Saint86

A bit generous, but yeah.

May as well sticky this thread tbh. This place is going to go mental in the next few days, and it will all be compounded by those with their heads in the sand trying to defend the undefendable.

We don't. Tadic will take it.

We had a team that almost got champions league... and here we are Great management! All jokes aside, hopefully things improve, I don't think it can get much worse than this surely?

Not great so far. Watford are going to have a good season. We aren't

That is quality, thank you

lol same squad we had in the championship, but that doesn't stop les reed getting the credit rofl.

A bit harsh, but we'll be in touching distance I suspect.

Sorry Fry, but I can't credit Les Reed (or our current board) with the promotions or Wembley final. He came to true power with Nicola's exit and the new board restructuring. To put it another way. Cortese Admin (CA) got us taken over. July 2009 - CA hired Pardew July 2009 - CA hired Harding August 2009 - CA Signed Lambert August 2009 - CA Signed Hammond Jan 2010 - CA signed Puncheon Jan 2010 - CA Signed Fonte. March 2010 - CA deliver JPT win. April 2010 - Reed Joins as head of football development. CA admin removed Pardew, hired Adkins (100% a NC sacking). CA admin removed Adkins delivered Poch. (100% a NC sacking and appointment). With Lallana, Morgan etc, that is basically the core of our team from League 1 to Premier league, and it had sod all to do with Les Reed... The most exceptional signing Les Reed can lay a claim to in that time is Chaplow. People can't have it both ways. If the Don Cortese was a control freak "who had to go" then everything pre his removal is on him. And everything since is on the current board. If you really want to go into it, Les Reed (or more generally the current board) fell out with and then lost Poch, but did well in hiring koeman (who got us VVD, Toby, Mane, Tadic), they signed Forster and Bertrand (credit where it is due), but then lost us Toby (despite our manager texting him all summer), and then fell out with our most successful manager since LW, losing him to Everton, we then hired Puel. Although they did have the balls to see the error of his ways (and fan discontent) and sack him. All in all, its an okay record for the current board. But neither they (not Les Reed) have very much to do with anything pre Koeman. If they did, and were actively managing the situation and in control, we would not have had the upheaval we had following Cortese's departure. They were caught completley out of position, with no strategy in place. Its not something i've ever claimed, but Les Reed does love a bit of the media attention

Is this about Tadic, Boufal or Redmond? But in all seriousness, Tadic has been poor for quite a while. He also hasn't helped himself by kicking off last season ("i'm the main man, stop subbing me"), despite being regularly knackered after 60min (doing what I don't know). He also has a terrible habit of waving his arms around like someone has shot a small child every time the ball to him isn't perfect... much like Pelle. All of this would be acceptable if his end product was good, but sadly it isn't at the moment and hasn't been for a while. He barely manages to score when he is given a gift from 12yards, he slows play down, he doesn't press, and he constantly wastes possession. I don't want to slate the guy, and will be even handed to him in praise and criticism when in the stands... but lately he has been on the poorer side of average. It would be fair to drop him for a few games and try something new (say Boufal, Davis/JWP/Redmond). Whatever we do, Boufal clearly has some talent and should be given a run of games given our current attacking line ups are misfiring. Like I said, I don't want to be harsh to Tadic, but he hasn't been great lately. Time to give others a chance unless he improves. Maybe a spell out of the team may give him a chance to refocus, and give the team a chance to find a more effective style?

What is the point of having a chinese mafia boss (who has had his rivals executed) in charge, if we're trapped by the same rules as everyone else?

This is top trolling

I never said they had, I'm just observing people saying that they are putting people on ignore for differing opinions. The only time I use ignore is for trolls (that don't offer amusement - Glasgow is therefore safe), or abusive posters. Also, as a response to your earlier post Fry, I don't want to berate the clubs management, I am merely pointing out that they could be better. If calling Les Reed a, "slightly better than average" director of football is berating him then PC has truly taken over :/ I merely voice my frustration that a lot of our fans want us to just be grateful we have a club. Whilst we should all be grateful for that (!), that doesn't mean we should be content to just exist. Everything that has happened since the takeover means we can be so much more, and we should always strive for that. I'd rather the club had the ambition to break into the champions league (and courageously but sadly missed it), than had the ambition to come mid table (and missed it repeatedly). Because, lets be honest, Saints routinely miss their ambitions (we love the club anyway)... I guess what I'm trying to say, by striving to be the best you can be and you'll achieve more than aiming low. Nothing ****es me off more than aiming for mediocrity when we all know as fans that Saints can be better. And also, if we have a fanbase that accepts mediocrity, it makes it a lot easier for the club management to deliver it and get away with it. Fortunately we put enough pressure in games to get a change from Puel. We all hate Scousers... But their mentality carries a certain weight. They haven't won the premier league in 25years, but their fans shouting about how massive they are still sees them viewed as one of the biggest 2-3 clubs in the country.

