Mowgli

Take your pick https://andreeger.com/2017/06/04/tuchel-berater-thomas-geht-nicht-nach-leverkusen/ http://www.kicker.de/news/fussball/bundesliga/startseite/679490/artikel_tuchel-wird-nicht-trainer-in-leverkusen.html#omrss_news_fussball

Not that he's my particular choice but what have people got against Ranieri? He inspired Leicester, achieved great things at Chelsea, Monaco and numerous Italian clubs.

Why not Red n white? We've worn that many times against them (both with black shorts). "For those of you watching in black and white, saints are in red stripes"

Yes I can understand it but I also seem to remember how he said after he settled here that he was glad to be at a club where he was wanted and appreciated. I naively thought that his experience (at Chelsea) would see him being a long term loyal servant. But yes, he is still ambitious and clearly had his head turned as a result of the dreaded England call up.

And who would want to buy them with that reputation. Could explain why Fonte went to WHU and not one of the big clubs as was originally being labelled for him. Even there, he has underperformed. Bertie could well find himself in the same position. A big club may take a gamble but don't be surprised to see him warming the bench again like he did at Chelsea. What players don't recognise is the team ethic that has developed at Southampton. We have so many players who look really good with us as part of a well drilled unit but they don't get the support at other clubs and often flop. Lallana and Mane are notable exceptions (of the more recent departures). You have to wonder about the SKD role. It's really not worked has it.

Makes me doubly sad then. If the kits being described are as good as they sound I may well buy both shirts for the first time ever. Now, where are those face paints..... ;-)

Fortunately we have leaders who make decisions on merit and not fan power. And we have fans that will turn out and support the team whatever. I'm not convinced Claude is the wrong man for the job (or the right one come to that) but hurting the team because of decisions that are not theirs to make is pretty pointless.

I have. He's actually a really tidy little player. Technically quite good. Always showed promise and it was his hard work that kept getting him one year extensions. That said, Saints, it seems is not his level. Stayed little in stature and that probably went against him. Will do very well in a top half Championship Club. Would not be surprised to see him in the Premier league again with a smaller club.

I think it shows how little people generally know about business. He was absolutely the right person to rescue us from the lower reaches of Division One. The club was a mess from top to bottom and it needed his no nonsense approach. It upset a few people and killed a few careers but the end justified the means. Longer term, his drive would have left a few blind spots in our development and he was effectively spending money that wasn't his to spend. So his departure was similarly well timed. The same people flip flop over Les Reed and Ralph Krueger because they simply don't understand their roles. Their popularity rises and falls depending on our success on the pitch which is a bit like judging Theresa May by the quality of Bananarama's latest concert.

Wagner? (assuming Reading win playoff final)

Love the attempt to knock Les Reed but it may be that silva thinks Porto is good enough for him but not Saints.

I like to think Bertrand wouldn't go. For his sake as well as ours. He works well with Redmond and at another club I fear he will just fade into the background a bit like he did at Chelsea. More of a disaster for him than us on balance as we do have mcQueen and Targett in the wings.

Really looking forward to tomorrows game. I have a Stoke supporting mate coming down and I think our players will be told to just go out and enjoy themselves. With that freedom, I'm expecting a comfortable win. My Stoke supporting mate is hoping for a comfortable Saints win too so that they can have an excuse to sack Hughes. In which case, we'll all go home happy.

Good grief. (any other) Words actually fail me.

Phew!

Which? The interview or the responses? It does not really tell us much that we didn't already know but all the soundbites are reasonably positive. Unlike some, I can relate to the quality of the 25 man squad. We needed to have a bigger squad for Europe (whether you like it or not, some rotation was actually essential) and he bought wisely rather than just grttingthe numbers up. Not better than we had on the pitch always but good enough to provide scope for rotation. With a few coming through the academy, there is scope for one or two of the less successful buys to move on should they so choose. The 'sales out of necessity' people are interpreting as financial necessity but that is not what is being said. As many have correctly pointed out it is essential to sell a player once his head has been turned and we did Ok to get the right price for the likes of Lallana, Mane, Lovren and Shaw. With others we saw a bit off a compromise: give us one more season and you can go (for a good price) - e.g. Wanyama, Schneiderln. The good news is that we are now securing players in the same way we are losing them. I was a bit concerned he could not confirm Puel will be here next season. I think his football has lacked entertainment at times but he knows what he wants. He has tried to get the best out of the players he has. There are one or two key personnel changes (e.g. attacking midfielder) which may win us over next season if they happen in the summer.

Not quite sure where to start with this. Obviously time has softened the memory. Although it is said that the brain has a wonderful ability to simply blank out the blackest moments of our past.

I'm sure you said that with tongue in cheek but I bet there are one or two the feel just that way! Imagine being more excited about next seasons kit than the mouth watering prospect of beating Man Utd at home. A game we would have killed for five years ago.

Those players I referred to are all still here. They would not have signed unless they bought into the direction the club is moving. I doubt you or I would find it easy to turn down a 100% increase in wages to stay at a club that we love and Les would probably not have been a great influence in the decision making. I'm not the biggest Les Reed fan but to rubbish him as some have done is simply ludicrous.

Ok I'll give you that. Apart from Davis Tadic, Rodriguez, VVD, Forster, Romeu, Hesketh, Harry Reed, JWP, Targett, Sims, Bertrand, Long and Cedric who all signed new contracts (there are many others if you look). Wait a minute. Maybe there's a flaw in your argument.

And who's today he wouldn't have been the next Fergie? We'll probably never know. He fitted well here and never had the same resources or backing at Reading or Sheffield United. With their resources, those clubs would have struggled even with Fergie in charge. That said, I liked Nigel but he lacked the 'fear factor' Fergie imposed on players.

Behave yourself... ;-)

Why use quote marks around words he did not use?

Spot on. No. As you said before, the glue is someone like Davis or JWP to actually have a go. For most of the game all Arsenal had to do was mark Gabbi out of the game and the rest was easy. They knew no one else was going to shoot (and get it on target even less likely). Puel can do very little once the players cross the line. They were well up for it at the beginning so Claude set them up well. Admittedly we looked more of a threat with Long, Boufal and JRod on the pitch which begs the question why did he not make the changes earlier. Most of us could see JWP and Tadic were losing touch with the game around them from about 65 minutes.

Actually it's more impressive to get 11 goals in a turd team than to get 11 goals playing for, say, Barcelona where the assist would be world class. Apart from that, yes it would be ridiculous to play him though I hope he will get a chance to prove himself in pre season.