Saint86

Since NC and MP left to be precise. Funny that.

League 1 to Prem was not Les Reed ffs. This rewriting of history needs to stop. Les Reed wasn't even at the club to sign the key players in that squad... And it was NC praised by all the key players and managers, not balding uncle les. We had momentum when this board got control of the club, and they duly rode it like the crest of a wave, pocketed loads of money, and with little idea what they were doing from a football perspective. Now after a fair period of reflection we are facing very much the wrong way... And they have lost two of the best recent premier league managers, and they have so far sold a champions league and arguably title challenging team of players. Every day there are now non stop calls for the manager out and half the squad to go with him... 3 transfer windows ago we just missed champions league and were the 6th best team in the county!! Yet despite this dire turn of events, we have people defending one of the key protagonists in our tale, and rewriting history by claiming Les Reed man managed our rise from league 1. Its fecking ridiculous. The man is bang average at his job, and currently that is looking kind. He wasn't even at the club when the core of our promotion team were signed. He didn't hire adkins or pardew, he didn't sack adkins, he didn't hire poch. Its just laughable. Fonte, Lambert, Harding, puncheon, Hammond... it just goes on and on. Nada to do with Leslie. How many managers do the fans want out? How many players are we going to turn on? How long will we just forget and ignore where we were 18months ago? How much can the man running the football side of the club get away with before the fans wake up. FFS. Or for the rest of our club's history, will we live the fantasy that Les Reed guided the club to back to back promotions?!?!

It is obviously not because of his understanding of expected goals though!! Its because he is one of the worlds best strikers and knows instinctively how to score. Expected goals is in effect a statistical average of all players abilities to score. Aguero does it as one of the best, ergo his play fits their pattern. The end.

If you look at how Puel has improved Leicester, and how puel and Mopey are comparable at saints, it can be argued that Leicester have far better players than Southampton. With that in mind, you need to ask yourself how we went from a squad just off the champions league (and 6th best in the country), to where are now - all despite massive tv revenues and transfer profits on players. The last two managers are comparable, and it shows that are squad is simply rather weak. Whose fault is it if the player base and quality have worsened significantly in the base of 1, 2, 3 windows? Certainly a significant proportion of the blame lays at the feet of the man you are arguing is irreplaceable. Ultimately it is better to be wrong and decisive, than stuck in limbo. Saints are sliding badly under the watch of the current board.

We would have got 24 more points and therefore have been a far superior side. so yes. We would also have Europa league football. Personally I would rather support a better team and be one of the top sides in the county (like under Koeman), than win a cup and get relegated a few years later. Ideally you win the cup and get 6th. But saints never manager success properly.

Works hard, disciplined, and has some of the best delivery in the league (both dead ball and open play). Clearly has an important place in our squad. Plus he is loyal and chose us over Poopey

The prowsey slaters are up their with those who wanted mane sold asap after his arrival, there is probably a lot of overlap with the mopey out posters; they play a lot of FM and moan like they are pep himself.

Literally love this thread. Will become pure saintsweb gold. 427 (and counting) armchair pundits that don't know as much as they think they do... and who are basically just impatient and expect instant results straight away.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/42272888

More to the point - signs of a good manager! Mopey is going to come good. There were glimpses of it in his first game, and its becoming more and more obvious each game. Maybe the fans were tired and fed up with no goals Claude, but whatever the reason, our fanbase needs to grow a pair and start cheering on the team, manager! (and Forster!!) The twitter protests were just embarrassing and very counter productive to the team and atmosphere around the club. The manager is a good un. Back him in January and back him as fans!

Puts it in perspective though. Boyfriend chant, or physical assault and being strangled / threatened with a knife.

Yes, that is appalling. But is the victim even gay? Obviously it's a hate crime whether he is or not, but the first reports i said it looked like some thugs randomly starting on someone and using "Gay" as a an excuse.

Tough one for us. I hope we do better then the league cup. Sadly I suspect we'll half arse it and lose :/

Thank you Lebizzier, this is what I have been trying to say. A bit of common sense is needed. Not a case of people being offended for other people, and then exercising that "offence" to dish out punishments and shame people. I'm not even talking specifically about football tbh, this mindset is starting to infect every walk of life.

So now we are going to ban people because fans think their songs are unoriginal and cringeworthy?!?! Seriously what is wrong with the current social climate. Genuinely fear for the fabled british "sense of humour" if causing even mild offense = censorship. To be clear, we can sing about shooting pompey scum? but we can't mentioned the word boyfriend in a chant?

I'd largely agree with this. Personally think Mopey and Saints have turned a corner and I am looking forward to the rest of the season. At least we look like scoring and playing well now, the last 10 games or so under puel were the worst football I have ever seen saints play.

Well, you could take 4 from 9 points (including city, A top 8 contender, and lower mid table team), and anticipate 51 points from 38games. Way to early to say basically, and all teams have periods of good and bad form rather than maintaining an average - just look at Poch and Koeman with saints. Personally think we will come top 10 this year, and improve next season.

Because big brother, the thought police, and the snowflake melting world of twitter have taken over the asylum.

good lord, do you actually think abusive chants are not more offensive? The worst word is one in "boyfriend", but people will spend time on social media crying about that rather than chants that include frequent swearing. The mind boggles.

Not really. People just need to stop being snowflakes. Its getting pretty embarrassing these days. "Does your boyfriend know you're here?" is not homophobic. In fact the ones who make these issues and highlight divisions unnecessarily are the ones that help worsen discrimination. I wonder how many Brighton fans were actually upset by that particular chant? When fan's come to sms and chant, "your support is ****ing ****" - that is more offensive. grow a pair.

I actually don't see how it can be received as anything other than banter... there is no offensive phrase in it... (I am talking about, "does your boyfriend know you're here", not anything else that may have been chanted). Its not like the hissing that goes on against Tottenham for example, something that is truly shocking.

Only at times?

Love how those hating MoPey and were so quick to; judge him, condemn him, and condemn those of us who saw his potential, are now starting to see light at the end of the tunnel (technically still the start!). The fact is that there was some frankly laughable/embarrassing knee jerkiness from the majority of the fanbase after LESS THAN TEN GAMES. I maintain that he shows promise and deserves time and backing to prove it. Sadly we have a lot of impatient fans and I hope the recent matches show them that we have an intelligent and tactical manager who will get the best out of what he has available. And more importantly that he needs backing!! Unfortunately I know that some of them are probably the same fans that will bemoan his lack of loyalty if he were to leave us after a season of success. To call this hypocritical would be one spectacular understatement.

Hush Duncan, you can't say that on here!!!

I agree, the Everton game reminded me somewhat of Adkins first prem win vs Villa. A bit of a watershed moment for this team and manager. Not saying we'll beat city, but I think we will certainly go there and give a good account of ourselves. Really don't understand a lot of our fans atm, they can all see the weaknesses in the actual team (attack, goalkeeper), but they then blame the manager when we struggle to break down teams that purely defend at SMS... You have to give the man time, and you need to hope that whatever happens, the Saints board spend some money on a top notch striker in January. Saints need a reliable (sadly not Austin) strong front man who can hold the ball up, join up play, and finish!! Get that and we will be a very effective side.