S-Clarke

I think an open letter would probably create more angst, I've had enough of their words - it's time they actually started delivering properly. I do agree that the footballing side internally, at upper levels, needs to be ripped apart and started again. I'd be able to get behind that. Our footballing decisions are currently being driven by a tech guy (Kraft) a former dyson exec (Parsons) and a rugby performance director (Bitcon). That is where the problem lies. Those 3 positions are critical and are currently filled with people who have zero football experience.

I'm glad nothing is happening, it would have been stupid if we went out there trying to buy players in our position. Loans are all i'd want to see, no more Sulemana/Onuachu/Orsic windows. There's no point improving the squad now as nothing will come of it, so keep the powder dry.

Yep, I can totally believe that! Like others have said, it's a public sector thing, but I do still believe the management in the NHS play the system to the extreme to try and manipulate things. Although the councils probably do as much as well, but I only really have experience of seeing it in the NHS system. There are many things I've witnessed in the past re: saving money, like for example a system being improved for free (with may require some overtime) by utilising the inhouse internal knowledge/skills, but that was vetoed and external consultants and companies were brought in for 3 figures to do the same thing - which the internal staff, who'd have done it 'for free', then have to unpick in their own time. None of it makes any sense. I don't pay much attention to the hospital critical incidents either, this is another game being played by upper management. As soon as they declare a critical incident, NHSE/DOH release extra support and funding. There is an understanding that money is directed from other departments straight into A&E, but this doesn't tell the whole story.

These sorts of roles aren't limited to a single NHS Trust either. Every trust is littered with roles like this and in some cases even entire teams dedicated to it. We have over 300 individual NHS organisations across the country, all employing their own boards of directors and fluffy roles like this. I see it every single day and even though I work in the NHS, I'll never agree that it's underfunded. It's financially mismanaged, absolutley, but the money is there - there's just no control to how it's spent. The fear organisations have by not spending all their money, and in turn potentially getting less from the DoH in the next year is fuelling overspending and waste.

In what world do they think we're going to get £16m for Sulemena? They're still sniffing glue by the sounds of it. He'll be with us until the last day of the window, be shipped off on loan, come back to us in the summer and we'll pay him off. No one will spend money on him as he's crap.

I'll give you Ramsdale, THB, Downes and Fernandes. Sugawara has been next level shit and Edwards may be good for us, but not proven yet. The majority of their transfer additions since they have taken over have taken us backwards. Bazunu - Rubbish Lis - We were a Vehicle for his Gotzpe adventure Taylor - Not really sure what the point of that one was. Larios - Pointless ABK - A disaster all being told. Aribo - Pretty crap. Sulemana - Utter heap of turd. Onuachu - Not good enough. Charly - Decent, but probably not quite suited to English football Lavia - Class - their one standout. Charles - May be good, not really shown up for us yet. Stewart - Pointless. Could have told you the outcome on that one before we signed him. Cornet - Horrendous Ugochuckwu - I think he's rubbish. BBD - Horrendous Edozie - Not really good enough. Mara - holy mother of shite. Orsic - wtf? AMN - Trash DCC - Awful So bar Lavia, THB, Fernadnes and maybe Charly the majority of their 'driven' signings have been trash. You can't really argue with that list. I wouldn't say their blind spot is limited to the attack, they've made shit calls in multiple positions. That's why I don't want any of this crew making any additions this window. They cannot be trusted. Save the dollar, go down, scrap the lot of them and rebuild a decent recruitment setup and then start again.

They'll be good enough if they're complimented with players who mitigate their physical weaknesses, i.e pace. But as we've seen this year, we've put Downes and THB on the pedestal as the two main men in their respective positions and they're not good enough (physically) for that at this level. In summary we went into this season totally underprepared and hung them out to dry, trying to get them to do what they did in a level below. Neither Fonte or Toby were particularly quick, and they were two of our best PL CB's in a generation, but we complimented the team with players who helped alleviate their physical weaknesses. It's not all about individuals, it's about building a team to get the best out of everyone. We didn't do that, we didn't do it last season either. Our team might be a good bunch professionally, but as a unit in terms of how they compliment each other they are utterly horrific. We couldn't have got it more wrong had we tried.

I think it's probably best we all fully prepare ourselves with Bazunu as number 1 next year.

Sorry Manji, but at this stage I struggle to see anyone worse than Sports Republic. They have been utterly, utterly horrific in every single way possible. They are in the midst of destroying our club as it stands. ''How many expected us to do well this season?'' - I'd say the majority of fans expected us to be sat on more than 6 points and not already relegated in January, let's not try and kid ourselves that this league is an insurmountable feat. We haven't even competed, not in a single game. Ipswich and Leicester came up with us and they are streets ahead of us development wise. We came into this season entirely underprepared because our owners don't understand football.

