Saint86

Yes, he's west ham's best player and key to them. We're having a bad season but they're 1 point ahead of us. People say JWPs form is poor compared to previous seasons but then don't judge england's other central mids. Philips has barely played and is now out injured. Rice is having a poor season by his form. Henderson has managed 640minutes all season. The only central midfielder on form is Bellingham. He should be default first pick - but its southgate so he'll probably pick Henderson/philips and rice to start.

Philips and Henderson have? JWP has been playing consistent all season, and his defensive work, interceptions, and general possession play have been solid. Saints have been poor from a possession and attacking/goal scoring/set piece perspective due to our more defensive setup - and that is behind his perceived worse form (i.e. minimal final 3rd contributions).... but that really is due to tactical setup and lack of quality in front of him. Fan's may not appreciate that, but you'd hope a manager can appreciate it enough to select him over Henderson and Philips - neither of which have seen much / any game time. He remains a player who could happily play every minute of that tournament if required, offers a quality set piece threat, and would do a respectable all round role in midfield. He is also a far better player than Philips anyway. Also tbf, rice has been very poor all season as well. Regardless, its bad news for saints, he's a key player for us and he will now have very little to play for and is unlikely to be in a good headspace for the rest of the season. Maybe he can get his head in the right space, but it equally sets a bad precedent - stay at saints and miss out on international football no matter how well you play (be it the euros or the world cups).

Very interesting post, tallies up well with other analyses of his tactical set up and management style. I think he'll prove a good appointment - but not without good attacking additions.

Lavia is the replacement for Romeu, and is a far better player than Romeu was last season!? Although, we have no other adequate CDM cover, and Nathan jones plays either 2 CDM's (ala Southgate's 3-4-2) or one minimum. So we could use another CDM - but not before addressing the attack. Players/positions that are adequate and won't be strengthened in Jan (IMO): GK - Bazunu, Macca LWB - Perraud, and KWP/Larios RWB - KWP, Tino, Larious CB - Salisu, ABK, CC, Lyanco CM - Lavia, JWP Re the attackers - it clearly needs significant strengtehing. I would personally be signing a good striker who will finish, and a quality CAM who will generate chances and keep the ball. From what we have, Che is a good target man and Stu is our best CAM. Moi is a decent enough squad player. Haven't seen enough of Mara to judge. Djenpo and AA have been largely anonymous. Edozi shows promise, but we can't be pinning our hopes on him lets be honest 🤣

Welcome aboard the SS Southampton Nathan Jones. I actually quite like him and think he'll do well. Regardless, SR have certainly been decisive on this one. He's one of the best up and coming managers in England, but equally its going to be a tough step up (with a young team, low confidence, and poor attackers) for his first taste of managing in the top tier. It is one hell of a gamble, but lets hope that those in charge know what they're doing - and that they buy the man some quality reinforcements in January.

Who says he wasn't listening to him tbf? It also implies that maybe Selles was an appointment Ralph wanted after all? Although the Athletic and various negative sources would have us believe otherwise.

I really hope whoever we get in is a better manager than Puel. We'd have no chance of staying up if all we could do is pass the ball along the back line for the rest of the season 🤮

Think you're getting a tad confused here Pilchards. I didn't abuse you or anyone else for being ITK or claiming to be ITK, and to my knowledge i have neither doubted nor backed anyone claiming Jones would be our new manager - he isn't yet? 🤷‍♂️. I actually really appreciate the itk snippets we get on this forum. Although, hopefully you weren't someone hoping we lose each week - that is something i did take objection to... "Scare those ITK" - Aside from you going after the wrong guy here, for your own good, either grow a thicker skin or be prepared to not post stuff to an internet football forum - if you're going to post rumours/opinions then you've got to expect someone to question/doubt you on them. If that causes you ire then its probably not worth doing. Side note - Eddie Howe has never been saints manager, and is unlikely to be now 🙈

If it happens (big if), then it won't be the ones showing patience in Ralph that do it. It will be the ones jumping up and down throwing abuse, jeering, and generally hoping we lose each week so Ralph would get fired...

xG's are the chances, and the poor quality strikers are to blame for them being missed

I don't think anyone can argue that Jones is one of the better up and coming managers in the English game - has similarities to Howe in terms of his experience pre prem. The question is, how good is Jones right now? Howe obviously took Bournemouth all the way to the premier league, but still ultimately fell short with their eventual relegation - and that was despite very wealthy backers and it being his squad and players. Jones will come in - and he's inheriting a very average (at best) set of attacking mids and strikers (for the prem), and a very young squad - all low on confidence. Against that, we are a relatively experienced premier league side (compared to Howe's Bournemouth - or Say Dyche's early burnley sides) and do have a smattering of very good players in ABK, Lavia, JWP, Salisu, KWP etc. I voted unsure for Jones - on the basis that there is no way to know how he'll do at this level for the first time. And ultimately, it won't matter how good Jones is without serious additions in January. That was the same for Ralph as well imo. Truthfully Ralph was failed by two boards that never came close to replacing ings - and he still had us 13th for xG this season - against that we're 18th for goals scored - which says it all. We're also joint 15th for goals conceded this season - not great by any means - but we've played all the top sides, had bad injuries, and suffered from a very weak attack / carry limited threat. Ralph had had to repeatedly compromise and juggle a limited squad, and its probably true that the players got tired of it. In a lot of ways, Ralph was probably here at a bad time, as with backing and his origninal attacking press, we'd have been decent. As it was, he's battled to keep us up and competitive whilst being failed by two boards and the whole thing has become jaded, and if the players were no longer listening, then regrettably his time had run out. Either way that's all done now, and if you view Jones as an up and coming manager - he can only be seen as a gamble at this point in time - Can he come in and pick up this young squad and adapt to the level? Will he be any better than Hassenhuttle? Not sure at all. But the saving grace is that players will be back from injuries, he'll have time to work with them, and we surely are going to buy a quality attacker. Phrased another way - Jones needs to be very good to come in and succeed here. Its a bit of a shitstorm lets be honest. Bottom line - the fault now can only lie with the board and the players - everyone else is gone.

