S-Clarke

I imagine the posts after the next pretty random appointment will be along the lines of... ''We have to give him a chance'' ''Can't write him off straight away'' ''Let's see what he can do here, better squad than he had at x'' I couldn't even hazard a guess at who it will be, but it will be a name to unite the fan base in pure WTFness I'm sure. I wouldn't trust SR to run a bath.

My view is very close to yours on this one. I've never been a fan. I see lots of comments today about how everyone is grateful for last season etc, but for me I can't help but remember last season as a bit of a chore. It wasn't as enjoyable as some make out. Look at how we ended the season, horrendous. Salvaged it by a 1-0 win in a one off game, but prior to that we had been 2007-2008 Wotte levels of shit. The unbeaten run was a puff piece really. Littered with multiple draws and really shocking results against the likes of Huddersfield and Rotherham. I was never convinced by the appointment and felt it was a gamble, in a way the gamble paid off slightly, but I sit here today and wonder what on earth the point of promotion actually was? Money for a new bar and hospitality lounges?

I was never truly convinced by the bloke, felt a bit of an odd gamble last season when we needed a steady hand. We did get promoted, but I was underwhelmed by it all - not going to lie. We let in too many goals last season, had some great moments winning in the last min - but it shouldn't have been like that with the squad we had. It was a strong top 4, but we were the worst of the lot imo. I felt surprised when we got promoted, it took a little while to sink in as we never looked set for it all year. Fast forward to this season and we almost certainly weren't ready for it. Every single limitation in our game last season is still there, just heightened x10. I'm devastated that we never gave this season a shot and got relegated with not even a whimper. Martin was a manager who wanted to play in a way which suited him, he wanted to create a team that made him look good and had no thought of using a squad to their strengths. He threw so many players under the bus in his tenure by forcing them to play in ways not suited. Don't get me wrong, our squad in the main is utterly horrific for PL level, but I cannot believe we haven't managed to make a fight of it like Ipswich or Leicester. Our next appointment needs to be someone be with a view of next season and someone capable of creating a competitive Championship squad, don't give them ££££ to spend in January as there is no point. Do I trust SR to get the next call right? Absolutley not, they've got every decision wrong since they've been in charge so I'm fearing their next call.

The only way I can describe this season is that it feels like we've taken a year off. I look at PL games and forget we're actually in the PL. We have quite simply taken a year off of competitive football, a really weird approach but I'm sure somewhat revolutionary in the mind of Rasmus. So as we've taken the year off, I'll also take the year off. Got much more important things to focus on. Hobbies are supposed to be fun, this is pitiful.

As long as there is a monkey petting zoo, then I'm on board.

You know it's bad when fans of other clubs are on the Southampton forum arguing about our owners.

They sacked Heckingbottom early Dec last season, Wilder came back and tried to keep them up but the damage was done - but they kept him on this season as they made a better fist of it under him, albeit futile.

19th and 20th positions are sewn up imo.

It always seems worse in the here and now rather than the past, but that 2008/2009 season in the Championship was the worst I've ever had to endure. Portvliett, Wotte and co, a bunch of kids and Lloyd James at RB. We were regularly thrashed by the likes of Wednesday and Hull, there was no money and we were heading into L1 on -10 points. I never felt as low as I did then.

At the end of the day, they didn't replace Wilcox. They looked within and restructured rather than get a fully-fledged known DoF. His background is Performance management in Rugby Union. A proper footballing DoF is a gaping hole at our club.

Who? Mark Bitcon? That's stretching the term DoF to it's limits!

But for clubs like ourselves, we will never be able to recruit the level of player needed for this style. So what we do need is a manager that looks at the squad he has, and adapts based on what he has available, rather than one who shoehorns a specific philosophy no matter what situation just for his own ego.

I disagree, the philosophy focus we have is greatly flawed with the level of player we have. In fact, I'm bored hearing about philosophies and processes - just buy good players and play them in positions that are natural and comfortable for them. Stop getting them to do things that exposes any weakness they may have. I don't ever remember hearing anything about philosophies and processes when Koeman and Adkins were in charge. It sounds simple, but football really doesn't need to be complicated. It's when you try to get extra clever that things go horribly wrong.

