Russell Martin

[aintforever]

26 minutes ago, AlexLaw76 said:

This bunch is different from the last bunch

 

Not massively, I guess it depends how much we strengthen in the summer. We still have our best striker in Armstrong, best midfielder (Downes) and best defender (THB). The keeper is a massive upgrade, though he will no doubt go. If our owners invest like last time there is every chance we will have a better squad than what Martin had.

If Martin was so shit getting back up shouldn’t be very hard with a half decent manager.

Edited Sunday at 14:38 by aintforever

[AlexLaw76]

35 minutes ago, aintforever said:

Not massively, I guess it depends how much we strengthen in the summer. We still have our best striker in Armstrong, best midfielder (Downes) and best defender (THB). The keeper is a massive upgrade, though he will no doubt go. If our owners invest like last time there is every chance we will have a better squad than what Martin had.

If Martin was so shit getting back up shouldn’t be very hard with a half decent manager.

Well, yes massively

[Lighthouse]

It’s interesting because yesterday I posted the team that basically, "got promoted in spite of Russell Martin," minus KWP and with BBD up top instead of Adams. The majority of people said I was taking the p*ss saying it was decent and that it’d be lucky to finish top half.

I knew KWP was a good RB but I didn’t realise he was THE difference between a bottom half Championship team and one which couldn’t fail to be promoted.

[Matthew Le God]

1 hour ago, aintforever said:

I guess next season we are going to see how easy it is to bounce straight back up with this bunch of players.

 

1 hour ago, AlexLaw76 said:

This bunch is different from the last bunch

 

32 minutes ago, AlexLaw76 said:

Well, yes massively

Not really 'massively' Alex!

These 17 players are all still contracted to us for next season from the promotion campaign...

Keepers - Bazunu, McCarthy & Lumley

Right back - Bree

Left back - Manning

Centre backs - Bednarek, Harwood-Bellis, Stephens

Midfielders - Aribo, Smallbone, Downes, Charles

Attacking players - Armstrong, Edozie, Fraser, Sulemana, Stewart

On top of those 17 you then have Larios, Bella-Kotchap, Onuachu to make it 20 senior players contracted to the club in the last campaign.

And then all the new players from 2024/25 - Fernandes, Edwards, Wood, Juan, Matsuki, Brereton Diaz, Ramsdale, Sugawara, Taylor & Welington.

 

Edited Sunday at 15:20 by Matthew Le God

[AlexLaw76]

1 minute ago, Matthew Le God said:

 

 

Not really 'massively' Alex!

These 17 players are all still contracted to us for next season from the promotion campaign...

Keepers - Bazunu, McCarthy & Lumley

Right back - Bree

Left back - Manning

Centre backs - Bednarek, Harwood-Bellis, Stephens

Midfielders - Aribo, Smallbone, Downes, Charles

Attacking players - Armstrong, Edozie, Frazer, Sulemana, Stewart

On top of those 17 you then have Larios, Bella-Kotchap, Onuachu and then all the new players from 2024/25

 

Massively, different coaches, different situation with relegation, no Armstrong, no Adams, no Tella for a few games, different level of scar tissue, different attitude from fan, Spors, different transfer committee etc

[Matthew Le God]

1 minute ago, AlexLaw76 said:

Massively, different coaches, different situation with relegation, no Armstrong, no Adams, no Tella for a few games, different level of scar tissue, different attitude from fan, Spors, different transfer committee etc

The point you were discussing with @aintforever was about " this bunch of players", not the "staff, situation with relegation, scar tissue, fan attitude, Spors, transfer committee". His point was about the players, not everything else.

[aintforever]

2 minutes ago, AlexLaw76 said:

Massively, different coaches, different situation with relegation, no Armstrong, no Adams, no Tella for a few games, different level of scar tissue, different attitude from fan, Spors, different transfer committee etc

So squad wise “massively different” is no Armstrong, Adams or Tella for a few games.  

[AlexLaw76]

Just now, aintforever said:

So squad wise “massively different” is no Armstrong, Adams or Tella for a few games.  

I just said it is massively different.

[Matthew Le God]

1 minute ago, AlexLaw76 said:

I just said it is massively different.

It isn't, I listed all the remaining players from last season. A lot of them are still here!

That is a big reason why we struggled this season. We needed more of a clearout!

Edited Sunday at 15:10 by Matthew Le God

[AlexLaw76]

Just now, Matthew Le God said:

It isn't, I listed all the remaining players from last season. A lot of them are still here!

You keep talking about the squad, that’s nice

i just said it is massively different. 

