VectisSaint

To be fair that is a very young team, 18 & 19 year olds, only Hesketh really more experienced.

Hughes is rubbish because Joey Barton says so, FFS, thats like respecting the opinion of Paul Merson or Robbie Savage. No, on second thoughts its worse than even those two.

Guess you watched a different game. Was really getting fed up with the passes that PEH was misplacing, his dwelling on the ball and getting caught. He really was quite poor for a lot of the game. Shame really because I like the guy and think he has great potential but he was a weak link yesterday (along with several others). Very pleased that he got his goal, well taken and that should get his confidence up, should have scored a few minutes before as well. Tadic and Boufal were awful again (Tadic's corners, apart from the goal were dreadful and he contributed nothing else of note, Boufal just contributed nothing of note going forward, other than showing off some delightful skills, but I am always impressed by his defensive work, unlike Tadic, still at least they didn't spend the whole game passing back). Cedric had a mixed game, was poor first half but did a lot of work covering the other defenders, and his goal was sablime, looked very calm and assured, maybe because he was coming in from the left, another monkey off back moment, don't think he is getting the credit he deserves for that goal. McCarthy was great, how on earth did we keep Forster in between the sticks with Alex on the bench. Hoedt dodgy again, but at least no great mistakes and good headed clearance over the bar to prevent a goal. Stephens looked calm and assured again, really is the better of the two CBs, would prefer to see Yoshida partnering him that Wesley. Bertie was anonymous first half, but did well getting forward later on. Lemina looked god at times and awful at other times, needs to impose himself more, he is a very talented player, but seems to lack confidence a bit. Thought Carillo worked hard and though he didn't score or look like doing so, his work rate and movement gave Gabbi some opportunities. Gabbi clearly still lacking confidence, but his penalty was well taken, excellent save from their keeper. Special mention for Redmond, who I usually slag off, thought he looked decent yesterday when he came on, certainly an improvement of Boufal, maybe being encouraged to go forward by Sparky might help. Lets hope Charlie is back for our trip to the London Stadium.

Number of strikers is not the issue, it is our ineffective attacking midfielders. Boufal and Tadic create little or nothing and are hardly involved in the game, PEH is quite poor (he was yesterday, notwithstanding his goal and earlier attempt that should have been buried). We do not have effective midfield players to make the chances for strikers whether they be lone strikers or part of a two. Yesterday we had no threat from our LB either, at least in the first half. I am no fan of Redmond but at least when he came on yesterday he did make a difference.

Well he is the Leicester manager so there could be something in this, just not our youth. To be fair Leicester are top of PL2 Division 1 and we are bottom half od PL2 Division 2, so the result rather reflects our relative positions. The u23s have been very poor for the last season and a half though have had a bit of a renaissance in the last few games. Indicative of the problems with the club at the moment at the top level of the Academy, need to replace Hunter and not really sure Jaidi is the right coach. U18s are a diferent story now looking decent again after bringing in Danny Butterfield.

QPR who were a complete shambles of a club and Stoke in his 5th season with them, after 3 top 10 finishes (for Stoke!!!!). He is aomething like the 5th most experienced PL manager of all time, was brilliant with Blackburn, excellent with Man City (that was before the current moneybags took over) and qualified little old Fulham for the Europa League before he left unexpectedly when nutjob Fayed started ****ing around. What would we give for a manager that lasts 4 seasons, our shambles of a management team can't even keep one for a year. Hughes has near on 40% win ratio, including 4+ seasons with Stoke, season with Fulham and with Blackburn. 40%!!! He wouldn't be my choice, but the crap that is being talked about him by some on here is just completely whacko, some of our supporters seem to be as arrogant as our players allegedy are. Can't see anyone better that is available. Silva is going to Benfica supposdly (would you turn donw Benfica for Saints if you were Portuguese). Bilic is a clown. The only other good candidate around is AVB now that he has finished rallying, but he has no credentials for a relegation scrap. Hughes it will be and have to say thats probably as good as its going to get. Will he keep us up, not sure, sadly he has to work with our useless attacking midfield (T, B & R), but maybe he can spark (excuse pun) one of them into life and remind them how to attack, not give the ball away and not play backward passes. He certainly can't do any worse than Pellegrino or (2nd half of the season) Puel.

