Fitzhugh Fella

Do I sense the mild whiff of a Russell Martin renaissance movement getting underway?

Had we not got promoted I wonder where we would be today. Probably in a better position than we are currently, although whether Martin and his style of football would still be popular a moot point.

I keep reading that Saints should "clear out all the dead wood in January" but I wonder if anyone has actually ever managed to sell any dead wood in the middle of January? Not sure there is a long line of managers or DoFs banging our door down all clamouring to get their hands on our "dead wood" either. Similarly, despite what the last poster, Bobsmith says "this could be the best time to strengthen" doesn't hold water because who in their right mind is going to want to join what is quite literally a sinking (fast) ship? The situation is dire and calls for drastic action but judging by the empty Director's Box on Saturday it seems a few of the people capable of taking decisions have already jumped.

Anyone who can score 22 goals in 37 Championship matches (2021-22) cannot be that bad. Are you going on what you have seen this season (in which case I would argue you are not giving him a fair hearing)?

He really is not as bad as people think. I watched a lot of him at Blackburn and given the right support and played in the right position he could still be an asset for us next season. He is a player who thrives on confidence, apparently and at present because of the way he was treated by Martin he is at a low ebb indeed. The only type of player who will come to us this January is an older player on his way down looking for a final swansong or, a young player yet to make it in the PL who fancies a crack. Neither fills me with any hope but we are, because of our position, hardly an attractive proposition. We have a Board who have unquestionably presided over two of the worst seasons in our 140 year history and a recent recruitment record that is literally gruesome. We really do need to get back to basics and regroup this summer, but I fear the new manager will be off when the break clause comes up. It's a shame because off the pitch the current owners seem to have a vision but we lack a real football man in amongst the hipsters.

We try to extend you mean and he finds a bigger club, but the argument is academic as it seems early reports of a 6 month contract were wrong, thankfully.

18 months would have been a good option. How are we going to judge him? If we get relegated will he be a failure? This is the board deferring the problem until the summer imo. I would have preferred something a little more long sighted but we all know what happens when we go down that road. As it is we will have a manager who almost certainly wont be here next Christmas.

If this new manager is only given a 6 month contract it says to me neither side is particularly confident in the other and we will therefore probably be in for another summer of upheaval and looking for a new manager.

slashing odds = slashing wrists

Eking out a draw or two and the odd win won't be enough

I was talking to the mechanic who was fixing my car yesterday. A big Saints fan we often talk football. This season he splashed out on a ST having never been able to afford one before. He told me he's not going on Sunday. I asked if he had other commitments he said no. He just is fed up to the back teeth of "suicide football". He said the tippy tappy football is bad enough but thats not enough to keep him away, however the crass stupidity of just watching us give the ball away in our own penalty area week in week out is hard to accept and is depressing. If only Martin would relent a bit on this it wouldn't be so unbearable. This is the biggest reason everyone one is so bloody fed up at present. We are managed by a robot it seems.

Over the years we have witnessed a lot of low times ie our first relegation under McMenemy, the Branfoot days and then of course the lead up to administration and our fall into the third tier. But I think I can honestly say I have never felt the embarrassment I currently feel as a Saints fan. Other football fans aren't looking at us and saying what a wonderful club Southampton are, they are so loyal to their managers. Far from it. They look at us and our record and shake their heads and say what on earth is going on at your club and I have no answer other than to say we have a manager who everyone inc the owners know is not up to the job and yet we can't afford to sack him. As fans we have no right to expect to be successful, we have no right to see enjoyable exciting football week in week out, we have no right to expect the owners to lash out on big names in the transfer window, but we do have the right to ask that we are not embarrassed to be a Southampton fan.

Err, with the greatest of respect David it might just be a teeny weeny bit late by then.

And you trust the board/Martin to pluck a decent striker out of where exactly?

Unless you are a confidante of Potter you have no idea why he turned down the Leicester job but, even if he can't be persuaded, it does not make sense to not sack a poor manager because you think you can't do better. We are going down with Martin so we literally can't do any worse and do you really want to watch tippy tappy football in the Championship again? You say we are improving. In the immortal words of a certain tennis player "you cannot be serious"? Our first half display last night was awful and Brighton should have been out of sight. Damn right RM is "tweaking" the team - that's part of the problem. No one really knows what his best team is. Finally you say he is "learning". Really? I see no evidence of that whatsoever. I suspect you just made that up to suit your very weak argument. You never were a boat rocker.

