Badger

Yes, this thread could have been running since January 2017. Another clusterf^ck attributable to ubercretin Les.

The fickleness of fans ffs. Staggering. Let's bring in 'arry, or Fat Sam... No point changing the manager, it's the dicks at the top that need to go to see any improvement.

His departure will be dressed up as ambition, joining a bigger club etc, but for me there are two other reasons why he might p!ss off, a)leave before he's fully found out - at the moment he has the protective layer of having only been Reed's assistant, or b) leaving what he knows or regards to be a sinking ship. Time will tell,, but neither make comfortable reading.

McCarthy should be first choice in my book. I fully understand RH experimenting with Gunn after McCarthy conceded a soft goal at Huddersfield last season, but McCarthy has built up some 'credits' in my view following his performances at the end of the Hughes season. McCarthy made some vital saves and memorable ones from time to time (Everton away, and Bournemouth home spring to mind). I've yet to see anything memorable from Gunn in the same league, his 'belly flops' in the penalty shoot out v Derby last season left you wondering if an outfield player had been forced to take over in goal for some reason. Is Gunn now the third GK to have gone backwards under our GK coaches in a row ?

Exactly. I doubt Pep could make this lot into a team, so don'yt blame Ralph for the current shambles even if some of his selections are at times mystifying. This is where much of the the blame for the present mess should lie. Although Reed and Wilson are first in line for our abysmal recruitment.

The worrying aspect of this ... Knowing how Saints have worked in recent seasons whats the betting that the club announce the ex-Everton scout brought in over the summer can take the role.

Do you mean apart from Les Reed ?

I'm not a keen cricket follower but have seen about'The 100' in the press,and just read a bit on the BBC. Can one of you keen cricket followers tell me: Is this the end of County cricket ? Or is that just suspended for the duration of the 100 tournament ? How did they select the cities to compete, why for example nothing in Bristol ? (A Saints v Pompey might have offered cricket an entirely new dynamic). Are the cities here to stay, or is this likely to rotate, so Bristol, Brighton, Newcastle, wherever are involved in future ? Sorry might seem daft questions, but I'm a cricketing simpleton to be honest.

Whoever did that, sign him up.

I share your recollection of events in RK's last season. it seems absurd now to remember that our upsurge in form coincided with Forster's return to first team after injury. As for your last comment though I don't recall Les and Ralph K being too good in the ar$e-kicking department when Pellegrino was in charge, but take your point that there isn't anyone in post who RH feels closely answerable to.

Few omitted from the original list: Come on you red and white, machines.... (or is that a chant and outside the scope of this thread?) Walking in a Liebherr wonderland.. and .. "my old man said be a Pompey fan..."

Is this anything to do with 'Northam Celebrity' Hat K ^nt and his bunch ?

Agreed, but is the new breed of fan 18-25 into this as we were in the 70's & 80's ? The"selfie" generation don't seem to be up for it. It's both a sanitised environment, and "nice". Late 60's, early 70's you had to get to The Dell early unless it was all ticket. There would inevitably be an atmosphere created before the teams appeared with fans singing. Now you see many taking their seats between 2.55 and 3.10 on a Saturday having force fed themselves another burger for the sake of it. Exactly, the culture is different, and although some aspects of the 70's/80's you wouldn't want to return to (ie the obligatory idiots looking for a scrap) there is no doubting the atmosphere was normally better (not always, as you say there were some pretty poor atmosphere at matches, especially as The Dell capacity reduced and a greater % was occupied by the Family Club).

These are two critical factors as I see it, had a team of players we identified with and a common purpose of going up the leagues. Marcus Liebherr as our saviour, Fonte, Lambert, even Lallana at the time, and Lee Barnard had their own songs, and fans saw an effort and commitment from the players with a sense of team spirit. Now it's entirely different, how many if any player stands out as committed ? We all know they'd bugger off at the opportunity, and what is worse is the fact most fans would be glad to see the back of most of them, and the owner too. All in all it's become disjointed, with little connection it seems. As for support this season, Burnley away was good in the concourse but petered out once in the stands. Liverpool at home was I though good for most of the match although inevitable groans of frustration were there at times too. Pompey away, I bow to those who were able to get a ticket and go for their reports on that one.

