Sidney Fudpucker the 3rd

We're 4 years into Les's 5 year plan. Not exactly sure what that plan was/is? Pretty sure it didn't involve certain people taking as much money out of the club as possible, but that seems to be all that's happened. Funny, asset stripping was mentioned about 3 seasons ago and those who suggested it were ridiculed. It looks like those who suggested it are now being proved right.

What concerns me is that Pellegrino isn't man enough to admit his mistakes and do the honourable thing and resign. I'm sure everybody would have a lot more respect for him if he held his hands up and admitted that he's done. How he can stand there week after week, spouting the same nonsense after making the same old mistakes is a complete mystery. He's just making himself to look a bigger idiot than he already is.

There's an interesting piece on Sky today about Lemina and how he could be the solution to our problems. It talks about him sitting on the bench whilst out of form players, such as Steven Davis, are picked ahead of him. It does make you wonder WTF is going on.

All of them have their own part to play in our demise. Katharina has been asset stripping the club for the last few years. Clearly just looking to get as much out of it whilst she could. Reed & Ralph have made some terrible decisions, but if the owner is instructing them to sell because she wants money then what option do they have? After all, they're employees so they have to do what they're told. The manager is to blame for the poor style of play and some of the head scratching tactics and team selections. He should have resigned or been given the boot months ago. That said, Les may not be in a position to fire him because that would involve shelling out a load more money and that's the last thing KL would want if she's intent on milking it for everything that she can. The day the Chinese investment was announced was a very sad day in our history IMO. They've brought nothing to the plate and I worry about any club who has such big investment from China as I see it all as short term investment. I think a number of Chinese owned clubs could find themselves in a big mess in the next 5-10 years.

I think we're gone. Clueless manager. Clueless board who have been asset stripping us for the last few years. Certain players who should be ashamed of themselves for their sheer lack of effort. The problem is that they know they can leave and get employment elsewhere. Most of them don't give a **** who they play for.

Imagine if we're relegated and a win today would have been enough to have kept us up. Potentially, that handball could be the act that costs us our Premier league status. It's disgusting to think that such a selfish, dishonest act could hold such disastrous consequences.

Exactly. He's learned nothing from what happened against palace. I ****ing hate the clueless *****. At this rate we'll be playing P*mpey next season.

We haven't got time. That was a six pointer today. 2-0 up and as soon as they got one back you could see what was going to happen. Pellegrino is a ****ing clueless ****. He should've been fired before the Everton game. That's us down.

Exactly. I heard something on the radio last week that said the only reason why the deal didn't happen in the summer was because Saints were holding out for a larger fee upfront. They got what they wanted this time round and that's why he's gone.

Exactly. He's looked good all season. I don't understand why we're not looking to make a bid for him.

I'm sure that would be the first thing they'd insist on. I would think there's at least 10 players with a similar clause already.

I could see Koeman going there. And yes, Hughes would be a better choice than MP. That said, it looks like the board have decided to stick by MP no matter what, which is very worrying.

The best we can hope for is a loan until the end of the season with an option to buy if we stay up. I just don't see this happening. Why on earth would he want to come to Southampton when things are as bad as they are? Be honest, other than the fact he used to play for us, he'd be better going to somewhere like, Leicester, Watford, Burnley or Everton.

Just goes to show, manage a player well and he will deliver. The problem we have is that we've lacked a decent man manager for a couple of seasons. Yes, VVD has behaved like a ***** and could have handled his departure better, but he saw what was on offer and it was obviously far more attractive than amateur hour in Southampton. My guess is that the players morale is at an all time low because they can see that the club is being run by *****s, from top to bottom. I spoke to Niall Quinn yesterday. He spent time with Cortese when he was at Saints as he was working on a piece for Sky. He said the way NC ran things was incredible. All the players were educated at the club. If they underperformed academically, they didn't play for the U-18's. It encouraged players to work hard and made them mature quickly. The reason why we did so well financially when selling young players like Shaw and Chambers was because they were seen as mature, well educated individuals by the bigger clubs. It meant that they didn't have to invest as much time and money because they were getting quality individuals, instead of rough & ready teenagers who needed to be educated and disciplined. Clubs wanted young players from Southampton because they felt like they were getting the finished article, even though they were only kids. He was saying all that a lot of what Cortese did has gone now. Some aspects are still there but we're not doing anything better than other Academy's in the country, whereas we used to be one of the top clubs in Europe for young player development.

Because it's never been about Football. It's all been about money and somebody making as much as they can in a short space of time. The asset stripping has been going on for a while now. Just a shame that people couldn't see it coming earlier.

I hate what Premiership football has become so I understand why some people are saying that going down wouldn't be all that bad. Our return to the Premiership was nice while it lasted but let's be honest, it's no fun seeing your best players sold every season, whilst the board churn out lies about turning us into a force in European football. Katrina has been asset stripping the club for the last 2-3 years. All the money from the sale of players that hasn't been re-invested and now a huge sum from the Gao family. She's done very nicely out of it. It just shows that she doesn't really give a **** about the club. For me, the final nail in the coffin was when I heard about being bought by a Chinese investor. The likes of Sky & Chinese investors are ruining the game. Give me 3pm kick-offs on a Saturday afternoon and games that whole families can afford to attend. Surely that's better than this ****e that's played by greedy posers with no loyalty, sleeves of tattoo's, Bentley's and all the skill of Iain Dowie. Wake up people - The game is ****ed.

10 & relegated.

Exactly. This is not the answer.

The way I see it is that if all those 0-0 draws had finished 2-2 or 3-3 he wouldn't have been binned off.

Spot on!

What's the problem? Why not have something to help soften the blow? My initial stake was £2.00. I pick 3 games every week where you choose both teams to score and pick the winner. By the end of last season I'd got over a grand in my Paddy Power account. I took most of it out and spent it on gig tickets. I left £100 in, which I lumped on us going down at 25/1. What goes on at the club is out of my control. I'd love to see us top 6, which is what Les Reed & co told us we're were building a team for. However, that wasn't going to happen when the club sell the best players every season. The bubble was always going to burst. If we stay up I'm happy and it's cost me £100 that I never really had. If we go down I get £2500 to go on holiday and try to forget about the awful season. I see it as a win-win situation.

Snap.

Backed us to go down at 25/1 the day Pellegrino was announced. Stuck the £100 balance that had built up from an original £2.00 bet in my Paddy Power account on us going down on the basis that I'd have £2500 to cheer myself up if it happened.

I rate him. I'd be cashing in on FF, problem is that nobody will want him based upon his current form.

Redknapp said something similar. I'm not here to do your homework for you. There's plenty of talk from the pundits about the current state of affairs at Southampton.