Fabrice29

Not convinced offering the contract was a Semmens thing tbh. Pretty sure Ralph had a choice to make about which one he wanted and chose McCarthy. Pretty sure either way that we would still be having this conversation anyway just the other way around, both would have attracted criticism and made the other look more appealing. Like the whole Bednarek/Stephens who should we keep/loan out argument, it's just a reflection of where we are that the best option really would have been to cut ties with them all and we'll probably get that this summer.

The problem with Forster and McCarthy is that they are absolutely prime candidates for a back up / home grown / good professional slot in any PL team. They are sought after by clubs who can offer more money to do less. Game time is the only downside for keepers like these two when big clubs come calling but why not take the risk and hope there's an injury that means you find yourself in the team? Forster has done it and I'm pretty sure McCarthy will be given the option to do it in the summer by someone. Every top club who doesn't have a British number one will be looking to have a homegrown number 2 or 3. There's only so much the club can do to keep Forster and there's even less we can do now to keep McCarthy. Pretty sure the club will be in Caballero's ear to stay on and work with Bazunu and Lis with a coaching role too.

Yes and he's also confirmed he'll be covering Saints next year.

Pretty sure he was injured for a lot of the second half fwiw. Although I agree that he's been very forgettable for a while now.

Love posts like this. Lampard more experience in the Championship and technically more managerial jobs than Viera. Gerrard at Rangers lasted longer than Viera and Viera has yet to do more than 2.5 years anywhere with his only job in English football last under 2 years. Viera's last two jobs have ended with the sack and most fans far from on their feet but instead bored out of their brains. But sure, let's get Viera in for experience, long term and excitement. Let's just avoid clearly limited managers and have some mystery and hope in our next appointment please. All these managers have shown their ceiling.

Go on…

Achievement is definitely impressive and even more so because it’s a very young group but I also think when we are calling for a step up to the first team we should remember they’ve impressed in the PL2 and not the top division. There’s a whole other league worth of talent above them currently and that explains our desire as a club to continue to target talent from these teams. This group are clearly doing all they can, so it’s not their fault at all, and I think they do deserve an opportunity next season when it’s right for them, but it always amuses me that people just casually think the likes of Ballard should take a natural step up to the first team now when the level he’s impressed at is an even bigger step than the one Edozie for example made last summer.

Do you mean your subscription? Or The Athletic from reporting directly on Southampton? Because I can assure you that the dedicated reporting will continue. I think that is a Tanswell issue rather than the Athletic. The Athletic has some wonderful content, and imo is well worth the (cheaper offers) subscription. Saints coverage has always been sub par imo. Never really got the Anka hype and find him largely up his own arse and over complicated with all his content. Shelton was factual and solid in detail but nothing much else. His work now for the Athletuc suits him better because he’s clearly been assigned to work on factual articles rather than anything needing a fan connection. Tanswell slightly the opposite imo. Clearly has affinity for the club and that goes a long way but man he loves to repeat his own stuff and rehash it in another article. The occasional inside knowledge which is good but the most infuriating bit about him is his insistence on trying to repeat the lingo used at the training ground like he’s one of the coaching staff. Continually repeating ‘Pausa’ in articles and in press conferences for a period was a particular cringeworthy moment. Alfie House excellent though. Agreed. Detail, personable and affection for the club. Shame the site he works on his an ad fest and almost unusable.

Scenes when he's not even in the Wrexham 11 by the end of next season.

It'll never not be funny that Matt Crocker gets a free ride on here for being in the same role.

A classic Athletic "we don't know so rather than just say that, we'll cover almost every base we can and just put down words" trope. Anyway, anyone know how Ryan Finnigan is getting on at Crewe?

You mean… ‘player you think is leaving is probably leaving unless of course he doesn’t’ isn’t ground breaking journalism?

Can’t see Viera getting the Chelsea gig. As for the second point, you mean apart from our best player right?

Suspect you can swap these around fwiw.

100% agree with this. I especially can’t believe anyone is endorsing Bednarek/Stephens staying when we’ve been trying to replace them both for years.

Latest Athletic article summed up - ‘that player you think is leaving is probably leaving, the ones you didn’t probably aren’t but everything we say is with a huge caveat that it could change when the club and player decide at the end of the season’

Phillips was already a regular for England before he moved to City. I'd be a little surprised if JWP suddenly gets in the England team. He'd have to improve his all round game and performances, which is possible in a better team but it would also need Bellingham/Rice to suddenly be injured/massive drop off in form and a sudden decline in Henderson too (Who Southgate has already said is the direct competition for JWP). Possible place in the squad up for grabs though, Gallagher probably his competition.

We won't be getting the Championship manager of the year this time.

It wouldn't be fair to write off someone so young based on their first season of first team football so if Wilcox, someone who has worked closely with him and been close to his development, feels he would be a good signing then I don't see the issue. Remember City refused to sell him permanently last season because they rate him highly.

I agree about appointing up and coming managers fwiw, but regarding Still, his record won't last and results can be misleading when the amount of time is so small (his first two manager jobs were caretaker roles and incredibly short). So his day to day work, improvement of players and style of play will be the reason for appointing him and I'm unaware of the finer details of that so was wondering if you had insight into those.

Out of interest, why? I'm not saying it's not a good idea but on the basis that he's unlikely to match his record at Reims then what else is it about him that you think would be good for us?

Maybe they considered more than just the 4-6 games a season that you attended?

Lavia has a Euro 24 squad to get into. Absolutely no chance he plays in the Championship with us, loan or permanent. See also ABK.

I’m not sure that’s fair. The new manager had it pretty well set up for him and based on his failure at Watford shows the benefit of having a well run club around him. They’ve only done better if they go up, otherwise they’ve delivered the same as Jones had done in the Championship.

Would much rather we looked at Liam Rosenior if we're admiring the work that was done at Derby at that time.