Graffito

"the rot was due to too many mediocre players - and that was due to 10 managers in 10 years" My view as well. Too many poor appointments and too many mediocre players. The two things are linked. The move to SMS was a good positive move but I agree with another poster in that the club should allow the fans to personalise the ground.

I like the shop analogy, which is appropriate because RL views Southampton Football Club as a business. However, as fans of a football club we're not like consumers of other goods or services and tend not to shop elsewhere. Fan loyalty is like gold dust to any football club or business. Any football club should be moving hell and high water to protect it's loyal fanbase, especially with corporate income down and likley to fall further. Yet what the current regime has done is alienate the core fans who are voting with their feet. It beggars belief.

"Sorry all this about no money etc is fine but how come we can afford Forecast, Gasmi, Pulis, Robertson, Smith then"? They've been signed as ready made replacements in anticipation of the higher earners and better players being sold in January or going out on loan.

There has to be a better way of cutting costs than sending our best striker on loan to a rival club. What about closing a bit more of the stadium, after all a lot more of it will be empty at this rate allowing some big fat savings on overheads. Or maybe Mr Lowe would be willing to forego his salary and take payment in share options. After all, when we get back to the Premier League the share price is certain to rocket. Alternatively, is it too much to ask the club to shift the strategy just a tad towards ways of increasing reveue. It could make a start by not p*ssing off every last one of us at every opportunity.

"Nicky Homes you've got wooden legs". You don't hear that one much these days.

He did coin the expression bouncebackability though...for this he should be commended... He "liked the smell of the dressing room" too and now he's been sacked. He'll be disappointed with that.

From what I've heard and read of last night's performance, the players responded to JP following the defensive howlers against Watford, he played arguably his strongest side and the tactics contributed to a creditable away draw. All positive.

" The Directors are aware that this is clearly not sustainable and are concentrating on reducing costs,.." Cutting costs is the easy bit. Increasing revenue is the hard part. Great vision, poor execution, alienated core support, declining revenue.

Organising a defence and defending set pieces ought to be the easiest things to coach and to fix when they go wrong. You wonder what on earth the coaching team does all day on the training pitch. Likewise, surely we had Watford watched? Their most "creative" tactic was placing the big bruiser at the back on our goal line when they had a throw in within throwing distance. As an aside, so much for the multi ball system when we had a referee that allowed Watford to delay throw ins until the great lummox trundled up the pitch.

Agree we need more backbone but how do we get the winners needed in those positions to make this a decent team when, of course, as we all know, we're skint? The alternative is that the manager instills it into the players we've got. I remember Peter Taylor (of Clough and Taylor fame) when asked on TV once what he looked for in signing a player, identified the ability to pass the ball. When pressed on the importance of the will to win he said he and Clough weren't bothered about that because they could put that in the players. It's down to JP to put the winning mentality into the youngsters. Can he do it? Having said that Clough reckoned (to my mate when on holiday in Mallorca a years or so before he died) that the best signing he ever made was Dave Mackay who he persuaded not to retire and around whom he built his title winning side. We need another Bally or Jimmy Case. That's down to RL and MW.

Here's defintion: "Total Football" is the label for an influential theory of tactical association football in which any player can take over the role of any other player in the team. It was pioneered by Dutch football club Ajax Amsterdam. In Total Football, a player who moves out of his position is replaced by another from his team, thus retaining the team's intended organizational structure. In this fluid system, no player is fixed in his nominal role; anyone can be successively an attacker, a midfielder and a defender. Total Football's tactical success depends largely on the adaptability of each footballer within the team, in particular their ability to quickly change positions depending on the situation. The theory requires players to be comfortable in multiple positions, hence it puts high technical and physical demands on them."

All of this may well be true but please explain how withdrawing your support doesn't further damage the club.

It's your team mate. It means more to you than it does to him. It'll be your team when he's gone. We're all disappointed but we needn't be disaffected. It's your choice but I say don't give up on them.

You been sniffing your a*se? Shut up moaning and get behind the lads.

So how come your fans were so poor at home? Flyer, I was more surprised with your comment about lack of ability in our team. Saints played "with uninhibited freedom and great rotation", not my words but those of your own Manager Ian Dowie. The QPR lad on the left (Lee Cooke? apologies if I've got that wrong) played well and of course Dexter (another product of our Academy), had a good game but I must say with all QPR's wealth I'd be very disappointed with what you have and with what you produced yesterday against a team with 9 players of 22yrs and under.

Despite the result I thought Saints displayed a lot more talent than QPR, in particular Lallana. As for your comment about Saints fans, that's a bit rich coming from a QPR fan.

Originally Posted by Arizona Holmes on the left Skacel in the hole Lallana on the right Looks like a very attacking creative line-up to me. Should chip in with a fair few goals too. I agree, but something just feels wrong about it. Not sure what. There's a hole in it.

Quote: Originally Posted by Toomer Talking in the car on the way home, IMO Blackpool did their home work came down with a game plan. Get in our faces for the first 15 - 20 mins and stop us playing our passing game, it worked and we did not have an answer to it. I think we need someone a bit older and wiser in midfield and with a bit about him for matches like this. Wet have to get used to it a lot of teams will do the same. Agreed. Other than Davis, we had problems with the spine of the team today, especially in central midfield where we neither won nor retained the ball nearly enough nor offered much protection to the centre backs and also, uncharacteristically, with Svensson at the back who lost the majority of aerial challenges. Schneiderlin and Gillet didn't offer sufficient protection as holding midfielders. Talented though McGoldrick is, on today's evidence I think he needs help up front from someone with a bit more presence.

Having SCW as manager in waiting while Redknapp was retained was a major mistake. Lowe has done some good things. This wasn't one of them. A loss making radio station when the core business, the football club, is losing thousands each week isn't a failure? The only club to blame a chairman for relegation? Your having a laugh. Enjoy the penalty shoot out Sunday?