david in sweden

some others on this site are beginning to sound a bit like Donald Trump..."you're fired "..( is his favourite expression). The Board aren't out on the pitch every matchday, and aside from the cost of your matchday ticket, most of the money they spend ...is theirs. If I had spent 100 million in the summer ...and still only had 1 point in the league, I'd be fast running out of toilet paper, so the problem is down to the manager's preferred formation, and the IQ of those fellas out there with the numbered shirts. Then throw in other dimensions like a few doubtful penalty shouts, a shot off the post, a world class keeper who saves everything and a smattering of VAR decisions, and then add an unbiased referee and you have the life and death of survival of a season in the Premier League. With the exception of Lallana, Bednarek and Taylor who have been round the big stadiums a few time before, we have a group of inexperienced eager youngsters who aren't used to tough matches against world class players, and whose heads will drop when they concede a goal or two. For as long as it takes ...to turn this around and start scoring goals and racking up points we have to grin and bear it, and don't think that we alone feel worse than RM and the playing staff. Getting rid of the manager ...may sound like " a quick fix " to some, but if a replacement cannot speak fluent English, or has never dabbled in the Premier League before ..we will be out of the frying pan and burnt out before the end of the season.

I think there are two separate issues here " Dellyears ".. (like you I spent several enjoyable decades at the old ground). 1) Cortese knew his field and told Marcus he could buy the club and stadium (then only 8 years old) for just 15 million - it was surely a no-brainer. It must have been a great experience for Marcus to go to Wembley and see us win the JPT, but so really sad that he died so soon afterwards. At the time (daughter) Kat knew little about football and gave Cortese relatively free reign to run the club, and there the trouble really began. I would credit Cortese for his administrative acumen, but he did us no favours when he ditched the Academy and we lost several good prospects. After Alan Pardew's sudden departure, Nigel Adkins built a good squad around; Fonte, Lambert and the promising young Adam Lallana and got us successive promotions with a squad that cost barely 6 million pounds. So far so good, but (like RM, years later) Adkins found that what worked well in the Championship was no preparation for life at the top, and Cortese lost patience with NA and brought in Pochettino, who with hindsight, built a reputation based on his time with Saints, but failed to win anything of consequence with any of the clubs he has subsequently managed. --------------------------------------------------- 2) Back in the Prem. 2012 we bought Rodriguez for 6 million which was a good deal, but worse was to come when Cortese (who on his own admission knew little about football) .. took control of the footballing side of things and went back to his European contacts (who must have seen him coming) and he began a succession of bad deals (e.g. Ramirez and Osvaldo) at Pochettino's bidding at a cost of over 40 million in fees and salaries, all on borrowed money at very high % rates, and almost bankrupted the club a second time. Fortunately Kat saw the danger and finally sacked Cortese. The subsequent regime seemed strange with a chairman with a history in ice hockey (!).. and a new club organiser (in Les Reed) whose early successes were somehow lost in later days, with a morass of new and unsuccessful managers, and (sadly) even more bad signings. The only positive outcome was two great seasons under the Koeman regime, which gave us some great players,but was an all too short period. My assessment of the two men is somewhat different .. in that Marcus did the club a great service in buying us out of bankruptcy at the 11th hour, and to everyone's sorrow died soon after he had seen the fruits of his modest investment. He would surely have rejoiced in what came after, but that Cortese, (for all of his financial and organisational nous ) should have known better and kept himself out of the active side of things on the pitch and employed someone who really was .." football " and knew the vagaries of the English game.

Who will be responsible for getting rid of ..these three....you ? Think you may have overlooked the hierarchy at the club. Rasmus is at the top of the tree, and Kraft is a boss at the club level. Russell is an employee (at least presently ) and Dragan is a pretty big investor and so they are de facto ...the owners. They can only sack themselves, and there is no-one else we can turn to. Not sure who was holding the purse strings in the summer, but aside from the half dozen who cost " bigger fees" (at least by our standards) we signed around 10 players for less then 40 million, (that itself being the average price of an average Prem. player in many of " the big clubs "). It should be noted that neither Ipswich or Leicester have made any significant impression so far since their promotions. Ramsdale, Bednarek and Lallana are the only players who have proven themselves at this level, whilst many of the others have barely dipped their toes in the muddy waters of this league, and without any real distinction. Our present position in the league was therefore ...fairly predictable. Sorry saintant, we are stuck with this lot until the next window, when the brave Dragan will doubtless cough up even more millions in an attempt to help us survive for the season, and to stabilise his already considerable investment in the club. Only Russell Martin is likely to feel the axe on his neck, which may then result in us seeking yet another manager who will have to struggle along with this already overloaded squad. So do we stick, or twist ?

