saints-cris

I think the decision to keep the bloke will hit home this weekend quite hard. The atmosphere will be at best defeated, and at worst totally toxic and unhelpful for the team on the pitch. Essentially we will chuck 3 points to a team right in there with us. Total madness that he will still be in the dugout for this game. We can all see how this game goes, unless we fluke a goal early on. Wolves, a side who we always struggle against anyway, will watch us either pass it side to side aimlessly, or strain their necks as the ball repeatedly comes down with ice on it. They’ll then score once they decide to, and then it’ll get really ugly. Probably same again second half. And then we will do it all again for the Chelsea game.

Vitinha off to Marseille, that's one down. Almost like leaving it til the last day is a bad idea..

Beat me to it, most PL clubs are routinely spending 25-30m, and we still shop around this piddly 12-15m window. At some point we need to get with the times and start spending more.

At the start of this window I had some hope we'd try and get ourselves out of this. We'd get a striker that we've needed for almost 2 years.. Now we're here, I've lost all belief we'll get anyone worthwhile. I used to check Twitter for updated regularly, now I cant even be arsed. Cheers SR.

I wasn't even fussed about this guy, yet I'm still annoyed. Pretty much sums up life as a Saints fan. GET. A. STRIKER.

I for one would be chuffed if Ings were to come back. We know what he can do, he was brilliant for us. Everyone else is essentially a gamble in comparison, and I'm pretty sure it would give this squad a lift too, will slot right in. I really, really would rather avoid another Championship striker, we need someone who we know can hit the ground running and get us out of the situation we're in right now, not roll the dice.

It's been frustrating as hell watching him sit on the bench when it's been clear he's our best and most experienced one. The injury to ABK has been a blessing in disguise.

Depends if we go with 5 at the back or not, which seems sadly likely. What I think he'll go with: Bazunu KWP, Lyanco, ABK, Salisu, Perraud Lavia, JWP, Alcaraz Orsic, New STR What I'd like to see: KWP, DCC, Salisu, Perraud JWP, Lavia, Alcaraz Edozie, New STR, Orsic

The only positive of this is it's a loss that won't effect my mood, and makes Jones's position look worse in the process.

He should have been given his P45 after last night just on that performance alone, and that's disregarding the abomination that were the last couple of performances. whilst getting rid of Ralph was the correct one, I'd have backed him to get 4 pts from Brighton, Fulham and Forest. He tended to get just about enough to get by. That, last night, was one of the worst PL performances I've seen us put out. The team selections, playing 5-3-2 which doesn't suit us what so ever, lumping it up to 5'8 Adams whilst moaning we arent a big team. The player selections, Mara suddenly comes in from nowhere, Lyanco being allowed near the first 11 despite the glaring warning signs that he's a walking catastrophe, Moi still playing every minute, not playing Edozie, Stu or Aribo (basically any creative player) whilst we cant score from open play; all of this tell me he hasn't the faintest f*cking clue what he is doing, what his best team is or how to get us out of it. Didn't want him in the first place, don't want him to manage a second longer. Please, SR, put your ego/arrogance aside, admit you got this horribly wrong and get someone in who has the ability to get us a clean sheet for once, before it really is too late. We are almost at that point now.

Bizarre, and surely not true? Instead, why dont we play Caleta-Carr, or ABK intead of our worst CB (Lyanco), maybe then we might ya know, keep more clean sheets than 1 IN 17..

If we have a really good weeks training, Jones is able to get more time to get his ideas across, actually picks the right team, we may only lose 2-0. COYR

My god that was so bad. 5 weeks off or so for us to be pants v Lincoln, and absolutely humiliated v Brighton. We looked like a League 1 team today, it was absolutely pathetic at times. I'm not sure what I can say about the game other than that. They could pop the ball around with quality and we couldn't. We cant do the basics, 1 clean sheet in 17 is pathetic. It doesn't help that we persist with dross like El-Younoussi (I genuinely didn't realise he was playing when he got subbed off). Djenepo (bloody useless), AMN (send him back), Diallo (garbage), Lyanco (tries hard but lacks ability). There is no reason Armstrong, Aribo, ABK shouldnt be playing instead of them; now we'd still be rubbish but they are marginally better. Will we get out of it? Nah, we are the worst team in the league. And the worst part of it is that we won't even attempt to buy our way out of it. It infuriates me seeing every other club dropping 35-40m on players whilst we still hope a 12m signing will sort all our problems. INVEST. For once, INVEST. You get what you pay for, and we dont pay for quality, we hope they will get there eventually. We don't have time.. make those type of signings when you are already a good team. Summed up by getting in a manager who no other PL team was remotely interested in, of course Saints go the cheap route. Whilst Villa get Emery, Wolves get Loptaguei, Saints get....... Nathan Jones. I still cannot believe we didn't get a striker in the summer. We sucked at the back end of last season, and we decided to go in to the new season even weaker than prior. I get that we tried, but to not be able to get ANYONE over the line is inexcusable. 22 games left to play, plenty of points to play for, and we are not doomed yet some will say. The reality for me is this, our last 22 games have seen us win 3 times, 4 draws, and 15 losses. It is going to take a miraculous turnaround to see us survive this season, only blind optimism and zero logic can anyone say we can do it; as sadly we do not have the individual talent or financial backing to do so, and we are managed by a completely unproven Championship manager.

