eddie

That's ****ing nonsense. The lack of goal threat started last season and will take time to rectify. By the looks of things though, Long, Tadic, Lemina and Romeu (along with back 5) are looking very very good. I'd far rather have a basis like this to build on where MP figures out his best 11 than spontaneous one off good performances. Either way it's a **** result for the way we played, and we didn't score which is a ****ing ballache.

Not a lot other than available players (either injury or through transfers). March was very recent. I don't expect a huge amount to change in the first couple of months. What I meant by 'not worthy of the job' is about the capability/ceiling of the respective managers. Pellegrino is I believe capable of bringing us to a next level. Tactically, transfers (whatever his involvement is), his coaching and his man management (VVD a case in point). I think Puel was fine, just that he ran out of ideas and creativity in many ways. The team we see now I believe was the best that Puel could coach to. The League Cup aside, we were very lucky to win 8th. There were six points I believe between us and 14th/15th place. This team is the team that Pellegrino has inherited, but I don't believe it's at the ceiling. I think he's capable of bringing a lot more out the boys than before.

Both not worthy of the jobs in the first place and were wrong appointments. Once appointed, they were fired prematurely. Either way football isn't like FIFA. I play with players who are fantastic at #10 behind the striker but complete dog**** if they play on the outside. I agree I think we have the guys to play the system you suggest: Soares started life as a winger before moving to defense. Bertrand is often very good overlapping with Redmond. The bigger issue is that the formation you suggest requires a capable #10 (e.g. Sigurdsson, Alli, de Bruyne/Silva) which we just do not have, not to the quality of what would be required...

I'm quite happy to stick with the tactical opinion of the bloke who got the job at a top premier league club to be honest

This is literally just true. Two things: The fact we are recruiting more and more overseas (look at the number of nationalities in our squad...) means we're getting more and more players who only grew up supporting one of Arsenal, Liverpool, Man U and maybe Chelsea. The kind of player who would turn down a big move and choose to stay at Saints is: - a player who isn't good enough to start at new Club and knows it - a local boy who's dream is to play for Saints Those are the only remote people we have any chance of keeping next season. All the others, maybe Hoedt is one, wouldn't turn the chance to move to a big club they have heard of since they were a kid. A local recruitment strategy or enormous wage budget are the only ways to keep people.

I mean that he's the only one who does that. When he's in the team and NOT PLAYING AS A DEFENSIVE MIDFIELDER then he plays that role well. Effectively, a 2-1 in midfield with Lemina and Romeu behind him. Frees him of defensive duties and enables him to play in the pocket between midfield and attack.

Harsh. I repeat what I've said before: Davis is not the fittest, fastest, most defensive or most creative player that we have in our midfield. However, what he does do is the EXACT thing we are missing. He links play through the middle of the park. There are very few players in our squad who will successfully do short 1-2 passes with the defense or with the defensive midfield, and then find a good pass forward. Too often we either play out to the wings, and expect Cedric/Tadic or Bertrand/Redmond to do some magic OR we hook it long to Gabbiadini or someone else and expect them to find space. Very few players play along the ground passes through the middle of the park and it's EXACTLY what Davis is great for. We sorely miss creativity in the #10 role, but at least Davis makes an effort to play the ball there. I don't say he's a strong player, but for me, until we have another player like him, he should be playing. Hojbjerg does short passes, but never comes forward and loses the ball all the ****ing time. Redmond and Tadic either don't come back very often, or choose the more complicated pass which doesn't always come off.

Found this 8-10 million apparently Source seems to re post utter drivel but this seems in line with what we all think

Do you mean Lacazette? the guy they just bought six weeks ago? Walcott would be nice though. Or even Iwobi.

Don't get this. Have to play Davis to link midfield and attack. Have to drop Tadic and good on set pieces though JWP is, he's not as good an out-and-out attacker as the others. Have to play our only out and out striker (Austin) for goals sake. I'd play Forster Cedric Stephens/Yoshi Hoedt Bertrand Romeu Lemina Gabbiadini Davis Boufal Austin

The thing about Davis is that without someone like him, the ball never goes through the middle of the park. Romeu is forced to play balls over the top which are difficult to get right. Otherwise, Cedric/Bertie play it down the wings. But playing it on the pitch through the middle requires someone like Davis to pick the ball up from midfield and bring it forward. I think he isn't the best goalscorer (not bad though in the box), nor the fastest, but he does link up play very well. PEH also tries this way of playing also (short passes, triangles to get past opposition, playing incisive passes to the strikers) but loses the ball too often and doesn't know what to do with his feet in the final third. I think until we replace him we need Davis to be playing in attack, such is our lack of intelligent creative play. Tadic manages some trickery in bouts but Davis puts in so much more effort than him. He's 32 and works harder than many out there. Davis should be at least in the starting 11, even if he gets replaced due to fatigue in the second half. Now Lemina is in, I would put Davis almost as a #10 with Gabbiadini/Boufal out wide and Austin up front. Or else change Austin for JWP and switch the positions.

Thought he looked like a poor mans Pogba. Able to play deep, covering behind and at the sides, also not too bad upfront - a physical presence, can put in a tackle and pick out a pass. Seems to be an intelligent player and quite nicely fits the missing gap in midfield we had before. Hopefully the fact he'll partner Romeu gives Davis more freedom further up the pitch.

