Toon Saint

Bizarre that Pellegrino objected to how robust the British players were in training. Just shows how completely out of his depth he was managing in the Premier League. Not like he was reinventing the wheel in anyway tactically, so why actively discourage qualities that might win you games? God knows what Reed and Wilson were seeing on the training ground to make them think things would be any different. Anyway, that was a really good read. Sounds like the British contingent are behind Hughes. Also sounds like he is putting a few noses out of his joint. What a mess! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

And the award for dazzling transfer successes goes to... Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

IMO we should try and persuade JWP, Romeu and Hojbjerg to stay another season. Stephens, McCarthy and Yoshi should be easy enough to convince to stay. Hopefully Redmond can rediscover some form in the Championship. Austin obviously would be a real asset if we could keep him fit, but I would probably listen to acceptable offers for him and Long. Bertrand and Cedric will inevitably go, and Fraser will likely be off on loan for a season as no one is going to fork out a big fee for him. Get rid of Hoedt, Lemina, Gabbiadini, Carillo and Boufal. Hopefully we can get recoup a decent chunk of what we paid for them. Re-integrate Reed, Targett and Gallagher back into the squad and we could have something like this: ———————McCarthy ——Bednarek—-Yoshi——Stephens Reed————————————-Targett ——————Romeu—JWP ————————Redmond ————-Gallagher——Austin Subs: McQueen, Sims, Long, Hojbjerg, Hesketh, new GK, Jones Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Interesting listen but a worrying one too. Looks like Reed will probably move on to the FA or maybe West Ham (based on Sullivan’s previous comments) this summer. I’m certainly not averse to him leaving, as things definitely need shaking up at boardroom level, but who is going to make the decision to replace him? Gao? Ralph? The problem is with Les leaving is that we lose all our football expertise at executive level. Maybe the idea in promoting Wilson to Les’ old title of ‘director of football operations’ is that the handover is already well underway and the appointment will just be in-house. Whatever happens for the rest of the season, we need to attack the summer transfer window and get our house in order quickly - something we’ve not been so good at doing recently. So many issues to sort that you could easily see the disruption spilling into the next season. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I think Quincy Promes is going to light up the Championship. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Depends on the options available really. If Fulham don’t get promoted I’d like us to get in Jokanovic. But that would be assuming the board have the balls to approach a manager not already unemployed. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

