Smirking_Saint

He was also a bit of a tit by all accounts, chasing other peoples mrs’ whilst he was here

The club is actively looking to offload players but its really not that simple, the likelihood is that Nice are going to take Boufal off of our hands, Clasie likely will end up at Feyanoord. Also bare in mind that its only the prem window closing soon, the rest of Europe are on the standard end of August timeline and so not in a rush to conclude We have looked for losn deals for FF, but its difficult, theres been a massive goalkeeper merry go round in the prem so his destinations are suitably reduced.

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I don’t think we are strong enough at CB, and have far too many options in midfield to play 3 atb personally. I can see it being a version of 4321/433 variant with the CDM dropping between the CBs to allow FB width in attack —————-—McCarthy ——————--—— Cedric - yoshida - vestergaard - Bertrand ———————Romeu—————————— ———hoijberg———armstrong—————- —redmond——————————-Elyounoussi ———————-Gabbi——————————— Can replace Yoshida with Hoedt/Stephens if required, I personally think Yoshi is off Gabbi for Austin/Gallagher (hopefully a new striker, we are in the market apparently) Lemina/davis/JWP for one of the CM positions We actually have the makings of a very good looking squad if we can keep what we have

Diffucult to properly assess what Hughes will do this year from the pre-season outings in China. He is missing one or two from the squad in some vital CB positions. That said I’d like to see us capitalise more using the natural wingbacks that we have but Im not sure Elyounoussi fits into a 5 atb system effectively and so it points to me like we’ll still to a 4232/433/4321 variant with Romeu filling in between the CB’s in transition. Id of said the squad looks, on paper to be much more balanced than it has been, so long as we avoid OR replace any big outgoings. From last year only Cedric/Bertrand would likely be on any major radars. Id like to see another striker, though I think Austin/Gabbi are good enough should we not secure any of our formost targets, an improvement there will likely be in the region of 20m+ and looking at Carrillo its important to get that right Im excited for the new season though... well... i was excited for last year but lets see how it goes !!

Ive renewed again, not entirely sure why other than the fact that its a (as of the last 18 months a rather depressing) day out and I have too much love for the club. Well, that and I've torn my ACL for the 3rd and final time so my Saturdays are otherwise Barren.... Not entirely sure what to think so far, but I'm nervous, without any improvement its going to be another long long year

Well Ill be at a wedding in America for the semi, so I am massively deflated right now. Really hoping that we make the final now, I'll be cheering on from a villa in florida

Aren't Hughe's results at Stoke from this season better or at least more or less comparable to that of Lambert's ? Certainly seems that way to me TBH. I never thought that Hughes was THAT bad at Stoke, player recruitment was poor of course. I just don't see what the other options are, for me it seems; Silva - For some reason the dogs ******** right now, but I don't see a glittering premier league record. Relegated Hull and was ok at Watford before looking elsewhere, one of his main criticisms at Watford was his insistence to play with a single striker :roll eyes: Bilic - Ive added him as he is out of contract and realistic. Steady appointment, think he would be able to do a decent enough job. Only prem experience was that of West Ham however, which was obviously hit and miss. He has also stated he doesn't want an appointment until next year. Hughes - Always been steady, never had any barnstorming seasons with anyone really. Has premiership and international experience. Never been relegated, has managed clubs with a range of budgets and leadership set ups. The bottom line for me, is that it seems hughes is the most equipped for our current predicament.

I think its a case of either simple delusion or some sort of trendy bandwagoning. Everyone seems to be anti Hughes, and Im not entirely sure why to be honest. Ok, if this was at the start of the year he obviously isn't our first choice, he is the wrong fit . But right now, in our predicament I think we are lucky to have a manager of his experience and calibre even remotely interested with us. We are one point from the relegation zone with a hellish run in, arguably, minus WBA we are the worst team in the prem right now, and god knows how we aren't already in a worse position then we already are. We have no real goals in the side, two CBs that are hardly consistently solid. I'd snap Hughes hand off right now, our priority is staying up, nothing else matters and Hughes knows the job, the prem and likely has an awareness of ours and our rivals players

Gao: So it's like golf right ? The lowest score wins ?

