Professor

The Premier League is no longer English football. Each team consists of international XIs wearing the shirts of what used to be English football clubs. Southampton are no different in that respect, it’s just that Man City have been financed to take the cream off the international pile leaving clubs like ours with cheaper players. The only English element left in English football are the fans. Giving the League Champions a guard of honour is one traditional element that still survives which it would be nice to see respected by our team.

Learned and Learnt are alternative forms of the past tense and past participle of the verb learn. Both are acceptable, but learned is often used in both British English and American English. Learnt is more common in British English but either can be used. Next lesson on ‘pedantic’, as and when required.

One player I'd like to see in the Saints' midfield is Callum Slattery.

I'm not familiar with Adrian Durham but that tirade against Saints sounds like bitterness because Talksport got it wrong. I heard part of the Talksport commentary on the Everton game on the car radio, and you would have thought you were listening to an Everton Club broadcast. The commentators spoke about individual Everton players in such a way that you'd imagine they knew them personally whereas the references to Southampton were infrequent and impersonal. There was a strong impression that Talksport's editors had assumed that Saints were going down and consequently our team was treated accordingly on their station. Very pleased to hear about the remarks by this Durham character as it shows how badly Talksport feel about being shown up.

Please, No! Not another unknown foreign manager with questionable performance stats in some overseas league who would struggle to make himself understood by our players. After Puel and Pellegrino, both of whom must have looked good on paper, surely a lesson has been learned.

Listening to his interviews tells you what a thorough professional he is. Given his experience of management at the top of the game it shouldn't be a surprise. Stealing a line from another league manager, you can't help feeling he'd be held in higher regard by the media if his name was Marco Hughesichi. We've already seen the influence he and his a coaching team have had on individual players in just 8 weeks. He's demonstrated his high level ability over team selection, set-up and tactics. Also good to hear him explaining how he assesses the opponents and responds accordingly. The only area we haven't yet seen him influence at Southampton is recruitment, but assuming he stays and given that he has the whole close season to work in, we should see some exciting changes. Unlike our previous two managers, Hughes is someone the boardroom will have to respect and listen to.

Have to bite my lip and thank Les Reed for finding a manager who could save us with only a handful of games to go, but it should never have come to that, so along with the thanks, I suggest Les pays the bonus out of his own pocket. Surely, Mark Hughes will be offered a proper contract now. With the better squad we have, he'll do well here and with the whole of the close season to lose the dead wood and strengthen where needed he could get off to a much better start, It's also a bonus to have a manager who speaks the language.

I won’t miss the Prem League at all. It’s a competition for a handful of clubs massively over-promoted by the print and broadcast media for their own financial greed. Players and managers, with their snouts in the trough, have nothing in common with football fans. The Championship is a genuine competition, even if it is tainted by parachute payments. The only downside is that the teams finishing top of the table are required to move into the Prem.

This looks a reasonable signing but some people latch onto anything they can to slag off the club they claim to support. I’ve been as critical as any about the failure to recognise the error of the Pellegrino appointment and the delay in replacing him. The January transfer window was also a lost opportunity but those who complain about the club selling top players simply don’t understand the realities of the player contract system. When a player is refusing to sign an extension the club are powerless, while Van Dijk showed you can’t force a player to perform to the best of his ability if he’s determined to force a move. People can criticise mistakes but it’s pointless complaining about things which are outside the club’s control.

Perhaps someone could explain how a club can retain a player who refuses to sign a new contract, or like Van Dijk loses form when refused a move. Anyone who doesn’t understand that players can force moves when they want to, hasn't been paying attention.

A win away to Arsenal and we’d be back in with a chance. WHAT? Win away to Arsenal?? Far more likely that we won’t win another game this season.

I watched live on the BBC and reached the same conclusion. The BBC had decided on the story of the match before kick-off and had the commentators primed to show bias to Wigan at every opportunity. The producers had probably decided that viewers would be on the side of the ‘underdog’ and that Southampton could be disregarded because of not being one of the elite clubs with a national following. To have commentators screaming the name of a Wigan player because he’d had a wild punt from outside the penalty area was faked, and simply adolescent. Given the few days in which Mark Hughes had to change the set-up and tactics of the team it was remarkable that they took only 45 minutes to adapt and kept Wigan at bay during that time. 2-0 was a good win but lets not forget it should have been 3-0 but for Gabbiadini being deliberately brought down when he was about to score. Until FIFA relaxed the red card rule in 2016, the defender would have been sent off and it was arguable that he should have been for denying a goal-scoring opportunity. The keeper was lucky that he dived to the side that Gabbi put the ball with his penalty kick but the BBC were so busy praising him for the save, that they failed to discuss whether blatant cheating to prevent a goal is good for the game.