The January transfer was only ever permissible if we had several transfers lined up that would genuinely improve us as a squad. For us to sell him for a world record fee and bring in a striker who has had such a negligible impact is absolutely unforgivable. The fact that Ralph dressed it up as a way of improving squad harmony just handed Pellegrino another excuse for his lack of leadership and deflected from wider issues about how the squad had been assembled. Still at least Les got some nice articles about Liverpool dancing to his tune. The pied piper who leads us off the cliff-face. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I think you have to view some of the decisions over the past 24 months in good faith. For instance, we signed Boufal and Redmond after Mane left. They haven’t worked as we’d have hoped, and have offered nowhere near the quality Mane did, but you can see what the board were thinking. I was really excited about Boufal when we signed him. Likewise with appointing Puel. A lot of people thought Koeman could’ve given more chances to youth players, and the football in the first half of his second season was pretty stodgy fare. Yes we could’ve appointed someone more high-profile at that point he left - Pellegrini - for example, but on paper, Puel had a good track-record of developing young players and of managing in European campaigns. So I can’t beat the board up too much about it. That said, some of the decisions made have been so reckless they have bordered on self-sabotage. So in ascending order of ridiculousness, for me: 1) Selling Fonte and not replacing in January 2016/2017 window. We were facing our most realistic chance of winning a trophy in 40 years, and we sell our captain, leader, and last link to the League 1 days. Yes he was clearly unhappy post-Euro victory and his ego was supposedly through the roof, but he was also a consummate professional and would’ve got himself in the mind-frame to play that final. You can’t put a price on leadership qualities and we should’ve bent over to keep him at the club. This decision may have cost us a trophy. 2) Appointing Pellegrino and not sacking him when it became obvious to all he was out of his depth. The guy never seemed like our first choice. We dithered over sacking Puel for what seemed like an eternity, which was strange as the board had made his position almost untenable by repeatedly informing favoured journo’s that we were reviewing his position. Meanwhile Wilson was sunning himself in Portugal... Supposedly we were holding out for Tuchel, but that always seemed unlikely. Silva and Schmidt had already moved on, with the former probably bored of waiting for us to make a move. And then suddenly Pellegrino was our always-had-been number one choice who had been tracked by the black box for years, etc. Les heralded it as a return to attacking football but his CV showed no signs of that. Luckily for Pellegrino, he had the kindest opening fixture list I can ever remember for an incoming manager. So when he started to blow opportunity after opportunity for three points, the warning signs were going off like a Catherine wheel in a portaloo. The board had so many chances to react - post Leicester, post Liverpool, post Spurs, but somehow he crawled on into the January transfer window unscathed. 3) 2017/2018 transfer window - the grand farce. There were so many different ways this window could’ve gone, but Les & Wilson seemed to manufacture the most outrageously backfiring scenario that you wonder whether they were on commission to get us relegated. First of all selling VvD. What a climb-down from the stance made in the summer. Why expend all that effort to keep him? He was back in the first team, and despite questions over how much he was applying himself, he was still clearly our best player and defender. He was also recovering from long-term injury. We were struggling at this point and without a win since November. Any decision to sell was always going to damage us hugely at the back. Until the previous January we had always insisted we wouldn’t sell any players during this window. Based on how poorly the previous winter window had gone when we had sold a key player in January, with us having to rummage around the freebie bin and bring in Caceres, you think the board would’ve wretched at the thought of doing the same again. But double-down on the same botched policy we did. Ok, a world record fee for a defender. Very nice, very nice. Well done Les and Ross. We had the predictable deluge of articles, humble-bragging about our history of ‘dazzling’ transfer successes and Liverpool dancing to Les’ tune. We also had less predictable articles where we were linked to a clutch of established Premier League players and promising youngsters - Mawson, Walcott, Sturridge, Dembele and Sessegnon. There was also a strange link to Tosun, despite him being on the verge of signing for Everton. Given doubts over the manager, our precarious position, and the fact that we were flush with the VvD money, it was always obvious we would have to: 1) go above and beyond to convince players to come to us; 2) pay over the odds on transfer fees. This seemed to catch Les and Wilson by surprise and after it became likely we would miss out on Walcott, who preferred the extra moolah and mid-table security on offer at Everton, we became locked in torturous talks to bring in Carrillo - a Monaco reserve and former Pellegrino player - and Quincy Promes, who seemed like he might just bring some qualities that we’d missed since shipping out Mane, but would always be difficult to prise mid-season from Spartan Moscow. Bizarrely we were never strongly linked to any defender throughout the entire window, other than the tenuous link to Mawson. But when we were faced with limited options in the transfer market it really became a choice of either ditching Pellegrino and bringing in a manager to get the best out of the underperforming players we had at the club, or persisting with him and seriously backing him with several high-risk additions. We didn’t really do either. £20m eventually shelled out on Carrillo after Pellegrino had belatedly realised a 4-2-3-1 works best with a target man, following Austin’s reintegration into the team and then subsequent injury. Reed & Wilson seemed to drag this transfer out for about 2 weeks longer than it needed to, with him only ever being used sparingly by Monaco. Maybe they weren’t comfortable spending that money on a Pellegrino recommendation, but if so, why didn’t they just trust their better instincts and get rid of the man presiding over our demise? Promes was made out to be touch-and-go but Spartak wanted time to sort a replacement and as we only agreed a fee typically late in the day, they were never in a position to do so. But hey ho, this transfer is all rubber-stamped for next summer, right? So despite all the early window bluster and fanciful transfer links we ended up shorn of our best defender, and bringing in one grossly overpriced target man who had barely played over the past couple of seasons, and who we brought in so late that he missed several key games anyway and had no time to adapt to Pellegrino’s training ‘methods’. We kept getting told by Jeremy Wilson that a ‘sense of urgency was developing’ about our predicament at boardroom level but it should’ve been screaming and slapping Reed and Wilson around the chops and compelled them to act. Or at least you thought our new owner would be sufficiently bothered to apply some pressure on them to sort things out. Call it the result of inertia, overconfidence, or just plain indecision, the failures in that window have basically cost us our PL status. The frustration for us fans is that it was all so avoidable, and mainly self-inflicted. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

For those not going to the game and that don’t have Sky Sports the game is being shown on Sky One today. Which means that you can get either a 14 day free trial of Sky Entertainment Pass on NowTv, or pay £7.99 for a monthly pass if already signed up, and watch the game as well as some actually decent entertainment (Soprano’s and soon-to-be-released West World season 2, etc.) It costs £7.99 for a Sky Sports day pass by way of comparison. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

It is alarming that an academy player like Targett, who is supposedly a big Saints fan, is so quick to jump from the sinking ship and dissociate himself from our season. Smacks of disillusionment about how the club is being run and the little chances that have been afforded to our academy players over the past season. The depressing thing is that I can’t blame him for wanting to leave. We are an absolute mess as a club at the moment. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Looks like some wishes could come true: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/sport/premier-league-eye-southamptons-vice-chairman-les-reed-mg29xv7xd

