Dell McDellFace

Having endured some pretty poor stubbornness and tactics in the past including Branfoot and the season under Ted Bates where we constantly played long diagonal balls for Ron Davies to head on to the runner (that never worked), I have pretty much always been there to support the team regardless of how I felt about the tactics. Not now. I literally cannot bring myself to watch it. Partially it's the predictable, pedestrian nature of modern football but I really can't persuade myself that short pass exchanges between Bednarek and Stephens is "entertainment". I just can't .... 50 years and I just can't. RM has killed the joy. I hope I can get it back one day.

I like Jack Stephens and think he is the right character for club captain. He is confident and assured on the pitch and doesn't take any sh*t from anyone. Perhaps his composure is what gets the better of him on occasion, leading to mistakes. Mistakes happen, especially when the team set out to play from the back like most modern teams do. I think the one area where he could improve is recovery after a mistake, he almost freezes and watches on. Last Saturday was one example of this after his pass across the penalty box, another was in the heavy home defeat to Tottenham a couple of seasons ago where he twice let Son get the better of him and just pulled up and watched him take off. With someone like Salisu or ABK alongside him it might not have been such an issue, but with Bednarek it's a problem. Not that I would drop Bednarek

I'm not calling for Russell's head - we don't want to become Watford! He's not stupid or completely intransigent. Hopefully he will learn from the last few games and create more of a solid formation and tactics. He will also learn about the squad in a game situation, things that weren't apparent in training.

A necessary sacrifice for RM to know who are the fringe players he can trust to do a job. Pre-season friendlies aren't enough to know this for sure, and he probably has a much better idea now. Whether those who didn't make the cut can be shifted is another question, but perhaps for the sake of moral and having a tight and well-disciplined squad we can get them out on loan or on cut-price deals. Also, why risk injury and yellow card accumulation to first team squad and those that are about to be sold. Makes sense to me. I trust in RM and liked his brutal post-match comments - let's see him follow that up with action now.

Personally I'm happy for the Premier League and other major European leagues to be diluted by letting the greedy ones transfer to what will inevitably be dull, atmosphereless leagues in Arab countries. It will give younger, hungrier players more of a chance to come through.

If we're indulging in post-mortems: Rasmus: Is the ChatGPT of football directors. In fact even ChatGPT would realize that you can't run a football club like other commercial businesses. It would also know that doing everything in a data driven way is madness (even though AI is data driven!!) Managers: Ralph had become a one-trick pony and his tactics were well-known and easy to counter. Teams learned to sit back let us do the high energy push until we couldn't keep it up any longer and then hit us when we tired. Evidenced by the number of times we were in the lead and lost, our dire 2nd half performances and the fact that our best results came against top teams who would play to their own strengths rather than hit our weakness. The appointment of mad Nate hit the club in more ways than on the field - we became reputationally damaged for such a stupid and self-harming appointment. I was going to call Selles "Ralph 2.0" but it's more accurate to say "Ralph 0.5". Again, harmful stupidity making the appointment semi-permanent on the basis of one good result. Players: Not going to name individuals, but in general terms: We recruited some promising youngsters but expected them to hit the ground running rather than be nurtured and blended slowly. The older guard players are mostly limited in some ways, but would have been good enough if they had been playing in a cohesive unit, but they never were. I don't think their body language was indicative of not caring or having given up. Their confidence was blown apart by having to play out of position or in a team where nobody was sure who was supposed to be doing what. It wasn't as simple as not having a goal scorer, we didn't create enough goal scoring opportunities and were naïve and lacking concentration across the back line. The first task for the (hopefully) new manager is to restore confidence in the broken players that remain. Post mortem conclusion: Death by mis-management on every level

A sensible strategy would be: Let go all those that don't want to play for us in the championship. For those under contract maybe offer them out at slightly reduced price to clear the decks ahead of rebuild. For those not in contract that want to stay, make them a reduced offer and see if they still want to stay. Appoint a new manager as soon as the season is over and review what is left of the players Start pre-season early and give all those that have been out on loan to lower league clubs a clean-slate to prove themselves. Not shining in a poor league 1 or league 2 side doesn't always mean that they aren't good enough. If they don't show enough, loan them out again to run down their contracts or release them. Strengthen the proverbial spine of the team and in particular splash out on a forward who will score goals at this level. Aim for a relatively small squad, supplemented with younger players coming through. We will get more idea about whether or not the likes of Doyle and Ballard are going to make it by playing them occasionally, rather than loaning them to Port Vale or Grimsby. Simples - but this is Sports Republic so I'm not overly hopeful

