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We're a laughing stock

Sunglasses Ron

By Sunglasses Ron,
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Sunglasses Ron

Sunglasses Ron

Posted
Posted (edited)

I mean what the fucking fuck has happened to us since we beat the skates 4-0 in 2019?

Aside from almost total mediocrity, there are these obvious highlights:

> October 2019 - 0-9 against Leicester (record PL / home defeat);

> February 2021: 9-0 against Manchester United (record PL defeat, AGAIN);

> March 2022: 0-6 at home against Chelsea.

More recently, we've had to endure this absolute shite:

> Losing in the FA Cup to League 2 Grimsby (at home);

> Losing in the League Cup to League 2 Gillingham;

> Haven't won by more than a single goal, in any competition, since March 2022 (Edit: We beat Cambridge united 3-0 last August in the League Cup);

> Just two wins at home in the league in the last 12 months;

> Not a single clean sheet in any competition since March;

> Nathan Fucking Jones;

> Ruben Smegging Selles;

> Russell Bloody Martin (promotion campaign fucked up in just four games).

I can barely think of any notable highlights:

> 1-0 win against Manchester City in 2020;

> Top of the league for about 12 hours in 2020;

> 3-2 win against Tottenham in 2022;

> JWP free kicks.

As per the title, we're a bloody laughing stock.

Feel free to add items to the above lists! 😄

Edited by Sunglasses Ron
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Patrick Bateman

Patrick Bateman

Posted
Posted

I agree. This club has been so completely fucked up and mismanaged it's unreal.

Piss poor transfers.

Worst managerial appointments possible.

Ridiculous "project" concepts.

I'm lost for words.  Just get a PROPER football manager in (Allardyce, I don't care!) and win some fucking matches playing normal fucking football with some passion. 

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harvey

harvey

Posted
Posted
2 minutes ago, Patrick Bateman said:

I agree. This club has been so completely fucked up and mismanaged it's unreal.

Piss poor transfers.

Worst managerial appointments possible.

Ridiculous "project" concepts.

I'm lost for words.  Just get a PROPER football manager in (Allardyce, I don't care!) and win some fucking matches playing normal fucking football with some passion. 

Which just about sums it up 100%

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Dark Munster

Dark Munster

Posted
Posted
52 minutes ago, Turkish said:

A club that is up its own arse trying to do things cleverly, wanting to be seen as a cool, hipster club but a failing to do even the basics right

This arsehole is the mastermind behind all of it. A complete charlatan and fraud. A legend in his own mind.

https://trainingground.guru/articles/rasmus-ankersen-why-football-clubs-should-embrace-failure

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Micky

Micky

Posted
Posted

Whether other fans are laughing or not (the blue few will be) is largely irrelevant, BUT the fact remains that as pointed out by the OP this club has been serving up dire football for years, and I mean years. Some of the lowlights listed above are truly fucking embarrassing, when your paying premium prices to watch you're entitled to expect at least some quality now and again, but we have been woeful for a long, long time.  Players, managers and board members come and go, most seem not to give a fuck, the only constant are the fans who frankly have remained really supportive in the face of so many awful performances and results. 

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Miltonaggro

Miltonaggro

Posted
Posted

As soon as we were relegated the club needed a complete reset, and this doesn’t appear to have happened. This is squarely on Ankersen and Kraft, as despite Solak’s vow to be more ‘hands on’ there is zero evidence of this. On the face of it Wilcox was a good appointment, but other than recoup a huge amount of money for Sport Republic little appears to have been done culturally. A lot of us who were paying attention twenty years ago knew a relegation model for failure (Lowe) and a working model for promotion (Leibherr) already existed and assumed SR would choose the latter not former. To do this we needed to bring in a unifying manager and buy (not loan), experienced, committed players of a high quality for this league and focus squarely on winning football matches and building belief, support and momentum. Not rocket science but you need full buy in. Instead we have Sport Republic doubling down, zero urgency or spirit, bullshitting the fans over summer and fiddling whilst our club burns. We are worse than a laughing stock, we are currently perhaps the best model of failure in English football - that’s Ankersen’s fucking CV entry for what it’s worth. 

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Winnersaint

Winnersaint

Posted
Posted (edited)

Everyone who knows me, knows I'm a Saints fan. No-one laughing at us in Berkshire, mind you there's Reading for the locals to worry about! As many point out most people seem to do Prem only, so they don't give a monkeys arse about what goes on outside of it.

Edited by Winnersaint
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stknowle

stknowle

Posted
Posted
17 hours ago, Patrick Bateman said:

I agree. This club has been so completely fucked up and mismanaged it's unreal.

Piss poor transfers.

Worst managerial appointments possible.

Ridiculous "project" concepts.

I'm lost for words.  Just get a PROPER football manager in (Allardyce, I don't care!) and win some fucking matches playing normal fucking football with some passion. 

This. I am genuinely staggered by how badly we have been/are being run. Thought we'd at least be competitive in this league. Nope. Total and utter mess. 

