DuncanRG

Where's all this about Pelligrini wanting the job come from? And him not being a 'tracksuit manager'? News to me. (PS suggesting Nigel Adkins should return disqualifies you from being taken seriously on anything)

Davis hasn't been great this season but he was one of the first names on the teamsheet for three years as we became a European team. There's a reason, even if he's not showing it now.

Really good post, thanks for making it. You've struck upon something about the team spirit, which is clearly not what it used to be. We can all speculate on the precise causes but you have look at the manager. There are clearly some players who are frustrated by being moved in and out of the team, but there might be other things going on as well. Pointing out how far we've come has its uses when those who made it happen come under attack. It's important to set failures like January against the huge amount of credit they've earnt over the years. It's always worth casting your mind back to the fans' expectations for the season, as you allude to. There were plenty who were happy to languish in midtable in exchange for a cup run. It doesn't feel so rosy when you have to live through the poor results, especially with the football on offer, but there you go. Win the cup and it's one of our greatest years ever.

You can't prove a negative, but I'm referring to the diamond. Reed and the club have spoken about having a broad outline of how our football should be played, ie attacking, possession football with some variation on that 4-3-3. So to some degree all our managers have been 'yes men', as they accept those conditions, but as we've seen they all have their own style. Nothing marks Puel out as more of a 'yes man' than the rest, only that he's not doing as well and people love reaching around for ways to blame the bogeyman.

I think his bigger claim to fame is helping take Southampton from League One to Europe, personally. Is playing the 5ft10 Ryan Bertrand over the 6ft Jack Stephens really ideal because the opposition put a big man up top? Not from where I'm sitting. I didn't watch the press conference (I never watch Puel, otherwise I'd end up moaning about him being boring) but if he preferred Bertrand to Stephens he'd have already made that change. It seemed to me he saw Bertrand as a back-up if Stephens or Yoshida get injured too.

Wouldn't a yes man play the team Reed wanted, instead of rotating? And not, er, come in and change our formation more significantly than any of the last three managers? And not change it later when it wasn't working? This is proper conspiracy theory stuff.

I was at work today and could only listen on Solent. Would it be fair to suggest that we lack leadership without Fonte and Van Dijk and that those absences, plus Forster's poor form, give us the wobbles?

I propose two football people and at least one t'riffic lad.

Why? Will he not be the manager at Wembley? Puel's clearly got a job on his hands, and if he can't get the team hitting its potential over the rest of the season then we may have to pull the plug. But what's important, as we learnt the hard way in January, is that we have a replacement and don't throw the baby out with the bathwater.

I and a few others manage it okay, I think.

Form's crap, team is creaking, but we're not in a relegation battle. Not yet.

They were here at the same time, you know.

I was going to suggest we don't feed the troll, but it appears you nunch of reactionaries agree with him. Ho-hum.

Fonte has a lot more experience of dealing with Long and Rodriguez than he does Gabbiadini. Might only be of marginal benefit, but worth thinking out

If we didn't trust Stephens he wouldn't have played in the semifinal. He'll start in the final unless he gets injured or completely falls to pieces, and that's the right call too. EDIT: or, I suppose, if Gardos plays the next two games and really impresses.

I can't imagine that our answer to being short on centre halves will be to play three of them at once.

I think you might be overreacting slightly, Wayne!

You can have mine when I'm finished with it.

No one thinks it's solely down to him but he is, er, the director of football, and the football's gone really well. That's why.

Er, yep. Thanks for that.

Do you have any evidence for that whatsoever? I don't get where this theory comes from. Of course this season has been disappointing, notwithstanding the final which could (let's remember) make it one of the greatest in our history. Of course we need to do better. But Reed and the club know that and will be working on solutions. If those solutions don't work - and we do badly next year, the year after - then they'll deserve criticism. The bile they're getting now, when they've delivered some of the most remarkable years this club has ever seen, is utterly bonkers.

That challenge was so unlike him. West Ham go to pieces at their ground, don't they?

Here's the thing, though. This centre back episode is unlike us. It's unusual. We don't normally scramble on deadline day, we sign players in good time and our success rate is very high. So yeah, I suppose you could say that makes it more frustrating. But it doesn't even begin to justify the whiny, entitled nonsense we're hearing at the moment.

I have no idea.

Any neutral would laugh at this thread. Fans of the umpteen badly run English clubs would cry. Some of you have no idea how lucky you are to follow a stable and successful club.