trousers

If you feel we'd have got the 8 points we ended up needing to survive with Pellegrino still at the helm then, yes, he would be worthy of the same level of credit as Hughes. (If you take those remaining games in isolation) I happen to believe we'd have been relegated had Pellegrino stayed, ergo the appointment of Hughes was a factor in us staying up IMO.

Thought he was injured? If he's fit then yep, agree, it'll be Long instead of Obefemi.

In which case, guess we're looking something like the following starting 11....? ---------------------------------- McCarthy ---------------------------------- ------------ Stephens ------------ Yoshida ------------ Bednarek ----------- Cedric ---------------------------------------------------------------- Targett ----------------------------------- Romeu ------------------------------------ ---------- Hojbjerg ------------ Armstrong ------------- Redmond --------- ---------------------------------- Obefemi ------------------------------------ (or JWP in for one of the 3 CBs if playing a back 4)

Likewise

Good. I do like it when people agree with each other on here. Long may it continue! p.s. if we finish in, say, 12th place this season, will that be something we can put down to Hasenhuttl replacing Hughes, or will it solely be due to 8 teams not getting as many points as us?

No.

https://twitter.com/SchneiderlinMo4/likes

Didn't realise Glasgow had yet another login

I'd have been equally happy with Marcelo Bielsa (would have been little chance of us prizing him out Leeds, I know, but the question seems to be coming from a theoretical/philisophical perspective?)

Extrapolating that logic, Man City won the league last season because Man Utd (for example) didn't win all their games...

Textbook

Ah! Bugger Maybe this one then....

On BA697 from Vienna to Heathrow per chance? Where's the Saintsweb chap who has access to airline passenger lists when we need him...? https://www.heathrow.com/arrivals/flight-details/ba697-vienna-vie

Cheers for the update Eric. Does Mitchell want to come back or does he need convincing to do so?

https://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/17274253.ralph-hasenhuttl-in-advanced-talks-with-southampton

Indeed. I've just had a quick search in Twitterland for "Sims" & "ReadingFC" and there's a significant number of fans criticising the manager for not favouring Sims over other players, saying that they think he's much better than the players being picked. As Saints fans, we have a lot of experience of managers not picking the 'best' players (or formation) so, perhaps Sims' lack of game time at Reading is more down to poor management decisions than anything to do with Sims' quality? I guess we'll find out if/when he's recalled next month....

I know I'm stating the obvious but, relatively, £6m is a drop in the ocean if we avoid relegation.

There could be various reasons why a loanee player doesn't feature in the host club's squad, although I accept "not quite good enough" might be one of them. These recent quotes from the Reading manaager (below) would tend to suggest he has too many players vying for the same position, but he still rates Sims highly. So, if anything, it sounds like he was loaned out to the wrong club - he should have gone to a club where they were light in Sim's position. The bottom line is we can't definitively conclude that Sims "isn't good enough" simply on the basis that he's not featured more regularly at Reading. Ok, yes, I accept that if he was a world beater then it would be a tad odd if he was being left out of a poor Championship side, but no-one is saying he's a superstar, just that it's not an impossibility that he could still flourish under a different manager and/or different system. https://www.football.london/reading-fc/reading-fc-manager-paul-clement-15390123

Some might say it's "textbook"...

...

Interesting

Which suggests Hughes decided on the cutting off nose to spite face approach... Why not just fine him rather than restrict our selection options by banishing him from the squad?