hypochondriac

Absolutely. The main reason I went to Milan and Prague is because I knew we probably wouldn't be in that situation again for a very long time. Like you I would like a cup win though.

I genuinely thought the club had learnt from the last two seasons and would have been decisive at the very start of this window so we can hit the ground running. There is something fundamentally wrong at this club and its been very evident since koeman left. I think we may struggle again next year.

It certainly does seem like that yes. All we need now is Hughes to walk away to put the cherry on top and saints will go to radio silence again now doubt.

Probably. Should be long and carillo though really.

I'd take 20 million.

Would be interesting to know who he proposed as the other option. Hopefully Reed doesn't like Hughes because he isn't a yes man and he can't really influence him too much.

Really drives home when reading these how utterly crazy it was that he wasn't sacked earlier. Sounds like Huddersfield was the final straw for you whereas it was Leicester for me but regardless of that, only the most incompetent and inept leadership would have kept him in charge after Palace. It makes me very worried that we simply don't have the right decisive people in charge at the club. Still makes me angry now that we didn't sack him after Palace. I may need the summer to get over it.

I'd prefer if you didn't try to associate me with this weirdo. Thanks x

I assume we have ticket money too? And commercial revenue?

What about the rest of the vvd money? Not forgetting the cash we will make selling Bertrand and maybe soares. Should leave us with about £80-100 million to spend if we wanted to.

It wasn't him who mistook him. To be fair he has very little knowledge of football and just about recognised Hughes who opened the door for him.

Who exactly are these forum experts you speak of? Because almost every poster in this thread has called for Hughes to be appointed.

It's not an either or scenario is it. I agree it's better than conning people into thinking we are challenging for champions league, but it's a much inferior mindset to what we had previously which was to be the best of the rest and challenging for Europe and the odd Cup final and finishing upper mid table.

I assume you are wilfully misrepresenting my point? Where did I mention anything about games?

It's obvious that he has started using the word "small" or "smaller" to try to play down expectations and prepare us for leaner times ahead.

The worst part of that article was the bit where he tried to spin the relegation fight as a positive because it gave us more exposure! I think those who were praising him yesterday for his interview should probably read this article and weep.... Quite frankly after reading it I'm going to have to reconsider some of my financial outlays to the club- I'm not sure we should be going out of our way to support the current regime.

I know someone who bumped into gao at the stadium on Monday. Apparently he came across as someone who had little idea of where he was, in fact he was mistakenly thought of as a random Chinese fan until someone said who he was. Absolutely no saints fan gives a f*ck about raising the profile of football in China unless it helps the first team. Very worrying article...

Not much of a shock. I do wonder why kat pushed so hard for the deal though because she did give the impression that she actually cared a bit for her father's investment.

My old man listened to it and at that point he paused it and said what relevance does our league position four years ago have on the season we have just had? Looking st average league positions over the last five years is mental and partly why we have got to this point because we are too busy living on past glories and a previously stellar reputation.

Completely this. Vague platitudes and admissions of failure (whilst showing there are no consequences to that failure) amount to precisely nothing. He has said nothing of consequence and it appears that no one is going to end up paying for this terrible season.

Yep. The waffle here is miles better but there's still enough of it to be interminable. I wonder if he's the same in private? A bit of straight talking would be fantastic.

I hope someone at the fans forum calls out the club for its carefully choreographed PR campaigns over the last few years with scheduled interviews in January and at the end of the season with nothing in between which comes across as inauthentic and patronising to fans.

Massive pressure on Wilson. I have seen nothing from him so far to suggest he is anything particularly special unlike the previous bloke.

Personally I don't think either of them are currently good enough to be first choice. I'd probably sell hoedt and bring in two new cbs but I know that's incredibly unlikely.

“Les Reed and Ross Wilson [the recruitment chief] are excellent leaders in our football department,” he said. “We have to see the bigger picture – we don’t need a wholesale change here. We need to take a few percentage points, fix those and we can surge back up. That’s our reality" Very concerned about that. The fact they don't feel that wholesale changes are needed despite regressing in almost every area from the academy to the first team show how out of touch they are. We need some serious leadership to underline how unacceptable the last two years have been and it doesn't look like the Gaos are capable of that.