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Relegation 22/23: If not Saints then who?

Dusic

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Lighthouse

Lighthouse

Posted
Posted
47 minutes ago, Charlie Wayman said:

About half the fan base would quit and we'd be left with crowds of 15k. Imagine the appeal of Stoke City or Luton Town at SMS on a dark, dank, freezing Tuesday evening. 🤧🥶

No thank you,  🙏 we've been there done that. Most of us want to see Man C, Man U & Arsenal as our visitors on a fine sunny Saturday afternoon.

Anyway, it's all academic as Mr Jones will keep us up.

Crowds never dropped as low as that apart from that one season when Lowe was back in charge and we were getting relegated to League 1. In the other seasons under Burley, Redknapp, Adkins and Pearson we were regularly in the mid-twenties. I'm not saying I want to go down but we'll still pull big gates if we do.

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ally_uk

ally_uk

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Posted

Given it some thought and couldn't give a damm either way infact last couple of seasons Premier league football has lost it's attraction and appeal. 

I've slowly been losing interest same as International football it's a world up? Meh couldn't give a toss 

As people have said previously sooner the Oil clubs form a new league the better they are killing football. 

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Toussaint

Toussaint

Posted
Posted
46 minutes ago, MarkSFC said:

To answer the topic question. 

Who cares....

 

And it won't be us.😉

I hope not, but I feel the years of under investment and / or , transfer market smart- arsery have caught uo with us, whether we can fix that in the next transfer window remains to be seen. 

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Bad Wolf

Bad Wolf

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4 hours ago, egg said:

I'd support us whatever league we're in, but I'd prefer it to be the PL. It's the knock on effect for relegation that often gets overlooked - job losses, attracting and keeping young talent, etc. 

I get that and I'm not saying that I actively want us to go down but if we did, there'd be positives.

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notnowcato

notnowcato

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If not Saints; then who.... cares?

A lot of this thread is for the wrist slitters, the wetters of beds; they'll claim to be realists and then later on "pleased to be proven wrong".

What other teams do is beyond our control.  We need to be laser focussed on reaching 40 points, doing whatever is necessary and I mean whatever.  I was at the Brighton Villa game (long story) but the shithousery from Villa for last 35 minutes was at epic level, not helped by a piss weak performance by the ref.  Unai has Villa battling, feeding off the scraps, their support was fucking loud too.  Our team needs to harden the fuck up, start imposing themselves on the match, if that means Lyanco plays to force the game then so be it.  St Marys was buzzing when we dominated Arsenal - why the hell did the team retreat into its shell in the games that followed?

Nathan has already mentioned the word passive, several times now.  I expect he means both in and out of possession, he won't stand for it and he'll be looking to sort the players out for the 5 month battle that lies ahead.  Nathan has a massive job ahead to turn this around, it's not as simple as finding a striker (although that will help) it's getting the mental attitude, physical presence right, from the first game back against Lincoln, all in.  

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Whitey Grandad

Whitey Grandad

Posted
Posted
4 hours ago, Charlie Wayman said:

About half the fan base would quit and we'd be left with crowds of 15k. Imagine the appeal of Stoke City or Luton Town at SMS on a dark, dank, freezing Tuesday evening. 🤧🥶

No thank you,  🙏 we've been there done that. Most of us want to see Man C, Man U & Arsenal as our visitors on a fine sunny Saturday afternoon.

Anyway, it's all academic as Mr Jones will keep us up.

We'd be there. Proper football. 

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Turkish

Turkish

Posted
Posted (edited)
6 hours ago, Fitzhugh Fella said:

We are going down. Week after week I watch other teams like Brighton Fulham Brentford etc and the standard of football is   simply better than ours. We have too many substandard players like Diallo, Elynoussi Djenepo Arma etc who wouldn’t be getting games for these clubs. Who’s to blame? Everybody. Lack of investment in the Gao era that saw the likes of Ings sold to balance the books. Semmens for believing the Ralph hype. SR for not being bolder in getting rid of Ralph in the summer and then for not delivering a forward in the transfer window. 
To end on a note of optimism if (and it’s a big if) we can hold onto the youngsters we have a manager who knows the Championship well and we have a fair chance of bouncing straight back. Clubs our size can’t afford to make too many mistakes in the PL and we have made too many. 

Along with having his head up Ralphs arse the narrative coming down from this tit shouldn't be underestimated. Lucky to be in the premier league, we should be grateful, the womens team will be as big as the mens etc etc. Leaders set the tone in any business and if you're leader is coming out with all this stuff then is no wonder the general acceptance of mediocrity runs through the club. Plus if rumours are true he ballsed up the striker signing for penny pitching then that is unforgivable. 

Edited by Turkish
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Miltonaggro

Miltonaggro

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Posted
22 hours ago, ecuk268 said:

At this stage of the season in 1998 we had 6 points.

