saint1977

True, although he probably wouldn’t have let Reed get away with leaving him in that position in the first place and would have been quite voluable in the press about it - rightly so. That’s why Les IMHO would appoint him or anyone else that wasn’t as quiet as a church mouse or who stood up to him. It’s why he didn’t like Ronald.

Yep, and five easy points thrown away against a half-hearted Chelsea and Leicester. Mike Dean contributed on Saturday but all SFC’s doing tonight. Lazy, slow, defensive, subs far too late and wrong, Hughes is not an answer. Hopeless owners, Chairman, players, Reed and Wilson. Tonight showed Puel being sacked wasn’t the issue, it was hiring Mr Sleeping Tablets in the summer. Leicester will be down next year if they don’t make a change in the summer, they were shocking, almost as bad as Saints, who were diabolical, with a much better squad at their disposal, not least Vardy and Mahrez. Definitely problems there but their owners will replace Puel with somebody decent, unlike Reed.

Possibly, if it was anyone else other than Puel. He’ll be petrified of conceding to the most toothless Saints side I have ever seen. Couldn’t score in a brothel. Must be like Leicester’s equivalent of SFC V Hull last season - one of the worst games I’ve ever endured although this is little better.

Don’t know about a caption but a Kreuger looks like Iain Dowie’s long lost father

I enjoyed the Cortese era as fan but even if hypothetically this were an option, it wouldn't seem sensible as: - We wouldn't have an owner willing to spend large sums of money, as NC comparatively had in L1, NPC and first season back - Approval of expenditure - this appeared to be the issue causing NC's departure. Owners will want some accountability and in places, some joint decision-making - Trajectory: We appeared to be piling up some quite alarming debt and doing some things the club said wouldn't happen - Commercial income; I'm not fan of Kreuger's overall but this does appear to have improved significantly, shame relegation will harm much of this e.g. UA, Virgin Media Having said the above, where I think the OP is coming from is the corpulent nature of how the club is now run and the total lack of urgency or vision currently. Cortese might not have had the money - and was relying on the funding of others to achieve it who probably didn't have it either in retrospect - but there was a vision and I can see how it became alluring to some fans.

Grew up in Woolston and could see the yellow crane and big green launch shed from my bedroom window. Was a huge site and sad day when it moved. The crafts themselves had a good reputation for quality. What was it like to work there? Were there good times and not such good times eg ships you were very proud of or difficult cycles in orders/commissioning? Haven’t been back to Woolston for a few years properly - have driven through for football parking - what is it like post-VT now?

Pretty much sums up how I’m feeling as well. Saints fan, yes, supporting someone else’s attempt to take money out of the Far East, no. Won’t support another club but more rugby and cricket instead.

I would, but as replacement for Reed. Bring in a younger manager who will have the enthusiasm to give everyone a lift. Hughes might get our transfer dealings back to normality - no more Hoedt or Carrillo type balls ups on huge money. Centre halves who head it or can cover, midfielders with pace and energy, strikers with movement or genuine ability to attack the ball and wingers with pace who take people on. There are some good players in the lower leagues, let’s have a season of transition with them - they will be inconsistent at first but the club and fans have to stick with them - and look to mount a promotion campaign in year two, if of course Gao is up for that.

Yep, Torbay now, was Exeter. Moved from Hampshire a few years ago for work. Have seen quite a few cars around here with stickers and quite a few shirts on a regular basis. Used to go back for games regularly but impact of Puel and Pellegrino - and Reed - means I’m tending to watch Exeter Chiefs and cricket instead as spending hours in the car/train to watch slow, insipid rubbish isn’t a great use of money. Watford home was the worst I’ve been to this season. Went to the first few home games of the season but none recently and not tempted anytime soon unless Reed, Gao and their ilk are gone. Chiefs is a great day out - owner who genuinely loves the sport, invests but sensibly. Enjoy living in this area and in spring and early summer it really is like being on holiday. Dartmouth is nearby, Salcombe under an hour and yes Kingsbrudge Saint, like there too. Coleton Fishacre Art Deco era National Trust property near here is stunning. Dartmoor lovely - lunch at the Rugglestone Inn at Widecombe. So much to do here. Sometimes hard to get what you need in the shops, Southampton better in that regard. Hampshire has some nice places too - Needles Battery, Ventnor, New Forest, Old Winchester Hill, Warsash, Hamble, Royal Victoria Park, North Downs, Hangars, Hayling, Queen Elizabeth Country Park - but we exhausted them before we moved. Find the South East traffic and busyness an adjustment having lived down here a few years now.

Not ground breaking - and words are easy but harder to achieve but we will see if they deliver. At least there’s an acknowledgement that WBA are awful to watch which more than Saints fans have had after two seasons of Claude and Pellegrino. Reed and Ralph seem to think we are great to watch - although Les is rather camera shy these days rather like someone who has been caught out - so who knows what that says about them.