Any manager in a job, where we have to pay compensation - No Thanks (how well did that work with mad Nate!) Any largely unknown manager from a foreign league that's had a modicum of success abroad - No Thanks (too high risk) So, in order of preference: Potter, nice chance to rebuild his reputation under not too much pressure Viera, seems to command respect and plays a good attacking style of football Brendan Rogers, great man manager, very experienced and has mostly been successful No thanks - still relying on experience as a good player but unproven as a manager: Lampard Gerrard Rooney Outlier: James Milner as player-manager

Given the most likely scenario - Burnley promoted and Saints relegated, then what would make sense, especially given Burnley's transfer embargo, is to offer Tella an improved contract with us with the offer of lending him to Burnley for another season. He would be able to disprove the "found his level in the Championship" doubters, his value would potentially go up. At 24 he deserves a chance to play at the highest level to prove himself, but we benefit from his increased value.

I feel that NJ has put unnecessary extra pressure on the team (and himself.) Everyone will be scrutinising the formation and tactics to see what "his way" is, and the team will be very conscious of this, to the extent that it could prove to be distracting for them. I doubt the Wolves players and management are quaking in their boots because they don't know what to expect - I have a vision of their management analysing historic data from Luton games for the answer (whatever happened to creativity, flair and doing the unexpected?) I don't sense a passion in the players to get behind his "vision" to save his position. Soundbites from JWP are what you would expect from a club captain but it didn't really convey any warmth for the guy. For the first time in 50+ years of supporting the Saints, I am hoping for a heavy defeat, let's get this unsavoury chapter behind us and move on.

I don't really want to see anyone sacked or not given a reasonable chance to impose their strategy. Having said that, I am really struggling to warm to Nathan Jones - from his personal demeanour to the comments he is making to the press. He just doesn't come across as particularly likeable and I feel bad that I am thinking that. Even Ian Branfoot had something about him. I went as guest of a sponsor to a Reading game when he was their manager and he came in before the game and gave a talk about his team selection and was warm and friendly (you could argue that he should have been with his players at that time). He also had his way of playing that he tried to impose - and didn't see "luxury players" such as MLT as part of that, which majorly contributed to his unpopularity and downfall.

According to Talksport, betting is suspended because the odds on it being Nathan Jones are so high now. No surprise after what's been revealed on social media. It's not so much that I'm underwhelmed, but: I would rather we went after someone who isn't currently employed as a manager (isn't this what we used to pride ourselves on). I don't mind someone who has strong Christian Faith, but I'm not a fan of people who have to refer to it so much out of context and make such a big thing of it. It's hard to find an article about him that doesn't mention it somewhere! As others have said, we should give him a chance to show what he can do, but fans and owners are notoriously short of patience in this respect and if he doesn't turn things quickly, he will soon be operating under pressure.

Mark Peters was going to be the next Shearer and was introduced to the crowd at a home game after signing his professional contract. Had an injury and never played a game for the first team and years later I saw him struggle in a brief spell for non-league Farnborough.

As well as being a very passionate manager, Sean Dyche is also very intelligent and articulate - a cut above the likes of Steve Bruce and Sam Allardyce. I thinks he could do a job if a vacancy came up. I don't subscribe to this argument that we have recruited and built a squad around Ralph's style if play. if that was the case we wouldn't be forever playing players out of their natural positive and we wouldn't be so clueless in trying to execute it!

Jason Denayer is available on a free after his release from Lyon and would be a solid partner for Salisu. Fulham are interested and I guess we would have to let some players go before signing another CB. Jack Stephens is one of those players that you really want to do well because he has a lot about him. For me it's not so much the occasional lapse of focus, but the inability to recover that lets him down. He would be a solid championship player and at this stage of his career should be a regular starter, so maybe a step down would be a good move for him.

I think there is a good player in there somewhere, but I'm not sure he suits Ralph's style of play. I'm not in favour of overloading the wage bill with so-called squad players, would rather go for a high-risk strategy of better quality core squad (assuming we can attract them) and bring in youngsters to fill the gaps. I accept that with a poor run of injuries it could go horribly wrong, but it would be more exciting than another season dishing up a level slightly below mediocracy. This past season was like watching an injured animal struggling to survive in the wilderness.

