ooh it's a corner

I think there are lines which should not be crossed if you are blessed enough to earn a living playing professional football. It's bad enough that a substituted player has a tantrum and struts down the tunnel, rather than taking their place on the bench to watch the remainder of the game, but to make the decision to shower, get dressed and leave the building is so utterly disrespectful to the club. It simply says, "**** you, I don't want to be here anymore". Of course he is entitled to be upset because he is not playing in his preferred position. He is entitled to feel aggrieved because he is scape-goated by his half-time substitution, but he is not entitled to stick two-fingers up and strop off, like a spoilt 14 year old. He is a super-highly paid professional. He needs to ****ing act like one. The man in charge of first team affairs chose to play Cedric out of position and then chose to sub him at half time. This is the prerogative of the first team manager. Get over yourself Cedric. If you don't like it, ask to be released from your current contract and go find yourself a new employer in January, (or better still, buy yourself out of your current contract). I am sure clubs are queuing up to match your Southampton salary and land themselves a decent enough full-back, with the attitude of a stroppy teenager.

I like Ralph. I prefer him to Hughes, Pellegrino, and arguably even Puel, but I think we are relegated if he stays. Not all his fault, but in order for him to make his mark on the club, it is obvious he is going to persist in playing players out of position. So, I think we have a choice, back Ralph for the long term, or sack him off and try to stay up/ For me, I cannot believe he wants to be here for the next 15 years, so I would sack him off......

Fair question, but the reason for the original post was to suggest that it looks (from the outside), that there is no unity within the club. Where there is no unity, there will be splinter groups. In our case it would appear we have different views of the world from within (Shareholder A, shareholder B, player group A, player group B, manager, coaches etc). So my question stems from who do we want to come out on top? Eventually somebody will come out on top and the club will have a de-facto leader and move forward under their stewardship. Until then, we have a tug-of-war amongst the rival groups. And we are allowed to move our fan-base allegiance at any time. We supported Lowe when he moved us to a new stadium and eventually we chased him away. We supported Koeman until he had his head turned. We supported the players in telling the board that Pellegrino wasn't good enough.... Each of these past acts was done in the vein of getting behind the club (but not getting behind the whole club, because someone was pulling in a personal direction). So, given each splinter group will have its own agenda, which one do we want to win ?

It is has been a poor few years, we all understand that. We have had the worst result in our history and we have all been on the receiving end of banter because of that. There is a rumour of dressing room discontent and boardroom discontent. Who do we back, as supporters of this club? The board majority shareholder is Gao The board minority shareholder is Kat The executive decision makers are largely unknown, due to recent changes (Kruger, Reed, Ross leaving) The first team manager is Ralph The first team are clearly not a happy bunch and many of whom are earning wages above their level. As a supporter, I can only hang my support on one of those pegs. I have to put my trust in Ralph. That may be disappointing, but who else do I support? Trust Ralph to sort the dressing room and all will be good, or trust the player-power footballers to oust Ralph and all will be good? (What would the unhappy players think if every home game we showed unerring support for Ralph) (I do accept that this may be a choice of chicken-pox versus gonorrhea)

You mean "less dangerous up front than at the back" ?

let's be clear, tonight was about not shipping 10 goals. A good Man City team may want to take the whip out to the league's whipping boys. Lose 3-0 and it is a recovery. shameful

This is a ridiculous statement. If we hired Allardyce I would think our lowest point was yet to come (namely after Allardyce got us relegated and left after a large payout, sending us into a 5 year downward spiral, to a point where we are looking up the table at Portsmouth). If I was an alcoholic and my wife and kids left me and I woke up in a ditch covered in my own ****, this would be my lowest point, and everything would be an improvement from there. no comparison

This is a ridiculous statement. If we hired Allardyce I would think our lowest point was yet to come (namely after Allardyce got us relegated and left after a large payout, sending us into a 5 year downward spiral, to a point where we are looking up the table at Portsmouth). If I was an alcoholic and my wife and kids left me and I woke up in a ditch covered in my own ****, this would be my lowest point, and everything would be an improvement from there. no comparison

Culture comes from the top. The top of our club are two owners. Neither of whom woke up this morning with the thought, "**** we actually lost 9 nil last night". They do not care enough and that transposes itself to the players, who don't care enough. The coaches, who don't care enough and probably every individual there, doesn't care enough. They don't have to match the fans for passion for the club, but they do need to care about it.....

My boss sent me a whatsapp bit of bants. It's all harmless enough. And that is what I will be telling myself when I let three of his tyres down on Monday.

