As an obviously interested party looking in Saints, what did your manager do wrong this year... what were the targets and expectations when he was taken on...?
Yes, I also found one where Silva has decided that he wants the job at Saints over all others. http://readsouthampton.com/2017/05/22/silva-reportedly-makes-saints-job-first-choice/
Europe was the target for next season and to do well in it during this one. The cups were seriously competed in until it was realised we had to drop one with all the injuries the squad was picking up. The manager played ineffective football, which wasn't really his fault because his two top strikers were sold before he even got to the club. Liverpool missed Mane when he became injured. We missed him all season.
I think the short answer to what went wrong is that we only scored 41 league goals this season, our home results were those of a side battling relegation and many of our games have been dull as dishwater. Some rumours of player unrest too but not sure about that. Oh, and Mrs Puel doesn't like Southampton (maybe).
And your major injury to Van Dijk right....must have crippled any real aspirations... what would the feeling be if you hadn't been shafted out of winning the League Cup...?
People keep saying this about van Dijk but we were 4 or 5 places lower in the league when he got injured so I'm not sure it's true.
We were out of the Europa because we couldn't score, a month or so before Van Dijk became injured. Stephens came in and played well, but the confidence in the team started a slow creep away. I'd guess we would have won that EFL Cup had VVD been playing. Mind you, we scored three goals anyway. By the end of the season the team were playing like the mid-table side they ended up being.
Anyway, best of luck moving forward with or without Marco. You genuinely don't know how lucky you are on many levels. Academy, seemingly ok owners, good fan base (brilliant what you do with the kids) , some excellent playing staff and a really good stadium. For our supporters and we love our team as you do, we're at the behest of some idiots who should have failed the FP test.
Sadly I think the players stopped playing for Puel...........The last 10-15 games we seemed to lose a lot of confidence........
Only a partly good fan base I'm afraid. A good proportion of our fans have shown what pricks they are this season.
No manager we get needs to look at any videos. That is cliche. We have a full time team paid to watch the videos and a black box to make the decisions.
It sometimes takes the observations of an outsider to bring some perspective and sanity to a situation. We are currently in the second most successful period in the club's entire history, but no, for some fans that isn't enough, we should be playing like Barca and qualifying for Europe every season.
