Matthew Le God

If you think a mid-table club is going to sack a manager who got them to only their 6th major cup final in their 132 year existence and replace him with an ex-player with ZERO experience as a manager days before Wembley then it is you that is a "joker". Mad as a box of frogs.

Can you name any examples of a manager being sacked 2 weeks before a major cup final at Wembley?

What are you accusing him of "wimping out" of? It isn't Boufal's fault many opponents see the only way to stop him being to hack him down, that is how he picks up injuries. I've also seen him accused of lacking workrate, when he is actually very effective at tackling back and winning the ball.

It removes the chance of a bidding war, so it isn't really in Southampton's interest to agree to such a deal.

The cup final is 2 weeks after the Sunderland game, there is no need for current 1st choice players like Bertrand, Cedric, Davis & Yoshida to be rotated for the Sunderland game. Puel has been rotating when fixtures are congested, we have a large amount of recovery time available now for the majority of the rest of the season.

It means you must win it or "X" happens. I was asking what you though "X" was.

What exactly do you mean by "must win"? "Must win" or what? They aren't going to sack Puel 2 weeks before a cup final at Wembley.

Well he is 73 years old!

He has also been the England manager since leaving Sunderland.

Football really is in a mess if the current Crystal Palace manger would make payments under the table to help Sunderland sign a player!!!

I'm normally pretty optimistic, but it really is dire at the moment! The lack of a centre back signing is a big issue, but as an attacking force we really don't look good either.

If Forster is injured or sent off after 5 minutes then Hassen wouldn't "just be sat on the bench". If he isn't match sharp then he shouldn't be on the bench.

Puel said in his pre-match press conference & one-to-one interview with club media that Hassen (although training) may not be ready to be in a matchday squad.

How have you managed to jump to that conclusion from the available evidence (we have at the moment)??? Puel said out for 2-3 months. 2 months takes us to the beginning of April 3 months takes us to the beginning of May Southampton's last game this season in on 21st May

His demand for £100k p/w wages apparently put West Ham off signing him... http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/west-ham-decide-against-late-9730092

Yes, I am. Seen little need to do so in the past, but today has really annoyed me!

8 years under Liebherr and the club has done relatively little wrong to warrant criticising them. But if we don't sign a new centre back tonight (not looking likely at the moment!) then they have ****ed up big time.

We play a formation with 1 striker, we don't really need 4 senior strikers for a 433 system. It won't be overly long until Austin is back, so fitting Austin, Gabbiadini, Long & Rodriguez in to a match-day squad of 18 isn't easy when we also have Boufal, Redmond, Tadic & Sims for the 2 wide positions in the 433 system. - Play 2 upfront and you need 4 senior strikers in the squad - Play 1 upfront like Saints do and you only really need 3 senior strikers in the squad Any more that that and it bloats the squad a little, senior players aren't even making the matchday squad of 18 and get unhappy.

Commercial revenue increases is what we need to progress and it seems the club's commercial department are starting to get better deals than they used to with this deal with Unilever/Sure and the big Under Armour & Virgin Media deals. https://southamptonfc.com/news/2017-01-30/southampton-sure-announcement

You avatar and posts like this suggest you believe he is a liar. Can you prove this with evidence? Just because something doesn't happen, doesn't automatically mean the person is a liar, it is possible for someone to change their mind based on new evidence.

I doubt we'll be signing a right back as Jeremy Pied is back doing ball work. Would be bloating the squad to sign another right back now.

Merson isn't employed by Sky Sports for his football knowledge. He is there as a jester and figure of fun. Two large companies use me for my knowledge of Saints & football in genral. They don't use me as a figure of fun on an afternoon sports results programme, I'm paid for Saints knowledge by one of them and they both wouldn't bother if they didn't think I knew what I was talking about. I know some on this forum disagree with lots of the things I say, but many don't.

You misunderstand me, my point was Sky use idiots as football experts like Merson, yet everyone jumps at them when they use a resource actual clubs use for scouting.

A large number of professional clubs use the FM database as an initial data resource. It is the largest database of footballers in the world and the biggest scouting network in the world. Prozone uses FM data. News organisations public interviews outside stadiums etc and football "experts" like Paul Merson... so why ridicule a resource that professional clubs use? https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/aug/12/why-clubs-football-manager-scouting-tool