Southampton Rumours

23 Jul 2024 20:01:45
Ben Brereton Diaz and agent in UK talking with our recruitment team. It's a straight purchase, don't know the figures. Planned medical by the end of the week as long as he doesn't get any better offers from interested clubs. Lis is doing really well in training and might well have secured the season as no2 keeper. Luton have made an approach for Bree and Sheffield United for Edozie.

23 Jul 2024 21:26:34
Thanks for the intel 2408 - as soon as you hear O’Riley and or Ramsdale is in town please let us know!

23 Jul 2024 22:29:04
Can’t see Ramsdale I’m afraid. Roger’s is trying to jack up O’Riley fee, if Atalanta or alike offer enough I can’t see us getting him. It’s very quiet on the info front atm.

24 Jul 2024 09:35:22
Thanks for the superb info @2408.

Any news on whether ABK, Sulemana, Mara and Manning are likely to stay?

Cannot begrudge Bree a move. Is the Edozie interest a loan or transfer?

I think Brereton Diaz could replace Che and being a spanksh speaker, he could help Alcaraz too.

Hopefully some big signings soon.

24 Jul 2024 09:38:38
I can totally see us getting O'Riley. We are in a better financial position to buy him and if our interest is real and with the Manager link I fully expect this one to be done. I see our biggest threat being Leicester rather than any European club!

28 Jun 2024 22:19:06
Tell me this isn't true - PLEASE

Walker-Peters to West Ham in exchange for Downes.

As much as I rate Downes, this would be a disaster for us. KWP has often been our most attacking minded player, bar none.

Ings might be in the mix too, and I would love to see him back, but not at the expense of KWP.

He has to be worth north of £60M.

As I say, hopefully this is just conjecture generated during the non-Euro lay down.

29 Jun 2024 08:27:55
I fear it could be.

KWP has 1 year left on his contract and Saints may be wanting to avoid another Adams situation. I really hoped KWP would stay. He is a great player and has been very loyal.

We urgently need some wing backs and disappointed to see Ben Johnson go to Ipswich.

08 Jul 2024 15:53:33
Apparently Danny Ings has turned down the chance of returning to Saints

01 Jun 2024 18:46:43
Everton have to have a fire sale. Pickford and Tarkowski anybody? Around 25-28m for both, would be good business I think.

04 Jun 2024 22:06:12
Pickford! 😂
I would rather gouge my eyes out with a spoon than sign t-Rex

06 Jun 2024 11:42:15
get kelleher for 20million

12 May 2024 20:48:11
Positives from today is; well for mez its all positive. Mainly because I didn't/don't think we'd win the playoffs and at the moment we're still in a good position .and second positive is whatever were feeling after the result today all the fans of the other 3 teams will be feeling the same as results were same for everyone across the board. We can't be critical if everyone did the same thing. Friday is a fresh start.

13 May 2024 16:20:27
Completely agree. An away draw is a reasonable result and we should be confident playing at home on Friday.

I watchd the Leeds game highlights on their YouTube channel and it was interesting to read their fans believing they will bottle the playoffs.

So nobody is blowing anybody away and we have a very good chance.

28 Apr 2024 21:45:13
I'd like to think I've not quite lost my mind with our manager to the extent that most of you have, but my birthday was ruined by our Leicester drubbing.

The best we've played this season was the first half vs Preston. Essentially the policy was make runs, create space, line breaking passes, shoot on sight. And we were awesome.

There was no pressure then. We'd been written off again, then the second hope is back on the table we lose three in a row. I can't think of the last time we were a side massively under pressure AND delivered.

I think it was our win at Swansea under Hughes to stay up, and that was six years ago. It looks like we'll have Norwich in the play-offs and we will go down 2-3 on agg I reckon.

But this isn't just an issue with our manager - yes he's stubborn beyond belief and an arrogant sod, but our squad doesn't have the mettle to handle pressure and imagine this lot in the PL next season.

I also don't see how the board sack him. He will say 'most years 84 points gets you promoted (I think the average before this year was 79?) and the play-offs is a lottery' and our board are renowned for being lenient - Pellegrino, Hughes and Jones all outstayed their welcomes. I hope it happens, but also who do we bring in? Potter? Cooper? I doubt it. Go cheap and hope it comes off has been the policy for a decade plus and that'll probably be the continued thinking.

I almost hope we don't go up because we will never ever stay up next year and at least this year we've won games.

And on the discussion around players listening to their manager - a bit different but I'm a cricket captain, and the main philosophy is 'have fun, go for it, back yourself'. If I told everyone to play one way we would never win, there needs to be flexibility and that is something we absolutely do not have.

