Some thoughts about our club.

[ally_uk]

This is going to be a mega rant but I need to vent. Some might not agree but it's all good! 

Watching the game yesterday we just seem to have no urgency. No idea how to attack in the final third.

Selles I'm sure is a nice chap and the players are getting a easy ride. He seems to be a classic Yes man and passive. 

Some of the recent tactical decisions have been baffling. This is a common theme with recent managers all have a knack for making silly decisions when setting up the team is Rasmus dictating this?

No strikers yesterday? We are in a relegation battle in need of goals where was Mara a player who scored previously.

Watching and following Saints is not the same it's like the soul has been ripped out. 

Witnessing the likes of Bednerek and Maitland Niles cuddling and smiling with opposition players like it's all a big laugh. What's all that about? If I was manager I'd have both of them running laps until they couldn't walk....... 

As for recent Janauary Acquisitions most of them I'm sorry are not up to it or are not being played....

Then we have players like Prowse the golden boy our captain who free kicks aside doesn't really do alot is far to slow in midfield. 

Where is the leadership and passion on the pitch? Where is the player shouting and leading others? saying come on lads heads up let's go! 

Sick of our team currently bunch of bottlers....

Sick of this Rasmus can't he needs to take accountability at end of season he owes the fans that.

As for St Mary's more like St Fairy's the place is Souless the away fans make more noise and get treated better.....

Rant over the club is a joke 

 

 

[Micky]

Yeah,  I agree. 

[jawillwill]

Thoughts are invalid if they don't include the word 'shit' (though I do agree).

[david in sweden]

....but you forgot to mention that they play 46 games in the Championship and teams score bucket loads of goals every week,

and  no-one has suggested how we do that without goal scoring strikers. ...especially when we don't even try to attack in the final third...

[Osvaldorama]

Agree with all of this. 
 

Supported saints for 30 years (my whole life) and I’ve never felt so down about the club. Even when we went down last time there were some positives, players working hard, there were some decent youth players, good atmospheres. Yeah it was shit, but we had no money and it was a laugh. 
 

This season is absolutely soul destroying. Like you, I am stunned at the players attitudes. Utter wankers except for 1 or 2. 

Edited 17 April, 2023 by Osvaldorama

[woodsaint1]

39 minutes ago, Osvaldorama said:

Agree with all of this. 
 

Supported saints for 30 years (my whole life) and I’ve never felt so down about the club. Even when we went down last time there were some positives, players working hard, there were some decent youth players, good atmospheres. Yeah it was shit, but we had no money and it was a laugh. 
 

This season is absolutely soul destroying. Like you, I am stunned at the players attitudes. Utter wankers except for 1 or 2. 

I definitely don't recall being upbeat after Redknapp and his assembled group of merceneries took us down. We knew that 75% of them werenot hanging around.

This season has been tragic but I still think the foundations/youth etc are in a good place. We just need a good manager and a good window (as proven by Burnley). A big ask with Rasmus overseeing both decisions no doubt

[Nordic Saint]

We are currently being operated like a farm team: a feeder team whose role is to provide experience and training for young players, with an agreement that any successful players can move on. You simply can't survive in the Premier League like that. Having a 21-year-old goalkeeper at this level is ridiculous. Whether we can even survive like that in the Championship remains to be seen. Even the big clubs' U21 teams lose to League One and League Two teams in the EFL Trophy.

Edited 18 April, 2023 by Nordic Saint

[Galway saint]

24 minutes ago, Nordic Saint said:

We are currently being operated like a farm team: a feeder team whose role is to provide experience and training for young players, with an agreement that any successful players can move on to a proper Premier League team. You simply can't survive in the Premier League like that. Having a 21-year-old goalkeeper at this level is ridiculous. Whether we can even survive like that in the Championship remains to be seen. Even the big clubs' U21 teams lose to League One and League Two teams in the EFL Trophy.

We have bought and play plenty of rubbish that’s over 21 

[Toadhall Saint]

16 hours ago, Osvaldorama said:

Agree with all of this. 
 

Supported saints for 30 years (my whole life) and I’ve never felt so down about the club. Even when we went down last time there were some positives, players working hard, there were some decent youth players, good atmospheres. Yeah it was shit, but we had no money and it was a laugh. 
 

This season is absolutely soul destroying. Like you, I am stunned at the players attitudes. Utter wankers except for 1 or 2. 

Not just this season tho - last one wasn’t that great.

[Christophenburg]

I'm probably alone in thinking that the majority (though not all) of our signings under SR have actually been pretty good, they've just either not ultimately lived up to expectations, fallen out with a manager, been completely mismanaged, or just not got enough game time. Some will leave, but under different circumstances I think most will come good! Problem is some of the deadwood we can't shift and the fact that they're repeatedly selected (*cough* Elyounoussi *cough*)

[SambaMaverick]

20 minutes ago, Christophenburg said:

I'm probably alone in thinking that the majority (though not all) of our signings under SR have actually been pretty good, they've just either not ultimately lived up to expectations, fallen out with a manager, been completely mismanaged, or just not got enough game time. Some will leave, but under different circumstances I think most will come good! Problem is some of the deadwood we can't shift and the fact that they're repeatedly selected (*cough* Elyounoussi *cough*)

What a fucking mental thing to come out with. Your opinion, and therefore it's valid - but Jesus.

[david in sweden]

17 hours ago, Osvaldorama said:

Agree with all of this. 
 

