The board are to blame for this. Excluding the fire sales over the years, the most inexcusable decision they have made is not signing any offensive minded players last summer despite our awful goal scoring record from the previous season. To come off the end of that kind of toothlessness and only sign defenders the following window is quite frankly baffling.
They've brought in two dud managers it seems, which was particularly disappointing last year when had just come off a 6th placed finish and had European football to look forward to (the club has rarely been more attractive to potential new recruits), and to top it all off, we're forced to endure this infuriating, slow, indirect style of football which goes against every fibre of how football should be played.
We all know the obvious flaws in the 'sell best players, replace cheap' philosophy and we all know this 'Southampton way' propaganda is BS, and yet the board seem to get away with it with regular comments on this forum even going as far as to praise Les Reed for the work he's done (!) all whilst threads are discussing what manager to try next. No point painting over mold.