Gloucester Saint

Tractor names should have been Taylor, Jan and Lesley. Although you’d probably see Lesley more at Fawley.

Even under Ralph, whenever Jan scored in a home game it always meant a 2-3 home defeat, obviously today we only got the one.

Which is great but where’s the pathway with all of the squad bloating again? Ryan Fraser struggles to get into squads, Edozie has done OK in Belgium but not pulled up major trees and he’s back again in the summer. Just two examples, plus the assorted stock Rasmus has signed and loaned to Goztepe. How many left backs have we got now including an injured Brazilian? And rumours of another from Reading.

Much of that is true, but Newcastle have been more limited in what they can spend by FFP and Bournemouth, Brentford and Brighton don’t have Saudi backing. Much as I detest Stockley Park the main reason we are hating this season is that Sports Republic have completely destroyed anything and everything we valued about SFC, which was already hollowed out under Gao. Tony Bloom is worth the same kind of ballpark as Dragan but the attention to detail and clarity on their transfer business and structure means that they not only trade players like we used to but when De Zerbi left, they got the succession right again, just like they did when Potter went to Chelsea, Bournemouth have the equivalent of Pochettino as manager, very highly regarded. Fit, high tempo style of play, beat Forest 5-0 today, who have been superb themselves under Nuno. On 12000 gates. We’ve got the best foundations out of those clubs but so, so, so poorly run. The only way to sort it is new CEO, DoF, First Team Manager and biggest budget in the Championship. Big names. Clean the squad out as far as possible, and blow the division out the water like Wolves did under Nuno. Re-make the entire club. Then SR might, just might not be regarded as a total fucking joke by the industry, media and our fanbase. And it’s the least they owe the fanbase and city of Southampton frankly, we’re not even first in their food chain of clubs.

I wouldn’t have much in common with either camp. Cross out the political on the thread title and insert Sports Republic - that’d be more like it.

SR have destroyed anything that was positive and worth supporting about SFC so the academy was bound to be high on their hit list. It didn’t fit with Rasmus’s model of data-driven trading of third rate players with exotic surnames. Shouldn’t be surprised after Brentford scrapped theirs but talk about not understanding the DNA of a club. Muppets.

Yeah, this has to be the worst. 🛑

Whoever it was will make a fair few bob out of that one, and why not.

Could be as early as mid-March.

One and the same people involved I expect.

I don’t think it can be properly judged until there’s vague evidence of some ‘performances’ for the fans to watch, let alone get behind. Unless the club has a flying start next season, which I very much doubt, I can see gates dropping below 20k quite quickly.

Still more competitive than we’ve been - compare our result at Bournemouth - had someone in charge who knows the club inside out and the fans trust. Juric is in an impossible position - dreadful squad Rasmus and Martin built unsuited to the league, unfit, and very difficult to build that connection. The people SR have appointed just do not have any credibility with the fanbase and media like Wilder has there in terms of credit in the bank.

For Luton, being in the PL in the first place was a massive bonus. Not surprised they had a hangover and Barkley was immense for them. The expectation at SFC is very different, it’s an established PL set up bar the actual football. S-Clarke is right, the club would be like a soiled bed by May, all the top positions at the club would need changing.

It’s about momentum. Sheff Utd had a better run in the latter part of last season with a manager and legendary former player they had a connection with. I simply cannot see where the next point is coming from this season and the fanbase is the most apathetic I’ve ever seen. As for Bazanu, he conceded most of the 60 goals plus last season behind defenders like KWP, Bednarek (very good Champ defender) and THB. Given two of those will likely leave in the summer, I cannot see his record improving. To underscore the figures further, not emotion, he’s been bottom on the PL and Champ shot saving stats two years in a row. He can’t save low shots (watch Ipswich game again), doesn’t claim crosses, gets bullied at corners and anything hard and central gets pushed back in front of him. Headers down are another standout weakness (see Brighton home). Supposedly his superior kicking makes up for a total absence of goalkeeping talent in kids football but I can only say at least that’s one thing he does better than Alex McCarthy at senior level. Ederson he ain’t as a sweeper keeper. As back up if we must, OK, but as first choice, with a poorer defence than last time he will concede tonnes.

Who knows what he did but my teenage hero has turned into a latter day David Icke https://onefootball.com/id/berita/11-of-matt-le-tissiers-wildest-conspiracy-theories-from-vaccines-to-the-communist-takeover-37793318

If it’s even that good next season - could drop down the divisions rapidly without a new CEO, DoF, Manager, and 12-15 first team quality players who at least keep fit, have basic body strength, run, tackle and look in a forwards direction. Definitely going down again if Gavin Fucking Bazanu is back in goal.

Agree with 95% of that but it’s not the PL’s fault that the club has put amateurs consistently making key decisions on recruitment and organisation. Bitcon, Parsons, Rasmus, Martin, they’ve all been fucking hopeless. If you buy lightweight players based on data and you don’t think about how they’ll knit together in a cohesive and competitive system = Southampton 2024/25. Bournemouth with a 12000 seat stadium aren’t playing the victims card ‘we can’t compete with Saudi-backed Newcastle’. They humped them at home last week and FFP limits their spending anyway. But they have a no-excuse manager and no-excuse boardroom who will spend north of £30m when needed on quality and more frugal players with pace, power and potential in others (Semenyo). Stop thinking like little Hampshire victims and be ambitious in a ruthless industry - only way this turns around.

Quicker than the early 2022 game.

If Man U are struggling to stop away fans domestically and in Europe at Old Trafford then not a surprise. Comparatively, their fans are probably thinking the same as ours ‘our players aren’t trying, running, generally giving a fuck so I might as well make a little bit of margin on my seat’.

Especially one with a Sheffield postcode

He does seem bad rather than mad but if someone’s behaviour is so irrational and escalating deemed a serious risk to others then it can be a tool used. Sadly I have seen it happen.

It would ruin part of someone’s accumulator bet at Stockley Park though probably relating to total sendings off in the first half.

Biggest sign of it I noticed in 2018 on holiday in the Lakes when WC in Russia was on. Growing up and throughout 2000s and most of 2010s, midday was hottest part of the day hence the song about Mad Dogs & Englishmen. What happened and it’s stayed ever since is the hottest part of the day mid-summer is 5-8pm when it had previously cooled down to a lovely temperature.

That’s why I try to avoid Almond Milk, terrible for the health of honey bees as well.

They could spend the morning and lunchtime in the Dancing Man microbrewery swigging craft beer and still win comfortably in the afternoon even turning up 20 minutes after kick off drunk as rats.