Pre-Season Part 3

New Player: New Home Shirt

Saints went to Switzerland for a training camp in much the same way as they did last season.  Part of the training consisted of hooking the players up to GPS trackers to see where they ran.  I can imagine Nigel Adkins and Andy Crosby back at the lab and wondering if the tracking device was working or had Jaidi really only ran 10 yards at an average speed of 3 miles per hour. 

A couple of friendlies against Bienne-Biel and St Gallen ended in a 3-3 draw and a 1-0 defeat respectively.  The first two goals we scored in the Biel match were from Connolly headers from Holmes crosses.  They have a telepathic understanding which was implanted by the medical staff at the Staplewood Convalescent Home where they spent so much time together.  The third goal was scored by Chamberlain which is kind of surprising considering he’s signed for Arsenal, Man Utd and Liverpool.

Try as I might I couldn’t really see answers to the most pressing questions regarding the make-up of the team for the Leeds game.  You would assume that central midfield will be Jack Cork + one of Hammond, Chaplow and Schneiderlin.   In the one game he played, Cork was paired with Schneiderlin.  Up front, Sir Rickie was with Connolly against Biel and the Gulyman against St Gallen.... and it all proves nothing aside from the fact that we have a lot of options.  Intriguingly, Nigel hinted at a couple more players being in the building and on the bus by the time the Markus Liebherr Memorial Cup rolled around.

By the time it did, we had added a Belgian winger called Steve de Ridder who looks handy enough on You Tube but we reserve judgement as we all remember when we all got a dose of Delgado Fever, all frothing at the mouth as he looked like a World Beater on You Tube.  Anyhow, welcome Steve and let’s hope you have a massive impact.  Like I say, he looks good on highlights but the only worry is why hasn’t he played for Belgium yet as after all, they’re about as good as Wales.   He’ll be either competing with or replacing Alex Chamberlain who upped the ante regarding his moving by giving interviews in two national papers, basically saying he wanted to play for a top 4 club and that he was ready.  I’m not going to have a go at him as he’s a kid being advised by others with vested interests but I can’t stand it when you get players trying to engineer moves for themselves.  No one has bid this summer so it’s not as if anyone’s preventing him from moving.  One of the most boring / switch it off / I don’t give a fuck stories of pre-season has been Carlos Tevez trying to arrange a move for himself, closely followed by the Luka Modric issue at Spurs.  Back to Alex – careful what you wish for as personally, an hour against Man Utd reserves doesn't mean you've got it all sussed yet.

Both Sir Rickie and Lee Barnard have signed new 3 year contracts which is really positive news, as was Sir Rickie’s interview in which facially anyway, he looked like he hadn’t touched a pie or a pint all summer.  The new home kit was released and it’s back to stripes as we all knew that it would be.  A fabulous picture of Jose Fonte looking like a zombie was used to promote the release.  Seriously, how can they take hundreds of photos and think that was the best one.

Fonte: Red and White Stripes

A bolt from the blue arrived with the news that it’s only 5 subs instead of 7 next season – apparently to ease financial pressure so clubs don’t have to have so many players in their squad.    As we’re right on top of a new season and most clubs (not Pompey obviously) have set their squad sized based on (amongst other thing) needing 7 subs, surely this rule comes in for next season or maybe in three years as most players have 3 year contracts ?  Nope, it comes in now which is completely retarded.  Is this going to keep the wage bill down at clubs who are skint?  Let’s take Pompey as an example as it’s funny -  If they need 20 players now instead of 22, will they spend less money overall or just pay higher wages to the 20?  We all know the answer to that one.  Give me one good reason for this rule change.  Why not leave it – Pompey hardly put 7 on the bench all season so just let teams decide how many subs they want between 3 and 7.    Nigel Adkins is against it as it makes it more difficult to keep players happy and restricts youngsters coming through.  He’s right – as an experiment, I picked a random-ish first XI and 5 subs and I was left with the following players not even on the bench.... Harding, Martin, Butterfield, Barnard, Schneiderlin, Forte, Holmes – not to mention Doble, Reeves, Ward-Prowse and Stephens. 

Skates: 2 less subs to find

Anyway, rant over and the Memorial Cup Triangular 45 minute matches thing.  We beat Werder Bremen 3-0 with a lovely goal worked between Cork and Connolly, a neat finish by the Gulyman and a Lallana tap-in, set up by Connolly.  In our 2^nd game, a totally changed side, decked out in our new ‘Brazil’ away kit, lost 2-0 to Athletic Bilbao who took home the trophy but we played pretty well by all accounts.  The crowd was quite sparse for this but anyone expecting a 20,000+ crowd for this was deluded.  For me personally it was too expensive, having just forked out for a season ticket and when you’re 42 with 3 kids, a mortgage and an expensive wife... you try affording it all.  In younger days of disposable income, I’d have been there but some things have to change unfortunately.  I’ve see it asked on another Saints blog if it was a snub to Markus Liebherr’s memory that so few turned up.  Of course it fucking wasn’t.  The word ‘snub’ implies people didn’t turn up because they in some way, reject what Markus did and don’t appreciate it, which is a suggestion that is 100% wrong, it’s as simple as that. 

