Super_Uwe

Not Saints related, but seeing as he got dumped out of the cup with Stoke at the hands of League Two Cov in round 3, and then got the boot, would he be the first manager to then go on and win the cup as the manager of another club?

Happy enough with Hughes on a short term deal to begin with. He'll have a point to prove as many have written him off. And he at least gives us some hope of turning it around. Main thing is he should have enough about him to get a reaction and allow us to scrape to safety, that's all we need to focus on. If we do escape then I hope the questions will still be asked of Reed, Krueger etc. as to what exactly has happened to their once grand plans, because quite clearly things have gone completely off the rails.

Potter's story is immense, but you have to understand he has built that club up from the ground. He has been given the time to do things his way and he has embraced a whole new country, culture and language. I don't think for one second he would be given the time at a Premier League club - yet. For me I think his best chance will be to do something like Sean Dyche; establish himself in the Championship, hopefully secure promotion and then stamp his authority.

Still in shock we actually fired him!

The hype surrounding Silva is what worries me. I'm not personally sure he's remotely deserving of some of the praise he's getting. Still kind of expecting a K Davis/Jaidi appointment, wouldn't shock me in the slightest if they get it.

The only good thing really in our favour at the moment is that there is a decent chance of there being three worse teams than us at the end of the season. West Brom are all but relegated now, Stoke don't exactly look inspired by Lambert's arrival, West Ham are on the brink of meltdown unless they really sort themselves out and Palace's revival has also started to fade at the wrong time. A lot of people place all the blame solely at Pellegrino's door. He's out of his depth, but our recruitment over the past 2 seasons has just not worked out. Is it just bad luck? I don't know, but where we managed to get it so right in 2014, it's gradually got worse season after season, to the extent that no-one we bought in the summer of 2017 has actually improved the team, combined with the fact that none of the established players are playing anywhere near like their best form.

A diabolical result, sweetened by the fact that Palace and West Ham continue to be equally as pathetic. West Brom you'd have to assume are gone now. If Stoke lose we'll still be out of the drop zone by some miracle!

It screams desperate, but if we do make a very, very last minute change I could see Kelvin Davis and Radhi Jaidi being asked to step in. If nothing else the fans would get behind them. Obviously they could prove to be another Dodd/Gorman disaster, but you never know...

Whether he's match fit or not isn't too big a deal in my eyes. Ideally he would be but better he's able to contribute. Think Le Tiss in our Great Escape of 98/99, he was struggling desperately with injuries towards the end of that season but we managed to get him on the pitch enough to make a difference. Austin will make a difference given then chance.

I'd be amazed if it doesn't go to the last game of the season to decide it all. I'm personally pleased we have got the away games to play, the way things have gone this season I just can't see a Dell-like 90s relegation run-in atmosphere being created at St Mary's. If the fans are able to do that, and provided we can get Austin back up and running, maybe we can pick up a win or two out of those last three home matches. I'm keeping an eye on West Ham, that result at Swansea was diabolical for them and you have to wonder if it will knock their confidence to have been so comprehensively beaten by a relegation rival. Shipping 4 goals two games in a row will definitely have them looking over their shoulders.

I know many won't but I'm beginning to feel a bit sorry for him. He's got the record signing tag, and being the only player we bothered to sign in January he's basically been given the task of transforming our season on his own. If we do go down and he fails to score you can well imagine he will start getting dogs abuse from fans

Think how much fun we all had winning the JPT! The FA Cup would be a whole new level, and in some ways it's even better this time round because it's kind of crept up on us. I am still worried that the management and players haven't grasped the seriousness of the league position. If they can get it in their heads that 17th will do this year, then we can re-assess in the summer. No-one needs to be proud about finishing 17th, it's just what we need to do this season.

Not sure about the whole team, but for a relegation special I would go for Monkou, Marsden, Le Tiss and Pahars - all of those guys delivered when we needed them to. Manager...I'll go for Alan Ball, even in v2018 he'd still build the team around Le Tiss and we'd sail away from the drop zone!

Just needs to get that first goal and hopefully he'll be on his way. It's a tough gig coming in to a struggling side with quite a bit of fan discontent, and also being the record signing too. Not exactly a great combo for the bloke!

Let me re-phrase what I put. I'm not convinced that we truly wanted to sign him. I'm not questioning whether we put a bid in or not necessarily, just that I don't get the feeling we were desperate for him to join. On the flip side you could say that's financially prudent, and it is to a certain extent. I don't want the club to go back to the dark days of administration. But by all accounts the money was there for us to spend, if we are supposed to have bid £25 million and £30 million would apparently have clinched the deal, that doesn't strike me as the club being determined to secure his services.

I recall Pellegrino saying in a press conference a few weeks ago something along the lines of it being a matter of bringing in quality and that it might be one, two or more players. Just my opinion but I don't seriously think we were in for Promes. Just like Walcott. I think we were only ever in for Carrillo as he'd worked with Pellegrino before. Maybe I'm wrong and he will join in the summer (if we stay up), but I just feel it was a story that had legs and indirectly helped reduce the heat on the board and club a bit.

It's easy to forget how little game time he has had for us really. Only been a regular (of sorts) for the past 12 months. As others have said, hopefully he'll keep progressing and get better with experience. He has got plenty of time on his side, Fonte hit his best form for us after he turned 30. Yoshida is approaching 30 and is certainly a lot better than he was to begin with.

Huge gamble.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p056sqj7 The above link is a clip from the BBC from Tim Vickery back in the summer. Listen to it and hear the glowing report he did on Pellegrino. Fast forward six months and a fair chunk of Saints fans are probably wondering what the hell he was on about! I'm not really sure who it is that is pushing the agenda for these coaches, but it feels like Marco Silva has got a cracking PR team behind him. Now before anyone jumps down my throat, yes, he hasn't done a bad job at all so far in his managerial career. But is he really THAT good? Jury's out for me.

Were we ever really in for Walcott though? It never seemed likely to me anyway, I'd love to see him back at Saints but it's just not the kind of signing we have made for a very long time.

Listened to his interview after the Chelsea game on Saturday. Really noticeable how much more comfortable he is doing interviews in English now, definitely worked on his vocab over the past 12 months Fair play to the bloke though, just a shame it never worked out for him at St Mary's.

Personally the loudest I remember was after Telfer's lob against Newcastle in 2002. Last minute cracker when we were down to 10 men thanks to new boots Tahar and his unforgettable red card!

I listened to a bit of Long's interview last night; he didn't say anything stupid, but what it made me think about was the fact that we are not in any way battle ready for a relegation scrap like we were in the 90s. I genuinely worry the players think they are too good to go down. 20 points from 22 games suggests otherwise sadly.

Glad it's all done and dusted. Ridiculous fee that you have to give credit to our management team for negotiating. We'll see if he actually wins anything there. Lallana, Lovren etc have won bugger all so far... Fingers crossed we can get a couple of new faces in and get moving in the right direction.

I agree with you. I think overall he has done a fantastic job, but I get the feeling we have lost our way a bit. It is always going to be difficult for any club to sustain what we have managed to do over the past 8 years. I do worry about us at the moment because we are not a team that is prepared for a relegation scrap like we were in the 90s, for example. We have come a long way since those days, but once things start to snowball it's going to be hard to turn it around.