What would be your reaction if...

Those pesky kids!!

 

you are only jesting, but I would be very happy with those two. Not long term plans but would sort out most of the teams problems for a couple of seasons

 

I would say that is not the case if waited and then we went and spent big in the summer (but we wont).

 

No way are we going to beat Pool over 2 legs, can not see us getting relegated either so our season is basically over as there is no way we will get into a euro spot for next season. This season was all about just treading water, if they buy no one this window they will need to be buying alot in the summer. With no euro football next year the need for a big squad has gone, need to weed out maybe 8 players and replace them with 4 or 5 quality replacements

 

That fills me full of joy....still saves me keeping doing the 350-400 mile round trip to watch them live. I don't expect I am the only one who would save their pension for other things.

 

I'm not sure if they have borrowed money or just put a charge in place to enable them to borrow (if they wish) against the Premier League funds which they will receive later. More of a cashflow thing. Possibly (ever the optimist) to enable them to buy a player if they become available on the basis that the PL funds will cover it later.

 

Well I won't be accepting that until we're knocked out. It's football. Anything can happen.

 

Hear hear!

Sunderland did United at this stage of the competition just 3 years ago.

Or are we out and shall I not bother going now

 

to win games you have to score, over two legs we would probably need to score 4 goals against the free scoring pool- sorry not going to happen. go, enjoy the game, hope we play well and find that creative spark, I would never say that someone should not support their team, even when that team is playing some pretty dour footy

 

After we won the cup in 1976 there were great hopes that Saints were on the threshold of something great and there was talk of a new stadium where the Toys-R-Us store is located today. It didn't take McMenemy long to work out that the board lacked the ambition to see it through and nothing came of all the hype and the stadium proposals and he was soon off. Lo and behold here we are today once more with all of the hype and a board lacking the courage to take this club forward. let us just get used to the fact that SFC is amongst the also rans and is just a pokey little club in Hampshire that will never come to anything even though we may try and kid ourselves. Even a **** club like Everton has greater ambition than we do. The cards are stacked against the club. So we must accept our place in the grand order of things and just get used to being screwed regularly. Annually fighting off relegation is our proper place and regression analysis shows that is where we will end up.

 

Personally, I think the Board slightly miscalculated this season up until now. Les has said in the past that Saints don't gamble or take a punt. Well, I think they have and it hasn't come off. They saddled a pretty good manager with too few quality striking resources. It not unusual for a Saints manager to have an uneven squad, and I think it's happened again, even though it has happened in the era of plenty for football clubs. Perhaps the Board know things I don't. That wouldn't be unusual either. But it's a simple thing to know that either Pelle, or Mane, or preferbly both, in the squad would have this club almost certainly still in the Europa League, and several places higher up this league. Almost certainly higher than Everton.! One is not saying those individual players need to remain at Saints, but their replacements needed to be at their quality level. They haven't appeared.

 

I would say you shouldn't give up before you've got there though. Whether anyone thinks we can win or not, never quit before you start.

Sorry state of affairs. Might as well rest players for Leicester then.

Oh, and ps. They scored zero against us last game.

 

What strikers did we start last season with? Was it Pelle, Jay and Shane, possibly including Mane and Tadic as players who played attacking wide roles mostly?

 

Yep, and I wanted a striker then, we've essentially replaced Pelle with Austin, but still a body light

 

Assuming that is a piss take of all the doom and gloom on the other forum, that did make me smile.

 

I'm all in favor of avoiding gloom but we can't ignore the obvious. We have not been scoring and recently our defense has gone wandering.

The players we sold contributed most of our goals last season and we did not replace those goals with our transfer business over the summer.

That's left a barren forward line and wide players without a target man. Losing Austin has been a huge blow. We have looked really poor since he has been gone.

Can we beat pool? It's possible. Twice.. it's unlikely. Can pool put 6-8 past us over 2 legs. Definitely possible. Will lallana revel in the opportunity. Most definitely. Will Puel get savaged? Recent evidence suggests so. Is it the end of the world? Definitely not.

Said since the beginning that this is a transition season. It is now turning into a messy transition and I'm glad I'm not Puel. A thankless time he is having.

 

Who is ignoring the obvious? I have just asked a question.

I have said I'm not that happy and that we need a striker. However I simply refuse to accept defeat before it has happened. I can see it coming, yes, but the defeatism from a lot of fans is sad.

People say it is the hope that kills you, but for me it is the lack of hope from others that kills me.

 

My point is that if we take a step back and remove emotion and the fact that things ain't good, it is possible to understand (though not agree) why they thought they had enough. I wanted one but also accepted not signing a striker.

Last season that number worked. This season it isn't. Signing one of those replacements who was injured at the time (Boufal) didn't help. You can also say that Redmond can be added to that list as an attacking player which is an extra body to that list.

Looking at this, I can see why they did what they did. Being able to understand something doesn't mean I necessarily agree with it.

 

I guess the question is: what are we transitioning to? Beyond saving money in advance of a sale, I don't see what the endgame is here that would be better than simply continuing to attempt to compete for European places.

 

Actually reading this makes me take back my Puel out comment. I just happen to think we may well fall into a relegation battle. I am an eternal pessimist though.