CSA96

Yeah, there’s a piece on The Athletic saying they’ve got the 7th biggest wage bill in the PL. They’re basically in the situation we would’ve been in the first year or two of Gao, had we gone down.

I have absolutely no idea how anyone has looked at the last four years and concluded that we've been playing possession-heavy football under RS, NJ and RH. This season alone, we rank second-last for possession (44.4%) and sixth-last for passing completion (77.4%) across the campaign.

Oh Christ, that's brought back something I'd tried to forget about... I genuinely cannot believe Saints looked at that footage and went ahead with publishing. It was... painfully amateurish. One of the worst things we've ever put out there willingly, maybe? Would be interested to know if it was driven by them or if it was some sort of PR idea from the powers that be. No surprise when The Athletic story came out some time later by highlighting that some players/staff felt the sessions were far too basic.

With the drop in quality of opponents and Martin's preference to dominate and have his strikers making runs for, God forbid, progressive passes - he could play a role. The question at this point is really whether he is the same player and whether he and the club both want to work at it over the summer. He wouldn't be one of the names I am pushing out the door immediately and I suspect he'll be around for pre-season at least.

Context will always decide the shade of grey. I don't think it's ever black or white with possession, tbh. If you're performing to expectations or above expectations, say at the top end of the league, but you take a chunk of each game as possession for possession's sake (Man City, Burnley, Arsenal in years gone by etc) to keep the opponent at arm's length and protect your advantage, then fine. But if you're chasing a playoff/promotion spot and losing valuable time while you're chasing a result, then possession for possession's sake would be a waste, yes. We don't know who the squad is yet, let alone how we are shaping up relative to the rest of the division. I just hope that the manager is backed properly, with the players that he wants to work with, not players that we end up with because somebody at board level knows the agent or has a prior connection. It's clear Shields was doing a bit of this in the summer and Ankersen certainly was too with the Onuachu deal and links to Rasmus Højlund and Morten Hjulmand in January.

Probably about the same as he infers from Arsenal having 82% possession yesterday and losing 1-0? Which was Lighthouse's entire point.

Amen. Time to blow it up and totally reset the spine of the team. I hope SR realise that (I think they do) and don't expect Martin to just tweak a couple of bits here and there and get us going like Burnley in this season just gone.

I'm just answering the guy's question. I've no idea what the relative budgets and talent levels were of the squads in a League One season three years ago so I can't really comment beyond that.

Selles is from the school of letting the opposition have more of the ball and setting 'traps' and making sure to press at the right moments and play off the turnovers. Martin wants to get the ball, keep the ball and starve the opponent of the ball. At times, that can be possession for possession's sake, but he's of the theory that it's best to keep the opponents less dangerous by simply not letting them have the ball.

They want to win. And play nice football. But only with a big name who they can brag down the pub to their mates about. Quite frankly, I couldn't give a fuck about what the manager's name is. I'd like him to be able to do three things: 1. Win games (preferably in an entertaining, pleasing way and not NJ's hit and hope - but the priority is to win) 2. Get rid of the wasters and losers, improve the culture 3. Develop the players through coaching

I'm banking on as few of the losers as possible being around next season. If they are, then SR will have failed another manager.

One more game to go, chaps. We're almost there...

This. If I hear a managing waffling on like Selles about 'playstoppers' and players who 'play against the space' really well, it will be too soon.

Now he's gone back in the dugout, presumably?

The Saints fans are tapping a giant inflatable turd around the away end.

Yeah, who wants to watch ball-dominant, passing, attacking football anyway? I was a fan of the counter-pressing for the first half of Ralph's tenure but accepting being second-best and just waiting for the ball to turn over so we could break away was boring me to tears by the end, because nobody in our team seemed to have any composure in possession. It felt like a team of kids just charging about, toe poking the ball around the school field aimlessly and getting picked off. Of course, I'd much rather watch Nathan Jones biting his nails til they bleed while screaming for us to aimlessly whack it forward for somebody to chase after, or Ruben Selles doing his best Pep impression and getting too far into his own head by setting up with no strikers whatsoever, midfielders playing as false nines and 'play-stoppers' like Elyounoussi who are really good 'against the ball' Make some good signings and win a few early games with some enjoyable football and the flakey fans will come crawling back. They always do. That aside, I do genuinely feel for anyone who has had to stick it out every week at SMS for the past two seasons. It's not been easy and I hope for all of our sake's that the corner is fully turned before we reach the end of 2023.

I suspect he'll get a PL offer (although perhaps only in the form of Sheffield United following his loan spell) but if for some reason there's nothing in the PL on the table for him, I'd really like to see us go after Tommy Doyle. There's the MCFC link (so Wilcox will be aware and know him well) plus he fits our age profile and is coming off the back of two very impressive loan spells with Sheffield United and Cardiff City. Under contract with Man City until 2025, so they will need to make their minds up on him soon and that City midfield is obviously pretty formidable... And a thumbs up to Manning too. Grimes would make a lot of sense as we will need that deeper midfield player who is comfortable and calm on the ball and able to progress the play. Would only help that he'd arrive with a lot of tactical familiarity with the reported new manager too.

You're right, but I'll still be off to the pub when the released and retained list confirms it. It's almost impressive, but I simply cannot believe he has managed to hang around long enough to clock up 87 appearances for us. What a symptom of our malaise since 2018.

I think all the 'unite the fanbase' stuff is massively overplayed. Just look at how many of our fanbase were lauding the summer transfer window of 2022 as an eight or nine out of ten. Turns out it was utter shite and we bought a load of pap, while failing to address the one area that literally everybody knew we needed to address. I'd rather they just make the hire of their convictions and then make sure they're actually empowered to gut this terrible squad out and have the resources available to go and bring in the players to do things the way they want to, not the way Ankersen tries to push.

If we had appointed a manager who had never played professionally and only managed U23 and U18 sides until 12 months ago, as well as working alongside a derided United manager like Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, this place would ordinarily be in open revolt. You just need to have seen the Brian Barry-Murphy references in recent months. Now apparently McKenna would've been a good pick because he managed to get out of League 1 after blowing their rivals out of the water by spending more money than any other side and watching Sheffield Wednesday inexplicably explode down the final straight. He's definitely an interesting manager to keep an eye on in the next few years - and perhaps, just perhaps he would've been a decent pick for us now - but next season is going to be the real barometer for him in terms of how his stock sits in the English pyramid. Personally, I think there's more merit in direct experience in the division we're going to be in and a track record of overachieving with limited resources. Not that it guarantees a sure bet, but then neither would a single promotion from League One.

I still quite like the fixtures Leeds have. Spurs at home on the last day is a pretty nice one considering just how hopeless they tend to be. Big Sam winning away at former club West Ham and then sending down Everton after his history with them would be a lovely bit of narrative - and no doubt he would love it too. Would really enjoy seeing Everton (and Dyche) go down. But I am pretty resigned to them getting a result at Goodison against Bournemouth on the final day.

If we don't start winning now, I worry we might be leaving it too late.