CSA96

Now he's gone back in the dugout, presumably?

The Saints fans are tapping a giant inflatable turd around the away end.

Yeah, who wants to watch ball-dominant, passing, attacking football anyway? I was a fan of the counter-pressing for the first half of Ralph's tenure but accepting being second-best and just waiting for the ball to turn over so we could break away was boring me to tears by the end, because nobody in our team seemed to have any composure in possession. It felt like a team of kids just charging about, toe poking the ball around the school field aimlessly and getting picked off. Of course, I'd much rather watch Nathan Jones biting his nails til they bleed while screaming for us to aimlessly whack it forward for somebody to chase after, or Ruben Selles doing his best Pep impression and getting too far into his own head by setting up with no strikers whatsoever, midfielders playing as false nines and 'play-stoppers' like Elyounoussi who are really good 'against the ball' Make some good signings and win a few early games with some enjoyable football and the flakey fans will come crawling back. They always do. That aside, I do genuinely feel for anyone who has had to stick it out every week at SMS for the past two seasons. It's not been easy and I hope for all of our sake's that the corner is fully turned before we reach the end of 2023.

I suspect he'll get a PL offer (although perhaps only in the form of Sheffield United following his loan spell) but if for some reason there's nothing in the PL on the table for him, I'd really like to see us go after Tommy Doyle. There's the MCFC link (so Wilcox will be aware and know him well) plus he fits our age profile and is coming off the back of two very impressive loan spells with Sheffield United and Cardiff City. Under contract with Man City until 2025, so they will need to make their minds up on him soon and that City midfield is obviously pretty formidable... And a thumbs up to Manning too. Grimes would make a lot of sense as we will need that deeper midfield player who is comfortable and calm on the ball and able to progress the play. Would only help that he'd arrive with a lot of tactical familiarity with the reported new manager too.

You're right, but I'll still be off to the pub when the released and retained list confirms it. It's almost impressive, but I simply cannot believe he has managed to hang around long enough to clock up 87 appearances for us. What a symptom of our malaise since 2018.

I think all the 'unite the fanbase' stuff is massively overplayed. Just look at how many of our fanbase were lauding the summer transfer window of 2022 as an eight or nine out of ten. Turns out it was utter shite and we bought a load of pap, while failing to address the one area that literally everybody knew we needed to address. I'd rather they just make the hire of their convictions and then make sure they're actually empowered to gut this terrible squad out and have the resources available to go and bring in the players to do things the way they want to, not the way Ankersen tries to push.

If we had appointed a manager who had never played professionally and only managed U23 and U18 sides until 12 months ago, as well as working alongside a derided United manager like Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, this place would ordinarily be in open revolt. You just need to have seen the Brian Barry-Murphy references in recent months. Now apparently McKenna would've been a good pick because he managed to get out of League 1 after blowing their rivals out of the water by spending more money than any other side and watching Sheffield Wednesday inexplicably explode down the final straight. He's definitely an interesting manager to keep an eye on in the next few years - and perhaps, just perhaps he would've been a decent pick for us now - but next season is going to be the real barometer for him in terms of how his stock sits in the English pyramid. Personally, I think there's more merit in direct experience in the division we're going to be in and a track record of overachieving with limited resources. Not that it guarantees a sure bet, but then neither would a single promotion from League One.

I still quite like the fixtures Leeds have. Spurs at home on the last day is a pretty nice one considering just how hopeless they tend to be. Big Sam winning away at former club West Ham and then sending down Everton after his history with them would be a lovely bit of narrative - and no doubt he would love it too. Would really enjoy seeing Everton (and Dyche) go down. But I am pretty resigned to them getting a result at Goodison against Bournemouth on the final day.

If we don't start winning now, I worry we might be leaving it too late.