I thought the idea of this forum was to express your opinion? Was this not explained to you before you became a moderator?
Wait until the post match interviews from whoever comes out for Saints. My reaction based on what I'm hearing will be to see if there is any difference between today's interview and the 30+ past ones. Probably not, in which case Ralph has run his time and I don't like writing that bit!
Yes you can say what you like, but the problem is that apparently I’m not allowed to have an opinion of my own.
There were some notable highs at St Mary’s, not least being the club’s top league scorer in 2016-17, when Southampton finished eighth and also reached the League Cup final under Claude Puel, but the following season involved two managerial changes and a late rally to avoid relegation. Then came the December 2018 appointment of current manager Ralph Hasenhuttl, which is when things got complicated. “It was probably a year overdue, me moving on, but I always tried my best for the club. There are some fantastic people there,” Redmond says. “But the morals and values I signed for, the longer I was there, the more I saw them slip away. “One was the style of play. I always appreciated my time with Ralph, because he saved us from something very bad. The next season we finished 11th but after that, we were just in a long, transitional phase. I don’t think we knew where he wanted to go. Once Virgil van Dijk and Dusan Tadic left, there was a new wave with Ryan Bertrand, Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg, Jannik Vestergaard, Danny Ings. I saw them all walk out of the door when I thought we would have some ambition to hold onto them and go again. “As I was getting older, my role was changing. Younger players tended to gravitate towards me and I always wanted to steer them right. But I sensed from being there a little bit too long, maybe, that Southampton just wanted a change. Thankfully I had the same mindset.” There were changes to Redmond’s role on the pitch, too. He had a willingness to learn and adapt, which was taken to a new level with Hassenhuttl’s 4-2-2-2 formation and the RB Leipzig framework. “Everything was all inside stuff,” says Redmond. “I played left 10, right 10, right striker, left striker. There were times when I would come off after games and think, ‘Did I actually do anything?’. I just felt like I’d run for 90 minutes and pressed. “We gave our all to the press but never really got much back in terms of attacking output. We really mastered it in that 4-2-2-2 but once it didn’t work — we went to Burnley a few times, they figured it out and just kicked it long — we became a bit unsettled and unbalanced in games. “We got figured out, and that’s where frustrations set in between players, fans and staff. We stagnated. We didn’t progress on the little things like attacking play, midfield build-up and midfield press. I’m just not sure we attacked it as much as we could have.” Such dialogue seems a useful insight into the occasionally forthright conversations Redmond was having with Hasenhuttl at the time. “No matter how we approached certain situations, we always did it with respect,” Redmond says. “I don’t think there was a discussion or argument where the next day we didn’t shake hands or say good morning. “We did clash here and there, whether on the training field or in meetings, at half-time or after games. But while I was at Southampton I found myself growing into this speaker for the dressing room — not being afraid to say what a few boys wanted to say but couldn’t. If I didn’t say these things, we’d probably just go back to the drawing board silently. “At the best of times our relationship was very good, and at the worst of times it wasn’t great. But that could go for anything in life. The day before I left for Besiktas, I went to the training ground to say goodbye to everybody and we shook hands. He wished me all the best as I did to him, and we had a good five, 10-minute chat, just talking about things.”
Chilco, no one has said that, you like to point out when people say things similar on the other foot, like you cant have a neg view on here. Dont think you are being so fair just now - we are all disappointed and emotional just now, think we all need 10 mins away from the keyboard!
