BARCELONASAINT

If Saints beat Millwall on Saturday i would argue TE is more deserving of manager of the month than Lampard because of what TE walked into! Lampards Coventry were already a confident winning side, Saints were an absolute mess and if we win Saturday TE will have put us from zero's to playoff contenders in the space of 5 games!

I cannot remember the last time i felt so good about watching Saints. The last 2 games of attacking football invoked memories of bygone Saints sides, the teams of the 80's that attacked with flair. At last for me their is a player that i would happily pay to watch and that is Leo Scienza, he is an absolute joy to watch and i don't think I have smiled so much watching him since MLT graced our team. Last nights game was the real test for me to see if the players were 110% behind TE and they responded in such positive fashion that it is really difficult to see past Eckart getting the job. Please please just continue with this brand of football because it's a joy to watch and at last we have our club back!

Well that puts paid to conspiracy theories that Stephens is undroppable!

I will be very surprised if Leicester are as generous in their defending as Charlton were, they still have some very good experienced players. I'm expecting a very different game and they will target our useless defence and swing crosses into the box knowing that Stephens just goes missing. This might just be a bump back down to earth after Saturdays totally unexpected performance.

Shoutout to Bragg, the lad did very well and you could see at the end of the game the seasoned pro's were delighted for him. 2 very young central midfielders and both were excellent.

poor defending giving a free header, no blame on Baz for that despite some already willing to blame him ffs

I'm inclined to go with the hysteria for the sake of it. Eckhart sees the players in training every day, we do not! He obviously trusts the players he has selected to start. He has earned the right to choose his team, lets wait till full time before slating him.

So if MLT is to be believed it was something like 150 applicants for the managers job and yet we have still appointed no one. Now that either says that it was 150 complete waste of timers that never stood a chance in the first place or there was just a very small handful that were worth interviewing but none really stood out of being able to make any difference to what we currently have! I have to say that looking at what was available i'm really struggling to see who we realistically should have appointed? I have no idea what the plans are going forward and only hope there is a plan and they are just playing the waiting game with someone in their sights. Some will say what was the point of sacking WS if we had no one lined up. Well i would say we have 6 more points than we may have achieved if WS had not been sacked. The players had stopped playing for him apart from 1 or 2. It might have been a small difference but there was a difference in effort from the players in the last 2 games that had been missing, so sacking WS was the right call at that moment in time. I think todays game will tell us a lot about our bunch of misfits and if they are playing for Eckert.

I've tried to apply a balanced view on our current sad state of affairs and tried to apply some logic to what is going on. The project that was WS totally backfired for several reasons. He was not what our club badly needed after a horrendous relegation season. It was woefully obvious very quickly he was totally out of his depth and was not a strong enough personality to command the total respect from our bunch of misfits. He was also horribly let down in 3 vital areas of the pitch for me. Not getting in an upgrade on OUR CURRENT KEEPERS, not getting in a commanding frontman and vitally not getting in a seasoned pro to lead the team (only now been addressed with the return of Rom. Why did they then sack him when they did? Well to be frank it should have been weeks earlier but with 2 very winnable games coming i think the board believed the players irrespective of who was leading them would react and although they were not great games there did appear to be more effort from the players. Personally i don't think this had anything to do with TONDA leading the team. He is doing a fine job with the kids but he like WS is not a big enough character for the 1st team dressing room! As a caretaker manager fine but not in the long term. Ok so that leaves us with who next and for me that is very much where the problem lies. So MLT states there were well over 100 applications for the job....i bet there were and 99% of them totally unacceptable for running a club aspiring to be a contender for promotion back to the Premiership! If we look at the names most of us have put out there of who WE think could do the job then that list becomes quite small and probably becomes even smaller with some of those managers we would like not being the slightest bit interested in Saints. Do i think they had a replacement in their minds lined up....well yes i think GON was the replacement until our inept board realised the fan outrage by a percentage of the fanbase. That has left them with a very few candidates currently available to consider (personally there is no one currently available that i think would want to come to Saints and who i think would be a good fit) I would rather we take our time and get this next appointment spot on than rush to a new permanent manager that we all think "oh my god here we go again"

Serbian goalkeeper just made Baz and Mccarthy look competant

Alex Crook.......I will say no more!!

