Saint86

I for one would be interested to see how he gets on without suicidal defences playing in front of him. He's had two seasons with saints - one being the absolute car crash relegation from the prem (and when he was very inexperienced himself), and the other being Martin's transition and then total adoption of propaganda football.

Good post MLG!

This has been the case all along - although he was worn down by the end, certainly not helped by the time he worked under SR and the total train wreck they made of recruitment and the coaching side of things, plus the flack he had to face with the fans because of it.

I think that Solak is in control now and the influence of Rasmus and Kraft (obviously) has been seriously reduced. Solak made the decison to buy us under Ralph - and the more we've abandoned that style of play the worse we've been. I like Juric and i think he's got what it takes, but i have a reservation over whether his reputation / relationship with the fans will be too badly damaged by the summer... Imagine if we don't win another game... okay its not his squad, he didn't preside over the summer window etc. But are we happy if he gets less points the Martin for example? He could very much find himself on a sticky wicket with some of the fans by the summer - and that is no way to start a promotion campaign.

I was quite happily reading my way through Turkish and SOGs relationship drama and the hoover reviews without batting an eyelid.... until you provided a timely snap back to reality there Erwin! 🤣😂.

Doesn't include agents fees so i doubt very much that we've turned a proft. Also doesn't include costs associated with manager changes or other behind the scenes staff. Reality is that we're both hamstrung by new PSR rules (and so can't really compare to the likes of forest etc.), and by that covid loan. Like it or not, promotion was probably more important for the long term financial stability of the club more than it was about having to stay up - hence some of the buys like Woods/Edwards and preparing for another year in the champ. We've also had/have a bloated squad full of bad / inappropriate buys that has to be reset - likely at a loss (the likes of mara, abk, onuachu, bazunu etc).

I really do think we're going to go down with the record low points total - to the point where i have absolutely no doubts about it at the moment. I don't think we'll win another game all season - or if we do, it won't be until later on when other teams are essentially on holiday with nothing to play for. We simply don't score enough, our defence has more holes in that Henry's bucket, and the rest of the league is currently so even that everyone is up for 3 points vs dreadful little Southampton. Its actually got to the point where teams have to beat us because it would be embarrassing for them otherwise... As far as our squad is concerned, the belief and passion has gone, they look like they're essentially going through the motions each game - they'll have a go at attacking, but are ultimately waiting to concede or have a bad ref call against them, before their heads drop and we get beat. They've also got nothing to play for as relegation is assured. The grim fact is that most of them have already embarrassed themselves and terminally damaged their careers in so far as their premier league credentials are concerned - and they know it - and i also don't think there are enough leaders in that squad to make them seriously play for pride. Its a bloated squad with too many journeymen and a few ego players that just want out (and you can't even blame them). There are 2-3 you could say that actually genuinely seem to care and are appalled at what's happening. THB one of the most notable. Grim times. The club has had worse seasons off the pitch - but as far as on the pitch stuff goes, this season is unlikely to ever be topped. At least in the seasons to come we can remind future saints fans that things can always be worse ey?

A scar that many will never recover from? Come on mate behave with the hyperbole. This club almost went bust 15years ago, we had "save our saints buckets" all over the city, players' contracts were running out in the summer, and we were starting on - 10points. If it happens, it happens, but it would take a special level of victimhood to wear it as "a scar" that the club will never recover from. I think it much more likely that the club and fans would bounce back from it with a determination to not let it happen again and turn it into something good - that is much more in keeping with the club. See response to the 9-0 Leicester game, the response to league 1 - 10points, the response to the last relegation and our support last year and selling out season tickets this year. Saints never do anything by half measures - and that includes relegation from the top flight - we don't go down in 18th or 19th, we go down rooted to the bottom 😂🤣. A little less feeling sorry for ourselves please. Let's just get the season done and start looking bad building for the future and get some optimism and determination back into the club. It's also one of our strengths and weakness as a fanbase that we never over react to anything (good or bad). We stuffed Sunderland 8-0 and had Sunderland fans walking back to the station telling us off for being shit fans and not celebrating enough 😂🤣. We stood by ralph after that 9-0 vs Leicester etc. But similarly we don't demand enough from the team and players which differentiates us from larger clubs.

Not acceptable for the players to just drop their heads every time it starts to go against them. It's just disgusting and hugely disrespectful to the club and players. 3 games in a row now where they tekoarioy give up and concede goals in quick succession - fans need to start really getting on them, it just isn't acceptable.

Ah yes, you are right re his contract. Signed it Feb 23 through till 2026 initially. The kid is still only 18 turning 19, he will physically continue to develop and he's played half a season of senior football. It surely goes without question that he'll play more minutes for us in the championship than he will in the premier league for a more established side - That gives him the perfect opportunity to hone his skills and develop his physicality vs senior players. A year developing and building confidence, likely winning promotion will do wonders for a 19/20year olds development compared to squad minutes in the prem. Although he may equally get a tasty move abroad instead. Its all likely quite academic - if he won't sign a new contract he'll be sold this summer like as not. And if the club is in turmoil on and off the pitch he's far less likely to stick around.

Its almost like MLG only read the the first sentence of Gio's post before trying to criticise him. Totally missing the fact that Gio had gone on to mention Lesley, and that in fact MLG is basically just agreeing with Gio#s sentiments. Bit of a woopsie moment really 😰.

