Saint86

Yes agreed. Should be obvious i feel. As for Daft saying we kept the academy staff etc when we dropped down the leagues. We definetly lost key staff, and i would say its just a total fallacy to imply that top coaches / players wanted to work for / stay at Saints after we got relegated from the prem as a general rule... Let alone during the Championship relegation scraps and eventual administration... or even as a League 1 club that almost went out of business in 2009. One very prominent example. Huw Jennings (our academy director) left us in 2006 after the prem relegation - became Fulham's academy director in 2008, 10 years later they had a top quality academy turning out players like Sessegnon (who incidentally joined fulham in 2008 as an 8year old) amongst others, and obviously then went on join tottenham in 2019 (11years later)... Also worth noting that as good as he is, he also wasn't a regular first team prem level player at age 18. So again - our fans need to have patience and let the academy changes, upgrades, funding etc. work there way through the age groups.

Its ultimately irrelevant what they think... we've got access to the prem money and they never will - ergo they will be our feeder club one day.... if they ever produce anything of note. Its not nice for them as fans or a club though, but hopefully they get some success out of the Southampton Republic years.

Reasoning as follows - we got taken over (having had the academy staff and players poached by other clubs). From there, as a 3rd tier club (on - 10 points), i would expect it is very hard to attract top talent and top coaches to rapidly have an academy capable of producing Premier league starting level players? - which is the point I think you are maybe debating? At that time (and the following seasons) we were attracting (and able to sign) such Premier league level mega stars as Barnard, waigo, hooiveld, and Danny fox etc. (to name but a few). Also, Marcus took over the club for the 2009/10 season, not in 2008 . The training ground's "Marcus Leibherr Pavilion" upgrades weren't completed until autumn 2014. So that's 5 years to get the ball really rolling... And that took until we were once again a Premier league club. Worth noting as well that none of our best players from our peak period of academy players (theo, bale, oxlade) made it as regular first teamers in the prem until they were older. So fans that moan about our current academy should (I think), be happy with any first team quality players that emerge over the next couple of seasons. In a couple of years time, players like dibling / ballard etc. may become some of the first real success stories - and they are probably some of the first proper cohort (at circa age 16), that have benefited from the training ground and academy upgrades from 8years ago. Anyway, you're welcome to disagree ofc, but I'm not holding my breath for any currrent 3rd or 2nd tier clubs to regularly churn out ready made prem first teamers at age 18. Academies are long term projects, and changes take years to work fully through the age groups. Fans need to be patient on that front. 🤷‍♂️. As for SR, they have a long term plan and modest resources. If fans want instant success then they won't be a happy i fear, especially given what have been quite disappointing years under Gao. But if we do get some good years with lavia/abk and co, and then have more academy prospects coming through in a few seasons, then it represent a good form of progression for the club - and hopefully stand us in good stead 🤗. Just need to stay up this year.

Yeah, currently our defence is pretty solid. If you consider that KWP, ABK, and livramento have all been out, and yet we've still managed to field a reasonably competent back line - its fairly impressive really. As has been said to death. The error in recruitment was not getting in some quality attackers, and no getting back up for Lavia as the midfield anchor. Romeu and Redmond have been big misses for us the last few games - which says a lot about quality and depth in their positions. Getting Tella back from his loan would also add an extra threat for us.

I am curious as to what you expect a League 1 / administration / championship level youth intake and academy infrastructure to have achieved? It takes circa 10years to get u18s (that often join the club as 8year olds etc) ready for first team football at 18 - otherwise why get boys on the books that young Reality is that we only really started recovering our academy in 2012 onwards, and within that there has to be a gradual progress towards higher levels of performance - we can't just immediately get back to the prem and instantly have the best youth setup. Especially with the funding issues we had post cortese. i really don't think its rocket science to grasp that, and its fecking bizarre how our fans continue to piss and moan about it despite the obvious progress the academy sides have started to make lately - i.e. we had the best u18s in the country last year outside of city's mega bucks players... that's pretty damn good all things considered. As with the SR recruitment strategy, investment and improvements in the academy are a multiyear project 🤷‍♂️! Also, we've now signed loads of city's all stars.... so happy days

We've had two uncommitted heads of recruitment in the past 3-6 months, both of them moving to teams in Blue. Suggest it lies there.

A lot of that has to do with us actually pushing up and attacking this half. Beginning to wonder if our tactics are simply to park the bus first half, let the other team tire, and then have a go second half.

Need the world cup to come around, get our best players back fit, and get 2 premier league quality attackers in!!!

Lyanco should be off. Absolute liability. one and a half games and he could have had about 3 red cards total in that time!

Should have signed Openda in the summer. He was so cheap... Just grabbed a hattrick for Lens as well 😭😭

Did you read what I put... I said he offers a decent attacking output compared to our other attacking mids... And that we need better attacking players? So you agree with me basically I would say... Except on your. Lyanco proposal. What moi does offer is a good work rate and key defensive contributions to go alongside his attacking contribution 🤷‍♂️. The reality is that I would expect him to be regularly getting game time on current form and given the players he is competing with... And we shoudn't be playing lyanco as right attacking mid over Moi!

Palace are off form and we are coming into this off a decent patch of form. Almost certainly means we won't win!

