Dman

Fair play to them though, they’ve got a really decent squad and a good manager. If they can get a CB to replace Mings and a DM, I’d say they’ve got one of, arguably if not, the strongest 11’s outside of the traditional top 6. Based on their recruitment and their manager; I actually think they’ll be more of a West Ham / Leicester in a year or 2 than Everton. But I guess time will tell. I actually think Gerrard will go right to the top (most probably Liverpool) of management.

So does Ralph. Once again another really poor performance when going down to 10 men. Swansea we’re shockingly bad and we sat back and tried to cling on to a 1-0 win. Thankfully, we pulled out finger out and showed a bit of fight when we went 2-1 behind.

1 time you could argue is a ‘freak results’, 2 times, not so much. Also the trouble is, we had a more than 9 1-0 (or narrow defeats) that followed the second 9-0… so it’s something he would be very, very bothered about I expect. Rather than ‘freak’, It is (or at least was) a mentality issue. Our squad was weak as piss mentally and a manager who was unable and/or unwilling to adapt his tactics to play more defensively when we went down to 10 men. Thankfully, I think we’ve now got rid of a few players who simply gave up and couldn’t be arsed when the going got tough and Ralph seems to have learned from his mistakes.

So he might turn out to be a good player, he might not. Fantastic insight from our resident football expert. Again, I don’t think anyone was calling for him to get a start when we had a full strength team playing well. The only time, was when injuries got to a point where we were playing CB’s in CM amd we’re losing practically every single game. Which again; I’ll repeat, goes against the ‘pathway’, right? FWIW, I agree I don’t think he’s ready to be a regular starter in the premier league. Neither is smallbone, for that matter. I do think he’ll go on to be a better player than smallbone though, from the little I saw of him playing for ours and national u23 team. So yeah, again, not sure what you’re getting out of digging out a young lad who wants to play football (and is willing to drop a level to get that). Unless your trying to make out it was some master stroke by Ralph to not start an inexperienced 18 year old….

Just for clarity, the following we’re playing for X club at a similar age (19/20)…. Beckham - Preston Vardy - FC Halifax town (that mighty northern premier league side) Kane - Leyton Orient The list can go on…. I’m not sure what point you’re trying to make my digging him out for wanting to go on loan to find first team football.. that’s the complete opposite of ‘workshy’ in my opinion. He was/is a highly rated youngster and the only time anyone was calling for him to get a chance starting was when we had multiple players out in his position to the point where our manager even put CB’s in his position, ahead of him. For a club that loves to promote ‘the pathway’, that doesn’t quite align, does it. As a direct comparison, where would someone like, say smallbone, end up if we were to Loan them out? Mid table championship at best?

I’m not sure where this delusion of people has come from, to be honest. Everything I’ve seen has suggested that we’ll maintain a ‘sustainable’ business plan. As part of that, that’ll include selling players. Hopefully this new chap will provide some much needed investment to allow us to have some cash in hand to shop in the next bracket up (20-30m), however I doubt we will (i think we’ll continue to see cheap young potential), but even so we’ll continue to sell to fund those transfers. If someone offers £50m for JWP we’re taking it, without a doubt. Reports are that this geezer is only worth 1B, which in the grand scheme of things isn’t a significant amount of money to football club owners in the premier league. Some of the names spouted out on here since the take over (Ramsey, Couthino) are laughable.

To be honest, that is something I could massively get behind. Whilst, of course, spending millions and competing for the league each year would be fun, but it would also result in losing your fan base and pricing the average (dare I say, league one fan) out. Ive never felt more disinterested as a saints fan these past few years, to the point where I no longer go, which I would ever have said a few years back. A never ending cycle of selling and massively underfunding and progressively getting worse and looking like relegation is inevitable. The Poch / Koeman years were one of the most exciting times I can remember as a saints fan, great players and great football. We’re not a million miles away from that, but need some much needed investment in the club to achieve it. Personally, I’d much rather we done a Leicester and put together a very good young, exciting squad (I.e us under koeman), who win a FA cup or 2 and compete in Europe each season, than a city and win a trophy every year, they start to become meaningless. we need to be in a position where we’re selling our best players to the top teams, rather than the mid table ones (I.e Ings to villa). It’s one of the reasons I wouldn’t be too arsed if the big 6 fucked off and joined a super league, it’d make the league 100x more exciting for everyone else.

I get the impression (and this is just an assumption) that Ankersen is there to oversee the group rather than a specific club, with Kraft there to run the club. Certainly seems like it’ll be a step down or at least less responsibility for semmens. Who knows, that might be what he’s after? If not; I’m sure he’ll find himself a nice job elsewhere. I’d imagine there would be a few football clubs who’d have him.

Of course it makes a difference. To run a successful group of clubs which are looking to compete in Europe, you’ll need to spend around £500m over 4/5 seasons (you’re probably looking 3/400m alone for a club just in the PL - including purchase). That’s roughly of his net worth, where as 500m is minimal to someone of the worth of £10B. This transfer window it won’t, but over a prolonged period of time it’ll make a difference. Personally, I’m expecting more of the same from this guy, but hopefully a little more astute in the transfer market. For me he doesn’t appear wealthy enough to be a premier league owner, but Fingers crossed we’ll have a little more wiggle room in the market and will have capacity to break our current 20m price bracket on players. Not hopeful of that, but let’s wait and see. If Semmens / Crooker stay at the club in some capacity; I don’t see any real down side though, perhaps just not as good as was hoping.