Meanwhile, back to the pitch and Jack Cork’s partner in midfield today was Dean Hammond (which is how I expect the season to start) and Danny Seaborne was in defence with Jose Fonte.  The day did see the unveiling of the Markus tribute flag which was the brainchild of JustMike (as he’s known on Saintsweb) or as I call him, Mike who can’t bat or bowl or throw.  I think it looks superb and well done for all your efforts fella.  A real selfless labour of love but well worth it in the end.  May I suggest not taking it to Fratton Park this season.

Two weeks to go...

COME ON YOU REDS... once more.

Mike:  Nice one mate!!!

Pre-Season Part 2

Cork in a Chelsea Kit: Either Photoshopped or a Friendly

The first notable event of pre-season has happened with Jack Cork signing from Chelsea. On the face of it, this is a quality bit of business by the club as he’s a quality player who has been walking the walk in the Championship for about 3 years now, including a spell under Nigel Adkins at Scunthorpe. For the last 18 months he’s been at Burnley and their fans sound gutted that he’s not signing for them which is a good sign. It can be argued that we needed to sign a centre back and a midfielder and we’ve signed both with one player and he can also play at right back. I thought he was good when he played for us in the Championship last time as an 18 year old, under the moron of all morons, Jan Poortvliet and it was difficult to look good in a team that was coached by someone who was such utter, utter shit.

As an aside, it’s another example of one of my major bugbears with big clubs. Why do they even bother having a Youth set up as they hardly ever play any of them and they never sell them on for much money because they never play. Jack Cork has been with Chelsea since he was about 8 and has never played a competitive game for them as his route to the first team is always blocked by the latest dodgy foreigner they’ve signed for millions and have to play. Maybe we’ll get Josh McEachran in a few years when he’s reached 22 and has played 4 games in the Carling Cup. Anyway, their loss is our gain.

It’s also a good day as it bursts the bubble of the doom merchants who constantly question the club and its ambition, available money, ability to attract good players etc. Well we’ve just signed a player that Burnley wanted – Burnley who are getting parachute payments from their season in the Premier League. I’d say that proves were ok financially and are willing to back the manager. It seems like we bid over £3 million for Billy Sharp as well which in my opinion, is way too high so I’m quite pleased that one fell through for whatever the reason.... but because it fell through, the doom merchants span it as ‘Adkins can’t attract players’ and/or ‘did we actually offer that much’. Nigel gave an interview saying ‘be patient’ and ‘we only need 2 or 3’ but still people don’t get it. For the past two years, the club has been delivering on its promises .... Rupert is Dead and it’s not like it was anymore.

More incoming rumours include Lukas Jutkiewicz, a Southampton born forward who plays for Coventry. Again, their fans don’t want him to go which is nice to read. Personally, at this moment in time I’m not buying this one as the link seems to be based purely on the fact he was born in our fair city.

In Nigel’s interview he expressed frustration at Oscar Gobern going to Huddersfield but I bet that if you’d asked him a week or so ago to pick one player from the squad to lose, it would have been the Ninja with the Inner Ear Infection. Still, when it goes to a tribunal we’ll be saying he’s brilliant and the new Patrick Vieira and we should be compensated about £3 million. I have a feeling that Jack Cork may prove to be a better player than Oscar Gobern.

THE NEXT BIT IT A RUMOUR AND NO MORE THAN THAT... SO IT COULD BE SHIT!!!

I have an Alex Chamberlain rumour from an ‘in the know’ source, not the News of the World, that says that he’ll be leaving but only to a club that will loan him back for the whole of the coming season.  If this is true, I love the fact that as we don’t need to sell, we can call the shots and specify that he’s loaned back to us which would never have been the case before when we took whatever was offered. Apparently Arsenal (the assumed destination) aren’t keen on this as they want him to follow the development plan that has served Theo Walcott so well - put him in their reserves and fuck him up for 5 years so he’s no better than if he’d stayed at Saints all that time. As we all know, Arsenal’s Youth Development modus operandii is to pay relatively small fees for other clubs best young players. Still... Arsene knows best, which must be why half his first team want to leave. In his defence though, at least Arsenal’s young players get a game.

Another rumour I’m not buying is Jason Puncheon to Pompey. He’ll go somewhere but I’ll be amazed if it’s there, simply because we’re apparently asking a fair bit for him and I think Pompey could get better value for money elsewhere. Hang on... when have they ever cared about that though? If he does go there (money up front of course) and has one of his ‘cows arse with a banjo’ games then he’ll get slaughtered by their fans and then he’ll sulk and be looking for club no 23 of his career.

Pre-season just got interesting....