SaintDan

It’s incredible how far we’ve come in 15 months. Both teams were at a relatively similar level in 2016 but with a bit of luck and a decent goalscorer Leicester took the league. Fast forward to October 2019 and the gulf was huge (not in the result but just where we were in the league). Tonight though, with a fair few players out we look organised, strong, cohesive and are arguably the better side. Well done Southampton FC!

Is it better to have had than to have had not! 6th, 7th, 8th finish in the premier league, League Cup Final, FA Cup semi final, trophy winners at Wembley, back to back promotions, beating the likes of Inter Milan in a non pre season friendly, winning back to back games at old Trafford, the list goes on. (With an added bonus of seeing England in a World Cup semi too) Ok ownership changes and Les’ ineptitude to deliver promises means we start this season with a little uncertainty but we’ve come a long way in 9 years!

We have benefited on many levels from Bertrand not going. 1. He’s not spending 6 weeks being tapped up by City/Spurs/Everton players to move away from Saints and 2. He gets a rest, has gone on the team bonding trip to China and will be ready to go against Burnley in 29 days time! Personally I thought Young did a good job especially from set pieces but think Bertrand would have provided more balance and more in terms of crosses into the box.

I for one am delighted with the appointment, passion, experience and a big European name. Koeman was a similar appointment when he joined given his ‘steady’ cv as a manager. In a time when Premier League Managers are hard to come by we’ve gone with the man who kept us up as a manager and contributed as a player. My only gripe is that we are no longer appear to be this slick PR machine that Cortese created, but let’s see our overall transfer activity before passing judgement.

Brave, gutsy, United. Regardless of time added on we were robbed but Hughes has completely changed this team. If we are relegated next Sunday it is purely Les’s fault.

For the second league game in a row our central midfielders gave the ball away which proved costly. I’m sure Hughes main point before kick off would have been do not concede early in the match...which we did. Two upfront only works away from home if there is cover for the midfield so Romeu has to play in that formation. Unfortunately I feel we are rapidly running out of games with the Swansea game perhaps coming too late to salvage any Premier League status. The only reason we are still in it at the moment is the lack of quality above us.

Every single player ‘and he’s not scored for xx games’

This is the best piece of business we have done so far fact. Last summer was a disaster, we need to maintain our business mode of being a shop window for players otherwise they have nothing to work towards. £75m (less 10%) means we have money to spend and are losing a player that didn’t want to be here anyway. If Liverpool had a better scouting network rather than running fight club they would be buying these players in/breeding them from the academy for peanuts. Next steps We have to reinvest though. CF of dembele or the like. Again it would be a short term transfer but we would hopefully double whatever we spend and see goals. Get Jack Stephens playing centre back again. Keep the cortese dream of academy players alive. Expand the stadium and improve the surrounding area. We now have serious money let’s build the infrastructure at the ground having improved the training facility to world class. This will attract further talent and help build a bigger fan base. Reward the fans. Time to give the season ticket holders a free game for all the **** football they’ve seen this season. At £75m (less 10%) ticket prices are now a drop in the ocean. Reward the fans!!!!

Troy Deeney?

Bournemouth's midfield is woeful. Last season they had the benefit of Jack Wilshere bringing some premier league quality but the number of times they gave the ball away last night was shocking. We really shouldn't count our chickens but it's fair to say that there are at least 6 teams worse than us in this league so let's stop this talk of struggling this season and get behind the team.

Les Reed needs to remain accountable until the end of the transfer window when it's back to the football and we have to work with what we've got. He is more than willing to come out with statements that everything is rosey but has not spoken up once since Koeman left when all the fans wanted were reassurances. In reality if it was all in hand the Koeman saga would have been resolved by the last game of the season giving us further options with regards to Rafa and Rodgers. That being said we've improved year on year for 7 years now so let's just sit back and let him do his job, he has earned the right for fans trust.

We have to keep the old lambert song going, it gets the fans going and so many fans join in, here's my effort.... He stands at round about 6ft 5, Pelle, Pelle. He's kept our Europe hopes alive, Pelle, Pelle. He's the new don from Italy, we love him more coz he hates Pompey Gra-zi-ano Southampton's goal machine!

