19 Nov 2017 17:29:10
Hi guys, just watching Watford vs West ham and already you can see that West Ham are more organised, better shape and are unlucky to be still losing, on the training side you have Stuart Pearce, defensive coach, Chris Woods, goalkeeping coach, class ex players who are having an impact. Here is a thought, what about the likes of the Neville Brothers who had very successful playing careers and with Giggs, Scholes, Butt have done wonders with Salford town. W ham have just gone 2 0 down but they are definitely showing more spirit than Saints. Anyway thoughts because at the moment we are in free fall. Regards vs.

1.) 19 Nov 2017
19 Nov 2017 18:48:37
I was going to talk about highs for the job. It's a massive risk and he's an unknown quantity in terms of management. I don't know how he would deal with certain personalities (tadic and van dijk).

My real choice would be Roy Keane. I know it would get shot down by 99% of other posters on here. I just feel he'd come in, kick some arse, not take any crap and install a bit of heart and fight. We are the softest, most pedestrian, un-threatening team in the league. Its not looking good.

2.) 19 Nov 2017
19 Nov 2017 22:13:55
Unfortunately. and it is a real shame our problem is we are the nice guys. A nice team, nice manager, nice board. Its all so nicey nicey. even on the pitch we don't fight we don't get on at the referee for decisions our manager doesn't get vexed on the touchline. its amazing when you hear stories about clubs and managers after they've left. Players at west ham turning up late and not bothering in training being put in the starting 11 week in week out, the manager being there sometimes, you wonder is there player power where a group of players think they're above the club. I hate to say it but this is what I feel about some of the players


Forster- nicest thing I can say is maybe injured.

Bertrand - looks nonchalant and like he really isn't bothered

Van dijk- is too good to be here, would of rather he played to his full potential until he left but he's moving on. get Stephens back in

Redmond- didn't rate him at Norwich, don't rate him now typical English winger. awful but thinks he's anazing

Tadic- his time us up, rare blood disorder can no longer be his excuse just not turning up

Long- I love his work rate and when we had strikers scoring goals he was a great option. We now need a different option and his time to move on is now. just not what we need

Austin- something must be going on behind the scenes I know ed says poor lifestyle etc and I have heard rumours about drink and drugs being an issue before but he either needs to be playing or move him on

Gabbi- needs more from those around but missing for long periods too

I know the club has a responsibility and a right to protect their staff to a degree but its amazing what does actually go on with some if these players. Read a piece on Steven caulker talking his mental health and how bad he was struggling and his time at Southampton was when he was at his lowest. now he obviously has a right to his privacy and all players do I respect that especially with things like mental health but when fans are paying every spare penny they have to watch their favourite team I believe there should be and would like more transparency from the club rather than the usual media whitewash of we played well and we are all really happy.

3.) 19 Nov 2017
19 Nov 2017 22:27:19
Hi milky, I think anything would be better than this c---, if the players disagree he can beat the c--- out of them in the car park! Lol I think that possibly our new owner has got involved and is kicking a--- all the way through the club and he has run out of patience, and he wants results for his £220 million. As I say offers are being looked at for Long, Austin, Gabbiadini, so everyone is under the spotlight. Let's face it how would you market Saints to a new audience? How not to Defend? How not to score? We are world leaders in that! I think as other guys have written we are living on past glories and there are no excuses, our training facilities are as good as any, how are the youth teams developing? I don't have great knowledge about them, the vaunted black box which certainly doesn't work when it comes to picking managers? Certainly get some of these
highly paid non performing players off the wage bill and bring in hungry lower league players, who will wear the shirt with pride and commitment and if worst case scenario we go down, at least go down with a bang rather than a whimper. I believe that properly organised and motivated we have enough quality to stay up and finish lower table but we can't carry on as we are, it is pathetic to watch and public statements by Redmond that the performance is not good enough is just b------s!
Football is a simple game and you know when you are on the pitch what are the right options and it comes from hours of training and practice
I would not be surprised to see lots of high profile, non performing players available in January from other clubs as there are too many highly paid bench warmers happy to take their obscene wages. The Premiership is the most lucrative so many players from around the world would welcome the chance to play here. Look at how successful the French youth system has been, Belgium, so let's see Saints really put all this knowledge and technology to work. It makes Puels efforts last year more commendable despite the lack of footballing flair, maybe he spotted that you can't polish a t---.! If Saints fail to take the necessary action, they only have themselves to blame, so let's see what happens.! Regards vs.

