Nordic Saint

But Les is the one who they all seem to fall out with. Nearly all of our best staff, both on and off the pitch, managers, coaches, players, backroom staff alike, have left the Club or been sold now.

The problem is that Reed won't and who's he going to bring in next? If the last year is anything to go by, they won't be very good.

A rot seems to have set in and without major changes at the top, it's hard to see anything but a dour relegation struggle next season.

What a difference a year has made to our Club. Consistently poor decsions from the top have resulted in a surprisingly rapid decline. I remember the feeling of absolute elation in May last year and couldn't wait for this season to begin. Then Les Reed got to work, alienating staff both on and off the pitch, getting rid of the best ones and wasting the money on poor replacements.

He certainly has: from one of the best teams in the country, capable of beating any other team in the Premier League, which finished 6th and was only 3 points of a Champions League place, to this. Why shouldn't he retire like everyone else? His poor decsion making over the last year show he is well past his prime. Are we supposed to pay him until he's70?

Charlie's thread is worth an end of season review.

Andrea Ranocchia, although he was only on loan at Hull. We were rumoured to be interested in him before. Ben Gibson would be great but I think he'll only leave Middlesbrough for one of the big clubs, like Man United. On the evidence of how he played against us, Jan Kirchoff would be an ideal replacement for Wanyama. Unfortunately, he always seems to be injured.

I agree with Milton: 14th with 43 points. I was just looking at last season's league table again. Not only did we finish 6th with 63 points but we were 16 points and 5 places ahead of Everton and only 3 points behind Man City in 4th place. What has gone wrong since? For starters, most of the personnel changes, both on and off the pitch, seem to have been for the worse.

Life of Les?

If people like Always and Duckhunter had prevailed in the Stone Age, we'd still be living in caves and they'd be sitting around moaning about some ungrateful bastard trying to invent the wheel.

Les Reed jettisons everyone in the end, players and staff alike. No loyalty.

Watching our captain, Jose Fonte, playing for West Ham tonight as they beat Spurs said a lot about Les Reed's lack of ambition for the club. Cashing in at every opportunity on players is more important to him than our team winning games.The money wasted on Caceres would have been more than enough to keep Fonte here, and probably would have been enough to win us the League Cup Final and help us finish higher in the league.

Jose Fonte was magnificent again. He was never fully appreciated by many Saints fans and certainly not by Les Reed (but who is apart from his latest signing?). But he is deservedly a reigning European champions and, for me, the best central defender and captain we ever had. I wish we'd kept him.

By all measures (average gates, social media followers etc), our fan base and attendances are the 12th biggest in the country. So, fans who think we should expect to be in a relegation struggle or even in the Championship and that anything better than that is overachieving are far from the mark. It is true, however, that, for our size, in terms of trophies won over our entire history, we are possibly the most underachieving club in the country and that has lowered fans' expectations. We have had plenty of blips taking us below where a club of our size ought to be, but precious few taking us above it. We probably need the break at least once in our history of getting a wealthy owner investing in success, like Leicester and Blackburn, for example, had.

That's what he seems to be doing nowadays. Maybe he feels his mission at Liverpool has been achieved.

Next season, could Les Reed finally have built a title winning team at Liverpool, with Bertrand and van Djk as the final pieces of the jigsaw? It would be a remarkable achievement if he manages to pull it off. Has anyone in the history of football ever done so much to build a rival team?

""Eric Black has an excellent pedigree as a coach and vast experience domestically and internationally." Les Reed. http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/sport/14590538.Les_Reed__Puel_was_top_choice_on__very_impressive__shortlist/?commentSort=newest

It doesn't matter what we think. None of us would have picked Puel. Even if Reed does decide to replace him, the new manager will be not be anyone high profile or in demand, the main criteria being that he'll be prepared to do as Reed tells him, and most of the names you mention would not be prepared to take orders from Reed.

We didn't and we wouldn't have; Les Reed did. Our next manager will have to meet the same requirements Puel did: to do as Reed wants him to do and to be prepared to accept a job where he is not 'the boss' where football matters are concerned. In the end, neither Pochettino nor Koeman could accept those limitations. So, it's unlikely Reed will appoint a strong character with his own ideas again.

Off the top of my head: Forster, Long, Hojbjerg, Reed, Targett, Boufal, Martina, Tadic, Gardos, Austin, Rodriguez, Pied, Caceres, McQueen, Hassen, Isgrove etc... most of the squad, basically, for one reason or another, although some of them were simply Les Reed's overhyped buys who've been found out.

You are just agreeing with a quote you wrote yourself. How desperate is that? There is no mention whatsoever of our fanbase in any of the comments, let alone anyone making fun of it. One poster simply says, "Do you think Southampton should play the big 4? I think they are in their place in the top 10."

Les Reed.

It feels like we're just treading water until Kat manages to sell the club and I can't see any significant changes taking place at the top or any major investment in players until she does. The atmosphere at the Club is so different to this time last year. What a difference a year makes.

On today's evidence, Andrea Ranocchia would be ideal. Hull have only got him on loan from Inter so he's available.

I assume whoever started this poll must be a Pompey fan: https://footballleagueworld.co.uk/portsmouth-v-southampton-are-saints-really-a-bigger-club-than-pompey/