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Episode 375: Cyle Larin profile!
119 Plays14 days ago
Southampton – We are profiling our new striker today!
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyle_Larin
https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/cyle-larin/profil/spieler/343463
https://onefootball.com/en/news/after-struggling-to-make-an-impact-in-belgium-and-the-netherlands-c…
https://onesoccer.ca/a/can-southampton-move-be-what-cyle-larin-needs-to-reignite-slowly-fading-can-…
https://wakingthered.com/2026/02/03/22084/was-cyle-larins-transfer-to-southampton-a-missed-opportun…
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Transcript
00:00:13
Zak
Speaking of the Daily Saints pod with Zach and Greg, I'm Zach and my wonderful co-host Greg is over there. are doing, mate?
00:00:21
DailySaintsPod
Yeah, I'm not too bad, mate. How's it going?
00:00:24
Zak
Yeah, not too bad. as As the fact that it's me presenting today probably shows you that it's some sort of long-winded essay-style episode, and you'll be right. We had Greg's, I'd say long-winded, but not really, because I actually really, was very interesting to see some of the numbers, and I think it's generated a little bit of a debate around you know around the place as to...
00:00:44
Zak
but Where's all our transfer fees in your episode yesterday? so let's let's bring it back to something a little bit more exciting. Let's bring it back to the transfer we saw happen at the the beginning of the week, one that we weren't really aware of until like the day before, and that is the transfer of Canadian player Carl Lahren. So yeah, what do you know, Greg? Is it just what you've read in the profile? How much of how much digging have you done into the bloke?
00:01:09
DailySaintsPod
Not a huge amount. I've seen a a couple of videos, some on the good side, some on the bad. It depends whose Twitter account you're looking at.
00:01:16
DailySaintsPod
Yeah.
00:01:16
Zak
it's yeah really It's one of those things where like I think that what it actually is is that a lot of...
00:01:23
Zak
but Canada fans kind of just want a significantly more prolific striker and get frustrated at his misses. Yeah, he's had a couple of misses that are pretty bad. That is, like I feel, like a staple of being a Saints striker anyway, regardless.
00:01:37
Zak
Not every single striker we have ever had has been prolific as we think they have been.
00:01:42
Zak
Even the Danny Ings and the Lamberts and the Palais and you know that this and the other. like It's always been a problem. So, yeah, it's...
00:01:50
DailySaintsPod
But the most important thing I know and that I've seen is his Schwarmrad. ain that's That's it.
00:01:55
Zak
Yep, that's important.
00:01:56
DailySaintsPod
me
00:01:57
Zak
we We smashed that into the ground after me and you argued for ages as to whether it was a fajita taco, which you were adamantly against, or a burrito, which I was adamantly against. And it turns out we were wrong entirely.
00:02:08
Zak
It was not even not even in the same type of food, technically. so that's that. And that's been good. So yeah, those are kind of like some of the bits of... and There's also been floating around a mugshot of him.
00:02:20
Zak
That will come up briefly later, but i don't want to dwell too much on sort of the weird personal lives of all of our players. If we if we start doing that, it'd be a different podcast entirely. Born in Brampton, Ontario in Canada in 1995.
00:02:31
DailySaintsPod
and
00:02:35
Zak
He is six foot and two inches, Greg, so you'll be happy to know that we've actually got another 12 striker for the first time in. what feels like a while, right? It's a
00:02:43
DailySaintsPod
Six months since the last one that we signed?
00:02:45
Zak
Yeah, to be fair six but well to be fair, he's not here, but ill I'll talk about that a little bit later on anyway.
00:02:47
DailySaintsPod
but
00:02:51
DailySaintsPod
na
00:02:53
Zak
Another fact that I've just picked out specifically for you, mate, is that he has an overall rating of 77 on FC26, which I know means a lot to you, and maybe some of the audience, are not really a whole lot to me.
00:03:02
DailySaintsPod
Beautiful. Yeah.
00:03:07
DailySaintsPod
I mean, what that means, mate, is that he has just been fed into premium gold upgrades as fodder any time I've come across him in any of my games.
00:03:16
Zak
Yeah, he has the gold badge, so guess, or gold background. I guess that's what that means.
00:03:22
DailySaintsPod
Yeah.
00:03:23
Zak
So yeah, he's always good about football. And since a young age, he joined a private soccer academy in Ontario at Levin and spent a whole six years there before graduating.
