Saint86

Dare i say... "the league table doesn't lie"... 🤣

Isn't it lovely that the season has effectively finished for us now, and instead the saints games serve more as a distraction (as we await the summer rebuild) than anything to get overly stressed about?

I've been as harsh as anyone on reviewing sports republic's (mainly rasmus') decision making this year... But i think having a go at them and saying that targeting player trading as a route to improve the club isn't having high aspirations is unfair. And who is to say they didn't target squad needs? We know we tried to get some good forwards in the summer (but failed), and in january we signed Paul and Orsic (albeit too late and mismatched to manager styles). Also, players having value for resale will only happen if the players are good... (i am okay with this 😄). Look how much trouble we had trying to sell Lamina, Boufal, Carillo, Heodt etc... On "This is not about the long term development of saints as a competing club" - I think Brighton's and Brentford's owners have high aspirations, and a big part of that is through a focus on recruitment and player trading? Reality is that clubs at our level don't have access to the huge commercial deals and other income levels of bigger clubs. So the only real ways we can compete are through clever squad development (and player trading), or through sugar daddy ownership. We don't have the latter. Reality is the squad did need significant investment - we'd survived quite admirably with negligible investment (relative to the rest of the league) for years under Gao. SR came in and did the right thing in investing in the squad. And in fairness, a lot of the players we signed are mostly very talented young players with the potential to improve significantly - as opposed to older players nearing the ends of their peak period / careers that we will struggle to generate additional income from. Also, some of these young players have proven to be our best players - Are we now saying that we shouldn't have signed Alcaraz, Lavia, ABK, Sulemana etc? Or in recent seasons under Semmens/ralph, players like Tino, Salisu, KWP? No, i think the idea and aspiration was correct from SR. But sadly the execution has been very poor.

On balance i don't think this is far wrong. They've put money in and have clearly got high aspirations for the club. But equally even with all the right intentions, Rasmus has had an absolute mare. I think Rasmus/SR are behind a lot of the departures of key staff, which is significant with respect to the complete mess the whole club is now in, but i do think the Joe Shields departure left us in a real mire that wasn't expected, and Rasmus then felt he had to then step up and also do player recruitment - as opposed to him wanting to take over player recruitment. Jan signings were okay - Alcaraz and Sulemana are decent players, but Tall Paul and Orsic don't fit. And fundamentally those signings were done too late and didn't deliver what we needed. We also basically know (at least with a high degree of confidence) that Rasmus is behind the managerial and coaching changes that have happened this year - And more than anything this is what has sent us down. So agree that SR should be thanked for their investment and intentions, but we all bloody well hope they acknowledge their limitations and get the right people in and trust them to make decisions. As it stands, they have done serious damage to the club for which they are fundamentally custodians, and if that continues they'll have no place to hide from the fans. And the fact that Rasmus stood on stage and delivered a talk on breaking systems that aren't broke, before presiding over exactly that at saints, is beyond parody surely....😄

Mr "not going to get too involved" certainly lived up to rule #1 😄

That twitter handle is not very reliable - and also this would be a stupid decision.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-12025853/Harry-Redknapp-relives-horrific-return-Portsmouth-leaving-rivals-Southampton.html Bet the fishy few will love an article like this 🙄.

Could see theo getting a 1year extension for the championship, albeit on reduced wages. He would do a job for us at that level compared to most of our attackers - that much is clear - and he is ultimately an experienced player with a love of the club and a positive role model for younger players. He has however said that he wants to step back from the playing side of the game, so can certainly see him not being at saints next year.

