Bit of a plonker

Despite how ****e we have been this year, we are somehow still in with a shot of staying up (ooh, the height of our ambitions - champions league anyone?) Given 6 of our next 7 league games are West Brom, Burnley, Stoke, Swansea, Newcastle and West Ham, we will surely know our fate by then. Time to turn those draws into wins. Win 3 or 4 of those, life looks a lot better. For that, get a new manager in who will give the players the confidence that they need. This muppet seems to have sucked the confidence out of all of them. Watching Shane Long cross across the 6 yard box to no-one, when he was free 8 yards out last week, was almost painful. But this is a confidence sport. Win this, by hook or by crook, and we will get out of this hole that we have dug ourselves into.

If this deal doesn't happen, there need to be changes in the board room. IF we have offered £25m, we must see him as someone who can help the team move onward de and upwards, and help us to avoid relegation. If we miss out on signing a player who we think will help, who wants to come here, who has a realistic release clause (based on our original offer), when the cost of relegation is estimated at £55-65 million, that would really fall into question the fitness of our board to run the club. It is a ridiculous game of poker we are playing that we ready not need to be on nvolved in.

The premier league, in general, is absolutely dire this year and is characterised by defensive anti-football. If you ignore the top 6 (wouldn't that be nice), the teams from Burnley down have scored an average of 0.9 goals per game. That is 70% of the teams in the league scoring less than a goal a game. The top 6 teams have scored as many goals as the rest of the teams added together. We are one of a number of teams in mid-table malaise, where the gap between top and bottom is getting wider. Even though there is more money than ever, the entertainment is being sucked out of football by scared owners and clubs who value premier league survival over all else. The fan does not matter, as amongst those 14 teams, there are enough muppets who will turn up week in, week out, paying to watch tripe served up by the vast majority of teams. So, with Saints in that context, players or manager to blame, look wider. Look at the state of football. As TV deals get ever larger, the discrepancies in the league get ever greater, then all managers and players are just pawns to ensure a minimum of 17th place finish. The vision that we were selling a few years ago of aiming for the champions league is gone for good, or at least until the structure of the game changes, which can't happen soon enough. If we got rid of Pellegrino, we would just get another manager in whose remit is to keep us in the league. What makes me sad is that a few years ago, we played enjoyable football. We were fighting to be at the top of the best of the rest and compete on very close terms with those above us. Now we are a WBA, BHA, Huddersfield, Burnley, Stoke, Newcastle identikit. To make a difference, we need both new players and a new manager. Yes, we tried to show ambition by holding onto VVD, but we didn't back that up with investment. Lemina has been great in his few games so far, but apart from that, in terms of making us an attacking team that is still trying to break the mould, we need 2 or 3 top class players. We can't sign the elite level, but we have historically done really well scouting either top level players from lower quality leagues, like Mane in Austria, J-Rod and Clyne from the Championship, or fringe players from the really big teams, like Bertrand or Romeu. Where is our scouting finding those players now. And why would they come here, when we have become just like everyone else? Where is our differential? Same counts for managers. What is now making us stand out from the crowd? This is where we have massively missed a trick, because we were in a stand out position. That is down to mis-management at the top. That could be as a result of Kat trying to sell the club, but we need to get that leadership and direction back in a big way now. Step forward Mr Gao. Owning a premier league team in a moment like this needs true leadership, not a faceless figurehead.

I've got no idea why we go backwards in our play, tbh. I don't think our forwards are that brilliant, but I do think they are better than they have been performing. Offensively, I think we are at best a mid-table team. Defensively, I think we are top 6. It could be that Pellegrino is safety first and too risk averse, certainly we are incredibly solid and well coached from that perspective. Maybe he needs an attack coach, in the same way that NFL and rugby union have coaches for specific roles. If I knew the answers and how to solve them, I would happily offer my services to the club for £10k per week plus bonuses! Cheap at twice the price.

No, he blatantly isn't a top manager, but I do think he could become one. I think he is a very good coach though, which is probably part of the problem, in that he may well be one of those people who could be a great number 2, but not quite so cut out to be a number 1. Also, I think we did miss the boat in the summer, when I think there was a chance to appoint, at least, more of a name manager. There had been talk of Tuchel, Pellegrini (I still get confused, doesn't take much), Mancini, who I think would all have potentially been attracted here, as we would the best post available in England at the time. But now we have Pellegrino (not 'i') we have to give him a real chance.