00:03:36
Zak
He... Did quite a lot jet setting. They did a lot of jumping around different training grounds in Germany and Belgium, like Bremen and places like that. So like kind of was already doing a lot, kind of a younger age, right? Usually in academies and stuff, cool of course, they'll like jet set around, but you don't you don't quite know how intense it can be.
00:03:57
Zak
And when he finally sort of graduated and he'd he'd picked his university, which is the University of Connecticut, the technical director described him as a rare player to find in Canada, a complete and modern striker able to play with both feet, finish for all areas, dominate his region of the park and provide for his teammate.
00:04:15
Zak
Obviously, this was like 2013, 2014. So bear that in mind. That was twelve years ago
00:04:20
DailySaintsPod
Wait, it's still good words.
00:04:22
Zak
we were
00:04:23
DailySaintsPod
That's still important, right? Like, since they never just built experience on that, but natural talent is is one of the key elements we need, right?
00:04:25
Zak
Yes, it it is. It's like that. that's
00:04:32
DailySaintsPod
So...
00:04:32
Zak
and it's It's the thing we've always asked for, right? And he was quite prolific for for his college team. He scored 23 goals in appearances.
00:04:42
Zak
And it it resulted in going well for him. So there was talk about him potentially moving it to Europe. And I think at one point he even came back and helped his his old academy team win a tournament directly after he finished his time. But he ended up opting to stay sort of in in the American college system, which means that Greg...
00:05:03
Zak
It's about get NFL-like, right? Where if you're an NFL person, it will make sense.
00:05:06
DailySaintsPod
Yeah.
00:05:07
Zak
But basically, he was the number one first draft pick. and And that was a huge deal. And he was the first Canadian to ever be the number one draft pick. And the part the team that had the number one draft pick that picked him immediately was Orlando City. And that would be a very, very worthwhile pick for them.
00:05:28
Zak
In his career from 2015 to 2017, he scored 44 times in 89 appearances in all competitions, including eight assists. So this is probably one of his like his best time, and a lot of people compare him to his time in the MLS. and Obviously, it's because if you've developed in an academy in that kind of area, and yeah, he played in Canada and lower leagues when he was younger, but you know that that was kind of, once you go from that university, it's very much a...
00:05:52
Zak
isolated environment, right? The MLS is a very different beast to to what we have. And I mean that in the sense of Bradley Wright Phillips was their top goal scorer for like a while, right? which Which I think people would be surprised by. But then like, if I remember rightly, it was a guy from a guy from like non-league was battling out with Lionel Messi to be top goal scorer the other year. so it's very...
00:06:12
Zak
very all-over-the-place sort of league. and but But that was probably where he had one of his best times. And in 2015, he won the Rookie of the Year Award. He consistently picked up a few Goal of the Week awards and Team of the Week. He was also part of the 2016 MLS All-Star Game against Arsenal, which they did lose 2-1. But like, MLS is like Premier League team, isn't it? you'd have to...
00:06:34
Zak
He did have a desire to move to Europe, though, and got his wish in 2018 in January with a move to Turkish club Besiktas. There was bit controversy surrounding this. is Technically, he was shoving up he was refusing to show for practice right before he before he moved. And this is where I'll allude to it one and only. he had a bit of a troubled time during his like last year of his career Orlando City, and there was some personal stuff off the field which affected his international career. Not that much. Basically, DUI.
00:07:02
Zak
Caused a bit of an a issue. Obviously, it meant that he play in the MLS for a little bit. Affected what was going on when he was internationally as well. Kind of got over that. There's not really any been anything since.
00:07:12
Zak
But obviously, that will be disruptive. And obviously, he wanted to change. So, pretty different, I'd say, Turkey and Major League Soccer. So, yeah, it it was all good.
00:07:21
DailySaintsPod
Yeah.
00:07:23
Zak
The transfer fee was undisclosed, but it turned out to be a good move. He actually scored on his debut against Gestepi in a 5-1 win coming on as a sub. Obviously, you know, we're looking long before the heights that Gestepi are at now, but...
00:07:39
Zak
you know, still kind of just like, just find it, find it quite poignant that that was the first goal he scored in Europe was against the club. That's technically part of our wonderful multi-club model, which we all really, really enjoy.
00:07:52
DailySaintsPod
That's a fun tieback. I like that. That's good.
