UpweySaint

Apparently Southgate will be in attendance, the article says largely to watch McCarthy; https://www.theguardian.com/football/2018/aug/17/gareth-southgate-england-alex-mccarthy-southampton Few of ours probably have a point to prove (RB) and others may not be far from call ups.

This. Don't see why some are so keen to run down the academy boys.

Hoedt doesn't cover himself in glory, fails to hold a line with other cb's.

This really. His movement looked good, bit of pace and power albeit a little raw. If he was available for the right price I would be very happy to see him in our team.

The hat adds a few inches

True. Bit of a unit by all accounts too.

Phwoar what a pick out from Dusan, how it didn't go in I have no idea! He has having a good game by all accounts.

Signing to be made with a vowel in their name. Utter wang.

If we could afford a shopping spree why not but looks like we wont have much to play with. Rather see what pennies we have go elsewhere.

Snap, longevity normal wins out! I hope to be able to stick a world cup version. Normally miss a few weeks in a full one and realise that my cb has been suspended, striker injured and everyone else managed 80 points from whoever was sticking goals past Stoke each week.

The Poch season. As angelman said seeing the academy players get so much game time and genuinely kick on was a real highlight. If he had our lot now I could envision Sims being a consistent first team player among others. We played good football and looked like, on our day, we could go toe to toe with most teams. There was a real sense that we were building towards something and a feel good factor around the squad/club broadly. It was weird to think how optimistic we (Dalek and whatever version of Glasgow existed at that point aside) were as fans compared to the doom and gloom of recent times.

Nice one for sorting one out, added my team.

Mawson (2nd choice Gibson), we have some ok CBs who need a leader to help them develop and command a little more, Promes (2nd Sisto), we need more pace and attacking threat from out wide, a little unpredictably would help too, Maddison (2nd Grealish), we have been missing a '10' for years though either could potentially play alongside a more traditional forward, both look like they could step up to the premier league and develop, Rondon (2nd Ings), okay Rondon hasn't screamed goals lately but we have lacked physicality up front that allows others to play since the days of Pelle or Lambert - Ings may be a cheap(ish) option and may find goals with a consistent run ... open minded for continental options though if we can find somebody who could manage in the premier league. 5th (dependent on Forster not wanting to stick out as a reserve keeper) Bentley - always looked decent when I have seen him play, good potential, English.

Yes. I like the way his sides play and think he has done well with both Watford and Fulham. He has also won titles in a few other leagues too which isn't easy.

Not sure his nationality is particularly relevant to anything other than your own prejudices. For what it's worth we played a relatively high press under Adkins - that Northerner! We played arguably our best football in the last decade under Poch who was very much focused on possession and pressing. What's more some of the best footballing sides around currently, Liverpool and City, play this way! Jokanovic has had relative success already in England and elsewhere.

Probably not but then I suppose what his options are and a possible Hughes link up could be a pro or con, fully expect he may have better offers though both here and across continent.

Apparently Shaqiri has a £12mil release clause, a bargain fee by current markets. HCDAJFU or most teams in the league though to be fair and will likely have a range of suitors.

I wasn't exactly comparing the two records like for like, simply pointing out that waiting can be a negative as part of a point about a hypothetical situation in which we might be considered an option for a 'proven' manager. Though in Curbs defense he did more than okay at Charlton. They overachieved under him and swiftly fell apart after he departed.

It was an example of waiting out too long for 'the right offer' and managers being forgotten.

To an extent yes but there is always the Curbishley counter argument. Waited too long and now get's "Alan Who?" when he goes for jobs. I agree he could wait and probably do better. All I am saying is that he might not want to. If he is burning to prove himself, wants to manage in the premier league etc it is not entirely implausible he, or any other manager, might fancy working with our les. Not really sure I take your point on Moyes. His work at Everton got him the Utd job. His decent showing at WHAM would likely get him another premiership job despite some poor showings in the interim.

Fair shout they slipped my mind. Though the same really applies say they go for a manager swap with Napoli. We could end up best option by default.

By all accounts he could probably do better than us on the continent. Indulge me a little on this but let us say he wants a chance to manage in the premier league. How many jobs are there that appear to be available and are better bets than us? Arsenal look set on Arteta, Everton seem to want Silva - probably have more going for them than us right now though but not by much, the Allardyce saga might also be a red flag to anybody considering taking over. WHAM, linked with a range - again probably have more going, finance, stadium, london etc. Though would he want to work with the dildo peddlers with the rent a gob sprog tweeting about all things WHAM? Leicester - will it be available? Nobody seems sure in the media. That sort of leaves us. He couldn't really do much worse than this season. We have a few pennies to play with, an decent squad, the academy is always a plus. I don't think it is any way likely but I would suggest we would make an interesting challenge for the right manager. All the same I still think Hughes is probably the safest and most realistic bet. He wasn't my first choice by any stretch but he's probably done enough to be top of the list.

Agreed. I respect he is an okay tactician, we had a good cup run and probably should have won. He's been successful in France. No doubt he was the wrong man for us. We played our best football when we tried to impose ourselves on games tactically. Europe we allowed games to pass us by when really we could have achieved more.

Call me a fool. We missed our chance in Europe which may not come around again, this was largely down to playing such negative football. We scraped to 8th in the league. We played some of the worst football I have seen from us in the second half of the season. We lost any identity to how we tried to play our football, particularly with his weird diamond experiment that didn't fit our players. I'd say we were probably at about our level under Puel but we lost any of the optimism of genuine possibility that was present under Poch, Koeman and, to a lesser extent, Adkins. It was certainly not all his fault he certainly played a significant part in our current slide.