Quote: Saddened! "We have no quality in the outside backs or at fullback.'"
Should I call for the men in white coats now or later? "No quality" - None? Then what "quality" do all the teams bar one below us possess - negative quality? The truth is you have lost what notion you had of the connection between WORDS and MEANING.
Quote: Saddened! "I just wonder whether we are telling the truth about it being the cap that is stopping us. Surely it could just be the fact that the revenue is going to nosedive next season and them making provisions for that. I wouldn't mind that and I guess they couldn't admit or no one would turn up.'"
Either way - it's pretty much out of the club's hands.
Quote: Saddened! "But I just think they should be doing more. There seems to be an obsession with promoting youth players, but the vast majority are useless as anything more than squad players. We used to have a very strong squad. That turned into a strong 17 when a few retired or left. Then a strong 13. Now we've not got any world class overseas players in the squad at all and only two, possibly three top quality English players. I'd argue that bar Graham and Roby none of the top sides would want any of our players.'"
See - you're doing it again. If we "used" to have a very good squad why did we finish second after a season with one of the worst injury crises in recent history? I mean, you COULD argue no-one would want any of our players outside of Graham and Roby but you'd look a fool doing it. Knock yourself out.
Quote: Saddened! "Another possibility is that the club is just paying the kids too much. Eastmond is the only one with obvious quality, but keeping him long term looks almost impossible. The likes of Lomax, Clough, Ashurst, Dixon, Armstrong, Foster etc are all decent SL level squad players but compared to the players they have replaced in our squad they are all noticable steps down in quality.'"
The truth here is you're behaving like a child - reaching around for any old pretext however obscure and/or ridiculous in order to apportion BLAME to something or someone for not providing something YOU CAN'T EVEN EXPLAIN. Again and again, season after season, you continue to argue that this squad is hopeless. Not worth a pasty. And yet this very same squad has made Old Trafford on four consecutive occasions (we have finished top of the league and won the Challenge Cup). I wouldn't mind so much if Saints had been thrashed out of sight in all four games. Far from it. In two out of our three against Leeds you could argue with some justification that we lost out because of the handling errors of ONE PLAYER (Meli). And against Wigan we were hardly taken to the cleaners despite starting the match with neither of our recognised halves.