Saint86

We are fecked mate. 1.) WE HAVE MASSIVELY WEAKENED THE FIRST 11 THIS SEASON - and that is Les Reed's fault. 2.) Puels tactics do not work, we do not create chances, we do not put the opposition under pressure, force mistakes etc. Instead they just wait for us to mess it up and hit us.... and we do, alot! 3.) Reed got rid of Koeman.... and missed every other mangerial appointment target before hiring Puel... That is a complete list of cluster fooks that shows how out of his depth he is... That or it is purely all about the money. Either way if he doesn't turn it around by May he will have done irreparable harm to the fanbase. He has survived selling fan favourites because Koeman carried him to great finishes and gave us Mane, Pelle, Toby, Tadic, VVD etc. But reed's recruitment has been far inferior and its showing now. He wanted to take all the credit and "do a cortese" by putting himself all over the media... well the reverse side of that is when you **** up massively (this summer) you get dropped kicked out the door. I for one can't wait for that man to get the hell out of the club.

Awful so far. Relegation battle this season the way this is going. Can't score (or even threaten) and seem determined to give the opposition clear cut chances at our goal. Puel needs to go if he can't turn this around fast. Him and Reed should both be gone anyway if we come anywhere in lower mid table or lower in may. Unacceptable down turn in team performance, and once you start on that road it leads to eventual relegation.

Very nice goal. If it was Di Canio or Cantona they'd be talking about it still.

Les Reed is executive Director. So yes, i think he has a bloody big say in how we manage the budget.

This isn't puel's fault. Its Les Reed. Sells Mane, buys redmond. Sells Pele, buys no one. another £25m profit last summer, countless millions in the bank from the last 3 years of "record" revenues and having the 6th lowest wages in the league. He took all the credit for Koeman doing a good job, shoved him out the door as soon as it was obvious he could get paid for it... but had no plan in place. Missed key managerial targets so we got Puel (if he really was first choice then that is a worrying failure of the scouting department). And he simply hasn't reinvested enough or wisely enough to stand still, let alone strengthen the squad. We've been poor in a lot of areas if we're honest. Been downwards since poch and cortese left and I think we were riding a bit of a wave and got lucky with Koeman. He gave us Mane, pelle, tadic,a VVD and Toby, a very solid spine. Was a good appointment all in all but we were lucky with how well it turned out and outside of that the club has been very average. Les Reed wanted all the credit during those boom years. This fault is all on him. Bad management of the backroom and coaching staff, failed recruitment and under investment is telling now.

So you know he is lying? Surely we can take the club captain and loyal player of 7 years at his word?

Put it this way folks. If saints want to keep him, they'll play him. If they are getting rid of him, they won't. Fonte wants to stay and he wants to be part of saints European adventure. Should be interesting seeing who wins out in the end.

Its idiots like you that keep swalling the PR crap from the club which encourages/enables them to get away with it. The treatment of Jose is appalling. He clearly wants to be here and he clearly wants to play in these games. You probably believe that every single player we've sold since Poch left was a "bad-un" and the club were perfectly right to get rid of them, or had no choice, etc etc... Just like with Koeman, Les Reed wants rid. Hopefully this time the fans will use their brain cells and see it for what it is. If the club offered him a pay rise when what he really wanted was a 1 year extension you have to wonder why they didn't just offer him the extension and no pay rise... pretty much costs the same. Likewise why would he turn down a "no strings attached" pay rise?!?!? Looks like he is being forced out at the moment, and that ties in with some of the more interesting articles that have come out.

Reading between the lines it sounds like he is being inched towards the exit whether he likes it or not. For me he should be on the banner along with Kelvin and Rickie.

TBH, Europe is in a far worse state than the UK, and getting out now was the best thing for us. As has been pointed out both before and since the referendum, the EU was/is doomed to fail; not least because of its completely uncompromising socialist dogma. People revolt at the best of times, let alone an entire continent full of passionate nationalists - and lets face it, europe is full of patriots. But beyond that, how can you support a system that has done what this one has to Greece? Or a system that threatens those it doesn't agree with, a system that tries to squash democracy and to silence all who speak out against it? As for your negativity; there are so many opportunities for Britain outside of the EU I find it odd that the best consequence you see is "minimising the damage from the coming storm"?!?! Seriously? You can't even accept that this may be a good thing, both short and long term? You are only concerned about short term pain. That is a very selfish outlook for someone who wants to go on about protecting future generations. FYI, this will affect me for my entire working life, and it will affect my generation far more than my kids. So I have to disagree with your sentiment on that entirely. The 20's to 30's were allowed to vote, and those who cared did. And in summary, for all those who bit into "project fear", if you go to an interview or your employer, and in every scenario see only doom and negativity you won't be landing to many good jobs throughout your career. Britain will be fine, provided the moaning stops and people pull their fingers out. For too long this attitude of negativity and can't do has spread throughout people, fortunately Brexit will bring an injection of the opposite and tackle people who've been far to comfortable on the EU/government gravy trains.

