S-Clarke

I wouldn't say so for this season, but next season - absolutely. I reckon we'll be right down there.

Need 4, 5, 6, 7 - need some volume to really crank up on SR. We cannot continue to have a club like this. We will be L1/L2 within the next 18 months if we don't oust this lot.

'Fine for the Championship'. The guys who said that really need to come out of their rocks now and explain why they ever thought that.

A 3 manager, and new owner season ideally. It will only change once the owners are out of here. We'll only end up with Ben whatshisname next.

There's your goal Boro.

He's not bad, very powerful and strong. I don't trust him with the ball as much though, I think he's a bit leggy at times. As a defender, doing defensive things, he's not bad at all though.

We grew into the first half, Fellows almost certainly should have scored that - or at least kept it down, it was terrible. Azaz is picking up pockets of space in the last 10 mins, which is happening because we started moving the ball a little quicker from the back to the front - but their press was pretty horrible in the later stages of that half. I think they're there for the taking to be honest, the game is literally screaming at someone to take ownership of it and dictate the tempo - neither are really doing it so far.

Count me surprised when I just looked at the table and saw Watford, batshit crazy Watford, on their 3959395th manager of the season, in 4th. Whilst we're languishing down in 15th. The quality of the league this year is rubbish, there are no standout teams like there has been in the past. Yet we're somehow still contriving to be bottom half. No one can defend this, surely. Being mid-table in this league is like being marooned in a cesspit of misery. It's a horrible existence of nothingness. 'The championship is a great league, it's fun' argument falls down the pan when it's like this. It's misery.

Appoint people to roles above their capabilities and they'll always adhere to what they're told to do. SR know what they're doing in that regard. This guy has basically failed upwards, just take a look at his 'reviews' from Charlton and Rovers fans - and this was from his time in L1.

No it's not a huge leap at all, in fact it's pretty much guaranteed given all clubs under the SR badge play the same way. Crazy conspiracy theory though apparently, according to some.

I guess they couldn't dare appoint anyone decent, or with 'real' experience, as that would mean there'd be a risk at someone questioning the clubs approach. Have to keep filling it all with yes men who are just thankful to have a job at a level above them.

Back to the strong '11' from the run a month or so ago, but I'm still desperate to see Fellows as a right winger in a game like this. I'm sure he wasn't bought to spend most of his time going backwards.

''The point is good, if we follow it up with a win against Doncaster rovers' etc, loop infinity.

Crazy conspiracy theories apparently! But when you look at it, it does all add up. All 3 clubs in the group playing the same way, all youth teams playing the same way, less-known managers appointed to run the club strategy without questioning it. Managers without any large input into incoming transfers because, well, they don't have any record of managing so they can't recommend anyone. It's really not far from the truth given what's in front of us.

They're having their inevitable mid-season dip, all teams who 'run away with it' early doors are often pegged back a bit around mid-season. They built enough of a buffer to give them some breathing space though, and luckily for them Boro dropped off a cliff too - so they've not been pegged back too much in the Top 2 hunt. They just need to make sure they get out of the blip, maybe using January to give their squad a bit of a freshen up. Ipswich are the ones who have grabbed the opportunity that Boro/Cov have given with their respective drop offs, they'll be kicking themselves their game was postponed today. Ipswich will almost certainly got up automatically at this point, 1st or 2nd is up for debate - depends how much Coventry keep faltering.

No one is disputing that he made a good save against Stansfield, and threw his face in the way against Millwall - credit to those. But you can't just look in front of your nose and ignore everything else. This guy is still a fraud of a goalkeeper, and 1 or 2 saves every now and then does not change 4 years of total ineptness at every level he's played at. I look forward to the day we have the new guy in and we can stop these Bazunu chats, hopefully he just leaves for a nominal fee (no idea who'd buy him) in the summer and we sort out the GK properly.

I guess that's why the minutes of that meeting haven't been published then. #coverup Maybe Alfie can get another meeting with Spors in a few weeks to confirm the situation? Although the club will likely refuse entry because it's not all rainbows and Unicorns anymore.

There isn't much they get right, if anything. I'd give them a bit of rope if they were 6 months in, or even a year-18 months....but they're 4 years in and still making catastrophic decisions on an almost daily basis. I agree with everyone on here who says the same - promotion under this lot is not viable, even if we somehow got there in the next 2 years, it wouldn't end well. We need these lot out before we can even think PL.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't someone from the 'Fan Advisory Board' - or at least someone who knew someone on it - proclaim that Spors reiterated in person to their faces that we wouldn't be moving Tonda from interim.

I don't disagree with the lack of height across the side - I just replied to the other post about our lack of physicality through the spine - but if this is truly the case, and the 5 at the back is to temporarily compensate for that - why are they not fixing it? Why are we not linked with massive Central midfielders and huge CB's? I don't understand the club. I don't know what we're trying to do, what style we're trying to implement or what our grand plan is. We flip flop like the weather and it's no surprise the squad is as messed up as it is. I thought Spors would have given us clarity in that, but I think his wings have been clipped a bit.

I don't disagree that we have a lack of physicality throughout the spine of the team, it's been a big issue for many many years - I thought we were looking to fix that when I heard Spors initial comments and the arrivals of Quarshie and Downs, but they couldn't have gone much more wrong had we tried - so I'm not entirely sure what our plan is now, because how we are playing is entirely at odds with what Spors said in the summer and what Will Still said he was looking to implement in the summer. I'd also say that defensively, even with those 3 CB's to add 'extra' height in the side, we are still painfully woeful defensively - especially from set pieces and marking in our box, so I'd certainly take the risk and flip one CB for more of a balanced approach in the areas which entertain.

I'm not sure if the bold bit is in jest or not, but if not surely you can see the horrendousness of this? To tweak our approach and to encourage us to win a game and score goals, he moved our 3 CB's around. Just think about that for a second. Not once did he think, let's go 2 at back, stick some more players further up, or play Fellows and Leo wide at the same time. No, not once. The only tweaks he made was moving the 3 CB's around. A lot is being said that we have very small CB's. We don't. We have fairly average hight CB's, and an absolute monster in Quarshie at 1.95cm or something like that. This isn't about a lack of height, or a lack of ability. It's just a really, really bizarre SR Group wide approach to playing system that is replicated and embedded at all of their clubs, and all age groups at their clubs.

Leo has been great, but there's no chance in hell Liverpool, Chelsea, Man City or any clubs of that level are ever signing him. He's been great for us, but he'll never be of that level. He's already played for 2 sides this season, so any move mid-season is off the cards as he wouldn't be able to play at any new club. Will he leave in the summer? Maybe. But I still think Pl clubs will want to see tons more from him in the 2nd half to convince them.

I saw those same videos actually, I thought the same. We live in this horrible selfie/views/influencer society. Everything is done for views and clicks. Even at all the NYE celebrations around the world, all you saw were a sea of smart phones lighting up the sky recording it. Hang on, you're fucking well there - put your phone down, and record it with your own eyes and hear it with your own ears. Grumpy old man syndrome setting in I think. Either that, or the world is broken and I want to get off.

Sadly it's not just at Southampton though, this is now 'football'. Look at all those PL games y/day, 0-0, 0-0, 0-0, 1-1. All too scared to lose. It's rubbish. I used to love the festive period as it was just stuffed full of football from all divisions, it was a great fun - but it's just a load of shit now, because it's all dictated by Xg, XGs, stats, possession and Sky feed into it so much. The product is dying, someone needs to rip up the blueprint.