Dman

Probably because he’s not had 3/4 top premier league players, in a League One side again. Adkins will rightly hold a place in every saints fans heart and he’s a genuinely decent bloke, but he’s a very average manager. Not winning either league, with our squad, on our way up was a failure.

Who knows what we’ve offered him. It could be money. Realistically, long term, you’d have to say he has more chance of breaking through here (a team who’s main ambition is to be above the bottom 3), than Everton (a club with significantly more spending power and a minimum ambition to be top 6/7). Currently, he’s 3rd choice behind Peruard and KWP. Which is sensible for a club our size. As I said, I don’t think we’ll sign another as we have enough cover there already (excluding small). Similarly, Simeu has seemingly left Chelsea u23’s (one of the best around), to join our B team. Presumably for that exact reason, long term.

Ahhh the good old Pathway bollox again. if you’re good enough, you’ll play. If you’re not, we’ll replace or get cover in that position. Prime example being Tella. When we had a thin squad last season he was playing regularly. Now everyone is back and we’ve brought in players in his position (Theo / Armstrong & Broja), he’s not getting a sniff. Having a thin squad and relying on youngsters (not blocking the pathway), fucked us last season. So if Ralph doesn’t think that Small is good enough / ready and feels like we need cover at LB (we don’t given KWP can play there) then, yes he’ll bring in a replacement.

He had a big fall out with Ryan Fraser.

Funny enough, I remember a young lad called Sadio Mane also struggling against Sheffield United (who were in League one at the time). What ever happened to him? If I’m honest, I thought you were more intelligent than a ridiculous statement like this (and you said Armstrong has a higher ceiling, another stupid comment, don’t back track now) Everyone has bad games. He’s a young lad so naturally will be slightly inconsistent. You're clearly good at crunching the numbers, but I don’t think you have a clue about real football. If we play with a sole striker, it has to be Broja. If we play with 2 up top, it should be Armstrong and Broja.

Out of interest, and I don’t know the answer to this one, how many goals / assists does JWP have in open play? It seems a daft comparison given his ability over a free kick and the fact he takes every corner and penalty as well to boost his numbers. im also guessing that JWP has played significantly more games. The point wasn’t who’s the better player. It was that Diallo, with Romeu, compliments our game more than JWP.

😂😂 would you say this if Broja was our player, rather than Chelsea’s? Absolutely nonsense. Broja is 4 years younger than Armstrong and is already, arguably better. I like Armstrong, he’s a different kind of striker to Borja, they should both play together but Broja is going to be a top, top player. RE Adams, other than maybe Norwich, I don’t see another Premier league team he’d get in, if I’m honest. Adams is just a younger version of Shane Long, imo. Works hard, Half decent at bringing others into play but as a striker in front of goal, useless.

Well it’s only taken 1 game for me to decide that we’re better with Broja up top than we are championship strikers in Adams and Armstrong. But no, not 1 game. Diallo has played enough for me to decide he better at getting us up the pitch quicker than Prowsey and obviously we need Romeu Or we’re way to lightweight.

I think we are. He’s very good at retaining the ball, but he’s far too slow on the ball and slows our attacks down. Looking forward to seeing how Diallo develops with a run of games next to Romeu. Discuss…

I can 100% promise you, that the club have previously spoken and put feelers out to Howe. Howe has also been at every home game this season. I can’t comment on Pilchards post, but i wouldn’t be surprised (and I’ve previously said I think Howe will be our manager before the end of the year). Of course should Ralph leave the club, we may get interest from another candidate who we prefer to Howe but I know talks have taken place back in the summer. So in short, the decision makers at the club are either not switched on, or more switched on than you.

Whilst I very much think that anyone with Ralph’s recent record and 2 9-0 defeats for good measure, makes their position untenable, I also do agree that I’m not sure anyone else we could attract (I.e Howe) would keep us up in our current state. The issue is, that I don’t think Ralph will either. That being said, there will almost certainly be managers on the continent, like Ralph at the time, who are held in high regard and see us as a route to bigger things in the PL. I’m just not sure I trust our board to find them.

