James

The more I read about Pellegrino the more I'm encouraged. I think we've got ourselves a young manager with huge potential. Thank god we didn't end up with Weinzeirl - had a read about him last night and he didn't sound good at all. Welcome Mauricio.

Agreed but, so we are told, he's the one making the footballing decisions. If we swap Puel for Weinzierel then that's a complete farce for me. I wanted Puel out because I've never been so bored by a season of Saints football but to replace him with a manager with an ostensibly worse record in an equivalent league is a bit silly. I genuinely thought we would only bin CP with a better option lined up and delivered. Hopefully that's Pellegrino.

Looks to me like Les has dropped a bollock here. Why wait so long to sack Puel without a replacement signed up? Just incompetent IMO. If we lose Pellegrino to Palace because of our "structure" it's embarrassing. To think we could go from finishing sixth and having a top manager like Pellegrini wanting to manage us to having some second rate Bundesliga manager at the start of next season...frightening. Oh well, in Les we trust as people on here would say.

Personally I thought the cartoon was brilliant.

Wouldn't be surprised at all. Equally wouldn't be surprised if that's who we wanted last summer only for him to go to Inter (not based on any inside info) just a sneaking suspicion.

Not really the point I was making though was it? People on here will look at a manager's odds coming in from 40/1 to 17/1 and think its significant when, in reality and as you've correctly pointed out, it isn't. Also, the last part of your final sentence doesn't make any sense.

I'm aware of how it works. It was poorly phrased but I meant more that it would be "silly" to take any notice of the market movements given that such a small stake can move the odds so drastically.

The Betfair markets are silly. Tuchel was 40/1 so I put £4 on it just in case and his odds immediately came in to 17/1 as a result.

Disappointing if true about Tuchel but I never really thought he'd come to us. Surely the club will have sounded out a new manager that is obtainable before sacking CP (given we took a month to do it)? I wouldn't expect the appointment to take long. When are the players back?

Either that or make better use of the translator. I felt I had a greater understanding of Poch through a translator than Puel (although credit where it's due for making the effort to try).

Arguably Stephens is now performing better than Fonte prior to his sale. I'll give you that we didn't replace Wanyama but who on earth were you expecting to replace Mane? Boufal, on paper and given his form with Lille, was probably as close as we were going to get! Hasn't worked out but I don't think you can say that breaking our transfer record for a highly rated young player wasn't supporting the manager!!

MP would be a good appointment IMO but you're probably right we won't go for him.

Agree with this, he will go on to have a very decent career somewhere else and in a league that is more suited to his style of play.

I would assume so. Two of those players broke our transfer record...!

I wonder whether the reports of Palace talking to Pellegrini have moved us along? He was considered last year, we know that for sure.

Completely agree with this - only way we get him is he sees this as his best route to the Arsenal job when Wenger leaves. I'll say it now but I'd be ok with this, as you say, he'll have to have done well by us to get the big jobs when/if they become available.

I reckon they were told they had to drop it or face the consequences and, given its such an important window for them, they decided on the offer of dropping interest. Could be wrong but can't see any other benefit for them making that public announcement.

It's totally legit - just gone direct to the LFC website. Absolutely hilarious, what amateurs. Looks like we actually had evidence and nailed them with it, bravo Saints if so.

So they know they did something wrong and are trying to make amends?

The title of the post is completely over the top but I do think that we are one summer of mass exodus and poor recruitment away from being in trouble. That doesn't mean the club doesn't know what its doing but there is pressure on them to get it right this summer and with several things quite uncertain, even at this early stage, it does make the job a lot harder to do.

The latest story is from Jeremy Wilson in the Telegraph who, for good reason, is considered on here to have good links to the club. The latest story, which people are reacting against, is the one which effectively says "you can stay if we don't get someone better in" and is from a reputable publication that's shown good links to the club rather than a "trashy red top".

And there we have it, straight from the horse's mouth. He's a goner.

Would be phenomenal if they got a transfer ban or docked points. Realistically it'll either get dropped or they'll get some inconsequential fine.

We will always be a selling club (but then every club bar Madrid and Barcelona is a selling club realistically). It would, however, be nice if we stopped turning over 2-3 or more of our best players every single year. I could live with say one major outgoing each summer but the constant exodus and rebuild is getting tiresome. Everton manage to limit/manage the flow of their sales, why can't we?

This is right. We are preparing to embark on our usual turnover of players but this time we are doing it from a position where we only gained 46 points (only 2 wins clear of relegation in a strong year) and where we've got the weakest first XI since we were promoted. Could all unravel this summer I fear. IMO we need to get on with changing the manager (if that's what we've decided) and then get a couple of signings in early. Our policy of sell first (and very quickly) and dither around making our own decisions will cost us badly if that happens again.