Getting rid of Pellegrini now would be stupid. How could we expect to attract a top manager on the back of sacking 2 managers in 6 months? He needs to improve the attacking performance of the team, but I don't think he is working with great players in that regard, certainly not players who would walk into a normal top 7 team.

I think it is largely the quality of the players, although we have been really bloody boring to watch for the last 18 months. The trouble is, we have a strong back 6 or 7, even allowing for Forster, but to get the excitement and goals to move the team forward to have a possibility of top 6 or 7, you need to invest ridiculously heavily in quality at the top end of the pitch, and that is really expensive. The back end of the team can be built on the cheap, and by and large we have done that really well. £8-15 million gets you a really good player in that part of the pitch. But we pay the same kind of figures further up the pitch, and that gets you, at best, average. And as you are only as successful as your attack, we are only going to be average. However, there is a chance to invest in better players and move forwards. We can sell VvD for £60-70m, and we do not need to sign a replacement. We can sell 1 or 2 of Tadic (definately), Long (although I think we are more threatening with him in the team), Redmond (would probably keep him because he is young and has potential), JWP (could probably sell him and get the British player premium) or Hojberg, and probably get £10-£15m each (they are all bang average). That would give us £90-£100m to invest in 2 or 3 quality signings, in the £25-30m range. I have no idea who those signings could be, I don't play football manager, but the chance seems to be there now.

I remember a time, 70's, 80's and early 90's, when the disaffected found their voice through music. Nirvana, Sex Pistols, The Clash, so many great bands who expressed eloquently and passionately the feelings of a whole movement of people. Brilliant, and something that survived for generations. Now we have the internet, where every muppet has a voice. I am not sure if this is progress.

Think it showed that selling clubs have the power as a result of the new TV deal and revenue from that. Potentially putting a block on player power and meaning that fees in general become ridiculously high (Neymar, Lukaku, Mbappe, Dembele). I am in favour of power moving to the clubs, about time too. Agree that also means there will potentially be repurcussions in terms of length of contracts being signed in future, I think agents will wise up to that shortly and possibly advise against 5 or 6 year deals. Also helps them with player churn, if they can get a nice fee every couple of seasons rather than every 3 seasons or so. On the flip side, it will make it more difficult for smaller clubs like Saints to strengthen significantly in future, and will probably result in the bigger clubs getting further ahead of the next best. To improve our strike force, for example, we will need to be looking at spending £30-40m on a good player who could take us on a step, which sounds ridiculous to me. So yes, overall positive and shows we cannot be pushed around, along with the other clubs who have done the same thing. Slightly wary for what this means in future.

I think that we have done great business in defence. When you look at our defence, probably only Spurs, Man Utd and Everton can say that they have a better back 6 than us. But the back of the team is the end that can be sorted on the cheap, in line with our business model. Sorting out the attacking third is far more difficult and expensive. We are a very nice attacking team, with neat passers, a bit of speed in some places, slightly tricky, but no power or nastiness. If a team sits deep, we will struggle. That is borne out by our poor goals scored record last season. Season before that, with Mane and Pelle, we scored a lot more. Mane was a special player and Pelle, although statuesque, was not easily pushed around. We could play in different ways. That is the element that really needs sorting for us to have a chance of moving into the top 7, in my opinion. But when you see players like Chris Wood, who would fit that type of player, going for 15-18 million, you can see how difficult it will for us to find that person. Hopefully Sam Gallagher comes back from Birmingham next season and can be that player for us.

Personally, I think we should make a change this summer. We would be the most attractive available job in British football this summer, so would hopefully be able to attract a higher Cali reputation of candidate. I don't know who as I don't really follow much football in Europe, but there must be better managers available who would love a chance with an established team in the premier league, and who would have a chance of showing improvement on this year.

Another long time lurker, first time poster. The thing with these net spend charts, could mean a couple of things. Either we have the least ambition, which I do not believe, or we get top prices when we sell our players, closer to reality, although I would have thought we could have got more seeing the price for some other transfers (Joe Allen for instance, young midfielder entering final year of contract, sound familiar). Also, where would you like to be in there? Everyone is way behind the top 4, Tottenham leapt up there by paying a ridiculous sum for a player who was crap in the league but had a couple of good games in the Euro's, and West Ham did their usual spend on anything with a pulse appproach (£20m for Andre Ayew?). Sunderland have a net spend of £20m nearly and they have had a really poor window with now 1 fit striker for 3 months, which was still nearly enough to beat us, but lets not go there! I am disappointed overall, think we did miss a chance to consolidate as far as possible on a 6 - 8 place finish, given rigours of Europa league, but these tables do not tell anything of any real note.