Holmes_and_Watson

If he came in to find his car parking space gone to a mysterious Mr Martin, then a few days later his office, then his training bibs while no one told him what for, that might be pretty poor. The club must have succession plans in place. That's going to mean talks. The club may sound out others, but stick with him. He got the job, not because no-one else would touch us, but because the deal we offered wasn't considered to be good enough. That combined with paying off other managers and upper level splits got him in. I don't think he's an idiot. I'm sure he has some strengths. But his tactic of choice was doomed from the start, as it was when he was advising Ralph. Regardless of how close the underlying data told him we were, common sense and a reality check would have told him it wasn't going to work. To not change, even with the very limited attacking options we had, is where he was wrong, and, if the articles are right, failure to set higher standards buried him, as surely as it did Jones. Someone who looks like the poster child for selecting the manager profile in FM, along with lots of data analysis and Premier League experience at a self inflicted basket case club, will surely get him a manager's job somewhere. Somewhere, where his tactic will work and suits the players he gets. But I'm not sorry he's moving on. I'm not thrilled with the way we had coaches from earlier regimes at odds with the incoming manager. So, he shouldn't be staying as a coach, which he's said he's not doing anyway. It's just turned out to be divisive, and we've been divided enough. EDIT: I agree about SR. 🙂

Not that I've seen loads, but I can't think of any dressing room team talks that haven't had a bit of cringe. Essentially a group of players who have to sit there and take whatever is coming out of their manager's mouth. Whether it's anger and swearing, buzz words and X numbers or inspirational quips taken straight off of posters in the gym. Quiet players with barely any interaction, generally looking like they are counting the seconds until their boss shuts up, while hoping they aren't singled out in front of the cameras. I did prefer to see Martin's smaller area, which at least have some impression of togetherness. Not do keen on a manager having to give a team talk in something as big as a conference room, where he has to raise his voice just to cover the distance to the furthest away players. It's nice to see a constructive talk. With whatever squad we're left with, and SR finally managing not to screw up a window, we should be looking to go straight back up. That's going to take a different team talk to the one we're seeing here (which is not to say he can't do those too.) He will have to set standards of promotion and Premier League expectations. Since he was part of a team that capitulated on a regular basis, I'd be interested to find out if he learned how to stop it, considering he'll be managing us.

Flying

I've never thought of him as front footed or aggressive enough as a manager. Until then, he'll have to settle for being towards the top of the Premier League and Champions League football. 🙂

I'll thank you to be respectful to the next wave of Man City super stars we're going to be signing for next season. 🙂

If they keep it down to six and can get us a couple of attacks I'd hope the club are in touch with Mr Martin to tell him that the vacancy has been filled. 🙂

Supporter

Surely they both have to start in the final game so we can give their service the send off it deserves? As you pointed out, they were both key in scoring today, even though one did get chalked off, and that was more than anyone else managed to do. Starting with the youngsters, who may not be completely familiar with the intircacies of SellesBall may have led to a hammering. That wouldn't have helped us, our cherished ability to only lose narrowly, Selles' showreel and most importantly it might have had an impact on the kids' development. Other, more senior players ahve to learn that it's what they show in training that counts. They shouldn;t be getting ahead of hard working players like Mo and Theo. That sends a bad message to the others. Before you know it, a number of them won't be putting in any effort outside of instagram and stinking up the dressing room. And that could impact results.

