S-Clarke

Burnley's takeover is still a bit iffy, it was a takeover against the club in the sense of a loan - so they piled debt on the club. SR haven't done that, so in that sense they've done better. This summer will be a big signal of their intentions, but I have no reason to believe they won't significantly back us. It's also not all about financial investment, but it's about developing a project that 'sought after' coaches can get behind - I feel they have the clout to do that, so we'll see.

And we were everything they were not in 2016. This is football, swings and roundabouts. They've got their time in the sun, let them enjoy it. They've taken advantage of a weak Spurs, Liverpool and Chelsea season and have pushed on. They've got a great mix of players like Alexis McAlistar, Cacedio, Mitoma who will have almost certainly caught the attention of bigger clubs, much the same way as their manager. The trick for Brighton will be how they evolve from those players and the manager when it happens, because it will. They've already lost Trossard and Bissouma, but eventually the conveyor belt will slow down and they'll dip. They're having their period in the sun like we did, how they sustain it will very much rely on how well they use the money they get from players - but this is generally hit and miss, so it'll be interesting to see.

I think it's important to take a step back slightly and remove the emotion from it for a second. Let's not kid ourselves that we were this mega stable mid-table PL club when they came in, far from it, we've been circling the drain for many years. We had a lucky season after Covid, but beyond that it's been outside relegation scraps or relegation scraps since 2018 - before them. So let's not re-write history to believe we were some sort of amazing club before they came. What I don't think anyone can hold against Sport Republic is their desire to change, and there was a lot here that was broken when they came in. Lack of investment being one, which they remedied massively and for that you cannot knock them. The issue has come with the decisions they have made on the back of that investment, they've gone all in way too quickly rather than taking a more considered approach - whilst things needed to change, the way they've gone about this is all wrong and that's why we are where we are. I don't believe their intentions are bad, far from it, it's just the decision making which has let them down - and if i'm honest that does still worry me for the summer, so let's see how that pans out. If SR had come in and started selling everyone, putting the ground up for sale, not allowing us to buy players etc then fair enough - smash them with a stick on that, but they haven't done that - they've come in with the investment to try and make a change, they've just done it wrong.

What makes a 'Southampton' manager out of interest? Is it someone who has once played for us?

Probably the only person who would!

It's a thread title said in jest, all we've got is a bit gallows humour to save this season.

In a season where Lampard's rep was already through the floor after his Everton tenure, he has probably totally ended his managerial career with this truly awful Chelsea spell.

Does anyone find this Wrexham thing a bit odd? They've got a live BBC Sport commentary page broadcasting coverage and providing comms on the Wrexham open top bus parade. I cannot in my life remember a team in the National League getting promoted and getting this level of coverage. All a bit odd to me

I've always thought his delivery was on par with JWP, certainly from the right side or free kicks in and around. He's got a similar technique.

This is exactly it, I always thought his sacking by Palace was quite harsh. Obviously it looks good for Woy, but Viera would have got a similar haul in my opinion. (Plus Woy is benefiting from the return of Zaha). I think he built a decent team at Palace, which Woy is now benefiting from in the more winnable fixtures. (and it's not like Viera had them rooted to the foot, they've always been fairly comfortable)

He most recently got booted out of Club Brugge by failing in a pretty shit league, standard wise. He managed 12 games. Another former player who isn't going to cut it as an elite manager.

Leeds about to sack Javi Gracia and replace him with......Big Sam.

Great game that, enough quality in both sides for them both to be fine come the end. My feeling now, it keeps swinging most weeks, is that it'll be Forest and Leeds.

Ah silly season twiter-rumour sphere has started already.

This has been a great watch, that half has had everything. Everton have been miles the better side in my opinion, but their defending has shot themselves in the foot. Can see why they're both down there, they are both levels above us quality wise though.

We're barley relevant at the best of times in the eyes of Sky and PL, but in the one season we are involved in relegation, so potentially a topic of discussion, we have been so pointless that we're not even included in the debates about it. We've made our relegation irrelevant to the media, that takes some going. Shows how truly bad these players have been for us, in a season where it's so tight we're not even in the debate with 5 games to go. They should be handing their wages back to the saints foundation.

I think the sales are pretty realistic, but I'd add Tella and Ounaucu to that - no way we keep Tella, we should make a decent sum on him though. I think Onuachu will be on the first flight out of here, probably on the same plane as Orsic! In a few years time that'll be a great pab quiz question. DCC too - i think he'll join Orsic and head back to Croatia, it just hasn't worked out for him. I'd be quite depressed if we retained Lyanco, Diallo, Aribo, Moussa, Adam Armstrong or Theo though and it would suggest we haven't learnt a thing. They need to go by hook or by crook, possibly some loans and contract payoffs to get rid of those. CM is the clear gap given we'd lose JWP and Lavia, I'd also say we need two goal scorers and some better quality wide options. I'd also go out and buy some new CB's, and in essence just build a new spine to the team. We can then blood the likes of Edozie, Alcaraz, Larios, Ballard, Dibling, Doyle etc in and around accomplished players, rather than expecting them to run the show for us. When we last built a brand new team in L1 we sorted the spine out - Jaidi, Hammond, Butterfield, Kelvin staying, Lambo up top. Then we added Ox, Lallana and Morgan around them and let them flourish with more accomplished players and leaders around them. It's really achievable and within the realms to dominate the league if we get the big calls right, as financially we will be able to compete more than most. But getting the big calls right is my biggest fear given the horrific decision making up to now. I feel like it could quite easily go in the direction of Swansea/Stoke as it could go in the direction of Burnley. A big summer for the immediate and long term future of us as a football club. Get it wrong and some of us will never see top flight football again.

Exactly the sort of player we will be sniffing around. Not against it at all as he's talented, but so was Edozie, Mara, ABK etc etc. We need to focus on experience this summer (I'm not talking 30+ year olds, but we need to avoid more kids on day releases from school). Our B Team has done well enough to potentially provide some of that young talent this summer, whilst we focus on proven mid-20's upwards additions.

But our route out is 1) needing to win 4 games in a row, and 2) hoping other's drop points (we have to overtake everyone above us). We can only get 36 points, so even if we do the amazing thing and get 12 points out of 12 we'd still be relying on others above us dropping points. There is more chance of Michael Jackson performing at the Coronation Concert than us winning 1, let alone 4 football matches. It'll be done by next week.

So true. I don't know where he's ever got his reputation from, or his 6 England caps. I'm pretty confident that there are much better players in the lower leagues and even our academy. Him saying he'd like to stay here is out of desperation more than anything, he'll be struggle to find a club this summer methinks and he knows it. If we do sign him then I give up.

What an opportunity this is for Forest by the way, they couldn't have picked a better fixture at this stage of the season if they tried. Fighting for survival against a team that checked out of football in December and will finish 20th. Bit of a nightmare for Leicester/Leeds/Everton that this fixture is happening tbh.

Fraud of a footballer. First out of the door, don't let it hit you on the way out.

He's not a bad guy though apparently, so therefore you have to give him the benefit of the doubt (Plus he's a Liverpool player).

So because we've signed bad players, we need to keep the bad players, just in case we buy more bad players? Not sure I buy that. For what it's worth our signings of ABK, Lavia, Alcaraz, Tino are good picks for me. I also can't include Mara, Orsic or Onauchu in any comparisions as they simply haven't played enough. I wouldn't say any of the above are worse than Elyounoussi though, Lyanco/Armstrong/Diallo/Aribo are just as bad.

Not officially, but if we lose we could only get to 33 points, of which Forest would be on if they beat us. As close to official as you can get without it being official.