SaintsRoyalty

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.

A competent keeper saves Coventry’s goal today. Ok it was fairly well placed but it wasn’t hit with pace. Watch the highlights and you will see he has absolutely no spring in his legs so covers hardly any ground. You might say he dived like an outfield player in goal which of course is exactly what he is.

It’s hard to argue with his start and it made his appointment a no brainier, but him going up against an actual seasoned manager today I think is a sign of what’s to come. Clement was never losing the game today against Eckert. They were organised and bullied Saints off the park. it’s still early days but I think Sport’s republic’s biggest flaw is their ignorance towards the value of experience. If you want success, a smart person hedges their bets and chooses people with a track record. You can start trying to be clever and experimenting when you are established. For me, a manager, a goal keeper, CB, CM and striker should all be experienced and older men. It’s the spine that you build around. Over the course of the season the likes of Clement are going to float to the top of the league and we are going to be also rans but we did well because it’s the new guys first rodeo. And no I don’t think the likes of Lalana and Romeu are the answer who are in the final year of their career. Late 20s to early 30s is the sweet spot. Willing to give him the befit of the doubt at this stage but he has a huge up hill battle and has to be flawless as a result. Managers like Clement can just perform steady and do well in a league like this. I am also concerned that he is displaying the stubborn traits of previous failed managers at this club. How the remaining poster boys of our years of failure like Stephen’s, Bazunu and Aribo have been brought in from the cold is beyond me. The fact he is not willing to admit his mistake and drop them is doubly worrying.

If we are being smart, this question is actually asking improving which position will result in us gaining more points. That’s simply what it boils down to. I know I sound like a stuck record but I think even Bazunu’s supporters can admit his position is the glaringly obvious answer. I would conservatively estimate him not being in goal all season would result in us being 15-20 points better of. Whilst I do think we need another striker who is tall and can hold up the ball and some more quality on the bench, a new keeper is absolutely crucial this window. Who gives a shit if we have 4 keepers for half a season. The Bayern Munich guy looks like another bridesmaid though. It’s not hard to scout and sign a keeper playing week in week out in Europe. We can pay more salary than most leagues in Europe.

A competent keeper saves both goals today. I know there is a danger of us over analysing him due his many years of abject failure and even the best keepers have a mistake in them but both goals were right in front of him. I honestly think an outfield player playing in goal would have better reflexes. It doesn’t make a difference that the ball went in off a hand as their striker was there to make contact and a keeper should come out and close him down. He just stood on his line and pulled a dance shape like he’s on a dance floor. The guy is a woeful excuse for a professional footballer.

I’ve said it in every post about this bozo that he will never ever cut it as a professional keeper as his positioning is downright diabolical. This is yet another piece of evidence. Please everyone just be honest with yourselves. If we all put our mum in goal she’d at least stand in the middle of it. It’s batshit crazy the stuff he does. by the way, how do you post images on here?

Onuachu scored another 2 at the weekend. Thats now 11 in 14 for the season. Damion Downes meanwhile didn’t make the bench. Onuachu still gash?

Ok we are getting somewhere. But yes he was at fault for the loss and definitely not getting a point. Already mentioned on an earlier post but let me summarise it: 1. He should have saved the first. He got down to save a much harder shot earlier in the game so how can people then say he cannot save an easier chance? Defies logic. 2. He should save the third. No ball should be going across the box without a so called competent keeper making it his. If you watch the goal he runs to the post and stands behind the defender who already has that area covered. You honestly wouldn’t see a keeper behaving like that in an u12s game. Who covers an area already covered by your player? Why stand behind your own player so you are unsighted? 3. He got very lucky on the disallowed goal which again was a howler on his part and could have easily been given. The point I'm trying to get across is he’s so bad it doesn’t even get to the point where we need to analyse how he dealt with the shot. His positioning is of someone who has never played in goal before. Not even the fundamentals are there and he’s been a professional footballer long enough to have learnt this. He is a complete lost cause and fans need to be united against him otherwise he’s not going anywhere and we will always have to score at least 3 to win a game. Compare us to the Rangers fans who got Martin out the door asap. We need to start be united and vocal about dross like Bazunu.

