SaintJackoInHurworth

To focus on the topic of this thread: Juric is not good enough and should not be here next season. He is also not going to bring about any improvement of performances and morale this season. He is liable to undermine the confidence and affinity with Saints of any players worth keeping. He is liable to confuse the tactical nous of the players in our squad. Taking all of that together there is nothing to be gained in keeping him until the end of the season and everything to lose in doing so! Much better to get rid and internally install a caretaker manager who has a good relationship with the players. In relation to other issues that people have raised about the failures of both Juric and SR: The failure to bring in a Premier League striker is unforgiveable. We would have been better to keep and develop Ballard as our striker than rely on Archer, Onuachu and Sick-note-Stewart. There are players with future potential, but undermining their potential with poor managers and demoralising tactics and defeats is not the way to develop those players. There are not enough players who are of Premier League quality now. I would suggest the following might just about scrape into this definition when they are playing at their best with good tactics: Ramsdale, Walker-Peters, Harwood-Bellis, Bella-Kotchap, Welington, Fernandes, Dibling - most of those will be gone in the summer. Some of the other players can be coached towards PL standard with the right appointment this summer. I am hopeful that Rohl may be that man. However, we still need to bring in other players ready for the Premier League.

Are you sure that is right? THB has always played at RCB and Bednarek as central CB; Juric said a few weeks ago that ABK cannot play at LCB. That having been said I think a few weeks ago THB was played at LCB, so I think he can play in that position. Personally, though, I would prefer that we left Bednarek on the bench and played this defence: KWP....THB....ABK....Wood....Welington Alternatively, as suggested above we could play 4 at the back (KWP, ABK, THB and Welington) with Downes and Ugochukwu as a pair of CDMs to protect central midfield. It would still leave us vulnerable out wide though unless we play KWP as defensive full backs and Sugawara and Manning as wingers who drop back to become roving wing backs and allow us to create two lines of four in defence - something like this: KWP............ABK............THB........Welington Sugawara..Downes..Ugochukwu..Manning ................Dibling..............Sulemana............ Personally I am not a fan of Manning and think we must play Fernandes though so perhaps it would be better like this: KWP............ABK............THB........Welington Dibling....Downes...Ugochukwu...Sulemana .........................Fernandes............................ .............................Archer...............................

It makes you wonder why this always happens. Obviously in Ballard's case he has had issues with injuries that have impacted his fitness and potentially his confidence, but it does seem that far too many players that we have expected to make the grade have fallen short. Is it a problem with what Saints do? Selecting the wrong clubs for loans - clubs that are not going to give our players the opportunities they need - selected more for their outlook than opportunities? Not giving our players the right fitness regimes to ready them for competitive football? Not establishing good diets for our players? Putting short-term loan payments before selecting what is best for the players? Selecting clubs that are likely to struggle in their division, so that they end up changing their managers? Not establishing rigorous contracts with loan clubs to ensure that players are given opportunities to play? Assuming that it is always best to send a player on loan rather than keeping them at Saints and using them in cup competitions? Failure to select them in cup competitions while at Saints and getting eliminated early from these? Failure to train players with potential to a high enough standard to ready them for competitive football? Or is it just bad luck or just a case of Saints not getting enough players of a high enough standard?

For those that are saying that Dibling was way ahead of Ballard, I would actually disagree somewhat - the truth is actually slightly more mixed! There was certainly a time a few years ago that Dibling was ahead of Ballard and that was when he was poached by Chelsea. However, that obviously didn't work out and while Dibling was gone, Ballard and Jimmy-Jay Morgan alongside him came to the fore. Then, of course, JJM went to Chelsea and Dibling returned to Saints. On his return to Saints, though, Dibling was initially a shadow of his former self and he was regularly being outshone by Ballard who was scoring shedloads of goals. I was at a match against Middlesbrough at their training ground in January 2023, for example, and such was Dibling's demise at that time that he was only a substitute, while Ballard was proving a major threat in front of goal supported by Sam Amo-Ameyaw and he bagged a couple of goals. Dibling, by contrast, only came on for the last 20 minutes and did nothing much of note. I remember being rather disappointed in what I saw of him! He seemed lazy, disinterested and low on confidence. In the last couple of seasons though things have switched around. Dibling has not been loaned out and has regained his confidence and form, while Ballard has had two injury ravaged seasons that have affected his fitness and confidence. The key points to note in all this are these: Loaning players to other clubs does not always help players (though it can do) Injuries can also have a major impact on player's progress - as is the case with Ballard Fitness and confidence also plays a major part Ballard is a quality player and given his chance (and if he get up to full match fitness) I hope he will again show the promise he has previously shown.