00:07:54
Zak
but Yeah, exactly. Put it this way, it's a bigger link than the link that he has to Saints before that. I sent it to Greg before the show, who described it as tenuous at best, but I still look forward to reading out later.
00:08:08
Zak
So that season, he scored a hat-trick and also did so in the Europa League. And it was a really good start, but it was an easy season for him. it meant that The next season, sorry, he was ended up loaning out to Zolti Wagram in...
00:08:23
Zak
july 2019 so they are in the belgian league he then during that time at that club made 33 appearances and scoring nine times but also assisting 10 so did pretty all right but it's going to start a pattern right if he has a good sort of solid season with the with the club and and then doesn't and then obviously what they do is like loan him out So he then returned to his parent club in Turkey and had a much better 2020 season.
00:08:52
Zak
He actually scored four times twice in that season. Once in a 6-0 win over Rizospor and then in a 7-0 win over Hattospor.
00:08:57
DailySaintsPod
Wow.
00:09:06
Zak
Not very good with Turkish pronunciations. By the way, pretty good for considering. it's like For me, it shows somebody that is able... has the ability there to get back after dropping off, right?
00:09:20
Zak
Like it doesn't go away, but it's it's probably gonna worry some of the people that's hot and cold.
00:09:20
DailySaintsPod
Yeah.
00:09:25
Zak
And I'll talk about the level of gamble it is later, but it shows there's a little bit of gambling in there. but Obviously, what's happened here is that you know he had a rough season after his first season, went on loan, picked up his confidence a little bit, and then had out had pretty much the season of his life.
00:09:41
Zak
He won silverware that season as Beskitas won the league. He was also the joint second top goal scorer with 19 goals. So he had a a solid season that year.
00:09:53
Zak
and And yeah, like obviously, see they they won a couple of other bits of silverware, like the Turkish Cup and things, this and the other. And then it it just wasn't that great the season after. Again, it kind of like managed seven goals.
00:10:06
Zak
And that was when his kind of time at Beskitas came to an end. In his 109 appearances, he managed 39 goals and nine assists during his time in Turkey. And that career then came to an end and then he moved on. So yeah, it was kind of a mixed bag, like a little bit of a loan in the middle that actually seemed to do him some good.
00:10:25
Zak
Impressed enough for somebody in Belgium to come pick him up. But now we're going to get the sort of start of these sort of lackluster spells. So he's been through one recently.
00:10:34
DailySaintsPod
A lot goals though, mate. Like you were saying, 39 decent and you said there's you know quite a lot of assists in there as well.
00:10:36
Zak
but It's not a small amount,
00:10:42
DailySaintsPod
Clearly a big player who, I mean, taking a guess at Turkish League based off of experience watching it in the past at... Probably quite a good hold-up player whose assists are probably coming from holding the ball up and finding a pass-off.
00:11:00
DailySaintsPod
So, you know, kind of pretty much exactly what we're looking for, right?
00:11:02
Zak
Which going to suit... Yeah, it's going to suit how we play and how we're transitioning to play more, right?
00:11:06
DailySaintsPod
Hmm.
00:11:07
Zak
Like, you you saw it kind of start to happen with Will Steele before Ross Stewart got injured. And now that Armour's gone, they've they've opted to replace him with somebody of that profile.
00:11:18
Zak
And I think that, as we've discussed before, everyone kind of assumed Downs was that profile, and he really wasn't.
00:11:18
DailySaintsPod
Hmm.
00:11:23
Zak
And that kind of is probably, in my opinion, down to the recruitment team for miss you know not identifying that correctly, or the coaching team for not coaching him, or him also having trouble adapting to life in the UK. Maybe a combination of all of those. But yeah hopefully it's a better fit.
00:11:40
Zak
So we'll have to see. But he went back to Belgium and this is where like you've got another bit of a downturn in his career, right? So it was like a €10 million euro transfer and he had a bit of a tour of time. So he signed a three-year deal, but he made 13 appearances scoring just once. He did pick on a bit silverware where he came on as a sub in the 2022 Belgian Super Cup with Club Bruges and won that. So there's there is that.
00:12:05
Zak
But yeah, his move to Club Bruges was not great, right? 13, one goal in 13, not ideal. But that resulted him being swiftly sent out on loan in January.
00:12:16
Zak
And it kind of reminds me of how we swiftly sent out downs on loan, right?
00:12:20
DailySaintsPod
Mm.
