Fitzhugh Fella

There’s some poor deluded souls who wish we still had Burley in charge.

He’s got to go but there is no leadership or vision at SMs at present and inertia and blind faith is the name of the game.

Nick, if Pellegrino had been a raging success no one would give a hoot about Puel. Puel was crap for us, turgid is not harsh enough.

He has featured in every game except one (Everton H), only Bertrand has played more minutes. He seems to have cast a spell over Reed/Pellegrino

Black is not the cause of our decline, far from it and from what I am told the players never had a problem with him. You have to look higher

Upfront in the middle for the first time. There has been a bit of a debate about it among Birmingham fans. Sam is happy to play anywhere but I think he relished the role he had centre up top yesterday.

MotM too

So why aren't we resting the ones carrying injuries instead of resting those in form?

Debatable. That Leicester game undid all the good imo. We need to perform against the lower clubs not just put up plucky displays v the top 6.

Sam got man of the match yesterday and scored!

Replace "less" with "un" and I almost agree with you

A few points - relegation is not almost a certainty but if you think Gabby would still be here if we were to go down, then think again. I gather he's none to happy here at the moment.

No wonder 90% of the squad are unsettled

Fans are more fickle true, but there again the clubs/players don't give a fig about the fans anymore. It's the way football is going and is why many are falling by the wayside. Not Saints fault but we now have a virtual faceless owner who's main priority is to use the club to make money. And you can say that about virtually all the top 40 clubs these days.

When all said and done we can argue the merits of Puel and Pellegrino all night but the truth is evident that Puel has inherited far better players at Leicester. You only have to look at Schmeichel's distribution that led to their 2nd to realise he is a class above FF. You only have to look at Mahrez's direct run and finish to realise he is twice the player Redmond is and then look at Vardy's mobility and compare it to dear old Charlie's impression of a cart horse.

Rebranding it the Pink’un was a cringeworthy mistake

I have absolutely no regrets about getting rid of Puel. There were some highs but there were a lot of lows, most notably in Europe where we let a very good chance to make a name for ourselves pass us by because of his ineptitude. He was a truly crap communicator who was never going to inspire the players and I think he will be caught out at Leicester once that team starts to disintegrate. Yes we finished 8th but more by luck than judgement and yes we got to Wembley. Had we actually won that game - yes we were unlucky - I would not be writing on this thread but, the facts are we lost and coming second does not win your prizes. Nice guy probably and if we had kept Mane and Pelle things might have worked out better but I am not looking backwards despite the fact Pellegrino seems nothing special.

With Long/Boufal selected instead of the truly awful Redmond we might have won that.

In over 120 years of FA Cup football Saints have never drawn Leeds, Swansea or Huddersfield so one of those would be "historic" and Stoke are another big side we have only played the once - in the 30s. But for me I would love to get Newport (A). it would remind me of my first cup-tie at the Dell in 1967 when they earned a replay and we won at Somerton Park 3-2. I bet "LetsBeAvenue" will soon be on here telling us how he was there! (he was) Wolves away would be good too although the way it's looking we will be playing them next season anyway (as long as we stay up ). Crewe away - a decent away trip? We'll probably be home to the Palace though!

West Ham have got some good players, I reckon Huddersfield may falter over the winter although their home support will do their best to sustain them.

I agree. Some people seem to think that not to show unconditional support for a football team is a challenge to your manhood. The mantra "get behind your team ffs" is lemming like. Support them yes but that doesn't mean you can't criticise when its needed.

He'll learn from today, he looks a decent player but I feel for Stephens.

Boufal will make mistakes and lose the ball but for me it is imperative he starts as he is truly creative

Ward-Prowse’s needless back pass to Hoedt started the rot.

Play your best 11 players is a pretty good fall back tactic. MP is experimenting v the top team = suicide!