Daft Kerplunk

Please, no more moving forwards! Same with that sign on St. Mary's under what we can call the style over substance marketing speak era said 'We keep moving forwards.' Yes, we know, you keep moving forwards and now we have nobody left who can score goals 😂 The real question is what will we do in the future now we have seemingly stopped moving forward. There are still many remnants of failed eras at Saints to be that positive, as well as the seemingly useless owners who were going to move us forward to the next level.

No, left ages ago as he couldn't do the better job he wanted to do because of the shite people above him 😎 They're still there.

I would have thought that many of the backroom teams are the same as under Les. Far too focussed on numbers than whether someone can play football or not. A moneyball approach that so impressed people in baseball just isn’t as applicable or useful to success in football. Cricket, perhaps, but not a more complex sport like football where there are far more variables.

That is really quite damning. Les and Ross just thought they were clever and better than others when they weren’t, but this lot are on another level of crap but obviously convinced they are excellent. Worryingly, the same department will be deciding which kids get into the academy and progress through it. Horrible period.

This has been a blind spot post Mitchell and, with his pulling power, Koeman

Seems to me that the hope for him was that he’d be like Sadio Mane, but other than the colour of his skin, what exactly is there to compare? It’s like saying because I’m white that I’m going to be like Brad Pitt. For me, Sulemana is an example of stat based scouting and what we seem to have prioritised above whether they’re any good at football or not. He’s reasonably quick on the ground so would’ve looked like he could work in an athletic system but stats don’t tell the full story of a player. Mark Cavendish has said he wouldn’t make it in the stat obsessed era that is now pro cycling because that cannot see someone’s ability to read situations, react to them, lead them or assess simple will to win. Our football scouting department needs to be rebalanced in favour of football people, not analysts and sport scientists who may never have kicked a ball.

This is an incredibly naive take.

The biggest two barriers to all this working well are the two organisations that hold the cards. Sports Republic are proving to be useless owners, and then Southampton Council and the people in positions of power or continuing influence (and this doesn’t mean politicians as they think they run the show but they aren’t in charge) have been cocking up this city for as long as I can remember. Both the football club and city should be far better but incompetence reigns supreme in these parts. Perhaps it’s something in the water. Perhaps two packs of jokers can a double negative and lead to a positive. Unlikely.

At least Spurs couldn’t be arsed in the second half. Was ugly, could’ve been a new record defeat if they’d tried. What makes it worse is that Spurs aren’t even that good.

No other to describe it really. The clowns, and every single person associated with the football side of this club, and in a decision making position needs to take a long hard look at themselves. You are an embarrassment to this football club, this city and because we are stuck with you, you need a major kick up the arse. You are all absolutely terrible at what you’re doing and clowns could do a better job. There is no pride out there, you’re all just too self satisfied to see it. As for Katrina Liebherr, you added considerably to your wealth by selling this football club first to the clown Gao and now to these muppets. It’s a shame that you continue to taint the memory of your father in this way. You all need to improve dramatically because you are terrible custodians of this football club.

It’s largely performative, and or total control-freakery and micro-management, which is empirically proven to be counterproductive. It’s like the person who does really long days and arrives early and leaves late: are they better at their work, or are they ineffective in the standard time period. Nobody does their best work if someone is telling them what to do all the time, it is actually very poor management, whether in football or any other walk of life.

The letter is currently in a misplaced post bag after being passed between administrators in the same corridor, and lost somewhere.

Our record towards the need of the season last year wasn't great. Obviously the play-offs went well but league-wise, once we got within touching distance of the top two, we dropped back. Teams had worked out how to win, or at least not lose against us. As others have written, we will lose most of our decent players when we go down so it won't be a given that we get promoted again under RM, or with the players we'll have left after this disastrous campaign.

Quite possibly the worst leadership ever of the club because they've had the money to spend, but this club is FUBAR.

Passing/playing it out from the back is not the problem, it is where and who we play it to, and when we do it. That's without the poor pass placement and pace it's done at The stats show all you need to know about how we are failing, and flailing. It is simply stupid how we do it. That's 100% on this manager.

Think we may need to look on the bright side of life more

Well they most likely wont play for us in the championship so even if they wanted to hold onto them, they won’t.

Russ would never use it, bravery only for that lad.

I knew the word, and I can also spell lose correctly.

I take it you mean 4 opposition players in our penalty box? 4 opposition players in our half isn’t a problem to overcome for even the least technical pros) The really stupid thing happening at the moment at the moment is that we are passing in to congested areas central and close to our goal. No problem playing it out from the back if the distances are correct or the direction of the pass is right, but we are just too tight and closely marked in the wrong areas, and the opposition is pouncing to take advantage frequently when we lose possession or have a brain fart, lose concentration or play it too short or mishit a pass. Opposition teams must love playing against us right now.

And if we’d been better run by people who didn’t fancy themselves too much (see the Southampton Way and Teachers of Football bollocks to Rasmus’ self love), Dortmund would’ve been the model, and still is a great model, to attempt to recreate. We of course wouldn’t achieve such high league positions but we’d be competitive. We are driven by money, Dortmund are motivated by putting the best team out on the pitch and developing the best players to make it happen, mixed with experienced heads. They also have very strong links with their fans. No reinventing or breaking things, just make good football teams with good players to play in them. Then put good mangers/head coaches or whatever to get the best results with the players available. Really flipping simple.

For all the confidence that some have that we'd be fine if we went down, getting relegated as terribly as we are destined to if we carry on the pathetic football style (no excuses, the way we play out into congested areas is stupid and not 'brave'), it would be further proof that SR are really not great at the leading/managing a football team bit. Imagine the scar tissue of being on the lowest ever points total in PL history. So far, they are not proving to be trusted custodians of this football club. They may get a few decent player trades from it when Dibling and Fernandes leave for better clubs but from what I've heard from some people at the club, it is hardly being run as a beacon of brilliance. The shitness of the Semmens/Gao/K. Liebherr era has just been replaced by the shitness of the new era. For some reason, Saints just never get a break when it comes to decent owners and management who can do it for a sustained period. We should be far better operated and not be a basket case but many fans seem okay with being fed shite. Unless RM has some change of heart and concedes that losing possession away from the goal mouth but being organised for 6 minutes or more is better than playing straight into the areas where opposition players will just wait for us to make an inevitable mistake and take advantage, we are screwed, and the impact will be lasting.

What this shows is that refs have biases and will be affected by media coverage, especially if the Sky-favoured teams. They are only human, but there are mistakes that just don’t make sense, and with VAR too like against Wolves.

Scar tissue and Rasmus being key to Brentford’s success suggests a lovely interaction between the journalist and Saints PR guru Jordan Sibley. If the journo did additional fact finding they’d see that Brentford have done better since Rasmus left. Scar tissue is pure Russ.