So, just as an update to my previous post about our January transfer business, with about a week to go, things now look as follows: IN Albert Grønbæk - AM, signed on loan from Rennes for remainder of this season Welington - Previously with Sao Paolo, permanent signing Joachim Kayi Sanda - signed from Valenciennes Lewis Payne - returned from loan at Cheltenham Dom Ballard - returned from loan at Blackpool Cameron Bragg - returned from loan at Crawley Town Rumours/News: Andre Garcia from Reading - bid of £2m made Ollie Tanner from Cardiff linked with Saints and several other clubs OUT Cornet - loan cancelled & sold by West Ham to Genoa Brereton-Diaz loaned to Sheff Utd Ronnie Edwards - loaned to QPR Rumours: Bazunu - rumoured that he is to go on loan somewhere for the rest of the season to build up fitness as he recovers from his injury Onuachu - interest from Turkey has been mentioned, but nothing concrete. Dibling - wanted by other PL clubs and by RB Leipzig but hopefully won't go anywhere until at least the summer Walker-Peters - a few rumours linking him with a move away but not many; may well leave for a free in the summer. Ramsdale - a few vague rumours linking him with a move away SHAKE IT ALL ABOUT Charles - returned from loan at Sheff Wed, then loaned back to them for improved loan fee.

So, our main transfer business is looking like: OUTS Edwards - loaned to QPR *Done Deal* Cornet - loan cancelled & sold by West Ham to Genoa *Done Deal* BBD - Rumoured that he is off to Sheffield Utd Onuachu - rumoured interest from Turkey Dibling - wanted by other PL clubs but won't go anywhere until at least the summer Walker-Peters - rumours linking him with a move away (E.g. Everton for £5m) but could leave for a free in the summer. Ramsdale - rumours linking him with potential move away - probably in the summer. INS Welington - Purchase completed from Sao Paolo Sanda - signed from Valenciennes Charles - return from loan at Sheff Wed There are also a number of U21 players back from loan and some others going out on loan, including: Ballard - return from loan Payne - return from loan Bragg - return from loan Bazunu, Welington, Sanda and Charles may all be considered for a first team squad number. Sanda is U21, but Charles is 21 so don't know if he counts as u21. Assuming he is u21 then all four can currently be added to the first team squad, following the transfers of Edwards and Cornet... or did Edwards count as U21?

Yes - absolutely - if Ankersen is involved we might get a rubbish(?) manager like the one he installed at Brentford. What a disaster that would be for all the moaners and Pompey fans who just come here to slag the club off. Come to think of it, let's recruit Brentford fans to protest against the management of Thomas Frank!

Not quite sure why there is such a lot of hate for the idea of appointing Kasper Hjulmand. He has a pretty good record: He managed to take a weak Danish international squad to the semi-finals of the European Championship. He took a previously little-known Danish Club from obscurity to winning the Danish Superleague (not unlike the success that Graham Potter had in Scandinavia before Swansea appointed him). He has a win record of around 42% which is pretty decent. Of course, there may be concerns that he flopped outside of Denmark when managing Mainz 05, but some of the best managers are those who have had setbacks and moved on through them to learn from their mistakes (e.g. Eddie Howe). Having said all of that, I would personally love it if we could appoint Edin Terzić, former manager of Dortmund, who has just about the best stats of any manager with experience of managing in a top European league and who is currently without a job. It is probably highly unlikely that we could attract him to come and manage us, but if we could that would be a major coup!

Personally, I believe we must sack Martin now, but I don't believe the board have the guts to do it. We haven't had leaders that decisive at board level since Cortese (love him or hate him) left. The board will probably dither for a few weeks just like Katerina Liebherr and her board did with Pellegrino. After all, they have created a friendly match in a couple of weeks time where one side is labelled the 'Russell Martin XI'. Also, they only gave him a new lucrative contract in the summer, so sacking him will not be cheap! If we do sack Martin (eventually), Potter is likely to be the favourite unless he has found a job elsewhere in the meantime. Who else is likely to be in the running? I would venture a guess that we will be linked with Danny Rohl, John Eustace, Carlos Calderon, Michael Carrick and probably also Chris Wilder. A left-field suggestion might be Michael Skubala from Lincoln because of his Man City and England youth coaching experience as well as the fact he is doing quite well at Lincoln City. And what tactics should they adopt? Whoever it is, I think they need to bring Bella-Kotchap in to play alongside Harwood-Bellis and need to think long and hard about how on earth we are going to get goals! Personally, introducing incisive pace into attack will help, so we need attacking players who can be responsive to that. For me that means we need Walker-Peters and Sugawara on either flank with Dibling and Amo-Ameyaw as wingers and probably Arma running through to break the lines and beat the offside trap to get on the end of telling balls from those four and Fernandes and Lallana. My line-up would be: Ramsdale, Sugawara, THB, ABK, KWP, Downes, Fernandes, Lallana, Dibling, Arma, SAA.

Martin got a lot more right today than he has for most matches this season. However, when it came to it he made one key error which cost us the game. That error was taking Fernandes off and replacing him with Aribo. Before that we were in control of midfield but after that the midfield opened up for them and we were under the cosh. The result was the equalising goal. In addition, it was also Aribo's failure to stand up in front of Morsy's shot that also caused the goal. If he had stood up (or not been on the pitch) the ball wouldn't have deflected off him and Ramsdale would have saved it. That's a double failure from one decision and it has cost us the win.