I like Ralph and he has definitely imposed his way on the club at all levels. I think the problems that have made it such a rollercoaster journey are that other teams have worked out how to play against his method and he is quite stubborn in sticking with his style and with certain players who seem to be underperforming. There have been a few occasions this season where we have dominated the first half, only to be overrun in the second and Ralph waits until the 70th minute to make the changes that we are all screaming out for. I wonder about the impacts of 5 subs next season. I can imagine opposition teams making 3 changes at half time and setting out a totally different game plan. If Ralph is too belligerent to respond to that, then we will be easy picking - at least for the better teams.

I remember that by the time I walked down Hill Lane to the central station, the early edition of the Pink would have been printed with the day's results listed. I've no idea how they did that so quickly, but there would be a guy pacing the platforms selling copies shouting 'Full Time Football Results", but it was almost completely incomprehensible!

I know these are "unprecedented times", as we keep being reminded, but the whole postponement thing needs some serious scrutiny. It's so open to abuse. Imagine you have a vital game coming up and you have a bit of an injury/infection crisis and: A player who is one booking from suspension "earns" that booking in the last minute of a game Fit players are told to play recklessly in a training game Deliberately mixing the infected with the uninfected, as rumoured at Tottenham recently! Physio being asked to exaggerate the extent of a minor injury And it's almost impossible to police most of this behaviour. Luck always played a big part in the outcome of a season, although this has arguably been dumbed down by VAR. If you are plagued by injuries, it could be that you have players who are prone, poor training and recovery methods, but luck is a huge part. The more you take out elements of luck and chance the more sterile the games becomes. It's a slippery slope - just make them play some of their youth players, who knows - they may uncover a new gem!

Listening to Graham Souness after the Arsenal v Everton game last night, I agree with him. Premiere League football has become very one-dimensional, predictable and stagnant. It's not just the lack of crowds that is making it sterile and as a marketable product (I hate that word ever since Rupert Lowe used it to describe football) that is sold around the world, the value is rapidly diminishing. As Souness said - you might as well watch French football. I think there is an opportunity for a club to be brave and break the predictability - e.g. (1) plan to make 3 substitutions at half time so that 6 of the squad know that they only have to keep going for 45 minutes and can run themselves ragged; (2) pull everyone back for a corner then as it's about to be taken have 3 sprint out in the hope of making a break and catching the opposition out (3) offer players bonuses on the ratio of forward passes to backward passes they make and for staying on their feet when fouled (if possible) Innovate, take a gamble. They won't always come off, but what they might do is negate the effect of opposing teams studying hours of footage of how you set out in order to stifle creativity - which is what's at the heart of sterile modern football.

If 'plan A' is the high press, then it worked well for us and to some extent still does - like in the first half against Tottenham. It's not so much that teams have worked out how to play against us, but with games coming thick and fast it's not sustainable. We managed it for a half and then started to look really tired and they took control. Danny Ings may be a bit injury prone, but he would probably not be so much if he didn't do so much chasing down off the ball, in both attack and defence. With a small squad, players are having to play through minor injuries or out of their favoured position. It may not be a popular opinion, but my view is that the same squad and manager would be competitive again, playing in the same way after a pre-season break. But the same thing would no doubt happen, we'd have a good run, get exhausted, pick up a few injuries and have a bad run. I also quite like the plan B that we've seen over the last couple of games of sticking Vestergaard up front and slinging high balls to him. It's something that Chris Nicholl used to do to good effect. Although doing it so late in the game can be perceived as desperation.

I will raise you Carlton Palmer, Jim Magilton, and Peter Wells

7th April 1969 Southampton 5 Burnley 1 Bobby Stokes debut. He scored twice Pain, Davies Judd

Would be an ideal candidate for Bristol City and would probably do well there.

Met a few in my time: Did bob-a-job for Gerry Gurr once (cleaned his front porch) Met Dennis Hollywood walking back to his car after a game at Chelsea. Happy to chat as we walked with him and his car was chock full of football magazines. Same game, the rest of the players were on the train back to Southampton and I was surprised how many were drinking and smoking. Talked to John McGrath and Docker (Dave Walker), both lovely guys. Met Dennis Wise on holiday somewhere and he swore at my son when he asked him for a photo with him. As someone else said Ken Monkou lived in Lightwater and was always happy to stop for a chat when walking his dog. Very intelligent guy. My colleague lived next door to Colin Clark and I met him a couple of times. He was a lovely and slightly sensitive guy. He was very upset that he was getting chants about his weight - he thought that Saints fans were even doing it. I won a holiday to Yugoslavia through a competition in the program (Yugotours were a sponsor) and was presented it on the pitch by Jimmy Case, another great guy who was happy to chat but struggled a bit because he was quite deaf and wasn't wearing his hearing aid.