C'Mon guys! Do ti for the club... do it for the fans... compromise on a four year deal. 🙂

Hey! Last time I entertian you in the match thread! And there's certainly no entertainment watching it, so you'll have nothing. 🙂

Possibly never good to think about this right after a match. Especially is the answer is “any of them.” But not in an “I want to see the back of all of them” sort of way (>cough<). Just that there’s just a load of possibilities, considering a new manager, a new league, players on reduced wages and those contracts being a year further on. Out of Contract (and not likely any will be re-signing, even on vastly reduced terms): Willy Caballero; Ainsley Maitland-Niles (end of loan); Mohamed Elyounoussi; Theo Walcott 1 Year Left (and we should be cashing in, while we can as none are indispensable) Alex McCarthy; Jack Stephens; Mohammed Salisu; Ibrahima Diallo; Will Smallbone Jake Vokins; Thierry Small; Stuart Armstrong; Ché Adams; Dan Nlundulu Of these, I’d not mind McCarthy, Adams, Smallbone, Small or Stephens getting an extension. With Stu, it’s more of a fitness thing, and that is one of the things that’s impacted his form. Of those on longer contracts:- Kyle Walker-Peters; Romain Perraud; Lynaco; Jan Bednarek; Nathan Tella; Armel Bella-Kotchap; James Ward-Prowse; Roméo Lavia have all had some paper talk, or could be reasonably expected to get snapped up for a good fee to stay in a top league (here or in Europe) I'd be expecting to see Tino and Alcaraz here next season. Both on long contracts and I'd think both of their development paths would be better served with us for another year. It would take a lot less interest in the others, and a very big offer to expect them to leave. That’s a large number of potential outgoings, and we’re not likely to see them all leave. We may have no takers for Diallo. We may get low offers for Perraud or others, and they stay to see out their contracts or for the next window. We shouldn’t be giving away some players on the cheap, just because they are desperate to leave, if we’ve not had a suitable offer. At the same tiem, tehre are some players who are not likely to feature we can be flexible on, just to trim the squad down. Others are tactical, and depend a lot on the incoming manager. If it’s Russell Martin, does he play wide players or is that a role to be filled by attacking full backs? Is his lone central striker to receive deliveries form deep, wide positions, or from attacking wide positions. Is he supposed to be holding the ball up for others? Depending on that, you could see more recent arrivals surplus to requirements, and for everyone’s benefit would look to go. Kamaldeen Sulemana, Joe Aribo and Paul Ounachu could be joining Mislav Oršić, who surely has to be going. Another aspect of this is simply, what does it take to get out of the Championship? Our analytics and scouting teams will hopefully have been learning all about our destination in recent weeks. Martin (assuming it’s him) hasn’t managed a team into the Premier League, and the club should be working flat out to see what works best around his tactics. With the size of squad we are going down with, we have to fashion the core of the one that’s coming straight back up. It’s not enough to assume that whoever we are left with, which will easily have the numbers to fill the majority of a squad, will be good enough or suitable to bounce back up. We need to identify the personnel to fit the tactics to be successful. That may push players who we currently have towards the door as they’re just not what we need. Whether we can get any of them through that door, is another thing. We've not seen much of teh youth players this season. But there will surely be squad places for a few in the Championship. The club's recruitment can be tweaked to trim the excess in poistions where's we've talent coming through (if any ready yet) Whatever happens, we’re going to need strengthening defensively in the middle of the park, we need to be able to use the attacking players we have or get in additions and we desperately need goals. Looking at who’s likely to stay with us, and the number of goals we’re going to need to get promoted, we either find a way of using Big Paul or we have to be looking elsewhere. If it’s elsewhere, then we may be telling some of the forwards we have, that they won’t be getting minutes, and they should get their agent working away for a new home. So, I’d be expecting lots of activity. A fair bit will depend on timings of offers. We may have to have a lot of irons in a lot of fires due to uncertainty on which of our current players are likely to be snapped up. But there are enough obvious gaps in the squad as it stands now, to get started. Hopefully, SR will manage to avoid 1) Smugly assuming a deal is done for a striker at the end of a window, before the player is actually here and 2) Buying in a striker before promptly changing the manager and tactic that’s not going to work with him.

for a while, and then we'd be as fickle as everyone else. 🙂

Rasmus fiddling while the stadium burns "Well, I burned the recruitment, the investment money, the coaching staff, the back room staff, the club's priorities and our place in the Premier League. And I thought... well, what's next for such a clever guy?" 🙂

