S-Clarke

I wasn't really into football during my much younger years, I only really became fully aware of football in the late 90's on the back of France 98. I had no family members who followed Southampton or generally followed football, which is why it was somewhat absent from me as a kid, but as I got older there was only ever one club I was following. I grew into the period when we had Pahars, Tessem, Beattie, Paul Jones, Marsden, Oakley, Dodd, Bennali and the tail end of MLT. I'm sad I never got to enjoy the true prime MLT era to be honest, but obviously there will always be history to go back on. When we were relegated in 2005 was when I became a season ticket holder, and that stood for the test of time really. Lived through the awful period of 07-09, with Port/Wotte/Pearson etc - and then came out on the other side. My best supporting period for me was undoubtably 2009-2012, when we flew through the divisions and enjoyed the atmosphere in L1 grounds, through to the Championship grounds and then into the PL. I felt a really strong connection with that squad, probably the biggest connection I've had with a squad in my supporting life - I think it was more the journey we went on, together as one...to coin an Adkins phrase! The Poch/Koeman eras were memorable for different reasons for sure, the heady heights and the experiences of Europe and such - but that Adkins team growing through the leagues will always be my favourite period. But with the good comes the bad, and It feels like we're living through another of those 07-09 periods right now. But we've got to stick with it, we've seen before you can come out of the other side - so I guess you still have to have that hope, at the end of the day that's why we all started supporting the club!

There are a couple of PL strikers out there at the moment, who are hardly playing and will add to what we don't currently have. Taiwo Awoniyi - He has been injured, but he plays the odd min if he gets on. He surely wants game time somewhere. Joel Piero - He's played 9 or 10 games, the odd 2 or 3 min sub appearances at best. He is surely got to be up for a loan, proven at this level. The issue we have is that there will be clubs in this league much more attractive than us right now, 14 of them in fact - so it may be difficult to get anyone actually any good in the door after this disaster of a season, but we've got to try a loan.

But he won't stay fit, that's the problem Chez. He could absolutely be everything we're crying out for, but the guy cannot deal with the rigors of top level football anymore.

My personal feel is that we've used him poorly, I know some won't agree and will say he's played poorly when he's played - and he has, not disagreeing - but you only have to look at what's around him. I'll be interested to see how he gets on at QPR, my general hunch is that he'll be sold to the PL for 20-30m in a few years and we'll still be languishing down here. And if the club have deemed him surplus 1 and a bit years into his time here, it really does hammer home how horrendous and damaging that PL summer transfer window was for us. The only player part of our regular team today who was part of that £127m spend is Nathan Wood, and he's utterly horrific himself.

Those comments from Tonda just re-affirm what I think is going to happen. 'Ross is like a brand new signing for us' - count me surprised if it's anything different. I'll be watching Ronnie with interest at QPR as my personal opinion is that we've used him poorly, but we'll see. One less centre back available in the squad does potentially reduce the scope for a constant use of 3 CB's in the 1st team though - just saying.

That would have been a much more sensible angle - either make it the away, or third shirt at the start of the season. It would have landed better then. To launch a 4th shirt, mid-season, at £120 for a limited use case is just a wtf moment.

It's a nice shirt, but paying £120 to commemorate the single trophy we won 50 years ago seems like a big case of not reading the room. What are we doing? Why did they come to that price? I guess the people in commercial are as inept as the people SR have employed everywhere else.

We'll see I guess, but I do sense bollocks. When Jelert was back, he brought him on as a sub and didn't switch to a back 4. He kept Jelert on the bench at the weekend and didn't play a back 4. So yeah, not sold on that. We'll see.

I suggest you go back and read the Stephens thread when it was announced he was getting a new contract in the summer! Similarly check out the Manning thread. Basically, no one is immune in that backline as they've all been fairly horrific for quite some time now. Bazunu is highlighted more because of how glaring it is, his mistakes/lack of ability lead to us losing games more often than not - so he's obviously going to be highlighted. A defender can make a mistake, but the GK is still the last line of the defence - yet we have a GK who can't make saves. He really isn't any good, stats or no stats, I've also seen him with my own eyes and I can tell you he's the worst GK we've ever had playing for us in my lifetime.

And therein sums up the entire SR culture. It's just like that dog meme sat in a burning office, they truly believe nothing is wrong and their approach is sound. It will all come good eventually because we are geniuses etc.

But any external audit would be sanctioned by the current owners anyway, so it's a bit of a moot point really. A lot of money on a consultant for very little benefit. Man Utd brought in Ralf Rangnick as a manager/consultant, he called out the problems and what needed to change, but the club didn't like that so they ignored him and dumped him early. The only way it would work is if an outside body, such as the EFL, sanctioned a review outside of the control of SR. But that doesn't happen and won't ever happen.

I think all this confirms is that we have thick as shit footballers, who can't read the room. If they are doing this....then at least don't shout about it. Given the situation the club is in, is a holiday the right use in this time though? This is the controversial element. A lot of us will say compared to our lives, football is a holiday. They get paid for 90 mins every week, of which they haven't turned up to for the last 2 seasons. They have an entire summer off every year. Then they retire mid 30's as millionaires able to be on holiday for the rest of their lives.