00:12:20
Zak
sort of there are parallels and I'm not just saying that because they're they're both from like Canada and America respectively just in the sense of you know if you don't hit the ground running there can be a problem but it's not the end of his story half of which so he went on to play for Valdalid.
00:12:44
Zak
excuse me And there he had was on a loan with an option to buy and scored his debut, coming on as a sub and scoring the only goal in the game. He scored eight times and assisted three in his 19-game spell, so much better than how what he managed at Camp Bruges.
00:12:57
DailySaintsPod
Yeah.
00:13:00
Zak
And ultimately, his team was relegated, but the loan was made permanent for 1.5 million euros. Before he kicked the ball for them again, he was sold to RCD Mallorca in the summer of 2023 for about €8 million.
00:13:13
Zak
euros So they, if anything, got striker for a little bit, a period of time, got a profit off of him.
00:13:14
DailySaintsPod
Hmm.
00:13:18
Zak
I couldn't work out if there was a loan fee between Bruges and them. I don't seem to think there was, but it might have just been that it's undisclosed and wasn't obvious.
00:13:28
Zak
But either way, you know it's a bit of a loss for Club Rouge, but a little bit better for him. So it took him a while to settle at Mallorca. Bear in mind, he was signed in the August. He didn't score his first goal until December. So I'm really hoping that isn't going to be the case with us, right?
00:13:44
Zak
Because we can't afford like a three or four month wait for to score a goal at this point.
00:13:45
DailySaintsPod
Yeah.
00:13:49
Zak
and At that point, it's going to be deemed unsuccessful.
00:13:49
DailySaintsPod
No, that would not be a deal.
00:13:52
DailySaintsPod
Yeah.
00:13:52
Zak
So he did manage to help get them to the Copa del Rey final that season, but they lost to Athletic Bilbao.
00:13:59
Zak
He did only manage seven goals, but was the club's joint top goalscorer, which says probably a lot about the quality of the Mallorca team at that point, right?
00:14:06
DailySaintsPod
Yeah.
00:14:07
Zak
And...
00:14:07
DailySaintsPod
But it's still goals.
00:14:09
Zak
Yeah, they they're there they're still still goals. And then he also basically, yeah, the the same same season after, right, another seven goals. And that was kind of the end of his time at Mallorca before he was sent on, you know, sent on another loan to Fionnord in the ahise Dutch Eurdeweiss, their league, where they're they're flying high at second. And although he's had like 15 appearances for them and only scored the one,
00:14:36
Zak
I think that he hasn't had quite the minutes that he'd have wanted. so it's very much sort of like limited to substitution appearances. So considering, I don't know how it's going to be here, whether or not they're going to bring Ross Stewart on later and sort of start him. But I have a feeling that, I don't know what conversations took place, but surely the conversations would have been, i would like to play more.
00:14:56
Zak
So there's there's that. But, you know, one one goal and one assist in his 15 games before coming to join us isn't is' it great, which is probably what a lot of people are rolling up about, and I can understand.
00:15:06
Zak
But we've also seen this happen before, and then he goes on to actually do something quite substantial at his next club. So we've just got a hope that we're like the in-between club and see how it goes.
00:15:14
DailySaintsPod
you
00:15:18
Zak
But in sort of total across his 354 games, he scored 116 goals and assisted 36 times. This is excluding his international career, which I'll get onto in a minute. But yeah, so it's a bit, you know, you know roughly around like one in three.
00:15:34
Zak
You know, and some of these some of these, I think that some of the the stats are a bit skewed because if you're scoring a couple of hat tricks and you're scoring four goals in a game and then four goals in a game later on, and you know, you might be saying, Greg, like, oh, 19 goals is really good. But if those, half of those goals took place over three games, it depends how vital and how important they are. That's not to diminish that.
00:15:53
Zak
It's just that, like, it's a statement.
00:15:54
DailySaintsPod
right It shows...
00:15:55
Zak
It's a fact.
00:15:56
DailySaintsPod
It shows that there's goal-scoring ability in there. And, and that you know, it it kind of is still... the The stats still reflective. It's still a lot of goals. It's still more goals than than a lot of our strikers have scored over the years. And, like, even when you look at the the most recent season, you're saying about his time...
00:16:18
DailySaintsPod
whereas you said it was like one goal in 15 appearances, but basically all of those have been appearances off the bench from what I've been sort of looking at in the background.
