HarvSFC

Stewart - £10m Onuachu - £18m Sulemana - £22m Brereton-Diaz - £7m Archer - £15m Total - £72m Next learning curve for SR, if they can't get their scouting right, is that signing a bunch of players at relatively small fees (for the Premier League) isn't a good plan. £20m doesn't get you much these days, as we're seeing. Bet we could have put all our eggs in one basket and got a good striker for £45m and still had change to spare. But, don't let Ankersen sign the £45m player. Only let the person who found Fernandes. Our best times were when we signed proven players from Europe - Van Dijk, Alderweireld, Tadic, Pelle, Wanyama, Lovren. Osvaldo had quality, he was just a bit of a nutcase. We then couldn't afford that calibre of player under Gao. But, now we can again, but for some reason we're trying to "breed" good players and turn average ones into good ones because they require lower wages. Well, you can't. When Forest came up they signed Gibbs-White for £42m and plenty of others. It looked a bit silly at the time, but now look how it's working out for them.

Where's his coaching staff?

Considering the goal we had disallowed against Wolves, how's pushing the goalkeeper not a foul?

We lost today due to a lack of quality, specifically in the areas that matter with the chances in the first half. But, it was a better watch than losing due to the manager's tactics setting us up to give possession away on the edge of our own area and giving up goals for fun, while not laying a glove on the opposition goalkeeper. We made Fabianski and Areola work today, when plenty of goalkeepers could have taken the day off against us under Martin. We were at least in the game until they scored, and could have potentially got an equaliser if Dibling played the ball to Onuachu near the end rather than taking the shot on. Juric has no ties to Armstrong and like Stephens and Smallbone, who Martin also loved he just isn't good enough for Premier League level. Hopefully he'll drop out of the eleven soon. Ugochukwu was very good today. I reckon Juric will love him, he showed the quality that made Chelsea sign him today. KWP was also back to his best now that he's allowed to carry the ball forward again, rather than constantly needing to tuck in and play the ball backwards. But, yeah, just need a bit more upfront. Surprised Archer didn't get any minutes. Notable omissions from the match squad being summer signings Taylor, Brereton-Diaz and Cornet. They might be heading for an early exit next month, while Edwards needs a loan out. SAA needs to be loaned out too and I think he's worth a subs spot here, but the managers disagree.

I was interested to see how Fofana did there, but he has been a bit of a disappointment. There is value in the January market still, with the right scouting. Last January Villa signed Morgan Rogers for £8m and Jhon Duran for £14.75m the January before (The same January we signed Sulemana and Onuachu). While Bournemouth also picked up Semenyo for £10m, again the same January where we spent bigger money on worse players. The key thing is though, is getting the scouting right.

Found the Alfie House Tweet: https://x.com/AlfieHouseEcho/status/1866123374168047776 - Russell Martin is currently still in charge and the expectancy is that he will be for Sunday, Staplewood is quiet because Sunday/Monday have been days off this year. All back in tomorrow so if that changes it would only be down to conversations they've had together. Bizarre.

I first picked up on the whole days off thing when Alfie House Tweeted that nobody would be at Staplewood for a couple of days as they all had Sunday's and Monday's off after a Saturday game, which I thought was odd, as it's rare for footballers to get two days off in a row in season, but passed it off as a modern thing. Then there was the whole build up to the Liverpool cup game, where I don't think we prepared for the game due to days off and now another one has popped up! It's well known that footballers don't get Christmas Day off with a Boxing Day game the next day, they may get a lighter session, but not a day off. No wonder we've looked unfit for large parts of the season. Martin was too interested in being Mr. Nice guy, I fear. He needed an Andy Crosby alongside him, like Adkins. Anyway, Dean Thornton has posted a picture with Gavin Bazunu in his training gear. I know it was rumoured months back that he could be in line for a January loan out and I think that would be the best for him.

Just needs Romeo done at the end of it.

