DuncanRG

What have you seen away from football?

I can't, although there may be one or two. You may remember that our very best seasons were after the biggest sales. I'm not saying all our sales were the right calls but it's obvious that the purchases have been the bigger problem.

Is this the same Leicester that sold Kante, Mahrez and Maguire? It's not that they haven't sold, they've just bought better. Winning the title helps. Bournemouth and their spending is more worthy of comparison. They've generally had a smaller squad than us, and though the top earners make a fair amount more than ours I wonder how their median wage compares. Our recruitment problems started around the time we had to bulk up the squad for Europe. Once we dropped out of it we had a lot of players on good wages and long contracts who couldn't get a game, which is a recipe for trouble even if they're good.

Glad you're not going, mate.

It says quite a few things! Not read these details anywhere else: We're going to try to sign at centre half and full back in January A director of football has been identified and will be in place by the next international break (ie a month from now) "The Saints training ground, staff and players have been left in no doubt that the backing for Hasenhuttl is not simply cosmetic while a replacement has been found" "The club are reassessing their approach to approving transfer targets with no single individual in charge of that process."

Here's the club's readout, including a Wenger-esque mention of us almost signing Maddison. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2019/10/26/ralph-hasenhuttl-given-southampton-backing-board-decide-players/

lmao

He looks of Premier League quality to me.

He's actually got a pass completion rate of 80.4%, which is higher than Bednarek (76.8%) and just shy of Yoshida (81%). (Alarmingly, Yan Valery's is 57.5%)

Doesn't it just show you that we're nine games in?

My perception may be skewed by the fact I was right in the corner and it's a long old end, but I thought the support was really poor today.

'The club will continue to exist' is a pretty low bar.

Agreed!

Between the tiny sample size and the fact all but one of our home games has been against a big team, I wouldn't worry too much about this.

To some it sounds nice in theory, but even if we did well the odd loss to Championship teams would be worse than losing to Premier League teams.

That's a rumour. Who knows?

These things trickle down in all sorts of ways that we can't see. The slide coincides with the ownership change but I don't think the player spending is, in itself, the issue. We've spent quite a bit of money but mostly spent it badly. That's meant spending less in the last couple of windows, which is fair enough in my book. There must be other problems but we don't really know what they are.

Moussa Djenepo runs down the wing for me Do, do, do-do-do-do, Jannik Vestergaard

Danso played right back against Bournemouth.

From the horse's mouth: "Unfortunately couldn’t help my team due an injury during the warming up for the Tottenham game but I’m working on a speedy recovery."

Good on you. I like it but I've got to confess I haven't rushed to join in because I wasn't sure if it was some sort of inside joke.

The 'underrated' label annoyed me as well, but you are, er, underrating him. The Pochettino and Koeman teams (which all these dream XIs are based on) really couldn't transition or link attack and defence without him. You might be able to build a better system where he's not required, but in a 4-2-3-1 with the defensive mids we had, he's essential.

Anyone who's leaving Davis out is forgetting how we played when he was injured.

I agree wholeheartedly that the criticism is overblown but this bit was done with Ralph's approval.