S-Clarke

I think it's the sensible approach you take in a situation like this, for both parties. It allows us all an option to reasses in the summer whatever happens. We did similar with Mark Hugues, but we were way too quick to give him a longer contract in the summer.

The general chatter from our 'media leaks' is that we want him in place for Chelsea.

Brilliant read - it would be a great joke football story if it wasn't actually f***ing true! What a crazy few months!

His payoff, if it happens, would be in the 10's of millions. He will happily sit on that, go travelling for 6 months and see what's avaliable in the summer. There is no scenario where we magically wait for Potter to get sacked and he's our manager the next day.

Looks like Leeds have decided to stick with their caretaker for their 'upcoming fixtures'. What a weird scenario. We'll probably line up at Elland road with the manager they sacked as they felt they needed better, but they will still have a caretaker in place as they haven't managed to replace their former manager who is now in our dugout. Be interesting to see who is the winner out of this chaos, potentially two losers given the league table - but we'll see.

CB's as well, better 1-on-1 CB's in terms of pace. Leeds had Cooper and Robin Koch (and Llorente before he went to Roma) I don't think we'll see Tino until next season.

If you don't want to have a reasoned debate then there's no point. I think the people who are behind him are clear on why, and the people who don't want him seem to be incredibly confused as to why they feel that way. (apart from wanting Poch or Tuchel instead) So let's just leave it there.

This is one of the reasons we signed more mobility in the summer, i.e Lavia and ABK. It was pretty obvious that Bednarek in a high pressing team was a disaster waiting to happen, but whilst we will concede chances playing that way having decent/quick and mobile 1-on-1 players make a huge difference. I listened back to that video earlier and they explained it really well - we probably have better players suited to how Marsch wants to play than he had at Leeds, certainly in relation to that 1-on-1 defending element. Let's just get back to what we know, back 4 - ABK and Salisu with Lavia and JWP pivot in front.

You were calling for Gallardo, who doesn't speak a word of English and would need a translator, so I'm pretty sure it's a big plus in comparison to that given the situation we are in. That's the key thing people are missing - if we were at the start of the season and had finished 10th, needed a new manager, then Marsch would be down on our list and we'd be looking wider I'm sure, but needs must and his suitability in the current situation is pretty well aligned to us, probably more so than it was to Leeds weirdly.

I'd have Boruc as my top Pole to be honest, top, top keeper - was so happy we got him on a free. Davis had done his time and Boruc was one of those nutty keepers who had that aura about him. I still think Koeman treated him a bit shit.

You keep saying the same stuff across multiple threads, but you seem to be forgetting where we are in the table and how we look to any potential appointment. If you look at the key bits of criteria you'd want in any new Southampton manager, following Jones, it would be... - Positive outlook and a likable demeanour. - Ability to mesh with the profile of players at his disposal, as there is no transfer window. - Familiarly with the league - Speaks full English - Experience of relegation battles and being successful in one. If you go through the names linked....Marsch is ticking most of those for me. The main takeaway is that the players here know all about his principles, sure it went stale with Ralph at the end, but you cannot deny that when he got that 4-2-2-2 working it was bloody brilliant - and maybe a fresh voice with similar idea's can spark life in this group, who have proven they are capable of playing the way Marsch likes his teams to play. People like Poch, Tuchel, Adkins, Benitez are just pipe dreams and bizarre shouts in my opinion. Someone like Benitez is so poorly suited to our team and the players we have, it would be a terrible match.

That's an excellent listen. You do wonder how the likes of Garth Crooks, Clinton Morrison and Paul Merson have got careers jabbering bollocks every week, yet those two guys are so switched on and speak a million times more sense than any of your traditional heavily paid pundits.

I wish we didn't do that kind of smug shit, they scored as soon as they came out after the break as well.

What else could they say? They're not going to put out the generic ''we'd like to thank Jones for his efforts'', because quite frankly his 'efforts' took us backwards at the rate of nots. It's an experience best forgotten about and I imagine the club are also trying to do that.

True, but I was looking at it from a player insights angle more than anything - their weaknesses/strengths etc. They'll know what he'll want to do here, but they won't have the full detail on our squad like he has of theirs.

You've got to have broad shoulders to be a ref, critisism must fly off of them if it doesn't matter. That's why they irritate I think, as they come across incredibly staunch in their decision because that's all they can be. Can you imagine Jones being a ref? His anxiety would be through the roof, he'd have probably squared up to half of the players before half time - not before telling them about what he'd done at Luton though.

He's better than Jones, Gerrard, Lampard, Rooney, Selles (in respect that he’s not a manager) and a lot of the others on the managerial merry go round at the moment? We've put ourselves in this situation by appointing a disaster in November, if we'd have done it properly in November we'd have had many more candidates - but as of now, given our position and status, our pool of choices is very small and in the context of everything that has gone on and the team we have, Marsch is the best fit.

I'm absolutley fascinated by the dynamic of him returning to Leeds with us as soon as he’s appointed, it's such an odd situation and doesn't happen that often. If you think about it, we've had a spy inside our opponents camp for 6 months running all their training and now he's taking charge of us when we're playing that opponent. That must provide an advantage that isn't seen that often. Leeds can't moan as they sent Beilsa up trees to spy on other teams.

Who would you have wanted instead of Marsch? Weirdly this appointment would have made 'more' sense when we swapped Ralph (but the timing was wrong then). The last 3 months have rightly clouded a lot of peoples feelings towards managers, but I don't think this is as big as a risk as some are suggesting. Don't get me wrong everything at this stage is a risk, but when you look at the avaliable options out there you have to say that Marsch is probably the least risky approach.

So who would you have gone for, in our current situation? I don't think it highlights a lack of ambition, I think it just highlights where we are and how we are seen in football circles right now.

The thing I look at with Marsch and his Leeds team is how often they were in games, they always gave it a good go and I must admit I did always enjoy watching Leeds play. Under Beilsa they were absolutely nuts, but he added a tiny bit more stability to them I felt. They'd have been more comfortable had it not been for the injuries. This season you could point at their predicament in much the similar way as Ralph. They made a go at improving areas of their squad and replacing those that had been sold, but they forgot to add a striker, their Raphina replacement (Sinistera) is made of glass in the same way as Bamford. I have no expectations on him to keep us up, I just want him to give us some hope and I think he'll do that.

Same happened at Leeds with Bielsa as well, so you'd probably point to their physio/sport science dept. more than individual managers causing that. Just my 2 pence.

You can't deny that he talks a good game, in a different level than Jones ever did - but the proof will be in the pudding, that’s my only slight concern. We've had lots of people in the past who have talked a good game without any substance. But I'm totally behind this one anyway, it makes sense I just hope we get some substance to the sense he talks.

It's no surprise to see this content, he set it all up himself by being a tool in the media. He gave them all of this content for free. I hope we never experience another 3 months like this again, he has simply dragged our name through the circus. I hope whoever appointed him (Rasmus) has eaten a load of humble pie over the last few days as he absolutley fucked up to record levels.