If edozie had played instead of Ely vs Arsenal, our MoM doesn't play - and with his absence we'd miss two superb goal saving tackles (abeit one ultimately ruled out for crossing the line after the tackle) and the opening for our equaliser. Ely deserves his place in the team no question atm - puts in a great work rate and carries a decent level of threat (at least for our attacking mids at anyrate). When you start suggesting we play a CB as a wide attacking mid its time to put down the crazy juice - If it was that easy arsenal wouldn't be top of the league We'd all love better quality attacking mids, but we didn't get them in the summer, and consequently we've playing till at least the world cup with Ely, Stu/Adam Armstrong, and Edozie. I also forgot Walcott, he'll be getting some game time as well

Could and probably should have been sent off vs Arsenal (double punch on jesus, the headbut, and hands on the throat of martinelli to name just a few), would imagine the refs have reviewed that and will be on him from now on.

If a goalbound shot is stopped by a hand/arm - its a penalty in my book. It may be an accident (fair enough), but its still stopped the other team having a potential shot - the fair response is to give them a penalty and give the keeper a chance to save it. Just ignoring the fact that they'd have scored but for a stray arm is nonsense. If jesus had hit a pearler going for the top corner and it hits salisu's arm 1m into its trajectory - could fan's legitimately grumble that they get a penalty? if it was deliberately stopped by an outfield player obviously using their arm/hand to save the shot - that should be a penalty and booking.

Arsenal made 6 or 7 changes for their midweek game as well - not to mention our injuries atm. Bloke is just pedalling popular narratives.

Suffice to say - in Ralph we trust. .

Really is as simple as this. We have a younger squad, terrible injuries, and have played all of the top 5 in our first 12 games. Yet we have fans wanting us to lose (or disappointed we get a draw) because they are hell bent on getting the manager out. So hell bent that they can't separate that the squad this year is significantly different to last year's, or notice that our form has improved significantly this season from the form we had at the end of last year. This is a new team, and it should be judged accordingly. Its also the youngest team in the league, and things will get better as they learn and develop. More so when we have all of Lavia, ABK, Che, KWP, and Livramento all fit. Plus maybe a cheeky quality attacking option in January (we all hope). A saints fanbase that doesn't give a youthful team support though... that's something I don't recognise.

Well played Ralph, well played.

Honestly this comment is ill-judged imo. Defenders and goalkeepers are only part of a team's defence. A lot of it comes down to how the team is set up (I.e. Defensive / attacking), how much possession they have, and what formation / cover the defence gets, what threat do they pose the opposition etc. If we signed haaland, kdb, and foden, do you seriously think our defensive record wouldn't improve? You can't win games without scoring goals (ahem puel) and we are weaker than average (for the prem) throughout our attack and attacking mids - and it is therefore hard for us to carry the same threat as other teams. As a consequence we have to take more risks, commit more men forward etc. Our defensive players are the only part of the team I would say are actually very good. Well if they were all fit anyway.... 😢 ABK, Salisu, KWP, Livramento, Perraud, and Caleta Car are all more than good enough / above average players for a mid table / top 10 prem team imo. I also think bazunu is good enough for that level and he clearly has a lot of potential given his age. Our issue (has been said time and time again), is our only good CMs are lavia and JWP. And our only decent threat attacking players are aribo and Adams. Stu to a degree when he's fit. The rest of our attack/midfield - Ely, edozi, djenpo, Adam Armstrong, mara, diallo, ANM, Walcot etc. can at best be described as average players for a team fighting relegation. Which is where we basically are (at least with these injuries) and is fundamentally why we are struggling... We have no (good) depth at CM, and a very blunt attack that basically relies on Che's (very good) target man skill set, and then getting a load of very average attacker's around him in the hope they occasionally score. And our injuries reads like a list of our best players... Tino, lavia, ABK, kwp... I honestly don't know what our fans expect. If we can get to the world Cup and not be in the relegation zone then we've done well. SR have a long project and the fans need patience. There is no miracle manager waiting around the corner who can fix the deficiencies in our squad... Our recruitment needed to strengthen the attack this summer, and only having lavia as our anchor man was a serious error.

I think he's going to be absolutely top class, hopefully for saints. Best keeper since niemi in the making 👍

Clearly the players are still playing for him though. Evident in the effort they're putting in, and the celebrations and post match comments. He would be gone if there were significant issues from the playing squad, rather than a smattering of bad eggs having a whine and trying to undermine the club in the media, or some of our negative fans that will jump on / spread any rumour if it ties in with getting rid of him.

When you are on the run we're on, with the injuries and lack of squad depth we're suffering from, and with a load of toxic fans eating away at the team's confidence (even hoping your local rivals win in this thread) - a gritty away win at said rival takes a lot of fight and character. Was a good result and I don't think their can be any doubt the team is still playing for the manager - who it has to be said made good changes and managed the game out well. Onwards and upwards. In Ralph we trust. 😌🤫

For real. And who are you playing in central mid then? Just diallo? 🤣 Glad you aren't the manager toussaint 😜

Has to be said that was a good/tough battling performance from the team. Especially given the injuries and low confidence. Rode our luck a bit but made good subs to turn the game around and deal with the injury to kwp, had far and away the better chances and really should have scored another 2 at least. Che, perraud, salisu and bazunu all did really well from the starters. Stu added a lot when he came on. Car looks decent. Hopefully the injury to kwp isn't too bad. Hopefully we can use this as a springboard, but eitherway, we have arsenal next and this is a much needed 3 points! COYRs.