CB Fry

Injustice Injustice Injustice etc etc etc thats why we lost four nil.

It's not a line up that screams "keep it tight and see if we can nick one from the scraps" which is the approach I would have gone for. Instead we've gone for all out attack, leave loads of gaps, concede multiple goals but hang the whole defeat on some refereeing or VAR injustice giving the manager and team a lovely little get out of jail card.

...

Redmond will be playing CM, mate. Ralph reads this forum.

You realise the post I quoted referenced a story about a player with a year left on his contract?

You could, of course, look at this in a different way. If Blackburn can ask for that much for a Championship level nobody with one year left, then imagine how much we can get for Ings.

The "Reed era" conveniently began in 2015, I see. And you singled out Juanmi as a major signing of that season and not, er, current first team regular Oriol Romeu. We also signed Charlie Austin who had more impact than Che Adams and Theo. And Cedric who splits opinion but still played several seasons for us as a first team regular. But yeah, Juanmi. Djnepo and Adams have no more been a success than Hojberg Gabbiadini and Boufal were. Last week was the first time since Sheffield United away in his first season that I thought Djnepo was anything other than aimless and ineffective. Salisu and Diallo haven't done a lot yet so early to claim too much but signs look okay. Were always promised some financial benefits when that dead weight is gone (Ely and Hoedt etc) but we'll see. Let's hope so.

We're still talking about "adapting to the Premier League" for a manager in his job since December 2018?

One draw and seven defeats in eight matches ought to explain it.

Absolutely - that afternoon in that pub garden before the cup final really was fantastic. Great memories, great day. Such a shame if we get to the FA Cup semi and it's an empty flipping ground.

Glad to see that Les Reed is to blame for us not having enough full backs in the 20-21 season.

That last ditch saving tackle and season-ending knock in the same match.

If you go back to the end of the summer transfer window, the general consensus was that it was a very good one and we were much stronger at the end of it. Now because things haven't worked out like that, the story changes to how he hasn't had the backing.

I don't think anyone on this thread is saying we shouldn't have sacked Puel. It was a decision that made sense and if we'd replaced well that incoming manager had a reasonable platform to build on and some money. But the comparison between Claude's season and this one is a very interesting one. If we choke this cup QF and stutter away in the league then I'm sorry there will be little that distinguishes our Ralph with some of our most average managers. Dave Jones 97-98 12th place anyone?

It's mainly a response to your post above. We've been to two major cup finals in my lifetime as a Saints fan, but you seem to very aggressively reject the very mention of it. Which is the behaviour of an absolute twat.

That was a reference to Wembley not Milan. Was that boring for you too?

In fairness I can remember standing in that massive beer garden place near the ground thinking what a boring disaster it all was.

I was there and clearly this is bullshit.

It's an interesting comparison to look at what was happening at the same point in the Puel season. Back in Feb 17 Match 25 was our 4-0 victory at Sunderland and Match 26 first week of March was our 4-3 win at Watford. Our 26th match is on Monday. Then, as I was checking I wondered for a second why there was such a big gap between those games in Feb and March. I wonder if anyone can remember what we were doing in that last weekend of February....? What a disaster.

Redmond not getting a look in these days, of course.

Absolutely cannot wait to see whether the same dinlows swooning over unstoppable winning machine Fulham (22 points from 25 games, bottom 3 all fucking season) would have the same confidence were it Southampton Football Club in that same position. 4 wins all season. 21 goals scored in 25 matches. Oh I wish we were Fulham, I wish we were Fulham I wish we were Fulham.

Yes, in the context of comparisons with Puel (8th, 46 points) - we've gone below that in the minds of some, already: there's people shitting themselves about relegation (not many, and they're fucking idiots, but they're there) whose ambition is now Pellegrino levels.

Not sure what you're arguing to be honest. Anyone who genuinely thinks we may get relegated automatically believes Ralph can't get the 36 points that Hughes finished the season on having picked up from Pellegrino. That is a pretty damning assessment of Ralph especially as this is two and half years into his project.

There are people on this forum wittering about how we are in the relegation scrap who think we can't get the 36 points achieved by Pellegrino and Hughes. So they're saying Ralph is worse than those two, let alone 46 point, 8th place Puel.

It seems the SaintsWeb expert answer is "it's not Ralph's fault he was saddled with the same shit players from the Puel era" but at the same time "Puel only did okay because he had a much better squad than Ralph has". Forum logic at its best.