VectisSaint

Clearly not good enough to get into the side. Think it's harsh on Cedric and Ings, who certainly haven't been our worst players this season. Hoedt, Vestegaard, Bertrand, Romeu, Long, Austin, Redmond, Moi and JWP all much more deserving of a place.

I think you hit the nail on the head, it is complete bull****. No one would train for 8 hours a day. Maybe they are at the training ground between those hours, but a couple of hours intensive training would be max. Our fitness went down hill after Poch left, even under Koeman it was noticeably lower, Puel and MP compounded the problem and suspect Hughes has maintained the same levels. Poch's regime wasn't all good news, players burned out through the high intensity training and playing.

No we don't. Too slow for the PL and doesn't compensate by using his height advantage. Yoshida with Stephens or Hoedt is the best we have. Hoedt and Yoshida will play.

I said he had improved didn't say he had played very well, still full of errors. Have always maintained he will be good one day, but has been very bad so far. Its not a case of people having to admit they are wrong about him. He has been very poor and seems to be improving in the last couple of weeks, probably due to him having better partners as my h as anything now that the Dane has been dropped.

Ignoring Man City our defence has conceded 1 goal in 3 matches. Not really the issue is it. Once we got Captain Slow out of the team things looked up, even Calamity Wes seems to have improved.

Has had highs and lows. That's the point, he seems to be held up as some sort of super manager, but he isn't. Yes, he own the PL at Leicester (with a team largely built by Pearson and predecessors) and within a few months of the following season he was gone with Leicester in 17th place. Failed at Nantes, failed in Greece. Failed in Valencia (second time). Of course he had some great success as well. He is however, a thoroughly likeable guy, I would have been very happy if he had been appointed but its not a disaster that we failed to get him, and it will be interesting to see if he can turn Fulham around, turning relegation threatened teams is not his forte.

Ranieri is not all he's cracked up to be. People remember that he won the PL with Leicester, but gloss over the fact that he was sacked the following season with the team in 17th place. His success was also largely based on what Pearson had built at Leicester. Nice bloke, but I don't think he was the answer to our current woes.

Good point, forgot about that. Makes you wonder what the point was of keeping him in house, should have been loaned out.

Gonna be a little ironic if Targett gets to start against Fulham. Hope he does, Bertrand has been one of our worst performers this year, thankfully his love of yellow cards has forced Hughes to do something. Imagine Austin will also be suspended by then. Hopefully Ings will be OK, otherwise we will be left with Gabbi and O'Bafemi. Marcus Barnes on standby? Be nice to drop Hoedt and bring Stephens back but can see Hughes persisting with Calamity Wes.

Hard to tell if you are being serious, but just in case, you don't really think football under Koeman was gung-ho do you? Some of Koeman's fare was turgid stuff, especially when he was trying to turn round the long winless streak in the middle of his second season. Puel's style did however take turgidity to another level.

Maybe we should be giving Marcus Barnes a run, he is out-scoring Michael Obafemi in the u23s (just), everyone was saying Michael was "scoring for fun".

Because they relied on Les and Hunter. Les was all things football at St Mary's. Who else is there at the Club with wide-ranging football expertise? Ross Wilson (our super successful head of recruitment)? Matt Hale (our highly successful head of academy)? Maybe Gao's advisors who have suddenly been discovered in the last couple of days. if not perhaps Super Kelvin Davis or Dave Watson. It's a bloody joke. Unless Gao has already identified someone to head up the recruitment (and will bring them in this week) then I don't have a lot of faith. To leave it all in the capable hands of a hockey coach, two heiresses and a finance officer is a recipe for disaster.

I didn't say that, I'm delighted that Reed has gone and Hunter. But its extremely concerning that we don't have anyone with any great knowledge of the football industry now left to make the decision. Now we have to decide how to replace him based on resumes (ha ha, they are usually good for a laugh) without being able to understand what the **** they are talking about during an interview process. Hopefully there is someone still available to the Board who can help, don't know if Oldknow might still help, or maybe Reed had already been looking for his successor. Very naive to think there are a plenty of people out there ready to submit their resumes for consideration by our bunch of amateurs. For a start Krueger has already said that a single replacement for Reed does not exist, so in other words he is looking to set up a new, different structure, with people with different skill sets. You really couldn't make it up the bizarre mess the club has got itself into, if what we see is the whole picture (and I accept it might not be). How to structure the football (technical) side of our business with the help of a ice hockey coach/(de)motiviational speaker, two heiresses, a not very good businessman and a finance officer. Fills me with so much confidence.

Running a business that is purely based on one product, football, and you have no (or very little) knowledge of the product. Crazy. No business would succeed in such a set up. If they know nothing how do they hire people who do? On what basis do they select the appropriate candidate. Agreed not all of the Board need to have football expertise, but someone must have some knowledge. That's why Reed was on the Board. Markus and Cortese were knowledgable about football, though admittedly not deeply ingrained, Markus had been involved before buying Southampton, and Cortese was in sports management. Andy Oldknow recommended Read to Cortese. We sort of hope that Krueger has gained some knowledge in his time here, but whenever he utters his bull**** you seriously wonder.

Hunter has been a total disaster, have been saying it for years. Transformed our Academy from one of the best (some might say the best in the country), to one of the poorest on his watch. He should have gone years ago, but clearly was mates with Les, so was safe while he was still around. You have to question whether Matt Hale should have gone as well, but maybe without the shackles of Hunter he might prove to be the man to turn it around. It was a bad day for Saints when Matt Crocker left for England.

Also he isn't going until the end of the year, we wouldn't have sa ked Les knowing this fella would not be here until January.

Need some help from Andy Old know to find replacement for Les. Absolutely no idea who could replace him, unless we raid RB Leipzig.

This. Unless Hughes walks, which is possible, there is no way we will or should sack him while there is no one in charge of football. Krueger and the owners are clueless, what we don't need right now is for them to appoint someone. I just worry about how they are going to get a new DOF, with their collective lack of knowledge.

Excellent, has played a major part in the downward spiral of the club, has managed to turn one of the best academies in the country into one of the poorest. There are a few more heads need to roll, but Hunter and Reed are at least a start. Wilson and Krueger next please, it would be nice to see the back of Liebherr and Gao but that's not so easy to achieve. I just worry about who is going to find a replacement for Les. Fair play to him he did some good stuff when he joined but ultimately he had no idea how to develop further.

Redknapp was 2nd favourite to replace Hodgson in Jun 2016, Southgate was favourite.

McCarthy was in the England squad before he even went to Palace. He was a good keeper when he was at Palace as well, he hasn't improved while at Saints to any degree just been around to replace the hopeless Forster. Watson is a liability, unable to improve keepers who don't have natural ability.

Because the alternative was Redkrapp.

What about Bertram Mills and Gerry Cottle? Mary Chipperfield could do a job for us. ?

Do Gao or Liebherr even attend games these days? Would they notice? For that matter do Reed or Krueger or Hunter attend either?

It's no good getting rid of Hughes until we get rid of the tests that choose a replacement