Saint Albert

Commentators saying that Yoshi has a hamstring problem.

I can sort of understand dropping Lemina to the bench if his injury issues are reducing his effectiveness. I’ve given up re. Long starting over Gabbiadini. The manager obviously does not rate Gabbiadini, and Long has been decent lately and always puts in a shift. He even scored a few games back. Defence looks good, I am interested to see if Stephens and Hoedt work well together. Interesting re Redmond but if it was a straight swap between him and Sims for a place on the bench, I’d rather see what Sims can do following his injury. Dropping Boufal is mind boggling.

He’s ****ing dropped Boufal again. OK.

Promising.

The article comes in with an accompanying strong stench of bull****. Amongst the oddly-timed self-congratulations it essentially repeats the club’s mantra of, not to say it’s VVD’s fault, but it’s VVD’s fault. There were some interesting bits about the club’s profoundly unsuccessful manager. “The Argentine ticked all the boxes of Southampton’s rigorous criteria for a manager,” the article claims. It’s almost as if they are saying it’s not their fault for recruiting him because he seemed good at the time of his job interview. If this is truly the case they should revisit the criteria. Pellegrino might have met their needs for compliance with the club’s business model and leadership structure, use of academy players, and provided some kind of false promise to play attacking football etc. but the criteria loses the forest for the trees and does not seem to address the core purpose of the recruitment, i.e. is the guy a decent manager? Is he a good tactician? There is evidence that the answer to both questions is no. The article also seems to ramp up the pressure on “under scrutiny” Pellegrino. Perhaps there is the promise of a belated change if things go poorly against Watford?

According to the Telegraph, as well as Theo, Saints are also in the market for a wide player...

Who needs a PR department when you have the Daily Telegraph? http://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2018/01/12/southampton-believe-model-works-now-mauricio-pellegrino-must/ This wide-ranging article claims that a competitive offer for Theo is on the table.

The Beeb reckons that Quique Sanchez Flores is Stoke’s first choice, with Martin O’Neill still in the running if Flores tells Stoke to **** off... http://www.bbc.com/sport/football/42653713

Adam Blackmore tweeted that after asking around at Staplewood, there is no problem between Pellegrino and the players. Pellegrino has not “lost” the Saints dressing room. His same Tweet links to and recommends a lengthy piece on the “Southampton Way”, which is worth a read if you have lots of time and don’t come equipped with an extremely short attention span (like me)... https://mobile.twitter.com/AdamBlackmore/status/951440627681648645?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fsotonians.com%2Fchat%2Fpellegrino-surely-it-is-time-for-a-change

Saints are balking at Gaitan’s 100K wage, according to the Daily Mail... http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-5258325/Southampton-target-Atletico-Madrid-star-Nicolas-Gaitan.html

They did a pretty good job of excusing Pellegrino for the team’s performances based on the VVD situation when they sold him. Pellegrino has had the situation “hanging over him” a “fresh start” for the squad and all that... http://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2017/12/27/liverpool-agree-world-record-75m-deal-virgil-van-dijk/ In that December 27 article, Wilson also mentions that Saints hope to add an attacking player “next week”.

The media has linked Saints to Ryan Sessegnon recently. Fulham announced that he is not leaving Fulham this January... http://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2018/01/10/ryan-sessegnon-stay-fulham-month-despite-man-utd-tottenham-interest/

Like the home loss to Leicester? Pellegrino appears to be bulletproof. They’ve left it far too late. It’s very frustrating.

You could argue that a player would have to be an absolute nutter to join us in this state.

It wouldn’t surprise if this is just recirculated rumours from Leandre Griffit’s tweets.

Exactly.

The club should have fired him after the Leicester debacle at the latest. They have made a huge mistake keeping him on.

The most recent thing I read about Koeman is that he’s being lined up to manage the Dutch national side.

Stoke have contacted Martin O’Neill according to this... http://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2018/01/09/stoke-contact-martin-oneill-search-mark-hughes-successor-gathers/

Thanks for posting. All Les, Ralph and Co have to do is tell the reluctant potential new players that our present league position is all Virgil’s fault and our results, performances and league position will improve under Pellegrino now Virgil’s gone. Simples.

Given that for all his effort Long does not score many goals, Austin is injured and Pellegrino does not seem to rate Gabbiadini, you’d think that the club would hurry up and sign a striker. The away supporters’ chanting for one moment during the Fulham game has really caught the attention of the press.

Gary Rowett and Martin O’Neill are leading contenders for the Stoke position. Koeman is considered to be unavailable as he is expected to be taking over as manager of the Dutch side... https://www.theguardian.com/football/2018/jan/07/stoke-gary-rowett-martin-oneill-top-shortlist

Davis had a post-game response to the anti-Pellegrino chanting... http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/southampton-skipper-steven-davis-urges-11813458 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2018/01/07/steven-davis-calls-fans-back-mauricio-pellegrino-defeat-fulham/

I think that he’s yanking our chains a little, especially as his previous tweets were about a player from Nice.

His last tweet is a retweet of someone who thinks it’s Balotelli...