00:16:23
Zak
Mm-hmm.
00:16:28
DailySaintsPod
So, I mean, if if an appearance is a five minute spell off the bench, then those stats aren't going to, you know, please anyone.
00:16:38
Zak
Yeah, it's exactly the opposite to my point, right?
00:16:38
DailySaintsPod
Right. It's.
00:16:41
Zak
It's that a go four goals might be scored in one game.
00:16:42
DailySaintsPod
Hmm.
00:16:43
Zak
If you're going to say that it's it's you know if three appearances, but those actual appearances are 15 minutes in total for across three appearances, it's not it's not really the same. but we all We all know that you know it's like it's like with this sometimes where I feel for Archer a bit, right?
00:16:57
Zak
Where like they expect him to make an impact off the bench when he's proven not to be able to do that, really. with it like 15 minutes to go times where we're just bringing on a player at like 85 minutes and that's going to lock down as an appearance but it's not really is it?
00:17:08
DailySaintsPod
Yeah.
00:17:11
Zak
It'll be interesting to see how they would ever change into that in the future but...
00:17:12
DailySaintsPod
Also, like...
00:17:15
DailySaintsPod
that season where where i said it was quite good, it was like seven goals. That is almost twice as many goals as Paul Harnatru scored for us total. So, like...
00:17:26
Zak
Yeah. so and again, like there's this, I think the the interesting thing for me is he's clearly played around a lot of different experience and a different bits of quality, right?
00:17:27
DailySaintsPod
It is...
00:17:35
Zak
Like he's with a team that's been relegated. He's with a team that's been, that's won the league. He's, he's with a team that, you know, he was and a solid part of obviously like MLS is completely different. It it works like the Superbowl.
00:17:52
DailySaintsPod
Yeah.
00:17:55
Zak
So yeah, very, very sort of different. But being able to play and have experience in all those different leagues, you know, like Belgium and all that stuff, it brings vital experience. I think that some of the criticism will come with, well, the thing that we needed the most experience in was the championship. And we haven't picked up a striker from the championship. And it is a very, very different type of league. And we'll get onto his personal reasons why later, because as much as everybody is talking about, as much as he said, it's because he wants to play in England. There are probably...
00:18:22
Zak
ulterior motives at play and that's fine because they if they work out yeah oh great don't reveal all of my hand at once
00:18:24
DailySaintsPod
It's kind of a big competition coming up this summer that maybe wants to get his name in the mix, all right? So...
00:18:36
Zak
But yeah, speaking of which, he's an international player for Canada. And he briefly appeared in the under 20 squad for five games, scoring once in the 2015 CONCAC for under 20 championship.
00:18:48
Zak
He was already kind of around the first team at this point and like had been picked in the roster. And that was when he kind of started. and I'm not going to go through all of the individual stats around his international career, because as we know, international career is a bit a different beast.
00:19:00
Zak
And I remember when I when i covered Yoshida and I tried to cover his international career, and I realised that, to be honest, it probably needs a deeper dive in his own episode, because there have been lots of conversations, especially Twitter, people being mad.
00:19:13
Zak
And I think that if you have a look at some international strikers... and how they play internationally. And then you compare that to their club form. They're two different things, right? Club football, international football, very, very, very different things.
00:19:26
Zak
And as much as they might complain that he's not, like, as good and he's missed some sitters, which he has.
00:19:27
DailySaintsPod
Hmm.
00:19:32
Zak
Like, there one of the articles, they're literally talking about how he he he just missed a sitter against, like, El Salvador and everyone was mad because he should have put it away. And, yeah, he probably should have.
00:19:43
Zak
But then that's football, isn't it? You know, it's always going to be, you know If you score like 100 goals and there's one that's really bad, a lot of the time people will remember like the absolute worst one. That's we were talking about goalkeepers the other day, like Peretz giving Boric vibes because of the fact that Boric would pull off some worldies, but also like none of us can forget him kicking the ball out and it just going in the net. look It's just barely a winded part of it. But you know it's it's one of those all of those sort of things. But he he ultimately, at one point, he was the top goal scorer for Canada of all time. Jonathan David has quickly overtaken him, but he's been to multiple CONCACFs. He's been part of multiple competitions. in the He was the World Cup qualifications for CONCACFs top goal scorer in the 2020 to 2021 season. So to be fair, it was the season that domestically he was having the season of his life, right? So of course, he's probably going to be doing better.
