SNSUN

I had to read Lightwater at least 4 times before I saw the swear. Propah nawty.

Mane out injured yesterday, Benzema out today, it seems like a lot of players are getting injured before this WC...

Would that have evaded the swear filter when this site had it... 😁

Winner- Brazil Runner Up - Netherlands England Out - Quarters Surprise team - USA

Is he a firm number 9 or can he also play in the 10 position? 😜 Seriously it's refreshing to hear us wanting to tap into the youth in the Spanish market - we got a lot of mileage out of Romeu who was La Masia trained and have been linked with other Barcelona youth players over the years (Tello for one) so it would be nice to see us raid that market for talented youth. (As long as it's not too late and we go down before we get the chance to.)

Mildly harsh but otherwise spot on really. We really are a shambles right now. Maybe a fresh set of eyes, any new fresh set of eyes, is what we need right now to see where our strengths and weaknesses lie. Maybe someone that can spot we have 3 very good centre backs so maybe having them as a 3 at the back could work. Or someone that can see we're a CM light without Lavia and an out of form JWP. Or someone that can clearly see we have fuck all in attack and that it needs rectifying and fast. Jones is fresh eyes, despite his lack of experience and maybe that's what we need right now because clearly under Ralph we were growing stale.

Welcome Nate. Hope he's better than our last Welsh manager, which means not just keeping us in the league but building on it. I'd take the former right now. Seeing as I'm already predicting us for relegation this season, the bar is pretty low so maybe Jones can surprise us. It won't happen against Liverpool but at least he's got the WC to try and get his tactics implemented for Boxing Day. We have the most important transfer window of our lives coming up too. At least we can go into it with a fairly settled managerial team. I'm not dancing over the moon (or whatever the phrase is) with this appointment but he gets my support no different to any other manager. For now.

Jones Out. There I said it first. 😛 Seriously he has my support as long as he picks a formation that suits us, picks players in their strongest positions and gets players performing. We need transfers in January but he's got, what, 2 or 3 games before then to see what we've got currently.

Ah that explains it, I thought it was because i had 43 tabs open on my phone.

Nathan Jones? We'd be lucky to get Aled Jones as our manager at this rate...

It's an interesting line up, not least because it looks quite attacking and I'm interested to see how Edozie and Mara get on. It looks like it could be fluid with a 4 (Lyanco and Djenepo as full backs) or 3 at the back with Djenepo rwb and perhaps Edozie as lwb? We shall see but a win would really bring a bit of positivity around the place, even if it is against League 1 opposition.

If we are heading for relegation towards the end of the season I wouldn't be surprised to see us sack Jones and bring in a panic manager, ironically someone we'd probably take now over Jones. If we do get relegated during Jones's tenure I'd be very surprised to see us with him next season, but who knows with SR's decision making. Jones is a manager we should be looking at IF we already were in the Championship, not one we can keep until we ARE in the Championship. It just seems like we're building for the future... in a different league.

Voted unsure as clearly SR see something most of the rest of us don't but was verging on voting No. We need the fanbase united right now going into the most important six months of our recent history and this appointment won't do it. Additionally we have the most important transfer window of our history coming where we need quality attacking recruits... is Nate the man to attract them? I can't see it. We'll be lucky to get Brereton Diaz at this rate. Lastly I voted unsure simply because I don't know enough about him. But from what I read it's unlikely he's going to become the next Arsene Wenger. The very best I'm hoping for is a Strachan type fit but even he had Prem experience.

I quite liked the big man, often had a smile on his face, stayed loyal to the club despite his hands being tied in the transfer market, and got occasionally got some positive results out of a reducing quality set of players over the years. Perhaps if Lavia and ABK hadn't got injured this season we'd have had a few more points from all those 1-0 losses and he'd still be here but that's the way the cards were dealt. At the end his formations and team selections were all over the place but perhaps that's a result of being here too long, and I definitely felt he should have gone in the summer on better terms. It'd be a shame for football if he retired though, he's not old enough yet and I reckon he has another job in him. Good Luck for the future Ralph.

