CanadaSaint

Are there any updates on Saints TV coverage this season? In Canada we can subscribe to DAZN but I think that will only cover games that aren't a Saturday 3:00 pm kick off - which may also (not sure about this) apply to ESPN+ in the States. And we're still not listed on the iFollow site.

This time of year there are dozens, if not hundreds, of domino scenarios out there. The question is which departure will start them falling for us. Despite their comprehensive nest-shitting last year, I have faith that the club's leadership team will end up with a highly competitive squad; I'm sure their dominoes are lined up. While our squad is certainly bloated, I'm hesitant to say "good riddance" about some of the potential departures. They're not bad players - they're good players who were unable to maintain form and motivation within a shit-show coaching environment, or who just didn't get a chance under that utter numb-nuts, Selles. It'll be frustrating to see them shine elsewhere.

I think our player judgment is understandably suffering from “what have you done for me lately-itis”. The biggest problem last season was not the “kids”. It was that most of them didn’t get an extended chance to settle in their natural role, the pitiful lack of leadership from the senior players, the loss of Romeu’s invaluable skillset, the failure to sign a striker (or play as though we actually had one), the shambolic Jones spell, and then Selles persisting with a dire, no-ambition, keep-possession-until we’re forced to hoof it ‘style’ that never worked and was never going to work. Everyone, including the players, could see it, but not Selles. KWP and other senior pros didn’t suddenly become crap players. They were sucked into the vortex created by the gong show going on all around them. I’m good with a young side with some senior leadership figures – a side that can grow and mature together under a manager who sets the team up with some real ambition. Only then will we find out how good the “kids” really are. Everyone said we needed a rebuild. That’s what a post-relegation rebuild looks like.

I get that Hypo, and I completely agree about Alcaraz. Not only was he talented and committed in every appearance - he was pretty much the only one who seemed genuinely hurt and frustrated when we lost; one who gave a shit amidst an ocean of ho-hummery. But I’m not convinced that keeping Tella or getting twenty million for him amount to the same thing. We’ve yet to prove that our recruitment is capable of making that a sure thing. Far from it, based on our recent history - especially when it comes to goalscorers. With Alcaraz, Tella, Tino and a few others, we’re creating the nucleus of a really talented young side - players who can mature together. And we haven’t yet risked a penny of the transfer budget.

I’d say one of the biggest “no brainers” is to bring Tella back. He’s torched most of the defences we’ll be playing against, and scored regularly. We had absolutely no torching or scoring last season. This is a young player trying to build a reputation and a career, so there’s zero chance that he’s going to sulk and go through the motions. Sure, it’ll take a little early man-management, but he’s far less risky than someone that we “think” will work out.

This pitiful wimp of a manager makes Claude Puel look like a balls-out, gung-ho, kamikaze tactical maestro. I hate losing but I absolutely despise the kind of abject surrender we've seen under this asshole. The only reason he'd ever look himself in the mirror is to make sure there's no dandruff showing. Sickening.

It's all very well to want Selles sacked - he certainly deserves to be. But then there's the small matter that his replacement will be hired by the same fuckwits that let the players quit on Ralph (yes, he certainly had shortcomings), hired Jones, replaced him with Selles, and then sat by while Selles gutlessly surrendered without a fucking whimper. The fact that the owner sat through this abject disaster without lifting a finger is sickening. I'm not even seeing a glimmer of hope right now. A shit recipe makes for a shit cake, whether you cook it on the top shelf of the oven, or the second shelf, or ... god forbid.

If you wonder why we’re cellar dwellers Just take a glance at gutless Selles The thing on which I’d bet my house Is no forward pass from James Ward-Prowse We’re perpetually stuck in sideways mode We couldn’t score on Denzil Road To my Saintsweb friends who won’t share a link I owe you all a bloody drink Thank you It is my considered opinion that Ruben Selles is to football management what Donald Trump is to synchronized swimming.

