If anyone has found how many midweek matches this means there would be I'd be very interested to know, as this will affect whether I look to renew my season ticket or not
Not sure if it belongs here, or has already been mentioned elsewhere, but BBC are reporting that Dejan Lovren (Hey, ey, Lovren, Ooh, Aah...) is probably on his way to Russia, in the form of Zenit St Petersburg. Didn't they make cheap SLR cameras?
I see Claude Puel's name is in the hat for the Watford job. He is currently at St-Etienne where I believe they reached the cup final but had a disastrous season in the league, finishing just above the relegation places. Looks like it mirrored he season with Saints. I have an acquaintance in Vienne who is a supporter and was hoping to have caught up with him in order to find out what his opinion was. Having spoken with Lyon fans on the subject, they felt similar about him as the majority of Saints and Leicester fans. Seems very weird to replace Nigel Pearson with Claude Puel.
Chilco I agree but just pointing out the overall sense of disappointment wherever Puel takes charge. I think the fans in Lyon would have loved to see St -Etienne struggle seeing as the two clubs are rivals although I think Lyon seem to really hate Marseille too. I do wonder how French supports feel about Monaco and whether this club is seen as somewhat "artificial" in the same fashion as is the case with MK Dons over here.
When Puel was here, yes we finished 8th, but we were closer to the relegation places then we were 7th.
Very true. So different from Poch’s full season with us when we also finished 8th, and the world was full of hope. Until... well, you know.
46 points with a cup final while playing 6 European matches was still a good return for that squad imo, when you consider Virgil was out for half of it.
It was drab football, once the fans turned on him that was it. Wasn’t a fan of him myself but he did a good job of getting us to the final( not his fault the lino was blind). Maybe the problem was he tried to follow Poch and then Ron, his style was drab compared to before.
The manager after Ron was always doomed to failure imo. That was the Summer it was decided that we will definitely weren't gonna pursue our targets at that end of the league. Mane & Pelle out with Redmond in return. Don't get me wrong I love Redders but you can see why we struggled with goals that season. Also worth pointing out that those 60 points Ron got were a huge anomaly in terms of Southampton FC. People got too expectant imo.
Probably would have ruled Bertrand was interfering with play Or we wouldn't have made the final cos Liverpool definitely would have got one of their penalty shouts in front of the Kop. We also got lucky in the 3rd round against Sunderland iirc.
I disagree, at that point we were at possibly the strongest position we've ever been in when it comes to recruiting a new manager. We were a very appealing prospect and (reportedly) had a lot of interest from managers around Europe. And I think the board went for a dependable choice rather than an ambitious exciting choice. Puel did okay, but his football was boring (in comparison to what we'd become used to previously). And we only finished 8th because the teams in 9th-14th did so badly at the end of that season too, they could/should have all overtaken us in the last few weeks.
I agree completely with your first two paragraphs. It's what I was alluding to when I said that's the summer we made a decision that we weren't gonna pursue our ambitions at that end of the table. I still like to think the discussion that made up Ron's mind up went something like: Board: "Well done Ronald on achieving the clubs best league position in 30 years. We're looking forward to pushing on again next year but you realise that Sadio and Graziano will be leaving?" Ron: "Yeah I kind of expected that. How much am I getting to bring in another striker then?" Board: "Well you got Charlie in January!' Ron: "Oh." *Ron rings agent* "How much are Everton offering again?"
