1 hour ago, RiseAgainst said:

Maybe Azaz was so gash for the Republic because a section of the fanbase have booed him and he doesn't feel at home there?

On a different note the way our fans are obsessed with azaz for doing a pr interview with his new club is embarrassing 

13 hours ago, Tarmo Kink Army said:

On a different note the way our fans are obsessed with azaz for doing a pr interview with his new club is embarrassing 

Now that's not the whole story, is it? He didn't just 'do a PR interview' - he quite intentionally described Southampton as having Premier League ambition. Even if Boro weren't top of the league when he said it, that would have been poor judgement.

If he'd actually gone to the PL, fair enough. If he'd said he wanted to test himself in Europe and gone abroad, fair enough. If he'd said he was homesick in the north east and desperate to move to the south coast where his heart lay, fair enough. But he didn't say any of those things. He left us for a direct rival and suggested it was because they had promotion potential. You don't need a background in the diplomatic corps to see the folly in that.

I daresay Saints fans will have enjoyed his comments. But us - and neutral observers - are entitled to listen to that 'PR interview' and think 'eew'.

14 hours ago, ScarBoro said:

Do we get anything for the first cap? I can imaging Levy thinking about “one-cap wonders” and making it conditional on 2 or even a few caps.

Incidentally, I hadn’t realised, but according to BBC, Spence is the first Muslim to win a full England cap, so pretty ground breaking.

I would definately expect us to get some money if there is indeed a "cap bonus". Maybe not the full amount after just one cap, but it would be a fairly good deal for Spurs too even if it was just for the one cap, as it would mean that they have bought a quality player and then it probably doesn't matter if its just the 2,5 million up front after the one cap.

15 hours ago, BoroWales said:

I see Arfsten played the full 90 for USA v Japan yesterday.

I really hope we’re pursuing this one - maybe even in January.

He could be out of our reach after the World Cup.

Will probably depend a bit on how Silvera does and to an extend Targett. Was Targett a full season loan? If Silvera does well will we then also buy Arfsten, or could we shift Silvera to also be backup to Brittain? There's only so many squad spaces available. Might sell or loan out Silvera though to try and generate some income.

15 hours ago, BoroWales said:

I see Arfsten played the full 90 for USA v Japan yesterday.

I really hope we’re pursuing this one - maybe even in January.

He could be out of our reach after the World Cup.

knowing us we could sign him now and he would still be on his goodbye tour of the usa until after the world cup 

15 hours ago, LinoJo3 said:

We will. Strelec has shown once we’ve identified a target and followed their progress for months/years we don’t give up on them until there’s no chance of us getting him. 

if you listen to scotts interviews as well there is a few more examples of that where he is talking about someone we have signed and he tells you how long he has been tracking and wanting them

1 hour ago, Borodane said:

Will probably depend a bit on how Silvera does and to an extend Targett. Was Targett a full season loan? If Silvera does well will we then also buy Arfsten, or could we shift Silvera to also be backup to Brittain? There's only so many squad spaces available. Might sell or loan out Silvera though to try and generate some income.

We've also got Bangura. And although history doesn't suggest he'll ever get a run of games, if that somehow did happen, and he was decent, we suddenly have much less need to recruit in that position.

Over the summer there was a lot of obsession about how changing head coach meant that we would have to completely change our recruitment strategy and so on. So I thought I would look at who we bought and whether they would have been good signings for Carrick. Tl;dr - all bar one look like they would have been fine for Carrick. Clearly there was a delay because Edwards as the new head coach needed a say but if you work through them, I think they nearly all would have been good signings for Carrick.

Brittain - very attacking full back. Carrick wanted to play with one attacking and one defending full back so this is a tick.
Jones - cultured, ball-playing centre-back, comfortable in a 2 or 3. Everything Carrick would have wanted as a replacement for Rav/Clarke.
Malanda - Dominating centre-back with decent range of passing. Seems like a good replacement for Lenihan/Fry in January
Targett - though not a first choice (Carrick would have loved Arfsten) he could be the defensive-minded full back Carrick wanted and, as we've seen, has a Premier league quality pass on him. He could play the Ayling/Smith role better than either of them.
Kante - probably not a good choice for Carrick. His central midfielders need to be really good on the ball and it's not clear how good Kante is at this.
Browne - perfect central midfielder back-up for Carrick. A Howson type who does a bit of everything
Hansen - speedy, wide-player who can also play centrally. Carrick likes one in the side.
Nypan - he would have started him on the left to play the McGree role.
Sene - looks like a good ELL replacement. Carrick likes a speedy, pressing #9 who can run the right or left channel.
Strelec - would have gone straight into the #10/Akpom role initially
McLaughlin - perfectly fine Glover replacement.

Under Carrick I think we would have lined up like this against Preston on Saturday

Brynn

Brittain - Fry - Jones - Targett

Morris - Hackney

Whittaker - Strelec - Nypan

Conway

Subs. McLaughlin, Ayling, Lenihan, Edmundson, Kante, Browne, Hansen, Sene, Burgzorg

Pretty sure that is as good a team and bench as Carrick could have asked for. Maybe short of one quality forward assuming that Silvera, Gilbert and Hamilton wouldn't have made the grade under Carrick but we do have McGree if he ever makes it back.

3 hours ago, Borodane said:

Will probably depend a bit on how Silvera does and to an extend Targett. Was Targett a full season loan? If Silvera does well will we then also buy Arfsten, or could we shift Silvera to also be backup to Brittain? There's only so many squad spaces available. Might sell or loan out Silvera though to try and generate some income.

Silvera is nothing better than a back up. We will 100% be going back in for Arfsten in January. Arsten's an upgrade so despite having options, we'll still be in for him.

Edited September 11, 2025Sep 11 by Humpty

3 minutes ago, Humpty said:

Silvera is nothing better than a back up. We will 100% be going back in for Arfsten in January. Arsten's an upgrade so despite having options, we'll still be in for him.

Yeah agree with that. My thoughts were purely that if Silvera managed to have a storming first half of the season we might not want to spend money on a new player, but realistically Silvera will probably just be a squad player. Would do himself or us no harm if he puts himself in the shop window if we do want to sign Arfsten though.

Has Silvera ever played at RWB? In other words, could he deputise on both flanks effectively since we have no obvious RWB cover (Ayling isn't up to it IMHO)? I know he's right footed, but he seems to have had the left wing drilled into him, and I'm not sure he could swap sides and still be effective.

Up to Sammy, keep playing well and showing consistent signs of improving!

1 hour ago, RiseAgainst said:

Has Silvera ever played at RWB? In other words, could he deputise on both flanks effectively since we have no obvious RWB cover (Ayling isn't up to it IMHO)? I know he's right footed, but he seems to have had the left wing drilled into him, and I'm not sure he could swap sides and still be effective.

He played there in one of the friendlies and it was his most ineffective effort if I recall correctly. Always seems to have played on the left under carrick too, must not be comfortable on the right side.

we have Hamilton as well for rwb cover too if it come to that

I think there should be a bit less pressure to rush Bangura back now that Sami is playing well and with Targett too, he needs to build up his resilience and hopefully get over this terrible luck with his fitness.