Bit worried that we haven't got any links to a CF to give us something until the summer, unless i've missed them? (just a smart loan is all we need) We already needed 1 with Downs, but with Downs gone (even though he was irrelevant) we have even less options now, if you can even call them options. My fear is that the club are going to hang on the narrative of Ross being like a new addition....

I think we need to realise how many light years away we are from managers like that, even the likes of Lampard is out of our league these days. This is the damage SR have done. We are no longer a credible high level football club.

Alfie House recently confirmed that Solak uses Rasmus as his key footballing advisor across the entire group, Rasmus is more hands on day to day at Goztepe I believe - but he still has a strong influence across the entire group and is almost certainly involved in the big decisions around managers. In terms of the Ben Garner link, we recruited him from the Right to Dream Academy - which is run by a Danish person whom Rasmus has close links with. Rasmus was also the key decision maker/scouter in the Sulemana deal - who came with a huge background from that Right to Dream Academy too. The Right to Dream setup is based strongly on analytics and data driven processes.

That was the 'peak' I'd say, that Sparta game and the Inter home game a few weeks/months later. I remember walking out of St Mary's after that Inter game reminiscing about the times I'd walked that same route after beating Dagenham and Redbridge on a cold evening game, how far we'd come etc. I'd say we're much closer to Dagenham and Redbridge again than Inter Milan, huge regression borne out of multiple poor transfers over 10 years.

The Turkish league is pretty naff though, we only ever saw Tall Paul for us in the PL and the difference in level between PL and the Turkish SuperLiga is enormous. He would have probably scored some goals in this league though, almost certainly I'd say - but he was always going to leave and was desperate to go back to Turkey. The PL experience (multiple times) harmed any future he'd ever have here.

*no-manning-land. Someone coined that on here, great phrase.

I think we got the last usable season out of Fraser at a high level, it was clear he was in decline towards the end of that season for me. When you look at that window, signing him wasn't a surprise given that we also added Charlie Taylor, BBD, Wood to the mix - what a window for a PL side!

I don't see Stephens as being a toxic type, like I said - I don't bundle him in with Downes and that lot, but I don't ever see him calling out standards or stepping up as he should be. He was kept on because of his leadership abilities and being a good guy, rather than his footballing ability - but his leadership abilities contributed to us being one of the worst ever PL sides in history and continue to contribute to us being 15th in the Championship. As club captain this is all happening under his watch and it's really not a good look no matter how you paint it - nice guy or not, which I'm sure he is.

Random, but being that random you'd have to say it's got to be true. Should have never signed him on the back of promotion, should have been a thanks for helping - see you later. He has history of causing trouble when he's not playing, so you wonder if he's been part of the toxicity too.

It's a huge decline, you can't dress it up either way. We were mid-table PL, beating Brentford 4-1 almost 4 years to the day when SR took over. Fast forward 4 years and we've gone through 6 managers, 4 DoF's, spent £354m, 2 relegations and are sat in 15th in The Championship. If that's not decline, then I'd love to see what is? There is zero evidence they learn from their mistakes, the evidence strongly points to them doubling down on every mistake they make rather than owning them. It's not just about this year, this is the important thing to remember. This is 4 years of total mismanagement of our football club which is culminating in the current situation we see ourselves in - and it won't improve, as mentioned before it's hope-casting if anyone believes it will at this stage. There is no evidence to suggest anything other than a continued downward trajectory under their leadership.

3 games from having this absolute pub player on a century of appearances for our club. It's not like he's regressed after starting out ok, he's ALWAYS been awful. What a joke. Says it all really and how the club have settled for this incredibly low bar. It's not all on Bazunu, but he really epitomises the entire SR reign for me.

Season 1 £5m sold £154.21m spent Season 2 £187.24m sold £21.55m spent Season 3 £41.49m sold £123m spent Season 4 £127.67m sold £55.95m spent In total in SR's 4 full seasons with us: We have spent - £355m We have received - £361m So we've pretty much broken even in that sense, and this is probably a huge positive metric in their data driven spreadsheets. We've not spent beyond our means, which does demonstrate that primarily we have invested (and totally wasted) what we've received through player trading rather than having pure owner investment. The issue we have going forward is that we are losing the assets to generate the funds, so the squad will further stagnate.

I don't like Downes, I think he's got form. Not just here, but at Ipswich when he wanted out and then in January last year with us. I think he's a bad egg, and not a particularly good footballer either - a bit of a nothing player all told, suits a very specific static style of play and nothing else. I think there potentially is a legit clique around the likes of Downes, Manning, Wood from their Swansea days. Look at how Wood responded to a supporter a few weeks ago who called him out, that bloke is another fraud and a pretty crap footballer too. Stephens - I don't see him being a toxic type, I just think he's the sort that lets anything go. He's the absolute definition of medoricity in every way, how he leads, how he plays, how his career has gone - and he's the captain. We reward mediocrity and don't drive up standards, and it's a comfortable place for players on decent dollar.