S-Clarke

No it's not a huge leap at all, in fact it's pretty much guaranteed given all clubs under the SR badge play the same way. Crazy conspiracy theory though apparently, according to some.

I guess they couldn't dare appoint anyone decent, or with 'real' experience, as that would mean there'd be a risk at someone questioning the clubs approach. Have to keep filling it all with yes men who are just thankful to have a job at a level above them.

Back to the strong '11' from the run a month or so ago, but I'm still desperate to see Fellows as a right winger in a game like this. I'm sure he wasn't bought to spend most of his time going backwards.

''The point is good, if we follow it up with a win against Doncaster rovers' etc, loop infinity.

Crazy conspiracy theories apparently! But when you look at it, it does all add up. All 3 clubs in the group playing the same way, all youth teams playing the same way, less-known managers appointed to run the club strategy without questioning it. Managers without any large input into incoming transfers because, well, they don't have any record of managing so they can't recommend anyone. It's really not far from the truth given what's in front of us.

They're having their inevitable mid-season dip, all teams who 'run away with it' early doors are often pegged back a bit around mid-season. They built enough of a buffer to give them some breathing space though, and luckily for them Boro dropped off a cliff too - so they've not been pegged back too much in the Top 2 hunt. They just need to make sure they get out of the blip, maybe using January to give their squad a bit of a freshen up. Ipswich are the ones who have grabbed the opportunity that Boro/Cov have given with their respective drop offs, they'll be kicking themselves their game was postponed today. Ipswich will almost certainly got up automatically at this point, 1st or 2nd is up for debate - depends how much Coventry keep faltering.

No one is disputing that he made a good save against Stansfield, and threw his face in the way against Millwall - credit to those. But you can't just look in front of your nose and ignore everything else. This guy is still a fraud of a goalkeeper, and 1 or 2 saves every now and then does not change 4 years of total ineptness at every level he's played at. I look forward to the day we have the new guy in and we can stop these Bazunu chats, hopefully he just leaves for a nominal fee (no idea who'd buy him) in the summer and we sort out the GK properly.

I guess that's why the minutes of that meeting haven't been published then. #coverup Maybe Alfie can get another meeting with Spors in a few weeks to confirm the situation? Although the club will likely refuse entry because it's not all rainbows and Unicorns anymore.

There isn't much they get right, if anything. I'd give them a bit of rope if they were 6 months in, or even a year-18 months....but they're 4 years in and still making catastrophic decisions on an almost daily basis. I agree with everyone on here who says the same - promotion under this lot is not viable, even if we somehow got there in the next 2 years, it wouldn't end well. We need these lot out before we can even think PL.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't someone from the 'Fan Advisory Board' - or at least someone who knew someone on it - proclaim that Spors reiterated in person to their faces that we wouldn't be moving Tonda from interim.

I don't disagree with the lack of height across the side - I just replied to the other post about our lack of physicality through the spine - but if this is truly the case, and the 5 at the back is to temporarily compensate for that - why are they not fixing it? Why are we not linked with massive Central midfielders and huge CB's? I don't understand the club. I don't know what we're trying to do, what style we're trying to implement or what our grand plan is. We flip flop like the weather and it's no surprise the squad is as messed up as it is. I thought Spors would have given us clarity in that, but I think his wings have been clipped a bit.

I don't disagree that we have a lack of physicality throughout the spine of the team, it's been a big issue for many many years - I thought we were looking to fix that when I heard Spors initial comments and the arrivals of Quarshie and Downs, but they couldn't have gone much more wrong had we tried - so I'm not entirely sure what our plan is now, because how we are playing is entirely at odds with what Spors said in the summer and what Will Still said he was looking to implement in the summer. I'd also say that defensively, even with those 3 CB's to add 'extra' height in the side, we are still painfully woeful defensively - especially from set pieces and marking in our box, so I'd certainly take the risk and flip one CB for more of a balanced approach in the areas which entertain.

I'm not sure if the bold bit is in jest or not, but if not surely you can see the horrendousness of this? To tweak our approach and to encourage us to win a game and score goals, he moved our 3 CB's around. Just think about that for a second. Not once did he think, let's go 2 at back, stick some more players further up, or play Fellows and Leo wide at the same time. No, not once. The only tweaks he made was moving the 3 CB's around. A lot is being said that we have very small CB's. We don't. We have fairly average hight CB's, and an absolute monster in Quarshie at 1.95cm or something like that. This isn't about a lack of height, or a lack of ability. It's just a really, really bizarre SR Group wide approach to playing system that is replicated and embedded at all of their clubs, and all age groups at their clubs.

