Saint Fan CaM

It will be nice to be one of the bigger fishes in the pond next season, but will we be more Man Utd than Man City - full of promise but ultimately still shit.

Yeah, I feel this too - mainly because he’s a central defensive midfielder perhaps? 😉

Does that exonerate SR from stupidity ? No! What the fuck are they up to interviewing a manager for the future when the worst season in the clubs history is yet to be completed and there is a HUGE challenge facing the club prior to the new Championship season starting? The priorities for these clowns must be completely lost and it does not bode well for a decisive summer of activity appointing a decent new Manager AND sorting out more than half of a shit squad. Amateurs.

He’s got a long contract and time on his side. It seems he’s previously had issues moving away from the club/area - that might influence things. I’m not certain he’s done anywhere near enough to earn a big money move at the moment and I don’t think he’ll attract anywhere near £100m…more like £20m tops with a resale clause. It’s a big IF that a decent offer comes in.

Looked better than Archer which is pretty damning given it’s Rod’s first start in many months. Unfortunately I doubt we’ll get to see if there’s any semblance of a Prem player in there before the season ends, but he’ll be more useful in the Championship than Archer.

Will Rohl’s previous time with Spors make a difference? Can’t help but think it will and to be fair to SR, if Rohl is the target they’ll push out to get him.

Yeah, it was a thing…sat back for a 1-1 and then some, playing 6 defenders! What a complete idiot. Fernandes and Ramsdale were outstanding today. Manning was poor and Dibling worse, although Dibling should never have been brought on if the intention was to defend a 1-1 draw….he's just too fucking lazy and can’t defend for toffee. Would have been better using Welington or even Smallbone ahead of Manning. The rest of the team did OK. Fulham were fast and physical going forwards - once again were were not. Rusk and Lallana are definitely not the answer based on todays last 10-15 minutes and then some, playing the subs chosen.

Well let’s hope he’s the decoy candidate - there’s a reason he’s run off to the USA. It would be completely SR to appoint him though.

A good friend has offered me a ticket to this one and I’ve reluctantly accepted it. 😉 It’s been quite sometime since I last attended SMS and I’m looking forward to the atmosphere again - hopefully we’ll pick up at least a point, but I’m not sure we’ve got the quality to match them. Just hope we don’t sit back for a 0-0.

There’s a masterclass video of Still’s coaching for the game against PSV where he basically came away with a 0-0 draw against a much superior team. The key was a high press and playing out from the back with risk strategy employed. Sounds exactly the type of manager SR would plumb for. Whether he would come to us is highly questionable - he is on a fast upward trajectory if the hype is to be believed.

The Falklands War seems almost like dream now - incredible service from the military men and women at the time. Difficult to imagine the UK being able to defend like that now, largely thanks to manner in which the Government destroyed UK manufacturing.

Maybe if we were still in the Prem, but do you think that would extend to the Championship? I’m playing devils advocate of course - Rohl seems to be on everyone’s lips when it comes to likely candidates - although I do think it’s at least 80% about the player quality available and much less about the quality of potentially available Managers. To put it another way, if we were winning 90% of our games and Ali Dia was Manager, the vast majority of fans would be ecstatic.

Well exactly!

I’m not necessarily advocating Rusk/Lallana, but to be fair the risk would only be proportionate to the contract he was awarded. If it read that he was in place until say three consecutive Championship defeats (or similar) then would the risk be any greater than bringing in a ‘name’ who costs £millions to dispose of?

If you were given a jigsaw puzzle with two essential missing pieces, would even bother to waste your time putting it together? And even then, if you did, do you think the sense of fulfilment would be the same? No, me neither.

Thing is, most clubs would adopt a buy low/sell high business model if they could. We’ve had some success in the past. The issue is that success in that market is dependent on two things… (a) that the first team is actually competing at the highest level and (b) the quality of squad is not diminished by selling said talent, either through excellent new signings and/or excellent youth talent stepping up. The last 5-6 years has seen those fundamentals forgotten or ignored, with successive regimes getting more and more desperate to make a ‘quick buck’.

We’re down - there’s no trophy for being last or second to last. The important issue is the filtering of crap from the squad ready for the new season and a manager who knows how to play proper football. Not possession based bore-fest, anti-football.

I really don’t think the situation he’s been faced with at Wednesday really has any bearing on his ability to manage Saints. The collapse there has been expected for some time bearing in mind they’ve been over performing based on the squad etc. That’s not to say he’s the panacea that will mend this club. A fine balance between getting the right manager, coupled with a significant change in the quality of the squad, will shape the outlook for Saints for quite sometime.

And how many true Saints give a flying f*ck about the prize money at this stage of this particular season do you think? Genuine question.

To be honest I’m more concerned that Manning is shown the exit door. He was at fault for their goal today - invited their player to go left rather than getting him to the byline and safe, so also inviting him to shoot and score. Basic defending not observed by a very average player….once again. Also, his dead ball delivery is appallingly ineffective…never causes a problem for the defence or goalie, although admittedly he’s aiming at statues in the box.

Was watching intermittently - couldn’t get a good stream after half-time and when I did we were 1-0 down. Thought that was that, but to my delight and amazement the players actually looked like they wanted to get anything from the game and somehow a goal was crafted very late on. It’s clear the confidence is low though - we had WHU on the ropes at the end but they were too scared to go for it in earnest and happy to snatch a point. This is what SR and poor management have brought us to…scared of having a go late in the game against WHU….its pitiful really. Anyhow, feeling chuffed that we managed to get a point I never thought we’d get and equal Derby’s record. Now to cement that with another point at least. Please!

The timing of the new appointment will likely provide a preliminary indication of how well the summer window will play out.

If it’s truly Garrard or Lampard I’m not sure whether I’d laugh or cry…they are not the answer in my opinion and that’s being kind. Rohl has the qualities to turn things around playing the right type of football and has knowledge of the club already. He has as good a chance of getting the supporters on side as anyone. If it’s not him, then it needs to be someone with better experience - not just an ex-player with a name and it’s not easy identifying who that might be.

There….fixed it for you.

We’ll not win. The end.