Would you rather?

[Saint86]

Seen Adkins name mentioned a lot on the forum today.

 

1.) Would fans be happy with Adkins, but struggling in the prem and possibly relegated and playing championship footy next year (with the kids)?

 

Alternatives being:

 

2.) Sacking the manager and getting someone like BFS / Pulis

 

3.) More of the same, either with mopey or a mopey/Puel clone?

 

For me, I would prefer to play attacking football, and dropping out of form players for kids. Even if that meant we struggled.

 

I should add that I don't think there is a cat in hell's chance of us appointing Adkins as manager! Just curious of the fans wider mood?

Edited 19 November, 2017 by Saint86

[LGTL]

I'd rather we just employed a competent manager.

[Pamplemousse]

Adkins as a caretaker manager until we get our first choice in the summer would be OK.

[ally_uk]

For me Saints have lost the identity what happened to the fullback bombing forwards and overlapping, the pressing and high fitness we displayed. Also not being afraid to bed in and field youth products? It's like preseason the lads did a tournament in a retirement home and lost the ability to play actual football at a high tempo..... No pace, no creativity, no passion the manager couldn't inspire an Eskimo to get out of bed during a heatwave.... What hope so we have?

[doddisalegend]

For me Saints have lost the identity what happened to the fullback bombing forwards and overlapping, the pressing and high fitness we displayed. Also not being afraid to bed in and field youth products? It's like preseason the lads did a tournament in a retirement home and lost the ability to play actual football at a high tempo..... No pace, no creativity, no passion the manager couldn't inspire an Eskimo to get out of bed during a heatwave.... What hope so we have?

 

 

We haven't pressed with high fitness since Poch left, our full backs still get forward hence why we have the highest number of crosses in the league ( the poor quality of the crosses is another debate) and we didn't really play the youth under Koeman though we did under Puel.

 

This identity (the Southampton way) thing has always been PR bollix none of our managers in the PL have played the same style.

[SKD]

Adkins would be a disaster and if we were to appoint him, even if it’s just until the end of the season, then we would be in no better position than we are now and most probably go down.

 

Wouldn’t touch Pulis with a barge pole, but BFS would be okay until the end of the season, he’d certainly keep us up, but that just won’t happen.

[sandwichsaint]

Love Adkins to bits, he presided over some of the very best times in my 50 years of Saints-watching but can we just leave him out of all this? Top, top bloke and I would love him around the club in some sort of fronting-up-the-academy type role but he's not the answer at first team level.

 

I think the owners have three (four!) main options:

 

keep MoPe and accept we go down, sell 3 players at xmas and 4-5 more at the end of the season, basically slash and burn, get a lump of their money back and start again in the championship with the parachute money and gives time to find a new manager

 

bring in a safe pair of hands, BFS/Pulis/Pardew would all keep this squad up short-term, whether that's what the fans want or is best for our long term position is debatable.

 

bin MoPe, roll the dice on another LesReed/Blackbox-type manager and hope we find the next Wagner

 

four, there's always the do-nothing option, pray that MoPe morphs into a decent manager, the players refind their form/fitness/mojo and we start to get some points on the board.

 

 

It's not my money but as a fan I'd favour options 1 or 2, over 3 and 4.

[mrfahaji]

I'd rather we just employed a competent manager.

 

Obviously this is the right answer. Why is everyone incapable of considering options other than Adkins, Pulis & Allardyce?!

[doddisalegend]

Obviously this is the right answer. Why is everyone incapable of considering options other than Adkins, Pulis & Allardyce?!

 

 

Or Dyche, Silva or Rodgers basically "PL Proven" is the mantra of the day..

[Wrensup]

As much as I love Adkins, there would be little point as most of the players, back room staff and infrastructure has change. So I doubt we'd get the old getting the band back together feeling really.

[sandwichsaint]

You have to go back 6 managers till we had a PL proven manger. Do you really think the SouthamptonWay Leopard will change its spots?

[Super_Uwe]

I honestly think Adkins could come back and do a decent job for us.

