trousers

I have been assuming the only reason that someone of Martin's calibre hasn't yet accepted any of the plethora of offers he's no doubt had for his services, is that he's holding out for the ultimate job...

There's always a risk in trusting something 100%. Always better to maintain a healthy / pragmatic level of scepticism and/or doubt IMO....

Fair enough. I'll keep my head-scratching to myself next time...

Fair point, but it's still reasonable to ponder how someone can go from being a key player in pre-season one minute to disappearing off the face of the earth the next. I'm sure for every Licka or SAA there's been plenty of players that have excelled in pre-season and then gone on to have an equally decent season thereafter. It's not an unreasonable expectation.

SAA's lack of progress the last couple of seasons is a bit of a head-scratcher, although somewhat unsurprising given the club doesn't tend to keep fans in the loop on young player development progress these days. (Nor are our local journos seemingly too keen on finding out...) If I remember correctly, SAA had a really good pre-season last summer, playing in most games and getting good write-ups. And then he disappeared, almost without trace. Hey ho... We stumble on...

I'm inclined to agree although, as one or two others have pointed out recently, there's going to be an 'elephant in the room' next season for all those players who are "great in the Championship but not good enough for the Premier League". That is, the likes of Downes and Adam Armstrong had a significant incentive to perform out of their skin last season: they had the 'prize' of playing in the Premier League the following season. However, next season, that prize won't exist as it's now clear they would need to be jettisoned if/when we get promoted. As such, there's a fair chance they won't have the heightened levels of motivation they had last season... (Yeah, I know.... they're professional footballers and will naturally want to play their best regardless of the circumstances, but a lot of the game is played in the mind and these guys are only human...)

It's almost as if playing football isn't rocket science after all...

Whilst bearing in mind we should all be "moving on", Dark Munster's description of Martin perhaps needs a bit of qualification... Martin was indeed a "dog shit" manager this season, in that he persisted with an approach that was doomed to failure with the quality of players that we had, alongside the quality of the opposition. Conversely, he could be considered a "decent" manager last season because his tactics largely worked against inferior opposition in the Championship. (Although, we often weren't convincing against the better sides in the league... A sign of what was to come this season...) In other words, being "dog shit" and "decent" aren't mutually exclusive descriptions of someone, when taking different circumstances and context into account. The bottom line is that Martin was "dog shit" this season and therefore had to go. It remains to be seen where Juric ends up on the "dog shit" scale, but signs are that he's getting more out of certain players in the PL than Martin was able to....

Agree. Some even backed Martin's decision not to play him at all....

It's almost as if ditching Martin and trying someone else was worth talking a punt.... P.s. we're not allowed to mention Martin anymore, so we should both "move on"...

Boooooom!!!

Even the Ipswich stewards are happy....

Juric... tactical genius!!!

Which begs the question: why on Earth are we wasting a place on the bench by naming him in the match day squad...?

Starting to have my doubts, although still too early to draw any definitive conclusions.

Due to...?

Out of idle curiosity, why do people usually give attention seekers the attention they crave? Wouldn't it be cleverer to do the opposite? Human nature I guess...

https://www.southamptonfc.com/en/news/article/juric-shares-positive-squad-news-for-ipswich-trip Southampton manager Ivan Jurić has offered a positive update on several members of his squad ahead of Saturday's trip to Ipswich Town. After fielding several questions on injured players in recent weeks, Saints' boss was pleased to share news on a handful of potential returns to action, with Kamaldeen Sulemana and Tyler Dibling notably ready for selection again. "Kamaldeen and Dibling trained today with us, and they will be with us [for Ipswich.]" Jurić explained, before adding further reassurance on Dibling's availability. "[Tyler] has recovered already, he did training today and I think he'll be ready." In further positive news, the Croatian hinted at goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale's return with only minor issues for other members of the squad. "Rambo did one part of the training today, and tomorrow I think he'll be okay. We had problems with [Ryan] Fraser and Woody [Nathan Wood], not big ones but they will be out for this one." Jurić also shared updates on the potential return of Jack Stephens, with new signings Welington and Albert Grønbæk also in line for their first Saints inclusions. "I'm a very happy guy that Stephens is with us, the [medical team] did a great job, because he did two trainings with no problems and sometimes it's not like this, so he's done very well. He's a quality player, a competitive player and he can give us a lot. "[Albert] did a good week, he's a very interesting player because he's quick, very good technique, he had a good week and maybe he can play. "Now I know [Welington] better, he's trained really well and we might can him a chance against Ipswich during the match. I think he can become a really good player for us."

And Juric also said that he "likes Stephens a lot"....

Fair points 👍

2 weeks Edit: sorry, wrong thread....

It's going to take much more than 6 games to corroborate that opinion. Given Juric joined in a hopeless situation, and was never going to be able to turn things around this season, I would venture that, say, 10 games into next season is probably the soonest we can logically and directly judge how good Juric is (in comparison with Martin).

I've always thought that Ballard and Dibling were of a similar standard historically, so slightly surprised not to see Ballard in the frame for some first team experience for the remainder of the season, on a "nothing to lose" basis, given we're down and that he surely can't be any worse than our senior striker options.... That said, I can also see the pros of maximising his game time in a lower league, especially if he starting to fall behind Dibling's development curve...