[Matthew Le God]

1 hour ago, aintforever said:

I guess next season we are going to see how easy it is to bounce straight back up with this bunch of players.

 

1 hour ago, AlexLaw76 said:

This bunch is different from the last bunch

 

5 minutes ago, AlexLaw76 said:

You keep talking about the squad, that’s nice

i just said it is massively different. 

I'm talking about the players because the discussion was... about the players.

[AlexLaw76]

5 minutes ago, Matthew Le God said:

 

 

I'm talking about the players because the discussion was... about the players.

You make the rules?

[ApprenticeBillionaire]

Some of you are going to be in for a rude awakening.

The squad won't be anything like the squad we had that got promoted, these players will have options.

And I don't think they'll want to stick around next season and neither will their agents.

[aintforever]

7 minutes ago, ApprenticeBillionaire said:

Some of you are going to be in for a rude awakening.

The squad won't be anything like the squad we had that got promoted, these players will have options.

And I don't think they'll want to stick around next season and neither will their agents.

14 players left last time we went down.

[Matthew Le God]

35 minutes ago, AlexLaw76 said:

You make the rules?

You were the one that replied to a post applied the squad bunch saying...

"This bunch is different from the last bunch"

And then shown that wasn't really true.

[AlexLaw76]

16 minutes ago, Matthew Le God said:

You were the one that replied to a post applied the squad bunch saying...

"This bunch is different from the last bunch"

And then shown that wasn't really true.

I was merely expanding on the point that it is different to last time - IMO.
 

Threads do develop, this one started and was about Russell Martin and not the players.

[Lee On Solent Saint]

59 minutes ago, aintforever said:

14 players left last time we went down.

Hopefully roughly the same amount will leave this time

[saintant]

1 hour ago, ApprenticeBillionaire said:

Some of you are going to be in for a rude awakening.

The squad won't be anything like the squad we had that got promoted, these players will have options.

And I don't think they'll want to stick around next season and neither will their agents.

I doubt very much that many of them will have options above the Championship. They have demonstrated how poor they are so who will want them?

[ApprenticeBillionaire]

7 minutes ago, saintant said:

I doubt very much that many of them will have options above the Championship. They have demonstrated how poor they are so who will want them?

I don't know but they will

They absolutely will have options outside of Southampton.

Their agents will blame this season on the manager, the formations, the owners, the fucking tea lady you name it to sell their clients.

[Lighthouse]

Just now, ApprenticeBillionaire said:

I don't know but they will

They absolutely will have options outside of Southampton.

Their agents will blame this season on the manager, the formations, the owners, the fucking tea lady you name it to sell their clients.

If that’s the case, we can look forward to some pretty decent fees, so happy days.

[Harry_SFC]

38 minutes ago, ApprenticeBillionaire said:

I don't know but they will

They absolutely will have options outside of Southampton.

Their agents will blame this season on the manager, the formations, the owners, the fucking tea lady you name it to sell their clients.

Yep. KWP is leaving, THB is almost guaranteed to have Premier League teams after him purely because he played for England. Ramsdale, Fernandes, Dibling will all have offers from the Premier League too. Bednarek will have offers from abroad, as will Sulemena. Onuachu will go to Turkey etc etc.

[woodsaint1]

3 hours ago, ApprenticeBillionaire said:

Some of you are going to be in for a rude awakening.

The squad won't be anything like the squad we had that got promoted, these players will have options.

And I don't think they'll want to stick around next season and neither will their agents.

Good because most of them are shite

[Saint Garrett]

On 11/04/2025 at 16:25, obelisk said:

What did you expect? A consensus that everything had all gone swimmingly?

No, but more of an understanding that we were very much underprepared, and when you have no strikers and can’t score from anywhere else on the pitch, then I’m not sticking much blame on any manager. 

I have larger frustrations with the general state of football in this country, and our recruitment for this season, I saw a young manager trying to play his way and gave the fan base something to get behind last season, I have a lot of sympathy for him, I think we’d be in a better state if he was still the manager of this club, and I’m sure he’ll learn from his mistakes In time. 

He’s not blameless by any stretch, but I am definitely surprised with the amount of shit he’s got from a minority of our fanbase this season. 
 

[S-Clarke]

14 minutes ago, Saint Garrett said:

No, but more of an understanding that we were very much underprepared, and when you have no strikers and can’t score from anywhere else on the pitch, then I’m not sticking much blame on any manager. 

I have larger frustrations with the general state of football in this country, and our recruitment for this season, I saw a young manager trying to play his way and gave the fan base something to get behind last season, I have a lot of sympathy for him, I think we’d be in a better state if he was still the manager of this club, and I’m sure he’ll learn from his mistakes In time. 

