Aaaargh! We got no wingers !!!
Pre season is traditionally an exciting time for supporters
regarding players coming to or going from their club. As supporters we’re living in hope of signing
a player who is going to be a game changer or signing a player who is going to
strengthen a rather obvious weakness in your team. It’s also a time where you have to be
patient, especially this year as pre-season is longer than usual due to Euro
2012 and the Olympics.
The glaring deficiencies in the Saints squad are at centre
half and on the wings where we have no back-up for the recognized first choices
and no standout candidates respectively.
There are two weeks to go until the season starts and a further two
until the window shuts but I’m beginning to get a bit concerned that an injury
to Jos or Jose will see Dan All-at-Seaborne in the side to play against Aguero,
Balotelli and Tevez when we kick off on the 19th.
Let’s face it, he didn’t prove he was good enough to play
against all those Total Football exponents in League 1, especially against the
few sides that attacked us and played on the floor. It’s obviously been decided that Aaron Martin
is not ready and so he’s been loaned out to Palace and that Dan Harding is not
good enough so he’s been sold to Forest (more on that later). Elsewhere in the squad, Dicko, Barney and
Johnno Pace have been told they’re free to move on as well so why is Seaborne
still here when he’s arguably the most ill equipped for the Prem out of all of
them? Is it because that his long term
injury means that Nigel and Crozzer haven’t made their mind up about him yet or
is it that we can’t get anyone else in?
Why is it that Aaron Martin has been loaned out and replaced in the
squad with the even younger Jack Stephens?
The answer is, in pure Adkinspeak, that “lots of work is going on behind
the scenes”. We know that but it doesn’t
stop me worrying at our apparent lack of activity.
In the meantime we’ve been playing friendlies including one
which bizarrely, was televised on Channel 5.
I thought our centre half problems had been sorted when I saw Ken Monkou
pitch side at the Ajax game but sadly, the 48 year old colossus can’t hack it
anymore even though I’d be less worried about him playing than Dan Seaborne.
A brief run through of the friendlies – we lost 1-0 to Ajax
with the goal coming from Jose Fonte keeping to fine footballing principles and
passing the ball out of defence which was OK until his pass went straight to an
Ajax player who smashed it in the net.
There were decent performances with Adam Lallana and James Ward-Prowse
being picked out by Ajax manager Frank de Boer who didn’t mention the fine
debut from Paolo Gazzaniga’s hair which features a little ponytail to make him
look hard. Seriously – forget getting
him to sing a song as part of his initiation – shave his head.
Wolves at home saw a decent performance and a 2-0 with goals
from Billy Sharp and Punch. Billy’s goal
in particular was very well worked and Punch seems to be putting in a decent
shift in pre-season despite being on most people’s list of players who won’t be
here at the start of the season so fair play to him.
A trip to Ashton Gate to play against last seasons
double-defeat-inflicting Bristol City saw us dominate the opening of the game
before going 1-0 down to a decent goal from the usually very average Jon
Stead. We created loads of chances playing
decent football and missed them all before a good old fashioned cross into he
mixer was headed down by Sir Rickie and Billy Sharp was there again to nick the
equalizer at the back post and so the game ended 1-1 which proves that we have
moved on massively from last season when we got beaten twice by this lot. Bring on Manchester City….erm.
Before we can start dreaming of starting the season with a
win at Eastlands, we had our final friendly against Udinese at home and I made
a late decision that I was going to go.
I took to the new look Saints website and after 4 hours of trying to
navigate my way round it and find the cost of tickets, I’d missed the match -
part of that story may be true.
Actually, what happened was that I found of the prices and got hit with
a large dose of ‘fuck that’ and so neatly dodged our 4-0 defeat, courtesy of
some stunning goals including two from Di Natale who was last seen playing in
the Euro 2012 final. Reality check – oh
yes.
As a general point though, the prices for the friendlies
have been ridiculous. By definition the
games are just extended training sessions and we’re being asked to pay £20 for
it. I’ve seen it mentioned that Season
Ticket Holders should be given free seats for friendlies ... why not try it and
see how the money works out with a gate of 15000 instead of 5000. Failing that, make the top price a tenner.
I never take friendly results as an indicator of an
impending good / bad / indifferent season
but I have to say that I’ve been a wee bit concerned by our new
formation which as I write, 6 days before our first game, we don’t have the
players to carry off. Nigel’s thinking
appears to be that we need 3 players in the middle of the park and one of those
should be Adam Lallana as he doesn’t have the requisite pace out wide. OK – I buy that but it causes problems
elsewhere. If Adam is not on the left,
we need someone else and at present, that someone is J-Rod who is no more a
left winger than Jos Hooiveld. Paying
£6million-ish for a centre forward and playing him on the left wing seems odd
and it illustrated perfectly against Udinese when we didn’t have the ball much
and J-Rod spend most of his time running towards our own goal about 3 miles
from the place centre forwards would usually be. Punch seems to be the man in
favour on the right wing but as we know, he’s totally left footed and when was
his last good competitive game in a Saints shirt? Other candidates like Guly and Chappers do
not have pace and the one who does, Steeeeeeeve isn’t anywhere the starting XI
I would have thought. Also of course,
this formation leaves room for just one of Sir Rickie and Billy Sharp and both
of them are the kind of players that need other players near to them. They both
have many attributes but pace isn’t one of them. Sir Rickie would be picked out of the two of
them which would be harsh on Billy who has 5 pre-season goals so far.
The wingers issue has obviously not gone unnoticed elsewhere
as in the last few days we’ve been linked with left winger Matt Jarvis from
Wolves who has handed in a transfer request.
Wolves are playing hardball with Sunderland over the fee for their
centre forward Steven Fletcher so I imagine they’ll be doing the same over
Jarvis and I can’t see us playing £10million for him. The other player linked is Matt Phillips from
Blackpool and the great thing about this one is that we’ve got up Ian
Holloway’s nose to the extent that he’s reported us for making an illegal
approach, implying that we’ve gone behind his back. It’s odd that Nigel’s said that he’s had a
conversation with Holloway about it.
It’s also odd that Nicola Cortese has had discussions with the Blackpool
Chief Exec about it. Holloway seem to
think we’ve not been stand up gentlemen about the whole thing but it’s ok for
him to have a rant in a press conference.
I know he’s only looking out for his best interests but he is a cock but
watch your back Ian, it looks to me like
people in the upper echelons of your club are trying to sell the player from
under you.
The last actual activity that occurred regarding player
movement was Dan Harding leaving to join Nottingham Forest. I was never his biggest fan but he put in
some decent performances for us, especially in his first season and knocked in
a couple of decent goals when he found himself in the box. I always found his defending to be poor especially
when up against a physical player when he was always found wanting, especially
in the air. He would be buried alive in
the Premier League so I’m glad he’s gone but good luck to him as in the main,
he did a decent job.
So, 6 days to the start of the season.
Mood - Apprehensive
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