S-Clarke

So let me get this right. You're very pleased 'Redmond' may be staying and don't wish to put any blame on McCarthy. Yet at the same time you wouldn't mind if we sold one of our two actual PL players, captain and player of the season because he 'stops our attacks'' and slows us down. This is the sort of attitude that has spiraled us down to mediocrity. Happy to let the best players go by downplaying their importance, yet sticking up for and continuously trying to support the crap that is hanging around. Moussa, Armstrong, Redmond, Bednarek, McCarthy, Elyounoussi, Valery etc are the problems - not JWP. You build the team around JWP and get rid of the shit dragging his game down.

I can see us keeping Elyounoussi, but Redmond will be free to go I think. But you're right, they should only be squad players at best but they have to start because we're so shit. Getting two new starters in that area in the summer is as big a priority as CB and GK in my opinion.

I think with Palace they 'had to', they had so many players out of contract (most of their defense to start with), so they couldn't just sit back and not spend. They were forced to. I don't know where they got that money from, as they're not particularly flush, but it was probably sustainably done over a few windows rather than all at once. I don't see them spending much this summer because of that, their transfers last year were to build a new team and move towards a new future. They'll continue to grow with those players over the coming years.

McCarthy Valery Lyanco Salisu KWP Romeu JWP Armstrong Redmond Broja Adams That's probably as best as we can put out. I think both ourselves and Leicester have been equally frustrating at times this season, they've underachieved massively though whereas we are more on-par with what we expect. They've got a few players who can make a difference, but those same players want out (Notably Tiliemans). It's the sort of game I can see us getting a win in, as the atmosphere isn't great at the King Power at the mo. But equally we could get trounced 3-0 as per West Ham away at the end of last season.

Yeah I read that in the echo, it's daft. I don't understand. They can't even throw it long, even trying Lyanco on it now. I think it's a Dave Watson masterpiece, he's the set piece guy. Another who has been stealing a living at this club for too long. What seems to happen more often than not is that we get broken on because our CB's are in the wide area's after having taken a throw in. We seem to be looking for these tiny little gains and special ways to surprise teams, probably an admission that it's the only we can compete. It's all very depressing really.

Apart from the end of last season, it was just as bad. I think Ralph runs them into the ground, so by the end of Feb they're done and you've got to hope you already have enough points in the bag by then. (Luckily we always seem to have enough in the bag) Every end of season has been like this, it goes on for months. I said to my brother after we'd lost at home to Watford ''this is the start of many defeats on the bounce''. I didn't want to be right, but sadly it's just very predictable. I'd say the Norwich home game, even though we won, was a sign that we were starting to flag. Since that game we have only picked up 5 points. I think the lock down games back that point up, just before lock down - end of feb/start of march, we began to flag again. Lost to Newcastle in the final home game, and then had an enforced break. Obviously that break allowed everyone to recharge and have a massive period of reset, then we came back able to play that high pressing tactic again. How do you fix that is the question. There are two ways really, you either ignore the good that comes with playing the way Ralph plays and go for someone more conservative who will ultimately lead us to where we are now, just in a different way. Or we significantly back Ralph to bring in the first team quality he needs so we don't have to run a select group of players to the ground every year, as we just don't have enough quality to rotate them with. More depth, yes, but not quality. It comes down to what the club want to do. They either back Ralph's approach and back him to build a squad capable of sustaining it, or they admit they cannot back this approach and let him go and get a more conservative appointment in place.

These pitch invasions are all a bit daft really, they've not achieved anything yet. I can appreciate a pitch invasion if you win promotion, but a pitch invasion for finishing 6th or winning a Semi Final is just noddy level and idiot's like this will probably stem the end for them for all situations.