00:20:33
Zak
But in total, he's made 87 appearances and scored 30 times for Canada. So yeah, obviously... obviously
00:20:39
DailySaintsPod
Pretty good. Pretty good for an... internet That's a lot of international goals.
00:20:44
Zak
Exactly. And bit bit and like again, before people were like, oh, well, the the the competition isn't exactly, you know, i think that it's probably a tougher competition in that qualification set than like we have, right?
00:20:45
DailySaintsPod
That's decent.
00:20:57
Zak
Like we have our top got scorers and like there have been times we've been in like groups like San Marino. Like, I'm sorry.
00:21:04
DailySaintsPod
Yeah.
00:21:05
Zak
Like, I feel like you you need to probably take away at least like 15 goals from all of our strikers for the times they've played teams that are woefully underneath them. And Canada had a big problem with goal scoring for quite for quite a long time.
00:21:17
Zak
And you kind of broke that a little bit. And you don't get to be the top goal scorer for your country at any point unless you actually, you know, put away goals. And that's you managed to do.
00:21:26
DailySaintsPod
Yeah, and i helpll do it there's a lot of stuff that goes into that, right? You've got to be good enough to get picked to play for the country and then be good enough to get into the position in an international team where you might not have as much chemistry with the players around you and be in the sort of knowing the positions and then be good enough to put them away.
00:21:33
Zak
Correct.
00:21:44
DailySaintsPod
So it's it's good. Proven experience quality. These are all qualities that we... you know wanted and have asked for.
00:21:55
DailySaintsPod
So, you know, it seems, you know, I say, not, not without risk, as you've said, but there's positives to take from it.
00:22:03
Zak
No, yeah i've got I've got a bit of a spiel to go into too about that later, but but it is one of those things where, like, with what we had available at the time, like, we don't know how long that that armor move took.
00:22:16
Zak
Like, it could have taken place over the space of a week. It feels like that wasn't something that was decided early on in the window, because it feels like things would have happened and we would have known more about it, mainly because just stuff leaks out.
00:22:27
Zak
Like, all of the players we were trying to bring in, like, not a single one of them until, like, the last week before.
00:22:28
DailySaintsPod
Yeah.
00:22:32
Zak
Any of the rumours, any of the information, no smoke without fire, all of that was just, like, a central midfielder here. Somebody for the academy there. None of it was linking us realistically to a striker.
00:22:43
Zak
And, in fact, I think a lot of people are kind of going, oh, we don't really need one. What we actually need is somebody needs to back up Leo and things like that. So, again, like, I feel like it's kind of... By the looks of it, they've tried to pick someone that fits a profile with a very short period of time and somebody that is going to be a gamble.
00:22:59
Zak
We can talk about that in a minute, though. So just just I just wanted to point out that he is part of a an agency. And i always like to look at the agency see if they have any Saints links. And his agency is Axia Sports, which are like a...
00:23:08
DailySaintsPod
Thank
00:23:10
Zak
they seem to just be representing lots of canadian players right Ismael Kone who used to play for Watford for like a little bit. That's like the only championship link I could find. the Jonathan David, obviously, one of the higher profile players, plays for Juventus.
00:23:23
Zak
Probably the highest, best known canadian Canadian player. And this is my extremely tenuous link that Greg laughed at. So he is in the same agency as Derek Cornelius, who is a left back from Marseille, currently on loan to Rangers, who joined Rangers when our ex-manager Russell Martin was in charge of Rangers.
00:23:47
DailySaintsPod
Yeah.
00:23:49
Zak
And that that that shows you that like it's not it's not like sub it's not like he's out of chat with one of his mates and they put a word in. This is like this must be completely like organic scouting.
00:23:59
Zak
this isn't This isn't anything other than that, right?
00:24:00
DailySaintsPod
Yeah.
00:24:03
DailySaintsPod
Yeah.
00:24:05
Zak
So... The real question, Greg, why is he joining us? Now, you've kind of alluded to it. He said it's because he's wanted to play in England for a long time. had a niche for that. i kind of I imagine that's probably correct. It's also because he wants a place for the Canada team where his you know his stock is dropping and they're about to have the big World Cup. And it's probably going to be, you know realistically, 30...
00:24:25
Zak
Are Canada going to have a chance next time round? We don't know. It's probably one of his big chances to actually play it. One goal in 15, though, regardless of you know the fact that it's limited to substitute appearances, doesn't cut it, does it?