4.) 20 Nov 2017
20 Nov 2017 11:28:53
I’ll start with my view on Saturday’s result. Yes, its disappointing to see us going to Anfield and playing defensively, but given our current form, it makes sense not to go and try and outscore Liverpool. I didn’t see the game live, but from what I have seen, we performed the plan pretty well and all three goals were down to individual mistakes. The first goal, Tadic was too slow to clear the lines. Who knows what he was thinking almost walking the ball across the edge of our box surrounded by Liverpool players!? Van Dijk, as he has been prone to do this season, went walk about for the second, leaving a huge space for Firminho to run into. If he’d stayed put, the pass couldn’t be made. The third, this may be a little harsh, but if a player shoots at goal from a tight angle, surely if you’re a keeper going to block the shot, you aim to deflect it behind the goal and concede the corner. The shot hit Forster hard and fast, but his arms were down by his sides and he turns away from the shot (similar to the Newcastle equaliser earlier in the season), twisting his body back towards the penalty area and therefore, deflecting the ball that way. I’d like to think all of these errors could be corrected through training or swapping players who keep making errors but it seems one or two players/ positions are lacking in decent competition at the moment.

As to the other posts, VS, West Ham have appointed a manager whose last three jobs have ended in abject failure and he has appointed coaching staff for their name, not their coaching abilities. They have had limited time with the players and so I think you’re wide of the mark to suggest they’ve come in and had an instant impact. The Neville brothers have both had a hand in coaching with equal poor impact. And Ryan Giggs doesn’t want to be a coach, he wants to be a manager. Let him learn the ropes at a lower league side and work his way up, not throw him in at our place. Like the suggestion that we should sell a number of players in January and replace them with lower league players, its cutting off your nose to spite your face isn’t it? They may be hungry to play in the Premier league but that doesn’t mean they have the ability to do it. You’d be making relegation more likely, not less. let's also not forget that several are saying that our current plight is due to the last few seasons of selling our best players coming back to haunt us. Is selling more of our first team players the answer? Roy Keane was another name mentioned. Yes, he would likely bully a lot of people but that doesn’t lead to improved performance or morale, hence the fact he’s also a failed manager. In contrast, wouldn’t the answer be to buy better players and bring in better managers, not lower league players and failed coaches and managers.

Our training facilities our top notch but our youth set-up needs strengthening in the coaching department as this season and last, things have deteriorated in terms of results and performances. Despite a lack of first team chances with the top teams in the league, the best young players are still attracted to the big 4 – 6 teams and with the need to have home grown talent in every premier league squad, everyone is scouring for young prospects they can develop as well as the best young British players. We’re now in a fight with everyone else for these players.

This is the greater concern for me. The club, since promotion to the premier league has openly stated that it wants the club to have a style of play that is like a brand; ‘The Southampton Way’ as Les Reed calls it. But in the last two seasons, the style of play has altered drastically. The only approach we seem to have retained is slavishly seeking to win the fight for possession but results have surely now underlined that possession is not king anymore. We were meant to be able to seamlessly change head coach and playing staff because the teams from youth up were all playing a fixed way and so change was meant to have little negative impact.

We are also meant to be bringing in youth players we have developed to reduce the need for spending vast transfer sums on players to strengthen the first team. However, this season so far there are fewer youth players involved with the first team than any previous season. Results in the youth teams are inconsistent as is the talent pool. Four seasons in, it would be nice to see some of youth players in the first team but despite Reed, Gallagher, Stephens, Targett, McQueen, Hesketh, Sims and Seager all getting some game time in previous seasons, most have been loaned out now so won’t be developing with our first team and playing the Southampton way at their new respective clubs. Two seasons ago, you could see this plan developing well. Now, it seems further way than ever and it’s the clubs responsibility to either follow through or announce things have changed and instead, we’re going to buy our first team players like everyone else.