If Jones is who we go for, he gets my support no different than any other manager has until they've showed ineptitude (I think I backed Pellegrino for the shortest length of time as it was obvious we were terrible pretty quickly). However this is not a 'coup' in my mind, this is a manager that I have reservations over, not least whether he'll be able to handle big egos of Premier League players on £100k a week with no Premier League experience and a failed stint at Stoke on his CV. In a season we are looking at the drop he is definitely not who I would have chosen, and we can't afford to be picky with only 24 games remaining, most of them tough. But this is Sports Republic money and they can appoint anyone they see fit... I just hope it's us fans that don't suffer from the decision. However as I said, if we appoint him I support him and I strongly hope my reservations about him prove unfounded. Sometimes a manager is a perfect fit for a club - maybe he's ours... who knows.

I bet young Nathan is sat at his home in Luton right now with a huge boner. Definitely not who I thought we'd go for.

We'll find out when the new manager is appointed. If he also doesn't pick them, we'll know they're probably not good enough or ready enough...yet.

Nathan Jones? And there I was Googling Andre Villas-Boas... 😛

Well my guess of Stankovic from page 1 is off, he joined Sampdoria last month and has only won once since. 😬 If youth is what the powers that be want to invest in, then we should be bringing in a manager that believes in playing youth. Someone that's not scared to play Edozie or Mara or Ballard which I always got the impression Ralph was.

No grudge against Ralph, I didn't mind him as a bloke and at the time of his appointment it seemed like a coup and he steadied the ship that had been crashing into rocks under Pellegrino and Hughes. He did OK with is pressing game, with his hands tied in the transfer department and with bouncing back after the 2 9-0s. But his decision making has always been iffy and lately it seems he doesn't even know what formation to play, let alone what his strongest team is. Then we see that line up yesterday and the guy has complete lost it. He should have gone in the summer really. We needed fresh eyes, possibly even sooner than now, and now we are going to get them. I just hope Sports Republic have that Gakpo money in the transfer kitty for January as we are really, REALLY going to need it if we are going to survive. Right now I have that awful sinking feeling...

Thanks - he broke his nose, wrist, knee and every rib but for 74 he's pretty hardy and luckily broken bones is the only damage so he's lucky. His loss of independence is what's annoying him the most!

Football has almost completely bypassed me over the last week and a bit after my dad was hit by a car but... what the absolute shit was that line up? It's like he WANTS to get sacked. I can only hope the damage done this season isn't permanent and we can turn it around after the WC. Ideally we need new players through the door on January 1ST, not January 31ST.

It's a farce. I'm not against hot climate World Cups but there are dozens of nations who have done more for football (or had more interest in football like most African nations for example) that should have deserved it before the big money of Qatar got it's hands on it. I don't like a winter WC but if they are going to have one I do think it should have been done in, say, January when people are pretty depressed post-Christmas and there's fuck all happening otherwise. I missed not sitting in a pub garden in the sunshine getting my WC fix this summer. Shame on all those that agreed to it in 2010. All that said... I've got 2 weeks leave from the 20th so can actually watch a large chunk of group games, which I rarely get a chance to, so I'm quite excited on a personal level.

SNSUN also for January... Seriously though, he's nearly 28 although with decent stats. Are we going against our young signings policy? Maybe we've seen we need some experience...

Yep, typical Saints, in a season where we look like one of the favourites to go down we actually have the best set of CBs we've had in seasons. It's for this reason that I think we have a chance of survival, but only if we go out in January and sign the attacking players we need. I randomly look at other teams histories on Wikipedia and was drawn back to the time West Ham signed Kitson and Hartson and they propelled them to safety (not to mention the obvious time they signed Tevez and Mascherano). We need to do the same in January. IMO with everyone fit we have to go with the 3 CBs (certainly against more attacking teams) - A back 8 of Bazunu, ABK, DCC, Salisu, KWP (or Tino if fit with KWP LWB), JWP, Lavia, Perraud almost writes itself. Then stick some quality new attacking signings up front with one or two of the current lot and you really think we should be staying up with that.