I don't want to say any of our players is crap, but I don't understand Russell Martin's determination to make Stephens his captain and pick him every game. Last season in the Championship he couldn't get into the side for much of the early part of the season. He has had a part to play in most of the goals we have conceded this season. He hasn't shown leadership - often being the player to fail to mark the opposition player I recognise that he has a good attitude, in contrast to Bella-Kotchap for example, but ABK is a far superior defender and surely there comes a time when we have to play our best players and not the worst ones? Aside from Bella-Kotchap, how must Wood and Edwards feel when they see Stephens selected every time while they can't even make the squad? I personally think it is high time that Stephens was dropped - from the squad, not just the starting line-up. What does anyone else think?

Here is our squad now (with new signings in red) plus details of ages of under-21 players: Name Position Other Aaron Ramsdale GK Gavin Bazunu GK Alex McCarthy GK Joe Lumley GK Jan Bednarek CB Taylor Harwood-Bellis CB Armel Bella-Kotchap CB Ronnie Edwards CB Age 21 but counts as under-21 Nathan Wood CB Jack Stephens CB/FB Charlie Taylor CB/FB Kyle Walker-Peters FB Yukinari Sagawara FB James Bree FB Ryan Manning FB Juan Larios FB Age 20 Flynn Downes DM/CM Lesley Ugochukwu DM/CM Age 20 Will Smallbone CM/DM Mateus Fernandes CM/AM Age 20 Adam Lallana AM/Wing Tyler Dibling AM/RM Age 18 Joe Aribo AM Maxwel Cornet Winger Sam Amo-Ameyaw Winger Age 18 Kamaldeen Sulemana Winger Ryan Fraser Winger Sam Edozie Winger Age 21 but counts as under-21 Adam Armstrong Winger/Striker Ben Brereton-Diaz Winger/Striker Ross Stewart Striker Cameron Archer Striker Paul Onuachu Striker Probable/possible incomings not yet announced Noel Buck CM/DM Age 19 Rory MacLeod Striker Age 18 Obviously, the last two are probably under-21 squad players at this stage. This is a maximum size squad in terms of over-21 players with a squad of exactly 25 over-21s (assuming that Bazunu will be excluded from the squad until January). There is still potential for some players to leave to go to leagues where the transfer window remains open, e.g. Onuachu to Turkey

I thought the point of selling Alcaraz was to bring in money to cover some of the transfer costs and help us avoid getting into trouble over FFP? Bringing in another player as part payment seems strange - although I suppose it does mean we are not left short in the attacking midfield area. Nevertheless, presumably Hugo is a downgrade on Alcaraz, which leaves us weak in the AM position. Despite his recent improvements, Aribo is not great and Lallana has not really got the legs any more! True, Dibling shows promise in that position, but two promising young players as backup to Aribo is a bit worrying. I guess the difference is that Martin seems set to play a different system this season - playing Armstrong and BBD as a false nine duo doubling up as wingers, with a back five in a kind of flexible 5-3-2 line-up. However, presumably he will still want the option of switching to the more familiar dynamic 4-3-3 which he utilised for most of last season. Personally, if all of this is true, then I think it is a big shame as Alcaraz has huge potential and offers something a little different than other players. Also, whatever some people may feel about him not quite delivering everything they were hoping for, his stats are impressive, with nearly all of our wins at the start of last season coming when he started and very few wins being achieved without him until Stu Armstrong was fit.

So, where are Saints up to in terms of signing a keeper? We seem to have been linked with at least four candidates in the past couple of weeks and several others before that: Aaron Ramsdale - www.dailyecho.co.uk/sport/24450616.southampton-reportedly-weighing-up-move-aaron-ramsdale Sam Johnstone - www.dailyecho.co.uk/sport/24500418.southampton-reportedly-interested-crystal-palaces-sam-johnstone Vladyslav Krapyvtsov - www.footballfancast.com/southampton-ready-to-offer-contract-vladyslav-krapyvtsov-ahead-of-chelsea Jason Steele - www.givemesport.com/southampton-interested-in-brighton-goalkeeper-jason-steele Are we linked with anyone else (other than the guesses that Rui Patricio might go to Goztepe and then be loaned to Saints)? Is anything going to come of any of these links? I certainly hope we sign a keeper and if Lis is going back to Goztepe the club must be fairly confident that they will sign someone!

So, where are Saints up to in terms of signing a keeper? We seem to have been linked with at least four candidates in the past couple of weeks and several others before that: Aaron Ramsdale - www.dailyecho.co.uk/sport/24450616.southampton-reportedly-weighing-up-move-aaron-ramsdale Sam Johnstone - www.dailyecho.co.uk/sport/24500418.southampton-reportedly-interested-crystal-palaces-sam-johnstone Vladyslav Krapyvtsov - www.footballfancast.com/southampton-ready-to-offer-contract-vladyslav-krapyvtsov-ahead-of-chelsea Jason Steele - www.givemesport.com/southampton-interested-in-brighton-goalkeeper-jason-steele Are we linked with anyone else? Is anything going to come of any of these links? Let's hope so!