Months of anticipation, 4,200 miles in the air, and 22 travel hours to see a gutless manager pick a side devoid of any discernible structure, a starting lineup without a striker in a “must win” game, an England international who doesn’t know how to pass forward, another England international who doesn’t know how to stay onside and blazes a clear chance almost into orbit, a third England international played on his wrong side so that the loanee played in his position can get done like a kipper on the byline, a Polish international whose main ‘skills’ are ball-watching and playing square or backward passes, an attacking ‘strategy’ that involves giving the opposition as long as possible to get into position before eventually hoofing it straight to them, a prevalence of go-through-the-motions-itis all over the park, hearing the manager telling the fans how to do THEIR job when he doesn’t have a fucking clue how to do his own, having to listen to a bunch of fuckwits from Croydon taking the piss… I could keep going. But the part that pisses me off most is that this bunch of overpaid, underperforming pussies - coaches and management most certainly included - don’t seem unduly perturbed about it. Why would they be? Their ‘loyalty’, unlike ours, is completely transient - shrug it off and get their agents to start looking for another club. Screw all of them.

I think we’re far better when we play more aggressively and move the ball forward faster, angling it through the channels and behind the defence, taking on defenders wide, and so on. Rather than going down limply I’d like to see us go into shit or bust mode much more. Bednarek and ABK will be out for a while, leaving us with two “second choice” CDs, so I don’t see much point in playing conservatively.

First half we were far too slow getting the ball forward, which was inevitable as soon as he inexplicably started Diallo and Elyanoussi. Fucking madness. With those two gone we were much quicker, but then the problem was delivery into the box. And there's no sense putting Tall Paul out there if you're not going to play to his strengths. In the cold light of day the result is going to overshadow the fact that we actually did a fair bit right.

Wet pitch, get the ball forward quickly, angled passes through - or over - the defence, force defenders to turn. Hard to do when you start off with a 30-45 second "you to me, me to you" kickabout at the back and in midfield, and they've got all the time in the world to drop and cover. No midfield with Diallo and Elyanoussi in it will be getting the ball forward quickly. We have the subs to do it, but they should have started.

As I watched us trying to get back into it on Saturday, continually passing the ball across the back while Leeds dropped into their defensive positions, it dawned on me that Selles may well have been one of the biggest problems all along. Having the most touches in your own box is a guaranteed recipe for having the fewest touches in the opposition box. That's not fucking rocket science.

This may be a blessing in disguise. Now we can concentrate on getting relegated.

Watching us fucking around at the back and using Bednarek as the pivot for initiating the transition to attack (🤣) makes me think that Selles might have been one of the problems. Until we play KWP/ABK/Salisu/Perrault, every game will look like this. You could time our transition to attack with a sundial.

I'm hoping that Selles will become a pleasant surprise. We're not going to get the next Pochettino or pull a Koeman out of the hat, and some of the bigger names being floated are unattainable, still trying to transition from successful player to successful manager, or (like Selles) unproven. What could make a big difference in a short space of time is a manager who will a) play with a Back 4, b) select the best players - especially at CD, c) not keep chopping and changing, d) leave out the lightweights, e) press hard up front but avoid getting caught on the break, and f) be well regarded by the players. Selles stood up to Ralph and he stood up to Jones, and I suspect he was voicing the players' feelings as well as his own, so I think he has cred with them. They have to know that, if they bottle it under Selles, the spotlight will fall squarely on them rather than the manager and coaches. He may not be what many are hoping for, but if he can get most of a) - f) right (they're not rocket science), he could unlock this squad's real potential.

Doesn't he have a legal obligation to "mitigate his loss"? Failing to make a reasonable effort to find another job, or unreasonably turning one down, would negatively impact his legal entitlement to severance pay. Having said that, we're talking about a guy with (now) two gigantic shit-splats on his CV, so it might be a while before he gets a chance to turn down any decent football jobs. Unless his contract contains some language that could allow SR to claim "dismissal for cause", they're probably resigned to a major payout. Sickening, really, considering what happens to normal people who screw-up badly at work.

John Herdman. He's a great communicator and has indeed done an excellent job with both the women's and men's national teams. I'm amazed he wasn't snapped up after the World Cup (Canada topped the CONCACAF group containing the U.S. and Mexico), but his contract has now been extended through the 2026 World Cup here in North America. He sees it as "unfinished business". I wouldn't say he's been working with a "crap team" when it contains players like Alphonso Davies (Bayern), Jonathan David (Lille), Tajon Buchanan (Brugge) and Stephen Eustáquio (Porto), although he's got the best out of the "plumbers" who aren't at that level. On a side note, the one to watch is Ismaël Koné, who's just 20; he's a central/defensive midfielder who recently signed for Watford, but I don't think he'll be there long. I've always thought that Herdman would do well in England, and could cut the mustard at PL level. (EDIT: Just saw Ottawa's post - funny how we each see stuff differently, but Herdman cut certainly drop the occasional verbal bollock. 🤣)