It's going to be harder to criticise the club for trying to emulate Atalanta's philosophy. A club traditionally associated with lower mid-table Serie A with the occasional Serie B season who for a number of years now have disrupted the status quo in Italy, winning a Europa League, getting Champions League football and currently sitting top. They also play exciting, pressing football whenever I've seen Atalanta on TV. Rather, than Manchester City's, a side funded by a state, the richest club in the world who can go out and sign any player they want to fit their system. Now lets raid Atalanta for their behind the scenes staff, their version of Shields/Wilcox. 😉

I think that performance was what we expected the season to be. Little to no quality, but we did manage to ground out a point in a hard-fought draw. Something that Martin's teams were unable to do with this being our second clean sheet of the season, after just one week of Martin being gone might I add. Whenever the camera panned to Juric it looked like he was hating every minute, which I think can only be a good thing, if he's able to get us to be a bit more creative in the attacking third.

Not the most inspiring first half, but it is still 0-0, as opposed to last week when we were 5-0 down. Been looking for the high press, as it's been a much needed tactic that we've needed to go back to for a long while now, but I haven't seen it. Dibling, there's a lot of noise about him being a poor trainer/a bit too relaxed and today I'm not seeing anything from him off the ball. He's not even breaking into a jog and on the ball he's being trying to do too much today. Playing like an individual, rather than a team player and I don't think his off the ball work would be accepted at a bigger club. Adam Armstrong, we all knew he'd be poor, but again he's not even running off the ball today. Several phases of play where Leno's just been on the ball unpressured. Man United closed down Forster in midweek and got a goal from it. Put pressure on the goalkeeper, sometimes they pass it to forwards, as we've become all too accustomed to. I think the two players that would have impressed Juric so far are two Martin favourites. Downes and Wood. Downes has been putting himself about well, received a very harsh booking. Give him some more positional discipline and I think he'll suit Juric. While, Wood has looked good at centre-back once again, following a Holgateesque debut. I know the three centre-backs is also a Juric formation, but I think we need more bodies up the pitch for some control and we also need an out ball up the field.

Happy to see Ramsdale back in. Not so happy to see Adam Armstrong starting up top.

https://twitter.com/DMTkeepers/status/1178065486006890499 Saw this quote Tweeted today. Russell Martin's trusted goalkeeping coach from MK Dons, Swansea and here, so slightly awkward... Edit, still struggling to embed Tweets, so: For me hitting an area consistently in the opposition half is an art from the GK. Now every 1 believes they should pass 5 yards to the CB for a 20 pass move for a goal. Absolute nonsense

Negative result, but a lot of positives from tonight. There was a bigger picture to tonight also. An embarrassing performance and result may have put off any prospective manager's and after the first half I feared the worst. However, the second half was much improved and may have helped convince some that there is actually something to work with. I know a lot have written off this season and it is looking bleak, but isn't mathematically over yet and Hasenhuttl took over with one win in 15 and kept us up, so it isn't entirely impossible having played one game extra and any manager worth their salt may feel they can get a tune out of this side. Even so, the players showed they have fight tonight and there is a good mentality still within the side, rather than a broken one that you would expect from a side rooted to the bottom. Regarding the play in the second half, it was nice to see us put in early crosses to try and catch the opposition defence out. Too often over the past year we've avoided this tactic and attempted to pass it through the back line. KWP's a poor crosser, but Sugawara isn't and we need to utilise that skill, which we haven't as of yet. Football is also largely about momentum and the momentum is constantly changing in a game. Too often this season I've seen us fail to take advantage of a momentum shift, we don't keep the tempo up, we kill the game with slow passing between our defence and goalkeeper and instead invite pressure unnecessarily on our defence. Tonight, when the momentum was on our side, it was good to see us keep the tempo up and take the game to Liverpool, causing them issues, specifically with the good save from Kelleher after Archer's shot, the air shot from Onuachu in the box after an early Sulemana cross and the potential red card from Quansah. Many games this season we've failed to create chances and been feeding off scraps. Tonight we created at least three good chances with Archer adding to that with his well taken goal, which he did all by himself. If we go down, go down with performances like tonight, rather than the shit slow ball we've seen up till now.

Really nice goal that. Maybe there is a striker in there if we play to his strengths.

When we have the ball at the back, the opposition swarm us and force a mistake. Watch Archer when the opposition backline is playing it out. It's infuriating, might as well be playing with 10. He's marking space.

Logic would suggest you can't fix fitness during a season. However, they are elite athletes (believe it or not) and people have already brought the Adkins to Poch example. While, we've also seen the transition from Hughes to Hasenhuttl mid-season. It was well reported that training got a bit lax under Hughes and you could see it in the players on the pitch. I think there was a bit of noise around Ings at the time who went from Klopp's intense training sessions, to our relaxed version. Then Hasenhuttl came in and we went from 1 win 16 to beating Arsenal 3-2 in 11 days following his takeover. On the manager front, I shouldn't be surprised but still am that Sky are reporting that we weren't actively looking for a manager before Tottenham smashed us to bits. It shouldn't be true, but considering Wolves, who sacked O'Neil on the same day have all but confirmed their new manager, while there isn't anything really concrete for us yet suggests that it is. This is another slight on SR. We had 1 win in 15 before Sunday and had been thrashed by Chelsea they week before. They should have at least had a contingency plan. We used to be ahead of the game. Whether that was just Les Reed blowing smoke up his arse, I don't know. But he did run a very successful Southampton side for a handful of years. Meanwhile, under SR. We've seen no replacement for Nathan Jones, we saw Ankersen need to step in when Shields got picked up by Chelsea and had to wait for the following summer for Wilcox to takeover. Then, again, Wilcox' departure wasn't a surprise and we replaced him from within and it's now showing poorly. Still haven't replaced the set-piece coach. They thought they could go into a season with Alex McCarthy as number one, and then it became apparent after Newcastle, the first game that we couldn't and the January before last we really needed Onuachu and Sulemana in before the deadline day, if they were going to be any good. SR just always seem two steps too slow. On the names linked today, I'm not too thrilled with Corberan. Generally, I want us to avoid another Championship manager after the last two and go a bit more adventurous. Unearthing another Pochettino, or Iraola from Europe. Although, SR probably don't have the resources to identify one of those and we'll end up with another Pellegrino. But, I'm just not wowed by Corberan. A choice out of Corberan or Rohl and I'd go with Rohl because he's worked at bigger club sides and national sides than us previously. Similar to McKenna at Ipswich and got a Sheffield Wednesday side, who had the worst start to a season in Championship history to survival and now 9th in the league. While, Corberan has West Brom in 8th now and in the play-offs last season, they have only won two of our their last 14 in the league. He also flopped at Olympiakos after walking out on Huddersfield. How do you only win 2 out of 11 matches at Olympiakos?

Bournemouth had 29 shots this evening. Imagine that!