At the end of the day why would any prospective owner, be it Marcus or Dragan or Gao buy Southampton FC? None of them had posters of Mick Channon etc on their wall while there were growing up and none of them had stepped inside St Mary's before expressing an interest to buy, so the answer is they purchased SFC with the primary intent of making money. I think Markus got a kick out of it (we all saw that with his camera at the JPT final) and Kat (mainly because of her father's legacy and the interest shown by her son) was keen for the club to prosper. Gao couldn't give two hoots and now we have Dragan who has "become" a supporter but remains first and foremost a businessman who one day will be looking to sell on for a profit. All this means the fans, whose main desires are to see a bit of success and some decent football are inevitably going to be at odds with whoever purchases us, unless we suddenly find a very wealthy Saints fan/owner out there (a la Stoke or Brighton). Unfortunately that is very unlikely unless Steve Grant becomes the new Elon Musk in 10 years. So, the day we became a limited company via a dodgy reverse takeover, was the first step into "losing" our club and then when the private owner era took over we lost it completely. Sad but inevitable the way football is going and has gone. We can all shout and scream (and I am shouting and am as frustrated as the next guy) but at the end of the day the fans no longer have the clout we once had. The days of the Board heeding terrace unrest disappeared the afternoon Ian Branfoot packed his bags.

I have never seen that reason anywhere before and of course it could be true, but I maintain during the crucial summer months we had no DoF in place and those making important footballing decisions were not qualified. Mistakes were made all over the place. It seems the plan is - get relegated (tick), cash in on Dibling and Fernandes and RM will guide us back, as before, playing the same sort of football we played in 2023-24. Some fans will no doubt accept this and I still see people on Twitter saying we played "great" football in 23-24 but I for one can't remember much. For me I want Martin gone. I would rather be stuck in the Championship playing decent football then anything I have witnessed since RM's arrival. The Leeds at Wembley was a great day out but long term it might have actually been detrimental to this club rebuilding and making proper progress.

"We're struggling" is a big understatement. Everyone expected us to struggle but it's far worse than that because we are basically shooting ourselves in the foot each match by playing a system that simply doesn't work. It's the self-inflicted aspect of our demise that is driving everyone nuts and no matter how wonderful that Wembley day in May was, it doesn't give the manager (and the Board) a blank cheque in terms of wanton self-destruction. Open your eyes and ears. I don't mind going down but let's go down with a little bit of fight and common sense.

I fear Turkish to be very near the mark especially his "their grand plan to be a player trading company" liner. There's a lot of money to be made in football which is why the Yanks are getting involved and, of course, the other "win" for owners is sports washing, which is why the PL is basically there for the likes of venture capitalists and rogue states with deplorable human rights records. Depressing.

I am not sure you are not something that has been created by AI but nevertheless I will give you the benefit of the doubt. To say we have lost 4-6 points because of bad luck is facile and for you to use it as justification to argue Martin's corner shows how desperate you are. We are bottom of the League because we are the worst team in it and are managed by the worst manager. Now go feed that into some AI.

Rinse and repeat seems to be the club mantra at present. A plucky 1-0 defeat at City is seen as a turning point only for us to resort to type in our next away fixture. He obviously isn't going to get sacked anytime soon and if and when he does it will be too late to a) attract anyone decent and b) too late to avoid the drop. Taking the above into consideration then all the blame must now be aimed at SR who I think are more worried about how sacking RM would look .......compared to continue to loyally back him, whatever. This shows a weak and stubborn Board who know they have dropped a clanger but continue to furiously dig the hole ever deeper. It is verging on the criminal.

You can't keep a manager in his job because his wife is ill.

I wonder if there has ever been a "100% the manager must go" result in a poll. There always seems to be a 10% residue resistant to change. Even when Rupert Lowe was overseeing our financial implosion into insolvency there was a gritty hardcore of blinkered few who continued to back him. Some people are very averse to "boat rocking" and will do anything to back the status quo. Fascinating stuff. I have seen Adam B and Adam H say "better the devil you know" and "sticking is better than twisting" over the weekend but they have a horse in the race inasmuch they have built a relationship with the manager and a new broom would put them back to square one. Fair enough. As much as I think RM's time is up I think he is no more to blame than SR whose well meaning but inept stewardship since taking over has been the root cause of where we find ourselves. When you look at neighbours Brighton and Bournemouth and how well their owners have recently done then Sports Republic's efforts look very amateur indeed.

I've seen £12m quoted

If the summer signings weren't his pray tell us whose they were?