saint1977

I don’t blame Claude but it was a very strange appointment when we were flying and had a good, offensively minded team. IIRC Les had little swipes at Ronald when he was praised at the end of season event, revealing his jealousy eg ‘he’s done alright’ when just finishing PL top 6 FFS and Europa Groups qualifying. If he had gone for another big name with contacts in the game and stayed in the background Les is thought of differently and those horror windows don’t happen. Granted, Mane was sold and Redmond/Boufal weren’t great signings but it was a regression to 17th place football when there was no need. The tactics in the final Europa League game summed it up. Either side of Wembley it was much better but Claude had a similar phase of trying to appease the fans at Leicester but defaulted back to emasculating their main threats like Vardy and his budget was far bigger than SFC. He would do OK with the current squad and not a bad manager in Ligue 1 at all but just not the right time. The yes man was Pellegrino, bloke looked a nervous wreck at every game, should have been on gardening leave by November.

They were bad, not much unlucky in there, and the thinking/strategy or lack of was astonishing. Lemina is the only one where it could have come good and you can see where it might have worked. Under Koeman Mario might have performed better but under the joint worst and most defensive manager in the club’s history no one shone (Pellegrino). Don’t think he had the work ethic for Poch or RH. Hoedt - Lazio signed him on free FFS, a squad player, a couple of international caps when the Dutch got injuries, and he’s worth £17m? Give me a break. Les/Ross got their pants pulled down. As for Gunn, was a nice to have but given the unexplainable and huge second extension to Forster who had a poor season under Puel it wasn’t realistic and Kruger should have grown a pair of balls and vetoed it. Rumour was Claude wanted a new keeper. £13m on Gunn was criminal in that context when Fraser had really stunk under Pellegrino and been dropped. Les should have been told to wait to sign Gunn until he’d shipped Fraser out, which with 5 years to go wasn’t happening. Elynoussi - may come good now, didnt seem to have game for the PL, and £16m would have bought a decent quality £25m quick winger now. That era was such a shitshow hard for any new player to come good. Carrillo - again Kruger had to grow a pair, veto the signing, sack the manager over Les’s head and sack Les for losing his mind. If you aren’t sure, ask one of the scouts who isn’t a brown noser and knows their players.Mickey Evans was a better player than that on a shoestring. Good luck Wrexham, hope you still exist in 5 years post Les.

Barely played for Burnley and IIRC was convicted for drink driving whilst there or at Villa as well? Edit - he was although not sure who he was playing for at the time https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-48253793 In fact, elements of Osvaldo https://www.bt.com/sport/news/2020/september/drink-driving-fighting-and-headbutting-jota-danny-drinkwater-opens-up Hope he finds his feet at Reading and a bit of stability. Leaving Leicester was a colossal mistake.

Conor Roberts joined Burnley from Swansea, might be a while until fully fit. Seems to have freed up funds for Ntcham, linked with SFC last summer, to join Swansea on a free.

Fair play. I tend to vote Lib Dem but agree that Djenepo hasn’t really shown anything more than cameos since WBA 12 months ago. I think most fans would say the same tbh and Bermuda has a different view to the majority. Moussa seems a nice lad and a good hour or so v Man U last week but not sure why Tella isn’t getting a run ahead of him, Redmond, who came on and did well yesterday but equally poor 12 months, and Theo who is out of sorts.

Bermuda’s post was nonsense what has the way any Saints fan post on players or matches got to do with the way they vote? That is warped. Does LD think our keepers are rubbish because he’s Conservative/UKIP? Of course not, he can see they are both super-annuated and barely Championship standard same as most of us. Same as Egg who is left of centre and same as me central politically. Try spending a little less time on Facebook - you might even progress to Head Chef in the Navy with a bit of broadening those horizons.

Useless - lots of propaganda football but only a Sunday League miss from Djenepo to show for it and then cave in at the first genuine Newcastle attack. You’d have thought Armstrong would show a bit more appetite at the club who released him but the Southampton relaxed attitude and complacency has gotten to him already.

Dunno, he has been a third choice at Man U and getting later in the window. I know technically he could do a Boruc and sign on a free in September if a top flight club gets a season ending keeper injury or their recruitment has messed up, but in your mid 30s as a keeper you’d rather have £50k pw in the bank for 2 years guaranteed? Would have saved a wasted signing on fee and extra 2 years contract with McCarthy as well.

Yep, agree on this or Dell Days suggestion of Sergio Romero. Probably couldn’t have done both with the Theo contract money unless Forster took the message to move. Hope Theo can find a bit of early last season form, I don’t actually think loss of pace is the issue but dropping stamina and strength, hence getting forced off the ball very easily when he does run into trouble. As with Redmond, Theo has never been blessed with strong game awareness but he seems to be bullied out of games more than he was at times last season.

