Yankee_Jack
Key Player
They come. They go. The beat goes on.
Martin on the way out
- Thread starter The Blobster
- Start date
And the donkeys on the Planet Swans attack Silverstein for the “catastrophe January transfer window"?
The January transfer window has never been a window for serious transfers, but rather an emergency one. The Swans didn't need to strengthen in January, as evidenced by our excellent form between mid-March and the end of the season, when Martin finally (halelujah!) decided to switch to a back four. The truth is, we didn't need to bring in players, we needed to change our style, or even better, change the manager. And all this “January catastrophe" is just Martin's pathetic excuse for the silly style of football he forced our players to play and our fans to watch. Amen.
The January transfer window has never been a window for serious transfers, but rather an emergency one. The Swans didn't need to strengthen in January, as evidenced by our excellent form between mid-March and the end of the season, when Martin finally (halelujah!) decided to switch to a back four. The truth is, we didn't need to bring in players, we needed to change our style, or even better, change the manager. And all this “January catastrophe" is just Martin's pathetic excuse for the silly style of football he forced our players to play and our fans to watch. Amen.
Victoria Swan
Key Player
Just as Silverstein said, we can't make Martin stay. However, I'd prefer him to stay. Why? Because whomever we bring in is a disruption compared to the continuity of Martin staying and building on the terrific momentum and confidence we have going into next season. Even with Cameron Toshak (whom I really like and hope is the replacement if we need one) there will be disruptions as he understandably puts his stamp on the team. I believe that unlike a couple of month's ago our current circumstances demand that continuity trumps change.
Spending (big) doesn't always guarantee success. Chelsea's owner backed Graham Potter to spend over $350m in January, making Chelsea (and Potter) the Premier League biggest spender by far. In fact, Chelsea (and Potter) spent more in January than all the teams in Europe's top five leagues combined. Despite this huge investment, Graham Potter kept losing games and was finally sacked in early April, leaving Chelsea 11th in the league. Nottingham Forest are the second biggest spenders in the Premier League this season but Steve Cooper's side are still in danger of relegation with two games remaining, having spent £170 million on new players.
It's clear that our poor run of form between the end of October and mid-March was the result of poor management, not a lack of players or financial backing in the January transfer window. It's no coincidence that we have scored 19 goals and conceded just 7 in our last 9 games. Prior to this excellent run, we were conceding goals like a sieve and had one of the worst defensive records in the Championship. So what happened in mid-March? First of all, four at the back happened. By using four at the back formation we were able to block more crosses than before and were not as vulnerable on the counter-attack as before. Secondly, we started to play long when we were under pressure and we didn't pass the ball out from the back as much as we used to. Thirdly, Ntcham was moved from attacking to central midfield. This created a completely different dynamic in the middle of the park. The question is, why on earth has Martin waited almost two years to make some necessary changes to his playing style?
It's clear that our poor run of form between the end of October and mid-March was the result of poor management, not a lack of players or financial backing in the January transfer window. It's no coincidence that we have scored 19 goals and conceded just 7 in our last 9 games. Prior to this excellent run, we were conceding goals like a sieve and had one of the worst defensive records in the Championship. So what happened in mid-March? First of all, four at the back happened. By using four at the back formation we were able to block more crosses than before and were not as vulnerable on the counter-attack as before. Secondly, we started to play long when we were under pressure and we didn't pass the ball out from the back as much as we used to. Thirdly, Ntcham was moved from attacking to central midfield. This created a completely different dynamic in the middle of the park. The question is, why on earth has Martin waited almost two years to make some necessary changes to his playing style?
Yankee_Jack
Key Player
I don’t consider Soton a bigger club than us. They haven’t won anything of note since the ‘70s. And have not won anything more than us … they have the FA Cup, we have the League Cup. We have been to the last 32 of the Europa League. They haven’t.
they once had a top academy, I think ours is as good if not better.
like all relegated clubs, Soton will now be in a phase of financial engineering desperately trying to right size their cost structure to match the 50% collapse in revenue. This will be coupled with players and agents driving an exodus of better players for better things. Martin is not going to walk into a coherent squad of quality, more like a patch work quilt of good enough / cheap enough … but perhaps not quite good enough.
Yankee_Jack
Key Player
Martin is highly likely to repeat his pattern of raiding prior club for pets.
Who would he be interested in at our club? It very much depends on who leaves Soton but Piroe, Grimes and Woods would be my guess atm.
Fisher, Darling and Lati?
Yankee_Jack
Key Player
Add Manning.
Behindthegoal
Key Player
I vote for him to stay on the basis that we paid him for all that time while he tried to get it right and now it’s almost fixed we should stay with it.
As we speak it seems he might move on We can’t stop him, thanks for that Jake, It seems unfair to infer that hello is moving for the money. Like Cooper he’s probably been promised more say In the transfer market.
As we speak it seems he might move on We can’t stop him, thanks for that Jake, It seems unfair to infer that hello is moving for the money. Like Cooper he’s probably been promised more say In the transfer market.
Yankee_Jack
Key Player
Martin is pets oriented. Manning and Lati are free agents. Fisher and Darling are pets that I would be happy to cash-in on.
Woods and Piroe we need to keep. Fulton and Grimes are too old for Soton.
Rogers is currently without a club. I’d be happy to see him back. He’s seasoned and then some at this point. He could get us promoted.
Woods and Piroe we need to keep. Fulton and Grimes are too old for Soton.
Rogers is currently without a club. I’d be happy to see him back. He’s seasoned and then some at this point. He could get us promoted.
Too much to hope for!
That is also too much to hope for. Rodgers will want, and get, a tier one club, either at home or abroad. He won't step back to the Championship, especially to a club where the purse strings are as tight as ours. We'll go for the cheapest viable option which, as you all know, I believe should be young Tosh with KOL as his assistant. I reckon those two will put a rocket up the arses of our squad whilst ensuring the suicidal defending of the past becomes a very distant memory.
Yankee_Jack
Key Player
As reported yesterday by BBC …
three more conflicting statements I couldn’t imagine writing. Either they have made an official approach or they haven’t and if not where’s the “confidence” coming from. I suppose they’ve talked to his agent, floated a term sheet, and it’s been enough to scuttle the meeting with our owners, while Soton and the Club hammer out the compensation details.
I read in the newspapers that Soton were interested in Cabango before the approach to Martin, so he might go.
The Blobster
Prediction Champ
The title stays , at the time of posting the Internet was full of articles saying he had extended his contract but they were all fake news !
Aye, there's so much fake news in the media. My post about Cabango being wanted by Soton just might be a newspaper asking a journo for some column inches to fill a page. Lots of stuff is just pure clickbait and it's frigging annoying to be honest. But at least it gives us something to discuss.