Daft Kerplunk

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.

Heard this was only about hospitality revamp to make it ‘Champions League ready’ so nothing for the oiks.

Ah okay, there seemed to be an indication that more would come soon. Maybe it was a dream though!

Where is part two of this blunderful interview? Club legal team desperately trying to stop publication perhaps!

Listening to it makes it even worse. Uninspiring load of rubbish when it comes to the most important thing at a football business: the football.

Desperate stuff that. Not a confident Ralph piece

This

Because the media team haven’t had time to put a video/photo montage together yet. Can’t just announce a player without all that in place!

Walcott will fit a club narrative of ‘one of our academy players making it to the first team’ so that’s a PR/spin win.

He’s not a coach (yet), he’s the resident cheerleader and bants leader. Which is probably going to be helpful. But certainly a different decision than a leading football club might take.

Bit harsh on the media man there, can only imagine the orders of secrecy come from on high, and the football side will close ranks and not allow any access. We march on to becoming a secretive non family club that was once a selling point.

A first team without a heart.

The person at fault for VVD is Reed. Ultimately he’s the one in charge of contracts and whether players leave or not and he has not been able to convince players like VVD, and Bertrand etc. that they still have a career here with a team doing good things whilst looking for a truly top team to move to. The ‘strategy’ of Reed et. al. has fundamentally not worked and they need to rethink ASAP or we are going to continue on a downward spiral and not towards the European competition that Chairman Gao has been sold. They can sack the manager but it will not stop the problems that come with having a football board that is set up to be average. Unless of course that is the real aim. Problem is, when you aim for average you can miss and go to the lower level. That is Saints right now

Until an arrogant board stop thinking they are headed for the Champions League with the current football leadership then we will continue bumbling along. Rees hasn’t no idea what it take so to get success and neither do the board. And by success, this is to be the best we can be, not about being ready for the Champions League, as that isn’t happening any time soon.

Players don’t give a sh!t about playing for Southampton which is the biggest part of the problem. So much for the ‘due diligence’work on player’s character before they are signed. Absolute tosh. Problems run far deeper than the manager/head of the first team department!

Sell him. He’s not here in spirit and we aren’t in a strong enough position to have players who don’t care. I’m sure the Liverpool fans would enjoy him going to Man City as well.

The game is a results business and Les isn’t on form and hasn’t been for awhile. Academy has got worse under his stewardship too. Time for him to do the honourable thing and leave.

This game will go against type for both managers. Us in a 6-5 thriller