Hodgey

Fair result - I thought we played ok. We are not fit enough and mentally unsurprisingly we don’t have any belief. But Hoet played well again (and I’m not a general fan), Gabbi was excellent first half but tired second. Redmond non existent first but much better second. McArthy excellent and kept us in it first 20, Armstrong finally playing as a non10 looked promising but was hit and miss, Lemina also good. This lot are going to struggle to stay up. Irrelevant of manager, they have lost belief that can only come with some wins. So my only complaint on Hughes, and an unforgivable one, is to get them fitter, Chatting to Watford fans on way back - their opinion was that if we had gone for it after 1-0 we would have won, but sitting back helped them. To be honest not my view of the game but thought I’d share.

Glad it’s away given they’ve won more games at st marys than us since Nov ! Wouldn’t surprise me if we won this. Given we’ll have our arses well and truly handed to us against Man City even if we play well we may as well give this a proper go. Think we’ll see JWP, Armstrong, Gunn and Targett for this one. He needs to keep Hoet and Stephens together though - looks like they are building something which is a positive.

I’d be playing him too if we carry on with this formation. Think the only reason Moi is playing is the price tag, he clearly is no better than JWP at the moment and his set pieces are much worse (and they can be the difference)

Or a Villa - they had a good 3 seasons in the doldrums with Lambert, McLeish, Sherwood and their version of Mo Pe - Remi Garde. Like Sunderland (and inevitably us) they had no leaders and just spiralled into a downwards momentum. It would take a gigantic turn of momentum for us to avoid following suit - and we don’t have the leadership for that. Think we have a fair few years of this until things bottom out and we can start again (hopefully not going down to div1 this time).

This’ll be 2-0, Hazard and then a later one from Giroud to put it to bed. They are a good team in form, we are an average team out of form. Newcastle is the key game - Hughes needs to pick his best team here so they build up an understanding for the bigger 6 pointers.

Be a good signing Cahill. The player we tried to get with Hoet and then tried again with Vest. He can do a job for a couple of years whilst we see if the other two (or more likely Bed and Stephens) improve.

Redmond is a more exciting player to watch - but surely nobody can argue that he contributes more assists or goals than JWP - he doesn’t. I agree he is playing better this year, but no end product - he totally disappeared when the going got tough on Monday. There is an argument to sell both - then again we’d buy a Boufal (worse), Ramirez (worse) or Moi (jury out) if we sold either given our totally incompetent scouting team so what’s the point ?. Personally I think we are a better team when JWP plays right mid - Hughes disagrees but then again Moi and Redmond have contributed the sum total of zero so far. Hopefully they end up firing but I have my reservations

Brighton were abysmal in the 1st half and we should have put them away. They could only improve and frankly bossed the 2nd half. Hughes culpable for subs - that was turning into a frantic Championship game and you needed people to get stuck in. Gabbi upfront by himself with JWP, Davis and Redmond supporting 3 let Brighton’s back line push up and win everything. We needed Rom, Yoshi and Gallagher on to battle our way back. Positives is that we do look like a much better side than last season for the odd half - but have a very weak mentality. Who would you want ‘in the trenches’ from that lot ?

hmm - Reckless driving that could have led to loss of life, weaselling out of any responsibility, failing to turn up, using his money to get himself out of trouble. And our young supporters are supposed to look up to this are they ?. Meanwhile Beckham is up to similar antics. At least Ant McP admitted the issue and had remorse. And some people think these overpaid morons can do absolutely no wrong. Frankly I’d be happy to see him out of the club (not just for this - but he clearly cares little about Saints or Southampton) Makes me laugh that Hoijberg gets absolutely slated on national media for diving (which I don’t condone) yet this dispicable behaviour will barely be noticed.

I’ve mentioned on another thread that imo Wilson is nowhere near up to the task. For some reason the club think he is some kind of young wiz kid yet his transfer and contract results are frankly awful. He’s even managed to get promoted in that period !. At least Les was associated with success previously. Like you say he has managed to p&ss £300m up the wall...there is a reason nobody wants any of our players (bar Tadic who we basically gave away in today’s market prices). Can’t see him going anywhere though, maybe we can promote him again to some kind of toothless role and find a proper head of scouting.

He's not beyond hope but there are fundamental issues - equally for those lording Vest we should be careful as I remember after 2 games people saying Hoet looked class !. The bottom line is good CBs are very hard to find but vitally important to a good team (we went down to my mind as we never replaced Svensson). The issue I (and others I think) have with him is not just the silly mistakes that have increasingly come into his game - that can be resolved, but there are more fundamental issues - overplaying at the back leading to reckless tackles, little strength, not great in the air, no pace. Generally the best teams have one 'marker' and one 'coverer' - the skill set for the marker should be a big powerful lump who is always in the way and hard to get past, the cover should be good on the ball, quick with good anticipation (rarely you get both - ie Alderwereld and VVD). I just don't know where Hoet fits in this - he definately isn't cover - and seems to be poor as marker even though you would hope that would be his strength (back end of last season about 3 times a fwd powered in a header and Hoet was left doing some kind of odd chicken impression where he had been toppled over). As such I can't see any future for him (in this league) aside from emergency cover - and I think we have equally below-average (and cheaper / more likely to improve) cases in Bed and Stephens. Hope I'm wrong (also hope I don't see anymore chicken impressions). Can't comment on the attitude thing - all I can say is if in any way true at all he must have more front that Brighton given his performances to date.

