Daft Kerplunk

Les next to do the honourable thing and leave after two terrible appointments unless he redeems himself and appoints a major name... Massive decision now for him and the club

Genuinely amazing that Les agreed has not appeared in an unstaged (as in club PR) interview since we were in a cup final. Come on Saints, wheel out the man in charge of all football activities so he can explain what is happening, and what is being done about it and where we go from here. Get him to put his neck on the line if you’ve got a pair and haven’t just become yet another faceless corporate (non) entity!

True leaders stand up and make themselves accountable. Les is a politician, or even more accurately a solid internal operating civil servant used to hiding behind people in hard times, claiming the limelight when things that others put in place, especially where it concerns the academy.

Losing to a relegation rival in that way shows the players aren’t willing to fight for survival. Manager clearly isn’t built for this either. The tactics of hoping for most possession and snatching a goal are not what is required but football has become that way sadly. Boring on many ways. Then there is Les, who has appointed two duff head coaches for us (as in what Southampton FC are about; attacking football that came long before the absolute bullish!t self-congratulatory marketing carp) in a row and signed the players who are not right for us either. Both Les and Pellegrino need to go, and the board needs more football people on it to keep the football people on their toes and not have the absolute power Les has because the rest of the board are clueless and fall for his ‘I coached England’ rubbish. At no stage when Les was involved with the FA was it actually any good. Sleepwalking to relegation since the board thought they had conquered football with Les at the helm!

For all our ‘great’ players on paper, who out there yesterday was showing this greatness, and who has the character to dig us out of a hole? In 2004/5 we had good players on paper but it doesn’t mean a thing unless they’re good on grass. For the club’s much talked about due diligence into player’s character it seems the are missing the key ingredient: motivation. Our players yesterday looked like a group of players who have given up playing for this football club, probably because most of them think they will get easy moves in the summer if we go down. They all get their money so why worry. If our ‘great’ players have anything about themselves they would be rolling up their sleeves to get us out of a mess they are also responsible for. I look forward to them showing some character and professional integrity in the 11 matches left to save our premier league status. If they don’t, they will just be average players incable of showing a spirit and hunger for victory that defines truly great players.

So in the transfer window we needed to add speed and a bit of character. We can see it, but our football ‘experts’ can’t. Pellegrino is obviously limited at this stage of his career (he may learn for his next job and may also get better more motivated players, which ours clearly aren’t) so the blame from me for our situation lies firmly with an absolutely pathetic and self serving board of directors, and current owner who doesn’t care and previous owner who just wanted to get rid of the club and get as much money as possible, regardless of the sh1t situation it left the football club in.

If ever a game summed up Les, Ralph and Katarina’s failure this was it. Going to be a fun run in for our European football chasing club.

Very bad. Nothing shown

The atmosphere at a rugby match is like a slightly tipsy tea party with good chaps singing hymns as they don’t really care about the outcome. Give me the rawness of a football match (certainly pre Premier League Sky cleansed b0ll0cks) anyday.

to get momentum going.

More positive, need results - draws against the stronger teams, wins v those around us like today - in the next couple of matches.

If the board pull the trigger then they are going to have to make Les appoint someone who is a strong character who will tell him to get his own staff in, be able to criticise the academy’s lack of production under Les and Martin Hunter’s direction, be stronger in making sure Les is on top of transfers earlier and not dithering like in this and last January’s window etc. Pellegrino hasn’t worked and neither did Puel in our system. Ronald Koeman and Pochettino were both powerful enough to operate in their own way and with Poch, he was allowed to bring in his own staff (goalkeeper coach to fitness coach) to make his methods work. So in my opinion, when we have a strong manager or one who has his own staff, things are better. When we have a manager who is not strong or able to appoint his own people, it isn’t as good. Maybe the dream model created by Les (who has very little club football experience compared with his work in the FA - we all know how useful that organisation is) and a corporate board just doesn’t work for a club in the Premier League. Maybe time to get back to basics and try not to reinvent something that has been working reasonably well for 100 plus years and clubs who had strong managers in near absolute control of first team matters, input into the academy/apprenticeships etc. like Fergie, Clough and so on.