While the emphasis of media attention seems to be on the lifespan of Russell Martin as manager, and a section of our "fans" continue denigrating the players at every turn, the sight of our team captain being further punished for a mouth full of insults to the match officials does little to improve the club's image as one of the country's top 20 sides. Our mismatched squad is composed of a mix of "veteran" players, and some promising young talents, alongside a handful of players best-known for their performances in the Championship, who have yet to prove themselves at this higher level, and so the bad string of opening results, whilst disappointing, are not really so surprising. As this thread is supposed to be about Jack Stephens, we ought to consider his situation. Jack will be 31 in January and despite his long, and loyal service in the club ( 13 years to date ) he can hardly be considered to be one of the best CB's we've had in that time. IF his suspension has taught him any lessons, he will get his act together and start to show up as the role model that team captains are apparently supposed to be. His enthusiasm and dedication cannot be called into doubt, but life in the Prem. is a tough call for many players and particularly those over 30, and so his future performances will be particularly interesting to watch (as soon as he gets back to play) plus the fact that his contract is due to run out next summer. There does not seem to be a " natural successor " for the role of captain, even though a few have been given the armband on occasions.

and yet we have 5 (five) strikers sitting on the bench !

............. no-one who's likely to get game time this season ....

with Onuacho on the bench , there will be a lot of red faces if he comes on in the last 15 mons. and scores the winner, and the question .why on earth didn't you play him before ?

I'm never sure if.. " defectors ".. is the correct designation for some of the posts on this thread. Many times it refers to those who may have left the club without getting a chance, and not those who " wanted away" for greener pastures. Someone on here posted an item about Kevin Danso, having been played out of position (by Hassenhuttl) was not retained after his loan expired, ... rather than wanting to move on, but that he was now tearing up trees as a dominating CB at his new club (?) So .....it was a shock to read that he recently needed an emergency (heart?) operation, and is likely to be out of the game for some time.

No apps. at Brighton !. perhaps because.. he was sent on a season long loan to Exeter (in L1) during the summer. He was on the Exeter bench at first ,but is getting game time and has scored a couple of goals, but as you wrote (above), he might have had a better chance had he stayed with Saints. He was in a class of his own in our U21's and might have got some minutes with us when you consider the progress that Tyler Dibling has made so far. Young lads who have spent their entire careers with a club from the age of 6 may get impatient for quick success, but the threshold between a good U21 player, and becoming " a Prem. starlet" is a giant leap for many.

1) I think that he should return for surgery and rehab. He is our player and been with the club for some years. For a teenager to sit out a long rehab. period before getting back to fitness is bad enough, but doing so whilst around a lot of (albeit) "friendly strangers" at Blackpool might be psychologically stressful. Our medical staff have a good reputation and being surrounded by familiar faces and clubmates would surely make a positive contribution to his recovery. 2) Loan players getting injured. This is an ongoing problem for many clubs. Nowadays many teenagers at Academy level have just stepped up from schoolboy football and games are deliberately " low key " compared to the "men's game". Loan-outs are good experience - if they survive the season. Down in L1 / L2 they meet former top pro's, a few "has-beens" and a bunch of young local "wannabees". I'm not sure if his injury was from a foul, or just bad luck (?), but he was similarly injured when at Reading after a freak accident. Young bodies need to be toughed up quickly, but any lad who hasn't made his mark by (say) 21 , (or at least got some senior game time) may well have one foot out of the door when his contract runs out. At the end of the day, footballing success at a young age counts for little when players have to move up to the big league and don't get the lucky breaks. Personal note: in the early 1970's I met ..Terry Spinner - an apprentice with Saints who broke all age-related records by scoring 150 goals in a season at schoolboy level, and whilst playing for England Schoolboys, scored a hat-trick in an international (in Germany)... in front of 60,000 people. He debuted for Saints Reserves at the age of 16, alongside some senior players of the time and scored over 50 goals in the following 4 seasons . Terry did eventually get a couple of outings for the first team, in part because our regular CF at the time was (one ) Ron Davies. Sadly at the age of 20, his time had come ..and gone. Mick Channon was in full flight as a goalscorer, and the young Bobby Stokes had by now become a first team regular, and additionally manager Lawrie McMenemy had signed... a seasoned striker ...by the name of ....Peter Osgood. Terry was released before moving on to Walsall where his luck in the pro-game finally ran out, and he played out his career in non-league football.