5.) 21 Nov 2017
21 Nov 2017 19:25:19
Hi figo,
I read your post with interest particularly about us going to Liverpool and trying not to outscore Liverpool, YES that part of the PLAN went particularly well!?! We failed to get a single shot on target in 90 minutes! Unfortunately the defensive part of the PLAN did not go so well! Looking at the game and the comments made by our own fans and others it was lucky to be only 3!

You shoot down our suggestions but where do you think we will be at Xmas after our run of fixtures?, Roy Keane might well bully but at the moment we have a team happy to take their bloated salaries and just coasting through games with nobody taking responsibility. My prediction is we might scrape a point with Everton, and if we can keep the scoreline to single figures at Man City it will be a miracle!

The problem with this manager is he lacks a plan of any type, his team is set up bizarrely, his substitutions baffling. Your criticism of our ideas of a mass clear out as making no sense but continuing as we are is disaster. This is a team sleep walking to relegation I have looked at our fixtures to the new year, Everton, Man City, Arsenal, Bournemouth, Leicester, Chelsea, Huddersfield.

Tottenham, Manchester United, I think we will be lucky to get 4 points from 9 games which will put us on 17 points from 22 games which is relegation in anyone's book. You look at those fixtures are we capable of upsetting anyone in the top six? If you thought our goal difference was okish now wait until the New Year! All the commentators who view us say the same we can't defend, we can't score, we are poor at retaining possession and when we have the ball we lack the ability to do something constructive and creative.

I read that Talksport's computer has us to finish 10 th, I would take that all day long! I will be happy with 16th with this shower of stuff. Remember City put 7 past Stoke and I can see something similar or possibly worse similar to us vs Sunderland. You remind me of the captain of the Titanic convincing himself that this ship is unsinkable! .

If things go as badly as I fear and expect, it would not surprise me to see our Chinese owner get very involved if he isn't already and I am sure he is not smiling now as he did not pay £220 million to see his team relegated. I imagine there are some uncomfortable phone calls from China asking what is going on and what are your plans to turn it round?

Because carrying on as we are is not a plan. Tony Pulis was sacked today from WBA and MP is no Pulis, in fact I don't know what he is, he certainly isn't a motivator, tactician, I am struggling to find any attributes but we will see. But let's see if SFC follow your ideas!
Regards vs.

6.) 23 Nov 2017
23 Nov 2017 09:04:30
The dire problems we are in now have been caused by the wait, wait and wait again attitude. 2 examples that come to mind, firstly Saints always need a big target man up front; when Pelle moved to China there was an ideal replacement available immediately from Germany called Sandro Wagner playing for Darmstadt (scored 14 goals in 2015/ 16 Bundesligue) . He made it clear that he wanted to join Southampton, nothing happened. He joined Hoffenheim for 2 million euros - note about 1.5million pounds at that time. Saints finally made a move in the last close season for 14.5million pounds. He turned it down and extended his contract at Hoffenheim. He has now played his first 6 international matches for Germany, scoring 5 goals

The second is on the Manager, Saints made a move on Roger Schmidt, formerly of Bayer Leverkusen about April, but instead of making a decision, getting a signature and paying a retainer until the post was vacant Les Reed and co did nothing so it was a case of sod you lot I'm off to China from Mr Schmidt. Saints sacked Puel at about the same time and were a bit surprised when their choice had gone. They made a desperate move on Thomas Tuchel of Dortmund, but he didn't want to be seen as second best. So we were then left with hunting around looking for someone with a foreign enough name that might fit the bill, now we are going backwards because the person who is supposed to be able to make decisions can't.

7.) 23 Nov 2017
23 Nov 2017 13:17:55
Whilst I disagree with posts suggesting bringing in managers like Keane, Pulis, Allardyce, Giggs, hiring coaching staff simply because they had a degree of success in their playing career or selling a number of the first team squad and replacing them with lower league players, I am not saying no action is required.