This is the problem, we have owners with zero direction or idea for what they want to do. Like you say, they went full on DoF and everyone bought into that, and by January he was gone and they didn't feel it was fit to replace him. I think we've got a former rugby head of performance in the equivalent role now. SR need to figure out their plan and stick to it, they keep wobbling all over the place.

It's El-Sackio tomorrow. WHU v Wolves, loser of that is gone. So one of those two will be searching in the pool next week.

Or as Rasmus will say, if it's not broke, break it. In all seriousness one of the biggest issues at this club is recruitment, it's absolutley horrific. Why did we think BBD was the right player for us? What did they think Lesley and Cornet would offer us? You can go back further, Ross Stewart, Onuacnu, Orsic, Sulemana, ABK, AMN, Larios, Bazunu....it just goes on and on. There are some decent picks in amongst that, not many though, and when the bad outweighs the good you've got a serious problem. If you also include the managers into that, Martin/Jones as two main picks, the guys in charge of analysis and recruitment have absolutley killed us stone dead - again. The signings of THB was an obligation and was setup by Wilcox last year, Downes was a Martin pick and nothing to do with our recruitment team. They need to all go before we make any further drastic changes as I do not trust the people in those positions to make the right picks, they seem incapable of it.

I could accept some bemoaning of luck if we were on 11 points or something like that, at least in the conversation. But we've got 5 points. 1 win. and what feels like 700 defeats with plenty of goals let in for good measure. That's not about luck, it's about being fundamentally shit.

It was a shock to hear, good that he's conscious but it sounds pretty bad either way. It's not about football when stuff like this happens, it's really tragic as he's a young lad in his 30's - entire life ahead of him. Just got to hope everything works out for him.

This is a bit of the counter argument, in my eyes the root problem needs to be sorted before we change again or buy players again. The root problem is a lack of footballing knowledge in the DoF or scouting department, none of them have any idea what football is about. Sadly Martin's position is now simply untenable, so it has to happen, but I wouldn't expect a good call for the next manager with the current setup behind the scenes. So, scrap all of those, go and snap up some of the scouts Brighton let go and hire a reputable director of football. At that point we may be able to start making the right decisions, but until that happens I don't want SR spending another penny.

There is nothing to really analyse, it's just the same old. I'm just bored shitless with it all. How we are so slow with the ball, how we are technically awful in the final third, and how we continuously tie ourselves in knots at the back. It feels like we're taking a season off, as we're now just playing non-competitive friendlies up until May. Sounds fun.

However, we're enabling that by being the vehicle for building their squad.

He's a decent guy, very honourable. If you remember the Chelsea game (when we won away 1-0), he won performance of the week - but he didn't stand there and accept it, he put all of the staff at Staplewood in the camera. The issue with Ruben was that he was thrown to the lions too early in respect of a PL manager, we did get somewhat better under him than we were under Jones - but that wasn't hard and it was too far gone at that point really.

Thank you - to be honest, there isn't much to add on match comments these days as every game ends the same . One thing I will say about SR, Dragan in particular, is that he's put the money up. We all called for investment as we'd sat still for so many years under Gao. But sadly we've produced a fine example of why spending is not what it's all about. They all seem a bit ponderous though, it's not just us as the French club fans are equally as scathing of them. The only club they've had a certain level of success at is Gotzepe, but you could argue that we've enabled that by being a vehicle for their players and subsequent loans. We never got the 5 pledges from Gao, but if I'm honest I'm just at a loss with these guys and what their plan or goal is here.

Absolutley the worst thing they could do (not sack the manger, but spend,spend,spend). Dragan needs to put a lid on the spending bottle as weird as that may sound, these idiots are abusing his money. We are already gone, so there's no paying our way into anything other than serious debt as a Championship club.

ABK isn't injured, just not being picked. Bazunu will probably go out on loan in late January, prepping for him re-establishing as our Number 1 next season (the most inevitable thing ever) Bednarek, Onuachu and Ramsdale not far away. I've given up considering Stewart and Larios as Southampton players.