 

It is a different scenario to the one he had before, but the one thing he will get instantly is the respect of the fans. I said a few weeks back that he never properly got his chance in the Premier League - I think he would love to come back and finish the job that he did here. I also personally think he would get the best out of Gabbiadini and Austin who I believe are key in getting our season firing again.

[Lord Duckhunter]

I must admit the idea is growing on me, mainly because of the depressing names being banded about. He would certainly want the job even if it was on a short term temporary basis. It would be the feelgood factor rather than his coaching ability that would keep us up, that, and maybe the shackles being taken off one or two players. The big doubt is the players, if they didn’t respect Puel with his record as a player & manager are they going to respect Nige. Personally I’d rather see him as Reeds replacement rather than the managers

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[SKD]

I honestly think Adkins could come back and do a decent job for us.

 

It is a different scenario to the one he had before, but the one thing he will get instantly is the respect of the fans. I said a few weeks back that he never properly got his chance in the Premier League - I think he would love to come back and finish the job that he did here. I also personally think he would get the best out of Gabbiadini and Austin who I believe are key in getting our season firing again.

 

What in Adkins career suggests that he'll be able to turn the sinking ship round?

 

He took over us when we arguably and with the benefit of hindsight had the best squad in both L1 and the championship... Poch came in and took us to another level.

 

Adkins had his chance in the PL with us and Reading... More recently, he was terrible at Sheff Utd, who's fans hate him now as a result.

 

Given what he done for us, he'd be a decent choice for our academy but in no way should he even be considered to make a return. There's a reason why he's without a job and clubs aren't really queuing to get him...

[DuncanRG]

Adkins is a daft fan fantasy. None of your options are much good but that's by far the worst.

[Dark Munster]

I'd much rather we bring back the other Nige.

[the saint in winchester]

Get me Nathan Jones, the Luton manager! They are scoring 6 and 7 in games in League 2, and his No9 as well, Danny Hylton.

Attacking football, yes please.

[Pamplemousse]

What in Adkins career suggests that he'll be able to turn the sinking ship round?

 

He took over us when we arguably and with the benefit of hindsight had the best squad in both L1 and the championship... Poch came in and took us to another level.

 

Adkins had his chance in the PL with us and Reading... More recently, he was terrible at Sheff Utd, who's fans hate him now as a result.

 

Given what he done for us, he'd be a decent choice for our academy but in no way should he even be considered to make a return. There's a reason why he's without a job and clubs aren't really queuing to get him...

 

We were in the relegation zone when he took over. If he had been here for the entire season, we'd have won League 1 easily.

 

Remember his last game... losing 2-0 away at Chelsea at half time, we came back to 2-2. He could turn our form around quite easily.

[Batman]

We were in the relegation zone when he took over. If he had been here for the entire season, we'd have won League 1 easily.

 

Remember his last game... losing 2-0 away at Chelsea at half time, we came back to 2-2. He could turn our form around quite easily.

if he could do that easily. how come he failed pretty badly at reading and Sheffield United?

[Pamplemousse]

if he could do that easily. how come he failed pretty badly at reading and Sheffield United?

 

It would be easier here - he'd have the fans on board right from the start. The upturn in atmosphere alone would help improve the team.

 

Brendan Rodgers failed at Reading too, and he'd be my number 1 choice. And a whole host of managers had failed at Sheffield United before him, he wasn't the only one. He did bring in Billy Sharp back though, which has helped them enormously.

[SKD]

We were in the relegation zone when he took over. If he had been here for the entire season, we'd have won League 1 easily.

 

Remember his last game... losing 2-0 away at Chelsea at half time, we came back to 2-2. He could turn our form around quite easily.

 

It would be easier here - he'd have the fans on board right from the start. The upturn in atmosphere alone would help improve the team.

 

Talking absolute nonsense once again.

 

In all seriousness, can you imagine a squad of full international players reaction to being told that the relatively unknown (outside of saints) Nigel Adkins was taking charge.

 

Take off you red and white, nostalgic, tinted glasses and actually think about what you're saying.... And you call others clueless

[Pamplemousse]

Talking absolute nonsense once again.

