Saint86

The Liverpool game should have no impact on Les Reed's tenure, and i would question any fan that wants to get that upset over that game. The club has no future with the current board/ownership structure. You only have to view the complete apathy and negativity on every saints thread to realise the cancer at the heart of this club needs drastic surgery.

If true, that makes a good joke of this thread.

I think he is good. When he finds his feet he will be a good player for us. Also does a lot of work defensively, which given how ****e Cedric is these days is a very important point. This place is miserable at the moment. All the fans who couldn't see where we were headed under Reed and Co are just moaning rather than accepting and supporting the players. No wonder we struggle at home...

Good - Ings, Hoj, Vest, Redmond, Bertrand, Ely.... Negatives: Subs bench is weak, shockingly so. We literally have nothing other than Gabbi who we don't know how to use. Cedric is looking worse by the game. Just not up to it on current form. Sloppy for the penalty. Two shocking goals to give away.

Cedric very poor recently. being targetted now by Brighton of all teams and it is working. Not winning aerially, and not winning on the deck. Plus he is being caught out positionally. What is up with him?

Sims is doing well in my oppinion. He should have a place at saints next year.

Not really sure Tadic deserves to be in the defectors thread...

We have no serious ambition. Which means the bar with which we judge ourselves is a fraction of what it was before. The result, when we underachieve it is to a dangerously low standard. We have a board that repeatedly lies and misleads the fanbase, and makes uninspiring decisions like its as easy as sipping a glass of water. The result, a terminally damaged fan bond with the club and team, and widespread supporter apathy. Hard to see how you arrest the decline without resolving these issues, and its hard to see us resolving these issues without dramatic and sudden change...

In all seriousness, Hughes is a massive improvement on the last two years and has a lot of rot to overturn. IMO, it is madness to call for him out after he kept us up last year and has made progress with the squad and performances this year. Surely?

A good Muslim shouldn't gamble. For that reason I back Danny Nothing to do with the fact that I want saints to do well... or Liverpool to do badly

Main Contenders: West Ham, Crystal Palace, Cardiff, Newcastle, Other contenders: Fulham Brighton

You are going to be a happy man at the end of the season then. No way are saints going down under Hughes.

I'd rather have him than Austin... Save a few Bob on wages as well!

A good 3 points. Did it the hard way in the end and rode our luck. But a clean sheet and 3 point was a worthwhile reward!

Fans moaning about this. But at the very least its a useful fixture against a good premier league side. Right now the team needs games to gell and work on tactics. Far more useful than a game against lower league opposition with a totally rotated side. And we will beat Everton at some point... may as well be a league cup 3rd round game that they might rest players for

That is not strictly true Le God, please see EFL Carabao Cup regulations section 6.3. They would be eligible if we gave written consent for them to play.

Fully deserved. Hopefully he gets a chance but somehow I doubt it. Would certainly have him as number 2 to Pickford at least.

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.