Even when losing in the last minute we pass it round the back, and the players need to have some bravery and belief in themselves to do what they think. It isn't all on one man and in August I'd have taken the play-offs. But I fear stagnation and a Bristol City type season (boring mid table) next campaign.

30 Apr 2024 21:36:07
Preston was an interesting one. We were quite simply superb… as you say, we changed things. I honestly thought that was the start of changes.

I remember when we started to play balls over the top, H-B particularly good and clever at it . I worked … but we stopped it.
it is almost like RM had sleepless nights worrying that he had gone against his possession obsession.

Possession obsession to the extreme.

26 Apr 2024 18:36:02
The spirit the team need now

Gents, it's been a shocking week. Automatic promotion is gone, key players are down and we just took a battering. The pundits have written you off, the fans have written you off and some of you have given up.

You now have two choices. Wallow in misery like boys or fight like men.

Winning at Wembley is every footballers dream and you have that golden opportunity. Who has what it takes? Who is willing to chase, to get stuck in, to be bold for this team. Do it for you, do it for Stu, do it for the fans.

We have spent a season playing sideways, now we need to go forwards. This is your chance to step up and be a hero. Fight for your place in the team. Do not look back and regret what could have been. Give it all you've got.

26 Apr 2024 22:42:36
I feel at this point I’d love to hear from an Ed (or 2408 who I’ve been trying to guess who you are) .
I’ve played various sports at a reasonable level, but I've never encountered a situation where the coach wanted us to do ‘plan A’ when clearly it was plan B or C or D that was needed .
How do the players get RM to change his ways, admit defeat, listen to the players .
why don’t the players on the pitch say f**k with this nonsense and unleash themselves ….

This is where my understanding ends.
Imagine being an attacking midfielder or an attacker, Waiting for that one defence splitting pass, That defence splitting run.
But all you get is sitting back and watching huge amounts of possession, but not where you want it to be.
So in reality, can the players just do it their way?

{Ed001's Note - it is quite common, you usually know it as 'losing the dressing room'. That is characterised by players ignoring instructions and doing what they think is right. Which is strange to me as I grew up with Liverpool dominating everything and that was the secret of their success. They put players together who knew how to play and just let them play. In fact there are a number of the players who tell stories about how they would ask for tactical instructions and be told that they should figure it out for themselves (well not in so many words, usually it involved them being told to go forth and multiply). Nowadays coaches want robots who just do as they are told, rather than thinking for themselves.}

27 Apr 2024 08:13:24
Complerely agree South_Hants_Rich and Ed001. Our flair players are being suffocated and they need the freedom to play. Stoke is a free pass. We should experiment and I hope the players push for that, if RM doesn't.

Give Lumley and Stephens a half and McCarthy and Bree a half. See who deserves their starting spot.

Give Sulemana and Fraser a real shot. We may need that pace against a high press and that tenacity in a cup final.

Take players on, put some crosses in the box. We are going to have an aerial threat with Ross Stewart coming back soon.

Go 4 2 3 1, put Sulemana up top, AA as CAM, put Jack Stephens in goal! Shave JWPs hair and pretends he's Will Smallbone. Anything!

Lets try something new. Give the players a free reign, show some fighting spirit, get the fans on the edge of their seat. At least for 30 minutes!

27 Apr 2024 17:59:29
Thank you Ed001 for that great reply …
I can understand that a coach may spot a shortcoming in someone’s game. but as you say, the modern coach, especially RM, are telling the players what they need to do!
Love the Liverpool story . cheers again

{Ed001's Note - very welcome.}

22 Apr 2024 21:57:49
There is one simple reality in the goings on at SFC
Our possession obsession football, baffled opponents, they sat back and watched us . I think WBA was the prime example of this. A team on form and playing good football, just sat there and watched us.
And then after, what was it? 25 games unbeaten?. One manager simply said to his team, Go for it, Don't sit back and watch their possession. Bristol . The man had clearly watched empty videos of our possession football and wasn't scared by it.

For me, the biggest thing has been Russell Martin total inability to change tactics based on opponents changing tactics.
he is so obsessed with his way of playing but I honestly do not believe he has any understanding of other tactics.

Against Cardiff, their manager made some substitutions, it changed the game.
Russell Martin might as well have been in a Starbucks drinking a latte, because that is the limit of his reaction to the Cardiff change.

If we do end up winning the play-offs, I pray that Russell Martin is not part of Southampton football club in the Premier League.