Yes, sorry, didn’t explain that well. What I meant is the club has had some keepers that have been first choice for a few years from Shilts onwards relative seemingly to other clubs who seem to change their keeper every season or every other. Even Forster for all ups and downs, Kelvin, Niemi for c4 years. We haven’t had enough quality keepers since Flowers but then I’m old fashioned and liked the Shilton/Parkes/Ogrizovic/Gunn senior/Spink era keepers far better than the current PL batch. It’s not just Alex or Fraser, Ramsdale isn’t great and De Gea for £300k per week? Not sure the CL ones are all that, Lloris pretty good in his time but still has distribution shockers. Pickford would have been standard decent keeper 20 years but elevated because most PL keepers are flaky, SFC’s just more flaky and overpaid because of Les. See he’s been paying fortunes for League One strikers at Wrexham now. Even a solid, run of the mill PL mid 90s keeper like Mart Poom at Derby (ex skate) would go for a fortune now. Whitey Grandad, well remembered about Maik Taylor, under Souness. He didn’t cost a fortune and was solid considering what was in front of him at times. Bit unlucky to pushed out for Jones, although I did think Paul did OK overall. Someone like Maik or Jones would be just the ticket now, come off your line, shout at the back 4, decent stoppers but nothing flashy. Jonah got dropped a couple of times for Moss for getting stuck to his line and his parrying of shots had moments but x10 better than current duo. .

Agree with Antti being top, mind you I grew up with Shilts and Tim as the first XI keepers for the first decade of being a supporter and haven’t seen any keeper that is above them, although Antti was very close at his 2002/3 peak. Would have Artur above Fraser as more athletic although capable of absolute brain farts. I’ve got to put Jonah above Alex though! Jonah made the odd mistake but had defences as bad as the current if not worse in the late 90s. Paul was also good for Wales when they kept their keepers very busy. His best game was Man U home early 98, some amazing stops and he pulled off a beauty at Old Trafford 2000ish in a 3-3 draw. Great memory was Wales v Finland just after Antti signed and it was effectively a head to head. Must have pulled off half a dozen worldies each, strikers looked like they want to cry. Liverpool also had him on loan when they were good early 2000s. Kelvin sadly has to be bottom as he’s played less PL games for Saints than the rest. If the timespan went further back, Dave Bessant would be below Antti, Fraser and Boruc but above the others. SFC hasn’t had that many keepers really compared with many clubs.

This x1000. For £2m or so he has not been too bad overall but if RH’s tactic of trying to nudge Forster towards the door doesn’t work, use him as at least he will be motivated to do well as a free agent summer 2022. No sense in offering Alex a new deal when he’s performing League 1 level, at best tbh. If SFC signs a keeper next summer, even if they stay up, and he gets injured, back to square one. Only a sense in having players in the squad who can at least perform at a PL level for a dozen games even if they can’t sustain it for longer. On that basis, it’s a no from me for McCarthy being offered a new deal.

Miles better today, some small improvements needed but overall that’s the type of 90 minute performance, focus and work rate we want to see. Tino excellent again, good cameo by KWP, please Ralph can they play together? Jack’s best game for a while, liked the look of Perraud. Salisu - that’s probably his best game for SFC so far. McCarthy still gives me jitters but at least was proactive in getting off his line today. Thought CMs were reasonable but more to come from them after injuries. Strikers busy, and combined well. Adams needs to hold it up slightly better as AA is more of a Long type (with better finishing) on the shoulder but Che has come on well overall. RH’s game management much improved, changed formation when needed, and hooked Theo early when not cutting it. He wanted more depth so important to use it. Today a step in the right direction, needs to be built on now. There is a point to prove at Newcastle after last year’s debacle. What wasn’t so encouraging was the ticket office saga. Well done to the club for subsequently putting it right but some uncomfortable Monday meetings with HR for some decision making staff in that area I sense. The gestures will have cost quite a bit of unbudgeted money.

Positive 🙂 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRTBn6JpusI

Hate to go MLG on you but the shirt swap was 3-1 under Dave Merrington with SFC 3 up at HT, late Man U consolation (Giggs?) and was there. 6-3 was following year with no shirt swap.

Crazy to be offering McCarthy a new deal at any value. If any of us on here were that appalling at our jobs we’d be on our bikes and rightly so. Forster performed better last year - not a high bar to clear but a fact nonetheless. More reason for him to be number 1 as he will be motivated to be attracting another PL club although it won’t be on the demented rates Les offered. I don’t understand why Alex has to have a new contract. There’s 24 far better keepers at least in the division below and quite a few below that, let alone overseas. Why are the scouts not watching them and being pushy? Couple of skate friends tell me their new keeper is quite good and he was probably free. What about the lad at Accrington? Surely £1.5m is enough. If SFC can’t afford that as a current PL club then the events of 2005-9 might be about to happen at a much faster rate. Still, if you look at the STH thread and debacle, poor performance, casual attitudes and lack of drive and learning seem to be inherent in the organisation. Hope the PRC government aren’t too harsh on Gao when the club is forced back into administration.

