Hodgey

So we’re now blaming our genuinely proven Prem players for our terrible season. JWP is ‘immobile’ (please look that word up in the dictionary) and KWP has no end product. Dear oh dear. I’ll give you neither have reached previous highs but they were still the better players this year (and in my opinion managed badly)

Reminds me of last year a lot. If our openers fire we are extremely hard to beat as our experienced bowlers have enough about them, but on paper the rest of the batting looks decidedly average if they don’t, and not particularly explosive (eg Somerset). Then again last year was the same but more often than not the openers did fire and the others tended to do just enough between them to get over the line. Crane is an odd one, he does get wickets but is very expensive and can’t bat. I guess we thought we’d have Howells playing instead. I continue to like what I see of Currie, he seems to have replaced the injured Wheal well. I think we’ll have just enough to sneak into the next round and then as we’ve seen it’s anyone’s.

If any of our talented players are off, I don’t want any loan dealings with Italian sides - they’ve got our number. Has happened so many times ‘we’ll loan them for a season and then pay £50m to buy’ only to then send them back after barely playing or only offer £10m. Cash deal only please. All that said the jury is still out on Sulimana, he had a decent amount of game time and only occasionally showed any real attacking talent, he probably needs a season in the championship for his own development although not sure he’ll suit a possession based game. Juventus won’t tolerate many poor performances that’s for sure.

Batting wise they are just a class apart, we were a good 15 runs short of what we needed to put real pressure on them. We need a player with variety for the bowling - ironically we signed one but looks like he’s going to be out injured for most of it ! like last year, if we’re going to win it we’ll need someone else to knock them out…

Load of excuses really, I’d rather not hear from them about football at all - just ‘we made mistakes - now we will let people who understand football make football decisions and we’ll make life easy for them through funding’. I don’t really want to hear their opinions on football as I’ve seen for myself what happens when they get involved - I’m actually slightly worried hearing things like they will get closer. Good that they are still committed and I guess at least they are talking to the press about mistakes, but it’s odd timing to say the least when everyone is expecting a manager announcement.

They varied the bowling in the last 6 overs and pulled it back - I thought they lost the plot a bit when they had Whiteley bowling but then started varying the length. If our openers get in we look like a good batting team - the issue is when they get our cheaply. Was good to see Fuller back.

This looks like another defeat for me - too many players off form. Middlesex on for 180 plus

Is it ? Isn’t this most of the team that won it last year. Don’t forget we were utterly useless the first 5 games last year. We are truly dreadful starters.

Don’t forget Lavia’s fee will be 20pc less as that goes to City. Realistically those two will be c £70-80m. Even with the 40pc cut our bloated squad will carry a huge wage bill. Then there is the c £7m interest on that £75m loan we’re still carrying, and how much are we still paying off Ralph/Jones/staff ?. Add all that to the £250m net spend from Dragon. I would have thought the transfer budget will be anything made above £100m to service some of that, certainly that would be the sensible move. You’d hope we would find another £75m from Salisu / ABK / Osric / Adams / Perraud / Tella giving a budget of c £50m to rebuild what would be a weak squad once all those left. As you say SR will realise the need to invest to mount a promotion challenge but if we do this right we can remove debt, invest, and have a squad that aligns to Martins needs. (*doing it right hasn’t been SR strong point so far)

Maybe, but the news Leicester may be interested I think made us hurry. That and I think SR want to make a public statement end of season that they have Wilcox / Martin / Mowbray all in position early and can talk of their new strategy. I think there may have been other interviews in the same way there was when we appointed Jones (Ie clear favourite)

