Southampton banter 2

04 Nov 2025 07:39:05
{Ed's Note - BlueNose1878 has posted a new article entitled, Everton Need January Reinforcements to Salvage the Season

03 Nov 2025 09:23:22
Genuine Question, What happened to Southampton's infamous 'Black Box' of the 2010's era?

Recruitment during that era was phenomenal; Tadic, Mane, Wanyama, Schneiderlin, Pelle, I could go on!

I've not seen it mentioned since Sports Republic took over, and ever since it has stopped being mentioned, our signings seem to be declining in quality.

Interested to see if anyone has any info/ideas!

03 Nov 2025 07:39:07
{Ed's Note - Shappy has posted a new article entitled, Manchester United Show Resilience Despite Worst Performance Since Brentford

03 Nov 2025 12:46:22
Did not believe Frank Lampard was interested - if true sign him up quick smart and don’t put up any excuses about any compensation required by Coventry City FC JUST DO IT.! KOM.

02 Nov 2025 19:50:54
Welp he's gone. Had to happen. Owners will probably bring in someone else and try to correct their misgivings one more time. Who do we reckon? Who on earth would come here!

02 Nov 2025 23:05:42
We need an experienced tough character to install discipline and hard work ethos. Gary O’Neil, Periera, Ange, Rogers My choice, if you could get him would be Gary Rowett.

02 Nov 2025 23:33:06
That wasn’t RM I saw driving into St Mary’s was it?!

In any other world you might think a successor has been lined up, but our Board don’t think that far ahead.

So I await the next least worst choice to enter through the revolving doors.

03 Nov 2025 14:30:44
Don’t Miller time please - he is actually bookies favourite

03 Nov 2025 15:53:20
Seriously! OMG

02 Nov 2025 18:27:44
First time this year at a game yesterday. (We live in Ireland) has it been that bad all season? No leadership at all, very slow play, nearly always backwards and Preston knew exactly how to stop us. Looked a bit better second half when Robinson came on but never looked like scoring.

02 Nov 2025 09:50:19
Yesterday was another new low.

Talk all week was about fighting back/improved finishing/stop giving soft goals away.

Well that worked didn`t it?

Passive back 5 at home. Azaz can`t control a ball. Fellows predictably dribbles into traffic. Did Downes touch the ball?

Bad recruitment. Bad tactics. It`s got to change. Another short term policy is needed.

We are in a relegation battle and it`s time for an old fashioned pragmatic Manager and some players in January who have some experience. We are expecting too much of promising youngsters who need to be used more sparingly.

Still hasn`t had `enough time to fix things`, but yesterday showed again we are going backwards. Act now SR!

02 Nov 2025 17:27:05
Rumour I have heard is that spors is actually the one selecting the team, Still can only do tactics with what he has been told to play. I really hope it’s not true, but might explain our recent recruitment and management style/ decisions. At this point some honesty from the board in what they are actually doing to improve this is vital.

03 Nov 2025 10:24:27
Found an interesting old quote from a Les Reed interview during the Koeman/Puel era, in regards to managers.

Reed said: "If they go after 80 days, fingers need to be pointed at the people who recruit."

I think that alone shows the current shambles of the ownership, how many short-term managers have we had under SR, Constantly buying players to fit a managers style who is sacked within 15 games.

Another quote from Reed:

"Every candidate to replace Ronald was in the system a year before and had a 45- or 50-page document, with a profile. The interview criteria were four pages long. Claude went through three interviews to get the job."

I wonder if this sort of extensive research goes into the current recruitment process.

02 Nov 2025 07:39:05
{Ed's Note - Pompey Rouge has posted a new article entitled, Liverpool FC As Of October 2025

01 Nov 2025 17:04:17
I don't know whether to laugh or cry at the moment.

01 Nov 2025 17:00:01
Still must go. I've heard some in the crowd singing " Are we Luton in disguise ". At this rate we'll be following them down to league 1.

01 Nov 2025 18:45:46
Has to at this point. It’s gotten too toxic and he clearly can’t do anything about it. Only problem is I have zero faith we’ll get someone in who will be any better (or less crap! )

02 Nov 2025 08:42:54
I completely agree.

Can we get a lawyer deem SR are too incompetent to make their own decisions and let a committee of trusted fans choose the next man?!

01 Nov 2025 14:49:28
Preston's line up is all about hitting us on the break. They will not worry about high crosses or low nearpost crosses because not one of our players will be in that position. Corners is the only set play they will worry about but they have enough players whom are very capable in the air.
Why is Fellows on the bench, he turns both ways the same as Scienza which causes defenders real problems.
Downes is not fully fit so give Aribo 60-70 mins, he doesn't give the ball away and he can fill in left side of a back 3.
Can't see us winning, draw at best.

01 Nov 2025 16:35:20
At 72 mins gone your prediction is looking sound. Currently xG of 0.09. He just has to go - we don’t even look like scoring.

I’m not sure if I’m the only one but even the 2 league wins we have chalked up have been relatively Lucky.