As I said in my first post, neither Pelle or Theo are the answer for us, I’m not advocating signing pelle and didn’t agree with us signing Theo. I will however repeat again, Pelle would offer something different. He isn’t the greatest at pressing or tracking back, I get that, but ‘different’ being the key word. Could he do a job as a target man (attack / hold up long balls, crosses into the box etc.), for the last 15 against a team with 10 men behind the ball, which were struggling to break down? Possibly, I don’t really know. He’d certainly do better than what we currently have at that though. Hence why I can understand why people would want someone like that back. My concern is that all of our attacking players are fairly similar. Relatively small, weak lacking any real creative skill and quick. Great to suit a counter attacking style, pretty poor when you’re faced with a team who stick 10 on the edge of their box. Clearly long term, pelle isn’t the answer, but it’s a role we need to fill in our squad, imo.

Yes, I do realise that a winger and a striker are different and have different roles within the team. Regardless, Theo is dog shite, absolutely not good enough and a waste of 40/50k a week to our wage budget. Him being in the squad / first team is preventing players, such as Tella, from getting a game. Clearly, absolutely no one is saying Pelle would be an adequate replacement for ings. I also like Broja (although I’m not sure he’s a traditional target man), in fact I’d start him over Adams, but that wasn’t my point, was it? As I said, he’d be a better option off the bench than Long, who’s done exactly that in 1 game this season already.

Do you honestly think there is any chance in hell that Howe would turn down clubs like Celtic, just to become the assistant of a manager who has won something like 5 in 30 games 😂 FWIW, Howe has been at every home game this season. He’ll be our manager within the next month or 2 (unless Ralph somehow turns it around).

A sensible he/she/they then, it seems. A loss to the forum if they’re no longer here. In their absence, im happy to provide a A regular reminder to the Ralph fan club, how absolutely diabolical you need to be tactically to not prevent a team scoring 9 against you.

Isn’t it mad how a team like Andorra can bring on a 42 year old CB for the best part of 70 minutes, against a top, top team like England and still not lose 9-0. Puts into perspective how bad those 2 results are, doesn’t it.

Pelle would add something a little different to what we current have up top and is more than likely still a better option off the bench than Long. Theo is dreadful and it was poor judgement to sign him permanently, especially given the lack of funds we currently have. In reality, neither are the answer but I can understand people who have an opinion the same as Mr X.

I’m amazed you’ve ever seen a females genitalia. I had you down as a computer game / spreadsheet kinda nerd. P.S congratulations.

Exactly. In an ideal world, every club would be owned by a local businessman and it’d be a relatively equal playing field. However, reality is football has moved on. If a rich Arab came in and was willing to pump some cash in to make us a super club, I’d be walking round St Mary’s with a Keffiyeh on. Fuck the human rights record in their homeland.

Watch and understand the game, pal. The fact you’re judging your opinion based on 1 ‘bad’ game would suggest you haven’t a clue about football, to be honest. It’s obviously an opinion, but it’s one that would be backed up by almost every single person (other than the weird little freaks on here, who live with red and white glasses on) including the England manager it seems. Phillips is a defence minded midfielder. England’s defence was very good. Him and rice done their job. If you’re looking for flare in the middle, JWP would be even further down the pecking order.

Agree. It was an already weak argument, but it became a lot weaker after how Phillips performed at the Euros.

In pretty much every single way, other than free kicks and corners. Prowse, is very average and will be nowhere near the squad when we’re needing it to be at its strongest. Rice, Bellingham, Henderson and Phillips all ahead of him in the pecking order and rightly so.

I think you may have miss understood the post. The way I read it was he’d be 1 of the 4 (I.e on the right with OR and SA in CM). Personally, I think Liveramento has a touch of S Armstrong about him when going forward and is pretty direct. I think he’d do an alright job out there, certainly no worse than Theo / Mo etc. KWP is a very, very good RB so not losing anything on that perspective. Given we’re trying to fit square pegs in round holes with KWP playing LB anyway, I don’t see the harm in at least trying him as a winger, personally.

I can’t believe we’ve not even tried playing him further forward, especially given the shower of shit our wingers / attacking midfielders currently are and KWP being one of, if not our best player. It might not work, it might be great. Unless you try it you’ll never know. However, imo it can’t be any worse than current. Actually, I can believe it. Once Ralph gets an idea he’s far to stubborn to change it.

Yep. 100% a red, on another day it was a leg breaker. VAR used correctly and doing exactly what It should.