Looks like a long term appointment - ie a 3 yr plan to get back up rather than bust a gut to bounce back next year. Martin tends to start slow, and multiply that by the state of our squad / mentality / new style I can see a pretty disasterous start. So after 15 games when we are nowhere near the play offs will the fans / board be patient ?, especially as we’ll probably be leaking more goals than ever. It must increase our chances of getting Piroe which is a massive bonus given we have to find a striker (he plays a lone striker). And hopefully we’ll see improvement so people will give him a chance. Also needs to be backed with technical ball playing footballers if he wants that style - once KWP/Lavia/JWP leave we have precious few of them left. Ironically I could see Osric liking this style - but that ship has probably sailed. We also need defenders comfortable with the ball - Stephens could fit, maybe even Lyanco. I’ve read his key position is a def mid who can effortlessly fit into centre back - our one of these is off so they absolutely need to nail that. All in all I’m not feeling the same dread as when Jones or Selles was appointed. There is a clear strategy here that makes sense, it’s definitely more risky short term and I think those expecting us to be a top championship team next year from the off are not going to be happy.

We do seem to be completely obsessed by City and their youth. There is zero evidence anyone working within a youth setup can adjust quickly to 1st team duties - it’s a massive risk as we have found out. It’s like the thought process is that City are amazing, we can’t get any of their senior people so we’ll try the ones we can. when you think about it - we are soon to be basing our entire club restructure on someone who has absolutely no experience of doing this at that level. that sounds very familiar with this board. Not sure they will ever learn - hope the risk pays off

Yep Bazuna winning due to Skates. Shame as that will distract from the Aribo protest vote (which I also did). hopefully Echo realise the amount of PO IPs so Lavia gets his dues - be nice for the lad.

Interesting changes at Hampshire. Crane comes in for Fuller so 2 spinners and Turner replaces Abbot as the quick. Meanwhile Donald goes out on loan. Decent start from the openers again, be interesting if the pitch does deteriorate and we have 2 spinners for the final innings.

This is fair question, but how do you know ? How do you know what he has or hasn’t done to try and raise standards ? Who in our squad would you have replaced him with as captain to do these things you talk of ?, do you honestly believe if we had a different captain we would have performed any better ? Again who ? I’m looking at the other 10 players who have played every week - just because they are not captain doesn’t mean they can’t call others out etc, why was it just JWPs job ?. He cannot be the manager, coach, psychologist. Motivator, creator, organiser, Captain, mentor etc. I agree JWP has failed miserably if his job is to do all these things for the 30 odd useless lumps we have. Is he really any worse than Hoijberg was as captain ? And this is what is making me angry - his legacy to some is the worst captain playing in the worst team in our PL history who could only play the ball backwards and sideways. Never mind the context, never mind all the fantastic moments he provided, never mind the 400 appearances where he gave it his all, never mind the c 50 goals scored, never mind all the chances created, never mind all the stats which put him as one of the most effective midfielders in the top flight, never mind the fact he pretty much single handedly kept us up last year. Like I say - emotions are raw, but does JWP really deserve all this criticism in the cold light of day ?.

I do get some of the comments here - going down is raw and inevitably people look for someone to blame. But JWP the reason we’re down, really ? I don’t understand the criticism of his interview - he’s right - standards have slipped, but do people really think a captain can sort those problems, he’s not the manager, he’s not the coach, hes not the director of football, he’s not the person who brought these awful players in who are mentally weaker than before (if that’s possible) Maybe he isn’t the best captain, but as someone else said - who else ? I mean Lyanco has been suggested, I’m not disparaging that suggestion as he clearly cares, but let that sink in as a best alternative, JWP is a shit captain - let’s give it to Lyanco ???. Then think of JWPs job - who in that dressing room would help him, be his deputies ?? . He’s had zero support, everyone around him has made his job as captain harder. Meanwhile, as evident on here, the pressure for him to also be the sole creative and defensive force of the club increased. Expectation on him from some is utterly ridiculous. I hope when he goes, and when people calm down, he is recognised for what he gave over 20 years and 400 appearances and is given the accolades he deserves. I still remember the ridiculous comments of some happy to see Romeu gone as ‘his legs had gone, he was too slow etc etc’. Turns out he was still a very good player, just being dragged down by the utter circus that saints was starting to become. A circus that got much worse and which somehow now means that a player who we should be at least deeply respectful of, will leave with the legacy of many as a key reason for our demise and a note of ‘good riddance - you won’t be missed’ what a shambles our entire club is

