Lallana's Left Peg

Thought we gave it a good go in all areas of the pitch but the difference between a £1b team and a £100m team showed in terms of the mistakes made and chances taken. Nothing to feel disheartened about - we're unbeaten against them in the league this season and those dropped points may yet be the difference between them winning the league and losing it so we've given a good account of ourselves against what might be the best team in Europe.

He is because of the debt the club has. I remember football clubs being sold for 1p in the 90's because of their debt!

$1.2b isn't too shabby. And if he can invest 1p in Saints that is 1p more than Gao is allowed to.

It's the thought they invested 30mins into a long throw competition in training and he won that gets me. Exactly how bad was everyone else to make anyone think Salisu had a long throw on him.

Performance was not very good but sometimes you just need a positive result to stop the bleeding and build. This could be that game. I'd have taken a point at the start of the game and didn't think we'd get one after going behind. If some confidence can come back into the team we can grab some points and keep our head above water. Got a feeling it might be a funny season with some teams playing 4 -5 more games than others at times in the season which will make for an interesting last third of the season. There are probably three worse teams than us but it is tight - and the takeover has to happen by the end of the season at the very latest otherwise next season is going to be very very grim.

Probably done it to give himself a challenge for the next 80mins otherwise its so easy for him he'll get bored.

I hope people don't get too despondent if we comfortably lose tonight. Palace finished above us last season and this summer spent nearly £70m net getting better whilst not losing anyone of value to them. We lost our best player and 'made' £15m from sales retaining our net spend trophy. They're operating in a different world to us no matter how you feel about the size of their club. They are competing in this league financially and we cannot.

No I don't think the Manager shouldn't come under scrutiny. He should be accountable for getting the most out of the team, and arguably he isn't and most concerning is our regression defensively this season and some longer term trends which reflect the downward trajectory of the club which he cannot seem to address. But I am not too sure there is another manager who can do better. I appreciate its entirely subjective and based on pure speculation, so there is no point debating it too much, but when I look at the things he is struggling with I don't think they are things entirely down to his ability I think they are more reflective of the quality of player he has to work with. Perhaps he could be more adaptive to the limitations of his squad, but that would result in some very boring football (i.e. to shore it up at the back we create even less up front, and with poor finishers at the club we're basically playing for 1-0 wins and that isn't sustainable either). I've personally seen enough in his system and belief of how for us to play to think he can have some success, but with one of the worst teams in the league he's going to get some of the worst results - that's to be expected. Anyone who thinks this squad is any better than bottom 5 is a dreamer. It's frustrating how we collapse in second halves but also it is surprising to me to see us play so well in the first half. That doesn't excuse not being able to sort the second half of the games but the positive of the first halves shouldn't be ignored. Anyway - Ralph can improve but we're talking about fine margins and the bigger issue is at an investment level and no manager can fight money - at least no manager in history has been able to over a period of time. It kills you, and a lack of it is killing us.

I get the feeling if he wasn't shopping at Poundland then he'd be a highly effective Manager. Whilst there is an argument to say he should be adapting to the talent level of his players, if he went defensive people wouldn't accept it either. They certainly didn't with Puel. Yet had we gone to the Emirates yesterday, shoved 11 men behind the ball and narrowly lost how is that any better? Before we conceded we were the better team and crafted chances - what let us down was poor finishing - a sign of having low quality players, which is a consequence of spending peanuts on them. When we conceded from their first proper attack what let us down was poor defending - a sign of having low quality players, which is a consequence of spending peanuts on them. You can make an argument Ralph should be doing better, but it's not a case of dealing in absolutes with him. Yes there are strange team selections, poor subs and so on. But this is all stuff relating to polishing a turd. We are broke, can't afford to buy good players, and are being outspent by alot of teams around us. It doesn't matter how cute you try to be around all the other stuff, if you do not spend money you get relegated eventually. The season where we started buying kids from other Academies and making them starters and having a forward line consisting of two Championship players and a loanee may well be that season. It was obvious in the summer, I don't see why people are turning on Ralph like he is the problem and getting a new manager fixes things. It doesn't. EDIT - Convict posted at the same time!

Conditions weren't great but that was an awful performance by the U18's in what is quite a big game. Was like it was the first time many of them played in the wet - occasion and conditions got to them.

You can in a one off season if one of the Big 6 have an off year. And if another one has an off year the following season maybe you can do it again. I don't think its ever happened a third season and that is because of money. The Big 6 have the financial muscle to rebound from mistakes, and eventually get it right. You progress as a club in one of their off years and they buy your best players. You don't get your recruitment right (and again history here suggests no club ever does over a long period of time) then you're back where you started. It's not a nice thing to have to acknowledge as it takes all the romance out of the sport but I think that is the reality of the situation we're in even with a benefactor. We'll have to see how Newcastle go and how quickly they can accelerate their ascendancy and how much money that takes.