Cherries are going to surpass us.

So basically a very disappointing start so far, especially given its on the back of our strongest ever finish in the prem and what many have called our best squad. Given the massive revenues and profits we've made in recent years, there really is no excuse for going backwards.

Good work Minsk, keep it up!

Stop quoting him ffs. You are as guilty as he is and between you you are killing this forum. AKA - Put glasgow on ignore and leave him there!

****ing disgusting tonight. Lose to Hull - Appalling Draw with Liverpool - Respectable tbf Beat a **** Everton - Expected Beat Arsenal Reserves - Expected Smashed by Palace - Disgusting. Not one good result in there.... and I am not even mentioning the ****ing Prague debacle... And our fans think this is working.

This is ****ing **** and embarrassing. Losing to a pile of crap like palace who should be one of the favourites for relegation. WTF is this ****. No shot on target. This team are letting in 4 goals a week most of the time. Its awful. And forster. WTF. he has been **** for a while but if he doesn't get dropped soon its a joke.

Its not ****ing working.

There is a large group of divs who sit in block 18 chapel that spend all game insulting and swearing at Yoshida, then turning around to each other to clap themselves on the back about how good their last insult was... obviously only when he's playing. Its a real shame we have fans who'd rather insult the players than support the team, especially given Yoshi has been a great squad player for us over the years and is always there to do a job. Once he gets a run of games he settles down and proves he can play.

Fixture made easy by arsenal fielding a very weak team. But it shows our strength that we can make that number of changes and win. Team did well. Yoshi, Davis, McQueen, Sims etc... they all looked good so a nice win. Tougher fixtures ahead in the next round. Would take hull here and now rather than a glamour semi.

Fantastic stream on cricfree for those still looking

We're mid table, incosistent, blunt as feck and lost to a crippled prague team with a bench that had only one player over 21 and a combined squad number of over 300... One win over an appalling Everton team does not change the fact that saints need to do better to match or even come close to last season. Stating otherwise is seriously glossing over how poor we have been at times this season compared to the last few years. Fortunately we've made yet another £25m transfer profit as well as record tv and commercial revenues... I therefore expect investment as required to help us gain a top 7 finish as a minimum. A cup final win would mitigate a slightly poorer league finish however. But the fact stands. We are not playing well enough yet, and need to get better. A loss to prague and a 1-0 win over that awful everton team does not constitute starting a thread saying things are working... We are currently on course for our worst league finish since our first season back. That is not something to be happy with (I don't blame Puel for it) given that the club has money to burn and chose to lose Koeman, mane, pelle and wanyama for a weaker squad and another transfer profit. That said, I did enjoy yesterdays performance and loved finally seeing Sims make his breakthrough, I have been waiting to see that for years it is one thing I really do love about Puel... he trusts the kids and that is a staple of any saints manager for me. Doesn't change the fact that we need to score more!! And I think that sadly, that requires investment in the first team personnel, more players in the box, or a recall for gallagher (perhaps)!

Charlie Austin apologise in an interview for hitting it to hard as it was a half shot.... Can't believe Charlie Austin is criticising the ball he played....

Well said Hartman. JWP has been superb so far this season. He is coming on leaps and bounds and starting to dictate games. He is also Southampton through and through and what, 21 or 22... anything that can be done to improve and develop him should be used. He is goingto be a very important player for saints over the years and future captain. I have no doubts about that at and won't change my view unless he gets a serious injury.

To be honest. this thread could equally be named "Les Reed the tinkerman - its not working". The players we've had and the profits we've been making from players sales and increased tv revenues means there is no reason why we shouldn't have kept most of the squad together and achieved top 4 by now. Shaw, Clyne, Toby, Morgan, Wanyama, Lallana, Lambert, Mane, Lovren, Pelle, Chambers, Boruc, Poch, Koeman - Its a shocking list of people we have lost over 3 transfer windows. When you consider that we could add VVD, Romeu, Davis, JWP and Bertand to that for £30m... And people say Nigel Adkins underachieved.

Its not so much the changes as the tactics. It was 70 odd min tonight, we had the ball on the flank, and one player in the box, then the other winger on the far side. They had their entire team back. These tactics of passing at slow tempo are killing us, we don't comit players forward to attacks which we have done non stop in seasons gone by. Ultimately the buck stops with Les Reed. If he wants to sell the team every summer and brag about the player and coaching scout networks, then he needs to deliver. So far he has delivered a very mediocre team and one that is unable to really look threatening. The players body language towards each other is also deteriorating rapidly in recent games. Worrying times.