S-Clarke

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.

He'll still be our manager whatever happens.

Guido has lost his master.

Do you mean Lee Johnson? Decent young manager, but his side have fallen away massivley since their Man Utd herroics. We're also not going to get a manager who is currently in a job.

Maybe we have had our feelers out to Silva's people for a while, but he's made it clear he won't be interested. The fact is that the club needed to kickstart a reaction, they knew we couldn't carry on with MP. The clear criteria that I can see for any newly appointed manager is - experience of the PL. The fact remains that MP should have gone during or before January, that would have opened a window to a bigger choice. 1) we had loads of money to spend, and 2) we still have quite a bit of the season to go. We've got 8 games left, we're into spring, the choice isn't great. Let's just accept that the club did what they needed to do (albeit way too late) and just accept that whoever replaces him now isn't going to be some sort of worldy. If it's enough to strike a reaction and get us performing then it's a result.

Sad to hear that Weston - I'm sure once the dust settles you'll be back!

Appreciate the info. For what it's worth I can only see it being one of the 3: Hughes Silva Bilic

Any new manager we get now isn't a stop gap, we can be sure of that. Whoever we get is another 'long term', what that means these days. But certainly more than 8 games anyway.

Not sure why people are suggesting managers who are in jobs. Anyone we get now will be out of work and ready to step in. People like Rogers or Jovanovic @ Fulham are not going to walk away from their clubs with just weeks left. IMO there are only 3 people it could be, so be prepared for it to be one of these - Hughes Bilic Silva