Tom & Gerry

The only point I would add is that if you want to radically change the way a team plays you sometimes have to go through very bad times before you get to the very good. In those bad times it then requires an act of faith from fans, players and management to continue. The fans clearly do not have, and perhaps can not be expected to have that faith. Claude does not have the tools (language) to help himself in that regard. The players situation is less clear, a lot of rumour can be exagerated but without strong backing from them it puts the management in a very difficult position however much faith they may have that the manager is on the right path.

Of course it would be most beneficial to Saints to receive compensation from another club who have taken our manager away rather than pay out for sacking him. Hopefully his replacement is being lined up whilst this haggling goes on.

Next season we will have a new manager (probably) and new players so why would you base your decision to buy a season ticket on this past season? I'm not suggesting people are glory chasers or anything. I suppose it's why you never find a poor bookie - form changes.

I doubt if any manager in the history of the game who has been in the job for more than 5 years has not had a bad season. None of them are infallible.

I thought Everton was descent but it's all subjective of course and yes you can complain about the tactics but in my book awful football is either Branfoot/ Pullis style football, when the players don't put in the effort or show skill or when we are getting hammered.

We did play some awful football this season but not as often as some people suggest. Most of the games we won we played well. Away from home we generally played well " easy on the eye" as Martin Tyler described it. A lot of time at home we played nice football but had no luck or lacked a finisher. The number of awful games was perhaps only a little above our average.

You can only get so far if you make that many enemies, and that was as far as he got.

Just curious but is the dislike of Black based on any knowledge whatsoever? With regard to press conferences This is all any manager says: "W and X are injured, Y is back in training but not available, Z has recovered and will play some part. Tomorrows opponents are a very tough side to beat and we will have to be at our best to beat them. With regard to transfers we do not comment on rumours and have no need or intention to sell anyone. If anyone is brought in you will be the first to know when the deal is signed" It doesn't take a great coach to deliver that and the last Manager that did but impressed the press (and fans at the time) was Harry Rednapp.

Not sure taking off a player who hasn't played for 6 months after 60 odd minutes is a bad decision even if it was the last game. Thank you Claude for looking after our players welfare. Pied was a strange one though. The main thing was that we should have had someone playing or feeding off the main striker. In the good old days we used to surround Rickie Lambert and get the knock downs. Both Austin and Gab.are different types of player to Rickie but Gab. was making runs out wide and someone from midfield should have been running through wide open gaps down the middle. Boufal was the obvious player to do this but first he was put out on the wing and then when he was put in the middle he just wanted to do his own thing.

So where is the tipping point? 8th with a lot of boring football (mainly at home) but a good losing performance in a final is not good enough. Would 17th but with lots of goals for and against be rated better than 5th with lots of boring 1-0's?

I think most managers these days would expect their tenure to be 1 or 2 years especially if they come to us. The 1st year to get their ideas across and if that works out reasonably well a second year to have a real go. After that get sacked or are offered another contract which they turn down in favour of a better offer elsewhere.

Very good at press conferences and for some people that's really important.

So lets get this right. The Saints Web bench mark is:- Poch P38 W15 D11 L12 F53 A45 Pos 8th = genius WGS P38 W13 D13 L12 F43 A46 Pos 8th = very good manager Puel P37 W12 D10 L15 F41 A47 Pos 8th = should be sacked

If we score...I'll be so happy.

Reed has transformed this club. He makes mistakes. So did Winston Churchill, Mohamed Ali, Elvis Presley,Mother Teresa, and Ted Bates.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing. Wait till you see Redmond and Boufal next season.

Was Fonte really playing better than Maya and Jack?

We don't sell our best players, we just replace them.

I think people are unbelievably harsh on young players in this case Targett. I remember one of his first matches at Arsenal in the league cup and I couldn't believe how good he was. Bertrand himself said around that time that Targett looked like a player who had been in the team forever. We all should know that young players lack consistency and their form tends to dip. They either come out of that period as better players or drop down a level. I wouldn't give up on Targett just yet though he needs some slack following his injury. Unfortunately some fans have given up on him already.

Yes, when we get the offensive performance right and the defensive performance right we will win the league. until then ...

Against Chelsea we played some nice football but it was too open and we got tonked. Poor tactics from the manager. Against Liverpool we tighten up and get a point. Poor tactics from the manager. When did we get so big that a point at Liverpool is anything other than a great result.

I am one of those who renew no matter what. I look at like a financial investment. The quality of the football can go up or down but over the long term I've had value for money. When you buy a ticket for any football match there is never any guarantee of what you are going to get. Every season you start afresh with these days a new team and probably a new manager. I get down when we play badly but nothing beats when we play well. I'm also not all that fussed about a second rate European competition that no one follows unless their team is in it and which most clubs use to blood youngsters but for which we were expected to play our best team.

I do not have a problem with players not liking the manager or each other for that matter, but if they don't respect him then you have no chance.

When assessing that we have gone backwards this season you have to take in to account that the top teams have improved and are a notch above the previous few seasons. Next seasons Champions league will prove this.

I thought Soares was going to Barcelona or if not Chelsea?