****ing hell mate your sarcastic dog crap has officially ****ed me off. well done, blocked and hope you have time to reflect on why you spend you saturday wasting your time and ours

Think Pellegrino will pick: ----------------Forster----------------- Cedric--Stephens--Yoshida--Bertrand ----------Romeu------Lemina--------- --JWP----------Tadic----------Redmond -------------Gabbiadini----------------- Don't think Hoedt will start barely a week after signing. Davis might start ahead of JWP and Tadic pushed out wide, but for me you want JWP on the outside as he's the best crosser.

Never, never, never give up Virgil.

I wouldn't think any less of Les or Ralph if they decided to sell. I don't trust what people say in front of the camera anyway (i.e. club videos from Ralph/Les) given it is just marketing anyway - how they present the club. Marketing and branding are a necessary evil to shine a good light on the club, but it's all fake. It's not an easy decision. For people saying it's black and white, that Van Dijk should be "left to rot", nonsense. If he refuses to play and brings a "toxic" atmosphere to the dressing room I would be very wary about keeping him around the club. My guess is the club predicted that by releasing such a public statement ("we are keeping VVD"), they would convince Van Dijk to stay. It obviously hasn't happened, so now the situation has changed. I don't feel "betrayed" by Les & co if they were to sell him now. If it really is as toxic as papers are claiming, and has gone so downhill in the last couple of weeks, I don't want much to do with the guy. It's difficult to see a player just for their physical attributes. He was captain for ****s sake. The leadership, example, organisation of the team, motivation. These are very important and I doubt that he can bring anything like what we expect of him in those areas. He's a tall presence in the box and that's about it. By letting him go now, they recover his wages and arguably his highest transfer fee. Who knows how he could devalue next year if he doesn't play. I'm not saying unequivocally kick him out. I'm saying it really really is not an easy decision for the club. It's not black and white. If he goes, we win a lot of money but the club have caved in. If we keep him, there is no guarantee whatsoever that he is worth 70m on the pitch to us. His integration, dressing room atmosphere, motivation and presence on the pitch are no guarantees at all. We could keep him and he never plays for us again until he's sold in January for much less.

To the JWP comment its not. It's just abuse directed at him. I'm completely fine with that. Actually quite enjoy it once in a while. What ****es me off more is when people genuinely try to post a big ****ing post like 'JWP has been our star performer, here are the stats, in which games etc.' Like they want to address the comment itself.

Why are you posting this **** about JWP on three separate threads? Are you just wanting people to respond? Not even going to address the JWP comment. It's this dumb **** that clogs up this forum. People don't even care about football anymore, they just want to waste their ****ing time and others by getting people to respond to straw man arguments. ****ing pathetic.

Apparently Clasie has been listed for transfer according to sky sources. Wouldn't surprise me. Like the guy, felt he never was trusted by any of the managers and I think we all felt he was a little too similar to Reed to offer anything unique or take us to the next level. Wouldn't be sad to seem him go for the team, though it's a shame his career didn't develop with us.

Strange - would agree that VVD would only improve the side but I thought Yoshida and Stephens put in some excellent tackles and Stephens had some excellent 1 v 1 with a beast of Antonio. I think the greater problem was aerial balls and in general reacting quickly in the box. Which are VVD speciality I guess. Lemina got into the game more but the really annoying thing for me was Cedric and Tadic crosses. All day lofted, back post or over hit. Really really poor every time one of them was at the right by line. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Any news here? Ah, nope.

I'd imagine she wants to invest elsewhere. At some point she wants to do something else with the returns she's got/will get. About the 20% share - I'd think she still sees it as profitable and hopes to make something off that remaining 20%. I don't know how much money she sits on but putting so much into one company (Southampton FC) does come with risks. And, could also be simply that she cares about the club and still would like to see it develop. The only way she has any seat at the table in decision making is if she also puts money where her heart is. By 20% she has little overall control but is still able to input. That's at least the optimistic outlook. Could be purely financial though.

That's the Swiss for you. I'd far rather have another Swiss or even a Scandanavian investor above Asian just in the way that business is conducted and the understanding of the culture here or more generally, Europe. I don't say that with anything against them, but investments aren't only financial, they are also about understanding the culture and history of what you are investing in, the factors around it that affect business decisions. It's far more difficult with an investor from an entirely different culture and background. I have a few friends here in Switzerland who have investors in their start up companies and a lot of challenges come when they took money from places like the Middle East instead of looking closer to home.

I think Wimmer's lack of game time is more down to the purchase of Wanyama than anything else. MP prefers Wanyama and Dembele midfield so Dier moves to centre back (where he started) to cover if one of Vertonghen or Alderweireld is injured/suspended. Wimmer becomes 4th choice. And how often do we play our 4th choice? Last season that was Gardos (VVD, Stephens, Yoshi as top 3). I think he hardly touched a ball all season.

Highly doubt Lemina will begin the first premier league game days after signing. If he was proven premier league quality maybe. I see Davis/JWP starting ahead of him and Lemina getting 20 minutes if the game is already won or lost.