S-Clarke

I thought Chelsea were getting that guy from RB? This is weird though; this is the second of the new appointments over the summer who has left/leaving (Clapham and now Shields). It's hard to totally call the club out on this because it sounds like he's done a number on us, but we really do feel in ultimate turmoil right now in all departments

Good searching, but it was Pardew. We got Adkins in Sept of that year after a very bumpy august.

That's a real shame. He missed most of last season with a bad injury too, can't quite remember what it was. Still young enough to recover, but he'll probably be around 21 by the time he's fully fit and it'll be a struggle for him to hit the hights his potential once had.

There's always one....

I don't think he's stupid and he's been far from terrible for us - during the Gao years in particular he did a great job keeping us somewhat competitive. However, in the last year there have been little drips coming out in the media playing us down as a club which is really bugging me. His ultra-defensive tone in the recent fans' forum didn't sit particularly well with me either. I appreciate that everyone becomes a scapegoat when we're having a bad time, but none of these people are immune to criticism right now. Don't get me wrong, I don't expect us to start proclaiming we are going to get Top 4, challenge for the best players etc - I appreciate our place in the pecking order and I accept it, but as a club you still have to show ambition and a desire to push above the accepted norm. Everyone at the club right now seem perfectly happy with us finishing 17th and applauding it because ''we've done well to be here as long as we have''. With this attitude you encourage negativity in the fan base and an acceptance in the playing squad, which will eventually lead to a malaise around the club and an irreversible regression.

That's a good point, forgot about that. Silver linings and all that. I'm clinging to anything I can at the moment.

Blackmore's tone echo's that of a worrying narrative from the club over the last year. ''We have done well to be in the PL for 10 years'' ''We cannot compete with teams in this league'' ''We're small, we're tiny.'' etc etc. Generally small-fry talk, and that kind of talk from the top filters down, trickles to the players and then you get an underachieving load of crap. What would we lose by turning that narrative upside down and saying stuff like ''we have earned our place'' ''we can compete with the best'' ''we want to push up the league''. That's what can drive a club on, not this constant ''we're minnows', woe be us'' nonsense.

Yeah, he was shit. Give me Moi Elyounoussi any day.

He's the Quincy Promes of 2022.

I look at the teams in and around the bottom - Leicester, Villa, Palace, Wolves etc etc but you just know that having Watkins, Ings, Vardy, Barnes, Maddison, Jiminez, Zaha, Eze, etc is going to get them enough goals to be well clear come the end. For us, I have no idea where the goals are coming from. It's hard enough for us to create chances as our 10's are so poor, but when we do our 9's are so poor that they can't take them. It's a pretty sorry state of affairs and this is one season where it'll be the tipping point in my opinion. You cannot skimp on goals in any league, let alone the PL. I thought 'maybe' we'd tighten up this year so we wouldn't be so reliant on outscoring teams, but given that we haven't kept a clean sheet and our midfield is weaker than an U9's team then that seems a foolish hope. No idea what to expect. They'll overpower us in the middle if we play Diallo, they will score so we will need to score at least 2. And that is where the story ends.

Stop trying to play Diallo as a '6' to start with, throw two players up top to provide Adams someone to 'support'. But most of all, just go back to basics. I know we have these 'principles' at the counter press, but if I'm honest this seems to have died a death - so if we're still trying to play that way then they're not listening, so just go back to basics.

Gaston Ramirez Everyone should remember 'that game against Villa', I think he scored in the following game against Everton as well. But not much happened after that.

Kante whilst small has a decent physical presence, he's a strong guy. On top of Diallo's small height, he's very, very slight physicality and doesn't have much meat to him.

It was obvious last season he wasn't a DM, so I'm surprised we're still trying to flog him in the 6. Lack of options for sure, but someone at the club in the summer must have said ''don't worry about losing Romeu, we do have Diallo''. That's a concern. I think as a 3, with him further advanced, he could be an option. He's good technically, sharp, good agility, good pace, he's just weak as all hell and is eaten up in a 2 (that will never change).

To have an idea of the kind of manager we may look for - just look at the player transfers we've made. Any new manager will be a relatively unknown, but young manager with high potential. We will use the same mantra with that as we do for players (do well here, this is a steppingstone etc). As we know going for established players is a no-go with our model, and so is managers. Poch had his time here, we gave him a platform and now he's of a higher level. Young, relatively novice but talented managers are where we will look. Pretty much what Poch was when we got him in. If that's a sensible thing to do in our current situation is up for debate. But it is pretty much our model.

Isn't it a bit worrying though that we look reliant on an 18-year-old kid? It does show how poor our options are and why letting Romeu go was an own-goal.

Oh christ, please don't compare me to Dalek 😀 I haven't said we should aim for 17th yet....😉

Thierry Small is back, what did I miss? If he struggles to get game time at Port Vale then he has a problem.

He isn't a terrible player, but the most unsuited CM you could find for the PL.

Standby for ......''January is a difficult time to do business''

We really shouldn't have signed a kid for this position. He might be talented and have potential, but get him for your bench and sign an match-ready one for the number 1 jersey It's not all on Bazunu, but he does worry me and can look like a bit of a rabbit in headlights (which is to be expected, as he's a kid)

We carry no threat at all, it's really depressing to try and see us attack with that bunch of misfits. You can tell we're weaker in that area because we're starting with Adam Armstrong, he shouldn't be anywhere near a competitive PL team. It's no wonder we are toothless. Midfield also an enormous issue, the gaps and the lightweightness in that area is nothing short of dire. We basically undone a really good transfer window in the last 2 days of it. Only we could have done that.

The finances in football have been going out of control for many years, the nonsense of FFP has just gone to serve the clubs who were at the top of the table when it came in. When you are owned by states, such as Man City, PSG, Newcastle, money doesn't matter. They just print more money back home when they want some extra fun. This is the first season where it looks like Man City are creating a bit of a mini league. They may have a dip, but to be honest no one seems to be able to touch them. But saying that, they haven't played us yet. That'll be their biggest test.

Sounds like nonsense to me, feels like they're trying to create a happy-rainbow-unicorn type atmosphere. If what happened on Saturday constitutes disturbance then these guys haven't been in football for long. Really worrying. Season ticket fans once again stitched up, like they were when they decided to install pointless padded seats in the Kingsland. If we're not careful they're going to make this a corporate only event and remove the opportunity for 'every day' folk to actually enjoy a game. Remember, no shouting, no swearing, no chants. Just clapping please.

'I'm not sure how this can be argued'. He got us promoted to the PL. That's the end of the discussion. You talk about the calibre of players we had but have a look at the WHU squad that season and Leicester - full of quality, lots of money spent. Did either of those teams finish Top 2? No, they didn't. We had a good core of players, Fonte, Lambert, Morgan, Cork, Lallana, but it's up to the management and the coaching staff to assemble a team from that, which he did. Adkins created the most enjoyable time I've ever had as a Southampton fan and I will never think of him as anything else than a huge success in everything he did.