Wilson’s title is now Director of Football operations, which I believe was Leslie’s previous role before stepping up to vice-chairman. Simply put, he’s not just in charge of scouting and identifying who to recruit for the senior team but will oversee a lot of other departments - performance analysis, football administration, etc. He will also have a role in contract negotiations, alongside Leslie. So he has to assume a decent portion of the blame for the various failures over the past 21 months or so. It always struck me as odd that he was on holiday in Portugal during that never-ending end-of-season review before we finally sacked Puel - which he surely would have had a massive involvement in. Of course he is entitled to a holiday, but the timing just seemed symptomatic of the malaise that has gripped the club, more generally. The absolute priority should have surely been to get the manager situation resolved ASAP and set out the agenda for the summer, especially with a takeover rumbling on in the background and the instability this can lead to. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

He did an interview on the OS around November time where he admitted his attitude towards training had improved in recent weeks, which led to his recall to the first XI. Pellegrino also remarked on a change of attitude towards training at that time, IIRC. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Austin shouldn’t be exempted from criticism for this sh!t shower of a season just because he has a decent goals-per-minute ratio. He basically admitted that Pellegrino only gave him his chance when he changed his attitude towards training. And obviously because Pellegrino couldn’t get a tune out of Gabbi or Long. While you might say he has been unlucky with some of the injuries suffered, the guy clearly doesn’t keep himself in the kind of condition required for PL football. Some fans will say he has ‘character’ because he’s a bit of a jack-the-lad, but where is the character in giving minimal effort in training, or in the gym, and still expecting a place in the first team? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Lanzini is struggling with an injury for Wham. Carroll, Reid and Obiang all definitely out - arguably three of their better players. Feeling confident ahead of this one, given that Hughes will have pretty much his full squad available. So we will definitely lose. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Ridiculous to think that Hughes is already chewing Les’ ear off about transfer targets before playing a single PL game and given he only has a contract until the end of the season. Plus Lemina and Shaqiri are completely different players. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Great to see Hughes having the balls to change things straight away by dropping Romeu and starting two strikers. Also shows you can start with two strikers and still have another on the bench (Long). MP must be stupefied. Positive line-up let’s hope for an equally positive performance! COYS! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

His leaving statement was nice. I got the feeling he knew he was out of his depth and was also appreciative for the (misguided) support he received from the board, as at most clubs he would’ve been sacked long ago. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

With Carrillo, I think the expression ‘throwing good money after bad’ springs to mind. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Les stepped into Cortese’s Cuban heels during the great meltdown and sucked up as much power as he could. He’s arguably become just as arrogant and petty without any of the clearheaded ruthlessness or decisiveness. We’ve seen needless digs at other clubs in PR pieces when we sign new players, delusions of grandeur when he laughed off Tottenham’s interest in Wanyama, or Everton’s interest in Ronald, laps up photo opportunities during new player signings but goes MIA whenever he has to answer to any real criticism. The January puff piece by Wilson was classic Les with the laughable bit of double-think about him never having tried to take credit for the dazzling transfer successes. Even more absurd when you consider our other favoured journalist, Sam Wallace, headlined his VvD to Liverpool piece ‘how Liverpool danced to Les Reed’s tune’. Despite the acrimonious departures of an ever-growing number of players, he’s tried to manufacture an image of himself as methodical, calculating, and hard-nosed but more recently that’s been exposed as a sham - he’s just a self-aggrandising ditherer, who has hoodwinked the fanbase on one too many occasions now - the most recent January transfer window being the most egregious example. It’s build up a sense of distrust between the fanbase and boardroom that has only been exacerbated by the takeover of the elusive Gao. The failure to get rid of Pellegrino before Christmas, and the last two catastrophic January transfer windows have done it for Les IMO. He needs to be put out to pasture and we get someone with a bit more dynamism who can shake things up a bit at first team and academy level and rebuild some of the broken bonds with the fanbase. Ross Wilson can also go with him as he doesn’t appear to do anything. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

‘While Pellegrino retains the full support of the board, a sense of urgency is developing about the situation...’ Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Only way it could happen is if we start aiming chants at the board/ownership rather than Pellegrino. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Doubt it. More likely Les is dithering about what to do, and by the time he comes around to making a decision it’ll be too late. All the bluster about calculated planning, and sticking to the process, is just a mask for his crippling inability to make a decision IMHO. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

The club sacked Puel because ultimately they thought they could upgrade on him with Tuchel - a situation they spectacularly misjudged. Les & Co spent enough time dithering over the decision during the end of season review to suggest they weren’t solely swayed by a smattering of boos at the last home game of the season. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

If we get relegated no point in worrying about one player - half the squad will be off. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk