saint1977

Llanthony Priory is stunning, and have driven on the Gospel Pass - wasn’t that the opening credits on Antiques Roadshow? Uk - best places I’ve been to are Derwen****er, Salcombe, Porthcurno is particularly amazing, on a hot day you can’t believe you aren’t in the Med. Near us there is an NT property called Coleton Fishacre, a 1920s property with stunning grounds and a cove with clear water. High Peak, Malham and Gordale Scar, Tan Hill Inn, Fleet Moss Road, Wharfedale, Lindisfarne, Malvern Hills, Norfolk Broads, Brecon Beacons. So much still to see. Dartmoor and Exmoor on our doorstep lovely. World - BVI and Virgin Gourda e.g. The Baths, Barbados, Grenada, Abaco Islands Bahamas, Copenhagen, Malmo, Melbourne, Sydney, Blue Mountains, Tasmania, NZ Fjords, Arthur’s Pass and Southern Alps, Christchurch pre quake, Wellington, Ghent, Amsterdam, Algarve Would love to do some of the UK long distance walking trails now - Pennine and Dales Way, MacMillan Way, Coast to Coast - anyone walked these or similar? VFTT - I rarely get envy but I am big time about Bora Bora! Always dreamed of going there. Must be like Virgin Gourda x10

No Gabbiadini scored v Newcastle at home. Has been a far better second half and liked the reaction from players and fans to missing the pen. Would we have seen that reaction under Pellegrino to any kind of setback? No chance. Whatever happens rest of the game, some encouraging signs. Noel Hunt coming on, didn’t know he still played. Was he the guy that had the incident with Cech all those years ago? Long on for the Argentinian pantomime horse

Hughes quite understandably thought our midfield should at least able to compete with a league one promotion chasers but he will be learning plenty. At least Cedric is being consistent and making the same level of effort he made for Pellegrino eg none. His agent must be smoking crack if he think he is Barca standard. Tadic looks slightly more bothered than before but hardly the required standard. Gary Roberts outperforming him. Saints having a better few minutes but then Roberts should have scored there really! Snowing heavily here in Devon and nearing 10cm out there. Better from Stephens.

Gabbiadini looking much more lively, consequence of removing a year of astonishingly negative tactics. Hopefully if liberated he can go a little scoring run like when he first joined and play on instinct. Not much between the teams too far. Our centre halves are taking risks letting the ball bounce at times. Carrillo should do better in this set up as well. Poor defending from Stephens v Grigg

I rarely read football biographies as a rule, but Warnock's came up on Kindle a while ago for 99p. Not my favourite person but quite a decent read. His account of QPR and the sheer chaos was not flattering to those running QPR at the time. As a result, he didn't give Hughes or anyone else that followed a serious chance of being even moderately successful given the rudderless way the club was run at that time. Even Harry, who had worked for Mandaric, Lowe, Terry Brown etc, found it too much. So I think that has to be taken into mitigation for weighing up Hughes's time there. It's harder to know what happened this season with Stoke but he was the best available I feel for the situation. Blame is all Reed, Kreuger and Pellegrino's if we do go down and credit to Hughes if we don't.

I think it was Cartman that posted last night that Saints only got 22 points from their last 21 games and very few goals. Pellegrino was an abysmal manager but some of the problems clearly preceded despite the foolish attempts to re-write history by a few posters. Les is a constant throughout - 4 bodged transfer windows and 2 shocking managerial appointments. Hughes won’t win everyone round but what do the club have to lose? Pellegrino would have had them 19th at best. At Stoke, wasn’t there a fan who parked a truck with a huge ‘Hughes Out’ sign outside their ground even the day Hughes was confirmed? Don’t think he’d have been won around on Oatcake fanzine somehow...

Will you and Crab Lungs pack it in and stop posting common sense on this forum? It won’t do. Get with the programme and start bleating about how Reed should have paid 10m for Ancelotti. There’s millions of things Les should have done that he hasn’t but it is what is. Heaven knows, WGS actually got Coventry relegated yet lauded as a legend on here. Rightly so actually, I loved his time in charge.

Got a feeling it won’t be but if it was, would that be to Saints advantage or not? Ok, if W Ham score early you won’t have their fans backing but on the hand if Saints score early - ok, I am being hypothetical here! - their fans could turn quite nastily again, creating a hostile atmosphere their players are scared in and freeze. Would certainly rather have someone like a Hughes who has managed Manchester derbies etc than a petrified Pellegrino.

Whoever is the next manager needs to be a strong character and a name so Les is forced out of the first team picture and hopefully retires. The situation Les has put himself in means he can only attract the likes of Hughes, Silva or Bilic and they are not personas you can manipulate, same as Koeman and Pochettino weren’t.

Would love it to be WGS, the training would be brutal but exactly what's needed. More likely is Hughes or Silva. Duncan RG - I don't think Everton will sack Sam this summer after stabilising them and a traumatic recruitment search. I think we are as good as it gets for Silva, he'll have to pull off a couple of giant killings again big teams but with a new manager you never know.

This article also summed up the ex-manager and I wish the ex-Vice Chair as well. Get Silva in, double training sessions, running, running, more running. They might not like him for it and be puking their guts around Staplewood but to be vaguely fit professional athletes will do them good. Would like to see some reality from the club and new manager for the remaining games as for me, even at Wigan, we are big underdogs. Let's fight like underdogs do and cause a few upsets. The only players for me this season who have played at PL standard are McCarthy, Austin and Lemina. Would question if the rest have the quality or bottle to be top flight players any longer.

Ok, I’ll bite. That’s rubbish and disproved over a generation, Branfoot protests, passionate to keep striving for St Mary’s being built, significantly increase in gates and away numbers following us since, Lowe protests, Doncaster game, Burnley game pitch invasion, Coventry game joyful pitch invasion. The fanbase has been worn down, me included by the slow insipid football from Puel and Pellegrino which has been the worst in 35 years as a fan. There is also real uncertainty about the owners. I wouldn’t want to see the extremes of West Ham yesterday which was dangerous. However, our fans are too laid back this season. Best way to help challenge what we are seeing but help the players is to slow hand clap every time the players go into slow aimless possession mode. Not once but every time. But the counter is strong vocal encouragement when they play with bravery, try something even if it doesn’t come off, when they lift the tempo. That way, we take over setting the tone from Pellegrino and make him irrelevant. They’d have to be very ignorant as players not responding to SMS encouraging them at top volume.

His transfer history suggests dithering but IMHO it’s more likely to be a hefty bonus not to spend and to recoup as much as sales as possible

No - couldn’t support another team. Wish the local sides here well but you just wouldn’t have the history and connections with another club. More likely is that I’ll be spending the time and money that went on Saints at Sandy Park watching the Chiefs and Somerset CCC (especially when Hampshire visit) - it really is a good day out and the rugby club is backed by a local man who has not only the means but is very passionate and ambitious. I also want to get out on the golf course more as my career has limited that in recent years. Besides that, there’s lots to do here - E Devon and South Hams coasts, Dartmoor and Exmoor, Cornwall, Somerset Levels (in the summer!). I used to be a Saints STH and do quite a few of the always but the club has lost totally its relationship with the fans and the community. I’d go along and watch an AFC Southampton as someone else said and I do think if people in that area want to retain a local professional club, I would advise starting the planning now.

He reminds me of Peter Moores when he was England cricket coach talking about analysing the data when it was pretty clear to all but the insane that England’s ODI tactics were dreadfully out of date and we’d just been hammered by Bangladesh and the less said about the NZ and Aus games the better. Difference is Moore’s at least is a successful county coach, I can’t see that MP would be any better or less loathed if he managed in League 2. He’s at best deluded. How any of the players or staff can respect him I have no idea

Hope the fans enjoy the day and weekend out. Newcastle is a superb city with some great pubs eg Crown Posada. Had the best Jalfrezi ever there when I went up there when WGS was a manager. You need a head for heights in the away section though! Enjoy it despite the game. 1-0 to Newcastle. The only attack our fans will see is a panic attack from MP when he sees that stadium and 50k of them. He’ll lose the plot big time so expect ten men behind the ball

MP is a head case, I’ve said this for a while. If even Adam Blackmore seems to think that, you’ve got to wonder how deluded it is inside SFC itself. He should be put on gardening leave for pastoral and professional reasons and should have been some time ago, but you’ve got to question why Reed, Kreuger and Gao are going along with it. I suspect the total bewilderment of the football world that someone like that can hold a high profile job may be a cover but for what I don’t know. Shame that the players are so well paid, I suspect 20 years ago the players would have revolted but this current lot are sit on huge wages and their agents will be lining up summer moves as I write. Sad that the club is being ruined like this for a generation, think I will be watching a lot more of the Exeter Chiefs now

Novel solution that seems beyond the mentally insane and thick as pig poo manager; we are at home to an equally poor Stoke, perhaps play Gabi or along off Carrillo, you know give the bloke some involvement in the the game?

Booing every touch that is slow and tepid should tell the players that Southampton demand a more positive style and higher tempo. Might as well turn our frustrations on Pellegrino, it didn’t do any harm at WBA

Shame Diouf wasn’t sent off as that could have lifted the crowd. Nothing else to lift them, slow, pathetic, lazy football. Fans should slow hand clap and boo until the players throw off MP and Reed’s and manage themselves.

On the plus side, we didn’t sign Ruben Semedo who Saints were strongly linked with - in a bit of trouble in Spain

Fair play to him for the good work he has done but as Saints found in 2005, if the first team badly flops, the financial position unless you get back first season means the academy and all departments get cut back and you lose all the gems like we did with Theo, Bale etc

I think there’s a strong smell of skate when MM posts, and this OP is no exception

Dowse is probably best known for that magnificent header into his own net when he was at West Ham v Stockport. Probably helped Dave Jones get the Saints job along with knocking Saints out next. Would love to have heard Redknapp’s reaction though!

Here’s a post from you I throughly agree with. Pity Les, Kreuger and the other useless wasters don’t put seem to.