Saint Albert

Damn, Lukaku scores.

There is a difference between having the internet and having a decent stream, jackass.

Not everyone has a stream, bud.

Beauty of a free kick by Cedric. Shot of Fergie in the stands. He looked oddly happy.

Rashford gets a yellow for fouling Lemina. Lemina stayed down for a bit. Free kick in a good spot coming up... Cedric and Redmond lining it up...Cedric scores!!!!!

Fellaini deserved a yellow for that foul on Armstrong.

Great job by Redmond and Obafemi in the buildup.

ARMSTRONG YOU BEAUTY!!!

Decent little attack by Redmond and Obafemi. Redmond’s through ball to Obafemi was good.

I’m not expecting Friend to help us out with competent officiating in this game.

Damn McCarthy.

Come on Saints!!

On the telly is the win % for Saints manager pre the Man U game...minimum of 20 PL games as a Saints manager... Merrington 23.7% Adkins 22.7% Redknapp 18.2% Pellegrino 16.7% Hughes 14.3%

“Good players and a difficult match for us” - Mourinho buttering up Saints in his pre-match interview.

I have a feeling that the players we want to shift will be hard to get rid of in Europe a) because they’re not very good and b) because their wages will be too much for European sides. Gao is turning out to be an even worse owner than originally feared.

Man management is an important role for the football manager. If we believe the reports in the press, he is experiencing similar issues at Leicester, which suggests that the issues were not limited to the Saints squad. Perhaps the players at Leicester deserve to be alienated as well. Pellegrino managed to get his lineup to the semifinals of the League Cup, but this does not necessarily mean he was a good manager. Also, as you know, saying Puel finished 2 places below Koeman hides from the equation the huge drop in points that occurred on his watch. It was an appointment that smacked of diminished ambition and marked the turning point in the club’s fortunes. The decline in results started on his watch onwards. Many seem to deify Puel on here. He only looks good because his two successors were/are so poor.

You can call it pony all you want but he oversaw a 17 point decline in he team’s fortunes after Koeman’s season, alienated some of the players and produced a boring, insipid playing style that turned off many of the supporters. It was a risk and a mistake to appoint him. It helped contribute to the decline in the club’s fortunes, which were on the rise year on year before then notwithstanding major annual changes in the playing staff. That being said, Pellegrino was a markedly worse manager than Puel so in that context it was a mistake to fire Puel.

Hiring Puel after Koeman’s departure was also a huge mistake.

Stoke wanted him as their Hughes replacement last season, if I remember correctly.

Alex Crook is the source of this rumour. Also, the original TalkSport piece talks about Davis playing a more active role under Hughes, and a possible caretaker manager role if Hughes is sacked. Surely not even this club would appoint him as a permanent replacement.

The answer depends on who ends up managing the team after Hughes. Recent recruitment at the managerial position has produced a string of three underwhelming managers since Koeman left. Given our league position, skint owners and little prospect of making waves in the January window, I can’t see the club attracting a great alternative. It is possible that Hughes is the best alternative available, which is worrying because he ain’t very good.

I agree with your post...and prepare to be disappointed. Amazingly, he’s doing worse than Pellegrino, which is something of an achievement.

He probably isn’t. Frank de Boer did rather well at Ajax.

Worrying announcement through Wilson that the club won’t take the action that most other rational people assume is the obvious thing to do. Déjà vu all over again.

You don’t but it would not be a particularly smart way to go about things.