um pahars

Arrived to quite a scrum outside the Itchen as tickets (paper and season tickets) were being rejected. Shouldn’t have chuckled as mine got bounced back as well!! Turns out that after receiving someone else’s season ticket as well as mine, and emailing the club yesterday to let them know, my season ticket ticket was cancelled. Outside now trying to get it sorted!!!

SNAP Mine for the Itchen arrived yesterday, which was strange as I also received one last week! When I then checked the name on the one from last week it was Sam C****** in the Northam!!

Heard a couple of weeks ago that Cedric has been in a strop since the Summer when we turned down an offer from PSG and the new fella is not prepared to put up with anyone who is not fully committed to the Team. If this is the case then I have to back the manager, even if short term it weakens us (but given Cedric’s recent performances, we’re not that weakened!).

Go and watch the elbow to Karius and you will notice he gets pushed in to the keeper by VVD. I think Ramos makes a bit of a meal of it, but you could be arguing for a penalty in the first instance. The Salah incident was a bit of rough and tumble and good defending by Ramos. The injury was never intentional. Mane caught him but Ramos massively play acted. then again I’m still too busy chuckling over all the grown men wailing and crying

Bless him, one of Ron’s 22.

Absolute dogshhtt and one of many reasons why we are struggling. Should be 4th choice at best, only used when we are absolutely desperate due to injuries and suspensions.

But there are no leaders in that team and certainly no one who can grab the rest of the team by the scruff of the neck and get them going. Austin would be the only one, as he did last year when Puel was playing for draw against Man Utd, but he’s not around. Plus I can’t think of anyone else who would back him up. One (of many) deficiencies in recent recruitment is the lack of leaders on the pitch. I’d almost forego some talent at the moment if we had a blood and guts player in the squad. He’s lost the dressing room and most of the players don’t give a fcck, they’ve already got an eye on where they will be parking their Rangeys next season!

Just like Yoshida, he is an admirable back up (we wouldn’t be able to accommodate 3 decent centre halves with one always on the bench, so we have to accept someone of the calibrate of Yoshida or Stephens playing when injuries or suspensions dictate). BUT there is no way he should be a regular. One of our shortcomings recently has bit been replacing Fonte. We have needed a centre half for a year now and that is somewhat depressing.

snippets I’ve heard were that ****ic who is playing in The Bundesliga was back up to Promes, but we left it too late to get him in. And one of the reasons Promes didn’t come is tha Spartak didn’t have enough time to sort out a replacement. With money in the bank we should have sorted stuff out much earlier in the window. Considering we’ve not replaced VVD either (I see Hoedt as Fontes replacement) it has been a poor window and last nights line up showed what a mess we are in. Devoid of tactics, unaware of his best line up, with quite a few players clearly not playing for the manager along with others who have had the life sucked out of them, I can’t see how we will survive. We are in a very bad way!

Was it an evening game? If so, I reckon that was my first away game too.

Not fit AND has had a falling out with Pellegrino.

Sat here level with the six yrd box thinking exactly the same. Surely he has to dominate the box!

Drab, dull and far from inspiring. Think the majority of fans ate thinking the same as the players. First time ever that our group of 8 have not stayed for the lap and of honour. Not massively Puel out, but something has to change.

In the run up to the Bournemouth game I was worried and this transfer window fiasco has me really worried. Would be over the moon to have wasted £20, but if not, then it will buy a few beers!!

Cant see anything other than Cup Finalists as that centre half pairing will be torn a new one by United.

I haven't got an overstated sense of entitlement and fully accept Saints have been pushing right at the top of their potential level. It's been briliant ever since we hit rock bottom and I was always willing to accept a bit of a recalibration once the top 6 got going and others started to catch up with us. BUT that doesn't mean I can't express a couple of thoughts without being seen as needy and over demanding! Firstly the last two transfer windows have been very poor and have left us much weaker. Previously we've matched the outgoing players or got pretty close to doing so. But this year we are much weakermroght through the crucial spine of the team. This is a real worry for me. Secondly, (and I accept the above has a huge impact) I have not been impressed with Puel's style of play and tactics. Too often we've set up wrong and even allowing for having a weaker squad, he hasn't got the best out of the players he has. Both on and off the pitch we've made too many poor decisions this year. We need to avoid being dragged in to a relegtion battle, regroup this summer and come back firing with a focussed and targeted transfer window.

Yoshida is a good honest pro, but he has been a back up since he came here and has shown nothing to suggest he is any more than that. A player who can slot in to the back four and provide cover for the odd game here and there. Certainly not someone who we should be building a defence around. He's not as good as Fonte, and even if Fonte's star was waining, then the policy should be to replace him with someone as good as him in his pomp, as opposed to promoting a squad player who couldn't force his way past him or his fellow centre halves (Jos H not withstanding).

