Depressed of Shirley

For me the problems are a group of meh players, none of whom anyone can be bothered if they stay or go. Hopeless management in most areas surrounding the first team. A clueless owner with no money or plan for the future of the club.

I love the way someone with nothing better to do than post on a fans message board criticises someone for getting £210m, like it is some really small amount that we would have all turned down.

In some respects football now is the same as it was in the 70'sand 80's, Man U, Arsenal, Spurs and Liverpool, now added to by the money at Chelsea and Man City. The problem now is that it is much more unfair on the smaller clubs than it ever was. CL money on top of the extra TV income, and billionaire owners means that the top 6 can be pretty much untouchable. Even if you get above one of them for a season, they will just spend another £100m to recitify the problem. What will kill the golden goose is more games like ours on Sunday, or Newcastle v Man City last season, when one team sets itself up to manage the negative goal difference rather than try and attack and win the game. As always, for all those who don't want it to continue, cancel your Sky/BT subscriptions, and if not, it will just continue as is.

And I would agree with that as well, very good summary of my thoughts on the Puel era. I'm surprised that more of our fans aren't ecstatic with Hughes. They wanted excitement, goals, and said things like " I'd rather lose 3-2 than watch us draw 0-0".

Thanks Shurlock. What f***k88g mess. I still don't trust Gao or any other Chinese "business" man to do anything positive for Saints at all.

I think this is probably it. It is also the situation for just about everyone outside the current big six clubs, and the worry for me is that a lot of them don't have 3 top earners out on loan with clubs that are at best paying only 50% of their wages, so we are on the back foot again.

This

Chicago Cubs had 5 Million !!!!!!!!!!!!

I wouldn't get too hung up on the "small club" thing. It is am American term for clubs in small markets, i.e Oakland v New York. It doesnt mean we cant compete on the pitch, but we cant compete financially. For me the concern is there is nothing in this interview that makes me confident for anything other than 10th at best. I have no idea what Gao wants or expects, and I think Ralph is being evasive because he doesn't know either.

Interesting that according to the Chelsea forum, they haven't sold out yet, and think that they will struggle to sell their full allocation. FA have really messed up their pricing for this.

He's terrible usually, but terrible for both sides.

Carrillo was bought because his height and ability in the air would give us a different dimension going forward, and a bit more solidity at the back from set pieces. This he has just about done, but the system with only one up front means he is too isolated to have much impact, and we just don't get crosses anywhere near him when he is in the box. If we just played Gabbi on his own, we would go back to how we have been most of the season, failing to create enough chances for him to score. The answer would be to play both up front, so Carrillo can find someone with flick ons, or Gabbi can benefit from any space left by having to mark Carrillo. MP won't do that though so its all a bit academic. I was watching Carrillo a lot on Saturday, and although he tried hard, and worked hard, there was nothing that he did that Sam Gallagher couldn't have done as well.

The Rangers game at the Dell was my first experience of people so drunk they couldn't even stand up. My Dad and I were in the East Stand, and there was a group of 6 Rangers fans sat two rows below us. No problems at all, until I said I didn't have a programme. One of the Rangers lads disappeared down the stairs and came back with about 50 programmes he had liberated from someone/somewhere, and handed them out to everyone around him.

I was told, from a very good authority, that he was offered closer to £100k per week, but wanted a longer term deal that we wouldn't offer.

I understand that, but doing this in February seems to serve no purpose. If you cant sack another manager, or replace the players, what difference does a new chairman make. The fans don't get excited by it, it doesn't change the playing style, the players don't care, but I expect the owner feels better for it. I would love our lot gone, but I don't see that doing it now would make any difference unless it allows them to change managers or players. And in our situation, if Gao knew anything about football he would have sacked the manager already.

Whilst I can understand why we might feel that this is a decisive move from them, I am struggling to see what a new senior management team can bring to a team that can't now buy any players, and have already sacked their manager. Perhaps they are looking for a Player Chairman? I think if Gao is going to do anything like this it will be in May.

Totally agree with this.

We were heavily linked with Lookman before he went to Everton.

Augsburg in the pre-season friendly. Joking aside though, there was enough in that home 0-4 defeat to make me think he didnt have a clue, but I convinced myself he was just trying to find the best system, players etc. Now I know he doesn't have a clue still.

Sir.

This is absolute horses**t. They didn't score because they didn't have an effort on target, in fact only one all game. If you hate the manager and want him gone, then say so, but people who want us to lose so he gets the sack are starting to really wind me up. I was at the game, and agree far more with Shroppie and Trousers than our worldwide internet fanbase!

And Spurs away, and Huddesfield at home, and Arsenal at home, and basically everytime we play with a team that is on average a foot shorter than the one we are playing against

And here comes the other forum moron. You are not a Saints fan if you wanted us to lose yesterday.

My definition is someone who actually wants the team they support to gain points, not someone who wishes they would lose so they might sack the manager. You ought to go to some games, you might get more of an idea as to what is going on.

See I thought that Davefoggy's comment was ridiculous, and then you come in and trump it. You are a very strange poster, and definitely not a Saints fan at all.