 

In all seriousness, can you imagine a squad of full international players reaction to being told that the relatively unknown (outside of saints) Nigel Adkins was taking charge.

 

Take off you red and white, nostalgic, tinted glasses and actually think about what you're saying.... And you call others clueless

 

Right, because they're performing under Pellegrino...

 

And you want Big Sam!! :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

None of what I say is untrue at all, and you know it. Boufal would thrive under Adkins, just like Lallana did. A dinosaur like Allardyce is not the answer.

[SKD]

Right, because they're performing under Pellegrino...

 

And you want Big Sam!! :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

None of what I say is untrue at all, and you know it. Boufal would thrive under Adkins, just like Lallana did. A dinosaur like Allardyce is not the answer.

 

I haven’t said they are performing under Puelegrino... in fact the opposite which is why he needs to go.

 

As for Big Sam, I don’t want him at all. Do I think he’d keep us up? Yes. Would he organise us, and get a bit of confidence back? Yes. Do I think he’s as bad as people make out? No. Would he be good until the end of the season? Most likely.

 

Lallana didn’t thrive under Adkins... it was Poch who came in and took that squad and us as a club to the next level. At the time, Lallana was an excellent player (too good) for the championship... let alone L1.

 

I don’t know how often you go or went to St Mary’s but I remember a number of games where we were tactically out thought (reading and QPR at home come to mind).

 

Each to their own, If you honestly believe Adkins would find it “easy” to turn us around, then so be it..... I’m glad you have no input into our club though.

[Pamplemousse]

I haven’t said they are performing under Puelegrino... in fact the opposite which is why he needs to go.

 

As for Big Sam, I don’t want him at all. Do I think he’d keep us up? Yes. Would he organise us, and get a bit of confidence back? Yes. Do I think he’s as bad as people make out? No. Would he be good until the end of the season? Most likely.

 

Lallana didn’t thrive under Adkins... it was Poch who came in and took that squad and us as a club to the next level. At the time, Lallana was an excellent player (too good) for the championship... let alone L1.

 

I don’t know how often you go or went to St Mary’s but I remember a number of games where we were tactically out thought (reading and QPR at home come to mind).

 

Each to their own, If you honestly believe Adkins would find it “easy” to turn us around, then so be it..... I’m glad you have no input into our club though.

 

What are you on about?

 

We are organised defensively already. We've conceded fewer goals than Liverpool, Arsenal, amongst many others. Defence is not the issue (not including the goalkeeper obviously) - it's the attack. We don't need another defensive manager, we need someone who will play on the front foot.

 

Rodgers is my first choice but Adkins would improve us in that regard as well.

[davefoggy]

I would brng the other Nigel back....Pearson.

 

Was brilliant in his short spell with us before

[mrfahaji]

What are you on about?

 

We are organised defensively already. We've conceded fewer goals than Liverpool, Arsenal, amongst many others. Defence is not the issue (not including the goalkeeper obviously) - it's the attack. We don't need another defensive manager, we need someone who will play on the front foot.

 

Rodgers is my first choice but Adkins would improve us in that regard as well.

 

Hmmm not so sure about that. For a side that plays soooo defensively like we do, our defence should be watertight! Our defence is not 'a problem', though goalkeeper is, but I don't think Pellegrino organises our defence as well as Puel or Koeman did. And clearly Allardyce would make it even better. Surely you must also see that a defence is good because the manager makes it so, not because it looks after itself. It might be ok now, but if Adkins were to come in, it wouldn't necessarily stay that way!

 

I also don't want Allardyce anywhere near our club, don't find him a pleasant human being and his teams have been the worst to watch when I've seen them at St Mary's. West Ham & Sunderland play every trick in the book and it doesn't make for a good spectacle. BUT he did do a bit more with Palace and if you want to talk about flair players... didn't he have Okocha and Djorkaeff as key players at Bolton?

[Dalek2003]

OK, OK I know on another post that I said no to Hoddle, but now I am thinking maybe...

 

Anyone with me on this ?

