Nordic Saint

And now he looks much better under Hughes. In fact, he's probably 2nd only to Hojbjerg as our player of the season so far.

In Jack Stephens and Christoph Klarer we have two central defenders far better than the ones Ross and Les have wasted the van Dijk and Fonte transfer fees on: Vestergaard, Gardos et al. The point is we still have a few talented players left at the club and I think that if they were played regularly in the first team, they would give us fans players to identify with. It's just unfortunate that a lot of the useless dross the club has wasted tens of millions of pounds on gets in the way of that.

Obviously he can't do it all on his own but he has been one of the few bright spots this season. We have kept clean sheets in 5 out of the last 7 games he's played in, including the final two last season: the 1-0 win at Swansea Swansea and the 0-1 defeat to Man City, when we were unlucky not to keep a clean sheet.

He can't tackle so he wouldn't be half decent there. He probably looks good in training, where the pace is slower and the games are less competitive. I'm certainly in favour of our Academy products being given a chance and persevering with Stephens, for example, finally seems to have paid off but I'd rather see Hesketh or Sims in our team ahead of Ward-Prowse. He's had his chance and they offer a bit more in terms of pace, skill and competitiveness.

Kelvin Davis's Premier League record is incredibly bad. He has a lower percentage of clean sheets than just about any other keeper in the history of the league, having only kept 8, 1 every 6.6 games, and he was voted into the worst Sunderland XI of all-time. In contrast, Fraser Forster has kept 38, 1 every 2.79 games.

Another great goal from Hesketh tonight, v Nott. Forest.

This is our fourth consecutive season of decline in the league. Is there any evidence that the people currently running the club can turn that around? 2015/16 63 pts 2016/17 46 pts 2017/18 36 pts 2018/19 28-32 pts ?? (and even that's being optimistic as we currently have 7 points from 10 games, which over a season would give us a total of 26-27 pts.} On a positive note there are 4 teams below us with even fewer points. So, Huddersfield, Cardiff and one from Saints, Fulham and Newcastle look the likely relegation candidates. The bookies have Burnley in the mix too. A change of manager and coaches plus players bought in the January transfer window could be the deciding factors.

Jose Fonte's Lille team won again and remain 2nd in the French league, looking very likely to qualify for the Champions League. Pied came on as sub for the last few minutes.

Lemina shouldn't be in there twice. One should be Romeu, who although nothing special, has proved that he is OK at this level.

Judging from our last two games, Jack Stephens has now become the best central defender we have. He and Hojbjerg are our standout players now. Although, some fans don't seem to like Bertrand, he is arguably the only player we have left good enough for a top six side. So, those three should be automatic selections. Cedric's height is a problem and the opposition exploit it by playing high crosses over him but he is still a classy player. Ings looked by far our best striker when he first arrived but a few months of SFC coaching seem to be reducing him to the same level as the rest of our strikers. In one pre-match warmup I saw Kelvin Davis coaching Charlie Austin how to shoot. That could explain a lot, What other team would be stupid enough to have three goalkeepers as first team coaches? But, still, Ings must retain some of his Liverpool quality and so should be picked ahead of Long, Austin and Gabbiadini. Talking of Gabbiadini, we seem to have acquired quite a few players in the Boufal mould, who show occasional flashes of brilliance and every now and then have a good game but most of the time have little impact. Lemina and Gabbiadini fall in to that category. So, as that is better than being mediocre all of the time, like many in our squad, they should be in too. We have two good goalkeepers. So, here we have the core of a team that should be good enough for the Premier League: Gunn/McCarthy Cedric Stephens Bertrand Lemina Gabbiadini Ings Lemina That leaves us three short and we are spoilt for choice when it comes to mediocre players, who are not really good enough at this level, to fill those positions. If we could place any faith in Ross Wilson or Mark Hughes to find decent players, we should try to shift as much of the dross as possible and bring in 2 or 3 good players in January if we want to stay up.

2015/16 63 pts 2016/17 46 pts 2017/18 36 pts 2018/19 28-32 pts ?? Koeman>Puel>Pellegrino>Hughes>

No, we are not. We are worse. After our opening 10 games last season, we had 13 points. This season, we have only 7. We haven't even scored a goal in any of our last 5 league games. We are much worse than last season.