WBA getting to the root of their issues - although talk is cheap - seeking to build a more attacking team in the Championship and reconnect with their fanbase. We will see in the summer if Mr Gao has any interest in this club, by sacking Reed, Wilson and the rest of the deadwood, bringing us someone who will aim to do the same.

Just goes to prove Reed is full of it and needs to go now, not withstanding concerns about the owner. The Man City game - because we'll be down by then - ought to be a 'Reed Out' day. Stadium full of Reed Out banners and flags. Just so he gets the message, Reed Out banners over the bridges on the way in and out of the ground.

Or as it is known in most other industries, gross misconduct. What was the point of getting £75m for VVD and writing off our season and possibly a generation and then throwing £19m of it away? Les might as well have done a KLF, gone to a remote island with Dr Barry Gale and burned £19m in notes in public. Or given it to charity. Possibly he'd have survived in the City of London during the 'boom years' as there were senior people of a similar level of ineptitude, hence what has happened to the world in the last decade, but struggling to think of anywhere else. Gao is taking the concept of a hands-off owner to a new extreme, and one wonders why. KL doesn't care, she's made her money.

No worries, it's always nice to have an exchange of views without it getting daft like it so often does on here. The world would be boring if we all thought the same way.

I know two Leicester STHs and was told the same, and has been for a while, not just the Newcastle game.

- Yes, but with some vastly superior players. Have SFC got anyone of the quality of Vardy, Mahrez, Maguire, Adrien Silva (after Jan) and Kasper in goal? - He did, but Koeman had plenty of games as well and bar that winter stretch we were a million times better to watch. No point having 3 home games in a row and not playing well in any of them. Man U had played a final about 2 days before or after one of them as well, which to fail to mention, and SFC were still dismal. - We have shipped more goals this year but Puel had a fit and interested VVD until Jan 17. And Fonte. Where I will give Puel credit is that he got the best of Romeu, Pellegrino has ruined him this season. - No, but he did have half a season of an interested VVD. Besides, there's a common factor behind the last 2 poor seasons, Les Reed. Mane - Redmond sums it up. So no, I wasn't chuffed but then then I didn't make a stupid quote about Redmond being a striker, which was clearly not the case and we all - well most of us - saw straight through it. What he should have done is insisted publicly that he was given another striker given the workload of games and Charlie's injury record. But he didn't. - I did enjoy those away games, and you forget to mention Spurs away where we lost but were very unlucky and played great stuff. However, the impression a lot of us had at the time was that the players were getting back to a formation and style of play they were comfortable with, when before and after the slower, possession-based football was dull, although an improvement on Pellegrino. Mind you, that's like comparing a Reliant Robin with a Trabant. - They did, but they did this year too. Not sure what point you are making, other than Puel was far too easy on Les Reed in summer of 2017. - 8th with 46 points. Look up how many we got with 8th under Poch or previous seasons. 8th but nearer to 17th than the top 6. What was it Cartman posted, 22 points from Puel's last 21 games? That's relegation form. So since Reed decided to go leftfield after Ronald left, no things haven't gone well from 6th and an exciting side. - No, but I have no love for them and the style of play and points totals have carried on from Puel's second half (after we'd been kicked out of the Europa after that pathetically negative HBS draw). If Reed had given a toss, he'd have replaced Puel with someone who 'plays attacking, pressing football'. Which would have meant kicking a lot of the slow, poor attitude rubbish out of the club last summer. Instead, Kreuger blamed it all on VVD (can't stand him, but that cannot be true). Saint 1977 verdict: Puel OK but not really suited to the English leagues and tempo, Pellegrino just not suited to anywhere. Should have done miles better with both appointments, which were very unambitious, sack Les Reed.

Here's further proof that Puel was a shocking appointment: https://www.theguardian.com/football/2018/apr/08/leicester-claude-puel-squad-unrest Happy to see Nick, Forester and others admit they were wrong to blame the fans.

The only one I can see this happening with is Forster. Allegedly on 90k a week but the worst top flight regular keeper I can ever remember at Saints, once his defensive shield of Morgan and Victor left. Another club won’t pay him that as second or third choice, so better to offer low fee or no fee to avoid getting killed on FFP. He’d eat big chunks of the parachute payments and he’s dreadful. Might help one of the top 4 by being English and then pray their first and second choices don’t get injured. Carrillo would be a loan, they won’t write off that soon but another gross misconduct but of business by Les. Only players I want to see retained are McCarthy, Targett, McQueen, Hesketh, Stephens and Sims. Maybe Austin. Can supplement with another 18 other new signings who might not be as illustrious in name but will hopefully have some character, heart, pace and strength.