They've obviously stolen the "Southampton Way" that we were credited for in 2014. But of course we all know the person who took the plaudits for that at the time has since been exposed and that the recruitment - Pelle, Tadic, and Alderweirald - were largely down to the manager not Mr Smug whose incompetence we are still paying for.

Interesting comparison as Brenda was touted on here for some time, but dismissed by most owing to his time at Liverpool and comments after recruiting our players. I'm not convinced that Rodgers is a better option than Ralph but major differences are that a)Rodgers, as far as I'm aware, was able to bring his own coaching staff with him, b)he inherited a better squad, including a bloke who can score goals (Vardy), and a decent midfielder who turned us down , Maddison, and a better squad overall. The sale of Maguire hasn't seen them collapse in the way VD's departure did, and they invested some of the expected Maguire money in advance on signing Tiliemans (or whatever). In short, better squad, and better recruitment that doesn't have Les Reeds fingerprints all over it for the last three seasons.

On the topic of "modern fans" and the like, anyone see if any half and half shirts were on sale ? Saints: Pompey on one side , Fakin' Scummaaahs : Skate C^nts on the other.

I only caught up with this the day of the match. Even allowing for football rivalry that is quite sad and shocking, from the obese bints to the gap tooth **** quoting "blue is colour, Pompey is our name ..." Christ, the land that time forgot; adopting a 1970's Chelsea anthem, is it still in the charts down there ? Best of all though: Paraphrasing: I hate "scummers because they're scum " , Q: Why are they scum ? ... "cos they are; they're dirty, filthy..." Pure playground level stuff. Because they stole our food - that's a new one. Where the f^^^ does that come from? And my favourite: Pompey all think they're Imbred for some reason. Most of the players embarrassed by it, s if a Yes might scupper a chance of joining a club they could only dream of playing for. Club Secretary 'supporter of the year' - churning out the dock strike myth. Simpleton of the Year award. Yes, old bloke came across well, credit to him for his good sense. Westwood was surprisingly sensible and fairly measured in his response, albeit with a misuse of selective stats Didn't we take 45,000 to the JPT ? And overlooking the Puel-Pellegrino effect for the SF. But there are clearly deep rooted social problems when Westwood appears the voice of reason. Sadly we might find a few to rival some of them on a matchday, but they do seem to have a high %.

A 52 year old bloke. Even by the standards of a cretinous retard within the PO postcode area surely he's old enough to know better.. https://www.portsmouth.co.uk/news/crime/portsmouth-fan-52-arrested-over-animal-cruelty-after-police-horse-luna-punched-ahead-of-pompey-vs-saints-derby-1-9084892?fbclid=IwAR255GZdQ6-rsRme90JGeJH8HZq6SyPUwToAQzO9SxzdayMcZaG3opFe6f8

Or filming it.

Excellent result, don't give a monkeys about the early match performance which from everything read and seen appears shaky at the back. This puts the skates crawling firmly back under their stone for a while. Colchester or Crawley at home next round will do nicely.

Blackburn away in the Cup (1-0) in 1984 after the skates round. I also remember beating Plymouth 4-1 on a Good Friday in the 1970's although that was different as either an 11am or 3pm kick off and pre-dates the over-televised era.

Is that really how low the barometer is now set ? Personally the snippets I've seen from Adams have given me some optimism, but he does need to break his duck. Once off the mark and with a bit of confidence I'm hoping he knock a few in, a few "scuffs" in there but who cares.

I think we all realise the limitations in the squad that Ralph has to contend with and this is laid squarely at the door of Les Reed (uber cretin), although with a stain on Wilson also. To this extent Ralph has an immediate 'get out of jail card' in my book. But even allowing for the limited squad available the defensive line up selected last night was appalling and that really is RH's fault. Shame to admit this isn't the first time he has shuffled the p!ss poor pack in an unfathomable way in setting up the defence. Hope he sorts it soon. Tuesday is no time for experiments, lets hope he gets it right.

We're often "close" to scoring. Has been much the same for a couple of seasons now. Problem is we don't take the chances. Why are we so consistently poor in front of goal ? Can't just be down to luck.