Donatello

I was completely bewildered by your posts a few weeks ago concerning what was in effect a social media revolt, in as much that I couldn't countenance why someone who I've always thought of as level-headed would think that a trending Twitter hashtag would have a profound affect on anything, but perhaps I did you a disservice, perhaps some of the leading figures at the club really are that superficial. You would be the person to know after all...it just sounded so ridiculous on first hearing...but after hearing Krueger's interview earlier, and his apparent obsession with "positivity"/certain attitudes at the club, the general tone of his approval of MP being personality based, and your remark about criticism being muted, it does start to paint a picture of an almost cult-like atmosphere "The leader is good! The leader is great! We surrender our will as of this date!" I'm all for positivity, mind, but not at the cost of an absence of constructive criticism. Anyway, I should never have doubted you

Looking at it on Wikipedia (therefore I don't know how accurate it is, and I'm too tired to check), the win rates for our managers (in all competitions) are as follows.... Adkins - 54% Pochettino - 38.3% Koeman - 48.35% Puel - 37.7% Pellegrino - 17.4% Obviously Adkins win rate is inflated by League 1/Championship results, but even if you remove him from the equation, it looks pretty damning for Pellegrino. The club will no doubt have such stats at their disposal, so it's staggering that Krueger was going the ol' VVD situation route earlier, as though it could account for such a disparity. Note: not that I'm saying that ~17% difference between Pellegrino and Puel/Pochettino is entirely his doing, there are obviously other factors as well, but why do the club think inaction is the answer to the problem? A lotta blind 'we'll turn it around' faith going on in the boardrooms at St.Mary's/whereverthef*ck.

He'd be a fool/nutter to resign. That's just shirking the board's responsibility.

Fuuuuuuuuuck, what are we going to do?! The board aren't sacking him, and don't seem to be inclined to make any form of drastic change, opting for the 'we believe we can still achieve (unspecified goal)'...so what the f*ck is going to change to arrest the problem? Nothing? Do they honestly believe that changing nothing is the answer? :S

To pick up on what others have said, he described last season as "fabulous", so how does that marry with sacking Puel? Bit of an oxymoron, no? :S He did such a good job (*in Krueger's mind*) that we sacked him for it

Solid interview from Blackmore. Solid contradictions by Krueger. I particularly 'liked' the Mauricio isn't an excuse kinda guy (commendable) so hasn't rolled out the VVD excuse, but excuse me whilst I do Slightly concerning that we evidently place a chunk of emphasis on 'we like the manager's personality' as a metric for determining his performance/long term suitability :S

What's started exactly? It?

I thought dinosaurs were extinct

"Minor"

I was hoping we'd have someone in by now Which is impatient, admittedly. We've known we were getting the VVD money since the ~21st of December, right? You'd think there must be a few transfers which are *very* close (thus gaining traction in the media), but it seems a tad quiet....but that's generally how we sign players, so I guess it isn't too much of a surprise. Fingers crossed we don't just drift for weeks on end (past vitally important games) haggling over minor details.

I would be *amazed* if Forster was being rotated...after 76 consecutive Prem games on the spin - which highlights all you need to know about goalkeepers requiring rest/rotation. If Forster is 'rotated' back in, I'll be nothing short of incredulous. He could probably do with a lengthy stint in the U23, learning/being coached to play to his strengths/with more authority.

Ha, rekt. In fact, that entire post is a mauling.

Surely you aren't disputing that he was progressively awful last year? But credit where credit is due, he's improved as the season has gone on.

He's good, sure, but if his entire game is making runs, then that's a tad one dimensional for my liking. If we intend to play one striker, we need a more balanced player (imo).

This. Pure histrionics. The professionally outraged.

Money, a likely 2.5X-3X wage structure, international prestige, reality, etc etc.

Yeah, that's called confirmation bias

Just do an Arsene, get him to sign, and renege later

You're welcome/No worries I haven't even factored in Reed/Clasie (edit: have now), but one assumes they're likely to drop off of the radar too, in spite of Reed being the "best player to come through the academy" blah blah

Ummm, let's look. As previously, 25 players max, including 8 home-grown (HG) or club-grown (CG), and excluding players who are 21 years old (U21) on or after 01/01/1996. The squad is as follows... Homegrown/Foreign [table="width: 1000] [tr] [td]Goalkeepers (3)[/td] [td]Central Defenders (5)[/td] [td]Fullbacks (5)[/td] [td]Central Midfielders (5)[/td] [td]Advanced Midfielders (5)[/td] [td]Forwards (3)[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Fraser Forster HG[/td] [td]Wesley Hoedt[/td] [td]Ryan Bertrand HG[/td] [td]Oriel Romeu[/td] [td]Dusan Tadic[/td] [td]Manolo Gabbiadini[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Alex McCarthy HG[/td] [td]Maya Yoshida[/td] [td]Matt Targett CG[/td] [td]Mario Lemina [/td] [td]Sofiane Boufal[/td] [td]Charlie Austin HG[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Stuart Taylor HG[/td] [td]Jack Stephens HG[/td] [td]Sam McQueen CG[/td] [td]Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg[/td] [td]Nathan Redmond HG[/td] [td]Shane Long HG[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td][/td] [td]Jan Bednarek U21[/td] [td]Cedric Soares[/td] [td]Steven Davis HG[/td] [td]Josh Sims CG + U21[/td] [td] [/td] [/tr] [tr] [td][/td] [td]Florin Gardos[/td] [td]Jeremy Pied[/td] [td]James Ward Prowse[/td] [td]Jake Hesketh CG + U21[/td] [td][/td] [/tr] [/table] Total - 26 Total Requiring Registration - 23 Of which HG or CG - 13 Players requiring registration next season who are currently discounted (5) - Jan Bednarek, Jordy Clasie, Harrison Reed, Jake Hesketh, Sam Gallagher (plus a few lesser known youths). Conclusion So the short term view would be to say we have two registration spots available immediately..... ...but Bednarek, Hesketh, and Gallagher will have to be registered next season (Sims has another season at U21 status). However, you can pretty much discount Florin Gardos since he hasn't featured all season, and likely won't again. So we have three spots 'available', all three of which 'disappear' next season if we intened to use Bednarek/Hesketh/Gallagher - crunch time for these players really.

----------------Forster (ffs)------------ Pied---Stephens---Hoedt---Targett ----------Romeu-----Lemina---------- ----------------Hojbjerg---------------- Tadic-----------Gabbi-----------Boufal Davis for Rom/Lemina/Hoj to play AM if we're still in it with 30 mins to go.

Like deliberately kicking someone in the head, you mean?

No point in keeping your best player if he isn't prepared to be your best player (in terms of performance). The club were right to keep him in the summer mind, a stand needed to be made, and one simply couldn't predict that the guy would sulk indefinitely. Edit: and that we would be in such a precarious position. Far easier to hold firm when relegation isn't a possibility.

Cheers. Not sure that quite tallies with the initial claim, but an interesting/alarming read all the same, especially as it's slightly incongruent with what I remember reading (linked below) from Romeu this season...not that that surprises me, since Romeu's form has been all over the place this season, so it's only fitting that his thought processes match http://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2017/12/02/southamptons-oriol-romeu-handed-lasting-impression-pep-guardiola/. (last paragraph)