He’s not blameless by any stretch, but I am definitely surprised with the amount of shit he’s got from a minority of our fanbase this season. 
 

But he's the key reason we were underprepared, that's what I was getting at and so many others have. He had too much of a say over transfers in the summer, obviously aided by a wider committee - but he was the only football voice around the table really.

He thought we needed Nathan Wood and Ryan Fraser for starters. We correctly pursued Downes, but there was a lot of naivety - or blind faith - in thinking he could do the same role in the PL.

Martin has openly admitted that he was shocked by the pace and power of the league, that's a shocking admission that he pretty much went blind during the summer transfer window, wedded to the daft belief that our passing for passing sake would do us good in a higher level - without better players to go with it. There was no pragmatism around his approach, it was his way or no way - and he didn't identify the right players to play his way at a higher level, so our lack of prep this season is heavily on him.

Edited Sunday at 21:28 by S-Clarke

[Saint Garrett]

Just now, S-Clarke said:

But he's the key reason we were underprepared, that's what I was getting at and so many others have. He had too much of a say over transfers in the summer, obviously aided by a wider committee - but he was the only football voice around the table really.

He thought we needed Nathan Wood and Ryan Fraser for starters. We correctly pursued Downes, but there was a lot of naivety - or blind faith - in thinking he could do the same role in the PL.

Martin has openly admitted that he was shocked by the pace and power of the league, that's a shocking admission that he pretty much went blind during the summer transfer window, wedded to the daft belief that our passing for passing sake would do us good in a higher level - without better players to go with it. There was no pragmatism around his approach, it was his way or no way - and he didn't identify the right players to play his way at a higher level, so our lack of prep this season is heavily on him.

If you think he was the main person recruiting players last summer then I’m surprised, he’s he’ll have been involved, but people above him were picking the signings. 

Wood and Edwards were clearly bought for next season and because they were good business deals, (buying players beneath market value). 

I’m certain Martin had no interest in having Onuachu and Sulemana in the squad this year. Said he didn’t want Diaz or Archer too, 

[aintforever]

20 minutes ago, S-Clarke said:

But he's the key reason we were underprepared, that's what I was getting at and so many others have. He had too much of a say over transfers in the summer, obviously aided by a wider committee - but he was the only football voice around the table really.

He thought we needed Nathan Wood and Ryan Fraser for starters. We correctly pursued Downes, but there was a lot of naivety - or blind faith - in thinking he could do the same role in the PL.

Martin has openly admitted that he was shocked by the pace and power of the league, that's a shocking admission that he pretty much went blind during the summer transfer window, wedded to the daft belief that our passing for passing sake would do us good in a higher level - without better players to go with it. There was no pragmatism around his approach, it was his way or no way - and he didn't identify the right players to play his way at a higher level, so our lack of prep this season is heavily on him.

I think we were doomed to relegation the moment the final whistle went at Wembley last year. We scraped promotion by the skin of our teeth and our best player was Adam Armstrong - a proven failure at Premier League level. Last time we went up we had the bones of a Premier side there with Lambert, Lallana, Schneiderlin, Fonte etc - this time there was nothing. Things have obviously turned out shitter than anyone could imagine but short of doing a Forest and buying a whole new side there was little hope of us staying up.

 

[AlexLaw76]

4 minutes ago, aintforever said:

I think we were doomed to relegation the moment the final whistle went at Wembley last year. We scraped promotion by the skin of our teeth and our best player was Adam Armstrong - a proven failure at Premier League level. Last time we went up we had the bones of a Premier side there with Lambert, Lallana, Schneiderlin, Fonte etc - this time there was nothing. Things have obviously turned out shitter than anyone could imagine but short of doing a Forest and buying a whole new side there was little hope of us staying up.

 

buying a new side you say...

Ramsdale

Sugawara, Edwards, Wood, Taylor

Uguchukwu, Fernandes, Gronbank

Cornet, Archer, B.Diaz

 

Not counting the loans we secured / Fraser

Edited Sunday at 22:04 by AlexLaw76

[Saint_clark]

13 hours ago, Lighthouse said:

It’s interesting because yesterday I posted the team that basically, "got promoted in spite of Russell Martin," minus KWP and with BBD up top instead of Adams. The majority of people said I was taking the p*ss saying it was decent and that it’d be lucky to finish top half.

I knew KWP was a good RB but I didn’t realise he was THE difference between a bottom half Championship team and one which couldn’t fail to be promoted.

Well it was minus Adams, KWP, Brooks, Stuart Armstrong, Fraser and Rothwell all of whom were starting regularly, so yeah the team you posted was much worse. 