I cannot believe for 1 minute Brendan Rogers has been interviewed for the managers job. It is completely beneath him, this is a man that managed Liverpool and Celtic and been used to silver wear and European nights. He would not be the slightest bit interested in Championship team at the wrong end of the table.

I thought i would re-post this as Leo really has backed up all the promise this article alluded to. What a joy it has been so far to see such a talented player playing for us for however long it is we are able to keep him!

It would certainly explain a lot and although i've seen very little to suggest he will ever make it as a professional footballer we have to remember he is very young, living abroad, away from family and friends no doubt.....sometimes we are all guilty including myself of judging too quickly.

When the goal went in yesterday my first reaction was FFS Baz. However i have looked at the replays multiple times now and I think i was too quick to lament Baz.

I have no idea if you are genuine or not but i certainly won't give you abuse for posting this. I personally would love JWP back at this level. His experience and work rate are second to none. He will always divide the fan base with some believing he offers nothing and those of us that have always seen a model pro. I really hope you are right on this one.

any news on Leo??

she likes to get balls in her box

What is this feel good factor i am feeling right now, first an ugly win last night and now the legend that is Romeu back "home". Now is it too much to ask for 3points on Saturday and the announcement of a manager that us fans can really get behind!

Nothing against the guy but Tonda Eckhart is NOT what we need NOW. I honestly don't believe the club would be stupid enough to appoint him full time. We need a big presence, someone that will instantly demand respect and will have a decent track record already. It would be very interesting to know which managers currently employed and not that are realistically in the frame because THEY have shown interest in the job, not managers like frank Lampard or Brendan Rogers who for the life of me i cannot imagine being the slightest bit interested.

Well that was two teams out of form but one more out of form and more fragile than the other. When we gave them that goal i fully expected them to go on and get the equaliser and probably the winner the way we just fell apart. Apart from the two goals which were both very good the most pleasing thing was we defended for our lives in that last 15 minutes and you cannot under estimate what holding onto the win could mean going forward for this team. Very boring 1st half, both teams struggled to get going but 2nd half was "entertaining" (if you are a neutral i imagine) Winning ugly i will take all day long at this point and if we win ugly again on Saturday i will be even happier!

ok i am a bit gobsmacked about the keeper change, Mccarthy is not great but he's done nothing to warrant getting dropped. Maybe the new tactics are win as many corners as possible and baz will come up for them and score a hatful.

My personal take on this having a friend quite close to the Dibling family is young TD was getting pulled one way and another and he was very conflicted in what to do for best. He felt a massive debt of gratitude to Saints for rescuing him from Chelsea and he certainly saw his future LONG term at Saints. Unfortunately he started getting people around him (not all) telling him to leave Saints and this effected him (huge drop off last season in form) He's now back in a similar position to the one he found himself at Chelsea and mentally he is suffering. The small cameos i have seen of him this season he looks lost. It's a huge shame.

I said at the time he was making a huge mistake going to Everton and nothing i have seen so far makes me change my mind. It will be a massive waste of talent if he just disappears and that could easily happen, football is very unforgiving. The only plus right now for TD is the money.

Lamine Yamal has praised Oriol Romeu by citing his strength and robustness as qualities he looks up to. Yamal has described his ideal player by including Romeu for strength, in addition to other players for different attributes like speed, passing, and finishing. Physical strength: Yamal identifies Oriol Romeu as the player he looks to for "strength, robustness and resilience". Part of an ideal player composite: When describing an ideal player by combining the strengths of multiple professionals, Yamal explicitly lists Oriol Romeu for his strength.