Fitzhugh Fella

One bad night and they could be out - too much emphasis is placed on the Champions league - its just a euphemism for wanting more cash

To be fair he did alright for us and didn't let us down

What is the point of making obnoxious personal comments about our current owner? Wtf has she ever done to you for you to get so personal. Criticise her for her actions (though as far as I can see she has done a great job) but do yourself a favour leave the personal stuff in the gutter where it belongs.

Asst manager apparently - still a vacancy for fitness coach? 4 have left only 3 in

Have to confess to feeling slightly underwhelmed, he has a big task not only finding his feet in an alien environment but a completely new country too. Pochettino and Koeman both had a ruthless streak which you need to survive in the Premier League and a lot will depend if he can gain the respect of the senior pros. I wouldn't like a situation like we had with Paul Sturrock for instance. I am not sure he was Reed's first choice either but having said all this we the fans have got to get behind him and give him a chance. This is very much a make or break appointment.

About time too! Good Luck Claude and welcome!

I think you will find it's "all in place" and it is not Pellegrini

Kumbaya

Regardless of the arguments and differing perceptions we have of ourselves, our image to outsiders is of a well run club who sadly cannot hold onto their best players. People I know who don't support Saints respect us but also pity us.

When good players leave many are quick to highlight that player's shortcomings and I see there are quite a few on here pointing out Mane was inconsistent. While not denying he had an off period during last season I thought there were times when he was virtually unplayable and those sort of players do not grow on trees. He is a bargain at £32m and replacing him will be very tricky (please tell me Redmond is not regarded as his replacement). You simply cannot to sell the likes of Mane Wanyama Clyne etc etc and expect a black box to find like for like replacements. Sooner or later that policy can only lead to regression. But how do you hold onto these want away players - silly wages seems to be the answer and one this club won't countenance having been caught out once before. For what its worth I think we will struggle in the bottom half next season and I will be happy to just stay up, now and maybe have a small run in the Europa Cup. You can accuse me of having a low expectations or being over negative and hopefully I am being too pessimistic, but that is what happens when over 2 years you lose as many managers and a host of top players. Football today is a predatory, dog eat dog business and older fans such as myself can surely be excused yearning for the days when we were able to hold onto Europe's finest centre-forward season after season. I am not having a go at the Board, it's difficult, may impossible for them, but if you keep playing Russian roulette one day you will cop a bullet.

That will satisfy me

This seems a sensible stance, there is bound to be doubts but the club have earnt the right to give them the benefit of doubt.

Well, because Reed got it right last time (although Koeman's premature departure showed perhaps he was not as perfect as we all thought) he deserves our patience and trust, but the time it is taking is telling me either the club have been caught on the hop a bit or their chosen candidate is proving awkward to land. Or he could could still be involved in France.

There are 2 ways of looking at the time it is taking to annoint a new messiah. Either we are being thorough and diligent in making sure we get the right man (again) or we haven't got a scooby and no one is buying into "the Southampton Way". I hope it's the former.

You are right - Reed and Co have delivered in the past and fair play but all I am saying its let's not get too far up our own backsides.

No need to get all snotty, just because I come from a generation that remembers when football was just football. But I understand it is a business these days and as such has to move forward along those corporate ideals you have so kindly explained. But I reserve the right to express my cynicism, forgive me for not swallowing all the bull....

And there's me thinking we were a football club first and foremost

Today is a good day to bury bad news. The trouble with appointing good young managers who then do well is they get poached. Appoint a good young manager who then fails, you get relegated. A poisoned chalice then for Reed. My one concern is the club are starting to believe their own PR, ie too much emphasis on "the Southampton way. "

Gordon works in the media dept, trust me these guys find out the same time as the rest of us, just as the players do.

As long as potential transfer targets (Redmond?) aren't being jeopardised with us not having a manager we can afford to be relaxed for another week. As for what the echo says, I really wouldn't pay too much attention - no disrespect to Adam Leitch but I don't think they are too high up the food chain when it comes to titbits being fed from St Marys. I reckon 75% of what they publish they get from this forum and the rest from the nationals. The Echo's glory days are long long ago.....Alas!

Not ITK info at all but Laurent Blanc fits the bill and must be worth a flutter?

Except of course at Newcastle where the new manager has insisted on full autominy and a veto over who to buy and sell.