He’s a very odd individual and has the worst takes on football I’ve ever seen, and that’s saying something. I don’t know who made him a mod but he should be removed from his forum after his downright racist posts about Onuachu. Let it sink in that he endlessly defends Bazunu who has been statistically the worst keeper in all the years he’s been here yet posts vile abuse about Onuachu who statistically is a decent striker.

Saw the score earlier and said to my mates I bet Bozo is at fault for at least 1 and possibly 2 goals. Just like clockwork I check the highlights to see he’s at fault for the first and the definitely the third. I said earlier on this thread that the big problem this club has is the fans. It pains me to see that there are still individuals that back him almost in a cult like way. I can’t be bothered to collate some of the utter lunacy posted but let me just highlight two instances. First, they can’t wait to post about his save early in the first half and then when he lets in the same shot but much closer to him it’s not his fault but an outfield player for not blocking. Second, someone says it’s hard to save long shots. Err, no rules of probability suggest the further the shot is the less chance it should have to go in. In every goal scored in football an outfield player is going to make some form of mistake at some point in the lead up to goal. We have people on here saying that because of that mistake Bozo is forgiven for letting every goal in no matter how tame because someone else made a mistake in the lead up. He’s employed to get in the way of shots!!!!! It doesn’t make a blind bit of difference if an outfield player has allowed an opposing player have a shot in the first place. All of you people on here defending him are killing this club. Let that sink in, you are killing this club defying logic and defending someone completely indefensible. The fact his thread has over 400k views and the likes of much longer serving players like Romeu only has a quarter of that says it all. He's toxic waste of space and cloud over this club.

You comment like someone that dresses their dog in human clothes. Utterly embarrassing comment.

Thanks for semi restoring my faith in Saints fans. The above posters again abusing Onuachu are the real reason Saints have had years of misery. Awful awful judgement that has led to Sports Republic’s poor decisions. That might be a hard pill for some to swallow but the majority of you seals go easy on the dross and hard on the good players. We seriously have people calling him gash and that he can’t score goals. Guess what? He scored again last night so that’s now 9 in 13. I get a bit fed up with the race card being played but I have to question if the above posters are closet racists. There is no other explanation for hating on someone that always tried his best in a team that wasn’t set up for him to shine and who shines everywhere else he has been before and after. He has scored 26 goals in 38 games for Trabzonspor whilst being a Saints player and at no point have we thought maybe we should see what they are doing to get that out of him. I know some of you dim lot only have a goldfish memory but Damion Clownes was what we got instead. Now tell me your abuse was worth it.

Obviously the season hasn’t gone as expected and despite the recent few wins we are still 16 points off Coventry who look like an unstoppable train. I know most fans would take a playoff place again but I’m pretty furious that we have blown a golden opportunity to add a piece of silverware this season. It still irks me that when we were down in league one and became that unstoppable train we got promoted both times without finishing first and a trophy. This season was a golden opportunity for us to be streets ahead of everyone else. Leicester are in trouble financially and didn’t do anything in the summer and finally don’t have Vardy. Ipswich sold their best players and don’t look much. We are clearly missing two big glaring pieces. Obviously it would have been hard to have kept Ramsdale, although even he should have known he was going to sit on the bench. It also looked like Onuachu wanted out which I can’t blame him after the ludicrous abuse he got from some of the fanbase. But hypothetically speaking, would we have won the league had we kept them two? In my opinion yes. Ramsdale for me is one of the best keepers even in the premier league and certainly would be in the champ. Onuachu might be a bit limited but he’d score for fun in this league especially now we have actual wingers in Fellows and Scienza who can cross a ball. Just having a focal point would improve us. But despite what some say on here, he’s a proven goal scorer. He has 8 goals in 12 games this season in the Turkish league and has Trabzonspor in 3rd in the league. The manager has come out and said their improvement this season is directly down to him. For those that think the league is not much look at the squads of the big Istanbul clubs and they all play in Europe. I would confident bet he would have been the leagues top scorer this season and we would have won the league.

