S-Clarke

Our use of money since around 2017 is beyond belief really. We've had numerous 'DOF's' and chief scouts during that time, but there must be some sort of connecting factor still at the club? The same analysts, the same regional scouts? If I was Dragan, I'd sack all of the recruitment and scouting teams and basically start again. Just require simple criteria to scout. A goalkeeper who can make saves, a striker who can score goals and a midfielder who can tackle. It sounds a bit simplistic to say, but we've spent so much money on keepers who can't make saves and strikers who can't score goals. It's all gone south since we've pushed that 'The Southampton way' brand, trying to create the illusion that we are special. We're not special, we're absolutely shite.

No, there is zero chance. We need around 60% of available points to get to 40 points. It's really not worth stressing about or thinking about. We've been done and dusted for many weeks.

He's done his stints at WHU, no way he'd go back there. Potter is the likely candidate for WHU imo. Moyes has shot himself in the foot a little with those comments, every club bar 6 or 7, has a realistic chance of getting relegated and often bumble along for most of the season only ever a few points away from it. So unless he thinks he'll be managing Liverpool, City, Arsenal, Chelsea etc then his choice is probably going to be limited to clubs who are at risk of going down. He will now likely end up at a Championship club pushing for promotion, who have a lot of $$$.

There are some odd takes on this forum at the moment. We have people trying to create this angle of the two best players we have, Fernandes and Dibling, not being 'that good'. It won't be hard to get rid and cash in if that's what some want, as there will be loads and loads of interest, so that probably means they are quite good. Meanwhile we will get to continue to enjoy BBD, Sulemana, Fraser, Stephens and co.

This could be a great opportunity for Rasmus to secure another free player for Gotezpe

They're lucky, they can be seen as a proper football team again. In theory this should be the absolute end of his managerial and coaching efforts, but you know there are still bat shit crazy chairman out there who think he'd still be a good idea. (Step forward Rasmus)

Christ, what I'd pay to see Fabrice in this side. He'd run rings (literally!) around some of the clowns we field today.

They are yet to buy a capable centre forward, we last signed one in 2019. But we do have a new pub, lounges and TV screens at St Mary's. I'm not saying that you can't do both, but their focus is on maximising commercial revenue which is all well and good - but for that to make any sense, you need a viable product to sell. Since they have been in charge of us, they have created the worst product in the entire country. So stadium expansion is all a bit moot to me, irrelevant. Sort the important stuff out first.

Only Southampton, under SR, would expand St Marys by 10k seats for £60m before buying a centre forward.

I'm not saying it's just down to that, but there are 4 players there who they gained because of us. Victor Hugo, cheap deal. We had to take less on Charly. Matsuki - he is ours and on loan there Lis - obviously was ours, but wasn't ever truly our player. Juan - he is ours and on loan there Upcoming links: Vanderson - looks like we'll buy him and then loan him there, same 'could' happen with Wellington in January. So they are massively benefiting from our PL finances to secure players they'd otherwise find it hard to do so. It's not all down to that as I've mentioned, but it's a weaker league and there's less required to be successful there

By using SFC as a vehicle to purchase players from Brazil and Japan, and then loan them to Goztepe. Or using our sales as a way to negotiate cheap/player swaps for their club.

Pace is all well and good, but if you don't have the technical ability to release the ball or the football brain to know how to use it, then you're pretty much just an athletic runner.

Didn't they just get rid of all their area/European scouts in favour of a new static data-based approach? We'd be silly not to rebuild our setup with some of their left overs.

I'm not seeing that at all, it's plainly clear who have really been below par this year - and people aren't afraid to say as much. Pretty much most of the team. But I just don't believe Fernandes is one of those who should be singled out or put into a 'bad recruitment' pile, he's one of the best picks we've had in some time. He won't be great every week, but he's one of the few players I enjoy watching on the ball.

Fortunately for them they play us on the 16th, so they can start to pull themselves away. It always makes headlines when big clubs look closer to the bottom than the top, but they'll quite obviously finish in the 50's or 60's come the season end. Top half I expect.

It's alright, Juric will find out by mid-January what this waster is all about. Not worth a place on the bench, let alone the 11. I find it really depressing that SAA gets overlooked for this sack of shit.

Semenyo was £10m to Bournemouth in our 'Orsic/Sullemana' window. Says it all really. It's not about money, it's how it's spent. I've never been so disheartened by the scouting setup at our club as I am today. The money has been there over the last 2 years, but the people spending it do not understand football or what is required.

I think so, we're just buying them another Brazilian.

I'm not sure you can use that season as the reason they are now 2nd in the league. They were absolutley shite that year, stayed up by a whisker after spending multi millions. The following seasons were equally shit. They're just having one of those seasons where things click, they've built on a Nuno Espirito-Santo mould - very solid, hard to break down.

People are really confused or drunk on Christmas alcohol if they're critising one of our few, maybe max 3, technical players in the side. We should be grateful we get to see Fernandes and Dibling this season who have a bit of genuine technical ability, otherwise we'd only be able to watch BBD lumber forward and AA run into a corner flag.

He hasn't really been given much of a shot here has he? Not really sure he's where the brunt of peoples criticism should be right now. I'm sure he'll bundle in a goal or two before the end of the season, and then bugger off to Turkey for £7m in the summer.

That's Bednarek in a nutshell really, a very, very, very limited defender. Gets away with it at Champ level, but without a decent player alongside him at PL level he is utter piss. Teams will always concede goals with Bednarek in the side.

Lock the keys to the credit card away. Do not let them spend a single penny. It's not needed. It will not change anything. Wait until the summer, make money back and rebuild again to try to be competitive in the Championship. There is absolutley no sense in spending a penny in January, so you watch them splurge £50m on another Sulemana, Ounachu and Orsic show.

I've been away for Christmas, so It's reassuring to know that absolutley fuck all has changed with this shower of shite. I don't know much about the new manager, but no one is going to be able to get Aribo and Armstrong contributing at PL level - no one. They are piss at this level, always will be. I haven't commented on the manager appointment as I don't really know much about him, but isn't this yet another SR turn around to a new direction? It's like pin the tail on the donkey with these guys. As has been said before, the rest of the season is just glorified friendlies. There's nothing to play for, might make it less stressful at the end of the season I guess, but it's going to be a bore fest of uncompetitive friendly games. The question was brought up by Martin a lot, scar tissue etc etc - after this season, they won't have any issue space left for more scar tissue. These sorts of seasons kill players, there will be some in this group who never recover from this season - as a club, this will be like turning around a tanker next year. Losing is a habit and we have well and truly secured that habit. That will almost certainly follow us into the Championship first half. Cheers SR, another almighty mess you've got us into. I've never been so uninterested in football, they're killing it for me.

Wasn't he the guy Everton fans protested against a couple of years back? Forced their owners to backtrack and get Lampard instead. Not sure exactly what the hate was towards him, maybe he upset a scouse person once in the 1990's.