Bit of a plonker

Firstly, I don't buy the small club stuff. As you say, we are one of the largest, financially at least, in Europe, sitting in 18th place across the continent, and 9th place in England. That is not small. Second, I am not looking for a sugar daddy. We are not that type of club and I don't think many would really ant us to be. However, I would have thought that given the size of the TV revenue deals, that are growing due to increased global demand for the premier league, we could hope to do better than rely on spending based on what we sell, which is what Kreuger has said (re-invest fully from our transfer dealings). I know premier league wages are eye watering, but I would have thought that we could be prudently and self sufficently run whilst allowing an element of TV money to cover an element of new player acquisition, so that we can get better players, have more exciting football to watch and all the other benefits that go with that. Of course, doing that does not guarantee that transfers will work, because we are dealing with highly fallible, fragile and egotistical players in most instances. Third, the china strategy has not proven successful, so far at least, at any club the has tried it. It may be that we are in a better position to take advantage of that and make it more successful, but nothing that has been said, publicly at least, gives me any confidence that is the case. I don't have an alternative, other than what I mentioned earlier, but then again, i am a bit of a plonker and if the club was coming to me for advice on that, I would be worried! We don't have any right to expect to be in the premier league either, there are many other teams similar to Saints in that respect. But to call us a small club is plain and demonstrably wrong. I don't expect champions league or even Europa League. I don't expect a trophy, there are only 3 of those a season and the big boys all take those seriously. Just a team to be proud about, giving it their all, set out with it's first objective being a victory, taking it to the big boys and being respected by our opponents.

I would assume that is the same plan that the owners of West Brom and Aston Villa have as well. Not sure it is working out particularly wonderfully well for them. Not sure why we, or they, should expect it to work for us.

Hope you are right and I am wrong. But saying that we are financially sustainable, that the model is based on re-investing money from player sales. I will believe it when I see it.

At least he recognised football has been crap and improved under Hughes, with a return to trying to win games as opposed to just not losing. Think it is pretty clear that we will be sanctioning a few sales this summer, with the talk of re-investing sales into the squad. Not convinced there is a transfer kitty without sales, based on what he said. Hope we get rid of the ones we need to ship out, who have a reasonable value. Expect to see us near the bottom of the net spend league again. Overall, can't argue too much with what he says, pretty honest and realistic. But action is more important than words right now.

I fear a lot of complacency on this thread with regards to our squad strength. As poor as Pellegrino and Puel were, and by god they were both incredibly poor, we do have major problems at both ends of the pitch if we want to sustain good form over an entire season, and not be in exactly the same situation next year. How many times did Sunderland scrape together escapes, before they eventually fell through the floor? None of our current centre backs are good enough to be premier league starters. Bednarek has been decent since he came in, but no more than that. Yoshi is probably our best defender, but he is always good for a howler. Hoedt and Stephens should be back ups. We need 2 good, strong leaders in the middle of defence. We are also likely to lose Bertrand, so we ideally need a replacement there, because I am not convinced Matt Targett is good enough to be regular starter. Decent back up though. So, probably 3 defenders needed. I would not be averse to selling 2 of Hoedt, Stephens, Bednarek or Yoshi to fund new players, providing those players are starters. Up front, we need more goals. Get shot of Carillo and one of Long, Gabbi, Gallagher or Austin. Need a strong leader of the line, a new Rickie Lambert. Behind them, none of Redmond, Tadic or Boufal have been consistent enough. I would sell Boufal, because he looks to have cooked his goose with Hughes and the rest of the players, and get someone in to replace. I assume Promes is or was lined up to be this person, although whenever I have seen him play for Holland, he has not really impressed me at all. I would not be surprised if Forster pushes for a move, he can't be happy being number 2. We would need to replace him as well, assuming he gets a move away. So, looking at possibly 7 out (2 defenders plus reluctantly Bertrand, Boufal, Forster, Carillo and another striker). Bring 5 quality replacements in, 4 starters and a good back up keeper who is not a step down for if/when needed. Looks like a big summer to me.

I think it is a good and valid question. I had pretty complacently assumed that it would be an no brainer to keep him on for next season, but some of the points raised, especially about the number of managers who have had a good short term impact at the end of a season, but struggled the season afterwards, should be taken into account. However, with Hughes, I get the impression his problem lies after 2 or 3 seasons, especially looking at his Blackburn and Stoke stints. He had good records there with them for a few years, then fell away. If we can have a decent season next year, a good steady lower end of the top half, with some good signings and with a bit of luck, do a Burnley and finish best of the rest and get Europa league, then that seems a positive. I can't think that there are many other managers available who would be realistic, and this summer, there are other far more attractive jobs available. So, all in all, I think he is the best man for the job at the moment.

Play Forster upfront, big targetman we have missed since Pelle left. Fox-in-the-box Austin to pick up the pieces and score a hatful! 5 in defence, 3 in midfield, stop Bournemouth from scoring and just lump it up to the big man. Tactical genius me.

How many incidents that have gone in our favour have we forgotten? I remember Fonte on many occasions got away with fouls that should have resulted in penalties against us, including matches against Man Utd. I think human nature is to forget the incidents we benefit from and focus on those that cost us.

