pimpin4rizeal

I’m with you on this, I find all this promoting the Southampton way the Os is talking about with this appointment is basically just spinning it as our ambition is just to be cheap develop academy and young signings we make and it’s a triumph if those players move on for big money .. yippee how exciting !!!

Yeah wondering what boufal has to do to get a run in the side looked amazing again yesterday with not even much time to make a impact he could have had an assist and a goal.. even though Obafemi done alright I think we would have been even better with boufal playing from the start

Still don’t think Ross or recruitment should take all the flak here.. surely Ralph approved these deals but none of our three summer signings make the team today.. if you don’t think they are better then what we have why sign them..we are not really in a position to just pad the squad and are not gonna improve until we buy better then we have

God Ralph just can’t help himself with the dumb selections can he.. Obafemi over boufal and Djenepo ? Clueless

It would be a step in the right direction if the players we signed we’re actually stepping into the first team and being a improvement over what we already have.. instead we have danso not getting a look in, Adams hasn’t started for ages and on the bench and you can’t even be confident in seeing Djenepo starting today. So it’s another transfer window wasted for the short term and the now. If we are really that bad it shouldn’t be too hard to bring in players for the first team

I don’t think it’s that bad yet personally we are just in a place right now where we are struggling to find the right formula and also haven’t really managed to have a transfer window that turns us around. When we start having a transfer window where we make say three signings like this summer who all come in actually improve the first team we can see progress, but seems some disconection here between Ralph and recruitment. But Djenepo really does look a diamond. Also have to say are we really looking worse now then our last spell in the premiership under Rupert Lowe ? Back then we were buying no better players then we do now in my opinion and was also fighting relegation most seasons. We had some good times in the cortese poch and koeman eras but now are starting to return to our level, but I do think we can turn it around if we start getting the transfers right and a manager who can get us playing above our level, Steve Walsh sounds promising hope we get him.

Trouble with the jwp selection.. if we are sticking with the 5 at back is that he’s probably to weak and not good enough defensively to play in a 2 man central midfield.. so then we end up in a 3 with romeau and hoj.. with say redmond and Ings up front so there’s basically no creativity for the forward line.. our best way of playing should be a way to fit at least two of Djenepo boufal and redmond all giving pace and creativity around Ings or maybe even a 4231 with boufal in the hole . Jwp playing backwards and sidewise passes is doing nothing for us creatively and stopping us getting our really attacking quality in support of Ings .

Good post and sums it up better then I could. Also when you look at the table and you see Sheffield united 5th makes this it’s all the players argument look a bit weak.. don’t think anyone would have been wanting to swap our squad for Sheffield uniteds in the summer (I know our defence is still weak) but there’s an example of a manager doing great with on a poor to limited squad

My main issue is more with the way he seems to see jwp as undropable then the other two to be honest . But at the same time personally I think boufal and Djenepo are better attacking and creative options then redmond regardless of his player of the year season last year. Boufal has looked really good this season and with him Djenepo and redmond all offering pace tricks and some creativity we should have a decent attack and supply for Ings. Also think Ralph’s insistence to play Gunn over McCarthy was wrong , loaning out Cedric to give valery all the time in the world too maybe, the treatment of Danso and the out of position players all the time, it’s not like he’s blameless here . Back to my question.. will you still be totally behind him if the results don’t pick up in the next 3-5 games ?

How would u feel if we lost or didn’t win next 3-5 games? Jury’s out in my opinion, I’m leaning into camp out right now as I don’t see him rectifying any problems, don’t like the thought of team being built around jwp redmond hoj.and taking ages to realise players are not playing well like Gunn or recognising the ones that are like boufal.. next few games run of fixtures are a good chance to start turning it around but he needs to take this chance or maybe we should pull trigger and get someone to save us..life in the championship might not be much fun under gao

Crocker sounds like our kind of appointment but kinda sounds more like a youth devolopment type then director of football or player trading expert . What role will he be actually taking ?

The part I don’t get is why agree to the Danso deal if you have no intention of playing him at centre back ?, I mean ok Adams did start to begin with and Ings performed better and kept the striker spot so that is fair enough Danso on the other hand all our cbs are performing badly yet the only starts he gets are at wing back both sides ? So I don’t get the thinking here were we just taking a look at Danso and have now decided he’s terrible (but still got time at be lb) Was he just one for the future who like Ralph was saying we could take and develop? Again begs the question of why are we not trying to get someone in that can do a job now in a emergency position? Smacks of trying to be clever and mess around with youngsters when we need something now. Whole situation is pretty weird if you ask me

He still finished 8th with Everton and has pretty much done a great job at every club he’s been at ..fans just tend to want some exciting foreign manager... think he would keep us up and steady the ship

No actually I think there’s a lot of truth in what you say about the constraints.. but it still begs the question of why was koeman allowed so much of his own players as transfers then? to add to pelle, tadic , Clasie martina etc, you even had the likes of Elia djuracic on loan even if you put Toby etc down to Mitchell or someone else., koeman stamp looked all over the club and it worked To answer the first question no I don’t expect him to ditch all centre backs and a lot of this theory is based on the likes of Hughes saying he had final say on transfers and being able to see the influence of koeman etc, but If he has got the final say then it should be used on transfers or loans he sees fit to step into the side and improve us no ?