[SKD]

Hmmm not so sure about that. For a side that plays soooo defensively like we do, our defence should be watertight! Our defence is not 'a problem', though goalkeeper is, but I don't think Pellegrino organises our defence as well as Puel or Koeman did. And clearly Allardyce would make it even better. Surely you must also see that a defence is good because the manager makes it so, not because it looks after itself. It might be ok now, but if Adkins were to come in, it wouldn't necessarily stay that way!

 

I also don't want Allardyce anywhere near our club, don't find him a pleasant human being and his teams have been the worst to watch when I've seen them at St Mary's. West Ham & Sunderland play every trick in the book and it doesn't make for a good spectacle. BUT he did do a bit more with Palace and if you want to talk about flair players... didn't he have Okocha and Djorkaeff as key players at Bolton?

 

He doesn’t have a clue what he’s on about.

 

A watertight organised defence that have conceded 2 against West Ham, wolves, Watford, Stoke and Newcastle. Shipping 3 at Liverpool and a goal a piece against Brighton and Burnley.

 

It’s easy to look at goals conceded and see we’re below whoever, but we’ve had the easiest set of fixtures in the league to date. Let’s see how that stat compares once we’ve played everyone in the league shall we.

[Crab Lungs]

I would brng the other Nigel back....Pearson.

 

Was brilliant in his short spell with us before

 

Am I missing something here? We were dull as dishwater IIRC

[Pamplemousse]

He doesn’t have a clue what he’s on about.

 

A watertight organised defence that have conceded 2 against West Ham, wolves, Watford, Stoke and Newcastle. Shipping 3 at Liverpool and a goal a piece against Brighton and Burnley.

 

It’s easy to look at goals conceded and see we’re below whoever, but we’ve had the easiest set of fixtures in the league to date. Let’s see how that stat compares once we’ve played everyone in the league shall we.

 

We're 7th in the table for goals conceded. Assuming that there is roughly where we are aiming to finish, the defence is doing OK. Attack is the issue that needs fixing.

[Super_Uwe]

What in Adkins career suggests that he'll be able to turn the sinking ship round?

 

He took over us when we arguably and with the benefit of hindsight had the best squad in both L1 and the championship... Poch came in and took us to another level.

 

Adkins had his chance in the PL with us and Reading... More recently, he was terrible at Sheff Utd, who's fans hate him now as a result.

 

Given what he done for us, he'd be a decent choice for our academy but in no way should he even be considered to make a return. There's a reason why he's without a job and clubs aren't really queuing to get him...

 

Yeah, but my point is he didn't really get a chance with us in the Prem. I'm not saying we didn't do well to get Pochettino, but we didn't give him the boot solely because of results. In fact at the time we were doing much better that we had at the start of that season - only 2 losses in the 12 games before we sacked him I believe.

[Manuel]

Adkins was never given a chance at this level. I enjoyed his pressing, energetic style of football and I think Poch gets a lot of credit for what he inherited from Adkins. Also to get back to back promotions you must be able to motivate and organise a team, something we could do with now. If I could swap our current manager for Adkins I'd give it a go.

[Batman]

Adkins was never given a chance at this level. I enjoyed his pressing, energetic style of football and I think Poch gets a lot of credit for what he inherited from Adkins. Also to get back to back promotions you must be able to motivate and organise a team, something we could do with now. If I could swap our current manager for Adkins I'd give it a go.

 

what about his time at Reading?

[ART]

Someone readily available who could do a far better job than Pellegrino is GUS Poyet. Given à contract till the end of the season and a massive bonus for a top 6 finish would be well worth taking him on

[Give it to Ron]

OK, OK I know on another post that I said no to Hoddle, but now I am thinking maybe...

 

Anyone with me on this ?

Why whats wrong with Farke?

 

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

[Dark Munster]

Am I missing something here? We were dull as dishwater IIRC

I think you're missing that we had a crap squad at that time, and he performed a minor miracle to keep us up. He's also someone who won't take any shit from our current crop of prima donnas.

[mrfahaji]

What in Adkins career suggests that he'll be able to turn the sinking ship round?

 

 

Even if he could turn the ship around, not sure that helps if it's sinking. We're doomed!

[saint1977]

None of this stuff makes sense as so much of football support is built on hope and not knowing what's going to happen.