00:24:38
Zak
Let's face it. He didn't care get the minutes that he wanted, but with us, there is an opportunity to do that.
00:24:38
DailySaintsPod
Great.
00:24:44
Zak
And this is the bit about the gamble, Greg. so for us and him, it's a gamble. And from a Southampton fan point of view, and i can understand it I'm sick of gambling.
00:24:56
Zak
However, what with the caveat that that is not his fault and she should not be judged before he even kicks a ball in a Saint shirt. And that's what already seems to be happening, right?
00:25:08
Zak
Like this is not his fault. He has taken the opportunity to join us. He's picked us.
00:25:11
DailySaintsPod
Hmm.
00:25:12
Zak
Yes, there is motives for him. And again, like that was similar. The the reason i you know, similar reminds me because obviously Banz was the same way he wanted to get, make solidify his place in the USA team. Didn't get a chance to do that with us and has obviously realised that he needs to get first team football and has gone elsewhere to be able to do that.
00:25:28
Zak
And we facilitated that.
00:25:30
DailySaintsPod
Look, that doesn't bother me in the slightest. Any extra motivation or drivers you've got to provide hunger on the pitch, for me, can only be a good thing. Like say, looking at the positives, highly experienced, has a desire to do well specifically in this period of time for a reason, wants to you know improve his player minutes, which is fine. Like i say, he's going to be getting plenty of minutes at least, if minimum, as the other half of Ross Stewart, right? So that's fine.
00:26:04
DailySaintsPod
Naturally talented and knows where the goal is. right so has spells of good and bad in the past, who doesn't? like Yeah, I think think your profile has there's definitely helped me see the positives in it, for sure.
00:26:21
DailySaintsPod
And like say, judgment's reserved until you you see what he can actually do, for sure. But, I mean, you say it's a gamble and you're sort of sick of gambles. But, I mean, I guess the position we're in is what choice do we have?
00:26:36
DailySaintsPod
Like, we've alluded to it time and time and time again. Like, there is no golden unicorn guaranteed going to hit the ground running and score loads of goals striker.
00:26:47
DailySaintsPod
Like, even if you bring in someone with championship experience, like, yeah it's still a gamble.
00:26:53
Zak
Yeah, we've we've we've discussed that, right? like the
00:26:54
DailySaintsPod
So...
00:26:55
Zak
They wanted to bring in Danny Ings in the summer and he's gone Sheffield United and so far has done a whole lot on nothing. and The other the other things the earlier points I want to make is like Leo was a gamble.
00:27:01
DailySaintsPod
Yeah.
00:27:06
Zak
Leo is kind of an unknown quantity that, yeah, okay, he's risen through from from you know the second division to Bundesliga team, but was also in the Swedish like fifth tier.
00:27:08
DailySaintsPod
Mm-hmm.
00:27:15
Zak
That's a gamble. It's worked out fantastically for us, but it was a gamble. Yander was a gamble. We don't really know a lot. He's quite young. Mati Fernandez was a gamble, a gamble that netted us a massive profit, admittedly, as as per our episode yesterday, kind of annoying that we don't see any of that money anywhere near the club. Downs was also a gamble. It didn't pay off. But like...
00:27:35
Zak
The problem is is that it's with the but that but the cards they have to hand, what else are you supposed to do? right Where are you getting on deadline day of strikers? Should there be more planning? Should the conversations maybe have taken place earlier?
00:27:47
Zak
Should they if you know maybe done more to convince Adam to stay? yeah, no, you can roll the dice around it all that you want. But like the expectation was this guy was supposed to recur to the MLS, a league that's been kind to him, but he knows that he needs to do something big and we are that big gamble for him. It's equally a gamble for him as it is for us, right?
00:28:06
Zak
And either way, like, I don't know whether or not he'll be able to prove us wrong this weekend.
00:28:06
DailySaintsPod
Yeah.
00:28:10
Zak
I don't know whether he'll be in the team or not. Maybe he'll be on the bench. Maybe he'll start. Obviously, it's only been a week. Either way, I'll be rooting for him, and I hope the fans do too. And I think that if you are annoyed, point the direction in the direction it needs to be, which is the board, which we're all starting to do now anyway. And like, you know, everyone's kind of, everyone's sick of it. But I don't think that it's positive to, it's not a good thing to scream and shout at a guy who just doesn't immediately score a goal, right? Yeah.
