Shandy_Top_89

As much as Boufal is a ****, that should be the PL goal of the season, never mind just ours. McCarthy should be player of the season, without him we would have been relegated, he has been that important.

Heads up for anyone yet to hit the road, avoid A34 like the plague. Been stuck in completely stationary traffic for 40 mins, people getting out of cars and everything. Sat Nav added an hour to arrival time so far, almost beginning to look like I might not make kick off if this continues much longer!!! ?.

Swansea coming from behind to draw. Then us nervously watching the Swansea - Stoke game while getting smashed by City. It will have to be the most agonising, prolonged, drawn out process, good or bad outcome. It just wouldn’t be Saints for it to be any other way.

Negatives: Swansea can opt to play for the draw Missing our defensive lynchpin (Yoshi) Game is at the Liberty Positives: We have massively improved recently and I believe we are a better side than Swansea who are in dire form. A draw doesn't 100% guarantee safety for them and would still technically leave things in our hands (even if it would mean we would likely need to beat Citeh), so they might still come at us, which I think will play into our hands. I don't think it is a foregone conclusion that Swansea will beat Stoke who will now be playing with no pressure. Conclusion: We can do this and it is in our own hands, which is far more than we could have expected a fortnight ago! Lets keep things positive while there is still hope. If we do go on to get relegated then we can fully mope all we want and direct our collective ire at those who deserve it. But for now lets get behind the team and get them over the line!

As gutted as everyone else, but context is everything. On the way up it dawned on me we could end the day 4 points behind Swansea. We have ended the day with ahead on goal difference with things back in our hands. 2 weeks ago I wouldn’t have believed we would have got to this point. Regarding the ref, 6 added mins was fair due to Cedric injury. That free kick against Redmond was utter inept ******** though and had it not been given we would have come home with 3 points. Jon Moss has directly cost us 4 points this season through bad officiating, if we go down he should be coming down with us (although I sincerely hope he is nowhere near whatever league we are in).

Would be good to stick it to the worst set of supporters in the league. Allardyce out chants today, and a fan on 606 last week calling for the club to reinstate Unsworth permanently to take them to their rightful place in the top 6....... It’s going to be tough, but I believe we can at least get a point from this. Hopefully we don’t get a Walcott sucker punch.

THIS! Genuinely feel a large proportion of Saints fans are utterly blind. For right or wrong he is our ONLY player who can deliver the ball in to goal scoring positions with regularity. He is also the only player we have that can deliver a corner beyond the first man. The fact that the rest of our bumbling band of ‘footballers’ struggle to make anything out of his excellent deliveries is more a reflection on them than him.

Commanding CB and an RB capable of crossing and tracking back would be a start. If we are in the Championship and can retain Austin, Prowse, Redmond, Targett, McQueen, Romeu, Højbjerg, Reed, Yoshida and Sims we may be on to a good thing. Think the hardest to retain out of that bunch will actually be Ward-Prowse. Could also see Austin being poached by Bournemouth (wouldn’t that be a watershed moment)....

Redmond is unironically better anyway, despite the amount of ****e he gets from fans. Can anyone ever see Boufal scoring 7 in a season? He is probably third in our all time list of worst ever value for money signings right now after Carillo and Osvaldo. Lemina is quickly getting drawn in to this list too, more because of attitude rather than ability.

I agree about today atmosphere wise, but I don’t think you can fully blame the fans, as producing an atmosphere for this team is the ultimate in turd polishing exercises. Don’t recognise your comments about a poor atmosphere at the League Cup Final last year though, it was fantastic. There are signs of improvement, but it will take a hell of an effort to survive now. But hey it should be interesting at least.

My bet on a standard adult championship season ticket is £499. It will be a slight drop but not enough along with some serious shiny PR boll*cks and a spanking new slogan like ‘Saints REBORN’.

I always had the feeling that all of Poch’s success comes from his work on the training ground. However I think he struggles to make changes in game and can sometimes get outfoxed tactically which is where he tends to lose out against the other top sides. I never felt he really had a plan B and you could tell if we were going to have a good game or not within the first 10 mins. As opposed to Koeman who I felt was a much stronger manager tactically, but didn’t quite manage the fitness levels / team ethic quite as well. (Total amateur opinion that is probably very wide of the mark, but that’s the vibe I got over their times in charge) I still hold him in really high regard though and think he has a bright future, needs to learn from his mistakes though.

