Lallana's Left Peg

There are no absolutes in all this. Ralph has his strengths and his weaknesses but he's about as good as we can attract at the moment. Combine Ralph's qualities along with the lack of investment in the team and the overall output is to be expected. We're slowing dying, anyone can see it. It's not attributable to a single player or the manager, its the big picture problem of being broke and playing in the richest league in the world. We'll get relegated soon, the question is how soon. That is the reality of the situation unless club ownership changes. Everyone around us gets richer or invests more and our current strategy is to pick up kids from other Academies as first team players. It's a very bad situation to be in and messing around with managers or changing goalkeepers won't change a thing about the course of direction that the club is on.

The defence carried the team the first 10 games of the season and now they have reverted back to playing as we would expect our wastefulness in the final third is really showing up as a genuine reason we should all be concerned about the long term future. As well as we've done in the transfer market recently, the one place you can't skimp is with strikers and £10m gets you finishing like we've now come to experience on a weekly basis.

Heavily rumoured on Sky from what I read.

Ah, so its Eddie Howe taking up the Mark Hughes at Man City role at Newcastle. Probably worth it for the payoff in 2 years.

It probably helps that Gray and Townsend, both wingers, play on the wing for Everton and Benetiz plays to their strengths. At Southampton they would be played as 'Number 10's', be asked to run about alot pressing and only get the ball in central areas where they would struggle like any other winger. Both would fail in our system as all our other Number 10's are bar Armstrong I would say, and that's because he can operate in central areas comfortably with the ball and he has an engine on him.

The accounts are there for all to see. A wage bill not justified by on pitch performance and below average income. COVID definitely impacted things obviously but we were trending the wrong way before that financially. If the club could be run sustainably AND our Premier League status be comfortably assured then our owner would not be looking to sell and our CEO would not be seeking investment. This club cannot be run sustainably and maintain a presence in this league any more.

I don't know if it was unseemly or not, but we said no to one investor and Semmens is on the record as saying he could find an investor very quickly if he wanted but they may be unseemly: https://www.hampshirelive.news/sport/football/football-news/martin-semmens-southampton-newcastle-takeover-6024374

Some interesting views around morality and fan experience of supporting your team. Both mean something to fans but not to the club I would say. Relegation is catastrophic for Saints and the club would not want it. Martin Semmens having previously spoke about investment from parties that the fans would not warm up has also on the other hand signed off commercial deals with betting companies and crypto-currency companies under the grounds of income for the club to remain competitive. It would suggest to me that he is acutely aware of the situation we're in and knows that the current cadence of what is happening in the league and our own financial situation means its just a matter of time before we're relegated. The pin has been taken out of the grenade and he's holding it in his hand - at what point does he accept that morality is second to the club staying in the league and us getting the investment we need to try and properly compete in the short, medium and long-term? He's got to get the timing right on this one - its the hardest part of his job right now in my opinion.

One of our genuine relegation rivals with a state backed takeover this evening. One more nail in the coffin for our ability to stay in this league based on our current business model. And its not that our model is fundamentally wrong, it's that it doesn't work in the rich playground like the Premier League.

This too is what tempers any enthusiasm about a run of 'winnable' games. Our strikers aren't particularly efficient and our team is not very creative, so I don't really feel like the way we play against the better teams gives us much encouragement for facing weaker opposition that play much more defensively.

It's about the bigger picture. 4 league wins since January 4th. Those league wins against teams placed at the time 20th, 18th, 17th and 14th. Also in that span 26 goals scored, 56 conceded. Club is heading one way and anyone pretending otherwise is deluded. It's happening this season or next unless a takeover happens and we get investment. I accepted earlier this month after Semmens initially gave us all hope in May investment might be coming. No-one is blameless - players can do better, Ralph can do better etc. but in the big picture the club cannot succeed in the Premier League in the current circumstances.

And get who? Club has been decaying for 5 years and desperately needs investment. Semmens was bullish about it in May and nothing has happened. I don't care who you have in charge the Premier League is a rich mans playground and we're the equivalent of the homeless man who sells off his most valuable item of clothing each year just to make sure he can live. It's not the 1-0 home defeats against Wolves that are the problem, its the fact we go backwards every summer which mean we get closer and closer to relegation.

It does have an impact, but it happens to all U23 and U18 teams so isn't a difference maker. Our coaching and talent is clearly a problem. Don't score goals, concede too many, and play badly as well. It's just rotten. EDIT: I do think we have some talented players, but no more than a handful and the moment they are injured or are training with the first team the lack of depth, and lack of quality of depth, really exposes us and we're whipping boys.

B Team playing WBA at home and two down at HT. Conceded the first after 2mins, and the second on the stroke of HT. Something is going catastrophically wrong and given how blunt Crocker was in the summer about fixing it whatever has been attempted hasn't worked.

Yeah not great but this is one of my fondest away days: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_div_1/7565074.stm Svensson and the kids playing a team off the park - was never going to end well over the course of a season but very satisfying to see our youth players do so well and have so many of them in the team.

Terrible at football though.

But as others said, he was spending a billionnaires money without a need to balance the books outside other regulations. It was easier to convince players to stay when you had the money to back up the ambition - either by new signings or new contracts.

Any idea what the PA of Small and Livramento will be in the upcoming seasons DB? Assume they are still set by the Everton and Chelsea researchers respectively regardless?

When it comes to keepers the best way to judge someone is if they'd start for another team in your division. Would McCarthy? Not for me.

His threatening words after West Ham last season appear to either indicate he's incapable of addressing the issue despite recognising it or the players aren't reacting to his coaching. Either way it reflects badly on on him. A reminder:

We don't know what Salisu's ceiling is, I am pretty sure we now experience Bednarek's - the issue is our team is so chaotic that we need very good centre halves to deal with all thrown their way and when we don't we concede the amount of goals we did last season. I feel sorry for our CB's in some respects, but in others you always get the feeling that a very good CB would make a world of difference.

When it comes to throw ins I think it would be less painful for all if we just agreed to throw it straight to the opposition and get on with things rather than wait 20 seconds and do it anyway after some half arsed attempt at movement and keeping possession from them.

Nat Phillips not in Liverpool training pictures today...

Sell all day long. We'll miss his passing out of the back more than we will his defending. Considering he's got a year left on his deal and wasn't going to sign a new deal, to end up being able to replace him with someone of not far off the same quality and have that player for the next 4 - 5 years is a good move for us. The emergence of Salisu has helped this to happen too.

On the basis Kepa remains their #2, I assume not.