SaintsRoyalty

The new Boruc? I’d take that.

The last time we had a twitcher in the dugout it went well. Keeping an eye out for the first shoulder roll.

You kind of answered your own question. That’s the kind of dross available in this window. Not many strikers with a shout of playing on the World Cup are not first choice. We need to be looking at free agents or strong arming a smaller club with less means. Obviously this means taking a punt on someone in a less competitive league in Europe but if we pick someone with the right attributes (tall, strong, scores goals etc) and is above the age of 25 we might have a chance of getting someone that improves us. I’d also take Gabbiadini for 6 months. A poacher isn’t so susceptible to age.

Wasn’t impressed whenever I saw him play for us but fuck me is it galling to see QPR above us in the table and effectively an upgrade for him. I remember all their fans having a go at the club for not letting them have him after the loan and thinking how sad it is that they think he’d be better off at their little club. This is the legacy of sport republic. Frequent reality checks of our shitness that get more and more embarrassing.

The deal is off. Apparently he didn’t fit into the small sized gloves the kitman has in stock for Bazunu.

Did he take your lunch money? Seem to have an unhealthy dislike of him. Agree it’s weird he didn’t work for another club but I bet banking is way easier. Can’t remember exactly but didn’t they tighten the purse strings and therefore torpedo his plan for us. Fair enough it’s their money and there was talk of him getting a bit lose with it but we could have been Leicester. We were certainly tracking to be an outside but credible shot for the title. Will always fuck me off that Leicester pulled it off basically copying us. Ok they had the ridiculous luck with their squad staying fit and towards the end the refs and media wishing them home but I believe they admitted as much that they copied our blueprint. They just had the balls to see it through. We got les Reed and shit the bed. If you want to talk about a wannabe dictator how about that nob? Can picture him reading a paper about Cortese and saying wait to they get a load of me.

Delivered and set the tone for the best period this club has had in recent memory. What do Saints fans do? Openly mock him. Says it all about this club and why it’s in the shit it is now. Who cares if he was mad, angry, rude or whatever nonsense has been spread. He brought high standards which attracted managers and players of a calibre we could only dream of now. I’m sure Semmens is a very polite and nice and look what that got us. Wonder if Chelsea fans talk negatively about Abramovich?

Not really the same comparison is it. Onuachu is a good level striker with many years of proven goal scoring in top divisions in a number of countries now. People might turn their nose up at the Turkish league but take a look at the squads for the big Istanbul clubs. Bree also has previously shown to be a good player for the Champ. Damion fucking Downes had played a session in the second division of Germany and got like 9 goals? The guy is an absolute waste of space and like so many only made it this far probably because of his build and physicality. We absolutely 100% need to get a striker in. Look what getting Bamford has done for Sheffield United. Now above us! It needs to be someone with a proven track record in a top league in Europe. Failing that, I would take a punt on Gabbidini. Ok he’s old now but the guy is a poacher and we actually create a fair few chances for a player like him. The issue is we have Archer trying to get on the end of them at the moment.

I think now is our last chance to attract a top manager. Not too far off the play offs, decent squad for this league. Quite a few would fancy their chances of coming in and getting us up. if they wait until the summer then it’s a completely different picture. We all know they are going to wait and then hire another unproven yes man. Hope the protest goes ahead at the weekend. We need as many people to turn up as possible. We have to learn from Celtic and Rangers.

Peretz is here.

He’s that sad little mummy’s boy that’s the assistant of the kitman? Got the look of someone that got his job because a member of his family put a good word in for him. Spineless individual.

This is the crux of it. It’s just going to be rinse and repeat until they are gone. Has this fanbase got the balls to get them out though? Will losing to the skates be the turning point?

3 shots on target and 3 goals conceded. How does this happen???? This simply doesn't happen with 99% of all other keepers. He's not made a single save. You can say what you want about the bad defenders but a GKs job is to be the last line of defence and save shots. It doesn’t matter how many fuck ups lead to the shot coming in, he’s there to block shots. Hes literally a hologram, it’s not even an exaggeration.

Back on side? There were 30,000 people down the stadium the last game. Sure the food kiosks and bars were rammed. They won’t care too much about serving little to no entertainment on the pitch if 30k seals still turn up and empty out their pockets. £40 a ticket as well to see bloody Millwall and still nearly a sell out. £9 for a sliver of pizza. As I keep saying on here, it’s the fans that are the problem. We really need a strong vocal fans group akin to the likes of Rangers. They got Martin and some of the bored sacked in a few weeks. We can’t manage to all boo together 4 years in.

Totally agree. It was a good save but let’s not get silly about it. It’s almost like people have developed this strange suicidal empathy for him like he’s a disadvantaged child that we must overreact to any small achievement. i was at the ground yesterday and people started standing up and clapping the save. Let that sink in, standing up and clapping…..Like they are paying respect to someone just receiving a lifetime achievement award. As I have said before, we will never have nice things because of the fans. It’s not the players, Sport Republic, the board, coaching staff etc, it’s the soft fans this club has. The likes of Stephens, Bazunu, Manning etc have stalked this club for years off the back of the odd good game every few months. Our fans stand up and clap them when they do something ordinary. The fans could end this circle of misery with a few weeks of protests but they are a soft touch.

