RobM

Shall we let him fail before we consider him a failure? I was not in any way supportive before he was appointed, but he kept us up and I enjoyed the football at the end of the season WAY more than I did before he started, so he deserves a chance. We shouldn't expect more than a high bottom-half finish (12th is my prediction), but given the squad and the poor way Ross and Les are (not) managing transfers, there's only so much Hughes can do.

This bit is the killer for me. In the first half especially, we had nobody for Bertrand or Targett to overlap with or play off of. Targett especially would get forward OK, realise he had no options as everyone else was too central, so would be forced to go backwards to find a pass. Armstrong would occasionally find himself out wide, but not naturally and often not at the same speed, which gave BM time to surround us. In the second half, when Elyounoussi came on, he provided an option and stopped the back-tracking a bit, as he was more naturally out wide and consistently further forward. We need somebody on the other side to do the same. I also believe Austin and Gabbi cannot play together, they're too similar and need to be left alone up-front for the one minute of magic they can produce each game. We can't have two players doing that, though.

It was RB and he was ****ing awful. Most of the negative opinions about Yoshida come from the times he was played at RB, but people forget the RB bit and remember he was ****ing awful.

If we sign Ings and play him or Austin, but never both at the same time, there's a chance that their injuries will occur when the other is fit. Therefore, Ings for, say, £15m and £4m for Austin means we paid £19m for one usable striker. That's better value than £19m on one unusable striker. At least the injury double-act will score goals! #PositiveThinking

Why would a football club prioritise the wishes of a customer who brings in no more than 10-20% of their income (if that), over a different income source where the vast, vast majority of their money comes from? This isn't new news, it's a fact of modern English football, so expecting our personal schedules to be factored into match scheduling, when we count for a very small part of a clubs income, is akin to expecting Bank Holidays to be arranged around us. If Sky or BT want a game changed and it's possible to do so, it's being changed. If we as ST-buying fans don't like it, don't buy a ST. It's a choice.

Probably here https://southamptonfc.com/news/2018-07-06/fixture-changes-southampton-burnley-brighton-premier-league No mention of it being conditional and the Tickets site is selling them based on the Sunday date.

If anyone, he replaces Davis. But since he's nowhere near the first team (albeit injury influenced that), what's the point? I can't imagine Wilshere's wages will be cheap and he hardly set the world alight at Bournemouth.

Oddly, I agree and disagree for all the reasons you've listed. I don't think he's awful, as he made some vital challenges and won the ball really well at times. Some of his tackles in the last few games could have been a booking or red card if even slightly mistimed, but he got it spot on. BUT... his passing is shocking and that alone causes us more defensive problems than he solves. I it will prove easier to coach this out of him, than it would be to improve his defensive technical ability. Perhaps we need to do the same with him as Klopp did with Lovren to get a reasonable game out of him: keep it simple, win the ball, pass immediately to another player and get back in position.

If only more players made playing regularly their first priority, when considering transfers and their career. Reed won't get regular games with us though, so should move on. If we decide Hojbjerg, Romeu and Lemina aren't enough in CM, we'll buy somebody before considering Reed.

What if you're unable to buy the player you want, after selling the current player? VVD, Fonte, Pelle, Mane... it has happened before. I'd argue this has been proven a bigger risk than the other way around. As for cash-flow, if we're unable to fund and structure player purchases in such a way that avoids that risk (even if the subsequent player sale is delayed or at a reduced rate), we're in bigger trouble than worrying about who we should buy. Plus, the purchase and sale can run in parallel, it's just the order of completion that I'm talking about, e.g. don't confirm a sale until you've already bought the replacement. If we had done this with Fonte alone, we probably wouldn't have dropped so many points last season.

Whoever goes, we need to do our buying before selling. Let's not sell good-enough players and fail to replace them, again.

This will forever be problem we face, if we go for unknown, up-and-coming, unproven, etc managers from abroad. The prize for Reed and Co. getting it right, is another Pochettino and a top-8 finish. The consequence of getting it wrong, is a relegation fight and dire football. Is the gamble worth it? Is any manager going to improve on 8th place, perhaps 7th or 6th at best, with a good cup run if we're lucky? It would need significant investment in new players and huge wages, which is highly unlikely.

That's income, what's the profit? Even if it were profit, £1m/game isn't much over £20m even with a good cup run, which is nothing compared to how much we've wasted on poor transfers (£19m on a striker who barely makes the bench), so how harmful would it be if prices were slashed? It won't happen, it's business and no sustainable business turns down income just because it's an nice thing to do.

Not only have I got loads of old programmes I never go back and re-read, I've even got loads of copies of 'The Saints Magazine' that we used to produce - who remembers that!? Any form of print is slowly dying a death, it's just a sign of the times.

Les Reed will award it to himself for being part of a 'perfect' management team.

We have so few games left, I would just tell him to stay at home if the reports are true. Why bother training at all? Turning up to Staplewood each day and training alone, while still visible to the rest of the team, is just a reminder of one of our numerous problems. Staying away completely is one less distraction and risk of negativity.

When playing anywhere near his best, I agree. When not, Tadic spends more time waving his arms about and moaning at his team mates, than he does contributing anything useful. To be fair, Lemina doesn't do that, instead he has that stupid sad look on his face and mopes around the field half-heartedly. The end result is the same in both cases, they don't offer anything to the game when their heads gone.

He's the central midfield version of Tadic. Hugely talented, can change or control a game on his own if he plays at his best, looks superb in a confident team which is playing well... but goes into hiding when it gets tough, is inconsistent at best, lazy at worst and appears to consider himself too good for a club in our situation, despite being one of the reasons why we're in this situation. Like Tadic, there have been games where he has looked world class and unplayable. Also like Tadic, there have been games where I don't remember him being on the field, or where his mistakes have cost us.

Bournemouth are having another good-enough season, but if we can't beat them at home when we should be fighting harder than ever, we don't deserve to be in this league. I'd start with the same team that started the home Chelsea game and attack the game from the outset.

Not the best endorsement for 'The Southampton Way' and our academy, if we can't find a suitable reserve Championship GK.

I think Gallagher will compliment Long, rather than replace him. He's not a striker who will be chasing every ball and out-running defenders, he's somewhere closer to Austin in that he needs service and balls into him, rather than being the guy to go and find it. I think Long + Austin or Gallagher would work. I'm quite looking forward to seeing our academy players play regularly; the thought of having a largely home-grown squad is quite exciting. There are plenty of players in multiple positions who haven't quite been good enough in the EPL, or haven't been given the chance to play regularly enough to prove themselves. McQueen, Sims, Hesketh, Gallagher, Reed, etc will do well for us, if complimented with a handful of experience Championship players. Then there are others who haven't had any chance at all who are worth trying, or potentially good squad players, such as Jones, Valery, Obafemi (OK, he had one chance...). We'll still need some solid and experienced leaders, especially at CB (if Yoshi doesn't stay) and midfield (if Romeu doesn't stay).

Only one thing - being able to watch it on TV or via a stream. I'll still have my ST next season so home games are covered, but it's nice to watch the away games as well, rather than rely on commentary.

Him, Yoshi and Stephens would be decent Championship, so I think Les is right. Not good enough (yet) for the EPL though.

A bit like VVD was, then? Didn't harm his move or value.

The stupid thing is you're right, they'll get rid of Puel, then the players who dictated it will probably move on themselves. They'll then need a fairly solid manager, who can get good-enough results from a fairly average squad.