John Boy Saint

Like I said elsewhere, on Saturday you could see what he wanted to do but like a few imports the Premier League style of play catches them out. Not seen much Swiss football but I would hazard a guess that it’s more languid Ligue 1 than La Liga and Prem hurry scurry. There were a few occasions where he was swallowed up by Leicester players playing as normal, whereas he probably only attracted that kind of attention in the Champions League with Basel. Listening on Solent last night at some point in the second half Merrington was saying about him being a bit ineffective, there was a break in play for an injury and Hughes called him over to the touch line gave him a few pointers, after that Blackmore was mentioning him a bit more, with Whispering Dave chipping in “that’s better”. From what little I have seen he looks more than capable of doing a job, just needs to adapt: got to hope the lad is a sponge and it’s sooner rather than later.

Bullet dodged with that one

Deffo one caught out by the rigors of the Premiership, Saturday he was swallowed up a few times by Leicester players

Come on Sam make it count Lad!!!

Dave and Adam commenting that nobody looks to be staking a claim for a first team start. Also "JWP gets the ball, looks up and no options are open to him"

Just got to hope that big Sam gets his chance and he grabs it with both hands

Silly buggers scored to early - I had Super6 1-0 first goal 9 minutes................. bloody work for me tomorrow then!

Merrington mentioned post match on Solent that while they were setting up, that both of them looked like they were being put through a fitness test, so he figured that they obviously were not available as a result. Be a bit grim if they were moved on.

Ah but they would if Mickys criteria was met as it would be a football stadia utopia.

Merrington said both Yoshida and Gabbi were being put through a fitness test Long before the team was announced.

Thank you might find it’s coming to terms with the pace and style of the Premier League, There was one moment when Elyanoussi had the ball and he thought he had time........when the ball was taken away from him he was like “oh I didn’t expect that”!

Get that White Witch back to top up what she did before

What cobblers.......every half hour! The last 2 incumbents did eff all by comparison aside from just shuffle the deck chairs and everybody moaned, we have been beaten twice at home now by a team managed by a bloke who was one of the deck chair shufflers and major squad rotators. New Season Ticket sales looked to be falling off a cliff, the club phoned a few long term non renewers, they said I won’t renew while Puel is here 8 weeks after the end of the season Claude gets shown the door, next Charlie into the hot seat has an absolute car crash of a game v Wolves 2nd string in the league cup and continues to re enact the slow motion car crash until one trip through the windscreen too many at Newcastle. Ultimately both of them made tweaks but they were almost indistinguishable from what was not working before........now we have a bloke who is trying to find a formula that works by making noticeable changes and a few numpties don’t like that so 3 games into the season Mark Hughes is crap let’s just chuck him in the bin; oh and have a 3rd ex manger drawing a monthly wage from Saints as we pay off their contracts! Lets not forget penultimate game of last season playing a game that was pretty much winner takes all to remain sitting at the top table, defender gets a knock the other 2 would have replaced him like for like. Hughes tossed a coin and replaced him with Gabbiadini, not only were Saints fans going blimey, seasoned commentators on the game were also going blimey! And it worked. When the team was announced at 2pm yesterday I had a quick peek on the Saints Web match thread, quite frankly many comments were pathetic there were people opening up veins with rusty razor blades all over the place. On the whole there was nothing wrong with the team selected through my (obviously stupid eyes) it looked positive. But as I have already said once we scored something in the team changed, we still had the same players on the pitch who were playing probably the best football we have seen for quite a while. So a question to all the clever clogs on this thread who wish to to lubricate the revolving door spindle, on Wednesday morning after we have stumbled out of the league cup and for once Kruger and Reed actually to something quickly and pull the trigger on Sparky. Who do you suggest Saints employ to steer the club onwards and upwards? You have rubbed the lantern (and probably something else) and the Football Genie has popped out: Who would you realistically like to be stood in the technical area at Selhurst Park next Saturday afternoon in charge of the team? You can rip as much of the whatsit out of me and this post as you wish, I don’t care.............even more so if you don’t answer the question.

Jeez this site should be called Saints f ü č k W I t s This ain’t buying success delivered by tomorrow on Amazon Prime. There was nowt wrong with today’s team until we scored, Ryan told them to concentrate but we went into frightened Turtle mode, Leicester changed gear. Bench did look powder puff, but according to Merrington both Gabbi and Yoshida were going through a vigorous fitness test well before the team came out for the warm up. Mope same stuff every week - at least Hughes is at least trying something different. Lke I said elsewhere let’s see September out before building the gallows.

Mrs thought he was clipped just before he went down theatrically...............but then he ain’t Mo Salah and we ain’t Liverpool. Thought Long should have had something for the hands on shove moments earlier. Then the ‘dive’ wouldn’t have happened. Shane because I thought PEH was doing ok.