100%. The fact he still has people defending him is beyond words. The game just gone is just a perfect example, he makes one bloody save all competent keepers make and not only is it enough for some people to ignore the complete shit show that was their goal but also the months of misery since his last ok save and years of statistically being the worst keeper in Europe. It really does need to be studied how these people can be so blinkered. Also an important fact often forgotten, he was loaned to a club in Belgium and sent back swiftly. Do clubs usually cut loans short if a player is any good????

https://saintsmarching.com/tonda-eckert-stood-on-business-and-refused-to-throw-gavin-bazunu-under-the-bus Literally speechless… What kind of monumental idiot writes this article????

Exactly this. Not many clubs buy back up keepers to be their number 1s. Hamburg have just got promoted and for him to not even be deemed good enough to play for them speaks volumes. Patterson is a better shout but still now a number 2. We should be buying a number 1 from a decent club in Europe. Dutch keepers tend to be good and we can probably pay more than any of the number 1s are getting in the Dutch league. When was the last time we bought a keeper that was a number 1 (outside Ramsdale that doesn’t count as he said as hardly here)? And no playing for Pompey in league 1 doesn’t count either.

Manolo Gabbiadini is now a free agent. Please Southampton just once can you use some common sense 🙏 Romeu was not the one but this guy could be fire in the Champ regardless of age.

Maybe I’m wrong but I wonder how much Dragon actually knows about what goes on at the club. Obviously he can see the scores and the relegation, but it looks like he just flies in for the odd game and I doubt he is kept in the loop on much. Some might say that’s his fault but anyone that’s worked in business knows that even the leadership team hears very little about what’s going on day in day out and much less the ownership. Why hire a leadership team if you’re going to still be fully involved. Yes he hired the leadership team but telecoms bods might know telecoms but that doesn’t mean they have the first clue about football. The real failure here lies with the other idiots who are apparently experienced in football with their previous involvement with Brentford. As we now know, Brentford’s success had little to do with them. Kraft is gone leaving just Ankerson. I’m torn between holding him up as the villain or whether he’s the new Erick Black and a fall guy. He also appears rarely at games. There are two key questions to be asked. What is Ankerson’s role nowadays and is 5 at the back a Sport Republic must and forced upon managers. The issue is we have soft shit local journalists. Blackmore to his credit sometimes asks probing questions and let’s not forget he works for the BBC which is going to be a bind for any reporter especially when it’s a cushy gig. Alfie House on the other hand has absolutely no excuse for being the drip he is. He works for an absolute rag where any other gig is going to be a step up and the club are unlikely to ban the local paper. He literally has nothing to lose and everything to gain from being a diligent and tough asking journalist if he wants to make a name as a young journalist. He met with Dragon recently and could have told him some home truths that perhaps Dragon wasn’t aware of but of course he just behaved like the yes man he is. He couldn’t even bring himself to call out Bazunu during the Oxford game despite clearly wanting to in the fear he would be criticised for calling out statistically the worse keeper in the country for 4 seasons. If he self proclaims his fear of doing something simple like that what hope have we got of things changing. Again, it’s us placid fans that let the likes of Alfie House be our mouthpiece to the club. We should be getting the guy out of the job.

An important distinction about yesterdays game was not only are Oxford a small potatoes relegation fodder bottom 3 team but the were managerless. It’s almost beyond belief that we lost yesterday to them. Eckert simply cannot have any credits left in the bank after that and should be bumped back down to u21s before the crucial January transfer window. We know how this story goes, he’s kept on past the transfer window closing despite us continuing to play turgid possession football in our own box and when we finally sack him the new guy has no chance to get his own players in so essentially has his arms tied behind his back. We have done this time and time again and never learn. I think someone earlier made a very good observation on Eckert, he just makes like for like subs. That’s the only tool he has at his disposal. Not changing formations and tactics before games depending on the opponents, not changing mid game when something isn’t working, not taking of a defender for an attacker when we are losing, just taking off Downes for Romeu. He's not suddenly going to learn to have these skills, we are on a hiding to nothing with this guy. Add on top the fact he is constantly worried about saving players for the next game when we are losing the current one being played then we are facing another period of abject misery. The next guy that comes in has to be an experienced old head with the freedom to tell sport republic the fuck off with their bullshit loser philosophy.