He really is bad isn't he, certainly ok for backup and occasional games but as a starter he'll cost teams too many points and you'll always struggle with him as number one. I hope the club realise that and don't peddle us the bollocks that he's the number 1, and we'll buy a new younger number 2 to develop etc. That would just about finish me off and confirm that the club don't really have a handle on reality, and are still trying to string out average as long as they can in the hope they become less average so they can proclaim the 'Southampton way' and 'Development' club nonsense.

24 points from that lot was incredibly ambitious. Don't get me wrong, I expected more than 5 but 24 is just a bit ott. That would have put us ahead of 'the rest' and very comfortable in 6th place. We don't have the players to be anywhere near that no matter who is in charge. I think people are guilty for overrating our players to be honest. As per most players, they're capable of purple patches but it's the consistency which makes them 'decent' players, of which they have none.

Diallo was a strange alternative really, because Sangare is the 'powerful' dominant CM you'd have thought we were after. Diallo is like the total opposite of that. And you could probably say we didn't need someone like him at that point, because we already had 'JWP' in the 'weak' midfielder role and Smallbone if we really wanted to blood youth.

It was never anything other than a PR stunt, something for the club to get the banners out for and 'welcome him home'. It's a shame it had to end like this but it was painfully obvious that the injury he had last season was the end for him. Part of the trust I had in the new club recruitment was dented when they offered him a deal. I'm not sure if he has another injury now or not, but he's clearly no longer at the required level either fitness or quality wise. I'm sure he's good to have around the lads though, even though we still lose every week.

Ah you're right, that headline £35m I've seen banded about is his release clause in his Sheffield contract. Either way though it does show you how values of players have shifted. Back in 2014 someone of Berges quality playing for Genk would have prob been around the 10m mark.

Absolutley no problem signing tino players, certainly a good idea for any club to look at those markets. The prob is when the club base their entire transfer strategy around that.

Villa tried to get Bentacur but once Spurs came in that was over, funnily enough though I'm sure I remember us being linked him him way back in the day. Dejan the winger is on loan, I think it was a £15m loan fee and then another £20m to make it perm at the end of the season. Again, out of our league really.

He has certainly gone backwards, that's probably down to a lack of playing time really and Ralph not helping the situation by trying to shoehorn him in at RB, or Right wing at times last season. He doesn't seem physical enough to compete in the middle, but as a squad player in the number 10ish sort of role he could provide something. Just as long as he has protection behind him, as when it's JWP and Diallo most teams in world football will dominate us. As you said, midfield is the engine room and it's been painfully shit since we let Morgan and Wanyama go, we've never really replaced either. (well, we've tried to be clever with the replacements)

The problem with Moussa, Elyonoussi etc is that we've got ourself into the same predicament that we did with Hoedt, Lemina, Boufal. We're never going to get our value back on them, but we seem hesitant to accept anything less than what we paid, right up until the point they have a year left and then we pay them off or something daft. But you're right, who is going to want any of those guys? I'd add Redmond to that list as well. They're on big wages, certainly more than you'd expect a promoted team to spend...and established teams aren't going to be looking at any of those. We'll end up paying them off again, I can see it. And obviously that eats into our budget.

Diallo should have never been seen as a Romeu replacement really, totally different type of player. I think he's better in a more advanced position, but he's also painfully average I have to say. Mane, VVD, Tadic etc were signed from lesser leagues and they turned out alright. But one main thing has happened since the 2014ish time. Player values have moved on. We cannot get a Mane for £10m anymore, more like £25m. Ditto Tadic. But the problem with us is that we've stood still, we still seem to have this blocker on anything over £18m and that doesn't get you much these days it has to be said. Sheffield United spent £35m on Berge, so I think that shows you where the values have gone The club thought they were being clever by signing Redmond for £10m and expecting another Mane, or Elyounoussi for £15m and hoping for another Tadic. It was a dumb tactic that has backfired miserably. I know football isn't all about spending, but when you have a squad that is so horribly underinvested then it's no surprise we struggle. It's horrible watching us every year at the moment, but part of me thinks it's a bit of a mini-miracle that we're still at this level. Let's not waste that opportunity with new owners.