In my posts, I have simply been trying to encourage patience and that we keep things in context rather than resorting to the extreme suggestions of tearing everything up and starting again because everything at the club is broken. I simply do not accept that that is the case just because the first team is struggling at the moment. That said, there are also troubling signs from the youth teams’ performances, albeit without our best young players who are out on loan at the moment.

As far as our fixture list goes, again we must appreciate that we are a midtable side and so no, its unlikely we’ll get points against Man City, Chelsea, Arsenal, Spurs and Man Utd. That said, in this league, there might be an upset in there somewhere so maybe we nick a draw here or a surprising win there, but its less likely. We must therefore focus all our energies on games against Everton, Leicester, Bournemouth and Huddersfield. If we can get 7 or 8 points from those, it won’t be a bad return.

Again, context here, we are not in a league of one so if we look at the teams around and below us, Palace have a more comfortable run but I see them getting maybe 7 points up to the new year. Swansea have a bad run and are the worst team in the league at the moment so I see them picking up 3 or 4 points and propping up the table come early January. West Ham have some horrible games coming up and I seek them picking up 7 or 8 points and similarly, managerless West Brom will likely struggle with their fixtures up until January so maybe 6 or 7 points. Everton and Stoke are our biggest threats in terms of leapfrogging us and I see them picking up anywhere between 8 and 12 points over this time period. Leicester I would guess will pick up around 9 points up to Jan and Bournemouth between 8 and 12. Newcastle have an ok run so maybe 8 – 10 points, Huddersfield, not so much and maybe only picking up 4 or 5 points in this time frame. This would leave the table looking like this:

10. Newcastle 23 pts
11. Bournemouth 23 pts
12. Stoke 23 pts
13. Leicester 22 pts
14. Everton 22 pts
15. Saints 20 pts
16. Huddersfield 19 pts
17. West Brom 17 pts
18. West Ham 16 pts
19. Crystal Palace 12 pts
20. Swansea 11 pts

It may look optimistic and its as reliant on us getting 7 points from our easier fixtures as it is my predictions of other teams performances coming true, but we may well only find after this nightmare run that we’ve dropped one place. Maybe….

But the team is not playing well and something needs to change. The normal first fix is to bring in a few fresh faces in January that could score some of the chances being created, but the January transfer window is fickle and if our new owner does have tied hands in relation to the amount of money he is able to invest this season, this may not be possible without selling someone like Virgil Van Dijk. The way he’s playing at the moment, I’m perfectly happy with this. The team can’t stick by its principle of not selling if it benefits the team in the short and long term to sell and move on. If we can get £40 - £50m for him, that’s maybe 2 – 3 good players coming in that could improve fortunes.

Sacking a manager should always be a last resort for me in the middle of a season. Obviously if you have a talented squad that another manager could get more from, or you have no more funds to bring in new players, then by all means try it if things are desperate, but a new manager is not guaranteed to improve things and its likely they’ll need a few games to settle and get the squad working together as they want them to. Also, whilst a firefighting manager like Allardyce, Pulis et al may organise a side and keep them up, they’re a short term fix, they play dire football and the fans clamour for them to leave after a full season of it. This isn’t the football we want and nor should we expect these managers to swallow their pride and sign a short-term employment contract and come in simply to keep us up. If we take them on now, we must do so with the acceptance that next season and for as long as they are here, the football will be ugly and we will be rooted to the lower half of the table.

Its harsh to judge MP entirely on the performances he is getting from this squad of players. We have only one striker and he is unfit to play a full 90 minutes from what we have seen. We’re playing an attacking right forward as a striker and he’s not comfortable there. We have a strong midfield pairing in Romeu and Lemina, now Lemina is ready to come back, and good centre backs and full backs/ wingbacks. If we can sign a striker in January and a left sided attacker or a First team quality Keeper, we have every chance of finshing in the top half. If we sign only one, it has to be a striker for me. If we drop Van Dijk, give Alex McCarthy a go in goal and have Lemina back, we should be able to push higher up the table. If we don’t sign a striker, I can’t see things getting any better in the short term or for the remainder of the season.