mrfahaji

Why is it weird to discuss Promes? Are you saying that he is too good for us? I thought we were trying to get a deal for him done in January and the only reason we didn't was because his club wanted to eek out more money?

People tend to talk about Sisto & Promes in the same breath, so thought I’d watch some of those YouTube videos. Pretty striking difference if you ask me. Now I know that these videos do not give a true reflection of how good a player is, how they have been asked to play by the manager, or the quality of opposition, but you can certainly get an idea of a player’s style. Sisto seems to plays just like Redmond. Plays on the left and looks to cut in every time he gets it. Rarely beats a man and has quite a few ‘nearly’ shots on goal. Promes, on the other hand, goes past people regardless of what side of the pitch he’s on and clearly has an eye for goal. A much more exciting prospect to me. Perhaps someone who has seen either or both of them play frequently could shed some light on these observations? I wonder if going for Sisto would show that we are looking to play the same way, just with a potential upgrade on what we have. Given my biggest frustration with Redmond is the fact he always cuts inside and never takes anyone on due to his position/instructions, I clearly hope the deal for Promes is still on the table.

A good selection! Rickie is definitely in there if we're allowed to include matches not involving Saints, but is it allowed? What about Le Tiissier coming on vs Wimbledon in 1999?

By the same token, I worry that not appointing him might be a bit deflating for the players. In that case, the new manager would have to make an immediate impact to get players onside.

Paul Moody vs Newcastle is definitely the best 'nearly substitution'.

Not sure about that percentage. I've got him down as having a 60% win ratio, which is pretty good. The problem is we had too many 1-1 or 0-0 wins.

But at the Euros we had two players in the final, meaning they didn't get back until late in the summer (I thought there were others who got back late too but might be wrong on that). Didn't Fonte and Cedric both miss the first couple of games? Can't see Denmark, Poland, Serbia or Japan reaching the latter stages so hopefully not too much disruption.

Have all the squads been announced now? Do we know how many players we'll have there? I'm hopeful that this may mean less disruption to next season's preparations. Not like a couple of seasons ago when we had half our team arriving back late and missing PL games because they weren't fit. It also points to the declining quality of our squad that we have so few at the World Cup, but every silver lining has a cloud!

I enjoyed 97% of that sentence.

Ok, yes you are right, it is impossible to know 100% whether Pellegrino would have done as well as Hughes if he stayed in the job. But by that reckoning why bother changing or doing anything at all to effect change, because the consequences might have happened anyway? The reason I and just about every other poster on here believe that we fared better under Hughes than we would have done under Pellegrino is based on a number factors we witnessed before and after his appointment. We could all be wrong, but you have to make decisions based on that information, rather than being somewhat fatalistic (not even sure that 'but that might have happened anyway' is fatalistic...)

He's certainly one dimensional, and Villa sought to nullify him by sticking 2 or 3 players on him. Add to that the Villa defenders are quite an experienced bunch. Perhaps Boro should have tried to exploit gaps elsewhere on the field, but they didn't, kept trying the same tactics. By all accounts Pulis has transformed Traore since his arrival. He's not garbage any more, but perhaps still not a Premier League level player. The thing is, although he is one dimensional, that weapon he has - his pace - is ridiculous. He makes Shane Long look like JWP (Ok maybe that's going too far). As we know from Shane, bucketloads of speed isn't great on its own, but it can be useful at times, and if you manage to put some football ability into the mix as well, it's lethal.

What about Tottenham? They might be without a manager soon

Jesus, Ralph just said "stable and strong"... could do without those parallels!

I don't mind Krueger to be honest. I know his statements are mostly waffle, but apart cringing at his various soundbites, it's harmless enough. I'm not quite sure what he brings to the table, but when I look at the things that have gone wrong of late they appear to be more Reed's responsibility. I could be totally wrong of course, but it's my perception. Obviously it's good we stayed up, but Ralph must be smarting that we didn't manage a single-digit finish this year.

Hard to believe that one can construct such coherent sentences on here yet prefer "We go now to DEFEAT the bad WIGONE in the cup match! Let's be WARRIORS!" type messages on Twitter.

We have great facilities, but ultimately it's not the spacious lockers or the 3G pitches which make the players get better (though obviously it's good that a lack of facilities doesn't hinder their development). The most important parts of the 'assembly line' are the scouts who identify the talent in the first place, and the coaches who are responsible for developing it. If we've cut corners in these areas, either by penny pinching or giving "jobs for the boys", then we should expect to see the output of our academy decline.

I, for one.

His name shouldn't even be mentioned on here it's such a ridiculous notion. I always think Saints fans are a fairly realistic bunch...

Because in the fickle world of football management, people want a bit of security. Hughes might start the season badly, lose his job 2 months in (though he probably has 9 months guaranteed with this board...) and struggle to find work for another year or so. Yes, from the outside he is paid handsomely for his job and it's "up to him to do it well", but in an environment where there always has to be some teams/managers struggling and under pressure, you understand why managers want to add that security into their negotiations. Though perhaps a 2-year contract, with an option to extend after year 1 etc.

Yes it would have done. But it didn't go into meltdown when we appointed him because most people knew the severity of the situation and apart from possibly Marco Silva, there weren't any other viable options. But now he has been here, it's hard to dispute that he has got the players onside, he has given them some belief, and he has got us playing with a bit more purpose. On paper there might be a better manager out there, and the club would be silly not to at least look around to consider the options. But really, unless we can attract a world class manager (which, if we couldn't last summer, why would we now?) then a marginally/questionably better manager than Hughes is surely offset by the risk that he isn't good enough. At least we know that Hughes can give us some of the things we are missing. It's a bit like a game show when you have to gamble your prize money for a chance to win more. Maybe it's worth gambling your £1,000 for a chance to win £100,000, but not if the prize is £1,200.

Have you? Do you think these comments and actions are out of keeping with his personality? (this isn't a flippant comment btw, as much as it sounds like it!)

I would too, except if this latest stuff is true then it shows a complete lack of humility. Strikes me that he will always be one of those players to let his manager, teammates and fans down with his attitude and approach. Maybe Hughes can "talk him round", and I would be happy if he does because he is a talented player. But how long will it be until the next fall out? And say we start seeing the player many of us think he could be, how long before he starts wanting to jump ship for a bigger club? Faster than you can say "I'm on strike", I'd wager. You also have to wonder who is advising him (and footballers in general).

Don't forget Forster.

Maybe they could extend it so that the top 6 p1ss off and play in their own little mini league, and leave the rest of us to it.

Come off it. We had reached the final of a cup competition three days before! Sure it was a bit of an embarrassing scoreline, but in terms of the occasion (and I'm not generally one to be down on the FA Cup) it really didn't matter that we lost, certainly not worse than our inept Europa League performances in Prague and at home to Be'er Sheva.