Nordic Saint

We don't need Schneiderlin. It's a position that doesn't need filling. Anyway, he is very overrated by some Saints fans. Lemina is better.

Kieran Dowell

The reason we got him, which is well documented, was that Mitchell and Cortese scouted and selected him and they're not in charge of our recruitment any more. By the way, Kat must feel an enormous sense of gratitude to Cortese for choosing this club and setting it up for success and Mitchell for finding the star players which helped turn her father's 13 million investment into 200 million for her, and she's still got 20% of the club. That has to be one of the most profitable football investments ever.

It's your hero Les Reed who sacks the managers, not the fans. Although he was considered an unisnspring appointment, most of our fans think that with the depleted attacking options he was left with, Puel had done enough to at least deserve starting this season as our manager; Les Reed didn't.

You mean he was the one who sold our exciting players, Mane, Wanyama and Pelle? I don't think so. I'd hardly call the players Puel was left with, Long, Ward-Prowse, Redmond, Hojbjerg, Austin, Davis etc 'exciting'. The heart had already been ripped out of our exciting team before Puel arrived. He was left with nothing exciting up front. Also, I wonder how many of these pages Watson and Black carry around are from the Les Reed coaching manual, and not from the new managers?

There is nothing particularly embarrassing about being a Saints' fan. We are, a bit like Birmingham, a club with a long history of underachievement, whose fans have fairly low expectations but continue to turn up regardless. Any player who reads this forum would see that a sizeable percentage of our fans aren't particularly bothered whether we win, lose or draw or even what division we are in, as we should 'know our place', (which is a bit lower than fans of other clubs would expect from a club with a fanbase as big as ours). We won our only major trophy more than forty years ago and understandably any ambitious player who wants to win trophies leaves us at the earliest opportunity, so it's hardly surprising the passion seems to have gone both on and off the pitch. A little bit of overdue success, like winning another cup final, would bring the passion and belief we had in the late 70s and early 80s flooding back. Fans of most other clubs tend to see us as being a fairly loyal lot under the circumstances.

I assume Les Reed is responsible for both the players and the manager. If they succeed, Les will certainly get the credit; if they don't, it will be their fault.

If we keep the same goalkeeping coach. I'm not sure that buying another goalkeeper will solve the root cause of the problem.

The same as he's done with all the other goalkeepers at the club: made him hesitant and error-prone. The reason Forster has kept his place is that the others are even worse. Watson is a real problem.

You can say it but we wouldn't and, after starting Long up front for several games, in which he never looked like scoring, Pellegrino has realized that, which is why he very sensibly replaced him with Gabbiadini.

McCarthy makes some real howlers, including one to gve away a goal in his last game for the U23s. Palace fans were glad to see the back of him. "Crystal Palace goalkeeper Alex McCarthy has apologised to supporters after his costly slip in their Premier League defeat to Liverpool. The 26-year-old hadn't started a league game for the Eagles since September following a string of uncertain performances but was brought into face Jurgen Klopp's men after Wayne Hennessey failed a late fitness test." https://www.standard.co.uk/sport/football/i-didnt-mean-to-slip-alex-mccarthy-apologises-to-crystal-palace-fans-after-costly-error-a3196806.html

Heading was one of the many things he didn't do much: tackling, shooting and long passes being others. He averaged 1 goal every 13 games, which for an attacking player (inside forward as he was known in those days) was pretty poor. He had a stuttering run and looked like a middle aged dad playing football. It's hard to believe he'd only just turned 27 when he joined us. He was one of those unathletic people who would't get into professional football nowadays but in the 60s it was a much slower game. I think it's fair to say, fans rarely take to attacking players who don't score goals.

Well, that's hardly surprising as they were appointed by the same person. The next manager would very likely be the same too.

Sharp is a real goal scorer. He's averaged a goal every 2 games throughout his career. We could see him in the Premier League next season if Sheffield United get promoted.

Did you see them on the Lost in a Dream tour at Southampton Guildhall? I thought they were good. I'm going to see them again at Portsmouth Guildhall next month. They've got a better support act for the A Deeper Understanding tour: The Barr Brothers. Their new album, Queens of the Breakers, is worth listening to.