I don't think Diallo was a punt, he was a 7-8m signing which should just be pocket change for a PL club and a squad filler. I'd say Elyounoussi and Moussa were certainly punts in the £15m+ region that we would have expected either a return or at least a profit. Same could have been said for Hoedt, Lemina, Boufal etc but we had to give those guys away for free. I know we always had a laugh at Alpine when he said we were run like a seaside B&B, but it's safe to say in the last 5 years we have been run just like that. Maybe worse.

Apart from that, we're doing well and have a clear plan.

Scouting needs to be spot on for clubs like us, we were saddled with FFP because we filled the squad up with failed big signings on shit wages, so we couldn't ever truly fix those mistakes, we kept either having to 'try' to get them to work or shift them out on loan every year. We haven't seen the back of that just yet, but we're getting there. I have hope that our scouting is better, but we need to stop with the ''we want to find the next tino'' bollocks, as that is not a basis of a transfer plan for a club that only has a handful of PL players as it is.

Still painfully average though and prone to absolute headfucks. Need much better.

It's a big summer for sure, but it's too early to really judge as it stands. You are correct in that the rot starts at the top, no doubts about that at all - and that rot started with Gao and that previous hideous regime that has led us down this awful non-ambitious path we are on today. Yes, we are absolutely great at spin and all the Southampton way bollocks. I would say we were much, much worse under Les and Kruger though. Those years were full of self-indulging bullshit. But what I don't want to hear are the words ''Things are going to plan, we are doing it our way''. ''We are calm'' Because this can't be the plan, and we can't be calm about the current situation. The plan can't about selecting a team for damage limitation purposes. The plan can't be about buying 17 year olds every summer and singing to the media about it. The plan can't be about losing 15 games on the bounce at the end of every season because the squad is shit. The plan has to change. We need established coaches, established first team players, established scouts. None of this jobs for the boys bollocks we've been peddling for years, Davis, Fleming, Theo etc etc etc. We need to use this summer as an opportunity to be ruthless and get rid of utter, utter shit that we've been fannying around for years trying to get it to 'work'. Whether the manager is part of that plan is up for debate, but I will always say the problems are a hell of a lot deeper than him and have been going on much longer than him.

Tonight was an admission, in my eyes, that we have a terrible bunch of football players who cannot compete against the best. So we have to play a way to prevent damage limitation. If that doesn't prompt us to invest then there is just no point anymore.

Almost everyone said we'd be done, people were calling double figures or some ridiculously over the top predictions. We as fans obviously feared the worst and sadly it seems like the club feared the worst as well, so that team and that tactic was pretty much a damage limitation tactic. If we'd have opened that up and gone for it, we'd have been picked off for fun and it would have been an apocalyptic score line as some predicted. It was a weakened Liverpool team, but still...every single one of those players in that Liverpool team starts for us, so it's weak for them but still better than us. Most teams in this league are better than us, we are pretty much where we deserve to be. Should the manager have been less passive? Maybe, but it just feels like a case of him being a loser with either approach. He was on a hiding to nothing tonight and it's not worth reading a great deal into it. But what is clear, without any question, is that we have in the main - bar 1 or 2 players - an absolutely horrific team of footballers and without significant changes in the playing squad, no matter who is manager, we are long gone and the fat lady will be singing by November I'd imagine.

Absolutely, and it's even more important for us to get scouting right as we can't really fix our mistakes. I think this is the first summer in many, many years that we've had a bit more leeway though and more flexibility. We're not going to be competing with Villa or Newcastle, West Ham for wages or transfer fees, but what we can compete with them on is scouting. We won't spend as much, but it's not always about how much you spend it's how you spend it. Brentford have got no right to be above Everton for example, there's like half a billion difference in transfer fee's between them over the last few years. But crappy scouting has done for Everton, not a lack of spending. We were also guilty of crappy scouting after Koeman which hasn't helped us either.