Can't say I'm particularly enthused by this. Felt like a chance for SR to make a statement, and it hasn't happened. Maybe he will be a good fit, but when you see Villa go for Emery, and Wolves get Lopategui... and then we do this. It feels like we're always going to go for the cheaper less glamorous option regardless of who's in ownership. Happy to be proved wrong, and I hope I'm made to eat my own words, but its hard to get excited by this. Oh, and buy a bloody striker in January, otherwise it won't matter who's in charge.

Almost perfect. If we had got the striker we need it would be an 11. So a 9/10 for me. I can see us getting to January and having a go for a striker. We have got rid of the players who have gone stale, or just not good enough (Bednarak, Stephens, Valery, Long) and rid of a high earner (Forster). And we have replaced them with some seriously young and exciting talent, and what seems a real coup of a centre half in DCC. It feels like we have a very athletic team, and we're back to really going at teams and having a real go. Very exciting and lovely to have some feel good vibes back, its been a while.

After years of Gao and having to spend to buy, this is genuinely so exciting. Really feel that Ralph has earned the backing he's getting here. Very hard to work right now..

Very easy to get carried away after a win but there's still just under 2 weeks left, and we definitely need a striker, a pacey winger and (assuming Bednarak/Stephens leave) another CB, and probably full-back cover too. Will we get 4, I'm not so sure, but striker is still #1 priority for me.

I really like Ralph, and I'd like things to work out with him. His passion is infectious (for me anyway), he clearly cares about this club. However, it feels like this is the beginning of the end to me. Form has been dreadful for so long, new owners, squad isn't great, and I think should we lose tomorrow it's going to really ramp up as the games after that are horrid. Much as I like the guy, sometimes things just come to an end it feels like we're almost there.

I'm OK with adding talented youngsters, but there has to be some more experience coming in; particularly in the spine of the team.

Boy, do we need to get to work this summer. Good teams have a good spine, and we do not. We need a new GK. McCarthy is not good enough, Forster is leaving. We never play a youth keeper, so an absolute clear cut #1 is needed. CB, lets be honest, back in the day we had Fonte / VVD / Lovren (tosser) / Toby. All bloodygood defenders. We have no one on that level. Salisu could be one day but we're seemingly expecting a 22 year old kid to marshall a Premier League defence. It's not going to happen. Please, get a reliable, more experienced CB to partner him. Tarkowski fits the bill. Get rid of Bednerak, he simply has got worse and worse. Stephens wouldn't be here if he hadnt been here from a young age, but if he wants to stick around as a non-complaining 4th choice, fine. Lyanco whilst likeable, isn't very good really. Can live with him as 3rd choice. Full backs, no issues at all. CM, Another please. JWP has been great, Romeu too and Diallo in spells but i think we need a Romeu type, as when he's not there we're all over the place. JWP/Diallo combo doesn't work at all. Wingers. A whole load of them, and none are particularly good. If possible, get rid of Redmond, Djenepo and Walcott. Armstrong is our best one, Moi can cover his role but we need someone else who can go pose an attacking threat and score. Tella could do with regular game time, a loan maybe. Strikers, press the rest button. Long and Broja are off. We're left with Armstrong who has not done well, and Adams who is patchy. Those two will not score enough. We need 2x strikers, and better than what we have. So, 1x GK, 1x CB, 1x CM, 2x AM, 2x STR.. not much to ask...😐

Like to see Everton go down; purely for the Marcus Bent and Tom Davies goals that are still etched into my most painful moments as a Saints fan.

You have to remind yourself this kid is 17..... 17! Made one very good run going forward, defensively looked a bit iffy but understandable. Physically he's a specimen, and I'm sure with time he'll still be a real talent.

I work at CTFC. So I saw Jake play alot this year. He came in and looked ok but to me, he seemed short of match fitness, understandably. He always got well stuck in and put himself about a lot. Then he got injured for a while and the same cycle repeated. To me, he lacks the pace or attacking threat to play higher than L1/L2 right now. No goals, a couple of assists, played on the left of a midfield 4 mostly. He needs to have a regular season in L2 and I suspect that's where he'll end up. Well liked at CTFC from what I could gather though.

Can see why some would be casting a small look over the shoulder, but facts are we have the points on the board. We’ve got 33 points with 11 games to go. We could quite literally repeat the same form we have over the last 10 games (which would be beyond unlikely) and still get to 37/38 points. Not worried.

Really no excuses tomorrow. They’re not as useless as they were a couple months back, but the way their defence has been decimated we absolutely have to get something. Additionally, we’ve had 2 more days prep and they’ve played nearly half a game with ten men. They’ve got injuries, our players are coming back, be very disappointed with anything but a win here. A win here and the pressure really comes off especially with City up after.