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Holmes_and_Watson

Holmes_and_Watson

Posted
Posted

People where I am have staged weekly parades, with placards mocking Southampton like "9-0" front and "9-0 Again" on the back; "Fail to Succeed With Rasmus" and "Romeu Out" in a Saints shield front and "Romeu In" in a Barca shield on the back.

The chanting along with finger pointing and laughing also isn't great. That might not be Saints related though 🙂

Of folk that are interested in football, there's a mix of :-

- Sympathy as they believe we've got such a good recruitment policy.
- Banter as we put together such shocking performances, and in such long runs too.
- Disinterest beyond knowing the score, as they are plastic Premier League fans.
- Their own clubs have plenty of issues, and they are as caught up in those, as we are in ours.

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Saint Fan CaM

Saint Fan CaM

Posted
Posted (edited)

Frankly whether our club is being mocked or not by others is an irrelevance - the sad fact is the OP has listed a disgraceful history of shockingly poor management and performances. You can add to the list the fact that the same mistakes, the same poor performances have been repeated over and over for years now, which means the ability to analyse failure and take effective corrective action is seriously flawed. In fact I’ve just realised that ultimately that’s why I gave up my ST and I’m gradually losing interest…I just can’t support a regime that can’t learn from its mistakes.

Edited by Saint Fan CaM
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ant

ant

Posted
Posted

Kinda interesting if you look back at who played in the skates game, assessing what's happened to us in relation to that group.

Even relative to the context of 2019, it wasn't full of superstars. So there really wasn't room for regression.

Yet we did. Generally through failure to replace departures with similar quality, or relying on bang-average players for too long.

- McCarthy. Given a new contract, entirely without merit. A wage millstone ever since. Technically replaced, but not adequately.

- Bertrand. Was allowed to depart at about the right time, but wasn't really replaced like-for-like. Sometimes leading to KWP having to play at LB.

- Bednarek. Was OK as cover in the PL, but recruitment to better him was a failure overall. Which his reintegration confirmed.

- Yoshida. Was allowed to depart at about the right time. But was better cover than what we've had since.

- Cedric. To be fair we played a bit of a blinder with Arsenal & Cedric. One of very few positions where we've recruited well.

- Ward-Prowse. We surrounded him with crap, often didn't play him in his best position and then actively flogged him off.

- Romeu. Wanted to go, but we didn't have to sell. Meant we pinned all of our hopes on a physically-developing (if extremely talented) 18yo, incapable of playing every game. Still not adequately replaced.

- Hojbjerg. Had his flaws, and could be argued we did decent business on him. But between Oriol and Pierre we've not had a decent ball-winner since.

- Ings. Not convinced we could've kept him, but it's been an utter clusterfuck since. We've cheaped out, played a risky waiting game, overspent in a panic... And none of it's led to a replacement.

- Adams. Would've been good enough as a support striker but was tasked with leading the line; see Ings section.

- Obafemi. Was playing a wide forward that night. Probably right to let him go. But reminds me that we've not really had decent wide attackers since the Koeman era.

- Redmond. Was normally the starter in the position Obafemi played. Blew hot and cold, but chipped in with goals and assists in a way that we've never replaced.

- Long. Was already little more than a bit-part player, so N/A really.

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Saint86

Saint86

Posted
Posted (edited)

Sadly, the most likely way I see for our fortunes improving is after a long drawn out death under SR before they finally sell up (I accept that I am totally disillusioned with them at this point). But, for example, we limp along being uncompetitive for a few years in the championship... Every summer we try to flog our players for whatever we can, the ones that stay know there is no real plan / ambition for growth / project  (unlike the league 1 team), and so we go through an iterative period of diminishing returns of squad quality and player trading before eventually being relegated and likely suffering an administration.

And on this point, imagine being a player at the club currently, we've made huge sales and made no effort to stop any players leaving, we've got a few left that don't want to be here, Flynn downes who we know doesn't, and the England u21 captain who must realise what a total shit show he's joined but knows he can exit stage left in the summer... Who exactly are we building a team around? Who is driving us forward? What is the plan / the dream? Probably our star player (alcaraz) has seemingly fallen out of favour and is being benched ffs. It's a far cry from lambert, lallana, fonte, morgan, kelvin etc.

And if we don't get promoted this year / next season, it really is likely that we'll continue to decline and get relegated, or at best that we'll settle as a bang average championship team indefinitely, with no real hope of promotion...

At some point along this journey, SR will finally decide to try to sell up - extracting as much as they can before hand i suspect.

Sadly I think it's becoming clearer all the time that this is an ego project, but that they simply do not know how to actually execute any of their supposed bright ideas. 

And at the point they do finally sell up, we're looking at a lottery on perspective new owners, and on whatever car crash state the club is in - No doubt all our best youth players will have long been sold before they finally sell up - we'll have long since been milked of all player trading potential. 

Edited by Saint86
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Dr Who?

Dr Who?

Posted
Posted

I can honestly say that the  people’s republic of Carlisle do not give a flying feck about Southampton, let alone be laughing at them. There are far too many past premier league teams fecking it all up in the championship. Stoke being one of them today, Norwich another yesterday. Honestly we will spend many years like all these old premier league clubs floating around this league. 

