melmacian_saint

Now we are all paying our respects to this era that in spite of its awful end was undoubtedly a high period of the club's history, I invite us to share our 3 top SFC moments/games/events (plus 2 honourable mentions) since 2012. Here are mine: 1. Saints 3-2 Liverpool, 2016 - I genuinely still love this match, what a comeback with 3 great team goals (we scored a few that season), Mane/Pelle combo destroying the early days of Kloppism, when Liverpool were starting to become fashionable again. Electric SMS at the end. 2. Saints 4-0 Newcastle, 2014 - our blossoming as PL sensations under Pochettino, we played some great football that season. I particularly remember us being very dominant at home during that time - I think we beat them 4-0 again a few months later (in the new season)!. 3. Saints 2-1 Inter, Europa League 2016 - It was a brilliant night under the lights, not the Inter of today but also not the Saints of today, a glamour tie that we took with a dominant performance, packed St Mary's watching its first big Saints win in Europe. Our European run should've carried on, what happened to being back soon?! Honourable mentions: 4. Liverpool 0-1 Saints, League Cup semi-final 2017 - Shane Long limbs 5. Saints 8-0 Sunderland, 2014 - The goals weren't all pretty, but a remarkable game! Loads more which I'm sure you'll write about!

Moneyball can do one, Rasmus and the hipsters can do one

I do fully expect something big out of that announcement, like Semmens walking or even that the club is up for sale again.

Bournemouth's revival is impressive, whichever way you look at it. Easily the 2nd/3rd worse squad of the league on paper. O'Neil will be causing them a dilemma but the new ownership card might be a good excuse to start again as I think his first 4 months are more illustrative of his ability than the last 4 weeks. I thought Dyche would do better at Everton, them and Leeds are looking incredibly panicky and deflated at the moment. If Leicester win tonight, I think it's going to be a Leeds/Forest face off. I'd also put a tenner that we'll be mathematically relegated by Fulham at home.

Given the investment the club have made in him over the years, making him an academy ambassador and role model, the continuity he's been given in the side from various managers, the protection he had from always having other senior/experienced players around him and in the dressing room, and undisputed captaincy for so many years, I think we were all entitled to expect more from him. As it stands, it's hard to detach his own track record from the decline the team and club have suffered.

Next time we go back into St Mary's, it will be for the formal farewell as Fulham come and deliver the relegation maths. Awful season, and we will go down with a whimper.

Disappointing, I'm glad with our attitude, we showed we want to get into every game with a strong mentality. Lavia should've come out, not Alcaraz, who should not have left the pitch to be replaced by Diallo until added on time. Pegging the team back completely with two lines of 5, sitting way too deep with 15 minutes to play, allowing Arsenal and especially Odegaard (ZERO pressure in the build up to both goals) to come at us and pick passes in the final third killed us. You can't lock up with so much time to go. A draw is a good result, but the way in which things have ended means that our confidence boost is muted. In any case, this frustrating outcome at a big game for the PL season will have given us some fire and hope, which I believe will be enough to see us beat Bournemouth. It all feels a little too late, but..

Bournemouth invested in the winter, but their survival being so close now is yet another miracle after the Howe years. Forest cannot score, Leeds defending is finally spiralling out of control - they are the ones coming down for me. I can see Everton grinding out results and Leicester getting just enough of a bounce from Dean Smith.

A clear case of two successful operators, who are completely out of their depth when they need to set as well as execute the direction of travel.

If we think giving a newly promoted coach an extra 2-4 games in the first half of a 46-game season is the same as being bottom of the Premier League with 3 months to go, then we should be surprised that the result is probably not going to be the same.

Leeds might not have a better squad, but they have a better, more experienced and routined starting 11. Not top 10, but they should be at least tracking Palace for performance with a manager that can read and manage the match, and respond effectively rather than just set a team up to play nicely but poorly prepared for when the wind turns. I feel Marsch and Bielsa were the latter. I'm not sure Jesse Marsch "saved" them from relegation - yes, he did get almost as many wins in the last 12 games as Bielsa up to the point of resignation (4 vs. 5), but two of those were against the season's zombie teams Norwich (last minute win) and Watford, plus a final day with survival out of their direct control, without even playing Burnley (and so just purely out of their bad performance) - that was not the case when he joined. He also took 5 games to get a win - we can't afford that right now without things spiralling out of control again.

Because, free-kicks aside, he might be out of his depth as a Premier League footballer? How many poor seasons did he (and more recently we) go through before his free-kick ability became something to acknowledge, while he was on the pitch for every single minute of the ride with the armband?