Wow!! What have you got on your hook........................that float had been in the water less than 5 minutes!

I see we have Jonathan Moss on the whistle tomorrow. He can blow either way for us. I wonder how many yellows we can manage to rack up this week, after last weekends ticker tape parade.

and 5 assists............... the fact that he took most of the set pieces is irrelevant, as soon as an opposing player touches the ball the assist is from the corner or free kick is negated unless its a ricochet, if a free kick hits the keeper who fails to hold it and someone puts the loose ball in the net its an assist. Not sure where the comparison is supposed to be going? JWP started 31 games that season Redmond 39......... as a left winger the 8 goals were ok, but the 1 assist is pretty shabby especially as Bertrand got 5 assists from a playing position behind Redmond, and that Serbian chap we had playing predominantly on the other wing got 8 assists but alas only 3 goals (but then he could have had more if he didn't fanny about as much as he did in the box).

Exactly If he is still saying that in October with us just struggling to tread water and he has been seen to do anything apart from stand around with his hands in his pockets then it’s time to start researching the hardware catalogue for timber and nails for a gallows. Anyway I don’t think the PC police have issued a ban on subtle motivational mind games, “er yes my starting XI is firmly cemented in my mind” cue pipe and comfy slippers for those starting Saturday thinking their appearance bonus is secured till Christmas, whereas those who don’t play Saturday or make the bench, think ho hum and coast through training losing their edge.

Not if you have reached the peak of your mental capacity............with pace to burn ability to run with the ball but when faced with a strapping defender or 2, stop and decide what to do, playing professional football for nye on 8 years and at the highest level l, cruising past such an obsticle should be a natural default setting that requires the need for not a single brain cell to be cooked. Why do people get excited about Josh Sims, because when the box approaches he doesn’t brake and think, he drives into the box and at defenders, the boy is a mere green nipper. His debut game v Everton, latter stages gets the ball and runs at Ashley Williams an experienced defender, Williams was a rabbit in the headlights, there was no data on this lad running at him. Sims had Williams on toast ball one side of him, player the other and the pair met on the other side of Williams. Redmond time and time again run at the box the oppos player data for defenders says “Redmond.....just stand up and look big, he will stop running at you”, just take the risk Nathan you have the build and pace, worse that can happen is you get clattered and win a free kick or penalty. Anyone on here who can not relate to that last bit must fall asleep when the ref blows for kick off. Hopefully this extra training will pay off and he has a stormer this season.........just don’t play him on the left, causes too much smoke to come out of his ears!

In Master Redmonds case, its not random, when yet another sparkling bit of play fizzles out at his feet yet again, you can hear the groan from all sides of the ground. Away from here bizarrely I hear very little slagging of the CBs when sat in SMS. Always remember being at probably our first home game in SMS v Spurs, think it might have been Boxing day. We went one nil up and were defending like the devil especially the last 10 minutes and held out for the win against that nasty Hoddle chap, hoorah! Driving home Mrs JBS turns to me and says "when that clock turned to 80:00 did you feel it, the whole atmosphere in the stadium got increasingly tense until the final whistle" I said "no.....probably because I was adding to it". I think as a crowd we have gotten so use to being disappointed of late, that the majority enter the ground with hope rather than enthusiasm. As Lawrie Mac always said he told new players especially "Southampton fans are a gentile bunch, you as players have to get them going, but once they are going they can be a raucous as any crowd in the land". The players made some comment over the past couple of seasons that they would like us to make more noise pre match......... so the club just turn up the volume and play allsorts until the ref blows the whistle to start the game.

Someone must have been dropping vodka shots into your pre match pints!!!

I have to say upon reading most of the above, seems a fair few folks have gotten so use to the failings of the club over the last 2 managerial appointments that its almost ingrained in the psyche that as everything goes in 3s the same applies to Southampton managerial appointments Adkins - Pochettino - Koeman.......Oops: Puel - Pelligrino - "ah Hughes is bound to follow". Let the Witch hunt commence!!..........Its like the voice you hear behind you in the stand who moans every week (5-0 up and that same voice is still moaning) its like a default setting. We are a mere 2 games in, first half we were not at the races v Burnley but much improved second half, again Saturday absolute pants first half, better second half with only 2 of the 4 players we bought to improve us able to make a contribution. The number of Hughes threads on here that are ultimately placing him under the microscope, anyone would think that we had just replaced Sir Alex Ferguson with David Moyes!

Good luck with your philosophy degree thesis, might need a bit more padding out though.

Has anyone splashed out the £100 in the Megastore to buy the actual shirt the players wear, not the cheaper material replica?