Dr. Kucho

I am going for Louis van Gaal. In previous threads I said Peter Bosz and still believe hcdajfu, however in this time I think Louis van Gaal would be a better option considering his experience. Reasons for Van Gaal: - Experience at big clubs throughout Europe,s top leagues - Known for playing youngsters - Big name and can attract good players - The likes of Tadic and Bertrand wont try and be Billy big b*llocks in the dressing room - Wants to manage in the PL again, and Southampton to Amsterdam is an easy commute (to see his kids etc). - He can lay foundations for a new 'Southampton Way' (he contributed to the current set up of Barcelona) Reasons not to employ Van Gaal - Van Gaal doesnt like being told what to do by others (Les Reed) - Might cost a bit in salary

Louis van Gaal + backroom staff. New academy coaches Top class striker Top class creative midfielder Young talented lower league player No point in buying half a dozen decent players, we need top class players..

Virgil van Dijk: I am glad to leave this club. It was just a stepping stone and I enjoyed being payed whilst refusing to play. F*ck the club and the fans, I am off to make some more money. Hojbjerg: I really want to succeed and always give 100% whilst playing. Sadly this clueless manager puts me on the bench every time I have a good game.

Can we conclude now that Eric Black wasn’t the problem?

Voted for him to be sacked. Best solution in my mind would be to play it safe and employ Pulis till the end of the season. He owes us for the fact we had his son here for 3 years whilst he isn’t even a footballer. Then make sure we have someone lined up in April (Peter Bosz would be my preferred choice), so he has a full pre season to work with the squad.

You are loving this thread aren’t you? It’s these times you live for and you must feel as happy as a child on Christmas Day morning. Merry Christmas

Could you say more about your source Manji? Member of staff, highly placed, well informed ITK etc. Calling all ITK’s to the thread for a Saintsweb board meeting and fresh updates..

More a bad buy as he seems to be a bit of a plank (if the rumours around his demeanor are correct).

I think Pellegrino works well when he is at a smaller club like Alaves. He probably prefers to play a more defensive game with quick breaks on the counter, like against City and Arsenal. When we play teams like Leicester and Burnley, and have to bring the game to them, thats when it goes wrong. Pellegrino is a decent manager, but not the one that will take us as a club to the next level. I think we need a more experienced manager who has a record of developing players and likes playing a certain style.

Peter Bosz has just been relieved from his duties at Borussia Dortmund. Now that’s a manager that I think could do very well here. (Sorry to bang on about him being a good replacement, sound like Dalek and his obsession with Hoddle). Let’s hope we can get a result today, however odd the line up looks.

According to the statistics on the BBC, Everton have conceded 2 goals or more in their last 8 games.

Out. However who is going to replace him, and why would a manager want to join us. The next manager would be our third this year, not what a manager likes to read. Everton seem to struggle finding a new manager, why would we find one easy. Lots of questions to be answered..

Got Ajax to the EL final last year, beating the likes of Lyon. He’s a stubborn guy and won’t like being told what to do. But he gets results and demands the best of the players.

We should keep a eye out on Peter Bosz at Dortmund. If they decide to remove him, get him ASAP. Plays attacking and attractive, and will demand the best of the players. I was in the Puel out camp but regret that now. Claude wasn’t the most inspiring coach, but did get results.

I doubt that Pellegrino knows his best 11, or what tactics suit the players best. We can go on about the quality of players, however this is what we have and the manager has to mould them in to a team. Managers like Peter Bosz (now at Dortmund, last year Ajax) always has his teams play attacking football, Poch likes high pressing and Mourinho defensive play. We need a coach that likes to entertain and dares to take a risk now and then. A good set of coaches in the academy would help too.

Angry goal celebration from Boufal, but what an amazing goal!

This! The promotion seasons and first seasons in premier league were the best I've seen (been a fan since 2002).

Don't know where to start describing how great SRL was for us. I started supporting Saints back in 2003, so missed the Le Tiss years. From the last 14 years it's easy to pick my favorite Saints player. Special moments were his goals v Pompey and his first PL goal. Remember the commentator saying something in the line of: it didn't take long did it, a PL goal for Rickie Lambert. Amazing player and hope to see him back here in a coaching role.

Dutch football website Voetbalzone.nl are currently running a 7 part interview with Jos hooiveld about his career. Last week in part 5 Saints get mentioned for the first time, and this week he goes on about his time here. Hooiveld first states that when we got relegated to League 1 and he was playing in Sweden, we contacted him for the first time. As we had just been relegated and had to start with -10 points, he kindly declined the offer. When playing at Celtic, Hooiveld was told to play with the youth and asked for a transfer. Palace and Saints were both interested and he decided to join us in the Championship. When we loaned Hooiveld from Celtic we didnt negotiate an option to buy in the loan contract, a mistake that cost us around a million pounds. When Jos left Celtic, they wanted rid of him and would have let us have him for free. However once Hooiveld started playing well other clubs (Blackburn and Bolton are both mentioned in the interview) got interested, and we had pay the transfer free. Hooiveld states that at Saints he was earning double what he earnt at Celtic, and once we were promoted to the PL his salary went up massively. Jos goes on saying he scored 8 goals in his first season, 2 against West Ham and when he scored against Coventry, the commentator said: This goal seals promotion to the PL for Southampton. Hooiveld says he enjoyed playing in the Championship cos you could go head first into battles and says the Championship was his level. In the PL he struggled beating other players and found the games hard to play in. Hooiveld goes on saying he played quite a few games in his first season in the Premier League, but once Lovren came over from OL, he lost out and honestly says Lovren was the better player and formed a good partnership with Fonte. He does say he outplayed Fonte in the season before Lovren was signed. Once Lovren and Poch left and Koeman turned up, Jos was told by Koeman he wanted to keep him, but that another defender was going to be signed (Alderweireld). Koeman was well liked by the players as you could ask and say anything to him. The pre season under Koeman was a lot less tense then under Poch. The players kept wondering, when are we going to have to put the hard work in? When Alderweireld was signed, Hooiveld decided to ask for a loan and left for Norwich. A decision he still regrets today as Alderweireld was often injured meaning he would have played a fair few games. The interview goes on after that about his career after he left Saints. This was all that was said about his time here.

100% this. The best atmosphere at St Mary,s was our promotion season from the Championship. Must say it also helped with the fact we were going up and everyone was excited after years of misery at the club. Other suggestions like said in other posts would be to introduce safe standing, adults only stands, lower ticket prices and allow banners and flags at the matches. I think in years to come the PL would only be for the middle classes, upper classes and tourists, whilst more hardcore supporters would flock to the lower leagues. When people over here (the Netherlands) ask about English football I reckonmend them to go to the lower leagues instead of the PL.

City have now scored 15 goals in 1 week, don't they have Palace up next?

The Sun linking PSG midfielder Gregorz Krychowiak with West Brom. Thats a player I would like to see us sign.

What's happened to Clyne? Is he injured as I never see him selected.

Maybe we could try this to help the players find the goal. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1lastolwvno u

Have to agree with this. I get to see quite a bit of the Eredivisie and while Ziyech arguably is the best player in the league, physically he makes Boufal look like Arnold Schwarzenegger in his prime time. Ziyech would be bullied by the big players in the league. The player we should have gone for is Davey Klaassen. Great in bringing the ball from midfield into the box, and can score goals. Shame the dugout pioneers bought him.