For the sake of some stability, Hughes needs to stay for next season. I don't think a boardroom reshuffle, change of management and overseeing selling and recruiting new players, in a world cup summer, can be done by hanging around and having a review for a couple of weeks at the end of the season. All depends on the owners though. Very worried about them. Apart from summer schools and pre-season tour of china, I am not aware of anything that they have said or done that gives us a whiff of plans for the first team.

It appears Saintsweb is in unusual agreement that whatever happens in the remainder of the season, this will be a hugely important summer for the club. Stay up or go down, it is clear that as an absolute minimum, we need to appoint a permanent manager, overhaul the playing squad and have a pre-season such that we really hit the ground running, whether we be in the Championship or Premier League. Ideal world, we also need a new direction in the boardroom as dis-satisfaction levels with Les, Ralph and Ross appear to be shot. Question is, how is this going to be done and who will drive this change that is needed? And, for those with the skill or knowhow, what advice would you give to them to make sure this is done successfully?

Latest results Balance Sheet 1 Football Club 0. Given all of the possession that the balance sheet had, would have been a far wider winning margin but the board settled back into a safety first formation, which, fortunately for them, the football club was unable to overcome.

Far be it from me to jump in on other peoples scraps, but can we all play nicely now? I don't car who started it, you are both as bad as each other and should know better. If you don't stop, we will have to take away your phones and computers for a day - see how you like that. Anyway, in terms of who would be sold to make up the profit, didn't we get a world record transfer fee for a defender, making a profit of about £40 to 50million in the process, and spend £19m in return. That seems to have us about £20 to £20m up. And I am sure there will be a the normal few leavers in the summer, as is standard for us. Would imagine Bertrand would look to be off, and it may be a summer to offload Tadic and see what we can get for him at the Saints FC great summer car boot sale. Probably £25 to 30m for those two I would guess.

Really hope he does well, keeps us up and enhances his reputation. Not at all a fan of the short term deal. We have a huge summer coming up, whether we stay up or go down, and now we have added managerial uncertainty into the mix, when we also need to overhaul the squad, especially in defence and attack, ideally a boardroom re-shuffle and all this whilst there is world cup going on. We now have an extra, once again self inflicted, problem to deal with.

I get that, but it doesn't work, because there is no incentive, for reasons outlined. It is a deal all in our favour. What is in it for the manager? He keeps us up and gets binned. Not much incentive there. For the players, what is the point in buying in to whatever he says, because he will likely be off in a couple of months anyway. A deal like that just does not work. We may as well offer a deal until end of next season. We can look at this through Saints tinted glasses all we want, but we need everybody to buy into it. A short term deal shows we are not really putting any commitment into it.

I don't get the point of a short term deal to the end of the season. The players know they are not needing to impress the new boss, because chances are, they would be out at the end of the season. The new manager, seems likely Hughes, can get us relegated and not be too stained due to the Pellegrino farce. And it also doesn't buy them into the success of the club. As much as none of the candidates that we are realistically looking at are pretty uninspiring, I would rather give them a deal to the end of next season, so at least there is a degree of incentive on all sides. Having a deal that is too weighted in the favour of one side doesn't work.

I think the sale of the club has massively knocked the club from the top, and this has inevitably trickled down. I have no knowledge, but I would imagine that they would have been looking to sell long before they did, and given how long it actually took for Gao to complete his takeover, I am assuming he was not a universally popular buyer within the boardroom of the club. It looks from the outside that decision making has taken a nosedive throughout that process. Koeman looks like he got out at the right time. We then took far too long to make 2 really poor managerial appointments. And at the time when money in football has been at nosebleed levels, and we have had our usual annual sell offs, the investment back into the team has been pretty minimal. I think, may be wrong, we are at or close to the bottom of the net spend table. From that, we have a really crap manager, with a squad that was only going to struggle this season due to lack of quality at both ends of the pitch, and a board that doesn't really seem to know what to do, or who is accountable for what.

SAM has forgotten we are due to play Swansea. Pretty poor BBC article that one.

Never been relegated!

I think to call a squad or a team is crap is perhaps stating the obvious, otherwise they wouldn't/shouldn't be in a relegation struggle. But I think what some people mean by crap is the quality of the football, which for a lot of teams, is crap. Burnley have had a fantastic season results wise, but their football is not exactly open and attractive, being based on a solid defence, especially at the start of the season, and winning many games 1-0. Our football has been crap and uninspiring for the last 2 seasons, and, to be honest, for times before that. Problem at the root is that there is too much money and too much to lose by getting relegated. FFP means the rich get richer, can afford to cherry pick whichever player they want from whoever they want, and get better quality players, leaving the rest scrabbling around for the more mediocre players, trying to find those gems that they know will be sold off for profit in future. Fear of relegation creates fear on the pitch and in the stands. Someone on 5Live last night described the premier league as brilliant quality, because teams are doing well in champions league this year. Sums up the media, not looking at the poor quality down below those top 6 clubs. Yes, some clubs have played reasonable football at times, and had a go at the top teams, but the general rule appears to be to not lose, keep on picking up the points, be tight, safety first, which is boring. I personally would be hugely in favour of the top 5 or 6 buggering off, and establishing their market busting european mega league, so that for the rest left behind, there is the chance to fight for a title. Bring back a European Cup for the winners of national leagues. Let the champions league be a proper league. Europa league from the 2 - 5th in each top flight, or however the number stack up. I know people throw Leicester into the mix, but we all know that was a fluke when they won the league, as they had a perfect season of good players having the seasons of their lives, and the top teams being in transition and falling below their standards. Having teams go out to win something will lead to a more exciting match on the pitch, or at least it should. It is a dream anyway. In the meantime, with the cost of failure so high, we can't really expect to see a massive change. Will still support the saints though, whatever. Just a disease isn't it.

