I said it a month or two back: I swear some of our fans forget that we have to name 11 starters and 7 substitutes, from a pool of players registered to Southampton Football Club. Asking for players to be dropped is the easy part. The very easy part.
18 months ago we could have dumped £50k a week on the table for that horrible twit Terry, and split our fan base down the middle. But it probably would have addressed the problems we have better than anything else we've done in that time. A captain, leader, mouthpiece, and a bit of horrid. We have none of those. I'm no fan of he, btw.
Surely though , comparing us NOW to then , is proof of why some may feel ( Slightly ) Positive . Keep MP2 , we were down . MH , if we stayed up because of him , or because the Swans were that bad , we will never know . We gave him a contract , he / they failed to deliver quickly enough . You say significantly better than we've managed this season, and in line with what we managed for the whole of last season. It also wouldn't be enough . As someone said after the Spurs game ( can't remember who ) , the season starts now . The new manager had seen the team play at Spurs , his first game in charge was a couple of days later against a team that are rock solid at very successful at home . GIVE THE MAN SOME TIME . FWIW I cannot believe I am typing this FFS !
My point being that he isn't very good; the manager shouldn't be worried about dropping him, and that we need to buy a proper playmaker in January.
I agree we need a proper playmaker, but if the manager dropped him (I don’t think he should now), who do we play instead as a threat?
Its more of a gist than me actually seeking help to build a time machine, and go back in time and then petitioning the club to endorse the signing of John Terry. But glad you got my point.
I'm absolutely behind the appointment of Hasenhuttl. Delighted by it, in fact. What I'm disagreeing with is the idea that we're in a comfortable enough position that we have a couple months to get it right. We don't; our predicament is such that we need to hope that he can turn things around pretty quickly. That's through no fault of his, it's just the difficult situation into which he has been thrust. Let's say, as an example, that our next seven went as follows: Arsenal (loss), Huddersfield (win), West Ham (draw), Man City (loss), Chelsea (loss), Leicester (loss), Everton (draw). None of those are bad results individually, and 5 points from 7 matches in which we face four of the teams currently occupying European spots would represent an improvement. But it would also leave us with 14 points on the year; from there, we'd need at least 22 points from 15 to finish. That means playing out the last four months of the season like a team competing for Europe just to have enough points to survive if the drop line is lower than is typical. That's a huge ask for any manager with a squad as challenged as ours.
I agree 100% . It just seems to me , and I am probably wrong , you are not taking into account any improvement the Manager himself can input and , unlikely perhaps , any signings in January and the impact they may or may not have . I promise you , I am a massive pessimist , I always think the worst . Even I at this moment in time honestly believe we will stay up .
Away to Spurs under Ron was our last win against the big six, I believe. To be honest, I'd be happy with a surprise result against a small one. Nine straight matches now against newly promoted sides which we've failed to win.
If we are ready to stop experimenting, through fear of not finding an improvement, then that is incredibly negative. Sims could definitely step up. We could even try Bertie or Targett up there. Long, Gabbi. We have options.
We don’t have a better option, I’m not even gonna deny that . We have been well beyond piss poor , but Redmond some how happens to be most people’s player of the season so far for reasons I fail to see myself. If I had to pick anyone it’d be PEH personally. Bring in Cahill on loan which a few people have said , not a bad shout. Llorente on loan if Ings is not gonna be available.
We can stay up. But to stay up, we need results in December, not just in February and March. Saying that we should give Hasenhuttl time is fair, but as a club we don't really have time. Again, not his fault, and I'm not going to lambaste him if he doesn't get those results, but there has to be a real sense of urgency here.
