Saint Albert

I wake up to discover our family cat has wiped her rear-end from one end of our main floor to the other, and left a large deposit at the top of the stairs. Then I discover that Mauricio ****ing Pellegrino has not been fired yet as manager of Saints. I am significantly less annoyed about the cat ****.

Just take Mark Hughes for example. Not everyone’s first choice, and certainly not a glamour pick or a fancy continental option, but taking into account his PL experience, if you take his 1.40 PPG, multiply it by 8, you get just over 11 points.

I still don’t loathe him, but I certainly loathe what he’s doing to the club.

A group of Saints supporters abused Pellegrino as he boarded the coach to leave St. James. And the Saints players should be ashamed of themselves... https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2018/03/11/southamptons-players-looked-complacent-arrogant-disinterested/

Correct me if I’m wrong here, but the only new manager to have a worse points per game ratio than his predecessor, is Alan Pardew at W.Brom.

I’d like to think that a replacement manager will think enough of his own abilities to take on the task when paid millions. I also hope that he will see that the squad are better than their position, and not presently cast adrift like W.Brom. Hopefully he’ll see a mismanaged team capable of being turned around by a decent manager.

If we play like we did against Newcastle, we’ll put the West Ham supporters in a very good mood early doors. They may even refrain from flinging urine.

This thread was never going to work out well for the OP.

We’ll need a proven goal scorer who can knock them in like Lambert did. I’m not sure if we’ll have one. Austin might fit the role but he gets injured too often. Gabbiadini will probably want to leave, and I can’t really blame him the way Pellegrino’s treated him. Long is a Championship-level striker but his scoring touch is not there. Gallagher may knock some in but he’s not scoring that many in the Championship right now (7 in all comps in a poor Birmingham side). Right now Carrillo seems to fit the non-goal scoring striker label that many feared when Les pulled the trigger on that deal, and if he’s struggling getting accustomed to the physicality of the PL, he’s got a shock coming if he attempts the transition to the Championship. I suppose Championship football has its appeal in some respects to some supporters, but from my self-centred perespective it will be awful. The last time time the team went down very few of the games were televised over here so it’s going to be really difficult to watch the team with any regularity. There is some Championship coverage on specialty channels such as Bein sports but not a lot. The best hope might be DZN online, which claims to have Championship rights. I’ve been exploring the possibilities, because the club is really tempting fate here. I know it’s not a problem of the many, but it’s still a major issue for me.

Penny wise, pound foolish. Save a few millions by keeping Pellegrino, but lose tens of millions and face a potential financial meltdown following relegation.

Both clubs seem to be swirling down the same toilet.

Pellegrino’s got a good record against crisis clubs. They seem to be the only kind of clubs he can beat in PL fixtures...Bilic’s West Ham, Unsworth’s Everton, Pardew’s W. Brom, Pulis’ W. Brom, and Palace before Hodgson managed to turn things around somewhat. So there’s that.

No.

I hope they fire him, but I have a feeling they’re going to keep him for the duration, and they’re been working on their excuses for not firing him after that awful performance. Still, I will be very disappointed if I wake up tomorrow morning to find he’s still the first team manager.

The only rational reason for him to stay would the complete absence of competent replacements.

Palace 2 down away against Chelsea deep in the second half and still putting in an attacking effort to get back in the game. Imagine that.

Hoj is the next to be wheeled out to issue an apology... https://mobile.twitter.com/SouthamptonFC/status/972547971672817664

He makes a good point...there are three weeks until the next PL match... ...Plenty of time to bring in a replacement, plenty of time for the replacement to get his ideas across to the underachieving players.

Pellegrino’s apology to Saints supporters for today’s performance... https://mobile.twitter.com/SouthamptonFC/status/972537327577849856

This is the problem: the club have left it so late, there won’t be too many credible alternatives willing to replace Pellegrino.

Incompetent, yes. Stubborn, definitely. Arrogant as well, but not deliberate.

Nope but we will be in the deep stuff.

The away supporters should probably bring waterproofs in case the West Ham fans start flinging urine again.

If you want a measuring stick of just how bad today’s performance was, one of the first stats that the commentators spewed out before the game started is that Newcastle had scored 12 PL goals at home all season before this game.

It really is, I just don’t think that they will.