... and we will never know the difference if we don't play him.. Catch 22

the fee...3 million...was a big deal for Posh, but the player is still young (21)...and hasn't played above L1 . .except in one League Cup for us. Is it such a surprise he's not on bench for Prem. games.? Wood-Gordon has played alongside THB for England's U21 side and has a better pedigree.

1) JWP has no more responsibility for the relegation that the other 10 who filed in their roles. 2) I always felt he was most effective ín an attacking role , but he succeeded Stephen Davis in that midfield spot and that was it 3) the boring style of safe passing is what " Russball's possession game " is all about, but this league is all about grinding out results, and learn that you have to leave all that" entertainment stuff " to the likes of Man.City, Liverpool and Villa.

.......also good to see that Juan (our new signing on loan to them) scored the second goal in that 3-0 win. Aside from Lis, our other Japanese signing Kuryu Matsuki (also on loan to them)...featured in the game, too. whereas on the other hand Trabzonspor .. are wallowing around in the bottom half of the table - without Onuacho... If they really wanted him ?.. their Board should have found the money.. now we see they outwitted themselves.

Well TP is still our player, at least until January, and to be fair he has had a rough deal from Saints who bought him for Nathan Jones, after which he was rejected by Selles who ignored him in a team lacking support for a man of his stature in a side that was totally unbalanced and wallowing in the drop zone. Onuacho did well in Turkey (no-one is certain of the quality of their football), but he scored a bucket load of goals there last season and they weren't all tap-ins. Our other established strikers haven't scored, so he in the same situation as Brereton-Diaz, Armstrong and Stewart . As this thread is about Cameron Archer, it should be remembered that he wasn't first choice buy in the window, and had limited time at Villa (behind Ollie Watkins). Strikers often have dry spells and no-one else is scoring on a regular basis either. I don't think Archer is a bad buy, but it takes time for new players to gell into the side, and the whole team is still trying to settle and is under a lot of pressure..

All players (especially strikers) need some luck, and so far Archer hasn't had so much, (although he did score twice in the Cardiff Cup game). After last week's penalty miss (bad call by RM who should have had a designated penalty-taker) like Brereton-Diaz who has scored some before) but sadly Archer still lacked good fortune with one shot hitting the post and another bouncing of the goalies chest. One must be philosophical so I remind myself that in season 2002-3 ..the young James Beattie .. went 10 games before scoring his first Prem. goal and then began a scoring spree netting 23 times in the next 25 matches and narrowly missed the Golden Boot which finally went to Thierry Henry. Before anyone points out the obvious.. it's still early season and as soon as he gets off the mark, Archer may well get a change of luck, too.

In a team that has played below par in most games so far, Dibling has stood out as a star in the making whilst rarely playing more than 60 minutes (with exception of the Cardiff Cup game), yet without scoring a goal. His performances have naturally attracted attention from "bigger names" (although I had to laugh at the mention of an approach... from Crystal Palace ?) ...and those other names are inevitably in the top 6 Prem. clubs The reality is that moves of this nature seldom benefit either player, or the selling club. 1) the player himself may get a little game time after the move, or a few sub. apps. before its noted he's not good enough to replace the very expensive international who normally plays in that role, and he will soon disappear to the bench....when they realise that he is still a slowly-developing U21, and he joins the other lads who normally play at that level. In time, with luck ..and avoiding injuries, the next manager of that club will either re-instate him or look to get him off the payroll in order to squander another multi-million misfit from abroad. (Bale Walcott, Alex-Ox, Shaw did survive their moves) 2) the selling club pocket a goodly sum, but will squander much of it on a youngster (from another continent) in the vain hopes of replacing him. This is often the first signs of disaster as this manager promptly ignores the success the player showed at his mother club, and insists on playing him in different role, and in another formation and he fails miserably because of the language / cultural challenges that the player has ...off the field. (Those of you who can recall our recent history can fill in names of your own here). 3) The buying club has now successfully "emasculated" the selling club's chances of success / survival by removing their best / most talented player and doing so by paying.. (for them) a relatively small fee. (for the consequences now re-read no.2 ) So what should the young player do to further his career?. Firstly, keep up the standard they have shown so far, and train for 90 minute games. Sign a better contract, make sure you play regularly and stay put for a year or two and keep improving. Either your club will improve their position or, are still fighting their way out of the drop zone, they will get an offer they can't refuse and you will get the big move you dream of. (re-read 1) Tyler may have learned some useful lessons with his short sojourn at Chelsea, and where he got lost in the crowd of other young hopefuls dreaming of " the big time". Loyalty is not a word to be uttered in footballing circles nowadays, but a few ( a very few like ...Paine, Channon and MLT, and then JWP for almost 20 years ), enjoyed life in Hampshire and being " the big fish in our little stadium ". Tyler is still a young man, but the decisions he makes in the next few years can make ....or break his career. .