One of the most disappointing affairs for me and where my expectations were higher, was in the Europa Cup. I expected to perform better in the group games and then happy to take whatever happened next in the knock out stages. Therefore the rotation policy, team selections and negative tactics pifsed me right off.

I recognise that we came out of the summer transfer window with a weaker team and also probably think team spirit and confidence meant we were performing at the top of our game. So for me I would have accepted 7th - 14th, on the fringe of Europa qualifications if cup winners went our way, but never really looking over our shoulder to worry about relegation. Cup runs I'm not so hung up on as sadly the cups have been so abused they're almost like reserve games until the final!!! BUT how we manage 7th-14th is also important to me (& drab football with few goals isn't winning me over), as is giving it our best shot (& squad rotations, poor management & poor transfers is causing me concern). Dont expect the world, just that we do our best (& at the moment I don't think we are).

We sit up in the Itchen in the area when the comps are situated, which means we are often graced with the presence of various friends, family, hangers on and freeloaders LOL. Fair to say that for last couple of games a couple of different sources have suggested that Fonte has not been acting in a manner befitting his role as captain. Whilst I think Puel has a lot to answer for and think his rotation policy and tactics have been frecking awful, I'm also critical of players playing Bertie big balls.

Have to say that I am now mega worried about point (3) above now. Players aren't playing for the manager, nor for each other. Will the banked 24 points be enough to see us through the second half of ththe season???

Im not really knocking individual players, more the issue with wholesale changes. McQueen ain't no Bertrand, but he's an OK replacement if he's the only change in the defensive unit.

I don't expect us to win every game and I was hoping for 3-5 pts from these 3 games, with a real hope that we could at least win at hope to WBA. So if I was going to tinker around as much as Puel is, then you're probably right in that I would be looking to put out the best team for the most winnable game. Fingers crossed a win at Everton will get us back on track, but if not then it's been a poor effort in recent games. BUT for me the massive tinkering is the main cause of a number of problems I think I see out on the pitch. 1) No fluidity in our play. Maybe it's the way the manager wants us to play, but it seems so disjointed and players don't know what each other are doing. Do players need a longer run in the team to get used to it? 2) Confidence. We seem very fragile at the moment, is the chopping and changing one of the reasons for this? 3) Lack of team spirit For most of the game we just looked like a ragtag collection of individuals. Players seem frustrated with each other and there seems to be little collectiveness out on the pitch. I hate to say it, but the last time I saw it was the 2004/5 season!!! 4) Lack of mental strength Too many silly errors at crucial times, perhaps it's due to lack of match sharpness and not having any consistency in the team selection. 5) Players just don't look happy Perhaps it's a good thing that they are looking a bit ****3d off given the results, but I think there's more in it than that. Forget the interviews for the programmes and the stage managed interviews for the Echo & others, I don't see a happy bunch out there at the minute? Are they playing for the manager? Squad rotation only works for me if your squad is rammed with quality, interchangeable players who could easily replace each other, and even then I'd only be doing it sparingly and only when absolutely necessary. We haven't got such a depth of talent, plus we seem to be making wholesale changes almost for the sake of it. And as I said in the first post, I think Puel is struggling from one transfer window too many and critical players not being replaced with those of similar ability, but he just isn't helping himself here.

Marina crosses a ball in to row Z Yoshida passes the ball to their centre forward McQueen fccckus it up For probably the only game we will win in this run of three, there is no way we should be pulling 3 out of 4 of the back four. I've seen Saints lose many times over the last 40 years, never easy, but that's the team I follow and always will do, but I'm struggling to remember when we have set ourselves up so spectacularly to fail! I knee jerked a few weeks back, but I don't think I was wrong. Puel may have come in off of the back of one transfer season too many, but he ain't helping himself. Poor tactics, poor team selections and dull as gfccuk football means it's not a happy new year for me.

There are a number of positions that are either easier to replace or do not have as much impact if the replacement isn't as good as their predecessor. One of the reasons I wasnt fussed when Shaw went. Full backs can augment a team, but they don't make a team. However, One of those positions is a goal scorer and whilst we managed to replace Lambert, it has to be recognised that we haven't managed it this time after lettingtwomsources of goals go (eg Pelle & Mane). If we can see it,then I presume the experts can too. What they will do about it it is another matter. Goalscorers are a rare and sought after breed, but wshe desperately need to unearth someone or get the cheque book out. We're a pretty decent team, just need some goals and can't see the current options providing enough of them