Saint86

How do you justify the signings that club's like Fulham and Wolves have made? If saints are relegation fodder, it is precisely because we are not prepared to gamble on players.

Forgive my heavily sarcasm laced post - consider this fair warning not to read on . But I am so fed up with this board and management structure. We are going absolutely no where compared to before KL wanted out. No ambition, no drive, and a total sell out of the club's values. Thats probably our lot as saints fans. But lets not act like our current board are any good ffs. Things that went well under current board/Reed. He hired Koeman. List of things that went badly wrong: Pochettino 2014 - lied to the fans, season ticket window shut, sold lambert, sold lallana, sold chambers, sold clyne, sold lovren, sold shaw (mostly to the same club) - utter decimation of fan trust in the club's board (a stain that lingers) and decimated the remaining players' confidence and trust in the club. Also blamed all of the above on his predecessor whilst taking credit for anything he could get his hands on (someone floating to the top)... From there the rot set in - as did Glasgow's famous momentum curve. We got Koeman - a great appointment, but literally the only thing this board / reed have got significantly right. Epic **** up with Toby - Literally ****ing epic. And a serious nail in the Koeman coffin. further fallings out with loyal club servants like Morgan and Fonte. Sales of other key players like Wanyama, and key backroom staff... No other club has experienced this in the premier league from the position saints were in. Its almost like they wanted to completely erase all vestiges of the previous regime... Its okay though, because Reed was instrumental in our rise. He signed Lambert, Fonte, Hammond, Harding, Puncheon etc etc... Even persuaded Kelvin to stay at the club before Reed even took up his own position. And after he had actually signed, Reed was able to get a great deal selling Oxlade to Arsenal, and was instrumental in securing players like Jayrod and Clyne. Sadly though he wasn't able to prevent the evil Don from signing players like Gaston and Jack Sparrow... (I've got this right haven't I? - everything good was Reed, every bad was Cortese?) I.e. he wrestled power from Cortese to hire Adkins, but was in no way involved in the decision to sack him and hire Poch? As was obviously going to happen, Koeman finally had enough of reed (or vice versa - assume ego involved somewhere), and when it was obvious he couldn't get Koeman to extend on his terms he took Everton's money and ran. Quickly flogged of Pelle and Mane (cheap) whilst he was at it - that was okay though because we signed redmond and boufal Lets also not forget "The Southampton way" - an approach introduced and pioneered by Cortese/Poch with the credit taken by Reed (multiple press conferences) and this board - whilst we quietly abandoned it on the side - all the while signing highly paid foreign players on the books. Almost forgot Fraser 6years Forster Puel. Pellogrino. Failure to sack Pellegrino until literally the last bloody second - but thank god someone did sack him. Carrilo (wrong place, wrong time for this guy) Just off champions league to 46points in 1 year. Relegation scrap inside 2 years. (I think only Leeds have done better than that in modern times...?) I could go on and on.... But i think thats a fair initial summary of what our current board have delivered for the club. We did get new floodlights I suppose? I also never know who we credit the training ground too? Is it Cortese? Or was he the most financially incompetent investment banker ever with no idea how to manage the club finances... so confused by all the spin now ... But then without him we would never have had the training facilities we have now (for numerous reasons)

If Les Reed's lips are moving and he's making a noise then you know its total BS.

A total momentum reverse under Reed. Simple as that. Gone from getting things mostly correct to getting things mostly horrendously wrong. And as with any object that has recently fallen from a large height, we've been accelerating in recent seasons. Question is, have we gone terminal under Reed? And where is the bottom?

You jelly?

Gabbi has class and that should be obvious to anyone. He is probably the deadliest striker we have in and around the box. We simply do not play to his strengths. Our best two strikers are ings and gabby. We should be playing 4-3-3 with Ely, Armstrong, and Redmond behind either of them, and JWP sat as one of the two midfielders with the option to roam forward and deliver crosses. We do not attack teams and get them on the back foot. We always pass in front of them rather than open them up, get behind, or play diagonal through balls. Is it any wonder a player like Gabbi (who thrives on his movement and finishing) is struggling?

We're making a total meal out of a 2nd string Brighton team here aren't we?

Lost unless Brighton decide to rotate players.