Shea Charles coming back would be a bad move for him. He'll make no difference to our season, so there's absolutley no point. We're going to have tons of broken players come the end of the season, so let's leave guys like Shea alone and give him the time to enjoy football. And also, for what it's worth, I can see us cashing in during the summer. Apparently some Serie A and Bundesliga clubs have been tracking him heavily this year. He could be one of the more 'unexpected' sales from the summer. I feel a Tella situation.

We lost 5-0 to Spurs under Martin. 5-1 to Chelsea, 3-0 to Bournemouth, 3-0 to Man Utd. Let's not try and make out Martins reign was full of roses, it wasn't, it was an absolute complete and utter shit show which has lead us to where we are right now.

It's a bit of a stretch to say we're packed full of top Championship players. There is a hell of a lot of average EFL in this side, once the remnants of the quality leaves in the summer (Fernandes, Dibling, KWP, THB), we'll be left with a core of Stephens, Charles, Armstrong, Aribo, Fraser, Wood, Manning, Bree, Smallbone, Bazunu, Taylor, Archer etc etc. One or two top level champ players in there for sure, but a hell of a lot of absolutley average champ players too. This is why I don't expect us to compete at all next season. We're absolutley ruined as a squad at this current juncture, some of these players will never recover from a season like this. This time next year we won't be talking about a squad 'packed full of top championship players', trust me.

At any level, you need good players for the level you are at. Ultimately the good player/stand out player becomes the talisman for the team, as we had with Rickie or Fonte, Ings etc. There are no talisman in this team because we have no good players for this level. Our only two technically capable players are Dibling and Fernandes, the rest are lumbering piles of shit at PL level. We should have learnt our lesson because we've tried this story before with Aribo, Armstrong, Bednarek, Stephens etc.

I thought he was horrendous to be honest, terrible touch and slow as shit. 'Chelsea aren't stupid' - yeah, they probably are tbh.

The Gao era was pretty deflating as there was no investment, but the people 'local' who actually run the club day-to-day applied a bit of common sense to decisions. This lot have all the gear and absolutley no idea. They started their ownership stint watching us beat Brentford 4-1 with Ralph in charge. 3 years later they've just witnessed us lose 0-5 to Brentford with their 4th permanent manager in charge, on course for our 2nd relegation under them. They are absolutley horrific. There is no football experience at any level, just a bunch of businessmen with money who are trying their hardest to wing it. They have absolutley ruined this club. We don't recover from this season overnight, trust me.

Can we just pretend the season didn't happen? I've never experienced such an uncompetitive season in my lifetime. We have never, not once, been in competition with anyone. 20th has been ours since day 1.

Get the same errors here too, tried multiple devices with varying OS's and browsers and it's the same across all. Doesn't matter what theme I'm on either. I do get into the threads eventually, but it can take 3 or 4 attempts.

At the end of the day, the model of SR is to generate money from the development of players. Having a successful team is second to them, primarily it's about building a successful profit generating portfolio. Dibling is an opportunity for them to rake in full profit from someone developed in house and I'm fairly certain they'll take that opportunity as soon as it arises. He is our ticket to trying to build a competitive Championship squad next season and helping Gozepe compete even higher in the Turkish league.

Our use of money since around 2017 is beyond belief really. We've had numerous 'DOF's' and chief scouts during that time, but there must be some sort of connecting factor still at the club? The same analysts, the same regional scouts? If I was Dragan, I'd sack all of the recruitment and scouting teams and basically start again. Just require simple criteria to scout. A goalkeeper who can make saves, a striker who can score goals and a midfielder who can tackle. It sounds a bit simplistic to say, but we've spent so much money on keepers who can't make saves and strikers who can't score goals. It's all gone south since we've pushed that 'The Southampton way' brand, trying to create the illusion that we are special. We're not special, we're absolutely shite.

No, there is zero chance. We need around 60% of available points to get to 40 points. It's really not worth stressing about or thinking about. We've been done and dusted for many weeks.

He's done his stints at WHU, no way he'd go back there. Potter is the likely candidate for WHU imo. Moyes has shot himself in the foot a little with those comments, every club bar 6 or 7, has a realistic chance of getting relegated and often bumble along for most of the season only ever a few points away from it. So unless he thinks he'll be managing Liverpool, City, Arsenal, Chelsea etc then his choice is probably going to be limited to clubs who are at risk of going down. He will now likely end up at a Championship club pushing for promotion, who have a lot of $$$.

There are some odd takes on this forum at the moment. We have people trying to create this angle of the two best players we have, Fernandes and Dibling, not being 'that good'. It won't be hard to get rid and cash in if that's what some want, as there will be loads and loads of interest, so that probably means they are quite good. Meanwhile we will get to continue to enjoy BBD, Sulemana, Fraser, Stephens and co.

This could be a great opportunity for Rasmus to secure another free player for Gotezpe

They're lucky, they can be seen as a proper football team again. In theory this should be the absolute end of his managerial and coaching efforts, but you know there are still bat shit crazy chairman out there who think he'd still be a good idea. (Step forward Rasmus)

Christ, what I'd pay to see Fabrice in this side. He'd run rings (literally!) around some of the clowns we field today.