The Kraken

As wiki says….. Athletic Club, commonly known as Athletic Bilbao or just Athletic, is a professional football club based in the city of Bilbao in the Basque Country of Spain. Much like Barcelona’s ground was often referred to as the Nou Camp in the Uk but Camp Nou everywhere else. Probably just Britishisms that became standard for us but were never the actual true name that the club referred to them as. And the Boleyn Ground was always the official name for the stadium located within Upton Park. It is much like a Spaniard referring to our stadium as Estadio de Santa Maria, not incorrect but not the true name.

ABK dislocated shoulder. Bednarek, even after replays I couldn’t quite work out what happened but he obviously got a good whack, in the ribs I think. He tried to play on but looked in a bit of pain.

Did you go again Chaz? Brilliant stuff pal, after proclaiming a month ago that you were in the midst of a three and a half year boycott of Saints you’ve properly turned round. Good on you. Or is someone else using the account again?

Yep, 10 from 10 is doable. 13, given the run in, a massive ask. Still, magic an away win against the appy ammers and who knows…. Dammit, why do this shower keep making me believe in them?!

3 wins 4 draws is the best chance I think we might have, certainly can’t see us winning 4 games. Bournemouth and Palace games are the obvious ones where we’ve got a chance. But, look what Bournemouth did against Liverpool. Miracles can happen. I’m not expecting it, mind. I see us limping home to about 30 points.

Excellent battling back today, it keeps the sliver of survival alive. We’ve got 10 games left so we’re into desperation stakes. We’ve got 23 points. I reckon 36 or 37 points stays up this season; could be less but it’s so tight and current “safety” is 25 points from 27, Leicester and Everton each with a game in hand. Hers our run in. I’ll be honest, I’m struggling to see where 13 or 14 points comes from. West Ham v Saints Saints v Man City Saints v Palace Arsenal v Saints Saints v Bournemouth Newcastle v Saints Forest v Saints Saints v Fulham Brighton v Saints Saints v Liverpool

You don’t half make up some absolutely weird rubbish.

Have I missed the joke? None of those have changed from what they were originally.

I’ve lost faith in everything. I had little faith in these players, I had the tiniest bit of faith that Selles might be able to miracle something out of them. All gone. Elyounoussi still getting a game, millions of pounds worth of signings not able to make the team ahead of Walcott, Adams and Eluseless. Zero shots on target. Fuck off. Just rubbish.

I don’t disagree with that. But the club decided to go for Orsic, so another player to “challenge” in that position with Elyounoussi and Edozie. Then they signed Sulemana, another one to challenge. Plus, from what I gather, Tella wasn’t all that keen on coming back anyway. And we had Nathan Jones at the helm then, which would’ve been a massive backwards step for him. Both parties came to the conclusion that a recall wasn’t the best option for him, and they were right. A complete cock up of transfers, but it wasn’t as if we didn’t bring Tella back to shore a gap. The signings we made just aren’t cutting the mustard.

A bit of revisionism going on in this thread. Tella burst onto the scene with Saints but he didn’t do much after that. He looked pretty terrible this pre-season, albeit Ralph had a weird idea of playing him in a central role up front. Despite that the kid looked overwhelmed in the summer and when he left I doubt many of the posters in here bemoaning his absence were saying, back then, that it was a mistake to let him go. As showed he appeared in 18 league games for us in 20/21 and 14 league games in 21/22. 2 goals in all that time, a total of 40 games in all competitions, a goal every 20 games (accepted, many were as a sub). The loan has worked out great for him, it has given him much more playing time just when he needed it. And he’s still only 23. I’m almost glad he didn’t stay as I’m sure we wouldn’t have afforded him chances and we’d have made him worse. But, hindsight aside, it was the right decision to loan him out, particularly for him. Just because we signed a bunch of shit for huge money (and still have to play the joke Elyounoussi in that position) doesn’t necessarily Tella would have been the answer had he stayed. Sometimes a move away works well for players, and Tella is flying since leaving us, absolute kudos to him for it. I hope he gets what he wants from whatever happens.