Just like the Urban Spaceman (you have to be of a certain age)

On the other managerial thread and worth copying onto this one First post in a while but felt compelled too when the news broke about Garcia last night. As well as being a Saints season ticket holder I've also followed Roma as my foreign team for the past 12 years or so, been out to watch 25+ games and watched every Roma match during Garcia's tenure so I'd like to think I'm well placed to offer a bit of an insight into him. I've seen some on here and twitter who have obviously searched him on wikipedia and seen his win percentage and overall record with Lille and Roma, but there is more to Garcia than just his statistics. So here goes. Garcia had a fantastic start at Roma, picking them up when the club was in turmoil after losing the Italian cup final to bitter rivals Lazio the season before hand. After winning the first 10 games of his first season in charge (a record in Serie A), the team played some great football with Totti and Gervinho linking up very nicely indeed in attack and defensively they were solid as a rock. Roma went on to achieve 2nd place and a return to the Champions League after a 4 year absence. It appeared that Roma had found a very talented and special manager and possibly the man who could one day lead them to the Scudetto. Roma started off Garcia's 2nd season in similar fashion, winning their first 5 games before losing to Juventus in a game heavily influenced by refereeing errors. Roma's performance in that game however suggested they had closed the gap to Juve and that they would fight with them for the title until the very end of the season. Shortly after that game Roma met Bayern in the CL at home and took a 1-7 hammering. From that moment onwards things started to go downhill and it's a defeat that neither the team nor Garcia ever fully recovered from. They soon fell out of the CL and a run of draws against mid table and lower half teams allowed Juve to run away with the title. This poor run of form meant that in the end Roma scrapped into 2nd place on the penultimate day of the season. Not a particularly outstanding achievement given many had considered Roma as title favourites at the beginning of the season after Antonio Conte had left Juve, and 2nd place was the bare minimum expected considering Garcia had by far and away the 2nd best squad in Serie A. During the 2nd half of the season Roma were also hammered by Fiorentina in the Europa League (3-0 down at home at half time in the 2nd leg) and knocked out at the quarter finals of the Coppa Italia, again by Fiorentina. Some real cracks were beginning to appear in Garcia's Roma. Teams had started to work out his tactics and they became a lot easier to defend against. Many opponents would sit deep, not allow space in behind for Roma to counter attack and Gervinho to utilise with his pace and Garcia had no answer to this. He had no plan B and persisted with the same 4-3-3 formation week in week out and continued to play out of form players. Roma played some incredibly ponderous football which became increasingly frustrating to watch, there was no energy or creativity about the team and they would spend most games passing the balls sidewards and back to front without threatening the opposition at all. Another annoying feature of Garcia was his failure to accept responsbility for Roma's poor form, often blaming it on bad luck or injuries. I've read that his lack of plan B and inability to be flexible with his formation and tactics also caused problems during his latter seasons at Lille. This blog written at the time Roma appointed him explained what to expect from and highlighted his tactical inflexibility and hesitance to attempt changes. http://frenchfootballweekly.com/2013...s-rudi-garcia/ Roma started off his 3rd season in mixed fashion, beating Juventus early on but again failing to beat many of the smaller sides in Serie A. They did temporarily manage to claw themselves to the top of the table but it didn't last long. A run of 1 win in 10 included one of the most humiliating and embarrassing results in Roma's entire history. A 0-0 draw followed by a penalty shoot out defeat at home to Serie B side Spezia in the Coppa Italia which was one of the final nails in Garcia's coffin. In the end the vast majority of Roma's fanbase wanted him sacked and we finally got our wish in January this year. Some will look at Garcia's record at Roma and suggest his sacking was harsh, but I can safely say that in 12 years of watching them the football played during his final 12 months is some of the worst I have ever seen them play. It got to a stage where the prospect of watching a Roma game was just downright depressing, because the poor performances just became inevitable and it was obvious Garcia had no idea how to change things. It was a great shame because the way Garcia embraced the club and city early on really endeared him to a lot of fans, myself included. He was genuinely passionate about Roma and come across as a decent guy, and right up until the very end I still harboured hopes that would turn things around. But his tactical stubbornness and inability to be flexible cost him dearly. IF Garcia has learnt any lessons from his time at Roma and can prove that he is able to be flexible then we could do worse. He is a talented manager but with some real short comings that so far during his career he has been unable to address. Be prepared for a good start under Garcia, but if I come back here in a year or two's times to see complaints that he always uses the same formation, keeps playing out of form players, doesn't know how to get us out of a bad run of form...etc then I won't be at all surprised.

I am not too unashamed to have welcomed Redknapp as I honestly thought he had the nous to save us. To be fair he might have had Lowe appointed him a month or two earlier but it was bound to end in tears.