Rebel

We are going down again - there is no doubt about that. And that means we should use the January window to start preparing for next season in the Championship. The first step is to get rid of some of the deadwood, reduce the wage bill and bring in some money by getting rid of players that don't give us anything - Tall Paul, Sulemana, ABK, Aribo, BBD, Cornet. Even if it is only loans with option to buy in the summer. Maybe even Charlie Taylor if Welington is fit enough to take his place. Fraser is another one we could probably get rid of without noticing. And if someone offers us decent money for KWP we have to take it. Or if not get rid of Bree. With relegation all but confirmed we are going to struggle to sign players on a permanent deal but we should be able to attract players on loan who want to put themselves in the Premier League shop window for half a season. If we can send Cornet back we need to replace him with a hardworking midfielder to provide cover for Downes and Big Les. Lewis O'Brien from Forest maybe (when he returns from LA as they don't need him), or maybe even JWP (not sure he can play for a 3rd club in the same season). But that stills give us room for for loans from abroad. Surely we can find a 6ft 2 centre forward with a bit of mobility to lead the line on loan from somewhere. Maybe Bojan Miovski as he's not getting the game time at Girona - but there must be others in similar positions.

I think Juric was probably the best and cheapest manager we could get - and If he gets us above Derby's lowest ever point total I'll be happy. A 6 month contract means if we go down we can start afresh next season and appoint the type of manager we should have done at the start of last season instead of Martin - progressive and forward thinking, but also pragmatic, adaptable and tactical. Maybe the we will have a chance of appointing someone like Rohl or Corberan then - but why would they leave a club in the Championship promotion race for a club all but doomed to relegation. Same for any good manager. Juric is in the same boat as us really having failed at Roma. Maybe its a match made in heaven. Neither of us have much to lose at this point except some dignity and pride! I have to say the Swansea fans - and the stats - told us exactly what was going to happen with Russell Martin. A bit like Nathan Jones and Sulemana - but Ankersen and Kraft obviously think they are clever than anyone else. Sports Republic and the board of Southampton FC need to take a hard look at themselves now and put together a proper plan to rebuild the team and squad for a promotion push next season and long term success. We need to stop trying to be Citeh Lite and go back to forging our own path and following the 'Southampton Way' whatever we decide it is. They should start by binning of as much of the deadwood in the squad as possible in January and appoint a proper director of Football for Southampton FC to lead that process. Martk Bitcon joined as the Performance Director for the Sports Republic group and was only made Director of Football Operations at Southampton as we failed to appoint a DoF to replace Wilcox. Apart from a brief period as Director of Performance Services at Manchester City's Academy (whatever that means and more Citeh Lite Shite) and 7 months as a Sport Science Consultant at Bolton Wanderers he has spent his entire career in Rugby. He's just another Clive Woodward - and that is damning. What value can he bring to recruiting football players or giving advice to or challenging the manager on tactics at a Football club. I'm not against taking expertise from other sports but you don't put them in charge of the football. If I was Dragan Solak I would oust the 2 clowns Rasmus Ankersen and Henrik Kraft from Sports Republic, do away with all the Citeh Lite shite and then look to get out myself by selling the whole group to another multi-club ownership group.

I was never a big Martin fan. Yes he gave us a big day out at Wembley in the play-off final, but we were lucky we were playing Leeds and we shouldn't forget it was only because we failed to get automatic promotion. The losses against Ipswich, Leicester and Sunderland should have been massive warning signs. With the team we had last season we should have finished in the top two and gone up automatically last season. But we didn't we conceded 60 goals playing out from the back which is why we didn't. How he or anyone thought playing the same way with the same players in the premier league was going to work is beyond me. He was the wrong man from the start. We should have gone for Carlos Corberan instead at the time. But Martin is not the only one responsible for where we are right now. Sports Republic and the board have to take a lot of the responsibility, including Jason Wilcox. The summer transfer window was a disaster. The lack of a Director of Football made things worse than they needed to be. We have 6 strikers on our books and not one of them is good enough for the premier league. We have a lightweight midfield with only one holding midfielder in Downes who is not up to playing as a single pivot at this level (forget Ugochukwu). We don't have any wingers good enough for the premier league (except Dibling and SAA who are too young to be relied on). And in Tall Paul, ABK, KWP and Sulemana we have load of players who don't want to be here and should have been sold in the summer. SR have made a series of bad decision. I just hope they have learnt from their many mistakes and bad decisions. Why did they give Bednarek and Armstrong new deals and contracts at £60K a week when they are not good enough for the Premier League and it makes them unsaleable to a Championship club? I just want a manager now - for the rest of this season - that can grind out draws and a few wins and stops us going down with the new record for the lowest points total ever. We have already lost 9-0 twice - we don't need that record as well. I'd take Moyes for that right now.