Good to hear that your three and a half year personal protest is at an end now Chaz 👍

Yeah, very disappointing. I was very much of the opinion that Selles should get the job until the end of the season. Teams need stability, we were massively snookered by the Jones debacle, and I wasn’t all that impressed with getting Marsche as the “best” option in the first place. Sadly, these bunch of fuckers we’ve got give off the opinion that they couldn’t give a shit. Like under Jones against Man City they were able to massively raise their performance for one game, then again have settled back into utter mediocrity. The manager isn’t the main problem, it’s the tossers under him who hold the blame for all of this season. Selles until the end of the season for me still, it’s a write off. Then see where we are. If Sports Republic are true to their word then there’s enough of a ‘project’ next year to make it an attractive proposition to get someone reasonable in. If Selles manages to turn it around somewhat then he’ll be in the frame, if not, he’ll be off. No good moaning about Ankersen, he’s part of the problem but he’s not going anywhere so better just hope he gets his head out of his arse soon enough.

Surprised to see Lavia in there, thought he’d get a rest.

And this season? We were in the relegation zone when Ralph was sacked. We looked awful right up to that point. Its a really low benchmark to say it, but almost any competent manager would’ve been better than Nathan Jones. That’s basically a gimme, the majority of the fanbase knew he was a complete dud from the outset, it was just a minority of divots like duckhunter who thought he’d be anything but shit. But Ralph was a bust, he was dialling it in and he’d lost the players just the same as Jones did. Ralph needed to go, but the club completely fucked up in who they appointed, and they wasted the world cup break on a complete fruitcake. Nathan Jones got 6 defeats from 7 so it goes without saying that Ralph or anyone would’ve done better than that. It doesn’t mean he should’ve been kept on.

Yep, can’t argue with that side.

Selles has said there will absolutely be rotation, as he doesn’t want the players to be burnt out for the weekend. He hinted that it’s not out of the question for the whole team to change, I reckon he won’t quite go that far but it’ll be largely a complete change. Personally I’d go with….. Willy KWP - DCC - Salisu - Perraud Diallo - JWP - Alcaraz Sulemana - Mara - Edozie

I think we can all agree that John Terry is a disgraceful human being, but he was a good defender. Can you imagine someone like him doing what Bednarek did today? An absolutely cowardly moment from Janny B. Please fuck him off, and keep him fucked off forever. It’s also pitiful that we need a 41 year old to take over the gloves from the current incumbent.

Orsic has concussion so even if Selles wanted him, he wouldn’t be allowed to pick him due to concussion protocol.

I definitely think the Fa cup game would’ve been used to rotate. I’ll keep my powder dry on what Selles has got planned long term. Against Chelsea he only had what, a day or two to prepare in training? So he went with a formation some of the players know. After the win I’m not going to blame him for going with the same today. If we line up like that against Leicester then, yeah, it’s not great. I’d like to think he’s a bit more progressive than that, he is new enough at SFC to not be wedded to the 4-2-2-2. We shall see, I certainly think it’s not our best shape and we need a solid midfield 3.

He will, check out the bbc interview: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/av/football/64731017 He says there will definitely be some rotation, he even hints that he could rotate all eleven. But it seems pretty certain there will be a high number of changes.

Some of you lot have short memories. Under Rupey we had a world class catering setup and our own radio station.

To be fair, that team earned the right to start after their performance and result against Chelsea. They’ve since lost that right, they were all below par today, to a man. The FA cup game will see lots of rotation, Selles even mentioned that there’s a possibility all eleven could potentially change. After that it’s a clean slate.

Bednarek just being the invisible man. Bazunu should still have saved it but his CB did him no favours at all.

https://www.skysports.com/premier-league-highlights/video/36504/12819907/leeds-1-0-southampton-premier-league-highlights Video here. If you can’t watch it all the goal move starts just after two minutes. Just pretty shoddy all round.