The possession style of football has many advantages - namely denying the opposition a look at the ball, but we still lack creativity in midfield. We won't be seeing Lallana playing many 90 min. games, but you can certainly notice his influence when he is on the pitch. Despite the shortcomings of points lost (see texts above), in the end ...we won promotion namely because we managed to beat Leeds three times, with a team that built around 5 loaned players (all who thankfully DAJFU at various times). Now that we are in the top tier every game is more of a challenge -and once again we start every game with half a team of new faces who, having been introduced to each other, have new skills to learn. Some players were not first choices, or even high on our list of potential buys, and it will take time that RM doesn't have - to get them to gell as a unit. Last season went first 4 games undefeated despite being second best on several occasions, and then lost the next 4 before recovering form in beating Leeds - the first time. It's easy to forget the following 20-odd games we went undefeated but those games was the foundation of our eventual promotion. This season we have played some great football - in 30 minute spells - but with disappointing results that might have earned a few points on another day. Defeats that were down to several individual defensive errors, and a gaggle of 4 or 5 strikers ...who have yet to score a league goal between them. I think RM will be given a bit longer before feel the axe on his neck, but he needs to see the team getting some points on the board PDQ.

don't disagree with the general content of your text, but it might be more realistic when he actually does start scoring some goals first.

Just as along as we have 4 strikers on the bench, we must stand a chance of scoring goals.....sometime.

.........at least we found half-a-dozen people who can convert penalties.

NEVER....and you seemingly can express viewpoints without blasphemy or prejudice.

There is a fallacy in the footballing world that great players will...almost certainly ...become great coaches - WRONG ! Of course there are exceptions . Going back many decades, one recalls that Alf Ramsey (former Saints, Spurs and England captain) did manage the team that we brag about to our grandchildren, who actually won the only trophy that England can rejoice in (A.D. 1966.) and some of we " oldies " can still name that side. Sadly many of that side failed miserably in their attempts to become managers, and so it has often been ever since. Most recently, we saw a number of former 100 cap England greats (Gerrard, Lampard are examples) who have followed the same fate, and their own careers have paled into insignificance in the mists of time. Wayne Rooney (another in that group) is hanging on by his teeth having picked up his first win at lowly Plymouth (apologies to Argyle fans ) thanks to a last minute winner on Saturday. Just how long he will survive is in the hands of the local fortune-teller. So why do these great names fare so badly? perhaps the memory of their own successes is merely a concept in their own mind which they try to convey to a younger generation who lack their skill and experience. I write this having read of a recent game in Holland, where the once great (and universally feared) .. Robin van Persie watched his side lose 1-9 at home. ( Tell us about it Robin, at least your mob scored one).. but the fact remains that " greatness" is not an infectious quality that easily rubs off onto others. Those "greats" who can boast about their own careers (Guardiola , Mourinho etc, ).. have proven that you can win things - if your club throws enough money at it, whilst others (Wenger and Klopp) are examples of men who had no real playing career of their own, but were " theorists " who fathomed out the problems - and ..did win things. In a week when Sweden buried its own footballing hero (Sven-Göran Eriksson) with almost Royal dignity, it ended the footballing life of " another theorist " who had no playing career himself to speak of, yet won 18 trophies for clubs in various European countries over a period of 40 years. but who was brutally mistreated by the English media, who had no-one else to exploit ...before moving onto the Royal Family. So where does this leave Saints and Russell Martin ? Like Rooney he hopes for an upturn in form using the tactics he knows and on which his career depends. Looking back to 1966.. (first time Saints won promotion to the top tier) Ted Bates was the first of a very few, who achieved that feat amongst the several dozen men who later succeeded him, and of whom Russell Martin is the latest. The " not-so old " amongst us recall that Lawrie McMenemy inherited a top-half team ( from aforementioned Bates) in 1972, and promptly got the club relegated, but the Board of that time had patience with him, he stayed on and three years later he guided Saints to the only trophy that we can brag about...when winning the FA Cup 1976... ( and many of us can also name that Saints side.) It remains to be seen if the Board of Sport Republic keep faith with Martin ...and give him time, or if (like Rooney) he will await his P45 after the next defeat. How long that " time" is likely to be is....another question for the fortune-teller.

I've noted that you often have smart ideas ... what next?

Er....maybe not, after Saturdays red card?