We don't win it either sadly

Leicester defended our corners pretty comfortably and we failed to generate a single chance that went between the white posts... I can tell you now that is not effective.

If it was a choice between this season and last season. Then clearly last season was the better one to get relegated in - sat on a mountain of VVD monies. There is zero merit in getting relegated unless Les Reed, this board, and the current ownership are all removed from the club though. Fan's thinking it would be good for us otherwise are dreaming.

Yoshi for Hoedt next match. Gabbi and Ings both starting please. And ffs, if we are going to play for corners, player JWP. We didn't get one chance from a corner today.

Pointless going down without a complete ownership and management clearout. The stain of 2014 lingers over the club and the fans even now. That is the real legacy of Les Reed.

I think the damage was done when the board lied to the fans and dismantled the first team in 2014. We have not really recovered a bond with the team since then and it shows.

Has to be said we were poor today. Loads of possession first half, but no sharpness or real emphasis. Double figures on corners and not a single chance as a result, whilst still as sloppy as ever at the back! Needs to improve as this is not a good Leicester side! Lemina and Redmond the two best players for saints, and Vest and Bertrand were okay. The rest were dire. Hoj can F-Off. 3 points dropped!

You are making my point for me. At saints, he kept Clyne out of the team in his first season for a significant stretch. Moved to Arsenal, barely played, lost confidence, didn't develop, now struggles to get game time (also, standard arsenal injury ) I again state. Youth players don't develop when you don't play them. Care to make another argument in support of this?

This is going to be another one of your, "having a mare" threads

Of our current selection of centrebacks, any pairing that includes Yoshida is better than any pairing without him. He is therefore the first choice CB for me, regardless of his individual ability. I personally would rate the rest as follows: 1. Yoshi 2. Vest 3. Bedna (really good and totally under appreciated) 4. Hoedt 5. Stephens (versatile enough to be tried elsewhere and still young)

His win rate is 38% and 2 of those wins were Hughes

Purchased the home shirt from Sports Direct in the sales. Thought the quality was really poor compared to previous seasons, particularly the sponsor logo.

There seems to be a lot of negativity surround Mark Hughes at the moment which slightly surprises me? Maybe we could get a poll going as to whether fans are happy to have him as manager for the coming seasons, or would rather he wasn't our manager. I think he is a good manager all in all, and one we can expect to get us to around 9-10th place in the league with a good enough season. For me he was absolutely key in us staying up last year, and would have achieved it with games to spare if not for some bad luck/confidence against Arsenal/Chelsea/Everton. He also seemed to have a good reception at the fan's forum. I agree that pre-season could have gone better, but I also think a lot of that has to do with the world cup / condensed window / china tour - its not ideal for a club that just scraped survival. That said, I think we have bought well, and I feel he'll settle into a good formation and we'll kick on from there. I also don't think it is far to blame him for our problems, he has only improved the team since he has been here. Or is that famous last words? What are other peoples thoughts - I would rather have him as manager than not.

I understand your point of view regarding the economics of football totally. But lets not pretend for one second that being genetically predisposed as an incredible athlete is a skill. Technical ability is one thing of course. But most footballers at top level are fit athletes with a decent touch, playing in a system that they have had drilled into them. E.g. you can teach a GK or a CB to be a surgeon, they won't be as good of course.... but you can't teach a brain surgeon to be 6ft 4in, agile and strong - they either genetically have it or don't. There are players like Messi which if anything prove the point. He is not physically exceptional, but is regarded as a special player because of his ability, nothing else. There are not many players at top level that are there for skill alone.

Interesting fact that has next to nothing to do with saints "you will do away with the courage and pluck of the game, and it will be bound to bring over a lot of Frenchmen who would beat you with a week’s practice" Without doubt, I give you an 1800's Brexit voter - Superb foresight as well

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/aug/15/anti-nazi-league-founders-call-for-new-national-campaign "Group says political movement needed to combat challenge from ‘racist and fascist right’" Can't decide if this is deliberate spin or the left really is this oblivious to its evils. Only one side of the political spectrum is antisemitic.

Pompey are at their level now. And without serious investment (imaginary or not), they aren't going to get promoted until they've been relegated first.