Super_Uwe

I see Sparky as being in a similar bracket to Koeman as a manager. Both have been managing at a high level for a long time, Koeman has had more individual success as a manager but Sparky has generally done well at the clubs he has been at. Both were also top players in their own right. For a variety of reasons, the club has taken several steps back the past couple of years. I'm not against another appointment but I see him as a good fit to help the club rebuild its reputation. Equally Hughes needs to do well in his next job in order to get the critics off his back. So in that sense it seems a good partnership. I have seen Emery mentioned a few times before. Unless we are going to suddenly spend mega bucks and change our philosophy altogether, I can't see what on earth would possess him to come to Saints. He has been managing at the very highest level in Europe for a number of years and his next job will more than likely be a much bigger club than Saints.

IMO I wouldn't be at all surprised to see Stephens move to right back. He started off there for Argyle, seeing as Cedric probably will be on his way I could envisage him taking that spot at least in the short term, or being second choice RB.

Only just noticed this morning that Swansea lost all of their last 5 league games. In fact they only picked up 3 points from their last 9 league games. It feels harsh on Saints to say they were lucky, because I do genuinely believe they did all they could to turn things around and get out of trouble. But it has to be said that we were SO lucky Swansea just capitulated; of all the teams in the relegation battle, they had been the nearest "safe" team to us for quite a while.

Really not sure if we will see him in a Saints shirt next season. Inclined to think the club would try to do all they can to keep him as I don't think Boufal is ever going to make the grade here. I'm hoping he stays on anyway.

In 2008, we should have kept Pearson but decided not to renew his contract and ended up with Poortvliet and Wotte. I feel 2018 is the same situation all over again. Sparky has come in and deserves to get the job full time. We need to rebuild and he is exactly the bloke to do the job IMO.

Whatever happens with Gabbi, we've had some great games off him since he joined. Not quite sure I'd put him in the "cult hero" bracket but the history books will tell you he's the bloke who got the goal to effectively keep us up, so he'll always be remembered fondly enough. Loved the club's video of the players singing "OOOOH Gabbiadini" to him in the dressing room! Clearly he's popular enough with his team-mates.

To be fair, you are right. I'd not realised how strong our goals for was in comparison to Swansea. I'm going on like I expect Swansea to turn it around aren't I?!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/43971368 Like I said above, 37 points is the magic number for guaranteed safety

I was just thinking of the amount you need to stay up regardless of other results. Coming into the final game of the season, Saints and Huddersfield only need a point to guarantee safety. Of course we should now be fine with 36 points with our GD, Huddersfield less so but they have got two games to get that magical point.

Well, there we go. Turns out the magic number for guaranteed safety this season is 37 points! Well done to those who guessed right

Yeah, it's a very odd feeling. The team has done brilliantly to dig itself out of trouble, but I just wonder how many of the established players who have upped their game in recent weeks will still be in a Saints shirt next season. Nevertheless it has to rank up there with some of the best escapes as I think most fans were resigned to relegation after the Chelsea game. You just couldn't see how we were going to win after that collapse.

Put into context, thankfully 1 point instead of 3 hasn't really killed us. I hope Sparky will have emphasised that to the players as they have no reason to beat themselves up over the result yesterday. We go to Swansea with a chance of effectively saving ourselves before the City game. Quite incredible in the context of the past few months' rubbish football.

Just about got my head around yesterday's late, late equaliser! Actually very little has changed, we still need to get something at Swansea which has been pencilled in as the key game for quite a while now. A win would pretty much guarantee safety thanks to our GD, a draw would leave us needing to match or better Swansea's result on the last day to stay up (regardless of what Huddersfield get up to). Quite incredibly, even a defeat against Swansea wouldn't send us down, although we would have to beat City on the last day and hope Swansea and Huddersfield both slip up. If I am being perfectly honest, I would happily have taken this scenario after the Chelsea game. Game on!