The players like Selles by all accounts. Would expect us to win this game and play with some freedom knowing its a low pressure fresh start. Would not be surprised if Mara gets some time.

Amazing the amount Redmond's had to say to the athletic about saints recently...🧐

The way i see it, we only have £30M for two attackers - they want £50M...?

Concerning appointment. Massive leap for NJ - stepping up to the prem for the first time, and with a disillusioned low confidence young squad. Feels like massive error by the club. The only way this works is with serious monetary backing in January - to the tune of a 17+ goal a prem season striker (or similar), a quality addition at CAM, and cover at CDM. Particularly given NJ plays two CDM's quite often.

Our atmosphere (and fan bond with the team) largely died when Les Reed dismantled the promotion team in Summer 2014. It has never really recovered. The Puel, Mope, and Hughes really did kill it.

Was this it? https://fanbanter.co.uk/video-newcastle-fans-in-home-end-get-attacked-by-southampton-supporters/

Going down with this attack. Simple as that

Che Adams made Ralph's case for him at Palace. We create the chances but can't take them. We'd have a lot more points if we could convert our chances.

Our head scout for the south of England may also be on his way shortly. https://trainingground.guru/articles/forest-green-turn-to-southamptons-stanton-for-director-of-football

Yes agreed. Should be obvious i feel. As for Daft saying we kept the academy staff etc when we dropped down the leagues. We definetly lost key staff, and i would say its just a total fallacy to imply that top coaches / players wanted to work for / stay at Saints after we got relegated from the prem as a general rule... Let alone during the Championship relegation scraps and eventual administration... or even as a League 1 club that almost went out of business in 2009. One very prominent example. Huw Jennings (our academy director) left us in 2006 after the prem relegation - became Fulham's academy director in 2008, 10 years later they had a top quality academy turning out players like Sessegnon (who incidentally joined fulham in 2008 as an 8year old) amongst others, and obviously then went on join tottenham in 2019 (11years later)... Also worth noting that as good as he is, he also wasn't a regular first team prem level player at age 18. So again - our fans need to have patience and let the academy changes, upgrades, funding etc. work there way through the age groups.

Its ultimately irrelevant what they think... we've got access to the prem money and they never will - ergo they will be our feeder club one day.... if they ever produce anything of note. Its not nice for them as fans or a club though, but hopefully they get some success out of the Southampton Republic years.

Reasoning as follows - we got taken over (having had the academy staff and players poached by other clubs). From there, as a 3rd tier club (on - 10 points), i would expect it is very hard to attract top talent and top coaches to rapidly have an academy capable of producing Premier league starting level players? - which is the point I think you are maybe debating? At that time (and the following seasons) we were attracting (and able to sign) such Premier league level mega stars as Barnard, waigo, hooiveld, and Danny fox etc. (to name but a few). Also, Marcus took over the club for the 2009/10 season, not in 2008 . The training ground's "Marcus Leibherr Pavilion" upgrades weren't completed until autumn 2014. So that's 5 years to get the ball really rolling... And that took until we were once again a Premier league club. Worth noting as well that none of our best players from our peak period of academy players (theo, bale, oxlade) made it as regular first teamers in the prem until they were older. So fans that moan about our current academy should (I think), be happy with any first team quality players that emerge over the next couple of seasons. In a couple of years time, players like dibling / ballard etc. may become some of the first real success stories - and they are probably some of the first proper cohort (at circa age 16), that have benefited from the training ground and academy upgrades from 8years ago. Anyway, you're welcome to disagree ofc, but I'm not holding my breath for any currrent 3rd or 2nd tier clubs to regularly churn out ready made prem first teamers at age 18. Academies are long term projects, and changes take years to work fully through the age groups. Fans need to be patient on that front. 🤷‍♂️. As for SR, they have a long term plan and modest resources. If fans want instant success then they won't be a happy i fear, especially given what have been quite disappointing years under Gao. But if we do get some good years with lavia/abk and co, and then have more academy prospects coming through in a few seasons, then it represent a good form of progression for the club - and hopefully stand us in good stead 🤗. Just need to stay up this year.

Yeah, currently our defence is pretty solid. If you consider that KWP, ABK, and livramento have all been out, and yet we've still managed to field a reasonably competent back line - its fairly impressive really. As has been said to death. The error in recruitment was not getting in some quality attackers, and no getting back up for Lavia as the midfield anchor. Romeu and Redmond have been big misses for us the last few games - which says a lot about quality and depth in their positions. Getting Tella back from his loan would also add an extra threat for us.

I am curious as to what you expect a League 1 / administration / championship level youth intake and academy infrastructure to have achieved? It takes circa 10years to get u18s (that often join the club as 8year olds etc) ready for first team football at 18 - otherwise why get boys on the books that young Reality is that we only really started recovering our academy in 2012 onwards, and within that there has to be a gradual progress towards higher levels of performance - we can't just immediately get back to the prem and instantly have the best youth setup. Especially with the funding issues we had post cortese. i really don't think its rocket science to grasp that, and its fecking bizarre how our fans continue to piss and moan about it despite the obvious progress the academy sides have started to make lately - i.e. we had the best u18s in the country last year outside of city's mega bucks players... that's pretty damn good all things considered. As with the SR recruitment strategy, investment and improvements in the academy are a multiyear project 🤷‍♂️! Also, we've now signed loads of city's all stars.... so happy days