I think its pretty much a foregone conclusion that Ramsdale, Harwood-Bellis, Fernandes and Dibling will be sold when we go down. If we are lucky that will bring in a lot of money, maybe the best part of £100M. KWP will be off in January or leave on a free in the Summer. Lumley, Lallana and Stephens will all be out of contract in the Summer. Lesley Ugochokwu and Maxwell Cornet's loans will finally come to and end - that's if we can't send them back in January. Paul Onuachu, Bella-Kotchap and Kamaldeen Sulemana will probably leave on loan to buys in January - and if not then certainly in the summer. We'll probably send Ross Stewart on loan to Scotland for the final year of his contract to get rid of him and hopefully find someone who will take Bereton-Diaz off our hands on loan at least. I think we will also look to reduce our wage bill and get rid of the highest earners so it could mean players like Jan Bednarek, Joe Aribo and Adam Armstrong are moved on. Aribo will only have a year left on his contract so I think he will definitely leave and I am not sure Bednarek will want to play in the Championship for another season. Hopefully that means we will have enough money to pay-off the manager and rebuild the squad for automatic promotion. Its a sad indictment of Sports Repubic's ownership and management of the club that is what we are looking at. I just hope they are learning from their many mistakes!

Downes is OK playing as a the lone defensive midfielder in the Championship - and in a team where we dominate the ball - but he's not really suited to the role in the Premier League. We really need to play him in a double pivot where he is the box-to-box midfielder (which I think is his natural position) and play a defensive midfielder alongside him. She Charles probably would have been good for this - but hopefully Lesley Ugochukwu can play this role for now. At the moment our squad look like it suits a 4-2-3-1 set up with a No. 10/AM better than a 4-3-3. Maybe we could get away with a 4-3-3 if we played Lesley as the CDM alongside Downes and Aribo/Fernandes/Smallbone as the CMs. I think midfield is one of the many key areas we need to strengthen in January.

I think its probably best for everyone involved if we sell him to Trabzonspor in the January transfer window.

I think we will see a few moved out and one or two come in. My guess is Paul Onuachu, Armel Bella-Kotchap, and Kamaldeen Suelmana will all be moved on. I also wouldn't be surprised if Manning goes back to the Championship if Wellington joins us in January - but he could end up at Goztepe for the rest of this season. It was never clear if he was joining them or us really. If KWP stays I can see Bree making a return to the Championship. And it looks like Edwards probably needs a loan to the Championship so he gets some game time. I can see the Ugochukwu and Cornet loans getting cancelled unless they make an impact between now and then. I'd also send BBD on loan to the Championship as well if we can. Hopefully Yuri Alberto or someone similar will be coming in for about £15M or so to help score some goals - and maybe another attacking midfield/winger.

Problem is Big Les (apart from his first 2 games) has looked off the pace and less than committed and Cornet has looked even worse. If nothing changes hopefully we can send them both back in January.

I don't see how Bamford who is now struggling in the Championship solves any of our problems up front. We need a striker who has some height, pace and power to lead the line - and who can hold the ball up and make the runs of the shoulder off the defender to open up the space and give our midfield something to aim at. I am hopeful we will sign Yuri Alberto from Corinthians in early January as their season ends in early December - and that he at least gives us some of what we need up front. But we probably need more than one additional forward/attacker not too mention a winger/attacking midfielder or 2. Don't forget Wellington will join us on a free in January for the same reason - and I am hoping he solves some of our problems at left bac

Kjetil Knutsen?

Surely you've heard of Potter - Harry at least if not Graham! I've got it - they must be using codenames!