Pretty much. Works he ass off, but so does shane long. We buy this guy, palace sign Sorloth...... I know who I would rather have had

Watching it today and its this really. It's pellegrino's application of his side which is the problem. We do have gaping issues, namely in the centre of our defence which just seems weak and our forwards, that just fail to be threatening in the slightest. The major reason that I feel we are where we are is that every single time he puts a side out, it seems to be as if we were the away side. He sets up too safe, too predictable, too slow and without any players that can affect the game moving forward. He has spent 20m on a forward that he wanted to lead the line, who, from the albeit brief time he has been here has effectively failed to lead the line. We don't play off him, we don't get the ball to him, whats the point ? He works hard, but thats it. Other than that he effectively has started fielding four defensive minded midfielders and tadic, and I am sorry, but as much as Tadic has real ability he is a complete and utter liability for a team that is in a relegation dog fight. He has to go, its obvious the players aren't playing for him, he doesn't need to come out and say it, its been obvious that there is no belief there since before christmas. Is it too late, more than likely, but the alternative is sleepwalking into relegation I'm afraid.

Like days of old when I used to pay my subscription I find myself agree with you again Benj..... on all the points on this thread basically. As per usual I waffled through those paragraphs and got bored at the end, but basically I see the future like to say, by returning University to the elite, and looking into apprenticeships for those less academically able. I would even suggest looking at options to allow kids to start apprenticeships in say years 10/11 if they are looking at poor academic results.

Yeah, I must admit I see the whole 'student debt' issue as a massive myth really, and I went to uni and am profiting off of the job that I was able to acquire due to my Electrical Engineering Degree. It is basically the most favourable debt of more or less any kind I can think of off of the top of my head. The alternative is a he proportion of public funds swallowed up effectively paying for the younger generation to effectively toss it off at Uni, and having been there I do mean that in avery sense of the word. For every 1 or 2 people I know that studied hard and are now paying back society with their higher education I know of atleast 4 or 5 that achieved absolutely nothing out of university at all. I do believe the whole system needs to be changed however, we should probably propose a certain amount of 'free' spaces for students with an aptitude to take them on within the sectors that have been identified as requiring re-staffing. For instance, if we need X amount of engineers or doctors then the government proposes X2 free spaces. The rest of the courses should remain as paid entry like it currently is. I think the problem is too many now see university as a right of passage, instead of what it is there for. And lets face it, the debt doesn't matter if you are improving your ability to create wealth for yourself in the form of higher wages. As for the NHS, I think the whole thing needs a reform, but I think issues such as the NHS, education etc are stifled by the way we elect our governments. The reality from what I can see is that the NHS needs refunding, or in essence proper funding through increase in taxes. This unfortunately is a topic no party that wishes to remain in power will be looking to put forward in their manifesto unless is it absolutely necessary. So why can't we take pressing issues such as this off of the table ? Agree party wide that there will be a system that runs in a certain way, with a certain budget and taxed appropriately ? And then allow the parties to chastise each other over the other subjects that are less pressing to the needs of the masses ?

He may have been misguided but he never wanted to hurt the club, he obviously saw that as a viable option to save us, you can't hold him to account for that

