Nordic Saint

Only 3 clubs have been champions more than Everton, and they don't include the new kids on the block: Man City and Chelsea. But, it does show that the 'big club' group is constantly changing.

I remember being very impressed by him when he came on as a sub for Real Sociedad in a pre-season friendly at St Mary's back in 2013. He looked the classiest player on the pitch. He was relatively unknown and hadn't broken into the French national squad then and we could have signed him for around 12 million but obviously nobody at SFC thought he was worth it.

It's the final hurdles we seem to fall at. Altogether we've been in 14 FA Cup & League Cup semi-finals. You'd expect us to have 3 or 4 trophies. In contrast, Pompey, who were only in the top flight for 33 seasons in their history, were in a total of just 7 semi-finals. Even Leeds have only ever been in 13 semi-finals. It could be down to repeated bad luck or perhaps we are just too nice and content to make up the numbers.There has never been much of a ruthless or arrogant streak at Southampton.

In a table based on average league position over the last 50 years, Saints are 11th. http://www.skysports.com/football/news/11096/10881263/ultimate-league-reveals-liverpool-are-englands-top-team-followed-by-man-utd-and-arsenal

I don't think we'll get relegated this season because there are clubs with even weaker squads than ours. But we have been turned from challengers for a European place into relegation battlers and if the squad continues to get progressively weaker, our luck will run out in the next few seasons. We seem to be repeating what Bolton did a decade ago. We should learn from their mistake of letting an aging, stubborn administrator have too much power at a football club. I posted this some time ago on another thread: If we keep Reed until he's 70, there is a danger that we will turn into the next Bolton. From 2003 to 2007, under the direction of Phil Gartside, Bolton finished in the top 8 of the Premier League in 4 consecutive seasons, qualified for Europe and finished runners-up in a League Cup Final. All the while, Gartside became ever more powerful and stubborn, ending up making nearly all decisions at the club. They then slid into the bottom half of the table, where they struggled for a few seasons before eventually getting relegated. For Phil Gartside read Les Reed. "Broken Bolton: where did it all go wrong for Wanderers?" "It is certainly starting to seem like a trick of the mind that Gartside was once regarded as one of the sport’s more impressive administrators, thought of so highly he was given a place on the Wembley board and put in charge of the FA’s selection process." https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2014/oct/11/phil-gartside-bolton-wanderers-abyss

Celtic have got a new head of recruitment, Chelsea's former chief scout, Lee Congerton. They've done very well to get him. Scouting and recruitment have always been the key to Celtic's success, more than the manager, the same as they were for us when we had Paul Mitchell. It will be interesting to see if Congerton can unearth gems in the transfer market, like Wanyama and van Dijk, as well as John Park did over the last 10 years. Brendan Rodgers didn't like the amount of power Park, with his job title of head of football development, had at Celtic and there was a bit of a power struggle, similar to that between Koeman and Reed. Park is now looking for a well-paid Les Reed-type position.

That's what people said about the last one but I don't think he'll take Leicester down. The weak squad is more of an issue, especially in attack. But, there are quite a few smaller clubs, like Swansea, Huddersfield, Burnley, Brighton and Bournemouth, which should prove to have weaker squads than ours by the end of the season.

It's too early in the season to judge but it would be nice to see Everton relegated for a change.

Probably a blessing in dsguise. Northampton have been drawn away to Pompey in the 2nd round. Full second round draw Northern section Port Vale v Shrewsbury Town Rochdale v Doncaster Rovers Fleetwood Town v Group F runner-up Blackpool v Mansfield Town Walsall v Bury Lincoln City v Accrington Stanley S****horpe United v Leicester City U21 Group F winner v Oldham Athletic Southern section Group C winner v Forest Green Rovers Gillingham v Oxford United Group D winner v AFC Wimbledon Portsmouth v Northampton Town MK Dons v Group D runner-up Luton Town v Group C runner-up Swansea City U21 v Charlton

We've been in the top flight for 41 of the last 50 years. We finished in the top 10 in 15 of those and our average position the top flight is 11th. We have been in the top flight more than we have been in any other division and we have also been in 14 FA Cup & League Cup semi-finals and 6 finals. As our resident misery, you obviously prefer to ignore the good times.

A Charlie Austin hat-trick, even in a closed door friendly against a team from a lower league has to be one of the highlights of our season so far, and is a massive improvment on our defeat to Wolves Reserves so you can understand why Pellegrino was so happy. Seriously though, Austin should start against Liverpool. Nobody else has looked liked scoring that many goals all season.