Much has (rightly) been said about Jones's failure to use the World Cup break to assess the squad properly, but this failure is really even worse. Rasmus allegedly approached him in the Summer. If Jones thought there was a possibility that he might end up here, his first "Big League" appointment, wouldn't he have watched us closely since then? I know I would. And a lot of our weaknesses were glaringly obvious throughout the last months of Ralph's reign - Bednarek was playing worse than he had ever played with us (two games, benched, loaned out), Theo was a nonentity, Elyounoussi chugged around without doing much, Djenepo was his usual fart in a thunderstorm self, and Diallo was what he's always been - a player with no discernible strengths. And, to top it all off, we experimented with a Back 5, which went down like a fart in church with both the players and the fans, and was quickly ditched. I can only imagine that Jones's towering ego convinced him that, through sheer force of personality, he could turn the same pig's ear into a silk purse. But, as much as it sticks in my craw, I wish him well because my love for Saints is far stronger than my dislike for his abrasive personality and my strong scepticism that he's capable of putting things right.

IIRC there was a smug facial exchange between Semmens and Ralph at the last one, when they were asked about dressing room dissent being leaked to the media. I think Semmens' verbal response was something like "we're addressing that", and two players ended up being marginalized and eventually moved out. Please correct me if I've got that wrong. Not that this situation is the same (we're far from a window and we've just spent a shit-ton on players), but the dissent is clearly there, it's not just two players, the marginalizing seems to be happening, we're now in a much worse league position, and one half of the smug facial exchange is still in the room. There's little cause for optimism in that scenario.

If there's that kind of split in the dressing room I don't see a way out of this that ends up in any turnaround in results. Dressing room splits are normally terminal without some kind of unifying force, which Jones is incapable of being.

It’s starting to look like death by ego – a joint hit by Colonel (thinks he’s) Mustard in the dressing room and Professor Plum in the boardroom. FFS.

Shocked to wake up and see Jones is still here. The Club is fully aware of the toxic fan sentiment and even the negative views of high-profile journalists. That’s two strikes. The third – and arguably most important - strike would be if most of the key players want him gone. It would be crazy - suicidal even - to expect them to bust their balls to save his job on Saturday if they want him out. The ONLY thing that could explain a decision to NOT fire him today is if the majority of key players still support him. SR wouldn’t take a vote but I’m sure they’d ask JWP for some “inside the dressing room” insight. It would be one hell of a gamble to keep him in place, given what Saturday could look like if we lose again.

Two Yesses from me. I voted Yes the first time not because I was happy with the appointment (I certainly wasn't) but because I thought it was a horrible idea to run the poll before he'd even managed a game. I've even argued for a re-set in the vain hope that Jones could change his ways and both sides could lower the temperature, but that's now out of the question. We don't even need to talk about his starting lineups and tactics, as abysmal as they've been. The club now has no option but to fire him because he appears to be almost universally disliked by the players and even his fellow members of the coaching staff. They clearly don't buy his bullshit. In the space of twelve days he has publicly berated Djenepo during the First Leg against Newcastle, been forced to change his formation by his own players in the Second Leg, and sent DCC to the B Team - presumably for not toeing the line. And then there's the post below by Saint Clark from the Jones Out thread. But the clincher was his horrific, unhinged post-game comments today. If I were Rasmus he'd be gone tonight, and Selles would be caretaker-managing. At least he appears to be on the same page as the players, and can hardly do worse.

Absolutely correct. I was appalled to see that. Frankly I don't think that we or Nathan Jones gave a good account of ourselves at the start, and things have gone downhill from there. The irony is that we both want the same thing, so it is in ALL of our interests to get pride, ego and obstinacy out of the way and set things on a better footing. Jones's recent comments about playing a Back 5 and omitting Perraud (to me, the key to a balanced Back 4) - plus the decision to not attend the fan forum - show that he's aware of fan sentiment, which is a start. Relationships sometimes need a re-set, and I think now would be a very good time for everyone to commit to that. But it's going to "take two to tango". Hopefully the Club can do their part to help him curb his abrasive manner and respond to what the fans want to see, but then we must do our part and throttle back the vitriol.