Ex Lion Tamer

Because we play a high intensity game and are in the middle of our most hectic fixture schedule ever?

I doubt Salisu would accept an extension on the same wages, but if he starts playing and showing quality that justifies an increase, then we should get on it

I don't know if this is a slip by Sky but the live blog refers to health problems as well as injury

It was a bit weird that he was only on the bench against Shrewsbury. Maybe he'd been told he'd get games this season. Personally I don't blame him for being ambitious. If he wants to drop down the leagues to get first team football than fair play

Roy Keane made a few appalling tackles in his time, he was still a pretty good player

The club need to do some PR for the lad, get some lines out about how he was just trying too hard and apologised in the dressing room afterwards

I prefer her selling to Gao to her staying and mismanaging the club because she can't find a wonderful owner. Let's be honest, Gao has overseen the overhaul of the senior staff and the club has improved under his ownership

So we have an injury crisis and Ralph suddenly wants to bring in a ton of average players to fill the gap? That won't have been budgeted for and isn't a sensible way to run a transfer policy. We'll be better off next season if we don't spunk a load of money on a short term fix. I think Ralph gets that really. Of course in an ideal world we would have a wealthy owner putting in loads of cash but the reality is that only the lucky ones don't have to be self sustaining

He has to stay. The rebuilding job is ongoing. We're improving season on season. I can even cope with one 9-0 loss a year if it means we're pushing top half with Ralph getting the absolute most out of the players most games

Can we please stop blaming Gao for the size of the squad? Ralph wanted a smaller group to work with, not anticipating that we would have this sort of injury crisis. https://www.dailyecho.co.uk/sport/17383445.southampton-manager-ralph-hasenhuttl-wants-much-smaller-squad/

I can see Ralph offering to leave and being told to stay again. If he leaves after this result is he really going to walk into a top job? He's better to stay

Well done to all of you who watched the whole game, I couldn't stomach it. Can't see how anyone can blame Gao for lack of squad depth - Ralph has said all along that he wanted a smaller squad with youth players on the fringes. We just have a terrible injury crisis. I do wonder (having not watched it) whether Ralph's pressing style simply doesn't work with 10 men

Maybe Ralph thinks that more senior midfielders/Stephens covering at full back will do a better job than Vokins and Valery? 🤷‍♂️

I found it a plausible account until the point when he claimed all those signings would have come good if only the circumstances had been different. Total delusional nonsense. The policy of not paying compensation for managers was ridiculous. It's the most important position at the club and should be treated as such.

The whole point of our system is to draw the opposition out of position and then hit them fast on the break. If we don't try to do that then we're back to Pellegrino/Hughes football

Chelsea were good when they spent lots of money. Then Abramovic decided he wanted the club to be self sustaining and concocted this idea about developing youth instead. Regardless of the mistakes they made with certain players, it was never going to work for a team with aspirations of winning titles

I haven't really watched him enough to judge, but isn't King more of an Adams-style player than an Ings?

Our top fees tend to be around the £20m mark. This was half that

Sounds like a negotiating position on both sides. Expect him to go for £25m

It's never a sure thing but all those clubs clearly have a better chance of Champions League football than us. It's totally legitimate to want to take that chance and see what he can achieve. Remember he watched his Liverpool team mates play in a champions League final. That must have been hard to miss out on

People making out it's about money, but any footballer with an ounce of ambition and the quality that Ings has would want to test themselves in the Champions League. He will have given us a good three seasons so fair play to him. Given his injury problems, I also wonder if we may look back and think that he left at the right time. We're fortunate to have had him in the prime of his career

As I understand it, the reason we got him is that he has this issue and that put off bigger clubs. We took a punt that we could sort it because the reward would be a top quality player. If it doesn't work out then those are the breaks, £10m isn't the biggest fee in the world

I'm baffled by this reaction. We've been told by an ITK that there is something pretty serious in his life which means he came to the club seriously unfit and which appears to be causing ongoing problems. We're not going to be told what the issue is, we can only assume it is ongoing, so just be patient and move on!

https://www.express.co.uk/sport/football/1240911/Southampton-news-Danny-Ings-Shane-Long-new-contract-Premier-League

Were expectations high when we signed him? He wasn't setting the world alight at Norwich. He turned out to be a first team player which was pretty good