Dusic

Out of interest when you have bombed out Redmond (POTY), Hojbjerg (captain) and JWP (...) who would you be selecting instead? Isn't the whole point that RH doesn't have many options in certain positions, rather than he isn't very good? I mean...I wish he wouldn't built his decence around Yoshida, Vestergaard and Bednarek but I understand he needs to pick 11 players each week.

To break the cycle we need to keep Hasenhuttl and give him the tools to do his job. Is he a good Manager? Yes. If we get rid of him then we are just back in the firefighting cycle that in part has got us where we are. All the whispers suggest the club agree, which is good. If we go down this season, it won't be because Hasenhuttl is poor, it will be the result of a few years of poor recruitment that has left us with a defence of mostly players who are not PL standard - and the PL is ruthless at exposing players like that (see K. Davis, Hooiveld, Fox from the promotion team).

Crocker a great shout. Was linked with the FA Technical Director role before Reed got it. Knows our setup and also knows all the England youth players very well. I remember in Wallace's article he mentioned Saints wanting something similar to Brighton with Dan Ashworth - and this would be very similar. Dave Jones was also mentioned previously and could fit the ex Saints clue, but I don't see how he really qualifies for that role. Nigel Pearson another who came to mind, but I really hope not. Personally hope we go with the type of thing that usually works for us, i.e a Crocker type, rather than picking an ex Manager who "goes upstairs" because they need some cash and can't get a managerial role.

We need someone who has been successful in a football administration role not a recently failed Manager. Most of the best DoF types have not been Managers. Its a totally different skillset, experience and knowledge that is needed.

Not really a suprise. If we sign a CB we would have 7 senior CBs on our books.

Another CB mentioned: https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11700/11863312/southampton-offered-chance-to-sign-usa-defender-aaron-long

https://www.abola.pt/nnh/Noticias/Ver/815173 An actual link. Artur Jorge, 25yo CB from Vitoria, Portugal. Has caught Saints eye, as well as Championship clubs (insert punchline). No nothing of him, so not making a judgement, only to say that if we bring a CB in they simply have to be a player ready to go straight into the side and start every week.

Seeing as times are hard, I like this thread which features: - The merits of Lloyd James and Jake Thomson as they battle it out for the RB spot. - Calls for Kayne McLaggon to be given game time. - An idea that we should be picking Simon Gillett and Lee Holmes ahead of Adam Lallana, who is only good for cameos.

No worries. Buried in the Everton post math thread which was probably best left alone. Lets hope it is true anyway, Club in dire need of some good leaders at all levels. Will be interesting to see if its someone with knowledge of British football or not.

Manji

Or maybe he believed/understood they would back him and buy a CB as well as Djenepo and Adams. Clearly Ralph expected us to sign a good CB...and Danso was probably way down the list and not who RH thought would be the CB we signed at the start of the summer. We were linked with quite a few including Webster and Saliba, but presumably found it hard to do the deals for various reasons, mostly financial. I don't believe for one second that Ralph was happy that our CB signing ended up being Danso on deadline day...that clearly wasn't the plan.

Re JWP - who are the alternatives? Re transfers - that isn't his job. I'm sure he wanted us to do much more business but he can'y sign players himself.

He hasn't used that. But we do clearly have a lot of crap players, who should have been relegated the year Swansea imploded and nearly were last year. Ultimately, no Manager that Saints could attract could make this squad into a good PL team. The squad is flawed and lacking enough quality in certain areas. The squad is totally devoid of confidence having struggled for 3 years. The best chance we have is to keep Ralph, try and get a settled back four and sign one good CB in the window. If we do that still go down then IMO its a consequence of a **** owner, lack of vision and utterly dreadful transfer windows for the last 5 or 6. Not Ralph.

Exactly. The players have proven over a long tome that they are the issue. Lets not make a big mistake. We must back Ralph.

In the real world: Saints go down, can't shift the crap, overpaid players on long contracts, so can't really bring in anyone and end up playing a mixture of young Academy players and the overpaid, unmotivated crap who got relegated and whom nobody wants to buy. Gao doesn't invest anything so the club rapidly lose money and have a disinterested, unmotivated squad and a disillusioned fanbase. Saints drop into L1.

Looking bleak and not picked a good season to be truely terrible as few other sides are, which is different to previous years. Its looking hard to even mention anyone else apart from Saints, Norwich and Watford. Sheff Utd, Burnley, Palace, Newcastle and Brighton all have at least 7 points more than us. Of the sides below them: Spurs, Everton, Man Utd, Wolves, West Ham and Villa its only really possible to see Villa go down but they look fairly decent to me and could have more points by the end of the day. West Ham an outside shot but surely too much quality. We are going to need to micraculously improve as well as hope one or two others implode. It looks the most likely we have been for relegation since probably the day of the Swansea game under Hughes.

Its not the Manager, its the players. More specifically, its the players not being good enough and the fault of those who signed him.

Obviously rubbish but its very clear to me that on the pitch the biggest problem by a million miles is our CBs. They are all crap and all dreadful on the ball. I felt for the attackers because the defence just doesn't give us a foothold in any game at the moment. Failure to sign a proper CB in the summer will relegate us.

Under Gao we are on a near certsin path to relegation. Should have been two seasons ago. Would have been last season if not for Ralph, could be this season. If its not, it will be the season after or the one after that. The club is directionless from the top, lacks good decision makers with experience in football, has syrong downward momentum and doesn't invest in the squad. A recipe for failure. Gao out.

https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/southampton-fc-latest-news-joe-savage-preston-sporting-director-a9188791.html An actual link.

If they have made a change the key question for me is who is driving it? Aside from RH the two most senior football people at yhe club are probably Matt Hale the Academy Director and Martyn Glover the Chief Scout. Not really either of their roles to appoint key coaching roles.

Gao lets us invest all the money we make selling our players back into the squad. Awfully nice of the lad.

Coventry picked a second string side, as have the other two sides we have lost to pretty easily. Obviously a pointless competition but not a lot of promising signs that there is anything to come from the current crop of U23s.

As per the Wallace article post Leicester: "A new senior recruitment figure who will occupy a similar position to the departed director of football operations, Ross Wilson, will also arrive before the next international break. The new director of football has been identified and will be expected to work with the scouting network in finding a profile of quick, high-energy players that suit the Hasenhuttl style. The partnership with Hasenhuttlis expected to be along the lines of that between Graham Potter and his technical director at Brighton and Hove Albion, Dan Ashworth, formerly of the Football Association https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2019/10/26/ralph-hasenhuttl-given-southampton-backing-board-decide-players/amp/ The next Intl break begins after the Everton game....

He had a good game but really it was poor goalkeeping rather than luck. If you come off your line you have to get a good connection on it.