Leo has been great, but there's no chance in hell Liverpool, Chelsea, Man City or any clubs of that level are ever signing him. He's been great for us, but he'll never be of that level. He's already played for 2 sides this season, so any move mid-season is off the cards as he wouldn't be able to play at any new club. Will he leave in the summer? Maybe. But I still think Pl clubs will want to see tons more from him in the 2nd half to convince them.

I saw those same videos actually, I thought the same. We live in this horrible selfie/views/influencer society. Everything is done for views and clicks. Even at all the NYE celebrations around the world, all you saw were a sea of smart phones lighting up the sky recording it. Hang on, you're fucking well there - put your phone down, and record it with your own eyes and hear it with your own ears. Grumpy old man syndrome setting in I think. Either that, or the world is broken and I want to get off.

Sadly it's not just at Southampton though, this is now 'football'. Look at all those PL games y/day, 0-0, 0-0, 0-0, 1-1. All too scared to lose. It's rubbish. I used to love the festive period as it was just stuffed full of football from all divisions, it was a great fun - but it's just a load of shit now, because it's all dictated by Xg, XGs, stats, possession and Sky feed into it so much. The product is dying, someone needs to rip up the blueprint.

It depends what metrics they're learning on. i.e. - is player x increasing in value, so we can sell him. - did we have more than 60% position - are we adhering to the group tactical shape to ensure we sustain the possession metrics. If those metrics are shining green then nothing will change, the job is being done as far as they're concerned.

Exactly this, I know a lot of people didn't rate Will Still but he at least was straight talking - he told it how it was, if it was shit he'd say it was in certain words. I always thought Still saw the same game as me and the supporters, he just wasn't able to change it unfortunately. Now with Tonda, he's doing the thing I hate most in any manager. Trying to create an illusion of positively by frankly lying to the supporters faces. No one can get behind someone who sees an entirely different game than the one we've paid to watch. He said it was a good performance yesterday and that there were lots of positives - major, major alarm bells from that. He doesn't see what we see, which means nothing is going to change. He's probably fooling himself by thinking we're dominant because THB, Stephens and Wood pass it between each other for 70 mins, but we can all see through that bullshit.

I wouldn't call Rosenior elite though, that's what makes it all a bit bonkers from the crazies at Chelsea and BlueCo.

But if you pick a good enough manager they should be good enough to figure out a formula, which includes addressing any missing pieces in the transfer window. I think their recruitment is scattergun at best anyway, so they'll probably change the club style of play in a few months and sign a whole load of new types in the summer. The way they run their club is very similar to us actually, another multi-club 'everyone's hands in the pie' approach, not actually giving any manager true authority over the calls.

For people who think 'the club dictating the style of play' is a conspiracy theory, then Chelsea's approach confirms the modern world of football, and it's almost certainly how we also operate across the SR group of clubs. 'The process to replace the Italian is under way, and it is understood Englishman Rosenior is the frontrunner, though sources have stressed other candidates are also under consideration. Rosenior's current employers are owned by investment vehicle BlueCo - the consortium set up to purchase Chelsea in 2022. 'The club will not change their style of play, so it is highly unlikely they would move for Crystal Palace manager Oliver Glasner.' Am I old school, or should it be about finding the best manager and letting them build their style and image on the club - they should always be the head of the operation. This modern 'approach' is destroying football in front of our eyes.

But their insistence to try and do things 'clever', has actually cost them multi-multi millions in attempts to correct the course. Spending £30-40m on a striker in 2022 for example would have saved them so much money longer term, but they don't seem to plan longer term. They live in this 'current' bubble. You'd have thought their first window in 2022 when we signed all those kids, and it failed, would have been lesson learnt - but they've just doubled down on it harder, and wasted millions and millions more.

It was pretty obvious to me as soon as he was put in, he got that win against QPR (which was utter shite btw) and Spors was down on the pitch hugging him. Then you had all the puff pieces from the players blowing smoke up his arse, he's made it so easy for us, so clear etc etc. The club were desperate to give him the job the moment he was made interim, I doubt they even considered any other name.

Absolutely not, we should have thanked him for steadying the ship and getting us some results up to that International Break. We should have used that International Break to find a proven manager with a track record in this division and country, and moved Tonda back to the U21's - or if the new manager and he fancied it, give him a shot as a first team coach under the new manager. That's what should have happened. That's what any sane football club would have done. But we didn't, and now we've wrapped ourselves up in knots once again by trying to be revolutionary when it wasn't needed.

Words from the puppet.