S-Clarke

“Jamie [Vardy] is fine. He unfortunately missed the game at the weekend, but he trained on Sunday and since that, so he’s absolutely fine.

Not entirley sure who would want him to be honest. NPC club on loan?

It tones down the initial rage at selling VVD for e.g., with the idea that we wanted to do it early so we had all month to reinvest etc - it suddenly deflects fans anger and makes them think more positively, and the terrace chat becomes more around exciting additions as opposed to who we lost. Keep stringing those out for a few weeks until the ''how difficult it is'' lines start coming out, and by this time the actual rage has died down from the sale and the club have engineered the fans mood. Then comes frustrated acceptance, but not the pure anger they’d have had if the club admitted they weren’t spending the VVD fee when we sold him.

I doubt it, they're on 30 points and have already played a bundle of games. They've managed it well so far. They went 12 games unbetween between September and December! I can't see them dropping into the bottom half.

I remember the season we smashed Sunderland 8-0, when the reverse came around no one expected anything other than a win. Sunderland beat us. I'm not giving up hope, esp. given how we've played over the last month. We seem to cause anyone problems at the top end right now, and we seem suitably strong at the back. Let's see, but we go into it with optimism. We started December on 12 points, we start January on 25 points. I mean, what the hell.

Bournemouths signings have been utterly dreadful (their big buys anyway). Solanke, Ibe, Danjuma, even Lerma hasn't been amazing. Their success is still produced by the core of Wilson, Brooks, Fraser, King, Cook, Ake etc. Their big buys haven't really improved them at all, which for a club the size of Bournemouth has the potetential to be catastrophic.

Cedric will go at the end of the season, he's said as much. We will probably sign his replacement this January and rotate for the rest of this season. (Jokham Mahle i reckon)

Absolutly proven me wrong, didn't look capable and was out of his depth. I think he has a bit more protection in and around him, but still he's proven me wrong and taken charge.

Another really, really good display. I didn't see any of this coming when I left at HT back in November. We pressed well for the majority of the game, we had more than one chance and we limited them to very, very little. Really pleased to see Ings full of it, not just up front, but he's everywhere. He looks fit, hungry and really on it all over the pitch. That's what we paid the money for and I'm pleased he's finally showing it and he's finally in a place of decent fitness which we always worried about. Redmond is sitll a bit frustrating this season, but was ok yesterday - he just doesn't seem as much of a threat as he was last year, not quite sure why but we'll see what happens as the season pans on. Couple of tricky games coming up, but there are still points to be had if we play as we have been. Still loads of work to do and hopefully the coming month offers Ralph the possiblity to plug some obvious gaps so we can continue to climb and not get dragged back down. For the record, this time last year we were 18th on 16 points. 9 points better off and 6 places higher is really good progress which I didn't see coming in November.

I'll be honest and say that I'm stunned by our recovery since that 0-9. We're still not full of great players, but what it's shown is that everyone still believes in the manager and what he's trying to do. I can't imagine how mentally challenging things were after that 0-9. This is why I was never for ditching Ralph, it just made no sense - we weren't going to get anyone better. The players let everyone down, the manager started to panic and all hell broke loose. But I always believed he was a good manager sold a short straw with his squad, I just want him to be given the oppertunity to continue to evolve it - esp. the back 4 and midfield.

The 2018 window was the worst, holy christ that was bad. So much spin, so much hope, absolutely nothing provided. We shelved a decent portion of the VVD fortune on a player recommended by a manager who was on his last legs! Honestly, how is that a club operating any sort of due diligence or financial long-term planning. I thought we had the ‘Southampton way’? It was probably the worst way any professional club could ever operate in a transfer market. I'm glad both Ross and Les are no longer involved, they absolutely took the **** - especially Ross, he’s stealing a living.

We just need better defenders, that's pretty much it. If we had VVD and Fonte at the back, with exactly the same coaches, we'd be winning games and keeping clean sheets. Our problem is we have the likes of Stephens now as a starter.

He was ok, but that skied kick in the 92nd min was not good to see. This is the captain of the team, he totally lost it there with that swing. Doesn't help with the nerves of those around him!

He's a very poor player for this level, can't really get away from that. Incredibly limited. He tries hard and shows passion, but he's crap.

It wasn't great, two very, very, very poor sides on show. Somehow, we got over the line with a bit of huff and puff towards the end, but christ it's a painful watch. We were devoid of anything for the majority of that game. It's going to be a very long season, although a win is a relief, it doesn't change my view that we are utterly, utterly dreadful at football in the main.

Basically, this has been said since day 0, and nothing has happened to suggest this is even viable. He has no money. And that shouldn't be his sole focus for ownership, it's about what's on the field. With him in charge, he doesn't give a ****.

They have gone backwards in the last 10 or so months, without question. Some of their fans were questioning if he'd started to lose his way, but I just think the squad had gone a bit stale and needed a bigger refresh - which Levy hasn't really been prepared to do, I mean they went one season without making a single signing to freshen the place up. If you think about it, Poch did a great job there last year. No investement in players, but still a Top 4 finish and a CL final!! Punching well above their station. This season is probably just a reaction to that, and now he gets the chop. Poch will get another big job soon I'd imagine. It won't be here though, as he deserves to be somewhere where he will actually be backed. Just like Ralph deserves the same.

We don't have the players for it. I assume he was hoping he'd be properlly backed to bring in the players who could play that way.

We do this with a lot of injuries, I have no idea why. Keep it quiet in the hope everyone will forget. It's not like he's an important player or a fan fav, so I'm confused by the radio silence.

He's reverted back to type unfortuntley. Been trash since he signed his new contract.

There's no quick return for us when we go down, we will be totally hampered. Clubs in the Champ spend decent $$ nowadays, and the average wage down there is a lot higher than it used to be when we were there. We've been so badly managed that I doubt we'd be able to compete down there. So it will be a continuation of struggle I fully expect. There’s no easy way out of this mess.

I think most were open to the sale. The depressing factor of the sale however was that we needed his money in order to buy Che Adams. A PL club in this day and age shouldn’t need to raise £15m through a player sale. And obviously we then didn't have the money to replace him in the position, hence the utter mess at full back this year.

Then did his shoulder and that was that.

It almost happened last weekend.

Whose bank are we breaking? We're not spending any decent $$ on anything. Christ, we couldn't even sort out a decent fireworks display.