The teams that have done things better in recent years are those that have completely rebuilt from lower down the league pyramid including ourselves. Leicester, Norwich, Brighton, Bournemouth, Luton, Coventry (not so much), Ipswich, Brentford. I’m sure there are others. 

We care as we are right in the middle of the circus 🤡. I spoke to my neighbour Villa fan this morning and he did not even know how we got on. 🤷🏽 

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Dr Who?

Dr Who?

Posted
Posted (edited)

These times would be more bearable if we actually won some silverware during the ‘good times’. Apart from the top 6/7 in the premier league ALL the other teams have and will again spend time In the 2nd tier or lower in the next 10 years. 

For me it is about grabbing these moments when you are on top of your game and getting to finals and winning trophies 🏆 

Edited by Dr Who?
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stknowle

stknowle

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, Challenger said:

When a stranger asks me who I support, I now say that I don't follow football, it's just not worth the grief anymore.

My Mum always told me not to talk to strangers. Always wondered why now I know it's so they can't take the piss out of me for supporting SFC.

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Saint IQ

Saint IQ

Posted
Posted
On 23/09/2023 at 17:14, Sunglasses Ron said:

I mean what the fucking fuck has happened to us since we beat the skates 4-0 in 2019?

Aside from almost total mediocrity, there are these obvious highlights:

> October 2019 - 0-9 against Leicester (record PL / home defeat);

> February 2021: 9-0 against Manchester United (record PL defeat, AGAIN);

> March 2022: 0-6 at home against Chelsea.

More recently, we've had to endure this absolute shite:

> Losing in the FA Cup to League 2 Grimsby (at home);

> Losing in the League Cup to League 2 Gillingham;

> Haven't won by more than a single goal, in any competition, since March 2022;

> Just two wins at home in the league in the last 12 months;

> Not a single clean sheet in any competition since March;

> Nathan Fucking Jones;

> Ruben Smegging Selles;

> Russell Bloody Martin (promotion campaign fucked up in just four games).

I can barely think of any notable highlights:

> 1-0 win against Manchester City in 2020;

> Top of the league for about 12 hours in 2020;

> 3-2 win against Tottenham in 2022;

> JWP free kicks.

As per the title, we're a bloody laughing stock.

Feel free to add items to the above lists! 😄

That's horrendous 

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Whitey Grandad

Whitey Grandad

Posted
Posted
On 23/09/2023 at 17:14, Sunglasses Ron said:

I mean what the fucking fuck has happened to us since we beat the skates 4-0 in 2019?

Aside from almost total mediocrity, there are these obvious highlights:

> October 2019 - 0-9 against Leicester (record PL / home defeat);

> February 2021: 9-0 against Manchester United (record PL defeat, AGAIN);

> March 2022: 0-6 at home against Chelsea.

More recently, we've had to endure this absolute shite:

> Losing in the FA Cup to League 2 Grimsby (at home);

> Losing in the League Cup to League 2 Gillingham;

> Haven't won by more than a single goal, in any competition, since March 2022;

> Just two wins at home in the league in the last 12 months;

> Not a single clean sheet in any competition since March;

> Nathan Fucking Jones;

> Ruben Smegging Selles;

> Russell Bloody Martin (promotion campaign fucked up in just four games).

I can barely think of any notable highlights:

> 1-0 win against Manchester City in 2020;

> Top of the league for about 12 hours in 2020;

> 3-2 win against Tottenham in 2022;

> JWP free kicks.

As per the title, we're a bloody laughing stock.

Feel free to add items to the above lists! 😄

Didn’t we beat Cambridge United 3-0?

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Chris cooper

Chris cooper

Posted
Posted
On 24/09/2023 at 10:00, Lord Duckhunter said:

My mates are laughing at me over Saints. However, when I get into conversations with strangers about football not one has laughed over my support. Nobody really pays any attention to us or our tribulations. 

Same mate .. we’ve become so irrelevant to every other club.. no one actually takes this piss anymore.. 

I work at Fawley refiney.. full of all different football fans at the moment cos of a few plant maintenance turnarounds … only skates give me stick. 

I went Saturday..made the 5hr journey by car ..stayed in a premier inn and drove back Sunday morning..I can confirm Middlesbrough is still a shit hole.

Work today with a tractor boys fan and a Mackem .. not one of them took the piss .. especially the Mackem ..I was surprised as they are boro rivals..not even a dig from the Ipswich fan about how shit Russ Martin is .. they just bigged up their clubs chances of going up ..  no one gives a flying fuck about Southampton.

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SW5 SAINT

SW5 SAINT

Posted
Posted
On 24/09/2023 at 10:00, Lord Duckhunter said:

My mates are laughing at me over Saints. However, when I get into conversations with strangers about football not one has laughed over my support. Nobody really pays any attention to us or our tribulations. 

You got mates……😯

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Toussaint

Toussaint

Posted
Posted
On 24/09/2023 at 13:15, Convict Colony said:

I don't live on earth but the aliens are ripping the piss hard.

They shouldn't be,  as Rasmus is an alien shapeshifter transhuman powered by AI which was programmed by the Prince of Darkness FACT!  Maybe its an inter galactical rivalry?

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