Rebel

If your KWP you are going to wait for the summer transfer window - join another premier league club on a free, get a massive signing on bonus and much higher wages than you are on now. The time to sell him was 2 summer ago - or at least last summer j - but I think in both cases we wouldn't accept the low values other clubs put on him. The problem is at the premier league level he is just not good enough defensively - either positionally or physically.

If Big Les gets recalled by Chelsea - which seems likely given Lavia's injury - we have to replace him. Which is partly why I think we recalled Charles, not just to squeeze more money out of Sheff Weds. I think we also realised we need another CDM to play with Big Les which is the other reason we recalled Charles. My guess would be we think we are pretty close to brining in Glen Kamara or someone else to help out Big Les in the middle of the park meaning we could let Charles go back to Sheff Weds. I hope Kamara or anyone else is really a replacement for Charles - and Big Les is staying - as we really need 2 DMs for the system we are playing now so that we have a proper double pivot. Downes was great as a single pivot 6/playmaker in the Championship where we dominated the ball but in the Premier League he's an average box-to-box 8. Smallbone and Aribo are both more Attacking Midfielders or No10s than pure CMs - better on the right or left of a midfield 3 or playing in the 3 behind a striker in a 4-2-3-1.

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.

It's accurate summary of our games in the premier league so far this season but it's based on watching Saints try and fail to play a 3-5-2. I am hoping we go with a 4-3-3 set up and play very differently as a result - for one thing playing Cameron Archer as a centre forward will give us a focal point up front. I hope we go for a starting line up something like this: Ramsdale KWP/Sugawara THB Bednarek Taylor Downes Aribo Fernandes Armstrong BBD/Fraser Archer with Dibling and Big Les making an appearance from the bench. I would give Adarma one more chance to make an impact and if he doesn't he needs to be dropped as a starter for Dibling or Cornet. Although I am tempted to start with Dibling and use Adarma as a sub.

Sorry should have been Taylor for Manning. KWP is wasted on the left and as he is right footed runs the ball in to the congested middle of the pitch - on the right he can cut in or go down the line and make the through ball pass or put in a cross. On the left it’s very predictable what he’s going to do. Plus he’s not the best defensively and he’s much worse at it on the left than the right. So far Sugawara looks better defensively and just as good going forward. Taylor is probably not as good a player as KWP but he is a better left back. I don’t think the transfer window was essy for us - time and wage bill playing there part - but I don’t think we made the best of it. But Greaves, Delap and Clarke should not have been beyond us. Bojan Mioviski and Gabriel Sara were 2 other obvious signings I was surprised we dint even seem to make a move for. And maybe we should have looked at Morgan Whittaker over Cornet and got JWP on loan instead - but I have a feeling we’d run out of money at that point - and Cornet was all we could afford. I think it’s also why we sold Alcaraz. BBD and Fraser were probably just other cheap options along with Taylor and McCarthy. And maybe Archer was the best we could do with the money we had. I fully expect us to go down this season - unless something changes dramatically. But I think we will be in the promotion places again next season. I just hope we can get rid of players like Tall Paul, Sulemana and ABK along the way so it give us more room to move financially next time.

All in all I don't think it was a great transfer window - a 4 or 5 out of 10 for me. We spent a lot of money but I am not sure we spent it well. In retrospect it look like we took a scattergun approach - there doesn't seem to have any real plan or strategy. Apart from signing young players to sell on in a year or two. We failed yet again to sign the centre forward and goal scorer we really needed - or improve our defence (Wood and Edwards are ones for the future and re-sales I guess) which we really needed to do. And then there was the goalkeeper saga, the failure to sign a winger/No 10, not too mention a first choice left back, and the rush to get Edozie out the door for some reason - and the failure to move on Tall Paul, Sulemana and ABK (although they might all end up in Turkey still). Archer looks like a better option than Bereton-Diaz and Armstrong but he is really another wide or second striker when we really needed a centre forward. I hope at 5ft 11 he can step up and use his pace and movement to lead the line for us. But 4 goals last season does not fill me with confidence. I would have taken JWP back on loan all summer over Maxwell Cornet. JWP would have been a first choice midfielder for us - JWP, Downes and A N Other would have been a massive improvement on what we currently have. It will be interesting to see where Cornet plays - and if its on the left as a replacement for Edozie and cover for Fraser & BBD it's just moving the deck chairs. Or will it be on the right wing instead of Armstrong and Dibling Or as a left back? Was the lack of strategy or a plan down to not really having a director of football - I have a feeling it might be. Signing Sugawara, not selling KWP (when we were asking for too much money at £18M) and keeping Bree suggests we were lacking a clear idea of what to do. Its hard to pick a first 11 you have any real confidence in but here's my best attempt: Ramsdale Sugawara THB Jan Manning Downes Big Les Fernandes Dibling Archer BBD

Russell Martin needs to be given the time to turn things around but the grim reality is the current squad doesn't look good enough to survive in the premier league. It looks unbalanced and weak in key areas. Yes he needs to be more pragmatic and adapt his approach to the squad we have and the league we are in - but even if he does its questionable whether the squad is good enough to stay up. 5-3-2 and playing out from the back all the time have both got to go - but where is the centre forward or other players (No. 10/ Winger) to give us option of going direct or playing a different way. Fans seem to think our salvation lies in the young players like Big Les, Fernandes, SAA and Dibling which quite frankly is a ridiculous situation to be in - they should be adding strength and depth to the squad - not be the players we are going to pin our hopes of survival on. We failed to sign the centre forward we so desperately needed or improve our defence during the transfer window, and we didn't sign the right/left winger and attacking midfielder/No 10 we were all hoping for, not to mention a first choice left back. I am not sure we signed any of our first choice targets or had any real plan - it looks like a very scattergun approach in hindsight. Is this because we didn't have - and still don't have - a proper director of football? I would think so. Hopefully we can find a way of playing in a 4-3-3 or 4-4-2 that gets the best out of our squad and makes us harder to beat.

if he plays and we lose at least we will know who the buck stops with

I am not keen on Cornet. He never looked like a team player to me - a bit of a flash in the pan at Burnley maybe - and now injury prone. If we need another winger to play on the left or right how about Morgan Whittaker from Plymouth - 23, 6ft, left footed and 19 goals in the Championship last season. I am not sure he had a great relationship with Martin at Swansea though so maybe that's a problem. To be honest I expect Fraser to come back at the last minute. I can see us signing 1 or 2 players after the Premier League deadline to go on loan at Goztepe with the option to buy for Saints next year - Alberto for example. I still think we need a first choice left back if we are going to play KWP there over Taylor and Manning. And unfortunately it doesn't look like we are going to sign that 6ft plus centre forward we need. It seems like a big risk to count on Ross Stewart playing regularly or at all or being good enough for the premier league.

he was brilliant playing Russball in the first few games before we was sold at the start of last season and was always better at playing as an attacking 8 on the right of a midfield 3 when he first broke through rather than as a 6 in a double pivot playing Ralphball. Although he did a great job for us there under Ralph.

Yep - I was probably being too optimistic - but 6 or 7 each seemed to pessimistic. 8 to 10 each it is then.