It was interesting to see The Athletic report on it considering we've been told that the most viable takeovers or investments we'll have will be done with no media awareness. I don't dispute The Athletic doing the appropriate checks with multiple sources etc. but to hear that they were told doesn't make it feel close to me. But it needs to be, as club is on its last roll of the dice in terms of finances and transfer strategy. It simply can't keep up with the investment the rest of the league makes at this rate and its us and Burnley who are going to eventually suffer. Sadly I also just don't see the appeal in taking over Saints either unless someone is willing to lose alot of money. We don't make sense from a business sense unless you think you can increase the value of the asset but to really do that you need growth in the league and I think we may be at the tip of that right now. The elite clubs are well out of reach so what would we be fighting for with lots of investment? Probably the same as Everton, and they are going nowhere either and how much has their owner pumped in? At least when we were broke back in the 90's it felt like we had a fighting chance because those around us were also broke so it didn't matter as it was all relative. These days we're spending £10-15m on marquee signings and that's half of what clubs we consider competitors spend on players and eventually that will just kill you.

Also if we had better finishers. I'll take a point against Leicester. More investment, better players, better squad etc. Inconsistency in the final third is what will send us down eventually. The teams who get relegated don't score many goals.

There are no absolutes in all this. Ralph has his strengths and his weaknesses but he's about as good as we can attract at the moment. Combine Ralph's qualities along with the lack of investment in the team and the overall output is to be expected. We're slowing dying, anyone can see it. It's not attributable to a single player or the manager, its the big picture problem of being broke and playing in the richest league in the world. We'll get relegated soon, the question is how soon. That is the reality of the situation unless club ownership changes. Everyone around us gets richer or invests more and our current strategy is to pick up kids from other Academies as first team players. It's a very bad situation to be in and messing around with managers or changing goalkeepers won't change a thing about the course of direction that the club is on.

The defence carried the team the first 10 games of the season and now they have reverted back to playing as we would expect our wastefulness in the final third is really showing up as a genuine reason we should all be concerned about the long term future. As well as we've done in the transfer market recently, the one place you can't skimp is with strikers and £10m gets you finishing like we've now come to experience on a weekly basis.

Heavily rumoured on Sky from what I read.

Ah, so its Eddie Howe taking up the Mark Hughes at Man City role at Newcastle. Probably worth it for the payoff in 2 years.

It probably helps that Gray and Townsend, both wingers, play on the wing for Everton and Benetiz plays to their strengths. At Southampton they would be played as 'Number 10's', be asked to run about alot pressing and only get the ball in central areas where they would struggle like any other winger. Both would fail in our system as all our other Number 10's are bar Armstrong I would say, and that's because he can operate in central areas comfortably with the ball and he has an engine on him.

The accounts are there for all to see. A wage bill not justified by on pitch performance and below average income. COVID definitely impacted things obviously but we were trending the wrong way before that financially. If the club could be run sustainably AND our Premier League status be comfortably assured then our owner would not be looking to sell and our CEO would not be seeking investment. This club cannot be run sustainably and maintain a presence in this league any more.

I don't know if it was unseemly or not, but we said no to one investor and Semmens is on the record as saying he could find an investor very quickly if he wanted but they may be unseemly: https://www.hampshirelive.news/sport/football/football-news/martin-semmens-southampton-newcastle-takeover-6024374

Some interesting views around morality and fan experience of supporting your team. Both mean something to fans but not to the club I would say. Relegation is catastrophic for Saints and the club would not want it. Martin Semmens having previously spoke about investment from parties that the fans would not warm up has also on the other hand signed off commercial deals with betting companies and crypto-currency companies under the grounds of income for the club to remain competitive. It would suggest to me that he is acutely aware of the situation we're in and knows that the current cadence of what is happening in the league and our own financial situation means its just a matter of time before we're relegated. The pin has been taken out of the grenade and he's holding it in his hand - at what point does he accept that morality is second to the club staying in the league and us getting the investment we need to try and properly compete in the short, medium and long-term? He's got to get the timing right on this one - its the hardest part of his job right now in my opinion.

One of our genuine relegation rivals with a state backed takeover this evening. One more nail in the coffin for our ability to stay in this league based on our current business model. And its not that our model is fundamentally wrong, it's that it doesn't work in the rich playground like the Premier League.

This too is what tempers any enthusiasm about a run of 'winnable' games. Our strikers aren't particularly efficient and our team is not very creative, so I don't really feel like the way we play against the better teams gives us much encouragement for facing weaker opposition that play much more defensively.

It's about the bigger picture. 4 league wins since January 4th. Those league wins against teams placed at the time 20th, 18th, 17th and 14th. Also in that span 26 goals scored, 56 conceded. Club is heading one way and anyone pretending otherwise is deluded. It's happening this season or next unless a takeover happens and we get investment. I accepted earlier this month after Semmens initially gave us all hope in May investment might be coming. No-one is blameless - players can do better, Ralph can do better etc. but in the big picture the club cannot succeed in the Premier League in the current circumstances.

And get who? Club has been decaying for 5 years and desperately needs investment. Semmens was bullish about it in May and nothing has happened. I don't care who you have in charge the Premier League is a rich mans playground and we're the equivalent of the homeless man who sells off his most valuable item of clothing each year just to make sure he can live. It's not the 1-0 home defeats against Wolves that are the problem, its the fact we go backwards every summer which mean we get closer and closer to relegation.