Matthew Le God

Because they and other recently relegated clubs haven't needed to. It is evidence to show what I said about relegation wage reduction clauses and parachute payments mean there is no desperate need to sell. Relegated clubs sell players because those players want to leave, not financial pressures.

Players have large relegation wage reduction clauses circa 40% and the club have parachute payments to cover the then reduced PL contracts in the Championship. We don't need to sell those players for financial reasons, they will leave because they'll likely want to go to clubs that offer them a higher level of football and better wages than if they stayed. Last season after relegation Burnley, Sheff Utd and Luton didn't sell £100m of players last season to 'make up for losses'. Because they also have parachute payments and would have reduced player wages due to contract clauses.

Exactly!

I did not call Exeter a town. It is a city. Both Southampton and Exeter are accessible from the sea only if you pass through river estuaries. If you won't include Exeter City, then Exmouth Town is on the coast. Saints won't drop below them. Plymouth and Torquay are coastal. Saints aren't going to drop below Torquay in league standings.

For the Championship... the vast majority of them For the Premier League... a small handful

How many of their players would you want in our squad? A handful of good results doesn't make them better than us or paper over how far they are behind on player quality. Even in the unlikely scenario of us below Pompey next season how would we be the lowest ranked on the South Coast next season when Devon (Exeter, Plymouth, Torquay) is on the South Coast or other clubs on the coast?

Are you sure you are going to the correct stadium? Blocks are numbered, not lettered at St Mary’s. That might explain the lack of Saints fans!

Would need a lot of bridge building given the circumstances of his departure. Fell out with the owners and they were extremely unhappy with how he left.

Similar would happen at every stadium in those circumstances, yet many Pompey fans think it doesn't at Fratton Park. They are delusional and believe their own Ports-Myths of a mythical loyal and noisy fanbase! 😁

We scored a similar amount of goals to the other relegated clubs in the Championship (Saints 87, Leicester 89, Leeds 81) but conceded 63 goals under Russell Martin (22 more than Leicester, 20 more than Leeds). Perhaps a better defensive structure would help address that and our top Championship level attacking players will still provide a goal threat.

3 centre back systems are not automatically defensive and risk-averse.

I'd predict he'd be sent off, which wouldn't help our chances.

There is an article. He only started work two days ago, I'd guess interviews will come once settled in. https://www.southamptonfc.com/en/news/article/johannes-spors-appointed-as-group-technical-director#:~:text=Southampton Football Club is delighted,Director of the 777 Group.

We are a shambles in the PL, but we remain light years ahead of Pompey in terms of player quality.

Hopefully not. What should gave happened in the summer of 2024 was the selling of all our Championship level players and looked to upgrade them. As we still have them, makes sense to use them to get another promotion, but then summer 2026 we need to be ruthless and get rid of them.

The Juric version of Sulemana is a handful and nightmare for defenders. Sure the end product needs some more work, but he is PL level.

Perhaps it is... Because 'We march on' does the job! 😇

Why do you think that? I think it is more likely we will have a season of winning most games we play. We'll have one of the top 3 budgets in the league and one of the best squads. It should be far more enjoyable than the 2 league wins we've had this season.

Why is anything more than 'We march on' needed?

New chairman, new sporting director. Give them a chance to make some changes before writing them off in those roles.

Walker-Peters, Ramsdale, Dibling, Sulemana would also all get in other PL teams. A massive clear out is not needed until we get promoted again. Most are good enough for what we need next season, so no need to get rid yet. The issue is they won't be good enough when back in the PL.

It is not due to the Spurs/Newcastle links, it is due to how the clubs he worked at in Netherlands, Italy and Germany did during his time there. No guarantee he will replicate it, but it is a promising sign that he is competent at recruitment. Something we've missed!

They couldn't afford his transfer fee or wages.