP, for example, get out of hand, we'll walk. Simple as. I love the feeling that the club is being run by grown ups...who just so happen to have finances that could make any moderately-developed nation blush. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
allani Posted August 13, 2021 Share Posted August 13, 2021 6 minutes ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said: The middle of the park is the elephant in the room which has been ignored for way too long. As most People are waiting for Luiz to morph into Pirlo and Nakamba to morph into Kante. ( I like them both, but I'd rather not risk relying on them having improved significantly alone ) And McGinn into a top 8 PL player too... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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