Well, that was just another typical Saints performance. Positives were that despite setting ourselves up to fail, we got a goal from a corner, which I think might have improved recently. And we got the ball in the net from an equaliser, that VAR chalked off by a very fine margin. That was a whole 2 or 3 minutes when Brighton had a bit more to deal with. In the world of Selles and his predecessors, it's another oh so nearly narrow defeat thanks to that offside from Theo and their response to get that third. But, as with every other game this season, they are only fooling themselves. Selles set us up with the revolving door of team selections, but with the same plan. Soak up chances, hope they aren't good ones, and pray that the ball gets pinged out centrally for us to attack. It's just not a tactic that sets out to dominate, control or attack which is why every time it doesn;t work, which is every time, it feels so dispiriting and they look completely gutless. We were playing a 'Keeper who had been shown in no uncertain terms, when fit, that he was second choice. Fullbacks, one of which has been dumped after Jones brought him in, and the other who works better on the other flank, where he gets more joy with JWP link ups. In the centre we have Bednarek, arm waving, shouty champion. We punted him after he was reluctant to play for us as he had bigger priorities, yet we've someohow allowed all the other central defenders to have such appalling behaviour that he's brought back to lead the defeinvive line. His partner today was Lyanco, who would be fifth choice had the others not apparently had fall outs/ want away. He might have some heart, but his defending not up to keeping that first out. A midfield comprised of a kid, who is really good for that age, but who isn;t going to be good enough, every time, and a man who is physically incapable of passing forward. And that's in part to the soul detroying set up over the last few years, and the utter lack of capable attacking options ahead of him. Aribo doesn't come close to suiting this tactic, being ineffectual from deep, which is the Selles way, and not having any sort of pace, key in the selles random break away with the ball way. Mo is a link player, and will not dictate a game from wide. We offer no coherent full back runs or attack in numbers to make any other part of his game worthwhile. Alcaraz is rawer than Lavia. We don;t create enough for him to give him chances to shine more, and he needs chances/ passes as his decision making/ shot selection is what you'd expect at that age (minus a bit for the way our coaches have failed). Saints conceded form one of his stray passs. But that's not an unexpected thing, and we get caught, just as we did in the recent Forest game, and others. That leaves a guy the club have been only too keen to punt out the door as he's a very high earner. Yet, after an age of being frozen out, he's been one of the better (and I use the word only in relation to his teammates) players in the side. Nice to see Tino come on and some of the kids. Could we have fought back without them? Maybe, but our record would suggest abolutely not. With the season gone, it's as well to put them on the park ahead of next campaign. None of the subs offered anything of note, and Brighton dominated the rest of the game, as they had for most of the rest of it anyway.

Putting the cherry on the pile of ashes that used to be a lovely restaurant, with a lovely kitchen, with lovely cake opportunities, sadly burnt to the ground when oh so smart chef's decided to start cooking with flamethrowers. 🙂

In SellesWorld, it's all about reducing the xG on certainly those 8. That's how they view it. They can have shots, and as long as they aren;t from dangerous poistions, we might be able to sneak an attack and get a narrow win. Shambles.

One last sideways pass from JWP... and that's that. 🙂

It's not even as though, through all this sitting back, we're stopping them getting shots in.

Couldn;t string a couple of passes together there. It's just sad to watch..

Bednarek looks a little concussed there. Take him off as a precaution... ... for a season. 🙂

Very few of our attackers get touches, so he's being shown the same service as everyone else. 🙂

Both that and with nothing to play for this season, it eases him back. Same with the youngsters.

Poor Aribo, cursed to not be able to sweat like Prince Andrew. 🙂

It's a massive career opportunity for him. Even as it's turned out, he will be able to use some positives if he's applying for manager jobs lower down. He's worked at a different level and his presentation has been solid (even as everything else around him has crashed and burned).

Bree will always be second choice to Tino as SR look to recoup their investment in our youngsters. Much as we played Baz in goal regradless for much of this season.