[ApprenticeBillionaire]

8 hours ago, Saint Garrett said:

No, but more of an understanding that we were very much underprepared, and when you have no strikers and can’t score from anywhere else on the pitch, then I’m not sticking much blame on any manager. 

I have larger frustrations with the general state of football in this country, and our recruitment for this season, I saw a young manager trying to play his way and gave the fan base something to get behind last season, I have a lot of sympathy for him, I think we’d be in a better state if he was still the manager of this club, and I’m sure he’ll learn from his mistakes In time. 

He’s not blameless by any stretch, but I am definitely surprised with the amount of shit he’s got from a minority of our fanbase this season. 
 

Christ on a bike.

[Lord Duckhunter]

14 hours ago, Saint Garrett said:

Said he didn’t want Diaz or Archer too,

Russell Martin has repeatedly expressed his excitement and confidence in Cameron Archer's potential, stating that Archer is a "real threat" and a "brilliant signing" for Southampton. 

He has been impressed by Archer's ability to score in training and his quick thinking on the field. 

 

Martin believes Archer's first Premier League goal will be a significant milestone, marking a turning point in his Southampton  

[Lighthouse]

7 hours ago, Saint_clark said:

Well it was minus Adams, KWP, Brooks, Stuart Armstrong, Fraser and Rothwell all of whom were starting regularly, so yeah the team you posted was much worse. 

I doubt anyone was looking at the team I posted and thinking it really needs Rothwell, Fraser or Adams to make it better. Stu and KWP were decent, Brooks was here half a season and was in and out of the team. The point is that the team I posted would be reasonably competitive. We’d need half a dozen decent signings to be in the hunt for automatic promotion but we’re a lot closer to that than we are to plummeting down to League 1.

[vectraman]

I hope our ex manager Russ gets a new gig soon. So deserves another chance at management. Inspirational and so misunderstood.

 

***** No, I’ve not gone batshit crazy - he needs a new start somewhere - so we can get him off of our payroll and he can buy all of his chums off of us to help us out!! ***

Bye Captain Jack, Flynn, Nathan, Ryan, and as a bonus make us an offer for Will as well 🤞🤞🤞🤞

Edited 19 hours ago by vectraman

[Oldandtired]

1 minute ago, vectraman said:

I hope our ex manager Russ gets a new gig soon. So deserves another chance at management. Inspirational and so misunderstood.

 

***** No, I’ve not gone batshit crazy - he needs a new start somewhere - so we can get him off of our payroll and he can buy all of his chums off of us to help us out!! ***

Bye Flynn, Nathan, Ryan, and as a bonus make us an offer for Will as well 🤞🤞🤞🤞

And Jack...

[Whitey Grandad]

1 hour ago, vectraman said:

I hope our ex manager Russ gets a new gig soon. So deserves another chance at management. Inspirational and so misunderstood.

 

***** No, I’ve not gone batshit crazy - he needs a new start somewhere - so we can get him off of our payroll and he can buy all of his chums off of us to help us out!! ***

Bye Captain Jack, Flynn, Nathan, Ryan, and as a bonus make us an offer for Will as well 🤞🤞🤞🤞

To be honest I’d be inclined to throw Will in for free.

[Holmes_and_Watson]

34 minutes ago, Whitey Grandad said:

To be honest I’d be inclined to throw Will in for free.

Buy one, get six free in the Sizzlin' Saints Summer Sale!

[Lee On Solent Saint]

19 hours ago, Saint Garrett said:

No, but more of an understanding that we were very much underprepared, and when you have no strikers and can’t score from anywhere else on the pitch, then I’m not sticking much blame on any manager. 

I have larger frustrations with the general state of football in this country, and our recruitment for this season, I saw a young manager trying to play his way and gave the fan base something to get behind last season, I have a lot of sympathy for him, I think we’d be in a better state if he was still the manager of this club, and I’m sure he’ll learn from his mistakes In time. 

He’s not blameless by any stretch, but I am definitely surprised with the amount of shit he’s got from a minority of our fanbase this season. 
 

Not sure its a minority, and I doubt very much he will adapt any of his "principles" from his time with us. You only have to listen to his interview and gig from Sky to realise he is totally arrogant. I don't have an ounce of sympathy for him, and to suggest we would be in a better state as a club if he was here is frankly laughable. I get that Juric was just as bad, but at least he wasn't saying how much he loves the players and wanted to be their best mates.

[Zorba]

49 minutes ago, Holmes_and_Watson said:

Buy one, get six free in the Sizzlin' Saints Summer Sale!

Clique & Collect