I like potter, I think he’s got a big future ahead of him and has done a decent job with Brighton, specifically changing their whole style of play. However, talk of getting the city / Liverpool job is clearly nonsense, which doesn’t surprise me considering who’s touted it. His next job will be at a Everton, Leicester, West Ham type club who are competing with top 6 but not just there. My money is on Leicester when Brendan leaves.

In my opinion Forster dropped (or started to drop) the ball in anticipation of the contact, which was minimal. It was soft, I can see why it was given, but also wouldn’t have any complaints had it not been given.

That doesn’t mean they have a better interpretation of the rules though.

Am I missing something…? Didn’t Hypo say they are American with links to NFL / Texas? Doesn’t tally with Ratcliffe…

I think it was a soft and we got away with one. I don’t think there would be many complaints (and certainly wouldn’t have been over turned on VAR) if it wasn’t given as a foul. However, it just shows how much protection keepers are given in the modern game. It’s ridiculous really. For me, the contact was fairly minimal and a keeper of Forster’s stature should be cleaning everything out there. Having watched it a few times, it looks like he dropped the ball whilst anticipating the contact from the attacker. I’d say it was poor keeping rather than a blatant foul. There is another part to this, there’s an argument that the only reason there is contact, is because Valery bends over causing Doherty to almost go over the top of him. I think we got away with the offside as well, very harsh decision in my book. The rule really needs to change, Kane has gained no advantage there even if his armpit is slightly ahead of Bednerak. No complaints about the red card, first yellow was for a couple of late tackles second a clear, clumsy foul.

Today is the best ive seen him play in a long time. Goal aside (what a great finish that was, btw.) he was everywhere. more of the same please.

100% agree, once again we move away from the ridiculously, over attacking, formation and look a better side as a result. It’s shame it’s taken so long but we seem to this season be much more tactically fluid. Credit where it’s due, Ralph got it spot on today after the sending off and on another day we could have nicked it. Personally I’m not a huge fan, but continue with the current form from the last 2 and you can’t argue with results. A huge game on Sunday (if on), however, lose that and the 4 points gained is almost irrelevant.

None of those listed that we have out, other than arguably S Armstrong (who did come on) would get anywhere near the West Ham side, so it’s irrelevant if they we’re out or not. As previously explained and I can’t be arsed to go In to details around why I think Pompey are arguably more attractive to an investor than us (however, if the figure of £125m is true, I take that back as that’s a bargain) and I was merely pointing out that the San Marino manager, at the time, was able to set a side up to defend better than us highlighting how poor it was to lose 9-0. No one said he was a better manager. The last I’ll say on the matter; but keep deflecting your utter nonsense 🤡 As for Perrud, I’d argue he wasn’t a good signing at all if we’re playing a player out of position instead of him. Funds could have been used elsewhere. That being said, I’m reluctant to judge him just yet as I haven’t seen enough of him. personally, I’d play KWP over Tino, he’s a more rounded player for my liking. Tino will get there, KWP just marginally better at the moment.

Yawn…. Called out for his utter bullshit again, so tries to deflect with taking snippets of statements out of context and using the skate / troll card 🤡🤡🤡 Was a great 3 points against a team we usually struggle to get anything from. That being said, they weren’t at the races with a few injures, but you can only beat what’s in front of you. We didn’t completely nullify a team that managed to score 2 though, that much is clearly very obvious. On to thread topic, I find it amazing KWP is getting a game ahead of the next coming of Roberto Carlos. You were wetting your pants over the signing of perraud… another error of judgement, just like that when you said Broja had less potential than Armstrong and Adams, it seems…

Completely nullify!? They scored 2 goals ffs As for the 4222 formation, it’s garbage. We’re not suited to play that style, far to open and defensively not strong enough to cover for AM’s pressing high and full backs being out of position. I’m reluctant to give the manager credit for changing formation as he’s served up the same shite for the whole year. Let’s hope this time he learns.

Mitchell is at Monaco now, not RB. We did actually try getting him back a few years ago, I think. But agree I think it’ll be that DaGrosa mob.

We’re clearly not going to sign Dele Alli

That’s a very fair point, probably slightly OTT to say we should be beating. I should rephrase to: realistically we shouldn’t be celebrating a draw against palace.

I’m no Howe lover, far from it, however, points since Howe took over Newcastle (8th November) Newcastle: 5 (1 win) Southampton: 3 (0 wins) 🥴

Unfortunately I only get 3 posts, so I need to make the most of them (debating with the posts I disagree with). The majority of my wisdom is left un typed and/or ranted to my partner about 😔

Nope, a decent enough point given how poor we are. Realistically, we should be beating palace, but under this manager I don’t feel like we’ll win any games. I’m Just calling out more of your absolute nonsense which has once again proven to be wrong.