Gloucester Saint

If the club had brought in a first choice target man and central defender with pace, rather than two more of their ‘projects’ to bloat an already huge and very crappy squad, this might be fair comment (second line, not about Gavin). But they haven’t, so therefore it isn’t at this stage. The chances of any incomings which would actually be automatic selections and top of the league signings (given the financial advantage) seem very remote. By all means return with your duck and cigar emoji when Azaz and three other very high quality incomings are confirmed by COP Friday.

Essentially you are right, Long is a metaphor for how appalling these owners are, but I think we are too far gone between the fanbase and SR. People are expecting any signings to be more very poor squad filler and can you honestly blame them? I think the Pompey game will be the absolute final watershed. Handful of knock out signings for this level this week, Championship record for a transfer fee, and a heavy derby win is probably only thing that could save them.

Or admit the error, pay the 12 months up (couple of mill), use the loan on a first choice keeper as competition for Baz and a mid-30s L1 keeper as third choice (Cheltenham let Evans go because of wages, he’s no worse than Long).

Agreed, and that’s on him. We had the facade of change with Kraft going, Spors and new scouting team coming in. More promises of wholesale change but all there’s been is two more kid fringe players and a Brentford right back. Clear and obvious who is still in charge and Solak lets him do it. A lot of people posted saying this summer was SR last opportunity with the bulk of the fanbase and I think things have travelled too far now as they did with Lowe to be reversible. When you see the level of lampooning and piss-taking, and not just from the usual suspects and moaners, sooner or later it’s new ownership time.

Or, logically following from @s-clarke above, you pay Macca up. Done it before with Hurlock, Dixon, Speedie and Osvaldo to clean the stables, probably Carrillo. And those comparatively would have much more expensive than paying Alex up a year. Writing off does have to happen sometimes. It was crazy decision at the time with no business rationale and the SR board should take responsibility for leaving Martin and Ankerson in control of transfers.

This is the crux of the issue - George Long isn’t very good but is all of the frustration amongst the fanbase about him per se? Of course not. It was abundantly clear that there is an oversized squad of very poor - for SFC standards with a history of MLT, Bale, Williams, Case, Moran, Channon, Mane, Lallana, Tadic, VVD - and another three squad signings doesn’t do anything but expand the rubbish heap. If Long had been signed today but we’d already signed a £15m/exciting PL loan prospect focal point striker and a good first team centre back, there might be a few grumbles but I’m not sure most of the forum or X even notices tbh.

Kat did her best and had fantastic seasons up to 2017. Jisheng Gao was the death knell really, and once the club was hollowed out SR have done the rest of the demolition.

Do you think they’re capable of bringing in four outfield players of automatic promotion calibre by the weekend unless they are more Brentford cast-offs Rasmus knows (not saying the RB is a bad signing btw)?

If they use the Dibling money and MF fee to pay off the Covid debt and sold a solvent club on an even footing, I’d prefer that to more of their junk coming in with more tossy marketing videos to disguise the stench. I’d actually respect them for something then.

I’d rather they just paid down the Covid debt and sold up, rather than any more of their garbage brought in.

We’ve been generating money from selling on players since before I was born, right back to Chivers and probably before that. But the emphasis was mainly on using that profit to re-invest back into the club including the playing squad. Whether we always agreed with how Reader, Woodford, Askham, Lowe, Cortese, Kat did that is another matter for debate but the club was the priority. Hard to say with Gao, void period really but it did let Ralph down. With SR, I get a clear sense that player trading profits are 💯 how they measure themselves and don’t think the individual club’s performances actually matter whatsoever. It’s a bonus Goztepe have done well, off Saints’s backs to an extent, but I don’t think the fact that Saints and Valenciennes are having some of their worst post-war seasons even registers. There’s a window dressing restructure and then Rasmus carries on as he was, aided and abetted by Solak.

Sooner SR are out of Southampton Football Club, the better for everyone it will be.

Although I dislike five at the back, I like Will Still. The owners are fairly and squarely the issue, particularly Phil Giles’s ex-colleague still pulling Spors’s strings. Can’t wait until they sell up and go.

Sugawara managed what I thought was impossible - dislodged Steve Baker from the Saints worst ever top flight XI at right back.

On loan though, was hoping to get rid full time. Another of Ankerson’s huge numbers of cheap and uncheerful turds still to flush in the future. What a useless prick Ankerson is.

Not seen George Long play then? Let’s hope that you don’t get to next season… This isn’t Lumley, who is reasonable league 1, this is Tommy Forecast stuff.

As @S-Clarke has said, he’s gone home with three easy points. And he’s going to big up what he’s just beaten for the confidence at Stoke. Basic psychology. On your second question, 99.9% of this forum forgot more about football than Solak, Ankerson and Spors will ever learn. It’s called 40 years of watching the game with your eyes and using the data selectively to accompany, not being led by the nose on it.

Missing the point - agree on prioritising spending but we have had to use third keepers. What if Bazunu breaks his wrist on the Friday and McCarthy wakes up with a back spasm? He’s had back issues. We’d have to use someone worse than Tommy Forecast. Let me just be clear - you are comfortable with that, yes? If we needed a solid EFL League 1 keeper, there were lots around in June and July at a fraction of the cost.

And then Ankerson, Solak and Spors will pat themselves on the back for weeks about the fees received.

A: you understand the sport, Southampton ‘Football’ Club doesn’t. This is the same club who took Fourpast as a makeweight in the Gareth Bale transfer.

There were much better available in June and July, if that’s what they were intending to do. And cheaper.

But it’ll still be x2 or x3 more expensive than a League 1 or 2 solid custodian if it’s just a body and very cheap. It’s pointless and on top of 3 years of mindless, wasteful decisions by Rasmus and Solak. Small beer by comparison but the fanbase has zero faith in them whatsoever.

Long is a lot worse than Lumley, I mean x5.

Yes, and one that can catch, stop, kick at a very basic level. Cheltenham released a much better keeper than George Long in the summer who is now at Newport. Evans would have been much cheaper than Long as well as better Long cannot do any of the basics above, so what is the point?

Better to use young Moody or an emergency loan like we did with Keller. George Long was even declined as an option at Cheltenham Town, and they sadly are currently 92nd in the league.