00:28:35
DailySaintsPod
well I hope he comes in.
00:28:36
Zak
I don't think we'll be like that, but I know that there's people that have just ummed and ah'd from day one and like, yeah, okay, that's fair. It is a gamble. Let's see how it goes before we get cross about it. Like...
00:28:46
DailySaintsPod
i think ki i hope he comes in. He scores. Well, we've got 16 games left.
00:28:52
Zak
Yep.
00:28:53
DailySaintsPod
I don't know the reason we're out goals. 10, 11 goals seems pretty good.
00:28:57
Zak
Yep.
00:28:57
DailySaintsPod
Hits the ground running, becomes a solid part the team, and goes on and, you know, wins World Cup with Canada. Great. Whatever. Like, just happy days. Look, I mean...
00:29:06
Zak
So, it's... and it
00:29:08
DailySaintsPod
You're right. It's a gamble. and And if there's criticism to be had, sure, point the finger. But for me, you know, we've asked for from a striker or as to get in is an experienced striker who can score goals and ideally that, you know, matches the profile that we're looking to play.
00:29:28
DailySaintsPod
And that's that's what they've got and got. You know, he's got experience. He's got goals in his past. Great. And if, you know, if if it takes a spark of coming to England to reignite, you know, struggling for whatever reason in where he's been, great.
00:29:46
DailySaintsPod
Happy days. Yeah.
00:29:47
Zak
Yep. Sounds good.
00:29:48
DailySaintsPod
yeah
00:29:50
Zak
So that is my profile, mate. I hope you enjoyed. I hope everyone learned a little bit along the way. per always, I have sent all of these sources to Greg. They will be in the description. If not, shout at us because they definitely should be. a combination of lots of places, you know, some of the easier ones like Wikipedia because, you know, it's it's useful to have a big list of things, a transfer market just because it's useful, which is... Why always caveat everything with a grain of salt for some of the transfer stuff. It's difficult. Sometimes stuff just doesn't get told, but lots of other bits, there's stuff that I left out, like for example, Toronto talking about how they should have probably made a move for him, but it very much feels more like an article, a couple of articles that are sort of fan based. It's like if I wrote an article and then tried to be like, yeah, this means this is happening, right? Exactly. like we've talked about a couple of times where we've been linked to players because, you know, like people like me and you, Greg have talked about it, which is bizarre.
00:30:43
Zak
It's just weird to think about. But yeah, so obviously have a look yourself if you want to. But i'm I'm not as concerned as I initially was when I went, who who is this guy? And I felt that way about a lot of the players that have joined us, to be honest. And yeah, OK, it's, you know, there's definitely been some ups and downs in his career. Hopefully his time with us will be an up.
00:31:04
Zak
And that's all we can go for, right?
00:31:07
DailySaintsPod
Absolutely. Yeah.
00:31:09
Zak
Wonderful. Rightio. So, now the fun bit. Thank you for joining us today. We will be back tomorrow for our match preview against manager-less Watford, who will be without one of their attacking players due to ascending off last weekend.
00:31:21
DailySaintsPod
Perpetually managerless Watford, right? they're just yeahs That's their like constant state of being, isn't it?
00:31:27
DailySaintsPod
LAUGHTER
00:31:27
Zak
True, but like we're we're really catching up with them, man. like yeah
00:31:31
DailySaintsPod
LAUGHTER
00:31:32
Zak
like We can't... Stones and glass houses come to mind, but tomorrow we will be viewing that game. Until then, we are on all of the social medias. We are Facebook, we are on Twitter, we are on Blue Sky, we are on Instagram.
00:31:48
Zak
We are on TikTok. There you go Got there at the end. As Greg likes to point out quite often, we're a newly independent co podcast. We do this for the love of the game. Currently, we do a daily podcast that I've done for a long time, pretty much for fun and and for you guys. so So thank you for listening. Until that point, I'm just going to start shouting out local businesses I like. uh there's a coffee shop in eastley called the coffee cabin i go there quite a lot it's a really nice place uh support your local businesses during a time where everything is kind of difficult for them so yeah
00:32:21
Zak
know, we just appreciate your support. We appreciate you tuning in every day and we'll be back tomorrow with a wonderful match preview to Watford. Until then, thank you very much, everybody, and we will see you tomorrow.