Supported saints for 30 years (my whole life) and I’ve never felt so down about the club. Even when we went down last time there were some positives, players working hard, there were some decent youth players, good atmospheres. Yeah it was shit, but we had no money and it was a laugh. 
 

This season is absolutely soul destroying. Like you, I am stunned at the players attitudes. Utter wankers except for 1 or 2. 

 

it will take a few more years before you get the reality of being a Saints fan. Another Prem. season with this squad will be no better.

I watched my first game in 1959 (!) and the ups-and-downs along the way have only gone to make life more... " interesting ". 

We are not relegated YET, but if/when it happens we will sell our best players to cut the salary bill to cover the loss  of TV money, 

and then clear out the " dead wood"  and adjust to life at a lower level,  and promote some of our creative young talents. 

 

We need to find a real CF  (that's centre-forward in old football terminology).   Someone who can score goals ... and do it regularly.   

(Remember those critics who said Rickie Lambert would never be able to score goals in the Championship - after we were promoted from L1).

....also go out and find ourselves a creative midfielder,  and a tough S.O.B. at centre-back who can organise the backline.

SEE... no problem.   

 

[S-Clarke]

The club has sadly lost it's way, mainly born out of believing it's own hype. We didn't reinvent football, we didn't reinvent scouting, we didn't reinvent tactics - we just got lucky and things fell into place for a few years. Exactly the same is happening to Brighton and Brentford now, they haven't reinvented anything, they've just hit a lucky formula which won't last forever.

Clubs like us will always have periods where things work out, we had it under Poch and Koeman in the PL. Bolton had it with Big Sam, Brighton with Potter/De Zebri, Stoke with Pulis, Swansea with Monk/Laudrup and even Sunderland with Bruce. Without mega, mega, mega investment behind you the inevitable will always happen - the big players will get sold and things start dipping. Obviously you can reduce the dip if your scouting is up to standard and you reinvest well, but the moment clubs like us take their eye off the scouting and start recruiting duds then you're screwed. You end up with loads of expensive mistakes you can't shift which in turn stops you from investing in better. We managed to do that for 3/4 years in a row and I'd say that's why we are where we are today.

The decision making in the last 12/18 months has been shocking, but the decisions being made are happening because of the crap that went on before - change needed to happen, we'd had a serious lack of investment for years and a squad full of rubbish, so I don't hold it against SR for looking at it and accepting we need change....the problem is that they've gone about it wrong and in my opinion over estimated the quality of the experience we had (Ely, Moussa, Bednarek, McCarthy, JWP, Adams, Armstrong etc etc).

The upcoming summer will enable us a chance to further reset, but rather than a half reset we need to go the full hog. We can't carry the likes of Theo, Ely, Moussa, Armstrong and those sorts anymore - we have to be ruthless and let the contracts expire which can expire, then reinvest in the right sort of players who can make an impact. Not kids, but proven players down the spine of the team. Stick this current lot in the Championship as it is today and we'd be eaten alive most weeks, we need some steel in this side like we had when we were last in the Champ, otherwise we are in for a very rude awakening.

[Sunglasses Ron]

53 minutes ago, S-Clarke said:

we need some steel in this side like we had when we were last in the Champ, otherwise we are in for a very rude awakening.

Yeah, there's no real secret here.

When we went down to Division 3 we used our comparative financial clout to pick up a quality central defender from the Championship (Fonte) and several players from the League One team of the season (Lambert etc.).  These added the necessary quality and experience right through our spine.  Throw in one of the better managers at the time from the lower level (Adkins) and we were on to a winner.

[david in sweden]

14 hours ago, Sunglasses Ron said:

Yeah, there's no real secret here.

When we went down to Division 3 we used our comparative financial clout to pick up a quality central defender from the Championship (Fonte) and several players from the League One team of the season (Lambert etc.).  These added the necessary quality and experience right through our spine.  Throw in one of the better managers at the time from the lower level (Adkins) and we were on to a winner.

Agree with that "Ron". Although we (rightly) credit Nigel Adkins with our quick return to the Prem. (Adkins-like Nathan Jones) underestimated the challenges  

that face a Prem. Manager.... (as we have seen with much bigger names already this season). 

However, I think many failed to give praise to Alan Pardew, who in one season took us from -12 points in L1 to the brink of the play-offs and managed to win the JPT.

Pardew was responsible for signing Fonte (who in retrospect was a class signing who partnered 6 different CB's in his time with Saints), before being criminally 

released (by Claude Puel?)... to go on and play for Lille and win trophies - and is still in their first team squad at age 39. 

 

Perhaps Pardew's best achievement was signing the overweight, pie-eating journeyman Rickie Lambert whose career rise took him to a World Cup with England.

The tailpiece to this story was in 2009 (the then) chairman Nicola Cortese seriously challenged Pardew's decision to sign Lambert in the first place.

Witnessed from a later Sky Sport interview,  Pardew said Cortese asked him...  " do you really want to spend 1 million pounds on  a 27 year old  L1 player ? " 

 

Cortese' own judgement in signing players was shown worst with his agreement to sign  Gaston Ramirez and Dani Osvaldo (both on borrowed money) 

and whose disasterous deals that eventually cost the club  almost  50 million  in bank interest, signing-on fees.... and salaries. 

Apparently  Saints once refused the chance to sign a certain  Jamie Vardy from the (then) non-league Fleetwood. 

Somewhere out there - in the rest of the footballing world - is another Fonte and another Lambert and one way or another we need to find them PDQ.