I mean, one was the owner/chairman/dictator/whatever - and so in charge of not only the club, the budgets, playing staff you name it The other is just effectively the footballing director. I'd of said the way unto which Les has handled this transfer window has been pretty poor, but more importantly the way unto which he has handled Pellegrino up to now is why we are in the state we are in, and more than likely added to the problems we had as a club in the window. I believe, from what has been reported that Walcott would have likely ended up here have we been in a more buoyant situation, and I would imagine we would be in a better position to attract talent had we been halfway up the table with a manager that could inspire even an inch of confidence. I genuinely think the problem we have is there is no clear leadership, or management structure, or none that is obvious from the outset anyway. Since ML unfortunately passed away there has been power vacuums, people brought in, and changes here there and everywhere. Who is ultimately responsible for this mess ? Is it Reed ? He likely holds a large portion of the blame, but what conditions is he working under ? What money has he been given to work with, I mean, do you genuinely believe he is in charge of budgets ? You surely are not that dim batman. If the above is correct, then what power and so responsibility does Krueger hold ? Is it him that is holding onto MoPe ? Does the footballing aspect fall under his remit ? What money was provided for Reed to do his job ? Clearly not enough cold hard cash as we saw in the way we as a club handled Promes and to a lesser extent Walcott. The club made a decision to drop Puel, as decision that looked largely a business one more than a footballing decision. Pellegrino was brought in, as far as his record is concerned from the overview it looked reasonable, ticked all of our boxes as a club, I think the majority of us saw him as a progressive young manager. But for some reason he has been deemed as good enough to continue. When we look at Reed we look at a man who was brought in under Cortese as a footballing advisor, and when we take away the stick beating and rose tinted glasses and think about things logically it would have been Reed who advised in one way or another on, transfers, managers, training ground and sports science. All up until around 12-18 months ago all those aspects were doing well. So what changed exactly ? You can't argue that all the above were Cortese and Cortese alone, the man had convictions and was ruthless but a cunning footballing visionary he was not, hence why he is nowhere as far as the footballing community is concerned. So when we remove those agenda's and look at the situation as it is now, IMHO I can't see Reed making a monumental mistake to retain a manager woefully out of his depth. I just can't, as the majority of the rest of his decisions, or certainly decisions made under his tenure have been relatively sound to an extent. Footballing investment I would say isn't really his call, or almost definitely isn't anyway, so we shouldn't burden our criticism on that front. So whats changed ? Krueger, KL and Gao I would say, or more so KL's distancing of herself from the club and the eventual sale. Thats the real issue here IMHO, the issue is the current OWNERS and who ultimately holds responsibility, who I presume is Krueger ? A man that seems too jetset, too nice, and lacking in any real knowledge of the footballing world. And shall we not forget a man who seems to always dodge questions on who holds key responsibility for the actions the club makes. To recap, Reed is definitely not blameless, but criticism for me needs to be aimed at the current owners. And an explanation for who ACTUALLY is carrying the can, and making key decisions. Right now, if I was Krueger/Gao/KL I'd be laughing that Reed is getting the bulk of the vitriol and not them.

They have a game at 16.30, teams will be out soon. I'm assuming due to his Instagram its done anyway, but if he is in the squad it is completely game over

If this happens we are ****ing mental

Can't really see how that's les' fault though. He negotiated higher fee's for generally all of our players, getting 75m for VVD was daylight robbery. That said, I can't see how he can be overly criticised for this TW. Looking at the facts (and by facts i mean whats widely reported) Walcott was done, agent changed his mind at the last minute, looked for other options, walcott didn't fancy a relegation scrap Carrillo - Done, supported by the manager, likely a manager decision, lets see how it works out. 20m is last years 10m Promes - Assuming this is dead in the water, apparently fee agreed with player and club, Spartak wanted a replacement, or money all upfront, apparently club didn't have the equity. My real question is where is the money ? I really don't see that as Les' issue TBH. He is almost certainly set budgets and maximum values for players/wages etc. The money was there to splash on Ramirez/Osvaldo when we were under ML's tenure. There has obviously been a huge sea change since KL and Gao. We seem to have cut back, been more careful with our money. Thats the real worry for me. And personally I would suggest that Gao, KL and Krueger must be very comfortable with criticism aimed at Reed and not them

The whole situation is completely mental. Sacking Silva, having this new guy ready to rock and roll. Selling their best players to a rival...... and yet people think we have it bad

But this in essence doesn't actually change the situation that we are currently in ? We needed a striker that can hold the ball up, provide support from the front and weigh in with his weight in goals too. I know its lazy but there is a reason many of us say that we needed to replace Pelle, and I agree. I'm sure that there is a player in there somewhere, and I am very hopeful that Carillo can stuff all of our words down our throats. Realistically Saints have a decent scouting/analytical department, and I'm sure they have done far more research than we have. However, I need to echo what CB Fry said earlier, we needed a player to change the dynamic, to allow MoPe (who apparently we are sticking with) to get the most out of his stubbornness...hhhmmm.... chosen tactics. Long isn't the answer, he works hard but invariably this means he is never in the box when we need him Gabbiadinni isn't the answer, unfortunately it seem he doesn't work in a lone front man formation (though why he isn't played in AM like he did at Napoli and Italy I don't know) Austin isn't the answer, unfortunately he can't be relied upon, and although he is a goalscorer doesn't hold the technical ability to link up play. I'm hoping GC can hit the ground running, but as a player that hasn't played much, isn't used to the league or the system, history says this may take a while.

In his defence you are called Larry

Both Guido and Gabbi would be better options that Austin IMO Yeah he has scored some, but he has missed some absolute sitters for a guy that has probably had better service than any of our team put together this season

Why ? He has pretty much only got one major decision wrong in his tenure that I can see, and thats MoPe. Thats unless you are an over the top, bandwagoning pessimist with no idea how football business works........... oh

Nice to see you are still bat**** mental