Yep, we were pretty desperate back then. As you say the last six years have been a million times better than that, but I guess the current situation maybe feels worse than it is because we have fallen a long way in the space of 12 to 18 months. That following season was when I saw the worst ever Saints performance in my 25 years as a Saints fan...away to Plymouth. Looking at the BBC match report, we threw Matt Paterson and Kayne McLaggon on hoping they would make the difference mid-way through the second half...well they didn't:scared: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_div_1/7787646.stm

https://www.oddschecker.com/football/english/premier-league/relegation I think the Hammers at up to 14-1 for relegation is a surprisingly good punt. I don't expect them to go down but I'm not sure they deserve to be that high. Anyone fancy a cheeky 500-1 bet on Watford getting relegated?!

My old man rang me the other day, he was having a sort out in the loft and has come across programmes from the 90s and early 00s when I was growing up as a Saints fan. Maybe even a few ticket stubs in there. Suppose I will keep them for a bit but eventually they all end up in the loft or bin!

Imagine if we stayed up with 34 points! Would be amazing. Just goes to show how many different combinations there are to go, even with 2 or 3 games left. I have been convinced 38 points is the magic number for a while now, but equally 34 to 37 points could well be enough. GD will more than likely come into play, in that respect we are currently one of the better teams down there.

I think he has done what we hoped he would so far. His record is much better than many people give him credit for, I know it ended badly at Stoke in the end, but he was there for a long time and transformed the team after Pulis. Any manager lasting 3 or 4 years in a job nowadays is a rarity. I loved the reaction from the coaching team and players at the end! We all needed a lift and hopefully the Bournemouth game will give them all the confidence to save themselves from the drop.

Yeah I know what you mean. After the Chelsea game I felt we were about 90% down as I didn't see a way back after that capitulation, after this weekend's results I'd say we are still 65%-70% likely to get relegated. That sounds really harsh but the reality is we are very reliant on the other teams failing and us picking up the points. It's certainly a lot more doable than it was, but still a monumental effort. Beat Everton and I would put survival at 50/50. Beat both Swansea and Everton and we will have 38 points and should be safe...

Wow! What an incredible weekend for Saints, bar the Palace result everything else fell into place perfectly for us. We needed 9 points from 4 games, now we need 6 points from 3. I will be very interested to see how Sparky sets out his team against Everton. Privately he may be happy to just take a point seeing as they are doing so well and then go all out against Swansea. That would give us 36 points and a nervy last day against City...so many possibilities though!

I just listened to the whole piece and I can't agree with you on Dave Merrington's comments. His point about Boufal was simply that he doesn't feel we have made the most of his talent (by sticking him out on the left, for example). He also acknowledged the fact that Redmond and Tadic are decent players but haven't done enough - though he believes Redmond could improve a lot if he was encouraged to be more direct. Maybe Boufal does have an attitude problem, but equally it doesn't seem like we have ever found a useful spot for him in the team. As for Fonte, all he said was that he was the captain and a strong influence. We chose to get rid of him because we got offered a decent amount of money and (I guess) took the view his best days were probably behind him. Would he get in the team now though? I would prefer to say no, but realistically if he was fit I think he would be one of the first names on the team sheet, and also the captain. We haven't replaced him properly and we certainly haven't replaced van Dijk either.

I was wondering how bad our form had been...turns out it's worse than I'd actually realised! Since beating West Brom at home in October, we have picked up 17 points from 25 league games :uhoh: Quite incredible that we still have a route (of sorts) to save ourselves from relegation if you ask me.

I felt we needed 10 points from the last 5 games, we now need 9 points from 4 to get to 38 points. I have little hope now but until the maths says no then hope is all there is!

Have to say I completely disagree with those criticising Hughes' tactics last night. The team capitulated against Chelsea and has been shipping goals all over the place. It was imperative we didn't lose last night. The team is shot to pieces in terms of confidence, not to mention the passengers who can't wait to leave. The players are evidently s*** scared of relegation. We gave the poor bloke eight league games to change things, he's certainly come in and improved things but he can only do so much. The scenario of needing to win 3 games hasn't changed, just we only have 4 games left now!

I feel sorry for Hughes. He had to try and do something to stem the flow of goals against, we simply have no chance whatsoever of staying up if we keep letting in 3 goals every game. I still feel that he would be a decent manager to have, whether we are in the Premier League or Championship.