A league table of best run clubs would be different every season. This season, so far, I'd say these 5 would be above us: Wolves, Man City, Tottenham, Watford, Burnley... If we manage a 5th consecutive top 8 finish, youd have to say over that period we'd be one of the best; if we end up getting relegated, we wouldn't be. I'm not sure the club has been as well run this season and last as it was in the previous 3. We'll see. Football is a results driven game. The Boufal goal has certainly made us all feel more optimistic.

Because the other goalkeepers at the club are worse. McCarthy, for example, is even more error prone and makes some comical mistakes. Forster used to be a very good goalkeeper. I remember how relieved we were to see him come back from injury to replace Stekelenburg. Even now, Forster probably has one of the best clean sheet to game ratios of any goalkeeper we have ever had at the club in the top light. Some people think his decline is due to injury but I think it may be due to the influence of goalkeeping coach, Dave Watson, as all of the goalkeepers at the club have got worse. Forster usd to push shots wide of his goal. Now he parries them all forwards, which has led to a few goals conceded. He also seems to have lost his spontaneous reactions and stops to think before kicking, which can lead to panic situations. My guess is these changes are down to the coaching. Before writing him off, I would like to see how Forster performs under a different coach.

Yes!!!! Brilliant! We've won a home game! If we keep the journeymen, like Long and Redmond, out and the class players like Boufal and Gabbiadini, in, we'll be fine.

At last there is some hope of a goal now with Long off and Austin on.

So, the question is, did Koeman just benefit from Pochettino's work and ride the crest of a wave? Would we have achieved the same results, or even better, whoever the manager was who succeeded Pochettino?

ITALY'S FIRST FOOTBALL NEWS SITE Gabbiadini: ‘Tottenham the most surprising club, Benitez my favourite manager’ 20 October at 10:41 Southampton star Manolo Gabbiadini has released an interview with La Gazzetta dello Sport to discuss his experience in the Premier League. Six goals in the first two games in England, what happened then? “I picked up an injury, I was happy and I had settled in well. Then something changed, we played in a different way, we were more defensive and everything became more difficult. The last one was an important season.” Why did you chose Southampton? “There were other options but I wanted to come to the Premier League. Southampton is comfortable, you are close to London and from there I can go to Bologna with three flights a day. I also thought about it when I moved here. I love Bologna. I played my first important season there and I met the girl who has now became by wife.” Why did you struggle with Napoli? “It was an important moment of my career. I was living in an amazing place, Posillipo, surrounded by amazing people and good friends. It was a honour for me to play for Napoli. They have a great manager. Sarri is my favourite manager alongside Benitez. I was also on very good terms with Mihajlovic and Pioli.” What about the national team? “The Word Cup is my objective, the azzurri shirt has something special. We have 51% of chances to qualify for the World Cup. It would be a disaster for players of my generation.” Most surprising Premier League club? “Tottenham but right now Manchester City are doing great, Guardiola has accepted some habits of English football.”

It's getting almost as bad as McMenemey's time at Sunderland, although I don't think Everton fans hate Koeman quite as much as Sunderland fans hated McMemeny or even as much as Newcastle fans hated Pardew. It's such a shame to think what might have been.

I like Austin too. He is a proven goal scorer and given a run of games as a starting striker, he will score goals. If we need to sell one of our strikers, I'd rather we sold Long.

It certainly is. At the end of last season he was posting this: 19-05-2017, 12:43 PM #1806 Alain Perrin Location Swindon Ultimately the club (Uncle Les et. al.) will make the decision that they believe is best. On one hand I think we should give Puel a chance and whilst the quality hasn't been there on the pitch I think he has managed a difficult season well (lots of games, compressed schedule and unfortunate injuries). However our points total isn't great (although I'd point to the Christmas period as being a critical factor - we had a really poor run coupled with the worst schedule of all clubs). I do think there's a danger that managers aren't given enough time to deliver. Whilst you can bring in a Conte to manage a bunch of world class players - if you're in the next pack down like Saints, you have more of a building job to do. And that takes more than one season in my opinion. Only the club can know what the player relationships are like (all I see is some on-pitch bickering which could be a bad sign) and if they think there are issues there I think he'll go. ----------------------------------------- Now, because at this point in time it's not looking like a great decsion, he's trying to shift the blame to the fans.

Les Reed sacked Puel. Nobody else. Do you really think Les Reed makes decisions because on what fans post on a messageboard? Some fans liked Puel, some didn't. Most thought that he had done enough in getting us to 8th place and a cup final to deserve starting this season with us. Les Reed didn't.