Piran

Well said. It doesn't make a ha'porth of difference what people say or shout. It's what is done and achieved that matters. Mind you, there are plenty who are taken in by it... just look at politics...

Is this a pre-match thread? Or a competition to see who can be the most pessimistic?

I believe both of these posts are correct. One thing I rarely see mentioned regarding Adkins, was that he himself (can't remember where, but I saw it around Oct/Nov time, i.e. when things were picking up) admitted that he had been shocked by the leap in standard between the Championship and the Premier League when Saints arrived, and said something like "All of us, the team, staff, and especially me, realised how hard we are going to have to work". I thought it was to his credit to admit that. Personally, I would have given him longer, based on that. But we all know what Nicola was like, and Pochettino wasn't a failure here...

What a load of twaddle!

I don't know if your remark was tongue-in-cheek, but I thoroughly enjoyed the game against Ukraine, real old-fashioned football, I thought, and better for it. I have no real allegiance to Scotland, apart from wishing 'our' boys well, but I did enjoy that, and will be watching tonight.

Thank you CB Fry (referring to the 1990 World Cup finals). I thought at the time, and still do, that Bobby Robson (yes, the sainted Bobby Robson) got lucky several times during his tenure, and was never the raging success that he is now seen as, looking back. Lovely bloke, but not quite the brilliant manager he is now seen as. As for last night, what a load of dross!

What would you consider as an acceptable percentage? What win rate is achieved by successful managers at our level? By unsuccessful ones? Would you take other factors into consideration? Money spent on team members? The quality of other teams? Injuries to key members of our team? I believe we should be told...

Blimey, Whelk, I do believe you should see your doctor. Amnesia and narcolepsy... On another note - and I'm pretty ambivalent about the merits of Puel as Saints manager - it is interesting to read in Arsene Wenger's autobiography, (My life in Red and White) how highly he rated Claude Puel as a player for him at Monaco in the late Eighties and early Nineties, referring to his desire to win, his clever reading of the game, and so on. Wenger also speaks fondly of another ex-Saints manager, Glen Hoddle, at Monaco, but of course these references are to them as players.

This is right. The parallel between what 'Boro were trying, and Puel's team, is a good one. But the common factor, and one which Hassenhuttl shares, is managers making attempts to get the most out of players who may not be the very best, and use teamwork, tactics and fitness to help them compete with teams that do contain the best, most talented players. You know, the ones who cost multiple tens of millions...

Clearly nonsense. He could have done, he picked the teams after all. But he didn't. This thread really has degenerated. There were some good points made earlier, both pro- and anti-Ralph, but now it just seems like an angry mob, having a go.

I agree.

That may be so, but I still don't like him! Anyway, I don't think that anyone who is going to be selecting the manager for Saints will be taking too much notice of my opinion. Or anyone else's on here...

I am clearly deluded, then. I wouldn't have Rodgers manage my chicken run. He looks like a devious, horrible bastard to me, and how anyone can describe him as "perfect" is beyond me.

I disagree. I believe he will add a bit of power to the midfield. I dn't know that much about him, having only taken notice after he was linked with us before joining West Brom, but I liked a lot of what I saw. I like much of what I see in Diallo, too, but get him further forward. Don't even consider Lyanco in midfield. Just my opinion.

Source? Anyway, we've been laughing at them for years, so fair enough...

We have a goalie who has probably been practising since about the age of eight to keep the ball out of the net. He trains all week under the eyes of fellow professionals and coaches, and attains peak physical fitness through repetition, diet and sacrifice, and is paid a lot of money to be as good as possible. And yet, when an opposing forward, in a fraction of a second, mis-hits the ball and scores, the reactions that have been honed and refined over years by that keeper let him down, some clowns on an internet forum decide that "he should have done this", or "he should have done that", I despair. (Or, more likely, "he should OF done this or that". FWIW, I am more inclined to go with the views of David in Sweden, above. Saints had their chances and should have got something from that game.

What? Like Peter Walton (?) on BT Sport?

Falmouth, Cornwall. I usually (before lockdown) got to 4 - 5 home games a year, and the occasional away. Last season only did two, Spurs home and away, but only because I have an arrangement with a Tottenham-supporting colleague, and we each treat the other to match tickets, dinner and drinks. I can tell you that last season was particularly sweet! I try and catch all the matches on streams. Sometimes they're good, sometimes not so good (the streams and the Saints!)

I think you know the answer to that one, Rallyboy...

Thank you, Trousers! I've been thinking this for a while. A perfectly good personal appraisal by Charlie, well done. And yet, sometimes...

Yeah! Someone with two arms and two legs, blonde hair would be a bonus... just like Haaland. Job done!

Thursday at 22.29...

I think you underestimate the pull of the Premier League. There are a couple of exceptions - Barca, Real, PSG etc., but the players we are talking about are not about to be signed by those teams. They see the spectacle that is the EPL on worldwide TV, and see players of their own standard cashing in here. They are not looking for a holiday destination, or somewhere 'nice' to retire, they want to be part of the circus!

Is that the criterion for making it yellow? Trippier himself admitted it was deliberate. Is it not dangerous to trip someone who is in full flight? A major impact on the flow of the Man City move. If it ain't technically a red, I think it should be. And I bet I'm not alone.

Or, perhaps, it's just words for a press conference, that he doesn't really believe himself, and he's quietly geeing up the team with a real motivational masterclass behind closed doors. We'll see...