Vancouver Saint

You're right! It does get a bit silly when you see these huge 6'4" goalies with huge pads literally blocking the goal...but there is a size, weight and agility trade-off. These NHL hockey forwards are so good they can hit a small space only a couple of square inches wide. My son is a good hockey player...not quite NHL standard...but he can regularly score 'bar-down' goals intentionally (that is goals that go in off the underside of the bar). Same thing applies with footie goalies - I'm thinking of a certain Fraser Foster here...a giant of a man you'd think would block most shots but anything low to either side! (or high or straight at him for that matter!)

Thank you so much S-Clarke, very helpful - you are a gent. Some players in the looking certain to stay space I would give away for free to save wages and eliminate the threat of taking space up on the pitch...BBD / Smallbone. Jay Robinson a highlight in the certain to stay list I hope too. I'd have put Nathan Wood in the keep category too. When you see it like this, if we could keep Fernandes and THB we could be alright this season...

I know I'm being lazy, but can someone spare me the trouble of trawling through the last however many pages of this and just summarise who we've sold / who is on the block now (i.e. real offers on the table) and who we've acquired or is definitely staying. Thank you in advance. FWIW my thoughts on transfers: I can't believe a new No.1 goalkeeper isn't our top priority. Hockey is the national sport here and the goalkeeper plays a disproportionately important role in determining the team's success or not...not so different in footie. I think our fortunes this season are directly linked to if Fernandes stays. And we have a new captain. It used to be it was the best player that everyone looked up to that was captain, age didn't matter. I think Stephens seems like a decent bloke, but giving him a 3-year extension and the club captaincy is idiotic IMHO...it takes away the opportunity to retain and attract the new captain material we so badly need. Of course if Stephens goes on to have the season of his life and lifts the Championship Winners Trophy at the end of the season I'll be delighted to eat humble pie.

Class act. Deserved a better team and club than us the last couple of years but stuck to his task with total professionalism. Added some much needed flair in a dreadful season. Wish him well. Think it'll be Fulham who benefit from our loss.

I'm more concerned about where to watch the live games - last time we were in the Championship the SaintsViewer platform or whatever it was was a complete joke.

Mickey Channon my favourite player. Takes me back seeing Terry Paine laying on passes for him to score. His famous windmill celebration clearly didn't come out until later years! I met him outside Vicarage Road once when I was doing a Post Grad Diploma in Watford...a gentleman as ever. My sister met him recently at a horse racing event and he was the same.

Whoever we get as manager I just hope the focus and investment goes into what we put on the pitch. Although the manager is a crucial appointment of course, how we manage the transformation of our current squad through culling, active selection and recruitment will be the most important factor. Our past track record ion recruitment is woeful. Fernandes perhaps the only bright spark. We need a complete rebuild, starting with a playing captain who is at least close to the best player on the pitch if not the best. Even if (laugh out loud now) even if we managed to keep Fernandes to have something to build around, we need a new goalkeeper, two new centre-backs, and a proven striker (we have to assume Stewart won't be available for the majority of the season through injury). What we do with Jack Stephens is the litmus test for me. He may be a great servant to the club, and he seems like a really nice guy, devoted to the club, but if he's still with us next season...and worse as captain...then I know we've have ducked out of making the easy (from a distance, difficult in person) decision and are doomed. How we start the season is going to make a big difference this time. We're a team that has forgotten what it's like to win a game of football. Once that becomes embedded in the culture it's difficult to change - we have a chance at the beginning of next season to rediscover the feeling of winning and turn the ship around. It will need to come quickly, because this 'worst ever' season has drained the goodwill of even the hardiest of diehard lifetime fans like me.

Well happy to admit my 0-6 forecast was way off. Happy with the point and the pride in the performance. But reality check here - let's not kid ourselves that fortune favours those who play the low block in an incredibly negative approach and pray to the gods we get lucky. Rusk is not the answer!

0-6 to Man City B team. If we're lucky.

Completely apathetic. This team and this season has managed to grind 56 years of support into disinterested apathy - I never thought I could be this dissociated with the club I've supported all my life. There must be an award somewhere for maximum brand equity erosion or something that SR would win hands down. Man City B to win 3-0...boring boring stroll in the park for them...us trying to park the bus, which is really a very badly battered VW camper-van.

So proud of our team. Great effort to win that title of worst Premier League team EVER! Whoever thought Rusk was our saviour might need a rethink after that. Zero effort, bizarre substitutions...Smallbone the gamechanger in for Fernandes...rrrright....! Jack Stephens with a side-bet with the bookies for multiple fu*k-ups leading to a goal? Had to be.