Ended up 5 points clear of the bottom 3.

We also had Ostenstadt, Le Tissier, Beattie and Pahars in the squad that season. Two from that four in terms of calibre come January would be quite handy. 

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the saint in winchester

the saint in winchester

Posted
Posted

pick the 3 from Everton, Southampton, Forest and Wolves.

By the end of January, I'll harden on the 3. Next few games (when we resume EPL) will tell us if Jones can improve Saints, whether Everton stick with Lampard or bring in an upgrade, whether Lopetgui can improve Wolves. Forest can clearly win a game so they are unpredictable.

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CB Fry

CB Fry

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Posted
32 minutes ago, the saint in winchester said:

pick the 3 from Everton, Southampton, Forest and Wolves.

By the end of January, I'll harden on the 3. Next few games (when we resume EPL) will tell us if Jones can improve Saints, whether Everton stick with Lampard or bring in an upgrade, whether Lopetgui can improve Wolves. Forest can clearly win a game so they are unpredictable.

Er, Bournemouth.

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alehouseboys

alehouseboys

Posted
Posted
10 hours ago, Toussaint said:

To be fair our fans were excellent at Liverpool on Saturday, they / we seem right behind NJ

That's good to hear, more about the apathy and 'passive' nature of our support for several seasons.

We already need to rekindle the old 'Great Escape' mentality from the restart onwards.

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Saint Garrett

Saint Garrett

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Posted
On 15/11/2022 at 07:24, Fitzhugh Fella said:

We are going down. Week after week I watch other teams like Brighton Fulham Brentford etc and the standard of football is   simply better than ours. We have too many substandard players like Diallo, Elynoussi Djenepo Arma etc who wouldn’t be getting games for these clubs. Who’s to blame? Everybody. Lack of investment in the Gao era that saw the likes of Ings sold to balance the books. Semmens for believing the Ralph hype. SR for not being bolder in getting rid of Ralph in the summer and then for not delivering a forward in the transfer window. 
To end on a note of optimism if (and it’s a big if) we can hold onto the youngsters we have a manager who knows the Championship well and we have a fair chance of bouncing straight back. Clubs our size can’t afford to make too many mistakes in the PL and we have made too many. 

But you said it was all Ralphs fault?

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tajjuk

tajjuk

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Posted

I think you could make an argument for pretty much everyone from Fulham down bar maybe Leicester who likely had a bad start and will probably be way out of the picture.

IMO there is a much of muchness about 10-11 PL teams, anyone can beat anyone, games will come down to a bit of luck, a dodgy decision, a flash of quality etc. all those teams are capable of decent runs and horrible slumps in form.

Consistently on this forum I have seen people be massively negative about most of our players and massively over estimate other team's squad and signings. Villa being a huge example, people creaming about their signings when in reality most of them have flopped, Forest similar, Palace similar, etc. 

There are just 9 points between 9th and bottom, all those teams could get involved in relegation and again none bar maybe West Ham or Leicester have stand out squads above anyone else. There is more than half the season to go and team's have avoided relegation after losing their first 7 straight or barely having any points on the board, yet we seem to have people panicking because we are ONE WIN from 15th.....

Personally I think with Lavia, KWP back fit and Tino back, our back of 4 of KWP, Bella-Kotchap, Salisu and Tino, with Lavia in front of them is probably the best back line out of those teams mentioned.  Of course going forward we have issues, but one or two players could easily see us be transformed in this regard. 

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Saint86

Saint86

Posted
Posted (edited)
2 hours ago, tajjuk said:

IMO there is a much of muchness about 10-11 PL teams, anyone can beat anyone, games will come down to a bit of luck, a dodgy decision, a flash of quality etc. all those teams are capable of decent runs and horrible slumps in form.

Consistently on this forum I have seen people be massively negative about most of our players and massively over estimate other team's squad and signings. Villa being a huge example, people creaming about their signings when in reality most of them have flopped, Forest similar, Palace similar, etc. 

Personally I think with Lavia, KWP back fit and Tino back, our back of 4 of KWP, Bella-Kotchap, Salisu and Tino, with Lavia in front of them is probably the best back line out of those teams mentioned.  Of course going forward we have issues, but one or two players could easily see us be transformed in this regard. 

Agree with this. Really is quite simple tbh, we're not as bad as has been made out and our stand out deficiency is obvious.

Ralph had us 13th for xGs, and joint 15th for goals conceded. And that was despite injuries to a swathe of our best players (Lavia, KWP, ABK, Livramento), as well as trying to gel a new and young/inexperienced squad.

The reason we are in the bottom 3 is that we have basically played all the big/form teams already, and more importantly, that our then 13th for xG translated to 18th for goals scored... Grim.

Or phrased another way, two boards have consistently failed to replace ings with attackers that know how to convert their guilt edged chances.