I credited Les Reed with having played an important part in the steady rise of the club following the administration. But over the last couple of years he lost his way and even worse, hasn't seemed able to recognise when his decisions have gone wrong. I stopped defending him some time ago and in my opinion the failure to act against Pellegrino back in November/December when the failure was apparent is unforgiveable. Not sure when Reed should go, close season maybe, but go he should.

Better late than never? Not for me. I can't forgive the Board for failing to act months ago. Even if the new Manager bounce gets us the points we need to stay up the next step by the owners should be to restructure the board because it has clearly been incapable of making a decision that was crying out to be made.

I’m with those who think the manager change should have happened before Xmas but the available candidates are fewer now than if the change is made at the end of the season. Perhaps we can win the Championship title next year.

If a club is relgated after making a profit on transfers, that does sound like a deserved outcome.

Last thing any of us fans want is relegation but it really isn’t the end of the World. Isn’t it only Arsenal among current Premier League sides that has never been relegated? The table is full of sides that have come up from the Championship. It’s a shame that this period in the Prem looks like being a shirt one but be confident of returning and a season of winning more games than we lose.

I wanted him sacked about 4 weeks before Christmas when there was already more than enough evidence of incompetence but also time for a new manager to recover the position. I still want him sacked but I can see there is an alternative view if you believe that relegation is already inevitable. If LR and the Board have already decided relegation is inevitable it may be in the club's interests to leave Pellegrino in post until the end of the season. There will then be a wider choice of potential successors and financially the club should be in a position to retain the best players in the squad, and to strengthen, in order to bounce straight back.

Apart from the pointless obscenities I do agree with this post. The win last week against the bottom club who will join us in the Championship shouldn't have been seen as any kind of improvement. We seem to be the only Premier club this season that has failed to judge its manager by the performances of the team. Change should have taken place over two months ago and is now too late to save us from the drop, but perhaps that's why the board haven't sacked him. It may be the intention to change the manager at the end of the season as that might be a better time to make an appointment. We do have a talented squad full of competent international players, experienced at representing their countries. I can't believe that different coaching and tactics would not have produced better results. With someone else in charge, this squad should get promotion, but the problem is whether the squad can be held together after being relegated. Very depressing times.

Agree completely. It's not them, it's him. In my opinion, people should also lay off Les Reed because although he has got it wrong over Pellegrino, he knows the club and would be too great a loss. WE just need him to come to terms with the error, no that sacking Pellegrino now will make any difference. That boat has sailed so the club might as well let him go after the last game of the season when there will be more candidates to choose from and the time between now and then can be used looking for the best person.

End of November / early December. Results by then justified dismissal and there was still time for a replacement to make a difference as well as being in place long enough to assess the need for squad changes in the January window. Not that squad changes were essential, because we have players of international quality who simply have not been used correctly or adequately motivated.

In my opinion, it's too late to sign any player or players who would make a difference. Relegation, which was a strong possibility before Christmas, when the board could have acted by changing the manager, has now become a strong probability. As the window passes with no inward transfer action, the suspicion must be that this is also the conclusion that the board has reached. That in practical terms, the squad cannot be improved with more players who would be similar to those we already have.

It’s no good complaining about a handball because the reality is the team weren’t good enough to hold on it increase a 2-goal lead. A quality premier league side would have played a possession game and looked to catch them as they became frustrated. Instead MP had the team defending with backs to the wall.

This is what also worries me. Gabbiadini was a brilliant striker when he signed for us but now he blazes a sitting chance high over the bar. What has made a player who has been good enough to play for Italy fail to score a chance that a Saturday afternoon amateur would have put away, if it isn't the training or the man management? Charlie Austin seems to be immune to the problem, whatever it is, but I also worry that bringing in another striker could mean leaving our one proven coal scorer out of the team. Someone like Walcott who could produce more from wide attack would be an improvement but is he so much better then Redmond, or Boufal that he could save our season? Not at all sure, whereas a new manager a few weeks ago could have made the difference already. Words like horse, stable and bolted doors come to mind.

Boycotting games is certainly a weapon fans could use. Its hard for ST holders as they've already paid but on the other hand, it's hardly entertaining to watch the team being beaten week after week. Even ST holders can save money in travel and parking. I haven't got an ST this year so its easy for me and I will now stay away until something changes for the better.