Hope SFC pull off a miracle on Sunday, but can’t see it with this manager and formation. The ST debacle is the latest issue stemming from a poorly run organisation. The fans have been incredibly patient with the Les/Pellegrino disasters, 9-0s, dire home record for years, etc and at most decent sized other clubs there would have been demos and a lot of unrest. I wonder whether another really heavy defeat combined with the total indifference towards the supporters with £99 seats packed full of Man U whilst ours are outside queued for hours will finally cajole them into pushing back and insisting the board, owner and manager go now and are unwelcome? Stand up if you want Gao out, sack the board, sacked in the morning. The new CB signing looks another needless risk in the making as well. Thought some of the other summer transfer business was OK until that. Still, he will fit in well with Ralph’s philosophies around bottling leads https://www.theguardian.com/football/2020/dec/07/torino-fluff-chance-derby-win-familiar-collapse-at-juventus-serie-a-italy

They have been relaxed for years about everything, admin, transfers, first team management, and look where it’s got them. Everyone cites Gao and lack of investment but I’m beginning to think that even if he’d invested/been able to that there wouldn’t have been the energy, drive and focus to spend it well. Now STHs are struggling to get into a dirty undermaintained stadium to watch an under-maintained (and un-dirty) team. Saying some smooth words at a forum is OK but all the hallmarks are of a club that will be in Charlton or Hull’s position bobbing between L1 and Champ, or Bolton’s nearly going bust if it doesn’t get a grip. Get the small basic details wrong running an organisation and the big ones will follow. For the level of overhead, it ought to be better run. There will be 50% less overhead next season if the almost inevitable happens.

He seems to have some not great influences around him if some of the prior comments by RH about fitness and focus are anything to go by. Blackburn would have been a good move for him - get away from the London social crowd, get his head down at a division below where he can work on composure etc under a good manager and score more frequently. Adam Armstrong and others have scored their way back into the PL so no reason he couldn’t with the right perspective. Raw pace which he certainly has can get you into decent opportunities to score at that level and less centre backs have speed.

If he goes on for big money in 2 years, scratch that, even 1 year, fine by me. Keep the team in the league if he settles in quickly. With uncertain/distant ownership the club has to have sensible horizons. What will certify relegation is another Salisu type ‘he will come good in a few months’. No good to the club in this situation and basically gone already as a PL club if they do that, the new CB has to hit the ground running.

I wish SFC could send a 3-0 defeat by post for the weekend!

Yes, I do, was part of a group of lads at school playing in it. Players were all round the country, had to phone other players to make transfers etc. The u30s on here probably think we were mad. Peaked around 1992/3 and then Championship Manager came along in 1993 for Amiga/PC and there starts a long series trail to MLG and co. Everyone who like football was glued from CM 93/94 with the real players in it.

This thread is appalling to read. Why will firms and large public sector providers learn that the cheapest quote isn’t always the best and to conduct due diligence. This will be the first full house for 18 months so ample time to plan. Now what seems likely is an unseemly scramble at the TO on match day, with hundreds if not thousands congregating in a small area which is the last thing that should be happening in the circumstances. I hope Sky shows pictures if thousands are missing at the start of the match and highlight the appalling way in the which the club is being run top to bottom, not to mention the disorganised shambles on the pitch. It’s as bad as 2008/9 in the incompetence. No Telegraph puff piece will save some of the board this time.

They ought to do it after the Man U game unless the side suddenly keeps a clean sheet and pulls off frankly what would be a modern day giant killing given the form guides of the last 20 games. I have a feeling if it’s the 6 or 7 goal margin of defeat I think it might be RH may walk. He offered to resign after the first 9-0. Sounds like Semmens has had a performance management conversation with RH and RH is quite proud, he may want to go before pushed. I’d genuinely have given the 1976 Cup Final side a better chance in their tie second division or not - they had senior pros like Rodrigues, McCalliog, Osgood, Blyth and the younger players like Holmes had comparatively far more experience as well. Redknapp was brought in too late in 2004. Allows Howe to pick his own CB and assess any other late changes before the window shuts. I’m not sure Eddie is the person to sort out the terrible back 4 but if that’s the replacement, let’s give him a chance.

Quite, but I would take what RH says with a pinch of salt, on his way out and looking bewildered and confused like Pellegrino was. Tbh, he will have had a far better and more professional pre season with Tuchel and Chelsea, lad should be on the bench.