Chez

Whatever it is, it's going to hurt if we have to pay him off five minutes after paying off Ralph.

Fair point. They did take 3rd place in the 2018 world cup. In 2020 Euros they lost to winners Italy in the quarter final. Maybe they were past their best by 2022. If you follow Doswell's line, then its all about levels. And managing Saints might be his level.

completing the set: Forster, Hooiveld, Stephen Crainey, McCann, Nieimi, Kanchelskis, Scott Marshall, Derek Allen, Colin Cramb, Paul McDonald, Paul Sheerin, Terry Hurlock, Ian Andrews, Ken Armstrong, Jim Steele, Alley McLeod, Gerry O'Brien, Eric Martin, Campbell Forsyth, Dave Paton and Ian Black.

I guess with Bazunu (20), Lavia (19), Mara (20), Larios (18), Livramento (20) and Bella-Kotchap (21) all getting plenty of games, it' not as though we aren't giving youngsters a chance, but it will be nice to see a `home grown' player get a chance soon. Ballard and Jimmy J have been absolutely flying. I thought one of them would make the bench again this weekend.

Payne, Ballard and Jimmy J all played. I know there was some frustration from the youngsters at not getting some minutes for the first team under Ralph. I guess with the pressure on it was highly unlikely than NJ would play any of them.

Good theory that. Impossible to turn down the massive wage we are no doubt paying. It will be several times what he was on and will set him up nicely. We are from an ideal destination in terms of league position, but money is king.

No one at the club has given up, it's just us weatherworn fans that have. I think its easier for us to see just how bad we are, because we just see the 90 minutes. Equally, the players and manager will believe that things could quickly click into place.

Maybe there is no wage cut if we go down, thus not needing a relegation clause.

Yeah, good ones.

If you are going to call out a player like that - its a pretty damning accusation - firstly you had better have some justification, some evidence to support it and finally you need to be pretty certain. Unless he's a very good actor, the grimace on his face as he tried to walk it off, tells me he was in a fair bit of pain.

Where do you get that figure from? He was on approximately £350,000 a year at Luton. Why would SR pay him ten times that?

Our defence is made for him. Still have him here though. Always liked the way he comes across when interviewed and the way he wants to play the game. Hoping he would be another Strachan - learning from his mistakes - and turn us around.

Agreed. As soon as I heard him say that I switched off. I've seen a couple of similar mentions. Perhaps the same person or maybe just parroting what he said. Either way, I question how they came to that conclusion. I saw what happened and it was a nasty slip. He should have been stronger, then when he got a nudge he slipped awkwardly and it looked bad. He looked in real trouble.

Agree with him. I'm not excited.

Body language reading returns to the forum. It was a nasty slip, possibly caused by the astroturf where the managers stand, and at the time I thought he may have done his cruciate. He tried to walk it off, but was in trouble.

I'm not a fan and have said that from day 1, but all CBs make mistakes. Stephens, Bednarek, Salisu... they have all made similar errors to this one at some point. DCC did it in the second half, but got lucky. Go through the side though and they pretty much all made mistakes, some more costly than others. The first touch of Edozie for example was not up to standard. Aribo just allowing his man to overlap and not track him...the list could on forever.

He's played on the left of a three, so not a striker. Jackson appears in the UK press a lot for a guy that has hardly played. It wouldn't surprise me if his agent creates these links to Prem clubs. I'd happily have him though. You can't have too many options in attacking areas.

from what I saw of Lyanco and DCC yesterday, I might be forced to agree. Those two were woeful. Every man and his dog has been saying `why isn't NJ starting DCC', and I could not have agreed more, but he had an absolute mare. I've not seen a CB pass the ball to his CB partner so badly, so many times, in one game ever. But for a couple of desperate last challenges those passes could easily have led to a second `gifted' goal. I hope it was a one off, otherwise we have signed a complete donkey. Everyone has said CB is our strength, but if ABK is injured, is it really a strength?

We did sign some players with experience including Cabellero, AMN, DCC and Aribo, but paying for a 30 year old feels out of kilter with the `strategy' they talked about.

he was linked to us in the Telegraph article about Alcaraz https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2023/01/03/southampton-target-argentinian-talent-carlos-charly-alcaraz/

hard to argue with that, but have to say that Lyanco is poor, DCC was terrible last night and if he can't get in our side you have to wonder how he performs in training, Salisu may want to depart, ABK looked like he got a nasty knee injury - I thought cruciate when I first saw it, Bednarek wont want to come back and Stephens, well...

He looks a proper player to me. However, I am a sucker for fast forwards that have ball skills and can dribble (Henry Camara is still one of my favourite Saints players) - and they often don't put the ball in the back of the net enough. One thing I will say about Moffi, is I did see hi trying to make a few runs on the shoulder of defenders. His team mates never looked for him though, so he was never found. I watch Che and he stands still most of the time, which annoys me, so maybe there is something in there that could help us. I may watch one more game, but boy is it dull.

If he has fallen out with the manager, then Villarreal might consider a loan with a view to a permanent move, just to get him out of the building. And that would suit us well. Whether it would suit him, I am not sure. The fact we are signing Orsic, to play on the left, which is where Jackson has played, suggests that move is just `agent' placed.

So what exactly was it that first attracted you to the £3m a year job at Southampton FC?

On the basis of those two games and his youtube highlights, I wouldn't be willing to stick my neck out and say he will improve us. He's a little hamstrung by the shit side he plays in, but he may have to feed off scraps here too, so if we are hoping to get a guy that makes things happen through his individual pace, power and dribbling, as Broja did for us last season, then I don't think he's the man. If we are looking for a guy that just puts the ball in the back of the net when he get a chance, then he might be, but those games certainly didn't reveal it. Personally, I think Beto, mentioned earlier on this thread, looks a better player, and one that has the ability to turn and power away from a defender (Nicholas Jackson might offer that too by the way) - which is something I'd like us to have up front. He only signed on a permanent with Udinese in the summer though, so they wont be looking to sell - and thus would make that deal tough, I suspect.