Les Reed or Pellegrino? Senior career* Years Team Apps (Gls) 19??–19?? Cambridge United 0 (0) 19??–19?? Watford 0 (0) 19??–19?? Wycombe Wanderers 0 (0) Playing career Reed was on the books as a football player for Cambridge United, Watford, and Wycombe Wanderers as a centre forward, but did not play any League matches for any of the three clubs. The FA and England In 2002 Reed replaced Howard Wilkinson as the FA's Technical Director. During his second spell at the FA he authored the FA's official coaching manual, The Official FA Guide to Basic Team Coaching, but he was sacked by the FA in 2004. Teams managed 2006 Charlton Athletic During his six-week spell as manager Reed managed just one victory, and Charlton were knocked out of the League Cup by Football League Two side Wycombe Wanderers. Reed's spell at Charlton became infamous, as the media attacked him frequently, nicknaming him "Les Misérables" and "Santa Clueless"and he was later voted in an unofficial online poll "the worst manager of all time" Managerial stats Team Nat From To Record G W L D Win % Charlton Athletic England 14 November 2006 24 December 2006 7 1 5 1 14.28%

Presumably 'wrist slitters', 'bedwetters' and 'entitled fans' are fans who actually care whether we win or lose and would, therefore, rather we sold our worst players and kept our best ones, rather than the other way round. I remember someone posting the club's accounts figures on here, which showed we spent more in transfer fees for players over the last 3 years than we received for those we sold so logically you would expect it to be the other way round and as a consequence for us to have a stronger squad, winning more games.

Whereas Paul Mitchell had known Dele Alli since he was 10. Dele Alli started training at MK Dons in 2007, when he was 10. Paul Mitchell was already there, having joined MK Dons as a player in 2004 and he became their head of recruitment in 2010. He recruited Alli for Spurs for 10 million in 2015. David Pleat was never at MK Dons and his last job at Spurs finished in 2004. From 2006 t0 2011 he was a consultant for his hometown club, Nott. Forest. I've recommended players to SFC and I'm sure hundreds of other people have too. It doesn't mean we were responsible for recruiting them from all the other options that were out there. Getting exactly the right player from the hundreds that you are tracking and the thousands that are recommended to you is an exact art, which Paul Mitchell is very good at.

When our head of recruitment Paul Mitchell, who was our real 'Black Box', went to Spurs. We got by for a few months by bringing in signings he'd already recommended but after that we were left rudderless in the transfer market, with Ross Wilson struggling to emulate the success we'd had with Mitchell. Mitchell took Alderweireld and Wanyama with him to Spurs as well as players he'd identified as targets while he was here, like Trippier and Delle Ali. We only got van Dijk because Spurs didn't need him as they preferred Alderweireld. Mitchell's value to a club in the transfer market is remrakable. He brought Mane here for just £11.8 million and Delle Ali to Sputs for just £10 million. They are now worth a combined total of £120 million. He also spotted Pochettino although it was Cortese who went on a scouting trip with him who claims a lot of the credit for that.

Would you take Puel back? PUEL PUTS THE FUN BACK INTO FOOTBALL Leicester defender Danny Simpson says new boss Claude Puel has put fun into his Foxes role.

It's taken Kat's bank account to the next level.

Reed has been very good at the PR game, taking the credit when anything goes right at the club and deflecting the blame onto managers and players when anything goes wrong. That's why it's very hard to trust him.

I've never really trusted him and I doubt that the managers or players do either. He is like a cuckoo in the nest. The staff turnover since he arrived has been phenomenal. Most of our talent has disappeared to other clubs and we now seem to be left with a pool of players and coaches who are only still here because nobody else wants them: https://www.sportlineng.com/2016/07/12/les-reed-southampton-best-pool-midfielders-premier-league/

I'd have liked to see us get Nuno Espirito Santo but as it's reported he's turned down Everton, it doesn't look like there is much chance now. Anyway, before we recruit our next manager, we need to get our former head of recruitment, Paul Mitchell, the man who discovered Pochettino, back. I wouldn't trust Wilson and Reed to find another manager.

Whether we would or would not is irrelevant. There is no way he or any of our previous managers, especially those who like to be in total control of team affairs, would work under Les Reed again. He fell out with all of them. If, howver, Reed retires on his 65th birthday next month, I'm sure he and many other of our former coaching, scouting and admin staff would consider working here again. I'm not sure the success we had when Koeman was our manager was largely down to him, however. The players signed by our former head of recruitment, Paul Mitchell, the man I would like to see replace Reed, were the real key.

We really do need him.

If we replace Forster, but keep the same goalkeeping coach I am fairly sure that withing a few months, the new goalkeeper will be playing no better than Forster. The root problem is in the coaching setup at the club, with poor coaches, like Watson, Black and Jaidi, being allowed to stay at the club and becoming ever more influential, even when managers change.

I thought that when I went to see Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers in Hyde Park this summer & Linkin Park at the O2.

An even greater priority is a decent goalkeeping coach, otherwise we'll see any new goalkeeper going the same way as all of the others at the club.