How much better? How do we compare? Where should we be then?

I see lots of comments in different threads about the comparative strength, or otherwise, of our squad. Seems possibly worthwhile to have a thread of its own. My personal opinion, I think it is bottom half of table level, but better than bottom three. Breaking it down, I think we are adequately covered in goal, as not many clubs can claim to have a back-up of the quality of Forster, even if he has been below par the last year or so. Defence, probably our weakest area, possibly relegation level. Our centre back options are well below the level of say a Brighton, Newcastle, West Brom (albeit they are under performing). Full backs good in starting positions, top half, back ups a significant step down in quality. Defensive midfield, Romeu has been a way below his form from last season. Don't really think we have any other purely defensive options in midfield, Lemina, Hojberg, Davis, JWP, not really holding players, more box to box types who may be able to try to play the role. Lemina is a quality box to box player though. Compared to other teams though, I don't think there are any other teams in the bottom half who are very strong in this respect, possibly Watford better with Dacoure, who looks a level above their other players. Joe Allen is good at Stoke, but not really a real ball winner, IMO. Attacking midfield, Tadic, Boufal, Redmond, all flattered to deceive. 9 goals all season from players who may be classed as being forward minded (Davis, Boufal, JWP and Tadic) is really poor. I think JWP, on his day, along with Boufal, can play consistently for top half teams, not CL level, maybe Europa League or challenging for those places. Tadic is too slow in his play for that. COmpare to teams around us, Stoke have Jese and Shaqiri, Newcastle have decent options with Kenedy, Atsu, Ritchie. Swansea have good attacking talent, although inconsistent like ours. West Ham have Antonio, Arnautovic, Lanzini - plenty of talent in other teams as well. Attack, not up to the level of top half, for sure. Say's it all when our top scorer has 6 goals for the season. Our 2 top priced signings, Carillo and Gabbi, were both bit part, inconsistent scorers before they arrived and haven't improved on that since being here. Austin knows where the goal is but can't get on the pitch often enough. Then there is Shane Long, who I would love as a player if he could finish. Compare to other teams, would you take Mounie, Murray, Abraham, Sturridge, Benteke, Deeney above any of our strikers. I would have any of them in our starting line up compared to what we have. Forget looking at the options in the top half, our lot aren't really worthy of a place on the bench of a lot of the top half teams. So, overall, IMO, our squad is not top half level, we have enough to avoid relegation, but if we survive, and the rhetoric from the club about wanting to be a team challenging for europe is true, our squad needs massive surgery, especially CB and attack. Thoughts?

Ron Davies in for Guido, Le Tiss for JWP, Jimmy Case for Romeu and VVD for Hoedt. Goals, strength and leadership.

Voted back him, but could easily flip flop to sack him. IMO, not so much now about backing him, the time for that was the January transfer window. More, stuck with him. He should have been sacked before January ideally, but no point now. Next 5 games are huge, the club hasn't made a quick managerial appointment since the Cortese days. The only out of work managers I can think of are Hughes, who has already taken a pretty decent Stoke squad to the same place as us, or Silva, who hasn't convinced me so far. Having said that, if we did sack him and replace him immediately with Silva, I wouldn't be disappointed. I just can't see us doing that, as our boardroom moves at the pace of a snails flabby fart.

I know what Crooks writes is meant to be an opinion piece, but FFS, he goes way over the line sometimes. And like has been pointed out, it isn't even a consistent opinion. In the Jack Stephens piece in the team of the week, he was talking about Saints constantly flirting with relegation. That must be the "constantly" flirting that has seen us finish in Ralph's lovely single digit finishing positions for the last however many years. If that is flirting with relegation, we must have been nuts deep in the champions league. And saying one of our players is a cut above the others, too good for our team, is one thing. To highlight who should be signing him, too far. If he had his way, the rest of the league should donate all of our best players to the top 6 and have done with it. Bloke is a total tool. And I am off to take my pills.

I really appreciate the fact that he has given me confidence to try to kick start my professional footballing career. I can see, that at the age of 45, with a dodgy back, portly figure and pace to give a snail a run for it's money, and if coached correctly, I could become a premier league professional. I see our players plod about, knowing I can keep up with them. I see them mis-placing the simplest pass, and Know that I have that in my locker too. I now know a £50k a week contract is within my grasp, so thank you. Shame he benched Forster though - I really thought I could have been a top level keeper. This new chap is just a touch too sprightly.