SNSUN

The more revenue the club makes the better. Plus, if you go and Saints are still doing shite, you can sneak off to the dressing room and leave a fresh turd in Ryan Manning's football boots.

The Prem gave us extra financial clout which is what SR cared about - but for anyone with eyes you could see our transfer business was shite. Of our permanent signings: THB and Downes - Ok in the Championship but he's not Prem quality. Lallana - past it for the Prem Taylor - had been solid but we never played him Edwards - young and jumping 2 divisions Wood - Jumping a division and Swansea fans were mostly glad to get rid of him Sugawara - a punt that didn't pay off. BBD - another one jumping a division and hardly prolific, one and a half decent seasons in the Championship Archer - another young punt based on one decent Championship season Fraser - past it for the Prem ...and a bunch of youngsters they hope might come good one day. Oh and Ugochukwu and Gronbaek on loan. It was a shambles of a window for a team just arriving in the Premier League, those are the sort of signings a Championship team would make. The only hits were Ramsdale and Fernandes, both of whom are now no longer at the club. Our transfer dealings have been largely shite for years now, with the odd hit amongst failures. This is why we are struggling now and why, under SR, I struggle to see us back in the Premier League any time soon. Scienza, Fellows, Azaz, Jander - more of those and we might at least become a force in the Championship again in the next couple of years.

Ox-C is still available on a free... 😀

So will Ramsdale. We just have to try to get promoted in the next 20 (or 23 with play-offs) games then we don't have to worry. 🤪

Gavin Bazunu's wrists after an attempt at a save... 😁

We gave Jack a new contract so....

Linked with Leicester. Thats a no from me.

...and Smallbone, Taylor, Sugawara, ABK, Bree and Larios. We will fucking steamroller League 1. 😜

Another SR disaster signing from the tactic - buy young, sell high. Just because it worked with Livramento and Lavia doesn't mean gold will strike twice/thrice etc. He was poor, with only fleeting moments of anything resembling competence. That's on SR, not the young, inexperience keeper thrust into the Premier League. He was not the answer and to have persisted for so long with him shows incompetence. I can only hope Peretz isn't as crap or worse, or Alex Mc will be back in the sticks before the end of the season. Stoke must be be preparing for Johansson leaving perhaps. That is a massive downgrade from what I've seen. Reading the Oatcake forum is funny, they're trying to convince themselves he's a good signing...

Jovan Makama (21, 6'5'', already 12 goals this season in a poor side) at Norwich has shown recently that there can be value in the lower Leagues. It's not guaranteed though, especially when you factor in that we are Southampton Football Club. 😄

For me I felt most positive last in the COVID year 2020, post the first lockdown when football started up again we seemed like a different team under Ralph. 5 wins and 3 draws against decent opposition over 9 games, it definitely felt to me like we were going places. We then started the season in good form too having sold Boufal and Hojbjerg and signed KWP, Salisu and Diallo, but then we got to 2021 and bang, we basically turned to shit. What followed was poor form over the second half of the season, decreasingly talented players, then in 2022 there were ownership changes, a manager who probably got disillusioned and overstayed his tenure, Nathan Jones, etc etc etc and we are where we are. The promotion season was decent-ish but I never felt we were ready for the Premier League - even if the play-off win was a special moment. Our time will come again but I find it hard currently to believe that it will come with SR in charge.

He had a pretty bad injury so I'm glad he's showing what he can do at a lower level. If he continues to do well, we could always re-sign him anyway. He'll just cost more than had we kept him.

Schroedinger's fixture. Both winnable and loseable at the same time. Good job there aren't replays anymore so fans don't have to sit through it more than once.

I'll go for Newcastle at home. TV game, Ramsdale unavailable against his parent club despite his penalty saving heroics.

Proven goal scorer at this level, good age and quite tall. Any club with a bit of money should be all over that. Wishful thinking I know but maybe he's homesick. I'd have thought he could do better than the MLS.

We were in League One at the time so perhaps there wasn't as much of a gap as it seemed! I have memories of losing to Port Vale back in 1994, listening to it at my Gran's house on her wireless. I had to check if they were non-League but surprisingly it was during one of their more successful periods.

3 types of players IMO - Good, OK and Crap. In Fellows and Azaz we've found a couple of OK ones. The problem with SR is that they'll sell them and there's a majority chance that end up with the Crap variety, based on past dealings. Really only Scienza and Jander have been in any way Good recruits recently. It's going to take one hell of a summer of Good recruitment for us to even think about promotion again, and I don't trust SR to deliver it.

Mid-table. I think we'll be closer to the play-off spots than the relegation spots but something needs to change from our recent run of poor form. Hopefully we get Shea Charles back soon. We have the quality to sneak into a promotion race (via play-offs) but I don't think we have the togetherness, fight, fitness or leadership for it just yet, so mid-table it is. The push for promotion should happen next season but while we have SR in charge I'm doubtful they will make the right calls. More Scienzas and less Downs please.

THB plus new CB signing. But as that's not an option, then I guess THB and Wood. THB hasn't been great this season but he's probably our better CB. Wood has at least been half decent this season. Quarshie may come good but worries me, and Stephens is past it. If he ever was "it". Personally I'd like to see THB partner a Fonte type, someone that fills him with confidence and raises his game.

Next Saints manager?

He's busy with City

Switched off at half time, how many did we smash them by? 😁

I'm not watching the game, but I'm going to guess that "yes" is the safe answer.

Looking forward to getting a ticket for the replay... 🤪😜