Very mature place this. If people don't like your opinion they put you on ignore Basically the hive mind echo chamber on a microscale.

The arguments in this thread are just hilarious. "We can't smash the glass ceiling" - Yet Tottenham and Leicester did and can... "Our fans should have tried to follow saints when we struggled under Lowe" - Then 4 Top 12 finishes, european qualification and a cup final" The simple fact of the matter is that we have much the same fans now as we did when we were in the premier league before. We followed the club down through the leagues, we followed them back up, we followed them to Wembley twice. Mental how fan's can't deal with other fan's views. The club could have achieved a fair amount more in the last few years. And whilst we've been blessed as fans lately, there is no point hiding from that fact that we could (and should) have done more. It doesn't make us "unhappy" as saints fans to look at the reality of the club and discuss it. But it does make you a head in the sand numpty if you think the board are the perfect business / sporting tacticians, whose backsides the sun doth shine out of.

We should have sold him, and invested the money in the 2 quality players to help our attack. More fool us if we think wasting a few months and selling January is of any benefit. The players would be just as content if we showed ambition on the field and actually looked like we could achieve something.

No point arguing with Fry mate, he is pure troll in chief on here. I agree with you, Boufal looks to be our best creative player and we should be using him. Tadic has been gash for 6 months and should just be dropped.

lol cheers fry, some usual snidey put downs from one of the multi account masters. Ta.

Totally disagree Duck. We came 8th and were far far closer to the relegation zone than europe. We managed 46 points ffs - Any other season and we'd have been ****ting the bed from Christmas onwards. Saints have gone backwards in recent years and it's hard to argue differently surely? And in comparison, Liverpool will mount a title challenge with 50% of our team plus Coutinho (who we failed to sign despite having his favourite manager at the club - see also Toby and his staggeringly unaffordable 60k per week wages at tottenham). I called Les Reed a slightly better than average DoF, and to be blunt, if we'd had a better DoF we'd have achieved (or got closer to) our potential in recent years. Sadly those opportunities has been missed, and have been and gone. Our potential has changed accordingly and we are now aiming to achieve a top 10 finish only. Its a shame to refer to that oft used expression of old, but it is very much a "dell sized mentality" to think that settling for top 10 ambitions is good enough given where the club was at 2-4years ago. We had a great chance to achieve something, we didn't... and now liverpool will achieve it instead, but with our players. I'm sorry if that grates with some people and seems crazy, but likewise I do not understand people who set such low ambitions themselves. It just breeds mediocrity. And anyone who thinks saints have pushed on and achieved the potential that was on offer after Poch, or after Koeman is kidding themselves in my eyes. We have had two of the Country's best managers, a fantastic crop of players, and huge tv monies - and used all that to achieve 46 points last year. That is categorically **** poor management and why on earth do people want to argue differently? Anyway, its just a point of view and there is no point arguing about it. The only people who can change things are those at the top level of the club. And on their recent track record, I see nothing that dispels my belief that the last few seasons (pre Puel) were the best saints fan's will get for a generation. What a wasted opportunity.

What we achieved is to keep a disruptive and expensive asset at the club for the sake of pride. Instead we could have sold him and bertrand for circa £85-90m and got in some genuine quality players. Waisted window.

I think this is fair. He has been a mildly better than average director of football. Strange though, this is yet another post which highlights the delusions of saints web.... Les Reed has been pivotal in the past 6years at sms and behind all our key signings and appointments... Except any failures like Ramirez or Osvaldo ofc. It really is laughable logic. Les Reed took control when Cortese left. And since then the clubs momentum has stalled and now started to decline. How much of that is down to Les Reed is as always debatable, and he could of course have done worse. But lets not pretend we've had a world class leader in Les Reed. We've lost manger teams, coaches, scouts all to bigger clubs. But Les Reed has never been poached or even approached.

People still struggling to accept that Davis is one of the first names on the teamsheet?

In Les we trust!! Although we have weaker attacking options this year than last year... Bit of a poor joke if it remains that way. Can't wait till Gabbi and Austin inevitably get injured...

Have Liverpool been tapping up the Ox then... How else would he know about their interest and what they will offer him. Imagine both Arsenal and Chelsea are both pretty annoyed right now!

Shouldnt take 15 months for the blindingly obvious to happen though should it.