Yeah that’s a load of rubbish. Even if he’s got feet like Messi there is a lot that needs to happen and go well with the ball from our goal line to their one. He plays absolutely no part in the game and arguably is only marginally better than a training cone. I think most would agree that it would be reasonable to suggest to the opposition team that if they get shots off on target there is a high chance of them going in. we have had a lot of contenders for players that should never have even had a career at school level, but this guy is beyond that. I genuinely think there is something not quite right with him. The way he plays the game is beyond even anything you’d expect of your semi fit male colleague you invite down to a works tournament to make up the numbers. There are three bare essentials you need to even be considered for a career as a goalkeeper, positioning, good spring and strong arms/hands. Obviously only the best keepers in the world are strong in all three areas but they posses all of these traits and might excel in one. Gavin Bozo the Clown Bazunu is weak in all three areas. Even his most delusional supporter must admit he can do better in all three areas. Yesterday’s goal is a classic example. If you watch the build up to the goal, as the cross comes in, he shifts a number of steps to his right which leaves two thirds of his goal free. Just better positioning would have prevented that goal. We have seen time and time again where he has got his hand to balls and the ball has just gone through him. How many goals has he let in at the near post? How can you be a professional athlete with access to a gym all day and have a football overpower the strength in your arm? It’s batshit crazy on every level. Then we have his spring. I implore you to watch any previous goals scored against him or in future and you will see when he goes to dive he covers hardly any ground at all. That’s why he looks like he goes down in slow motion and can rarely get down to low balls even at his near post. Then on top of that his decision making is that of a coked up gambling addict. Again, you only need to look at just the last game for an example of any of his bad traits. When he came out to get a ball he was never getting and clattered into their player that would have been a penalty with VAR. Granted it might not had be made too much difference yesterday but in a tight game he’s put us 2 goals down. There was also that moment where a cross came in from the left but was cleared and he for some reason flings himself on the floor. If a child did this in an under 10s game down the common you would ask what on earth is going on there. I’m not a big fan of stats and think they have ruined football which was loved because of mercurial talents and moments of brilliance. However, you cannot ignore them when they back up what 90% of fans see with their own eyes. Especially when said stats are repeated season after season. The guy has been the worst keeper in all professional leagues in the country the last 3 seasons I believe? He was the worst keeper in Europe's top 5 leagues 2 years ago and yet is still starting games. Of course at the moment his defenders say well McCarthy is no better but the stats say he is. 90% of fans eyes say he is. Also, McCarthy is 35 and at the end of his career, the fact anyone even has to think whether Bazunu is better says it all. There is also the fact we got promoted last time because Bazunu got injured in the crucial last few games and McCarthy was immense in the playoffs. Hate is a strong word, and there have been plenty of contenders, but I absolutely hate this guy with a passion. There are always going to be incompetent people out there but this guy is off the charts. It really is akin to hiring someone that flips burgers for a living as a brain surgeon. He is biblically bad and needs to be hounded out of the club by the fans. We know this club is capable of giving him a new contract and having him be a milestone around our neck for the next 5 years plus.

Don’t post on here much and football a is a game about opinions but I’ve never met anyone so wrong about football as you. Bazunu is statistically the worse keeper in year after year, get that in your thick head. Watch his positioning for the goal, he literally moves to his far post which means when the ball is headed the majority of the goal is to his left. If he was in the middle of the goal like any other half decent keeper he would have saved that. He has many many flaws, but his positioning is the biggest one. It looks like the new manager doesn’t want to play around at the back which is Bazunu’s only apparent strength. The guy is a worthless waste of space.

Marco Rose would be the one. 4 at the back, fast/direct football, would be respected having managed big teams and has worked with Spoors.