What a glorious, costly waste of time this choice turned out to be.

I don't get who wanted him back, us or Villa. But I honestly don't understand how he's still in the Premier League.

Did get beat 9-0, has a dire squad to moan about if things don't go his very defensive way... would fit right in

Looking at this team makes me think that beyond the chronic firesales and underinvestment (Pelle's departure and its aftermath was an act of industrial sabotage) we also didn't manage Reed and Targett's progression particularly well - these guys had everything to step up and become the mainstays of the team.

Phil Giles, who is now the sole director of football. Both co-directors have now had pretty much the same time as sole directors, and the fortunes of their teams are telling. And I don't think Benham has more money than Dragan...

Before the recent spending spree, I thought SR weren't worried about relegation, but they at least seem to be having doubts - that's got to involve Jones too. The situation reminds me a bit of Pellegrino - stayed on purely because of the Cup run and its friendly draws, but our league form was desperate and required action earlier. With Jones, we've had one good week, where we got more wins than in all the other weeks of his tenure put together. Not only was he struggling to stick to a starting 11 and team that worked, the signings seem to have confused him even more. It cannot be that we're still trying to find that out now! Additionally, in public he comes across poorly stinking of small man syndrome. He definitely feels like a pally character so I can see that he might be popular with some players, but I'm not imagining that inspires all, and is probably not a great fit for a young squad. In my view, Rasmus liked him because he personally relates to his character. Wolves will make it three months on the job for him, and is 100% a must win or pack up situation. A draw only pulls it out of the fire if we then pick up at least a win from Chelsea or Leeds away. If not, forget about meeting Luton again, he's got to go before the cup tie. We have arguably our hardest run of the season until home v. Bournemouth, with European/league chasers firing for the final sprint, and a couple of 6 pointers against Palace/Leicester - if we don't pick any positive momentum or bounce before, we will go down and go down toxically.

If nothing comes out of this double cup round, Everton is his last chance to make it past the next league break... This is a manager who has been allowed to start a season in November, with a full squad and zero background noise, not someone who has been thrown in the deep end with games every Wednesday/Saturday. Our run of games until Chelsea is the most accessible of the season, two home games in we have not got a point, not kept 90% of the same starting 11 once, and now no shots on target. No one can survive such a poor showing for longer than 7 games, 4 years or 4 months left on their contract.

As many on here, I'm a regular user of Flybe and will miss them dearly. In terms of its business model however, it had been a sick place for many years. Regional airlines have not had a good ride since the post-9/11 aviation world and the oil boom that followed in the noughties. Liberalisation and competition has also sent prices spiralling down which is great for the majority but it has hit those flying with less seats more. Look around in Europe, and there are virtually no independent regional carriers left - they are either subsidiaries of bigger, mainline airlines or have these contract their services (a la Stobart Air). Those that have survived independently rely heavily on PSO contracts where they have a very clear geographical/logistic advantage over others, in operation and bidding (see Loganair). It's also unclear how profitable many of these routes really are, so that they can be operated viably in any other way - Flybe themselves were paid by British Airways (through a direct capital injection in 2007) to take over most of these regional connections that are now proclaimed to be so politically sensitive. The last decade has generally been dreadful for Flybe too - very complex business model with too many half-hearted ventures (Finland/Scotland/Stobart franchises, summer/winter holiday markets from regional airports) - any recovery news were of course purely driven by the company taking another gamble. In the end, the company was way too big to be transformed, its core business had little potential and the current owners didn't really know what to do with it - Stobart wanted an established brand to fly its planes from its airports, Virgin wanted the Heathrow slots for feeder traffic, financiers wanted a quick corporate turnaround and sale. Things won't be the same but I do hope SOU recovers some of the essential routes - it's a bit depressing having to drive past the airport this week!

His track record is certainly good, and very much in line with our most successful managerial signings of late. Let's hope he hasn't come in too late and can indeed turn things around, seems like the manager we should've signed in the summer!

His track record is certainly good, and very much in line with our most successful managerial signings of late. Let's hope he hasn't come in too late and can indeed turn things around, seems like the manager we should've signed in the summer!

Other than Lambert, I don't think a single one of the mildly successful players/managers that have left our club have done so without an alleged spat with this man. Says a lot. Goodbye and see you never!

8th largest spend in the league 5th best seller in the league Considering a number of our sales were of academy players, I wonder how well we've done purchasing after the initial sell-off. My guess is progressively worse.

We've had some awesome games, seen some amazing players shine and made a fool of, conceded and scored great goals. We will look back at this era with pride, and will miss it if we can't rebuild quick enough.