doddisalegend

You mean Alex Crook has had his daily check of saints web and concocted a page filler out of it....

The PL is not horrible, scary ot frightening it's over hyped and for most clubs rather boring and pointless. The measure of the PL can be found in that fact that finishing 6th-10th is celebrated like some of major trophy by fans outside of the big six. It's the paradox of the system as a fan you hope to see your team reach the PL (and if they do you've no doubt enjoyed some good times on the way) but once you get there and the initial euphoria wears off you find it becomes rather stale. I would enjoy a season being one of the best teams in a lower league more than bumbling around mid table of the best league but there is no way to guarantee that. At the end of the day I want to watch my team play on a Saturday afternoon (and win) the league they're in is irrelevant if they are doing well at that level.

Lol just heard the club pushing the tickets for this game on the radio apparently it will be a "Great day out" ..... They'll have to be careful they don't get done for false advertising.

So people don't care about entertaining football any more its all about battling for survival?

why didn't someone just do this... Police have issued a warning to West Ham United supporters after a fan called 999 to report the team's poor performance https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/police-have-issued-a-warning-to-west-ham-united-supporters-after-a-fan-called-999-to-report-the-teams-poor-performance/ar-BBFl1gx?li=AA9SkIr&ocid=spartandhp

No he is that deluded, it seems, he has been banging the same drum for months it's not the players it's the manager. The truth is it's both right now a poor manager struggling with a bang average squad.

It really depends on the owner. Coming down from the PL gives you big financial muscle in the championship. If you use that correctly and have a decent club infrastructure in place (as saints should do) you should be going straight back up like Newcastle did who actually are stronger now than before relegation. Those teams who struggle after relegation (like Villa and Sunderland) have been a mess behind the scenes for years with seasons of mis-management at all levels. I don't see saints in that bracket.

Simples. Even if the ST prices stayed the same stay the price per game is cheaper because you get more games in the championship than the PL.

Or Dyche, Silva or Rodgers basically "PL Proven" is the mantra of the day..

Yeah but as a fan you get more bang for your buck with two games in a lot of weeks and cheaper tickets.

I'm not bothered anymore getting to the PL was more fun than being in it anyway. I think the big difference between the lower leagues and the PL is you feel your club has somewhere to aim for that is more realistic than the Champions League. Especially as the best clubs, from the season before, have moved to a, different league the PL (the odd upset aside) is a closed shop were success for most teams is a top half finish and the last Europa league spot it gets old after a couple of seasons.

We haven't pressed with high fitness since Poch left, our full backs still get forward hence why we have the highest number of crosses in the league ( the poor quality of the crosses is another debate) and we didn't really play the youth under Koeman though we did under Puel. This identity (the Southampton way) thing has always been PR bollix none of our managers in the PL have played the same style.

It went wrong two summers ago when we failed to adequately replace a number of important players. Despite that last season was not the disaster some tried to paint it as and had we rectified the squad issues, shifted out the trouble makers in the squad and kept Puel last summer we wouldn't be where we are now.

I'm not sure a cup final is a good guide to players general ability in the week to week hum drum of league football. Most players will rise their game in such a situation. Last season we could at least defend and be hard to beat now we aren't even that.

LOL its worth any manager coming to the PL..... for the money. Even if you get fired after two weeks you are quids in well worth uprooting your family for..

Poch would still have left, as would most of the players, because Southampton is not a final destination for anyone with ambition regardless of club PR. Nik Nak only had to deal with one want away player in his time here, in Oxo, and he freely admitted to selling him because he was being difficult. If people are honest did they not expect saints rise to come to end sooner or later? We went through seven seasons doing better every season. That was always going to be hard (pretty much impossible if we are honest) to sustain no matter who was in charge.

mmm... who would buy them? Its usually easier to sell strikers that score goals.. This line makes me think we won't be suddenly splashing cash Everton style any time soon Jisheng Gao concerned his players are not delivering value for money Interesting though that this article would suggest the players not the manager are in the firing line...

He is on record saying he is only interested in a international job now the PL is to stressful.

Out but I don't see much changing without a big overhaul of the playing squad. God knows who'd we get in as a replacement though not like there are plenty of quality options out there especially if you feel we need someone to battle relegation.

Cheaper tickets, less JCLs and a more interesting league all round...bring it on

No doubt another manager might get a bit more out of them we could certainly make more of the limited talent we have ( like Burnley or Watford) but you must be blind if you think this squad is in any way as good as the one under Koeman you (and a fair few others TBF) refused to accept that last season and by the looks of it you still are.

No we have a bunch of average players. They could be set up much better to play to their strengths but this not a team of quality players Lemina aside our recruitment the last two summers hasn't been good enough which is,why the squad is where it is right now.

We didn't threaten Liverpool in the league last season the game at home we didn't have a shot on target iirc. We've been toothless for ages how could you not expect another limp performance after months of limp performances?

Pretty much. We are all getting upset but let's face we were all expecting a spanking today. It's not really about beating the big teams most teams in the league won't get a result against them. It's all about picking up results against the 13 other teams in our mini league something we haven't done this season.

This would never have happened under Puel....