I get it, we are a very limited team - but the managerial approach is the reverse of 'fortune favours the brave'. We sat so deep we invited pressure on us. There was no outlet and every time we cleared it cam straight back at us. It was inevitable Fulham were going to score. What we needed int hat last 20 minutes when we were still 1-0 up, was actually a Joe Aribo to be able to pass out to and get further up the pitch. I know people don't like him, but he can work hard and keep the ball at his feet, draw fouls etc. I would keep Fernandes, Downes, THB (properly coached), Dibling if we don't get more than £60M for him - otherwise, the rest can go. I'd include Ramsdale in that - I just don't rate him...he's a great shot-stopper but he doesn't command his 6-yard box let alone 18-yard box, shouts a lot but still fails to make that big save when we need it...or more importantly, prevent the threat by coming out and catching the ball cleanly from set pieces. Let's get our money back - we can get a better goalkeeper for half the money. We need some hope for next season. Lack of news around the new manager is disappointing. ANy news on that front?

Only saw the game from the 50th minute when we were 1-0 down. Thought we played pretty well after this point and were the better team. Certainly deserved at least a draw. Dibling should have scored earlier. Team certainly playing for Rusk until the final minute...could have won it with a few minutes more

Just seen a BBC poll that shows 71% think we were wrong to have sacked RM - WTF! - who are these people?!🙄

Rohl for me, with Cooper as a fallback option. I don't really know how good either are, but going on the reaction of Wednesday fans to Rohl's imminent departure it seems he was well liked there. They are sad to seem him go but also want to see him succeed and know their management is the issue,

What an embarrassing shambles of a season. Has an announcement been made about the new manager yet? SR have had plenty of time to plan ahead of our predictable relegation. Juric needs to go today with our without a replacement in mind. They need to send a signal that things change as of now. My hope is Rohl comes in asap and helps us keep the one or two players we will need to compete for a promotion place in the Championship. Also get the points we need to beat Derby's unwanted record. This season has been such a cluster-f_ck I suspect people will be referring to 'Doing a Southampton' in a disparaging way for years to come.

Please tell me you're joking! The irony is, with SR I could believe it to be true! I think that would be the end of my over 55-years as a Saints fan, there's just so much punishment you can take.

Why isn't he gone already?

Noooooo! Help me understand...you'd bring in a criminal 'park the bus' defensive manager waaaay past his sell-by date to re-ignite our re-birth?

So can't be bothered any more. Even when we play moderately okay you just know we will contrive a way to lose. When we were 1-0 up at half time my Arsenal friend texted me 'Come on you Saints!'...I texted back 1-4 to Liverpool final score...so I was out by a goal - but real reality for us is so predictable. If we were a horse we'd have been shot by now...can't wait for this misery of a season to be over. Vultures have been circling for weeks. We have the joy of watching our best players be bought from under us and being left with crap and a total rebuild in the Championship next year. Juric has to go, but SR will probably bottle that. Rohl a glimmer of hope if he gets hired early, after we've been relegated so it's not on his record, with enough time and money to rebuild over the summer.

Ha! I am so disengaged from this pile of crap I didn't even realise there was a game today until I chanced on the (entirely predictable) result. I don't believe anyone sets out to fail, let alone fail as spectacularly as we have done - but SR is rotten to the core and needs to be cleaned out from top to bottom. I don't blame Dragan so much - think he's a victim too. He's put the cash in and put his trust in the SR team who sold him a dream. If he's made a mistake it's tolerating gross incompetence too long. I look straight at Rasmus Wankersun. His over-confidence and belief in himself led to what must be the single most devastatingly bad managerial appointment ever in Nathan Jones - that was the catalyst that put the club in a death-spiral (accelerated by some furthur mind-numbingly bad managerial and recruitment decisions). Anyone still think Hasenhutl isn't the worldclass manager he clearly is/was? So it's done. Juric is not the right guy to lead us next season in the Championship. Not all his fault but he's also not right. We need someone youthful, energetic, who wins football matches and makes individual players better players, but builds a team first and foremost. Someone who realises that this is a game about goals. And that after five years or more - we need goalscorers. It's going to be a long rebuild my friends.

Meantime back at the ranch - Moyes defines Mew Manager Bounce with our friend Charlie Alcaraz scoring the winner for four wins in a row. Us, we didn't even get a dead cat bounce. Just a deeper hole.

Nailed it. I only saw the second half because i just couldn't be bothered to get up earlier to watch...correctly predicted we'd be 2-0 down at half time (but had us down to lose 3-0 so Sulemana goal a bonus. There was a brief 10 minutes after we'd scored that if we'd scored again it could have been interesting. Of course we concede again to eliminate any chance of a nervous last few minutes for them. Thought Aribo played well, Fernandes, Dibbling, Ramsdale, Sulemana. Onuachu needs to get infront of his man and be more aggressive in the box. Juric? - anyone who plays Smallbone, let alone starts with him is an automatic incompetent red card in my book. I've had enough of him already.

Two incredibly boring teams in an incredibly boring match. Did we have a shot on target after they scored? Does Juric really think Will 'gamechanger' Smallbone is the answer to anything? Fortunately, SR have done an incredible job of detaching me emotionally from the club I've supported for over 50 years. I just don't care .

I'm interested to see if there's a gap in quality between bottom of the Premier (by a mile) and top of the Championship...