I’d have thought both Dean Smith and Chris Wilder would be on the list. The reality is that Potter or Cooper aside there are no obvious candidates (of course we’ve gifted Forest 6 pts to stop any chance of the latter). It’s going to be a risk with someone with success and no experience, or someone who had success at that level followed by failure. I think it’s dawning on everyone what a monumental task we have ahead of us. Expectations will be interesting - we’ll talk up winning it but I think play offs and a strong end to the season is more realistic (wouldn’t surprise me if we do a Coventry). on the plus side you’d hope Ankerson will not underestimate this league given he talks it up all the time.

I mean these are not stats I’ve made up - they are from The Athletic, I guess they could have made them up, but they seem about right to me. fair point if he’s played more games, but then the fact he can play 90m every game is surely an advantage. some people see him as a free kick luxury player, I see him as much more than that ,from what I see as well as stats. that said this hasn’t been his best season, but he’s still clearly been one of our better players. Heaven help his replacement with some of the critics on here…let’s hope he is the top goalscorer two years running and makes more tackles/interceptions/chances etc

Some people see things differently I suppose - but stats wise (from the athletic) Ward-Prowse is as close to a one-player team as you can get. He is Southampton’s can-do man, invariably topping most statistics across attacking and defending. He has played the most minutes (3,105), scored the most goals (eight), registered the highest xGA (6.0), completed the most passes (1606) and crosses (235), recorded the most shot-creating (120) and goal-creating actions (eight) and made the most tackles (58), ball recoveries (209) and interceptions (49). Really not sure what people expect of a midfielder in our team !!

Got to say Middleton has made a very impressive start in a difficult role, hopefully Weatherly is a bit more experienced now to hold down an opener role. I watched Middletons dad open for Hampshire too ! Solid batting start, bowlers don’t look up to much but you can only face what’s in front of you.

Those stats are damning. From spending £145m net on garbage, to appointing a manager who only used one side of the pitch, to creating little and giving opponents too many chances, to score less and concede more than expected for each. then losing over half of all duels defensively, and having a horribly right footed attack (4 of the 26 goals scored from left foot) - something I’ve long bemoaned (how professional players can’t use both feet is beyond me) but seemingly our coaches can’t change. the only stat that surprised me was that almost 40pc of our passes were forwards.

He needs a spell in the B team to get some runs, not convinced he’ll ever be an opener but has talent. Weatherly may be next in line although Holland may be pushed back up there. Not sure any of those moves make us any stronger at opening though

Jwp won’t be there, and id be surprised if ABK is either. Take them out of that team and it doesn’t look strong. Also far too small and weak and I agree there are not enough goals there. Of that team I’d say only Tino, Alcarez and maybe Bednerak are top of the table challengers They need to keep Adams ideally or buy Gyorkes. And they need to find two big strong midfielders and centre half. Probably need a first choice left back too. I think we are going to be most unpleasantly surprised at the strength of the championship compared to what’s left of our squad. Still an exciting time if we build correctly with a well chosen manager.

Interesting to see the thoughts of people here. For me they have done a terrible job, irrelevant of the context which is fair (lack of investment, club was on a downwards spiral). I’m more interested why people think Wilcox can make solid managerial / recruitment decisions ?. Im not seeing any experience there (aside from youth teams) but I’m not clued up so interested to hear why people have confidence he can pull us around ? - is this based on results ? Gut feeling ? Info I’m not aware of ?

Really struggle to build big first innings. All these missed batting points will add up. Bowling attack weaker too without Barker. I see Albert scored 300 runs for the 2nd, maybe he deserved a chance.