Is your twitter handle @Andrewsaintsfc per chance? 🧐

As has been said numerous times, we were relatively stable under Ralph, Semmens, Crocker etc - albeit with no resources / pot to piss in. But the fans generally were not happy with this, the old adage "careful what you wish for was uttered", and the rest is history... But in the year of Sports Republic "not being too involved in the club" they have; Dismantled the first team coaching setup around the manager, Failed to strengthen the first team in the key areas (actually any?). Weird change to the 4-5-1 from a dedicated 4-2-2-2 advocate? Essentially undermined and then sacked a good manager. Hired the world's fittest welsh wizard, spent a load more money to little real effect, the 4-5-1 returned 🙈. Kept said fittest man for too long. Disastrously too long actually. It was okay though, the players liked him... Given the job to the players mate (seemingly keeping the players happy)... Now whether Selles knows his stuff or not, he is out of his depth in this scenario and has the unfortunate issue of being a real constant throughout the season's general disappointing abandonment of high press attacking football. At least the 4-5-1 finally went in the bin at last... Crocker has now left as DoF - this is quite a significant loss if Wilcox doesn't come in to be immediate quality himself - regardless, it is unnecessary change yet again. Matt Hale (head of academy) has now gone - right when the academy is now starting to bear serious fruit - More unnecessary change - if it isn't broke don't fix it ffs. Lost 2 heads of recruitment 😆 Probably loads more, but that's the crux of it... essentially we had good people who would likely have been absolutely fine running things themselves with the extra funding, and instead have gone down the route of maximum unnecessary harm because SR/Rasmus thought they were cleverer than they actually are. By some distance. Now we're going down and the entire club is in turmoil without the necessary staff in place to manage the most important summer in decades?

That surely was not a thing?!?!?! 😄

Okay, let me rephrase. In response to, "Not a chance City will allow him to go to another premier league club" (this summer) - Man City do not dictate our transfer policy on Lavia. If we can afford to keep him (and decide to) then we can/will - and if he is happy to stay in the champ (doubtful) then we may well reject bids for him - we may even reject bids for him if he wants to leave... But if we do decide to sell him and other teams bid for him this summer, then city will be forced to match those offers if they want to "not allow him" to move to other prem teams. Ultimately, If Lavia decides to stay at Saints for a season of 2nd division football then that is his choice, not city's - I would love that to be the case, but it would quite extraordinary for a player that talented (and with a season of successful top flight football under his belt) to step down and spend a year of his career in the 2nd tier - especially at a club as dysfunctional as saints. The choice ultimately is on Lavia and saints, not what city will or will not allow 😄😆. And to reiterate, it would be fantastic if we kept him for another year - even if it means we get £10M less for him next summer. Sadly i just can't see a scenario where he's playing Championship football. Best case semi realistic scenario is Boehly gets the panic sweats over Chelsea's abysmal form and bungs us £50m-£60M this summer. Not sure city would match that.

Its irrelevant what city want, if other clubs bid this summer they'll have to match it...

Will Still... MLG will be back like never before... 🤣

Went down the park at halftime, sounds like the obvious choice was the right one.... Rasmus' two candidates (Jones and then selles in a few seasons) both failures?

Was that a penalty on sulemana?

We're going down for a long long time. Absolutely no way this cluster cluck of a club bounces on arrival... I would go so far as to say "what club?". Every part of it is in flux and just about the only common trend is one of everyone still here wanting to leave.

Will book end Rasmus' first year quite nicely really. One of SR's first actions was to dismantle the existing coaching team and replace with their own hires.

All these crosses into the box, imagine we had the tallest player in the prem on the pitch...

What am i fucking watching. this is horrendous.

Given whats at stake, this is possibly the worst saints performance i have ever seen.

What the actual.... have we been purchased by Pompey fans and being managed into decline?

Lack of pace at CB is whats really hurting us here. Its the shitter equivalent of Arsenal having to play Holding against us. Bournemouth are very poor at the back, we've hit the woodwork twice - they actually are there for the taking... if we could defend.

You lot are so negative, saints win incoming!!! 😎

How do people read that formation? 4-2-2-2 With Lavia and JWP as the 6s, and Alcaraz and Ely as the 10s? Then AA and Theo up front? Or 4-3-3 with Lavia, JWP and Carlos, then Ely and theo/AA as wingers and Theo/AA up front?