This will surely be one of the all time largest squad clear outs in football league history. I mean we are basically a younger QPR. If we are serious about mounting a push to come straight back up there are some players that we would expect to lose that we really need to try and retain on a ‘give us the one season’ basis, they are; Ward-Prowse, Austin, Romeu and Højbjerg for me. I also think Redmond would do a job for us in the Championship. Targett has also shown himself to be a top Championship player, I would like to retain him, but if he goes I think McQueen would be fine. Absolutely 100% definitely going; Cedric Hoedt Tadic Lemina Boufal Gabbiadini Bertrand Pied Taylor Clasie Gardos Players we need to leave (but probably won’t); Carillo Forster Players we need to sign; 1) Commanding Centre Back with Championship experience (Jansson, Bamba or one of the Millwall CB’s) 2) First choice right back (Bit stumped here - maybe Byram as he isn’t breaking into the first team at Wham) Players we may need to sign; 3) Competition for McCarthy (Bit ambitious, but with Heaton being displaced at Burnley you could have a first class keeper and leader in one) 4) Second choice right back if Valery isn’t up to it. 5) No. 10 if Hesketh isn’t up to it. I actually think we will be able to afford keeping a couple of quality players, as the sheer number of outs will provide us with a financial buffer. If we don’t make it back up though it would need a second wave clear out.

---------------McCarthy---------------- -----Yoshida-Hoedt-Bertrand--------- -Cedric--Romeu-Hojbjerg--McQueen- --JWP---------------------Tadic-------- -----------------Long------------------- Subs; Forster, Bednarek, Pied, Lemina, Redmond (or Boufal), Austin, Gabbiadini.

If we get relegated in the same season that Liverpool win the Champs League with a first XI of up to 50% ex-Saints players (all but 1 from the last 4 seasons), does that mean Les Reed will be forced to shop no closer than Gunwharf for the rest of eternity?

Don't think anyone will get the opportunity to make a protest vote. The club will select 4 'candidates' (i.e least offensive players) and the one that has performed the best imitation of a 'professional' footballer will get the chance to experience the long lost feeling known as winning. Least worst player of the season shortlist; McCarthy, Ward-Prowse, Austin, Lemina (ignoring the last 2 games).

I hope this thread is tongue in cheek. Pardew is legitimately a worse Premier League manager than Hughes.

It was another pointless club wheel out interview. But equally I’m sure Austin is genuinely chuffed with his team mates for trying their hardest to make him a Championship player again while he is off injured. He can’t really have done much more this season, he is still the top scorer despite making 6 starts all season.

People debating who to blame, can’t I just hate them all?

People highlighting Prowse and Redmond . The Redmond hate absolutely baffles me, he hasn’t had a good season, but had a very good season last year that appears to have gone entirely unnoticed. He clearly has the capability to hit form again. In contrast most look favourably on Boufal, who aside from random screamers has shown absolutely nothing, other than being a b rate reincarnation of Fabrice Fernandes. He offers very little to the team. Also Ward-Prowse out? What planet are people living on? For me; Forster (although I think we are now stuck with him in true Forecast fashion, no one else will be willing to pay him what we are for what he brings), Hoedt (extremely underwhelming and genuinely a worse defender than both Stephens and Yoshida), Cedric (had an extremely poor season, yet goes to the media to express his desire to move on for continental football), Clasie, Tadic, Boufal, Davis, Long. I want to say Carillo but I guess he deserves a bit more time before being completely written off. If Stoke go down and we survive, we should go in for Butland. If Bertrand leaves Targett and McQueen deserve to fight it out for first team LB. Overall essentials; GK, RB, CB. Positions that are important but have potential in squad replacements; Centre Mid (Reed), Winger (Sims), Forward (Gallagher).

Talking modern EPL fan of course....

Best known is going to be more pleb than you realise; Arsenal = Henry Bournemouth = Wilshere/Defoe/Begovic Brighton = Murray Burnley = Pope Chelsea = Terry/Lampard Crystal Palace = Zaha Everton = Rooney Huddersfield = Mooy? Leicester City = Mahrez/Vardy Liverpool = Gerrard Manchester City = Aguero Manchester United = Beckham Newcastle United = Shearer Southampton = Le Tissier Stoke = Shaqiri Swansea = Michu Tottenham = Kane Watford = Deeney West Brom = Evans? West Ham = Di Canio

According to transfermarkt its..... 4-2-3-1 A change of line up and coaching can make a big difference to that formation though.

Sack Pellegrino, then best we can hope for; West Ham (a) - Win Swansea (a) - Win Arsenal (a) - Loss Chelsea (h) - Loss Leicester (a) - Draw Bournemouth (h) - Win Everton (a) - Draw Man City (h) - Loss Can’t see anything better than that. Tbh can’t even see that.

Got his subs totally wrong again. Sims and Redmond were pinning them back from the wings and then he took Sims off for Boufal which completely killed our momentum. Then failed to bring JWP in a game where we were getting set piece after set piece. Our finishing is ****e but he unnecessarily stifled our momentum and withdrew any opportunity we might have had with pants subs. As for that ref blowing the whistle when he did....