ooh it's a corner

For £3-6m per year, plus a 3 year contract, I reckon we can attract some better names than that. Plenty of managers won't care about poisoned chalice, it is a chance to earn more money than they can earn elsewhere. We won't attract the best, but we will attract better than Hughes.

Hughes could be honest and say, "I have no idea what to change in training to improve things, I have no idea during the game to improve things, and I cannot improve these average footballers one inch". (And then get sacked).

Yes, yes they were, but if we're not on yacht-watch, house-watch is the next best thing..

I do enjoy the speculation that comes with the manager merry-go-round. Of course, I would love us to be in our twentieth year of a successful manager, but we have yet another manager who is likely to take us down if he stays in place. But there's nothing more entertaining on this forum that the speculation of "has he gone yet", shortly followed by stories of glimpses at airports, taxi driving tales and house purchases in Winchester..... it is the only time that posters voice an opinion/tit-bit of gossip and it all gets taken with a pinch of salt... Love it, love it* (* not a reference to the return of Keegan. I'm definitely not ITK).

Perhaps a new manager wouldnt let Austin or Long anywhere near the first team? Perhaps a new manager would play Yoshida and not Hoedt? Perhaps a new manager would advise Redmond to run and keep running and not check back all the time? I was convinced Pellegrino was going to take us down and I am equally convinced Hughes will do the same. I accept we have average players, which is why they need to work twice as hard as their opponents. They simply look dreadfully unfit and that is the training regime's fault, for which Hughes needs to be held to account. Average players + below average work ethic = relegation. Average players + above average work ethic = survival.

Start Yoshida and don't start Austin. Please.

Hughes, please leave. You are annoying me as much as Branfoot did.

Austin is the least fit footballer I have seen in a Saints shirt, since Le Tissier's last injury prone season before he retired. Even Ali Dia could run about more than Austin. Professional footballer? Don't make me laugh.....

I don't understand why we think we cannot attract a very high calibre manager. I appreciate if you are a foreign manager, you may not want to move your home into the UK, but most football managers have to be accepting of the need to go where the work is, due to the very small number of local jobs. I would expect Southampton to be in top 30 highest paid managers on the planet. Just think on that for a second. Little old Southampton should be able to attract one of the top 30 managers on the planet, assuming they would be happy to work in Hampshire. Instead we end up with Mark effing Hughes. I cannot see him turning the current squad into winners and I believe we will be relegated this year, if he remains in charge all year. The squad isn't as high a quality as recent seasons, but it is better than bottom three.

I don't like the immediate-success that the premier league craves, but equally I don't accept that Hughes is not to blame because he has inherited most of the players. He has had the luxury of selling 1 player in the summer and buying £50m quids worth of "talent". He didn't buy particularly well, and he still thinks Austin is a better footballer than Gabbi and for that alone, I would make him walk the plank. But, I agree with the sentiment in this post, the problem really lies above Hughes and it is Gao/Reed/Kruger who need to be looking in the mirror. I would far sooner see "Gao out" banners adorning St Mary's, than "Hughes out".

All of which have the potential to alienate the core season ticket base. I really deliberated about renewing my season ticket this year, but if the club continues to promote vastly cheaper tickets for games, it will make my mind up very quickly about what I will do next year. If the product (shudder at using that word) has become so unpopular that the club recognises they can only sell £15 tickets, then they should make my season ticket £300 not £570. Perhaps then we would have 25k season ticket holders and selling tickets for home games becomes a far easier proposition. I missed about a third of the games last year due to tv schedules versus work commitments. Lose my season ticket and the club will replace it with a guy who buys half a dozen tickets per season, for games that suit my schedule. Whilst some season ticket holders will be die hard committed fans, there are others who go to games regularly, almost out of habit, not passionate support. Break that habit and the once valued customer disappears forever, only to be seen at the occasional cup final, assuming they can get a ticket........

14 appearances in 3 seasons. Our black box needs throwing away and replacing with a tombola.

A goal scorer would have been great, but another injured goalscorer would just be plain desperate.

In some respects I think it is easier for the new boys to compete in the Premier League, than the established clubs. Two reasons for this; Firstly, the FFP rules means wages are tied to income. A newly promoted club can lift everyone's salary so that they are happy, and have plenty of room to spare. The established clubs have had wage re-negotiation upon wage re-negotiation until you are paying your first team squad (e.g. Forster) so much, that nobody wants to take them. Second up, the type of player that you can sign that improves your squad doesn't have to be as good as the established clubs. Wolves will do what we did after promotion, sign some great players, who'll move on quickly as they have only gone to Wolves as a shopfront, Wolves will inflate the wages of their average Premier League players to try to keep them, reduce the free cash to buy the quality ones, then they will slide down the table.

Sell, Targett for £10m, loan Forster to Besiktas paying 60% of his wages, should free up enough cash to get Welbeck, only for the Welbeck deal to fall through at 4:55pm. Come on Les, you know it makes sense.....

Villa are ****ged because FFP rules don't allow a £49m loss aggregated across three years (or something similar). Villa have spent hugely in two years gambling that they would be promoted and have failed. Leaving absolutely no cash to pay for viva John Terry, or Steve Bruce's hair stylist. So, next year, they won't have Terry and Steve Bruce will look more like his mum every week. And the steak and kid-knee pies will have to go up.

I support the idea of playing the hierarchy game, but we are not above Glasgow Celtic in football hierarchy. We simply pay more than them, whilst offering a shop window in the most expensive football league in the world. So, we don't need to focus on hierarchy, we need to focus on players who can significantly increase their salary by coming here. It doesn't matter if they play for Celtic, Lyon, Lazio or Chelsea reserves. But we need to make certain that they are improving what we already have, which hasn't always been the case recently.

Looks like a proper merry-go-round for premier league managers this summer. Wenger going, Big Fat Sam almost certainly going, Moyes looks unlikely to stay at West Ham, Conte unlikely to stay at Chelsea, MoPo going to be enticed away from Tottenham, and Hughes not guaranteed to stay at Saints. Add to all of that that Redknapp wants back in..... (shudder)

St Sabuvyu = Saint s above you

I like this but it is far too subtle for the folks of East Hampshire.

Do you think Swansea and Man City will both keep clean sheets? I think both Southampton and Stoke are likely to score. Stoke may even score more than 1. So, assuming Saints and Stoke score 2 between them, Man City and Swansea have to score 12. Not going to happen, not in a month of Sunday kick-offs.

6 minutes added on. torture for Hudds and Swansea fans.

so, imagine you are a Hudders fan? two difficult games to go, easily conceivable that you lose them both and the Swansea beat Stoke, and you find yourself 1-1 away at Chelsea with fifteen to go? Nervous?

nah. We were always within a couple of good results of dragging ourselves out of this one, and had we gone down, we all would have agreed that it was so avoidable. In the great escape years during the 90's, we were dead and buried. Blackburn at home, Newcastle at home, but never gave in. We also had some pretty mediocre players that wouldn't get into any other side in the top division, so staying up felt like an over-achievement. Don't get me wrong, it was a really good feeling last night, but as escape routes go, this wasn't the best.

Not wanting to split hairs, but actually seven teams better than them :-) Still to finish eighth in the third tier is a splendid result for our plucky neighbours. Eisner must be thrilled to see his investment doing so well.