S-Clarke

First half was awful, Wigan came out of the blocks and pressed us. We tried to be tippy tappy with it but kept losing the ball. 2nd half the envitable happend in that Wigan tired, but we also simplified our game a bit. Better with our long passes and our forward passing was more direct, looking forward rather than backwards - a fine example is Redmonds cameo. First ball through to Gabbiadini for the pen was very good, and the 2nd pass (although he got lucky) for Cedric was another forward thinking positive pass. They don't always come off, but there's a much bigger oppertunity of something happening as opposed to just keeping it ticking over for no reason. I thought Gabbiadini played ok, good movement, held the ball up and showed some good touches down the channels - needs a goal though! I quite liked him in that central roll on the shoudler, but also providing support out on the flanks. Less said about Carrillo the better.....! Still early days, but boy oh boy.

I guess the player was a little too professional to say what he thought about MP's regime?? Would be interesting to know what the players felt of it all now that he's gone.

In that case it's a shame they didn't like playing at Newcastle then. Easy excuse. They need to man up.

''We have to believe in our approach and believe in the philosophy to build a good spirit, we need to continue to grow. We can make good possibilities'' A Claude and MP waffle-combo.

Not sure why tbh, but I just fancied Stoke today. Thought they had to take the chance with their remaining fixtures, and Everton don't travel well. So i'm chuffed!

It was always very likley we'd be adrift come the end of play today, so don't let that get you down too much. Today's results have been a huge bonus. Didn't expect the Stoke outcome at all.

I thought Stoke would win that one, in fact I thought they had to. So that is a huge bonus for us, they've got Spurs, Liverpool and Chelsea in their next 4 now. Huddersfield threw another home game, after last weeks failire against Swansea. Those are the two sides I look at - Stoke and Huddersfied. Finish above them and we'll be sorted.

Well that's WBA all but done now, so 2 places to worry about.

Just watching that Huddersfield game, good lord they are awful. Praise to our previous manager to trying to get a draw against that dross outfit. God forbid you try and beat Huddersfield, we can never compete with them.

0-3

It's a Monday night rather than a Sunday afternoon game, I know - small details...but this was always on the cards tbh. This is all Arsenal's call.

They're away in Russia, so it will probably have an effect.

Surely people always thought this was a possibility though? Arsenal were never going to keep it on Monday with a potential away Europa League game on the thursday. It was always on the cards.

https://twitter.com/SouthamptonFC/status/974692234120630272

It isn't, because they are actually closed for a refurb. They're upgrading the EPOS and repositioning it (allow for more till space).

It always seemed to me as if the previous regimes (Claude/MP) put too much focus on tactical, technical approaches, retaining the ball and being a bit tiki taka (plus making things a little too complicated at times). The recruitment strategy seemed to go hand in hand with that with the likes of Boufal, Hojbjerg coming in. It didn't work. Now if what he says he's right and he's surprised by the lack of intensity, then that's quite galling. Kind of suggests that the main focus was indeed tactical and technical training as opposed to fitness and intensity. I think the club tried to be too clever with the last two appointments, thought we could reinvent football by coaching technical ability. At the end of the day old fashioned tactics, fitness and intensity is what wins you games in this league. I often wonder if Les Reed has gone senile and thinks we're in La Liga or something.

I think Redknapp was still in charge at that point.

Marko Hugheez

The ones that stick out are Lemina, Cedric and Redmond. We poached all 3 of those from under Stokes noses! Cedric had actually had a medical at Stoke before we swooped in! On the appointment, it's as good as we could have got. At the end of the day we needed to make a change. I'm hopeful this will galvanise the squad and the fanbase, sometimes it doesn't need to be the most exotic appointment to make things work. Sometimes just getting back to basics is all that's needed, as we do have good players in this side.

Pretty much. I think at the time of the takeover this was actually seen as a 'positive'. People were fearing someone new would come in and break everything up, but people were pleased that Kat retained 20% and everything else would stay 'as is'. Obviously no one could envisage how this season was going to pan out, but like you said it's way too dramatic to infer that Gao is tied to some sort of contract which means he can never rearrange the board room.

I think you'll see a return to basics first and foremost, none of this tactical trying to be clever bull**** - just play to the strenghs you have with the best players in their best positions for every game. That's how I'd approach it anyway, especially with only 8 games left. Potentially we also have the added element of Hughes working with 3 players we snatched from under his nose @ Stoke - Lemina, Redmond & Cedric.

I'd be surprised if it's an interim deal, but would be an amazing outcome in our situation..!

Absolutley this. We've had our disagreements on here, but we're on the right wave length on this one!

I keep seeing this argument 'throwing money at someone’ ‘‘bringing an upcoming manager in'' - who? Rowett? Potter? Rodgers? Jokanovik - those sorts? They're all in jobs. We're not going to be appointing a manager who is currently in a job, it a nonsensical move for both the 'selling club' and the manager himself, especially people like Rowett and Potter who could end up making very bad career choices, they will be better suited to waiting a few months as I've sure all their advisors will be saying. People like Tuchel, Ancelotti, AVB are pure pie in the sky suggestions. We are not attractive to managers of that ilk. We've made our bed and we have to lie in it. Hughes/Bilic is what I expect and that's the clubs fault, but that won't stop me supporting them and getting behind them. We needed a fresh start and whatever happens, we've got one.

We don't have much choice, we made the decision to stubbornly stick with MP for as long as we did, missed out on potential appointments, so we are now left to play with the left overs in an empty pool. As CB alluded to earlier, we've made an absolute cockup of this season and that's why we've limited our choices. We're not going to be sacking him after 8 games and he's not going to be here for just 8 games, so we better buckle up and hope we can get a little bit of momentum from it as he will be our manager for the next 18 months at least.