coalman

It doesn't matter how much you spend if you spend unwisely.

One might also argue that the reason we're in this death dive is due to "loyalists like Jack" and our inability to recruit better. I'd also question whether he's here because of his love for Saints rather than because he can't find anywhere better to go.

Let's hope we're not planning to play a back three in the Championship. Jack as a squad player is ok. Jack as a captain is madness. Your captain is who new players look to for the standards you want to set. I would hope we're looking to change the culture in the team after this season and the new manager, whoever it is, can recognise that.

All our centre backs share the same faults. They are poor positionally, have a tendency to ball watch and are easily outmuscled by teams played fast counter attacks. Into that mix we've comprehensively coached into them (and the whole team) the tendency to give the ball away in stupid positions. Ralph, spotted the problem and shipped Bednarek and Stephens out on loan where Bournemouth and Villa both saw little point in playing them regularly. And that's the problem - they are decent backups to have on the bench and if paired with a good centre back they'll do ok. Building a team around them and making one of them captain was madness and highlights the mind boggling recruitment that Sport Republic have overseen since they took over. THB's price tag is extremely flattering and his judgement is highly questionable - coming out and saying that Martin's system was working but the fans were too dumb to understand shows a lack of footballing and emotional intelligence on many levels.

That might have been because we weren't doing Russell Martin's poundshop City tribute act.

Like being financed by a middle east prince and cheating on FFP is good for the game? Y'all failed to score against Saints, suck it up.

People doubted this team had what it takes but I think that today shows the naysayers were wrong. Not only did Saints get to safety with 2 whole games remaining but did so against Pep Guardiola's Man City. You have to think that after scoring only 1 goal in 2 league games against Southampton this season that Pep's journey at City will be coming to an end.

Don't worry, we'll coach those last 30 passes out of the team before the end of the season.

Man City only just got over the complacency from playing us under Martin. Pep will be bricking it. Haaland on the other hand will be licking his lips.

ocjulrzppa461.mp4

Surely we should be calling these "Saints vs Other Team mismatch thread" these days?

I'm pretty sure the players already abandoned this match.

This delay suits us. We've always been at our best just after the restart.

And as a reward you get to give us money for Jack Stephens, Will Smallbone, Gavin Bazunu and a few others. It's like having a guaranteed high possession Championship promotion bundle. We won't even ask for compensation.

You have to think that Dragan is getting increasingly less willing to throw more cash into the Rasmus money pit without getting anything back. If Dragan selling Saints results in Rasmus no longer making football decisions then it may be no bad thing. Though saying that I wouldn't put it past Sport Republic to fuck that up and make things worse as well.

SR need to choose a manager they can commit to for a period of time (or until Spurs poach them). Future planning is knowing who you're going to look at next but if the list is of the quality of the last 4 appointments we're going to struggle. Russell Martin, for all his faults, was the closest we've got to someone we might stick with. The downside was he simply wasn't ready for the Premier League and had zero intention of adapting or being pragmatic. Since SR came in, it's been a horror show of poor recruitment both at manager and player level. This summer we'll begin to get an idea whether Spors might be the answer to this though next year whatever we do will be somewhat flattered by the league we're playing in.

Oh look, five at the back. Stephens as captain. Stewart ready to tear up the Prem. Hoora-meh

I reckon that we'll be level on points with them by the 9th/10th August.

Potter Out

We've turned the corner this time for sure.

Ross Stewart hattrick to take us past Derby

No end product.

On the plus side, we've only got another 470 minutes of this left this season.

Need to bring on some more defenders and protect this 1-0.

We've lasted 10 minutes without conceding. Today could be the day we catch up with Derby.