kwsaint

Would want to keep Hughes for next year regardless of where we are. Seems to have a plan b unlike the previous 2 managers.

GTFI!!

I'll tell you what, if we win, I'll make a full apology.

Going to call it first, reckon it'll be McCarthy. Mainly because he's the least **** player and the club will try and harbour the goodwill there is towards him. Who do you reckon?

The one thing that you can credit Les and Ralph for is getting top dollar for players that they are selling. VVD being the obvious example. It's the recruitment of players and managers that has been the big problem.

Gao is going to want to protect his investment based on the little that we have seen so far. So a fire sale of better players, parachute payments being used to pay off the loan, with little investment in quality. And none of the Van Dyck money will get spent. At some point things will bottom out. But we are on the slide and I really dont see us being top half in the Championship next season. Apart from anything most of the current bunch have no fight in them and the Championship is a tough league. The frustrating thing is that this was all so unnecessary. Better recruitment of both players and managers since the summer of 2016 would have avoided all this. Hopefully Les Reed will be gone in the summer, but he will need to be replaced with someone who actually knows what they are doing.

The worry is that the club could very quickly implode. None of us have any idea how Gao will react when he realises that he has paid a lot of money for a club that is now worth a lot less as a Championship side and that the revenue stream will start to dry up. Given that the purchase of the club was largely done on borrowed money, I can see a fire sale of players to get money in and reduce the wage bill, and that much of the parachute money will go the same way. Dont expect much of the money to be reinvested in quality players to try to bounce straight back. It could start to get seriously messy. Hope I am wrong, but the signs are not good.

Haven't we run out of permutations already this season. Must have tried every single combination of front 4 and nothing has worked. Only point for discussion is how many we are going to lose by.

We can all see a big clear out of players coming. Hopefully including Les Reed. Going to be a while before we are back in the Prem as the Championship is a tough league to get out of. Won't be as straightforward as it was in 2011/12. Would be nice to see a Saints team playing as a team and giving it their all - even if they are not technically as good as the current bunch of prima donnas. Would not mind if Mark Hughes stayed. It needs someone with a bit of grit to sort them out.

Think whoever scores first will win. I know that is usually the case but more so in this game. We score first and their crowd will turn.

Three days before the cup semi-final. Not doing us any favours. Assume that this is TVs doing

tell the teacher to watch the YouTube video and stop it at the point that McCalliog played the pass. Check the lines on the pitch and where Bobby was. Then let it run and see Martin Buchan come into the shot - check which line he was on (and has been rightly pointed out he was running forward). Bobby was a yard or two onside. It wasn't even close. It's just the appearance of the usual footage. First 20 minutes were a bit touch and go, but after then it settled down. Last 30 minutes only one team were going to win - and it wasnt United. LM really did his homework on them that day

This thread is in danger turning into Golden Gordon from the Ripping Yarns series (showing my age)

Huddersfield are now in big trouble. Their run in is horrible. Stoke's isn't much better. Makes the West Ham game massive. Three points there and we are level with Huddersfield. Lose and we are going to struggle to get the points. Think that 36 points might actually be enough

Think it will be Hughes. Better than MP, but not very inspiring. Would prefer Strachan short term. Would at least be fun and he would certainly have some choice words with some of the prima donnas in the team.

If they don't have someone lined up to take over immediately then they are even more stupid than we think they are. Then again.....

We are now third favourite with SkyBet to go down after WBA and Stoke. Seems like the bookies have finally aligned to what we have known for most of the season.

Didn't last time.

Will relegation get rid of Reed and the board? That's the question.

Got a few looks from people in the library when I looked at the score at declared "for ****s sake".

Relax. Forecast for Saturday is OK. Grey and drizzly, with a maximum of 6 degrees. It's what happens on the pitch that is likely to be the problem

I was at the Rangers game in 1974. My recollection is of lots of very drunk scots in the Dell. Remember one of the goals as being a spectacular own goal. Defender played the ball back to the keeper from midway inside the Rangers half. Went sailing over the keepers head into the goal at the Milton Road End.

Stoke will park the bus as they did at Leicester on Saturday. Then try to nick a goal. We will pass the ball sideways in front of their defence without really threatening. Like a lot of this season's home games really. 1-1 again.

Taking a different approach to the thread. How many ex-Saints players are there in the Premier League? Liverpool: Lallana, Lovren, Clyne, Van Dyck, Mane, Oxlade-Chamberlain Everton: Schneiderlin, Martina, Walcott Man United: Shaw Burnley: Cork Stoke: Crouch West Brom: Rodrigues Swansea: Dyer Bournemouth: Boruc, Surman Palace: Puncheon West Ham: Fonte, Antonio Spurs: Wanyama, Alderweireld Bound to have missed someone. That's 21 players, the majority of who made their Premier League debut with Saints in the past 5 years. No wonder we are in a mess

It has been worse (just). There was life before the Premier League. 17 games without a win in 1988/89, including 8 games without a win at home. 20 games without a win in 1969/70, with 10 consecutive home games without a win. Only won 6 games all season (including the 4-1 win away at Man U when Big Ron scored all four). Just before I started watching. Must have been an awful season. Still stayed up somehow.