Wonderful quote from the News. (I'm not sure if it is a very clever idiom, or a less than clever idiot); "Luke Ellis We are going backwards. It’s more boring than watching dried paint dry."

It isn't the time to change the manager. However, the manager can come in for some stick. Our honeymoon period with him is over and after the time he has had at the club, he should understand the best starting eleven. He doesn't and that is a worry. Equally, he seems capable of alienating the better players at the club, rather than managing them. It isn't working very well at the minute, but changing Ralph for A.N.Other would be poor. The senior players need to tell him that they cannot cope with playing 15 formations per game and can they settle for one..

All that pre-match hope they had. It was all FOUR-NOTHING hahahahahaah

Barcelona v Real Madrid at number 2???? And whilst I was surprised to see Saints v Pompey ahead of Ajax v Feyenoord or even Arsenal v Spurs, I would put the south coast derby as a more aggressive occasion than Liverpool v Man Utd, which occurs with such frequency, it cannot matter as much.

On our walk back from the game we were discussing Adams and my two comments were; He is a huge improvement over Austin It's nice to not have to listen to Saints fans bleat on that "he looks every inch a Championship player" just because he hasn't scored yet. Obviously I was wrong. He is a decent enough player for the fee we paid. He will score and then he will probably go on a run and bag a few. Support him.

BDO's annual report on football finance is here: (you will need to give them your email address to get it) The headline is that 70% of clubs have been reliant on shareholder funds this year (up from 57% last year). So there are only 27 clubs who are self-sufficient financially..... Link

and yet somehow the governance of football chooses how to apply "fit and proper" director tests......

I think they probably do already, but the business models are so heavily based on the current season, it is hard to see any 2-5 year planning going on. I think the major exceptions to this would be Arsenal and Tottenham, who have had to plan over a multi-year period in order to build the reserves to finance very expensive new stadia. For fans of both teams, they probably feel that their clubs haven't competed with their peers in the top flight for that period, both in terms of signings and player wages. But again, for me, that demonstrates financial prudence, rather than an insatiable appetite to spend next year's revenue......

Yes I certainly wasn't putting Blackpool as a shining example as to how to avoid financial meltdown, although what they did prove was that the owner can get to the promised land and get some cash back, providing they don't spend any and accept the inevitable relegation. Strangely enough I couldn't give two figs for almost all clubs bar Southampton, but I was very pleased when the Oystons were legally removed from Blackpool ownership and had I been local, would have gladly paid for a ticket for their first post-Oyston game.

there needs to be a sensible cap on player wages and agent fees. When we were in League One, our revenue for the year dropped to something like £12m and we had Jason Euell earning 750k per year. The maths simply doesnt add up, which is why most relegated premier league teams struggle financially unless they have a one season hit and dont buy anyone (like Blackpool). Very few owners are taking vast sums of money out of the 92 league clubs, most are putting in. The people taking the revenue out of the clubs are the players, which is ironic really - the players bleed the cow dry and then complain when the cow dies. I appreciate your average Bury footballer isnt earning £1m a year, but I bet he is earning more than the 25k per year that the finances would allow Bury to pay...... Sad for Bury but some of the blame has to go to the authorities who, yet again, prove that they are not governing the sport very well

I see what you did there. Top punning

The old dear on her mobility scooter. And the rather splendid artist's impression of the new quayside Fratton Park, unfortunately shaped like a potty and subsequently bastardised to include an infant having a plop.

I used to think that football was the last sport to use technology to help the officials, in order to allow the big clubs to get the big decisions, but looking at how it is used today, Liverpool & co will get 20+ penalties next year. Any slight shirt tug will be called to the referee's attention and I can guarantee that the shirt tug against the big clubs will go unnoticed. This is the big clubs' chance to blow everyone out the water

Just watched the England v Cameroon game and the biggest issue with VAR as I see it, is that it still has the ability to be subjective. England were 3 up and heading through and there was a VAR for a penalty decision, where the Cameroon defender clearly trod on the foot of the England player, as she passed the ball square. Nailed on penalty, but not given for sympathy reasons (and the fact that Cameroon clearly felt hard done by for the VAR decisions throughout the game). A further bad foul, last moments of the game, but a proper rake down the back of the ankle, should have been a red, but not given because it is too close to the end of the game. Spitting on an opponent, not reviewed; elbowing an opponent was also not reviewed. If we are going to take VAR seriously, we probably need to move the decision making to a fourth/fifth official. England won. Cameroon claim racism. They were lucky to end with more than 8 in my opinion.

Got it thanks. I'd missed the original collapsed case