John B

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Ever thought the blog maybe bollix but if not ever thought we may buy replacements

Lets hope you are right. But we need better players too

Is this fact or what you think I thought Hughes was the choice according to Ralph

I don't really understand your logic we bought players from Napoli Juventus Lazio Monaco and Bayern Munich top European Clubs who must have been pretty good to play for these clubs and nearly all are internationals. I cannot remember recruiting a really good regular first team player first team player from the PL recently although both Austin and Long may have been but both Bertrand and Romeu were bit players at Chelsea

Seems to utter bollix or absolute bollix http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/sport/16237784.Saints_hope_to_announce_Hughes_early_this_week/?ref=rss Like most of the posts on this thread

Ok but don't whinge when we don't do well. The PL is the most competitive league in the World most clubs including SFC no doubt want to do as well as possible but to think every year we will be around 7th place is delusional sometimes we will sometimes we wont . I think you need to reduce your expectations but that does not mean we will not get into Europe sometime in the future but if we do we need some excellent players and getting them to come to SFC is very hard. People complain about our recruitment strategy but I don't know of any talented player who has said he wanted to come to Southampton who we have not signed. We sign good players but not very good/excellent players because we don't have the revenue to support that.

Yes I agree but not sure we actually challenged for a CL place we may have been in a CL place but unlike Leicester and I believe fell away. I have been supporting Saints since 1959 so my expectations since then have been easily met seen great player like Paine Ball Keegan MLT VVD Chivers Davies Osgood etc so I am really happy have supported the team and will continue to support them in good times and bad. As you say it is Cyclical I have friends who are Nottm Forest Aston Villa Spurs and Ipswich fans who had some really good glory days and just look at them now.

Or you could say they were being realistic . The club has won virtually **** all in the last sixty years and this will no doubt continue for the next sixty years . How people thought the Club was going to challenge for CL qualification is beyond me but shows how lots are gullible. If we develop outstanding players through the academy or through the transfer system they are not going to stay at SFC and I don't blame them

Do you really think it is easy recruiting players because I don't and I don't think it is a good idea to keep players who want to leave in order to earn more money and footballing medals. We have a well organised scouting system throughout Europe so we should know and probably do the ability of most players. But that does not mean that those identified want to come to SFC or that we can meet their wage demands especially as other clubs want their services too. Most of our signings seem to be pretty good footballers as they are usually internationals but it does not mean they will settle in the UK and adapt to the PL and produce consistent performances. The recent window I agree was not that good but I believe Walcott was going to sign his contract was agreed but he went to Everton for more money and Promes could not leave his club. So what do you think the club should do in order to make you happier in getting new players in without paying silly prices and silly wages which would upset current players probably

I think if you want to support a team which is successful you need to support a top six team but it does not mean they will be successful all the time so you have to take the rough with the smooth. Yes I agree with you Gao does not appear to be fixated at the moment on League position but just that SFC is a PL team but this may change if football grows in China but I doubt it. I have supported Saints for almost sixty years when we were in the Old Div 3 and realise that we are never going to be really successful but I except that because we have no outstanding players like I have seen in the past as top players want top money want Euro action

I think it is worrying that we have fans like you who expect SFC to be a consistent top 8 team it is not going to happen We had four great years but why and how are we going to attract top players to St Mary's

I find it quite interesting that Burnley got Heaton from Bristol City and Pope from Charlton so there are obviously good players around. In fact quite a number of Burnley players have come from lower league teams

I don't really care about other clubs but as there are dozens of English players in the League most will have come from some club's Academy. What concerns me is that the Club is not producing top class players which I thought was their aim by investing in the Academy and like you say we then buy average foreign players I thought we were supposed to have one of best Academies in the World

I feel that one of our problems is the lack of to class Academy players coming in to our PL causing the club to buy average players from abroad. JWP has played something like 200 games and has been around a long time. Stephens is only playing because we have no other choice and came from Plymouth I think. Sims McQueen and Hesketh have been lurking about for some time but are only bit players as they play very little. What can be done if anything to bring players like OXO Bale Walcott Shaw Lallana Dyer Chambers etc through to the PL We just seem to be producing Div 1 and Championship players

Great post totally agree Although we have stayed up I feel little has changed - few goals and concede late Hughes has done what he came for and thanks for that but not sure he will be here in the long term

He did a very job but still not enough goals and still conceding goals late on.

Yes they probably hate Hughes and want him relegated perfectly understandable to me far from pathetic just a bit of a joke

For two seasons we have needed a striker who can scores regularly and an AM who is consistent creates and scores goals like most of the other teams in the PL Finding them is the difficult bit Boufal seemed a good buy but has proved very disappointing so has Gabbadini. But the main change should be that the club buys more experienced players to play with our youngsters and make certain they have physical presence.. A indepth study needs to be carried out on the Academy to see why there are not many top class players playing regularly in the PL

Les seems to have played a blinder to me. A Cup Final a Cup Semi Final two years in Europe finishes in the PL I could only have dreamed of. When things went wrong stayed calm pull the trigger at the right time brought Hughes in which hopefully has kept us in the PL Now lets see who he brings in to join a battle hardened team for next season when hopefully we can score some more goals. I think the turning point was not Hughes but bringing in McCarthy who is my MOM I would be interested to know when he became fully fit because Forster was a disaster for a season or more.

Goodison Park

Don't blame the ref blame the players so many times this season they have bottled it and let points slip away in the last few minutes

Swansea don't need to win

Yep I remember it well as I was there no Terry Paine that day which was a shame I think Ossie finally scored a goal WE were the first club that finished three from bottom to get relegated will probably happen again next week

Liverpool is a great club and it was not surprising VVD Mane Clyne Lallana and Lovren left to join them it must be great to play in a European Final