If Shane Long and Steven Davis play 'many many' games for us this year we will be in trouble. I'm hoping Hughes has just said this to keep them motivated - it's not his fault he's got a load of dead wood on £50k plus a week - but you're never going to sell that, or even loan them at those wages - only top or Premier teams pay that money and none of those will be interested.

He gets a bit more grace for me - turning around 2 years of turgid rubbish will not happen overnight. That said I’m concerned that we are lowering possession and passing stats without increasing goals or chances. The world has moved on from possession at all costs football, but is this team more exciting and attacking ? After £50m net investment I think we are entitled to judge those metrics come Dec.

I went today - appreciate Hants had nothing to plays for - but losing is a habit and I fear for their l1 future. Roussow has an attention issue as does Vince, Northeast looks average but not a matchwinner, Alsop and Weatherly are div 2 players, the bowling aside from Steryn looks terribly average. I know you can’t equate t20 with 4 days but I really cannot see this lot licking their way out of trouble for a 3rd year

I’ve got very low expectations - I think the squad is relegation material but think Hughes has enough about him to keep us up - 16th. On the flip side I’m hoping my pessimism will bring joy when we do better than that and maybe even have another cup run or famous win vs top 6... Problem is we need to somehow get some good youth coming through, ship out the bloated squad and get a new head of scouting. Thatll take time so we may need to accept a few years of struggle

Something more than university, Scottish league one and league one. Give a bloke who has never dealt with million pound transfers £200m and what do you get ?. Look at our squad and you have your answer...although some may think the squad is good - in which case that opinion would be that he’s done a great job. Oh and all those long contracts to the likes of Forster, Long and Davis also on his watch..

My opinion is partly based on his very questionable experience to have such an important job. But mainly due to the fact he has overseen a dramatic fall in squad quality whilst spending all the money we got for selling our good players. Anyone think he is doing a good job ? - would love to hear a countering opinion.

This bloke is definitely part of the problem - way out of his depth and costing us as a club millions through his lack of talent. Fair play to him for chancing his way to this position, but any competent board would have stuck someone in above him by now to get the transfer/contract dealings to where they need to be. Very worrying with the uncertainty around our new owner and investment. I’d love to know what the strategy actually is - seems all over the shop and a load of waffle about the Southampton way - whatever that is. So what is this - we’ve finally realised that there are more talented players in all of Europe rather than just the UK ??

We won't be in for a striker unless we sell - we already have Gabbi / Austin / Long / Carrillo and Gallagher. We've spent £50m+ on that lot and they must be on a combined salary of £350k a week - so that's another £18m a year liability. Meantime we only have one striker birth. Frankly unless we can get rid of two of those strikers there is no chance of us buying another hence why we are not linked with any forwards. Think it is pretty clear that Gao will cap salary and start transfers at £0 so he can start servicing debt - so we need to sell before we buy. Given our high wage bill and bloated squad this actually isn't the end of the world (in regards the ambition to be a mid-table Prem club with some good cup runs). However - it does mean we need to be strong in negotiations and smart with contracts - something we clearly haven't been over the past few years (ref: Fraser / Carrillo / Boufal / Hoet and if true the wages of Gallagher/Stephens/Targett etc). Problem is those who have made those decisions are still making them....

Taylor was on standby to sign in case the other 4 keepers got injured and was cracking jokes to keep spirits up. Ross missed out as he was buying a much more expensive card which unfortunately turned out to be an engagement card. Austin had a broken wrist and Redmond was moaning about the state of the pen ruining his brilliant autograph.

still think he’ll end up a good PL players - despite issues with pace and strength. Reminds me a bit of Matt Oakley - who seemed to progress slowly but ended up a decent player. What do people want ? Is the suggestion we sell him and get someone else ? Can’t really see us getting an upgrade if son- in fact the opposite. Personally think he is a good right midfielder / emergency right back.

I get the impression that Kruger - like us - hasn’t the first clue what Gao wants, that’s why he was so unusually uptight about the questions. He’s a chairman trying to maintain a status quo from Katrina without knowing what he is supposed to be doing. Got his classic USA business interest quote in (what happened to our USA academies by the way?) which will clearly come to nothing. He’s got nothing to offer, but doesn’t know what to do - so rather than waffle around a direction we clearly haven’t achieved he’s giving us waffle about guesswork. All very concerning - he can’t even committ to Gao concentrating on saints F.C. - at best that was lip service - Gao clearly isn’t that concerned which is very odd....

We really need a new head of scouting. The deeply unimpressive Ross and our clear lack of black box means we are relying on Hughes - no idea what influence he had at Stoke but their transfer dealings were worse than ours. Time to fish for the best of the Championship - let’s face it the fact 3 teams stayed up suggests it is the way to go.

Really not sure about Promes - could be another Boufal. We need a solid cb as a priority as none of ours are good enough. Mawson is a good shout. Hoet sold - nowhere near good enough, same with Stephens but you could keep one, like the look of Bednerak think he could improve. Forster out, Long needs to go - as does Gabbi. I’d be keen to take a punt on the best of the champs rather than a billy big bolllox on the bench for a big team.

And whilst I’m at it - Hoet is nowhere near good enough at this or Champs level. I shudder at the he thought of him, Stephens and Bedenark (who is the best of those 3) at Swansea....