Football really isn’t rocket science. - Football teams don’t usually hire a manger with no previous experience to manage at a high level in arguably the most competitive league in the world and with the biggest prize in world football. - Teams don’t usually replace a proven goalscorer with a young no mark with an average scoring record from a lower league. - Teams don’t usually pick statistically the worst keeper in the country 4 seasons in a row to be their number 1. - Teams don’t usually bring in a journeyman midfielder who’s legs have gone so much that he’s deemed not up to the walking football played in Spain. - Teams don’t usually bring in said journeyman CM when they are fairly well stocked in CM to the point some aren’t even making the matchday squad when the glaring big hole in the team is CF and Patrick Bamford was kicking his heels waiting for the call. Seems to be doing alright for Sheffield United… - Teams don’t usually play 5 at the back and surrender midfield week after week and season after season and manager after manager the formation never changes. - Teams don’t usually bring in journeymen bad apples back in from the cold like Stephens, Aribo etc. I could go on and on but despite all the mindblowing, scandalous, lunacy above, the real issue is a team’s fans don’t usually put up with this. This is where the real fault lies, us. The stadium should be empty, protests should be outside the stadium every game, their social media channels should be swarmed with negative comments from us and the owners should be scared to come within 100 miles of the city. Nothing is ever going to change under this ownership, it’s a fact and we all know it. What are we going to do about it? Can we act like a real fan base like Rangers or are we just too soft?

https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11095/13486705/championship-promotion-race-can-anyone-catch-coventry#:~:text=The Sky Sports Essential EFL podcast looks at whether anyone,first time in 25 years. Pretty damning that we are already out of the picture when discussing winning the league. It’s really not getting enough coverage from the two useless excuses of local reporters we have and the placid fanbase. It’s scandalous how we are not in the top 2. I think few would argue we don’t have one of the best if not the best squads in the league.

So why are you spending precious time defending him? I will never understand why people like you fight against the tide. What do you get from it apart from stress and abuse? You admit he needs replacing so just go with the flow. I also don’t agree with your attempt to flip the narrative and say keepers are unsettled by bad defenders. Keepers do a completely different job than all the outfield players and are always the last line of defence. There is no one behind them to unsettle them, everything is in front of them which they can see with their own eyes. If they are decent they will back themselves to save shots regardless. Of course they get pissed at having to face more shots if the defenders are crap but they aren’t unsettled by them. Conversely being a defender and knowing the guy that’s got your back is a coward or talentless, or both in our case, then it plays constantly on the defenders’ minds. This will naturally affect their decision making. I am astounded by people saying he had a good game yesterday. He had very little to do and it’s testament to his shitness that just because he had less to do he had a good game. If he had a good game then presumably the Coventry keeper played the best performance of his life. Not saying our defenders are all that but I think a lot of the ridiculous defending we see is because we play 5 at the back. Look at other teams that play 5 at the back like Man U and the trash defending is the same. I personally think having 3 CBs means none of them know whose job it is to do certain things. Too many cooks in the kitchen if you like.

Volume 2 of my look into the key themes of the abject failure of this club. I know as fans we all have blinkers on when it comes to our own clubs, but I genuinely think Southampton has a shot with being the most painful football club to support at least in this country. Yes there are clubs out there that have suffered worst situations like administration etc but nothing can compare to this club that hypes you up only to subject you to a slow painful death. The question this time is whether GK is the position most mismanaged by this club? Perhaps even the most mismanaged position of any team in the country. I’m middle aged so cannot really comment on much past our move into St Mary’s but in that time I believe we have only had 2 keepers that when a shot comes in I would back them to save it. Those are Neimi and Boruc. Next year will be 25 years of football at St Mary’s and we have had 2 decent keepers. Let that sink in….. Im a big fan of Ramsdale and think he is worthy of being included with the other 2 but the fact he was only here for a year and it was a year where we were so out of our depth generally as a whole team that season is null and void. In recent times the stink of journeyman English goalkeepers has hung over the club for what feels like an eternity. We’ve had Davies, Forster, McCarthy, Gunn and the final boss of them all Bazunu. Yes I know some played for other countries but they were still from England. Bit harsh on Davies who did admirably for us in the lower leagues but he’s still an average joe if we are honest. I use to think this was all down to that weirdo hairpiece being the GK coach (David Watson). Remember him? Has he had a single job since he left? Speaks volumes doesn’t it? It made sense that we were subjected to such dross as that iPad toucher had no career as a GK himself, is a short man, and would only pick from English keepers he knew from his stint in The England set up. As a result, all goalkeepers under him seemed to have the same traits of staying glued to their line, appearing to lack any of the key skills like positioning, spring, parrying balls away from danger, giving the defence little confidence and generally being shrinking violets. No surprise giving the fact he had no career and is a short man. However, since that clown left, Bazunu and McCarthy continue to be backed by the club to the point it looks like they know a dirty secret about the club. We are now on our 8th manager since Bazunu signed in 2022 and Eckert is publicly backing him along with Spors. Bearing in mind he’s clearly hated by the vast majority of the fanbase and Sports Republic are famed for applying a stats based approach to their football philosophy, their backing of Bazunu is nothing short of insanity. Let’s not forget as well that he was loaned to Standard Liege and after 8 appearance, in which he let in 15 goals, he was sent back to the club early. The guy that they played instead was only 20 himself and went on to let in 21 in 19 games. Comparable with the keeper for the champions of that season in Belgium. What did our club do for this abject failure and massive red flag, made him the number 1. Would love to know the thoughts of others on whether they agree this is the worst managed position of this club or whether there are other contenders.