Hodgey

Our players are so mentally weak. At least Hughes appt has made them physically better. The players we have are an awful mix mentally - whatever happens we need a major overhaul of that squad mentally. Hughes will have earnt his £2m if he can keep this mob up

Looking at his record - Hughes has never been an instant impact manager - needs a handful of games to get the team in shape. Makes our boards late decision even more negligent.....Hughes had been available for a while. If he’ll stay - we should keep him next season.

West Ham - 3 pts we arguably shouldn’t have got. So owed one lucky ref win still in my book

I hate to say it - but there are some people with short memories on here of the champ if they think the likes of Reed, McQueen, Sims, Valery and Gallagher are good enough for anything other than another relegation battle. There are some decent players in that league (better than the ones we have currently got in some cases)

I’m amazed anyone on here think the fans can sway Les - if that was the case how can you explain MoPe ?. If the fans were right or wrong that is irrelevant - our board are paid to make the right decision for their owners not the fans. The decision to fire him and replace him with MoPe was a bad one, but to be clear the fans had zero input to it so bickering on here on who was right or wrong seems a bit pointiessc(but would delight les and the board no doubt)

Think Gao will be looking to recoup £50m and anything more to invest back into the squad. Assume we will get £90m from Berty, Gabbiadini, Tadic, Targett, cedric, Boufal, JWP and Lemina that gives a budget of £40m. Issue is that leaves something like this Gk : Forster McC - decent Df : Valery, Bednatek, Stephens, Yoshi, McQueen - lg 1 Mid: Rom, Claise,Redmond, Simms, Davis, Reed - mid champ Fwd: Long, Austin, donkey, Gallagher - decent Would £40m get that defence and mid up to top 6 standard ??? - you would need a very strong window.

And that’s the problem John B. We are arrogant enough to think we are better than others due to our black box, when the reality is since Ross joined we are in fact terrible in this area. Then we are even more arrogant in thinking sometimes we don’t need to replace players at all, and somehow a reserve will miraculously be as good. We deserve to go down and will. We can go back up if we keep Hughes and let him have a big say in transfer dealings but we need a big change at the top (bye Ross and Les) for that to happen.

For research I decided to look up Ross Wilson on LinkedIn - amazingly he is there. He brags on his profile about making huge player profits at Falkirk and Udders whilst they were brilliant etc - funnily enough he doesn’t make any such claims for his current position. Aside from being odd that he feels the need to have a LinkedIn profile a couple of things jumped out at me. Firstly he has zero playing experience, his career is match reports, player liaison (no idea) and then chief scout for small clubs. At the age of 30 and with that experience he has managed to blow the largest budget outside the top 6 on, let’s face it, tripe. This isn’t a post to slag him off - i’d be the same and be loving the power of spending £150m. But he is totally out of his depth and should never have been appointed at that level so soon - hasn’t he actually been promoted as well since ?. Secondly this is Mo Pe/Po all over again. Young and cheap - check, done a good job for a league 1 side - check. But we appointed Mitchell in the Champ, Mitchell has a wealth of experience as a player - there is just no due diligence going on - it’s major appointments by coincidence. I looked up a couple of articles on him when he was still riding Mitchell’s coat tail. There he is bragging how scouting Van Dijk wasn’t rocket science (of course not - you didn’t do it) and how he had a list of 20 players they looked at for not just skill but personality, drive and fitting in. I’d love another interview now please for him to explain the last two years. This club is in dire straights - I can imagine what the wizened old scouting network make of this young chances calling the shots..,

We now have to pick up points in two very difficult games - Arsenal and Chelsea or we could be 6 points adrift. And that means (as a certain member has pointed out once or twice) that we need to do something we haven't in 700 days - beat a top 6 side. I think we will need 35 points as an absolute minimum - no way will Udders only pick up 2 points in their next 6 - they will beat either/both Everton/Watford who have nothing to play for (I reckon 4 points from that haul). Come season end we will look back on our two draws with Udders as all defining. Also everyone has us down as beating Bompey - I'm really not convinced we have the mental strength to do that - they will play with absolute freedom and will relish the chance to send us down. Funnily enough I think if we get to a place where we need to beat City we will as we would have some momentum (I admit that there is also a history repeating situation where we go down at home to Manchester based champions with nothing to pay for again) - I just don't think we will get in that position.

This is time for in the trenches players - so that immediately means Redmond, Tadic , Gabbiadini, Boufal and Hoet are out - all mentally weak. After that you need to stop the goals against given we are clearly not suddenly going to be free scoring - so 2 defensive midfielders as a minimum. No point playing 2 up front for no other reason than we don’t have two decent cfs. Set pieces will be our best route to goals so work on that so they at least don’t mean we concede at the other end. That gives you something like McCarthy Cedric Yoshida Stephens Bertrand Rom Davis JWP Lemina McQueen Austin No they won’t stay up (Stephens, Cedric and McQueen not good enough, Davis and Austin too knackered) but at least they’ll put up a fight. Sims off the bench at 65 for a bit of pace.

I don’t get MoPe at all. When I saw the team sheet it made sense - Carrillo is supposed to be good in the air - so get quick wingers bombing against their slow defence and give him something to attack - to those who watched the game (I couldn’t) did that happen ? Looking at the 1st half stats either it didn’t or the crosses went nowhere near Carrillo. I get the impression that MoPe thinks that possession will win games - which is why he hates losing a midfielder as it naturally makes it harder to retain the ball. What I don’t get is why this far into the season he hasn’t twigged that it doesn’t work. We’re in a total mess now - ironically the only home game I can see us winning is City - but it may be too late by then. Means we will need to win one or two away from home - Swans and West Ham games we cannot lose. Still don’t think he has the first clue who he should play and where in attack. At the moment seems to be Carrillo, Tadic and Redmond (although he wants to play the latter two on the wrong wings). Think JWP was harshly treated - was the one player making things happen and had one bad game and dropped. Tadic and Redmond back in favour for no apparent reason.. yes Redmond has played better last 2 games - but hardly set the world alight. As for Tadic - he still hasn’t found out what any saints fan has know for 2 seasons. Play him on the left or don’t play him at all.

