mrfahaji

Depends how much you'd stand to win from Pompey's success. It'd have to be in the thousands to make it worth it for me. I won over £100 when they won the FA Cup that time (after they got past Ipswich with an incredible amount of luck, I thought "that's the sort of luck you get when you're going to win the cup") but was still sickened every step they took towards the final. In fact, the day they beat United I decided to try and give up following football because the levels of hatred inside me that day was not healthy. Needless to say, it didn't work.

A lot of people will be missing it because we’re crap but will use the other things you’ve listed as the reason why. I wonder how many of those who don’t have the time or money would suddenly find it if we were in the top half? I mean, if people don’t want to go, fine, for whatever reason. But many will be finding ‘alternative’ excuses rather than just saying “I think we’ll lose so don’t think it’s worth the bother”.

Putting money on us at 21/1 at the start of the season would have seemed incredibly negative, the only reason to do so was if you are constantly down on the club, do so regardless as ‘insurance’ or if you had genuine insight into how bad Pellegrino would be. However, once the season kicked off (certainly from Wolves onwards) there were signs that we'd end up in this position and could probably get good odds. H£ll, I got 16/1 at the start of November and there were plenty of warning signs before then.

Yep. The problem is, it's cringeworthy when whatever they are doing appears to be working. But more recently a lot of that tripe just clearly isn't true. I think the best line is the "decisiveness" with which we apparently sacked Puel. Incredible. Oh and Toon Saint, brilliant post.

I think the manner of the last two defeats, particularly the home game vs Chelsea is the reason for such doom & gloom. We didn't really expect to pick up points, even though it was more important to get something following Newcastle & West Ham. But to have a point or even three within our grasp and still fail to come out with anything is why everyone is now abandoning hope!

Wouldn’t disagree with that.

I have an excellent grip, after watching plenty of games he played in thank you. He really wasn’t very good for us, save for one or two matches (I can only think of one, Bournemouth away). His injury, perhaps coupled with a loss of confidence, meant he never beat anyone one on one, nor did he possess the eye for goal or strikers instinct he once did. He was regularly just not quite close enough or sharp enough to get a decisive touch. West Brom fans say familiar things about him - scores the occasional great goal but overall doesn’t look threatening and misses good chances. There are some similarities to Gabbiadini’s current form actually (though I believe Gabbiadini is better). Long had never been a good goalscorer but is at least good at some things. And I have not for one minute defended the signing of Carrillo, which if selling J-Rod for £15m was good business, buying Carrillo for £19m deserves a P45 all on its own.

Rodriguez, lol. Reed is to blame for a lot, but getting £15m for a player who simply couldn’t cut it for us isn’t one of them.

It puzzles me that some things are so obvious to some fans (2 up front leaving us totally exposed in midfield, as shown vs L1 Wigan) and some things obvious to all fans (Redmond left, Tadic right has never worked), yet multiple managers can't see it.

We joked that despite West Ham's woes, we'd somehow make them look like world beaters. No matter where you were on the joke/genuine scale, presumably no-one actually thought it'd be this close to the truth!

The worrying thing is what he might do next, given the circumstances you've outlined.

Hard to believe that we went 4-4-2 today after the first half vs Wigan. Presumably Hughes saw that match like the rest of us did?! Also, I thought Romeu was left out vs Wigan so he didn't get booked and could play today... I know he hasn't been great this season, but you can at least rely on him getting himself behind the ball and breaking up the play a bit.

We left it way too late to get rid of Pellegrino. I wasn't sure Hughes was the right answer, perhaps the only possible answer, but if he was going to save us he needed to figure a few things out and sort them straight away. He clearly hasn't managed it. Even if he does eventually, it's not good enough. He had to do it from today.

Just seen the goals. Lemina might give it away for the first one but can anyone who claims that Redmond has pace please pay attention to him on the replay and never ever claim he is fast again. Thanks.

Unbelievable, gutting and disgusting that in our most important game of the season we are 3-0 down at Half Time without even having a shot. A screw up of epic proportions.

Except it does matter. If you don't have very good players you can still keep it tight by packing midfield and making the opposition work hard for space and opportunities.

It was fine to do it at Wigan as a sign of attacking intent, but even that first half showed why it isn't a good idea. Pretty sure I, and many others, said afterwards "we won't be able to play that way in the Premier League", and so it is proving.

Standard trite message, which will no doubt be trotted out by the media. Selling players isn't a problem if you have the other cogs working effectively. Namely timing, value and quality replacements. We used to sign more players than we sold, and we found some good ones in the process. We also appeared to do our business quietly but quickly, early and at least in part on our terms. As time has gone by we've gone more for a 'one in one out' approach, increasing the risks of poor recruitment costing us, and seem to have been more haphazard/slack/poor with our approach. E.g. knowing you're going to sell a top player for lots of money for many months, yet not lining up any signings in advance.

The official site has had a poll of the best Saints XI, thought there might be a thread about it but as this is sort of related... Lallana got in. Hard to imagine which Saints fans could stomach voting for him even if they really thought he was one of the three best midfielders ever in a Saints shirt...

Erm, George Best, presumably...?

I heard it was Ralph who pushed for him to go, and it was Reed that wanted him to stay. Admittedly, when I say "I heard", I was told by someone who had read it or heard it 'somewhere'. So I give my statement very little credibility at all, but just interesting that I'd heard the exact opposite of the OP.

One thing I have just thought about, is don't Stoke always start every season really badly? Not sure if that suggests problems getting tactics over straight away, difficulty bedding in new players or finding the right system, or struggles with getting fitness levels up to standard etc? Or maybe just a coincidence and it means nothing.

Agreed. It's one of those places that you half expect not to be as good as when you see it for real, but it is spectacular.

Yep. I guess it's how you define 'good in the air' - good at heading or good at jumping? (or even just 'being tall') It's also not just about aerial ability, but strength & composure. Lambert and Pelle could hold the ball up well because they could hold off the defender while also being good enough to find a good pass. I might be splitting hairs a bit with the formation definition, but I'd say being able to hold the ball up is more important in a 4-2-3-1 whereas winning flick ons is more useful in a 4-4-2. With Gabbiadini consistently making those runs in behind, Carrillo winning a few flicks might have sent him away a few times.

Has he though? I didn't see him win very much at all on Sunday. Agree about his instincts, so many times the ball would be lofted forward and it was Gabbiadini trying to win the header and Carrillo was nowhere to be seen. Admittedly, maybe that's the passer's fault rather than the recipient! But it also suggests Carrillo wasn't putting himself in very good positions to be a target.