Cheers Hamilton, getting a real pull to do that or PW. C2C a bit more affordable than PW so might be my choice. Pampelmousse - difference between Southampton and Portland has to be the beer culture, Portland is a true world city in that sense, amazing breweries and bars. Did you partake whilst you were there? In fairness to Soton, good micro pub culture springing up. Was particularly impressed with the Butchers Hook in Bitterne Triangle. Heard the SW Arms in St Denys shut though. On the downside, much further to visit the Cascade Mountains or Olympic National Park from there!

I did see Sullivan's comments and frankly a deluded club, owners and Les would be a perfect fit. I know what someone means when they've posted above that it would feel unfair that Les has shafted the club with 4 dismal windows and 2 pathetic managerial appointments in Puel and Pellegrino and then gets a PL job when we go down, but still having him on the payroll and him dithering when the club will need players in and out every week of the window practically would be far worse. Anyway, watching him ruin West Ham further and coining it in for their owners would be a crumb of comfort as their fans loathe the non stadium they now have.

I think we'll lose Micky but they'll probably actually try as it is on TV for a global audience and it's a game the likes of Cedric and Bertrand's agents will tell them is worthwhile getting their shirts dirty in. A brave 2-1 defeat (Charlie scoring) and then no more effort again until they mostly vanish in the summer. Good riddance as well. Take Les and the owners with you on the way out.

Sums it up for me. Camara, Crouch - we could score goals. Phillips was affected seemingly in the last quarter of the season by off the field issues but we also had Ormerod who would add energy, although would have picked Phillips for the MU game after Crouch was stupidly sent off at CP. Quashie tried and we still had some players, albeit fading, from the 2003 side that we respected - Dodd, Telfer etc. Claus was past it well and truly and we now know in a pickle off the field but had a lot of good memories off the field and got a couple more seasons out of him. The wage bill wouldn't have been anywhere near 8th in the league that season - not like now. Disgusting that the likes of Forster were rewarded for a failed 2016/17 with a bumper new 5 year deal. Well done Les. Moreover, this squad just isn't likeable at all. Charlie and Steven Davis, the latter for his great service, I admire, Josh Sims for his promise and style of play and McCarthy for his improvement. Targett and McQueen are local lads and fans. Long has had an awful year but effort there at least. As you can tell, I'm scraping the barrell badly. The rest I plain don't like. Lemina has had the odd good game but too many shockers, JWP hasn't kicked on and far too lightweight. Cedric and Bertrand's attitude stinks, Hoedt is on a par with Davenport and Jakobsson, but worse because he is £17m. Has to be in any SFC worst XI for me. Wouldn't pick him for Exeter City, honestly, not even Torquay would want him. Stephens will do OK in the Champ but with a big pay cut, never a PL player. Redmond is misery personified on a pitch. Gabbiadini started so well but weak mentality, Carrillo not worth £1.9m or even pence, what does has Reed have to do to get sacked? The South American Jon Parkin. Undecided on Romeu, liked him but astonishing decline since last season and has to be something catastrophically wrong behind the scenes. I really cannot connect with this squad or hierachy at all whereas I was attending games home and away backing to ther 2005 side to the bitter end and all through what followed when I still lived nearby. When they are all gone and that includes Reed/Wilson/Gao/Liebherr as well as the players, I may well feel differently and re-connect.

As someone who grew up watching Danny Wallace and Steve Moran (pace), Jimmy Case (strength), Steve Williams and David Armstrong (desire and leadership), this sums up the state of the club. Get Reed and Wilson out before the end of season. Pardew isn’t having fun as manager at WBA but he’d enjoy being a DoF and rebuilding in the Championship as long as we aren’t asset stripped. He was excellent in the transfer market for us and could work well with a younger manager. He’d understand our heritage of watching pacy wingers and full backs like Danny and Rodney Wallace, Theo, Bridge, Bale etc.

Best idea. Enjoy Wembley and then enjoy the hopefully nicer weather, get outdoors. Leave the stadium empty, that’ll be far more powerful than any half hearted protests. If Reed, Kreuger and Wilson are still hanging on in August, then don’t attend matches until they are gone. Think of the money and time you’ll have to spend and enjoy with your family and friends. I kept my ST 05 onwards until we moved down here but thought would horrify me this time. No attempt at entertainment or enjoyment. Over to you Nelly and Mr Gao

Well said, would keep McCarthy, Yoshida, Targett, McQueen, Sims, Charlie, Long - and that’s all for Championship next year. Rest of them I have no interest in whatsoever. Bring Gallagher back, will at least work hard. 20 odd in and 20 odd out - Gao needs to find a new head of football now and get rid of Reed and Wilson. Can’t see club being proactive whatsoever though. Hope the fans that have been going all season and last to watch the diabolical dross under Puel, Pellegrino and Reed enjoy Wembley, least they deserve. After that, best to empty the stadium for rest of this term and let the players have a horrible experience of silence before they pocket their signing on fees at new clubs with their reptile agents.