MarkSFC

Time to show your intentions Dragon and Co. If you've bought the club as a vehicle/catalyst for future investments elsewhere you're no better than Gao. If you're serious about our club then it could be a great summer....

Liverpool City Utd Arsenal Chelsea Spurs will all automatically be above us and spend more. Wet Spam Newcastle Leicester Villa Everton (probably) will all definitely spend more. Brighton Palace Leicester will most likely spend more. Thats 14 teams who will be better than they are now. Fulham, Bournemouth and whoever else comes up will likely spend quite a bit. That leaves Leeds and Brentford. The former HAVE to spend. The latter are already better and will likely be better next season. All this highlights just how bad we are and how much we need to spend or more to the point that we need at least 4 or 5 players who are already better than we have. This is likely to cost upwards of 70/80m if one or two are Tino types. We also need a manager. Needs to be a very busy summer otherwise we are very likely to go down. Right now, if someone offers 60/70m for JWP I'd take it😂😂 Depressing last 10 games.

Wasn't that BEFORE the takeover which perhaps means (and I'm hoping here😂) that we can get rid of both FF and AM....

Congratulations on your pessimism and lack of understanding between an opinion of what needs to happen and should happen versus the likely reality which I never guessed at specifically.

Presumably Crocker knows him well too.

Statistically he is "ok". He has averaged 1.3 points per game which is about 49 a season. But the complete extreme of performances is my major concern. He seems to experiment too much with lineups and systems too often it feels making it a priority over the win. 3.5 seasons is enough for me. New manager, new players....go.

The policy of the club is fine. Buy young, develop and sell for good profit 2 or 3 years later. But right now we have a squad full of developing players or not good enough/past it players except for JWP, KwP, and Tino. Perraud, Che, Tella and Salisu will hopefully be much better over the next season. Everyone else in my eyes can be replaced, or should be replaced. Certainly, Long, McCarthy, Stephens, Moi, Walcott, Redmond and Forster should go. Others, like both Armstrongs and Romeu can stay for another season. Diallo, who cares. Bednarek I'm 50:50 on! We need to sign 2 x GKs 2/3 x CBs 1 x DCM 2 x No10/winger types 2 x Strikers Unlikey I guess but IF we do have a new manager soon hopefully the new owners will back him quickly rather than over a few windows as we have had over the last 4 or 5 years.

I doubt we'd try and he might not even jump ship, let alone be allowed too, but I'd not be disappointed with Potter (and not because of today's result!!).

He does need to go now. I suspect that the owners/board have someone lined up and likely someone most of us have never heard of. Probably from a lesser league but one who is proving his worth and has skills within development. But I feel we need someone who is a big more match savvy than just a developer. Anyway, change now and give then a few weeks longer to get ready for next season.

This is clearly our best route but what I'm hoping this new ownership/investment will facilitate is the levelling up of the "young players" we buy in the sense that they go from is to a top team straight away rather than perhaps the level between us and the real top teams. Higher quality to start with...but probably slightly less time with us!

The new owners need to make a big call in the summer and replace Ralph. His comments abouts retiring was ill-judged and I don't think that has had a major impact but it wasn't smart. More significantly is the utter inconsistency of our performances. I'd be surprised if there's another team with as big a variance in level, possibly in tbe whole pyramid system!! When we are good we are really good and arguably play top 6 type level. But when we are bad we are less than Premier League standard. He has been here long enough to be better than this. It feels to me that he "experiments" in different games when he considers the result less necessary. And by experimenting I mean formation changes and personnel changes which don't always makes sense given what has gone the games before. He is clearly a good coach but I don't think he's as good a manager. We need someone who is more focused on results than development than Ralph but not someone who is only focused on results (a Mourinho type). Thank you Ralph for all the positive you've brought to the club but time to give someone else a go, with the new ownership hopefully going to invest more than the last one🤣

Precisely. The problem is that people's expectations and standards move too easily and generally from one extreme to the other. When we win or go on a run we must perform like this forever. When we lose or go on a bad run we are the worst in the world and everything is bad. IF at the start of the season we had been told that after 29 games we'd be top 10, no where near relegation danger and in the FA Cup QF, the vast majority would be very content with that. Of course we always want more but the over reactions to one or two matches rather than taking the overall perspective on the season is frustrating ro read!!! This is a reasonable season so far, one that has seen development of individuals and of the team as a whole. Progress. We also have some (potentially) brilliant progress and change off the pitch. It "could" still be an awesome season if we somehow win the cup (unlikely but possible). Judge the season and Ralph as a whole.

Completed.

Anywhere he damn well pleased🤣

Just listened to the interview. Semmens is hugely impressive, open and honest. The model he has implemented and refined is perfect for us. It a very interesting situation that Ralph has said he wants to retire when his contract is up, and it sounds like Semmens/the club were not expecting him to publicly state it (even though they have talked internally)!! It is a lovely time being a Saints fan right now, with the new ownership, the state of the business, the results and the way we are playing. Fingers crossed t last for quite a while!!

Superb performance.

Might potentially be the best 40m we have ever spent if we do. Does anyone know how much Broja, Anurin and Tino have played together previously?

"Soon"??!! They've only got 5 days left this window!! Isn't this guy normally spot on with things?

Depends who they are. Stephens, McCarthy, Forster, Long, Djeneppo, Walcott, do not need to be here for too much longer🤣

Zero goals🙄

Tino was always going to fall out of form, that's almost inevitable for players of his age. He will return no doubt and as you say needs to be better defensively overall. But he is an exciting talent but I do think that his long term position is further forward. Really like KWP, the type of character and abilty we need.

Done. Chose Wham as worst🤣

Maybe buzzing cos he's coming to Saints😂😂

Thats why I think it will be c.100m for Phillips, because Leeds don't want to sell, and because he doesn't actually want to leave (apparently, I live in and around Leeds fans and by all accounts he would like to stay his whole career). Only a massive offer will get him. Liverpool will be his likeliest destination as they will look beyond Firmino and Henderson and make another long term signing.

I think your opinion of Phillips is wrong. Let's see what happens in the summer!!