Fitzhugh Fella

Good One Kenny. At least he won this year's Barn D'oor award.

Good observation

If you really care about strict accuracy then I suggest you re read this last post of yours and then go back and read some of mine over the last few years. I think you will find I have only been critical in the last two seasons when there has been a lot to be critical about. I am just a fan like everybody else and as fed up as everyone else. I have no agenda, I would welcome decent new owners but realise that is unlikely so all I can do is vent my spleen on this forum. I am sorry if my views annoy you. You rarely let a comment of mine pass by without a snidey comment so Saint Billy is perfectly correct in what he says. I have obviously upset you somewhere down the line and quite badly I am guessing. I am very sorry if I have, I seem to remember I once offered to meet you to thrash out what it is I have done wrong. That offer still stands and hopefully we can put this to bed because others must find it all a bit tedious.

This becoming a dog day afternoon scenario. We have a very average team and a manager who seems unable to lift or improve them. One step forward and two steps back = relegation. The day the rot really started was the day Mané departed and Les Reed tried to convince us Nathan "Thierry Henri" Redmond would be a more than adequate replacement.

For me our problems are fragility and fitness. We are pathetically vulnerable after 80 min.

His side isn't fit

Remarkably we have never ever met Huddersfield in the Cup and they will be our 86th opponents in that competition.

I thought you were there when Chelmsford knocked us out in 1939

The anti Corbyn adverising on that site is indicative

Points in his favour - he's got passion, commitment, tries to play the ball out and shows leadership qualities plus he is not a big earner and cost us comparative peanuts. Points against - does make mistakes but no more than the rest of them.

Pretty spot on. Stephens has heart so I can sort of forgive him but that was pretty shoddy stuff today which we shouldn’t forget amid the euphoria of getting 3 points. Redmond was incredibly poor and has been all season. I also think we won despite Ralph today because yet again that first 45 mins was an utter shambles and the manager must take the blame for our original set up.

Jesus that sounds better than the game

We played the Israeli national team 28.10.80 and won 1-0 Moran

We played the Danish Olympic team at home 8 March 1988 D 2-2 D Wallace2

Weren't the M City performances something to build on?

Probably the last of a long line of good solid Echo reporters who have written about Saints from AE Rawlings before the war, Brian Haywood during the 60s and 70s, Bob Brunskell, Graham Hiley, John May and one or two others I have probably forgotten. The Echo is but a shell now, a massive shame as we need local journalism to question our politicians and our football clubs and keep an eye on things. Sadly Saints are now allowed to spread their own spin with no opposition to the propaganda. Adam Blackmore does his best but he can't bite the hands that feeds him.

Not sure why you think Rohl's departure was not of Hasenhuttl's making? The word around Staplewood was they fell out.

Not sure why you think Rohl's departure was not of Hasenhuttl's making? The word around Staplewood was they fell out.

Absolute poppycock - I had never felt so encouraged and hopeful by a manager up to and including the beginning of the season but I have been very shocked how things have unravelled. No, we can't keep binning the manager I agree but the extent to which things have deteriorated means we might not have much choice. I know I hate saying it I really do I can't believe how quickly we have gone off the rails. Saturday's first half convinced me he hasn't got what it takes to turn this around. To play like that after a 9-0 thrashing was poor poor poor. If I had my way sure I would rather Gao resigned but that aint gonna happen. SG is not my friend btw he's my son in law and he was very happy to leave and he left with no bad feelings so that has not come into it whatsoever. He was even at Maine Rd with my daughter for the League Cup-tie to support his old mates.

By Back to basics I was thinking more in terms of the way the club is run. I envisaged it meaning streamlining the number of employees, coaching, recruitment staff, partners, cutting back on frivolous expenditure, concentrating on getting the foundations secure, putting football issues first, withdraw from initiatives abroad, getting rid of slogans, better and more honest comms. There is a lot of crap surrounding the club, a lot on the payroll just use the club as a stepping stone in their careers, there's no continuity. I deal regularly with the club commercial and marketing depts, and rarely meet the same people. The left hand knows nothing what the right hand is doing. There is no overall structure joining the different depts up. There is no real cohesion among the staff. I could go on and on and that's just off the field. On it? Gawd knows I am no tactician but at the moment the players seem incapable of following the manager's instructions, so I would simplify everything, get them to play their natural game and build confidence up again. We are like a golf pro who has completely lost their golf swing. What do they do? They take time out to go back to basics and rebuild from scratch and if I was a manager I would do that first and foremost. Pick two full backs, 2 central defenders etc etc. With respect you are it seems to me basically prepared to sit tight and see how things pan out? Fair enough but I would rather step in now and change the philosophies that just don't seem to be working, before we are too far down the road. we are all critical of the club at the moment, I was merely trying to see some wood from the trees. Not saying it would work but at least there would be a plan.

But Hassenhutl needs to have a word with himself and accept his methods aren't working. Not sure he has the humility to do that.

Christ if things are going to get worse we are in for a helluva ****e 2020. Just think we need to get back to basics and somehow try and start again.

Ok fair comment. You have shot my suggestions down in flames without putting forward how you would navigate us out of this mess. It’s easy to criticise but I am all ears as to what you would do if you were in charge?

This

I'll probably get shot down in flames by the "don't rock the boat" crowd but I stuck this on my Facebook page earlier today. Bear in mind I wrote this having just witnessed the three worst halves of football ever in the last fortnight. Well what to do now? We are a mess, a shambles tactically, no confidence, no direction no leadership. Yes the players are to blame, yes the "Buy to Sell" driven Board appear useless (even after Reed has gone) and yes Gao's ownership is universally and quite rightly condemned. But he and the Board are going nowhere (unfortunately), we can't shift the dross players, so the axe must inevitably fall on the manager whose record is now worse than Hughes's. We should accept relegation is highly probable and plan for the future. Get in Adkins (that will at least lift the moral of the fanbase and he knows the Championship well). Then get rid of who we can, player-wise and bring in one or two experienced pros who can display leadership.Then fill up the remaining places with hungry youth, some local, some plucked from the lower leagues. Shake up our whole recruitment dept. Streamline it, we have far too many clipboards walking around the place. Get some people in behind the scenes who know about football and, even better, know about Southampton. No one up there has a clue about Southampton FC as a football club - we are just a commodity or a means to generate income and profit for the owner. It's frightening how unconnected it is at St Mary's when it comes to knowledge about the history and traditions of the club. We don't ask for an instant return to the PL - we need to completely restructure from top to bottom and, hopefully without the Premier League money, Gao will bail out and maybe we can find some genuine ownership who actually care about the football club. At the very least we need our pride and self respect back. We need to regroup under a manager who is respected by the players (that is not the case with the present incumbent - they all think him arrogant). Saints fans do not over demand or over expect, most are reasonable and accept the days with competing with with the Citys and Liverpools are long over. The playing field has never been so uneven. But the million dollar question now is who up there in the Britannia Rd district is brave enough to pick this awkward chalice?