Dusic what? A year being regularly exposed to championship football, developing physically, and excelling and building confidence is fantastic for a players' development... just look at players like lallana, Grealish, vardy, Eze/Olise, bowen etc. If I was Dibling, i'd get a an improved contract out of saints to get paid what i was actually worth (rather than the £1.5k per week slap to the face he's rumoured to be currently on), and have a "higher division club" release clause (etc.,) inserted so he's got the option to move if he wishes. Then he's free to play and develop, and he's got an exit if he feels he needs it / wants it. I personally don't think he's good enough (yet) to be starting regularly for a better club than saints, so playing regularly in a league where he's one of the better players and hone his skills at beating players etc. whilst developing physically will be great for him.

Could easily see him being sold but we have him on loan for the season.

Yeah, don't get me wrong - should have prefaced the above with a "take with a healthy dose of caution". I suspect something has gone on, but equally i also strongly suspect their owner is an utter nutcase who lies to the fanbase to try and manipulate the narrative and get the fans onside.

Reading the Wednesday forum it sounds like we've been up to some right antics with them - similar perhaps to the way we carried on with Swansea that saw Martin being sued. I wonder if this was possibly related to Kraft's departure. https://www.owlstalk.co.uk/forums/topic/336439-charles-southampton/page/7/#comments

Is Fernandes likely to be here in August though? And equally, can he really play every minute of every game between now and May? Getting the lad in now and seeing if he's a good fit for next season isn't bad. And like it or not, we do struggle when Fernandes comes off, so adding extra depth to the midfield will help (assuming he's good enough).

Probably as good as gone then with SRs view of the academy.

Whilst detailing how much of a basket case club Montpellier are currently (there game with Monaco was temporarily suspended because the fans staged a dance music protest - that was so loud the ref had to stop the game), Montpellier were described as "the Southampton of Ligue 1". This was on national radio (talksport). Its pretty grim. My 6 year old is getting regular banter from all the Liverpool/Arsenal/City fans at school - I think the main reason he's still a Saints fan is because he got to go to Wembley, but without doubt this current team/run is going to cost the club a lot of future fans - which is the lifeblood of the club - will become even more problematic if Brighton and Bournemouth continue to excel in the top flight. The sad part is i think we could possibly have stayed up under Juric - had he been appointed earlier, or if we could have picked up just a few points from the fulham - forest games. Possibly attract 1-2 decent players in and made a fight of it. But the best thing we can do now is something get to 12 points, and make sure we're ready for next season. I really hope we keep Juric though as it stands.

Played for half a game again. But when we play we're good. So frustrating that we kept Martin so long that now its too late and the player's mentality/morale/confidence is shot. Great to see taul paul scoring at least. Lesley very very good when he came on. More bad luck really at the end with that clearance off the line. Its just one of those years for us sadly.

How was that a foul on Sels ffs.

Santos scored the winner for Goztepe today at least... So i guess at least we've done some good for our sister club.

We've lost basically every single proper talent from that youth team because SR refuse to pay the going rate. Let alone Gomes (who is potentially a generational talent) for free to Lyon. It shocking, not something to praise. They'll sit there and sign (utter shit) like Mara for £12M, and the likes of Larios and Edozie, but our own youth players (who have all moved to more successful clubs than saints), who were more committed to the club and on lower wages are gone. And now, when we get relegated, and look to the academy for squad players and potential breakthrough players and future sales - we've already let them all go for peanuts. You and fabrice praising this strategy is utterly mad to me. We're going down with a bloated squad on large wages, and nearly all of those that stay have shown they're way off premier league level and are not players with the potential to develop... The ones that might tick that box will leave - and despite having the 2nd best u18 side in the country a couple of years ago, none of them will still be here to step up. And for context - Dibling's rumoured original £3k per week is £156k a year. If you consider we now apparently are paying him half of that, its £1.5k per week. We signed Mara (£12M), Edozie (£8M), larios (£6M), stewart (£9M) etc. In fees alone, that is Dibling's 3k/w salary (or insert other youth player we didn't bother keeping) for 224years. Its a good job those 4 players are contributing so much more than Dibling to justify their cost... And that ignores the wages for these signings, all of which will be higher than our youth contracts. We also won't be selling the above players for a profit - but the academy players certainly would have done. I wouldn't be at all surprised if Dibling alone raised more than those 4 combined. The entire approach is a car crash from Sports republic.

They very nearly refused to take him back, then they significantly cut the already relatively modest salary they had previously offered him, and then they made him train with the youth teams 😄.

Sports republic have basically got rid of all the ones that were really something. They'd far rather have spent millions (fees/agents/wages) on players to block their development pathways, than just pay the best u21 / u18 players a serious wage relative to their ability. Given we've got a squad full of dead wood and will be playing the champ next season, it's shown itself to be an incredibly poor bit of strategy. Not to mention the loss of gomes and the fact SR went out of their way to piss of dibling when he rejoined 😂🤣

We have a 25% win rate at the their ground 10/41. They're also on fire in the league... https://www.transfermarkt.com/southampton-fc/bilanzdetail/verein/180/plus/0?gegner_id=703&saison_id=&wettbewerb_id=&day=&heim_gast=gast&punkte=&datum_von=&datum_bis= Chris Wood also had a 50% win rate vs us in the Premier league, with a 25% scoring rate 3 goals in 12 games). Hard to be optimistic. Who knows, maybe we'll scrap a draw to make up for the 3 points we threw away last night 😂