 

With our club size, money and squad, any good manager can have us 7th/8th/9th each season. A really really good run could have us closer to top 6th, or a poor manager could relegate us.

 

Wouldn't assume Adkins would be worse than MP at all, but we should aim higher. We're a far bigger club than the one Adkins left and he'd probably struggle to get instant respect from the squad coming in from nowhere.

 

All I want to see from us is reinvesting our sales money well, bringing youngsters through and not being afraid to playing attacking football.

 

Hit the nail on the head for the majority of our fanbase I suspect.

[Saint IQ]

Us and the Koeman's should have never split. Youngsters are getting even less of a chance this season than under him and that seemed to be the only reasonable argument that we would be better off with out him.

[Saint86]

If we are going to sack the manager, I'd sack him for a half competent loyalist.

 

I'd rather we supported the manager and give him decent players. And I'd rather we got rid of pretty much our entire top order board wise. I'd far rather we did that than anything else tbh. Stale, stagnant and old at the top... and its showing now at all levels of the club. Well, except the clubs advertising, we are quite good at youtube videos...

[SKD]

What are you on about?

 

We are organised defensively already. We've conceded fewer goals than Liverpool, Arsenal, amongst many others. Defence is not the issue (not including the goalkeeper obviously) - it's the attack. We don't need another defensive manager, we need someone who will play on the front foot.

 

Oh dear

[Portugalsaint]

You have to agree with Dave merrington on Solent today. We have lost the defence since Fonte left. Fonte was an organiser and excellent as a Captain. Since he has gone we have looked weak. There has been Lovren, Van Dijk etc. But it was Fonte who organised the defence the others do not have the intelligence, let them go its been seen these defectors go to a new club and fail including Fonte himself. The manager should be sacked before we end up relegated.

[Pamplemousse]

Oh dear

 

We had Van Dijk in the team then. As well as our first choice full backs.

 

Only a fool would claim we’re defensively organised at the moment.

[SKD]

We had Van Dijk in the team then. As well as our first choice full backs.

 

Only a fool would claim we’re defensively organised at the moment.

 

We also hadn’t played all of the top teams, like I’m sure some pointed out...

[Pamplemousse]

We also hadn’t played all of the top teams, like I’m sure some pointed out...

 

First choice defence out at Man City and we did OK.

 

Three of those out of the team and we conceded five today.

 

Surely even you can work that out, right?

[SKD]

First choice defence out at Man City and we did OK.

 

Three of those out of the team and we conceded five today.

 

Surely even you can work that out, right?

 

How do you explain the tonkings against Liverpool and Leicester then?

[ALWAYS_SFC]

How do you explain the tonkings against Liverpool and Leicester then?

 

We were nowhere near as bad against them two as we were today and we were crap then

[Pamplemousse]

How do you explain the tonkings against Liverpool and Leicester then?

 

Liverpool was an off day.

 

Leicester with a better manager tactically outclassed ours.

 

I don’t think you’re going to get it, and not for the first time, so we’ll leave it at that.

[James]

We were nowhere near as bad against them two as we were today and we were crap then

 

It seems we caught City on an "off" day - they had a bit of a wobble (be their standards) when they played against us and then West Ham. We credited the narrow defeat to some sort of tactical inspiration by Pell because it came immediately after the 4-1 against Everton. Yes, we had some players out today but we are going to sell Van Dijk so it was still our first choice CB pairing out there today.

[SKD]

Liverpool was an off day.

 

Leicester with a better manager tactically outclassed ours.

 

I don’t think you’re going to get it, and not for the first time, so we’ll leave it at that.

 

Nope, I fully get that BFS would have improved us as a team and almost certainly kept us up. It seems as if you don’t get it, your argument was that we don’t need BFS as we are defensively sound and just don’t score goals.

 

We are not defensively sound, as demonstrated today and on a number of other occasions 3 of our back 4 out or not.

 

To Puels credit, we were defensively organised under him as we were under Koeman (he just played in a more direct and exciting way possibly due to personal)).

Edited 26 December, 2017 by SKD