There when Franny scored

What a fantastic reply, thank you

With the very heavy rain due tomorrow and the weather warning is there any chance the game could be off? Or am I just being paranoid because this is one of the very rare games I can actually attend!

Agree. Bad move for all parties. 15m is nothing compared to what is gained from promotion and he’s an ideal championship striker. Robust, but with some ability, can bring others into play and not slow. Finishing not great but you can get away with that in this league. Also if he was the complete package he wouldn’t still be here anyway . I don’t think we can easily replace him for 15m. Would be a gamble at least. Bad move for Adams. Not going to be much fun up front for Everton this season. Can only be about money. He must know they are a mess and may well go down. I certainly would be insisting on a relegation release clause if I was him.

Thanks for posting, and probably a lot of that is true. Of course, there are two obvious problems in our situation: 1. It appears that although Jones may have had some of the characteristics of a hidden talent, his talent (in the words of the video) "is not the right talent". In other words, possibly it's right at a club like Luton but not at Southampton (or indeed Stoke). 2. We don't have the time to wait for his hidden talent (if any) to develop. We will be relegated by then for sure. So unfortunately, Ankersen also has to be able to recognise when the process hasn't worked. Get Bielsa in on a 5 month contract, and in the meantime start looking for someone else long-term, learning the lessons from the Jones appointment.

I wouldn’t support Saints with Dyche. Nearly given up on it as it is. That would be the final straw

Thanks for posting. That is one of the funniest things I have ever seen!

Thanks for posting and good to see. Is that David Batty’s and Michael Duberry’s sons?

I think that’s a fair view although I don’t agree. I think we play quite entertaining football given the players we have and get enough points in the process. We might be able to play a more boring style and get more points with these players but certainly not many more. They aren’t good players relative to the league. I think Brighton have better players and have certainly invested more. Completely agree about Puel though. I was simply pointing out how he was viewed on here. I also rated him.

We’ve regularly capitulated from winning positions in my 40 years watching Saints. You can’t expect to play vaguely attacking, high tempo football like we do and not have spells later in the game where the other team are on top. He said when we he arrived it might be a roller coaster but it wouldn’t be boring. He’s true to his word. He obviously doesn’t tell them to capitulate second half but a team of mediocre players can’t play well the whole game. If they could they wouldn’t be playing for us. If they can, we sell them to better teams. The style we play has us doing fairly well for the players we have given the overall minimal net outlay over a prolonged period. Lots of other teams have spent more and been relegated. You have to accept the drawbacks in our approach. In the long term Ralph considers it pays off. So far I would say he’s basically right. We stay up and have had a couple of decent cup runs. The other obvious approach for a club like us is to do what Puel did. Organised with an emphasis on a defensive platform. He also kept us up and we had a decent cup run. Do you remember how his style of football went down on here!

This is correct - well put. It’s also the best we can achieve without any serious investment. The expectations on here are baffling bordering on moronic

El ghazi had the three clearest yellow cards you will ever see. Not just two, but three. The officiating in the premier league is embarrassing

Yes, it must be awful to be a Liverpool supporter ; - )

Nearly very prescient, just the assist 🤣

Seems like you don't understand what "clear and obvious" means. I think it was a red card. However, the fact that they're even debating it on MOTD means that it wasn't a clear and obvious error. By the application of the rules of the game, as we are led to believe they are applied, the yellow card should not have been overturned.

Just stats, but best of a bad bunch is probably about right. None of our defenders have good stats. https://www.whoscored.com/Teams/18/Show/England-Southampton

Good article https://totalfootballanalysis.com/player-analysis/jan-bednarek-southampton-tactical-analysis-statistics

Met him in the Rhino one night and he was a nice bloke. Not arrogant at all. As others have said, nothing special unfortunately as when we signed him along with Higginbotham at the end of the 2003 transfer window I thought they were both excellent signings with Prutton being a real prospect. As it turned out Higginbotham was the better player for us. Think Prutton was decent for Leeds for a while but apart from that he seemed to have an unremarkable career

I really like Ralph. However, I am baffled that he didn't retain Gabbi even if in the long term he doesn't rate him. I cannot see how he wouldn't improve us right now over Austin or Long. I don't deny those two put the effort in, but they both come across as past it I'm afraid

I'm going to lay my cards on the table and say I think we are done this year unless there is a total collapse in form by Cardiff. How we have got to this stage is basically negligence in the running of the club. With Obafemi now out for the season (Ralph's reaction at the time shows the significance), Lemina seemingly no where near a return, Ings unable to maintain fitness and Betrand having lost form/condition we are woefully short of any attacking threat to the point where our fit strikers are the worst in the division. In strikes me as incredible that we have got to a situation where we have players out on loan that could make a difference and no prospect of recalling them. Reed has done really well for Blackburn at right wing back and would at least be decent cover/competing to start. He is lively and aggressive and would suit Ralph's style. Boufal has been inconsistent, but has the ability to provide something different at least off the bench. I'm not at all sure Carillo isn't better than Long and Austin; Gabbi is surely better and appears to be showing it currently. You also can't really say Cedric wouldn't improve our squad as it stands. I know Ralph said he wanted a smaller squad, but given the injuries we have now that policy looks reckless as much as I like him. That policy may have been driven by the board's insistence on cost cutting, at least in part. The failings at board level that Ralph has had to work within the context of are well documented, but the sheer repetition of failure strikes of a fundamental failure of leadership as others have mentioned. For those that have watched "Sunderland 'till I Die", the parallels are there to behold. Disinterested, clueless owner, impotent chief exec, plagued by injuries and a failure to properly strengthen, seemingly disenfranchised/disinterested expensive players (speculatively), and a fairly decent, honest manager (Coleman). We may have slightly more quality than Cardiff (except up front?), but our problems run deeper.

Also, Burnley are a horrible team and set out to deliberately intimidate and pressurise officials. Did you see the level of descent from Barnes after the pen they should have had towards the ref and even more so the linesman? Far, far worse than Zaha!

Agree with this. The defence were pretty good and were under constant pressure after we scored. Just not enough going on in front of them as Long doesn’t hold the ball up and even when facing goal didn’t use his pace to run into the corners and relieve the pressure (as others have said). Seems chronically short of confidence. I want to like as he seems a really good lad and tries his heart out, but just isn’t quite at the right level.

Looks to be a big miss for us over January (and potentially early February). From a brief look it seems like Japan will progress from their Asian Cup group. If they were to get knocked out in the last 16 Yoshida would be back for Palace on 30 Jan. If Japan get to the final he would not be back until the home game with Cardiff on 9 February, missing the seemingly very important Palace and Burnley fixtures in the process. Anyone know how highly Japan are rated in this year's competition? Given how well they did in the World Cup getting to the latter stages seems probably unfortunately.

Great organisation and discipline. Yoshida MOM. Thought their "goal" was onside, but nice to get a decision for once.

Saw from BBC text he went off injured. Anyone watching on Sky see if it was serious? Cheers