Have they really fully capitalised? They’ve got things wrong too and sacked 2 managers . Sometimes things look different from a far.
I think that’s the difference at the bottom of your post. Kante we had no choice f***ing release clause, Vardy also had one but chose to stay and Mahrez we have held out so far despite interest. I like Southampton, your academy is one of the best, if you could shake the tag of being a selling club and hold on to your assets you’ll be on to something. Maybe the VVD situation is the start of a change of tactic for you
Fully might be a bit strong to be fair but they're certainly giving it a proper go you can't deny that, admittedly they had a better starting point with CL money etc.
Winning the league and having CL helped to be fair. It'd be funny if the first year in 3 we didn't sell anyone was the year we went down Don't think we will btw.
It did help, in fact if we’d been asset stripped despite the league win it’d have been a sad day for all clubs outside the ‘top 6’ so what message would it have sent? I’m glad for that reason that we kept everyone but Kante (Ndidi is growing as a replacement every game he plays). There were a couple like Berehino who got made to stay despite kicking off and quite rightly it’s his own career he has ruined so far. I don’t think you’ll go down, there’s many worse teams
Nah I'm sure we'll be fine, not impossible though and may need to spend in January. If we lose to Hudders in our only home game before January (our 3 away are Chelsea, Spurs and United) though it will be squeaky bum time I'm sure. I was really impressed with Ndidi btw, might not be best game to judge him in as we were so poor but I know you lot rate him highly and thought he looked very good.
There was a collective failure to clear the ball. Not sure who was responsible for the misshit that resulted in the shot but, as was the case for the whole 90 minutes, their forwards reacted far quicker than our defenders. No blame to Forster. Full credit to Leicester btw for being collectively faster, stronger, and more clinical than us, and for the crispness and intent of their passing and movement throughout.
In the end I think we had to sack Puel because of results and style of football, but he always came across as a good guy. St Mary's was as toxic as I've ever seen it at the end. I really hoped when Pellegrino was appointed he was our new MP. If we don't beat Huddersfield in 9 days time I can't see him staying.
We have Huddersfield New Year’s Day so warm them up for us He’s been excellent alongside Iborra who’s a class act so him playing well alongside King (club legend but a more limited player) is very pleasing. Add to that Silva in Jan and the midfield that looked threadbare looks very strong. I’m not sure what happened to your defence as it’s normally very strong but you strike me as a team that just needs one or two additions and not a major overhaul
I’m not being difficult, but I don’t see that they’ve done anything particularly special to say “giving it a go.” Maybe I’m missing something but currently they’re not pushing top 4 again and don’t look like they will. I’d honestly say they are doing ok to well. Two months ago they were dragging their heels at the bottom. perception can change so quickly in football. Last season, we went into the Spuds game in December, a win from 6th place. I bet other teams fans were saying how we were giving it a go....
They haven't exactly progressed since winning the League have they? However, last night they played like a team of winners. As for us, I just think the constant turnover of managers and players has finally caught up with us. Whilst I appreciate we didn't lose any key players last summer, we did sack a manager who had been without a striker of any note for most of his one season in charge.
To be fair they were unlikely to progress were they! But I’m impressed how they are playing just now, thought we could learn loads...
It's looking crowded at the top this season, but if Leicester keep playing like they did yesterday, they'll be knocking on the door of top 4 along with Spurs, Arsenal and Liverpool, who all have Europe to distract them.
I agree, however it is a snapshot. The only thing that will Tell is not William, but Time They’ve had a hangover season and a poor start to the next. They then found a manager who it’s seems is installing a system that looks to be working. We should judge them in May.
They were excellent last night. Even if we made them look good, we should give credit where it's due - they were just better than us.
Haven’t seen anything of the match at all and just caught up with this thread. Sounds like a nightmare!
It was ****ing cold as well. If there was a positive, it's that we did show a bit of character in the second half, at least until they got their excellently worked 4th. In fact 5 minutes before that, I'm still not sure how we didn't make it 3-2 after Schmeichal denied Austin from 3 yards out. The last 20 minutes would have been a different game then.