At present we seem to be building a team around 'The Southampton Way' including youngsters from the academy who have been with the club 5+ years. To me 'The Southampton Way' is all about playing attractive football whilst closing down the opposition and stopping them from playing, thus dictating games. In order to improve as a team we have to attract big names and sign 'Marquee players'. Gaston was this marquee signing last summer and had a steady first season but not a £12m first season. If you don't sign these Marquee signings then progression wont be made as other players will opt for Liverpool/Everton/Swansea who I currently see as the teams we are attempting to emulate/finish above in the league. I would say having 2 10m+ signings certainly played a factor in Osvaldo joining us. Once again he has not had a proper pre season therefore he is behind the rest of the team in regards to ethos, fitness and game time. He was signed based on his potential from what he showed for Bologna and in the Olympics therefore I would say stick with him, the guy is in his early 20s and from what we saw of him last season he shows flashes of brilliance. As we sign more and more top quality players in the Osvaldo, Morgan, Lovren, Clyne and even perhaps Shaw and Ward Prowse elk he will show how good a player he really is for us.

I think Lampard and Lambert should be first names on the plane to Brazil (if we get there). They shouldn't necessary start but to have them on the bench to take penalties and to benefit from the experience of Lampard and the ability to hold the ball up of SRL they would be the sensible subs this summer. Although saying that getting past the group stage could be tricky this summer relying on the likes of Welbeck, Cleverly and an ageing Gerrard.

Is it time to change the line in the Lambert song from He took us to the Premier League to He scored a goal at Wembley... ....I know he'd already scored in the JPT final but we weren't in the Prem then and also Wembley rhymes better with three than league.

Another example of how he has wiped his time with us from his memory.... http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/football/4961029/Harry-Redknapp-Let-me-buy-who-I-want-and-Ill-carry-the-can-if-it-goes-wrong.html "When I was last in the Championship, with Ports-mouth, we did not chuck money at transfers." Last time you were in the Championship it was with Southampton you moron! Typical Redknapp as well, let me do it and ill take the responsibility. How? Will he pay for all the players he's wrongly signed? Will he cover Samba and Remy's wages. Or will he just do another article the week after he leaves QPR with the headline Ooops. He won't get a top 10 prem job any more and I hope to God that he doesn't get the England job after Roy, I would really question whether or not to support my country if he was the manager as I'd be desperate to see him fail!

Hirst? He was quality just a bit injury prone and then a bit tubby. Won us a game up at Anfield and linked up well with Egil and Matty though

Best in no particular order: Lambert - he took us to the premier league Kevin Davies - effectively made us around 14 million with Beattie swap and sales Michael svensson - top centre back Dean Richards - another top centre back and we signed him on a free Antti niemi - best keeper in my time as a saints fan Worst - ignoring lower league times as its not comparable Delgado - always no 1 Jacobson - expected to replace svensson - didn't Van damme - huge waste of money McCann - another waste of money Redknapp (Harry) - ok so not a player but still paid him a lot in wages and he relegated us after so many years and will be forever hated

I can't believe you're writing Lambert off for another season of premier league football. Berbatov is a year older and still cutting it way above everyone else. I'm not saying Rickie is quite up to his standard but he continues to improve every season and every game this season that he has been captain he's lead the team with more presence and voice than Lallana. Centre back(s) speedy winger are essential and then competition for wing backs, central mid and forward please!

How are Hazard and Carrick in Player of the Year ahead of Zabaletta and Michu? Chelsea have been also rans in every competition this season although agree Mata has been outstanding. Shame Morgan hasn't been noticed although these sorts of awards are normally based on MOTD & Sky exposure rather than the stats such as distance covered, balls won and tackles made.

Morgan has scored a few

Will Newcastle fans vs Sunderland impact whether the Prem will be in the top 3 nations?

So in summary, he's made mistakes that some have lead to goals and some haven't. Its worth looking at but there again Fonte and Yoshida have made mistakes too (Wigan and Swansea home respectively). Hooiveld for me was one of the players of the season last season....until we played Ipswich at home where he was notably shaky and since then hasn't really done anything to give me confidence or reasoning as to why he's first choice, especially given Fonte's leadership and form since September. The only argument for him playing, which is part of the reason as to why we signed him, is because he is left footed which helps us play the ball out from the back and making clearances from the left hand side. Most people on the forum think Centre backs are priority this summer to which I agree, time to move Hooiveld & Martin on (and perhaps Fonte) and bring in 1 maybe 2 new top (goal scoring) centre backs whilst developing Stephens and utilising Forren in some way or another.

Given Morgan's stats is there an argument for him making the Team of the Year for the EPL? I know it's likely to go down the Fellani/Cleverly/Carzola route but Morgan and Cork are now being compared on some websites to Xavi and Busquets for their stats. We are all used to having players in the team of the year for the past few seasons after all!

I wonder how much Saggy chop's key to the City would be worth now....WTFILN