I’m actually starting to think Allardyce could be a good idea.. always sorts teams out, good defensively made a huge difference at the likes of Everton, and has only really took any flak from fussy fans complaining about the football a bit like Puel here maybe.. would be a good guy to steady the ship whilst we sort out new director of football etc and would be much less of a gamble then persisting with hasenhuttl

Trouble is though is that Ralph is still using the broken bulldozers.. I actually haven’t got a problem with the signings we made all 3 looked kinda quick and with decent potential on paper my bigger problem is why sanction these deals if you don’t think they are better then we already have as then it’s just adding to the squad instead of improving us

Yeah I mean we can’t be fully sure of the fine details, and some of what you say could be right, but he probably does have final say on the deals and also really should be able to have some influence on the board into getting what he wants.does seem strange how the koeman era seemed full of his kind of signings. Gotta say though this Danso deal seems really nuts to me, if me or you were Ralph and we managed last season recognising the defence was terrible would you really sanction the signing of a player you don’t see as ready to step in and do a job in our most needed disastrous position.. seems a massive disconnect with something here. Also Ralph was on record of saying he only was interested in young players under a certain age so all three were in that category , it’s just the main problem is the team doesn’t really improve until we are bringing in players that are better then the ones we have. So if Ralph’s final say brought us this situation it’s another concern .

so you think danso adams and djenepo were just forced on him then? here ralph haver these three guys abd work your magic? yet under koeman we bought in likes of pelle clasie tadic martina etc all who koeman knew very well, under pellegrino we signed carillo.. mark hughes also said himself he had final say on every transfer. why would it be differant from ralph and surely he also could have tried to ask for what he wanted.. sounds like more excuses to me. if we wanna keep banging on that the players are the problem and theres nothing anyone can do we may as well have just stuck with pellegrino lol

what has ralph done to deserve this blind backing and optimism though? he has been poor tactically favours poor players (jwp etc) the money he did spend is on the bench or in djenepo's case playing at left back half the time. wouldnt you prefer a manager that at least is showing signs of awareness?

nail on head

to follow up a bit more here, he has also . made decisions on who he does and doesnt want playing for him he froze out gabbi whilst giving him no chance even though he is certainly better then long and austin at the very least. he froze out cedric last season in favour of giving valery free reign at right back(questionable decision) only to uturn this season. he froze out lemina also who you could also argue is good enough to to be a option for us right now and also froze out austin. so the point is the players who he really saw as not fit for his team he froze out/got rid of. the likes of ward prouse, hojbjerg redmond bednarek are his golden boys his first names on the sheet. even if he does make signings in next window if he lasts that long these players will be the ones he builds his team around. and tries to add to. so im not quite buying this its the players argument he is starting to shape the team in this direction if you agree with his views that these guys are the ones to build around and his weird random tactics then all good

im just not buying this its the players argument, did he not have the summer after half a season in charge to recognise what is and isnt wrong and make some signings that could work out for us? if he wanted toi he could drilled the board for three centre backs or whatever he thought he needed, he has final say on the transfers.. we end up weith a young centre back that ralph now has no confidence in to start, adams who he doesnt now see as better then ings.. and djenepo who does look a good signing but even he hasnt been a lock for first team every game when fit and is sometimes used at left back. do u think these are the type of signings that would have happened under koeman when he was in charge? another couple of worrying things about ralphs aproach is that it was him that apperently wanted a tiny squad, im not really sure whats the logic in this wouldnt you rather have more options if things are not going right. but well done there, and also that he was only looking at young players that he could polish up and turn into potential diamonds, the big problem here is HELLO WE ARE POOR AND ACTUALLY NEED PLAYERS THAT CAN DO A JOB NOW. again he got what he wanted here but now we end up with 2 of his 3 summer signings that could have improved the team sat on the bench and people wonder why we are not improving, again do u think koeman would have done that ?

I mean personally what I think we really need from a manager right now is someone who can identify the problems within our squad and do something about it in the transfer market I mean even a blind man could see what a mess our defense was last season Ralph should of been screaming to the board to try and improve here, yet all we get is Danso who now Ralph seems to have little faith in. This is pretty crazy really.. I’m pretty sure someone like koeman would have recognised this and done something about it. The other thing we need is someone who is again recognising the strengths and weaknesses in our squad and trying to find solutions with some kind of system that suits the players we have. For someone who is supposed to be so obsessed with video analysis as Ralph is you couldn’t tell from watching us play, half the time I’m not even sure what the game plan is supposed to be and can’t think of many times we have been left thinking how tactically brilliant Ralph has been in a certain game

I like that side a lot .. but I think deep down we know there is pretty much zero chance of Ralph dropping prouse and redmond..