It's a shame the way it ended, as ultimately he did get us promoted and give us the great experience of West Brom and Leeds in the play-offs. However, there were also plenty of red flags during the last year, which were only magnified more in the Premier League this season, which are also quite disappointing. However, SR are also massively at fault. The thing that worries me about SR are the contracts. We're spending big money on transfer fees for a lot of players, but we aren't paying Premier League money in terms of wages. Since taking over we've seen Adams and Armstrong turn down new deals and walk away on frees. The same is currently happening with KWP and Dibling. Our successful youth team has also been decimated as we aren't matching other clubs. Doyle, Morgan, Miles, Gomes Rodriguez and even Dibling have all left the club, albeit we were lucky that Dibling couldn't settle at Chelsea and he came back. But, we couldn't even match Lyon in wages for Gomes Rodriguez. Then you have the summer. It has been well reported that Liam Delap was once again our main striker target, but Ipswich offered him more money than we were willing to. Matt O'Riley was also Martin's top transfer target, but we weren't willing to pay for him, instead choosing to spend the £25m it would have taken on Wood, Brereton-Diaz and Archer. I was impressed that the club managed to secure Downes quite early, although his fall off this season has been another issue. I was also very excited when we signed Ramsdale, albeit that was a bit of a panic signing when it was realised that McCarthy wasn't good enough to be the Premier League, another thing the fans knew months before the club realised. And, although it wasn't exciting at the time, Fernandes has proven to be a bit of a gem. Whoever discovered him needs to be made our chief recruiter. But, that's three signings from 13 that proved to be good, not including THB as he was an obligation. According to the BBC we spent £103m in the summer. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/c74lgnwepvvo We could've signed Ramsdale, O'Riley, Delap, Downes and a £20m+ plus centre-back who I don't know and I think our team would have been serviceable, with KWP, one of THB/Bednarek, Manning, Aribo, Dibling and possibly Edozie/Sulemana playing around them. Left wing was the hardest position to fill there, but we could have used a loan spot to cover that. The others can at least play in the Premier League. So, I think Martin can use the excuse that those at the top let him down a bit over the summer. However, with that said, I also think there's a Premier League team in there with Ramsdale, KWP, Fernandes and Dibling the four key players and play to the strengths of A. Armstrong, Archer or Onuachu up top. Armstrong and Archer thrive off time and space. Armstrong's runs are crap and more often than not he's offside, but he does need to be released early, like Archer and both are useless up top with their backs to goals, which Martin's tactics were forcing them to do. While we all also know Onuachu's strengths and how Martinball doesn't get the best out of those. So, he does also deserve a lot of criticism for not being more pragmatic with the team at his disposal, like he did in the play-offs. And with all that said and done, I really hope whichever team Martin goes to next can afford both Jack Stephens and Will Smallbone. May they never be guaranteed starters for Southampton Football Club ever again.

My expectations were low, but that was absolutely abysmal. From minute one. I said after the Chelsea game that our players don't look to make tackles, they back off and off and then the attacker finds themselves in our box and gets a shot at goal. It happened from minute one tonight. The fourth goal especially, watch how Udogie and Son just move up the pitch unchallenged before Sarr eases through the box. We're abysmal on the ball and we're fucking tragic off the ball. Hasenhuttl managed to pick up an unfit Saints side after Hughes mid-season and get them fit, while Pochettino made the Saints side he took over fitter in the season with his double training sessions, so it is still possible to get this side running again, but it is going to be one hell of a job. All those Martin defenders who said our squad isn't good enough. Our squad is better than Rangers' and they gave Spurs one hell of a game on Thursday evening, they were managed well and exploited their weaknesses during the game, but don't have the quality to see out a win. Martin's just spent the week blowing smoke up Ange's arse, while stating he won't deviate from his own methods. Sulemana was picked out of the tombola this week and didn't even get quarter of an hour! I'm just hoping and praying that Martin's gone before Smallbone and Stephens become available again, as things can actually get worse than this. This football's shit, everything about the club is below standards at the moment. Changes need to be made now, even if it is months too late... Better late than never.

Lots of empty seats at Brighton. This is supposed to be their big match.

Nothing preventing this being played at 12/12:30 today. Not even relegation will help with kick off times this time around with the new Sky+ matches for the Championship.

Aston Villa have kept two clean sheets in the league this season. You just have to actually get shots in against them.

What an ambitionless shadow of a club we have become. If Bournemouth, Brighton, Brentford can do it, then we can. But, we're so below standard in multiple areas.

He still has a few defenders on Twitter, far more than on here, who you would believe support Martin over the club. Their argument is that he'll be good for us next season in the Championship... We've played two Championship clubs this season, conceded 5 and needed two Bree wonder goals to get through them. They weren't automatic promotion sides Leeds or Sheffield United either, they were 21st placed Cardiff and 15th placed Stoke. We're going to have a weaker squad next season... Oh, and we finished 4th in a three horse race last season. Coming back up isn't a formality, look at Luton, who have stuck with Edwards and the same thing happened to us with Redknapp in 05-06.