Quite surprised some are considering dropping JWP. Think he has been involved in pretty much half our goals so far this year !

I’d play the 1st team - tell them this is a free hit so play with freedom and attack - with recent events at WBA, and the fact they will not be prioritising this, it is a chance to build some confidence. Performances post Watford and Fulham suggest this makes a difference. It would frankly be mad to do anything else (I get the injury argument - but I can’t recall a saints team doing well after 2 weeks off)

On the which players would you have from relegation rivals question. Well any of their cbs and gk for a start - id also take Murray, Crouch, Abraham, Ayew and Mounie instead of our strikers (bar Austin). Which perhaps explains why we don’t score enough and concede too many. Rest of the team are decent - but then i’d also swop our manager with any Prem rival (and top 10 champs)

It’s all utterly bizarre. He’s obviously a nice bloke and in his head is playing exciting possession football - but he’s easily the weakest manager in the Prem and will take us down. It would take a monumental attitude shift for us to stay up - my only hope is that Austin will come back from injury as he’s the kind of angry player who would give a damn - but with his 20mil mate and 1 upfront even if fit he’s only going to come on for 20m and Austin isn’t an impact player. We need to sack him now - but we won’t. Being honest I’m more concerned that we will keep him even if we go down - logic has long gone out of the window here so I wouldn’t rule out another lost season next year with someone coming in Christmas time to save us from going down again. Real shame to throw away 5 yrs work like this....

Do they mean made a prem appearance this season ? Ward Prowse Stephens ? McQueen Targett Obefemi Gazzaniga ?

So for me it's 3 buckets. bucket 1 would leave, bucket 2 would stay as they are not good enough for Prem / cheaper equivalent options, bucket 3 would be capable for the Champ 1) Players who Prem/bigger teams would want - Boufal, Tadic, Gabiaddini, Lemina, Austin, Bertrand, Cedric, JWP, Romeu (probably get c £130m for that lot so Gao will be able to clear his debts) 2) Players we'd like to get rid of (high wages / lower ability) but nobody would want - Davis, Long, Forster, Claise, Hoet, Redmond, Carillo (before anyone starts - this assumes he has no effect on our team hence why we are going down and MoPe is fired, if he proves capable then hopefully we'll stay up anyway). Gardos, Pied and Taylor would be in this bucket but I'm assuming their contracts will not be renewed (although with our lot who knows) 3) Everyone else - including loanee returns So with that we would be looking at something like the below - so we would pretty much need to replace our flanks McCarthy New/Valery Stephens Hoet McQueen Redmond Davis Hoijberg Simms/New Carillo Long Subs from: Targett, Forster, Yoshi, Bedenark, Gallagher, Reed, Claise, other nippers The fact there are so many players in bucket 1 speaks volumes for how much we have messed this up....Also wouldn't be surprised if Stephens is targeted if he keeps playing / scoring

Well done MoPe - good line up and getting the team used to playing with each other - is that the second time this season we’ve had the same back 5 in consecutive games ??. Winning breeds confidence and this is a great chance with much less pressure

Play strongest team so they can build momentum and partnerships. This is not the time for messing around and resting players - didn’t do Hughes much good at Stoke did it ?. Win on sat and it’s suddenly 1 loss in 6, plus an actual home win to get the fans onside. I went to Fulham - we could have played a reserve side there but we didn’t, JWP grew in confidence and it almost launched us onto a great win at Watford.

So when Silva became Hull manager last January he up ended taking them down but with a record of 8 wins 3 draws and 11 losses - basically he couldn't undo the terrible starting position. If he could replicate that then we would be safe by some margin. There is certainly evidence that he hits teams running - his record overall is extremely good apart from Watford - but even that started with a bang. Seems a no brainer to me - can re-evaluate in the Summer - assuming he keeps us up (which on those facts looks likely) even if we decide to go a different direction in the summer both parties win....

Hmm lots of safe square balls, unnecessary second touch of the ball and passes back to the keeper - wonder where he learnt that.

He may be excellent - but he’s not going to hit the ground running, and I doubt he’ll last 90m until he plays a few games. Got to hope that by late Feb when we have some crucial fixtures he is up to speed. Our record on buying understudies for class players abroad isn’t great though. Also for me means MoPe is staying which is a much greater concern. Is this fella going to give the players and fans the lift clearly needed ? Let’s hope so...

Some odd comments. On the way back now - support was excellent and it was a good day out. We beat a decent team away from home but frankly this looked out level. Should have won by 2 goals but again some dreadful finishing. I was worried by Bedenak but he actually played well against Fulhans supposed best player (who was very quiet). Slightly confused by the booing of the Hoijberg for Lemina sub - yes he was playing well ( But not brilliant) but it was a like for like sub and you could argue it makes sense to save energy for Watford. Agree that he def and Aron looked untroubled but we were so ultra defensive against inferior opposition that should be a given. Long and gab I didn't look like scoring which is a bigger concern. Good win but we will go down if MOPe stays

Mistake we made is buying Hoet and that Polish fella - pooling that cash / wages to buy a better cb would have been the thing to do. We now need to do this anyway and will have 3 average and one poor cb alongside which is too many. Also playing the same pairing for a few games may help their play.

Merry Christmas all - day to forget about football for me - thankfully unlike in the usa Saints can't put me in a bad mood today (they and England can do that tomorrow !).