End of.

One bright spot this season is Stephens becoming a real rock at the heart of our defence.

Unfortunately, Gao is not a very successful businessman, which is why his business is only worth a fraction of what it once was and why he had to borrow the money to buy the club. Wolves, on the other hand, really are owned by a successful businessman, who is one of the wealthiest men in China: a description which cannot be applied to Gao.

Our home games against them are usually entertaining and high scoring. You have to go back 14 years to find the last time we scored fewer than 2 goals at home to Newcastle. So, let's hope one or two of our strikers find their form in this game.

Great performance from Jack yesterday. Most of us thought we'ce concede goals at Bournemouth but the main reason we didn't was a big change in the centre of our defence. We often keep clean sheets when Stephens plays. It's noticeable how many of our best defensive performances he has featured in, including the 0-0 v Burnley, the 1-0 win at Brighton, and the 1-1 at Everton in the EFL Cup this season and the 0-0 draw at Man Utd and the 1-0 win at Swansea at the end of last season. He is developing into a very fine player. Hopefully, he will go on to become the replacement for Fonte and leader of our defence we've been looking for.

""Claude Puel defends his record as Leicester City manager and calls for patience following fan unrest" With only two wins in 12 Premier League games, Puel's position has come under scrutiny." Yes, Leicester fans have wanted him out almost since the day he arrived. These comments in the Leicester Mercury sum up their feelings: " In this Puel tenure its hard to see improvement....games are boring and turgid at times and we create very little. I think people would believe in him more if there were some signs of improvement or an end game in site. The endless passing side to side and back is just painful to watch. He lacks inspiration, baffles everyone with his team selections and substitutions." "It gives me no pleasure to say it but Puel needs to go. I don't think we can progress with him holding us back." "Just get rid of him, the fans hate him, the players hate him, and he is the most DE MOTIVATIONAL MANAGER i have ever heard, CHEERIO.................."

They're saying, "Shane Long is absolute garbage." We're never going to be able to sell him now. https://sportslens.com/fans-react-to-southampton-striker-shane-longs-display-for-republic-of-ireland/247887/

Oh yes she did. She charged the club 5% interest for loans, which had to be paid back to her in full before she pocketed £210 million from Gao for his 80% share in the club. Apart from the interest she gets on the money her father left her, that has been her main source of income. Almost nothing is left of the MALI group of companies she inherited from her father. Kat sells off or liquidates companies; she doesn't develop them and if she is 'royally minted' why did she want the £210 million from Gao?.

'Wesley Hoedt has hinted that the club’s issues at the back are down to Mark Hughes not doing enough work on it on the training pitch.' The 24-year-old said, via the Daily Echo: “In Italy they spend days on defending instead of moments of days." “That’s just the difference in culture. In Italy we did two or three extra training sessions a week only for the defensive unit.” The laziness which runs through the club from top to bottom, from tired old Les through Hughes and the coaches to the players, is a real problem. We need someone to introduce a culture of hard work back into the club.

Lander Sports Development's share price, which has been in steep decline for the last year, has now absolutely collapsed from a high of 21.33 yuan in 2015 to just 2.78 yuan today. Gao's main business is now in serious trouble and he will struggle to pay back the money he borrowed. Like Kat before him, his main source of income will now have to be Southampton Football Club because Lander has gone the same way as MALI.

The thing is we all know Hughes is going to be replaced at some stage this season. The exact timing of when it will happen will be influenced by how it will affect the club's image in the media as much as it will by results, which nobody really expects to improve much. Sacking several managers in a short space of time always gets a bad reaction from the media, unless it involves one of the big clubs, like Man Utd, Chelsea or Real Madrid, who are allowed to be ruthless in their pursuit of success. Clubs like Southampton are expected to suck it up and just live with the fact that they've got a cr@p manager.

I don't think that would do much good. Landersports are in even more trouble than we are, probably also as a result of "relying on 'failed shambolic mismanagement' that has cost ....millions of pounds."

If we had Darren Moore as manager but we haven't: we've got Mark Hughes or whatever useless manager Old Les replaces him with so we won't be topping the division. Another relegation struggle is more likely.