Unfortunately in Sulemana, Bereton-Diaz, ABK, Tall Paul, Fraser and Adam Armstrong with his new 2 year contract we still have quite a few millstones at this level of football. Hopefully we can shift a few in January (Tall Paul, Sulemana, ABK and KWP with only 6 months left on his contract - but everyone of those will probably be at a loss) to recoup some money I think Sports Republic’s priority is to make money by player trading - bringing in players on the cheap and selling them on at profit (flipping them if you like) - not having a successful football team on the pitch. Which is why I think we signed players like Edwards and Wood this summer and not the players we really needed - looking at their future resale value rather than players we actually needed to be competitive. I can’t see us staying up this season - it’s already too late to save our season as the squad just isn’t good enough. We’ll make a lot of money on Dibling, a little bit on Fernandes and hopefully get our money back on Ramsdale in the summer but we will be stuck with a lot of them.

That's pretty much the team I'd play. Be tempted to switch Taylor for KWP and move KWP to right back (its where we get the best out of him) and bench Sugawara. And if we are going to play Onuachu upfront we want cross coming in from both the left and right - not through balls from a right footed full back on the left. Also tempted to switch Aribo for Lallana in the midfield and play Fernandes as the most advanced of the 3. Also feel Lallana will be more use to us coming off the bench to help us see the game out in place of Fernandes. Onuachu Archer Dibling Fernandes Downes Aribo Taylor THB Bednarek KWP Ramsdale

It's a struggle to pick a first 11 and we shouldn't really be relying on an 18 and a 20 year old to be starters (that says a lot about recruitment) but here is my attempt to pick a starting 11 that might stand a chance of winning a game - but not against Arsenal. Ramsdale Sugawara THB Bednarek Taylor Downes Aribo Fernandes Dibling Archer Stewart You could witch Aribo for Big Les and Lallana for Fernandes. With Dibling drifting in to the middle as a 10 and Sugawara attacking as a wing back it gives us an attacking threat on the right. Similarly it allows Archer to move inside to play as a second striker when we have the ball. Taylor stays back as the third centre back. Fernandes is the attacking midfielder and Aribo is the box-to-box ball carrier. Downes has to sit and protect the back 3/4. So it ends up as a 3-3-4 when attacking much like last season. Or it could easily be a 3-2-3-2 when attacking, keeping a more defensive structure at the same time. With Stewart up front it gives us the option to play long and direct as well as out from the back. There is nothing wrong with playing out from the back and keeping the ball - in fact it makes sense. But to do it every time - and only through the centre backs is just stupid. We should use the full back to carry the ball forward as well as the long pass to keep the other team guessing.

I am not sue if sacking Martin will make any difference if we don't have the players or the squad to survive in the Premier League. Also its worth remembering it was the players on the pitch that fell apart after the missed penalty and gave 3 goals away. They just don't have the mentality to dig in when things get hard and grind out a result. I don't think the manager is blameless - he stuck with 3-5-2 against Forest and Brentford when it obviously wasn't working for is. And the decision to put Archer on penalties was probably a bit naive and optimistic - and in retrospect a wrong decision. Also KWP is wasted on the left - so he has to either play him or Suga on the right and Taylor on the left. Plus we are not good enough at the back to play 2 attacking full backs. But hopefully he is learning and becomes a bit more pragmatic to get the best out of the squad and players he has. If we have a terrible run with no signs of improvement then he will need to be sacked before the January transfer window. But they will need to buy and sell players and spend some money to support the new manager if they can. Before that though they need to appoint a proper Director of Football, someone with a background in football that can challenge, push and help Martin - and the need someone who can put together a transfer strategy ahead of the January window. Looking back at our summer window it looks chaotic and a bit clueless. We needed to buy a 6ft plus centre forward with some pace and power, get hold of a left back good enough to start and strengthen the centre of defence with a left footed centre back to partner THB or Bednarek - oh and buy a a good winger/10/ attacking midfielder. I don't think we did any of those things. What was the point of buying Sugawara and keeping Bree if we kept KWP? And we don't have a left back good enough to start as first choice. Instead we are wasting KWP on the left and trying to fit both him and Suga in the team. Also not sure why we bought Archer and BBD - who both play off the left when we needed a a proper centre forward. Same with Wood and Edwards when we need a starting left footed centre back. And now it looks like we are stuck with ABK, Sulemana, and Tall Paul until January when it doesn't look like we want to play any of them . All in all the squad looks very unbalanced with holes all over the place. Maybe they tried to sign the players we really needed and just didn't have the money - but even if that was the case there really seemed to be a lack of any plan A - or plan B.