To be honest Hughes has had a lot of highs. Blackburn, Man City and Fulham he did very well, QPR was a disaster but then they were a basket case club, Stoke was very good until this season. He wouldn't be my choice but to try and make out he is rubbish is just dumb. Nearly 40% win rate having managed some lower to middle clubs is actually very impressive. Don't really care about long term, what we need is someone to scrap for some results now and keep us up. Will be interesting to see who he brings with him.

Jagger and Richards apparently.

Could be right, it has to be another ex-Scouser.

You and the Dalek are clearly confusing business sense (or business acumen) with personal gain. Taking as much money out of the business as possible is nothing to do with business acumen, it is purely about personal gain, some might even say greed (though I probably wouldn't). It wasn't difficult to make a lot of money from the base that her Father and Nasty Nic had set up, and as soon as she had the power to do so she made every effort to get as much for her person gain as was possible. Good for her, that was her right, she inherited the business, but to not criticise her from the business/club point of view is just plain dumb.

There is really not much value in many of our players. We would lose a great deal trying to sell them off. Who would we make money on? Bertrand, JWP and Stephens, and hopefully we would keep hold of the latter two (be nice to keep hold of Bertie but it won't happen). Anyone who thinks we would get much for any of the others is sadly deluded. Maybe Lemina. Most of our other players would only have a big price if we were doing well and they were looking good. Can you imagine anyone paying anything like good money for Carillo, or our three backward passing midfielders (Tadic, Boufal and Redmond)?

She chose to get shot of Nasty Nice, put Ralph in charge, keep Les and sell to Gao. Ultimately the buck stops with her. In the end you can trace the current shambles back k to her. It was so sad that Markus' untimely demise led to an heiress with no business or football sense was allowed to take over. Cannot understand anyone thinking she is untouchable.

It won't happen. To be honest even if they do sa ck him we are still left with the same feces who appointed him and Puel, so why would they do any better this time? We need Gao to sack Krueger and Reed, then find a new CEO and fire MoPe, but it's too late to do that now. The club management is **** from top to bottom, owners, CEO, Director of Football, 1st team Coach, Academy head etc etc.

Well that would be a positive, 2 games with at least 2 goals scored, we might even win.

Would be hard not to contribute more than them. Our reliance on the trio of Tadic, Boufal and Redmond who are all good footballers but who create the square root of fu k all is in my view our biggest problem this season. Ackward passing, unwilling to beat their man, giving the ball away in midfield, all three are as bad as each h other. It may not look to exciting on paper but would rather go with Sims, JWP and Davo any time as AMs.

This

Yes, but sounded like he was a possibility for Stoke so can't be far off. The haters will be pleased.

We played 3-5-2 for much of the successful part of that season.

New signing?

One misguided kick, you're having a laugh. One calamitous mistake in a good many games is what people are judging him on. Directly responsible for (at least) 3 goals so far this season, and lucky to have got away with several more. He is a very talented player, but has to cut out these big mistakes, would still rather see Yoshida alongside Stephens, but that's not possible at the moment.

Leeds away 24 Jan 1979 League Cup SF. Seems to be a theme here, Leeds is bloody cold.

With you on this. Perhaps I missed it, but have no recollection of any issues at Wembley, all very good humoured mixing with Utd supporters. There were a few scuffles at Stamford Bridge for the SF, but these were just Saints supporters scuffling with other Saints supporters. Had a few incidents at Highbury in the late 60s with bottles thrown at coach windows, but didn't really experience much Bovver until 77/78, Chelsea main culprits, and then the infamous visit to Luton which was very scary getting out of that s h I t hole.

I would prefer not to blame anyone specifically, but these people that post the nonsense about Stephens really **** me off. It's very easy to identify 3 howlers by Hoedt that directly resulted in goals but some gimps who clearly do not a tally watch games lambasted Jack and don't mention Wesley who is far far worse. In the end its a team thing, if blame is to be apportioned then Tadic and Redmond should be lambasted for the things they give away. But no let's blame Stephens. I wish some one would explain why they have this hatred, bit like Londonderry and Verlaine wither hatred of Steve Davis, has to be some sort of personal issue.

Nonsense. If anyone has to be blamed it would be Hoedt, 3 goals given away Dire try from his cock ups. Really don't get the hate for Stephens, based on nothing.

Championship was not fun when we were relegated. It only became fun after promotion.