This is spot on for me. Plus both Alderweirweld and VVD signed because we had Koeman. Once the lure of Cortese’s CL ambition (however based on sand) and Koeman’s stature were gone, things have been shown for what they are.

100% Kat sold us down the river. Apparently from someone I know at the club, she still expects the loans she gave to be paid back. Nothing necessarily that bad with that but truly amazing given how much she sold the club for after getting it for free in an inheritance. The sale was for personal gain only and not to benefit Southampton FC. Relegation may at least lead to a clear out of the board and maybe get some more football people in to keep Les in check (if he doesn’t retire), an apparently massive senior management team who can’t make decisions, a realignment of the academy and make the football club focus on what is actually important and allow it to compete.

Absolute fail by Les and the board. Absolute jokers. Tonight looked like a team destined for relegation. At least it might lead to a clear out of all the dead wood (most of the board) and BS about being Champions League ready.

Relegation doesn’t worry me as a supporter of SFC because I’d be a supporter regardless. However, going down would be a major blow on a sporting level.

No signings but a comfortable win today and at least a draw on Saturday will work. Ideally we would get a decent attacking and hungry player in.

Anyone saying that was good has a very low threshold for that clarification. We won, which is good. We gave away the initiative because we were more worried about losing than being confident in our ability to win. Baby steps perhaps and listening to Pellegrino afterwards explained it. But is being defensive the Southampton Way? No. Is it fun to watch? Hardly. Did it deflate the atmosphere? Yes. Did it invite pressure on that wasn’t really evident? Yes. But we go into the next round and it’s another Match for MoPe to demonstrate that he can make us an attacking team to match the club’s rhetoric.

If this fella is like Mane, we should be pulling out all stops to make this happen. A player that provides the unexpected and is direct would be just the tonic for our frontline.

If he’s there now, it’ll take a few days for he announcement videos. Gone are the days of a simple press conference unveiling.

Seems pretty simple. We are in clear relegation danger and probably wanted him on a long term contract, which he and his agent rightly thought was risky because we could be in the championship next year. Had we got the deal done over Christmas though, where we still had a couple of winnable games, maybe it would have been different. Any industry will talk amongst itself so despite our European Competition rhetoric people will know we aren’t close to that anymore and the kids aren’t coming through. The club will probably still trying to sell that European football vision whilst hearing from other current players and players who have left that our level has been reduced. We probably just need a few grafters anyway to focus on maintaining our Premier League status. I think if the owner was serious about taking us to the next level we would have heard more by now too as I can’t imagine he made a purchase without any plan like RK has tried to imply by saying he’s taking his time to assess things first. I don’t buy it.

How many times have we let the opposition back in? Remember the times when being 2-0 up meant that was 3 points in the bag. Les needs to call in on Lady Luck and buy some players who know how to play to win a game of football. Then maybe let the manager be the dominant figure in the football department and not just a part of a model that is no longer working.

If he was a serious target and it doesn’t happen then it is a significant fail from our current board. We either were serious or not. Regardless of the player’s perceived value (by fans) this deal should have been wrapped up as soon as VVD went if we wanted to do it.

Absolutely the best atmosphere at SMS ever, even though the inevitable was going to happen that season. Wonder if we fans remember how to be loud again in time for this season’s relegation run in.

This match is an exceptionally uncomfortable watch thinking where we could have been had Katarina been willing to properly invest for growth of our football club instead of priming it for selling. And don’t say it could not have happened because Man City have made something happen from relatively little because of genuine ambition by rich owners and stretching within (and beyond when it got them further) the rules to work for them. Now we are among the favourites for relegation. Nice one.