Now... with the cold hard facts laid before us, two questions remain. Will we sign said attacker(s)? And will nathan Jones be as effective as hassenhuttle (debatable given its his first taste of prem football and he's inheriting a young low confidence squad).

Assuming Jones is decent and we sign an attacker, i think we'll be fine.

Edited by Saint86
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saintant

saintant

Posted
Posted
2 hours ago, tajjuk said:

I think you could make an argument for pretty much everyone from Fulham down bar maybe Leicester who likely had a bad start and will probably be way out of the picture.

IMO there is a much of muchness about 10-11 PL teams, anyone can beat anyone, games will come down to a bit of luck, a dodgy decision, a flash of quality etc. all those teams are capable of decent runs and horrible slumps in form.

Consistently on this forum I have seen people be massively negative about most of our players and massively over estimate other team's squad and signings. Villa being a huge example, people creaming about their signings when in reality most of them have flopped, Forest similar, Palace similar, etc. 

There are just 9 points between 9th and bottom, all those teams could get involved in relegation and again none bar maybe West Ham or Leicester have stand out squads above anyone else. There is more than half the season to go and team's have avoided relegation after losing their first 7 straight or barely having any points on the board, yet we seem to have people panicking because we are ONE WIN from 15th.....

Personally I think with Lavia, KWP back fit and Tino back, our back of 4 of KWP, Bella-Kotchap, Salisu and Tino, with Lavia in front of them is probably the best back line out of those teams mentioned.  Of course going forward we have issues, but one or two players could easily see us be transformed in this regard. 

Nathan Jones is obviously an unknown quantity at this stage. We all hope he can rejuvenate the team but will have to wait and see. For myself and, I suspect, many others, the negativity stems from our record going back to the last third of last season and the few number of wins we've managed coupled with the poorness of performances in the main. I doubt anyone believes we are anything close to being cut adrift at this stage, it's more a case of we've been very poor and can Nathan Jones jump-start our season?

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MarkSFC

MarkSFC

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, Charlie Wayman said:

Everyone apart from you it seems. If you really don't care then why are you setting out your stall as a Saints fan?

You bizarre man (presumably). "Setting my stall out", how strange. I've only been a fan for 45+ years. 

And I really don't give two flying fucks who gets relegated as long as its not Saints. If caring about those teams really is part of how you see a true Saints fan should think then I feel sorry for you having to live like that. 

Back to my day now....enjoy yours. 

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Toussaint

Toussaint

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, MarkSFC said:

You bizarre man (presumably). "Setting my stall out", how strange. I've only been a fan for 45+ years. 

And I really don't give two flying fucks who gets relegated as long as its not Saints. If caring about those teams really is part of how you see a true Saints fan should think then I feel sorry for you having to live like that. 

Back to my day now....enjoy yours. 

To be fair he probably read your post as you didnt care if we went down, which is how I read it on my initial quick scan.

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Lighthouse

Lighthouse

Posted
Posted
3 hours ago, Fitzhugh Fella said:

A lot of it was or at least the buck stops at him but that doesn’t mean others are blameless. 

But he has only one point off safety, so going down was on a knife edge. If we’ve got rid of the main problem, how have we gone from that to definitely going down?

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JRM

JRM

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Posted
11 hours ago, Give it to Ron said:

Looks like Brentford will be without main striker for a while. Rule E8 232 times!

Any idea what sort of ban he'll get if proved? Might drag on a bit if he contests it anyway,  due to play Brentford away 4th Feb and reschedule the home game definitely a plus if he can't play 

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skintsaint

skintsaint

Posted
Posted
43 minutes ago, JRM said:

Any idea what sort of ban he'll get if proved? Might drag on a bit if he contests it anyway,  due to play Brentford away 4th Feb and reschedule the home game definitely a plus if he can't play 

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2020/dec/23/kieran-trippier-banned-for-10-weeks-for-breaching-fa-betting-rules-atletico-madrid

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Fitzhugh Fella

Fitzhugh Fella

Posted
Posted
12 hours ago, Lighthouse said:

But he has only one point off safety, so going down was on a knife edge. If we’ve got rid of the main problem, how have we gone from that to definitely going down?

Quite simply because he has left behind a squad that is not good enough to stay up. As I said in my original post the standard of our football has fallen behind clubs we should be on level terms with. Can Jones turn it around? Like to think so but he has got his hands full without a doubt and the odds are on us going down unless we have a miraculous January transfer window.

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Ted Bates Statue

Ted Bates Statue

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, JRM said:

Any idea what sort of ban he'll get if proved? Might drag on a bit if he contests it anyway,  due to play Brentford away 4th Feb and reschedule the home game definitely a plus if he can't play 

A couple of Boston United players got 5 months for a lot fewer bets, Brentford supporters are saying his season is over.

I guess that explains why he wasn't considered for the WC squad.

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