Ha, yes this is very true! He wasn't exactly great here last season, I am completely surprised at how effective he has been for Burnley. Hopefully his confidence can bring us up a level rather than us taking him down!
Angry? No swear words, no name-calling, caps-lock off. I'm think I sound quite calm. Maybe just a bit frustrated with the attitude of some of our fans. Constant sulking and finger-pointing. It seems there are two ways to be. Blame the owners, blame the manager, blame the players, and constantly complain about everything. Or just take it on the chin as being one of those things that happen from time to time to a club of our size, get over the disappointment, and get back to supporting the team. I personally think the former type of fan is the angry one. I'm relaxed with it all. Accepted it a long time ago.
Someone tweeted the other day that for a while there have always been three worse teams, and we’ve survived despite being pretty poor, but that this season we are one of those three worst teams. I completely agree and think we’re down. The West Ham performance summed up why. That said I do think we can have a decent team to push for promotion, we might lose a few, but probably not as many as we expect. This is without taking signings, returners or youth players into consideration: Bazunu Tino, Bednarek, Lyanco, Perraud Edozie, Diallo, Alcaraz, Djenepo Sulemana, Onuachu Subs: Bree, Larios, Aribo, S Armstrong, Mara, A Armstrong Not an amazing team, but definitely potential to build on. Bednarek, Sulemana and Perraud I don’t think have done enough to attract PL interest. With some decent signings we can be a strong side next year. The major shame is losing JWP. Wonder if the club can convince him to stay until the January window and see where we are in the league?
Sadly JWP will go pretty much straight away, if he has desires of playing for England he will go. If the rumours are true about Newcastles interest then he would also (probably) have champions league football as well.
That’s not a bad team, think Simeu will start to come in? And we have to have a better CDM than Diallo. If you were JWP would you listen to SR? I wouldn’t!
To be fair I did say 'sounds like' but if you see my Prediction League entries you'll know have often I'm correct and what I know about football I'm glad you are not angry about this - it's not good for anyone's overall demeanour. I am entirely relaxed about it, we are in the position we are because we deserve to be, we're not very good. I think it's natural to ask why. As other posters have said we have some decent players and we shouldn't be this bad, so asking why and therefore trying to assign blame is to be expected. I'm not posting on my life here but I will just say what has happened in my life in the last 5 years and what is happening to my poor old wife right now puts professional football into perspective. It is a sideshow, a distraction, what happens in the professional leagues means nothing to the daily lives of all of us - yet so many let it seemingly rule them. My wife who has literally no interest in football, gets more upset for me when she sees Saints have lost (again) than I do
Re: asking why and assigning blame. Sure, of course its natural to do so. I do it myself. But in our case I think the bad decisions have been going on basically since Koeman left. There have been too many bad managerial appointments and far, far too many crap signings. It isn't just SR who have recruited badly. So really the whole blame game thing is kind of futile, imo. I get angry as much as anybody during a game, but 5 minutes after the game is done, I don't care all that much. Its all just a laugh really. Anyway sounds like your wife's a bit of a legend, hope you both get through whatever it is going through.
Anyone who stays married to me for 28 years is a George Medal winner let alone legend! I agree with your crapness point too, on another post I said it's like there is a systemic infection of crapness in the core of the club, I'm at a loss to explain why, we've had a fair turnover of players, backroom staff, senior administrative staff and yet that crapness is still there.
I think it’s as simple as - it looks like we will be in the Championship next season, Tella has had a very good season in the Championship. Whether or not he can do it in the PL will be irrelevant for us next season.
If Watford can keep hold of Joao Pedro, Sarr, and Hassane Kamara, then you'd think we should be able to keep hold of those three. Bednarek is an interesting one. He could really redeem himself by staying with us in the Champ. He'd be one of the best defenders in that division, and his experience would be invaluable for someone like Simeu. Sulemana isn't ready for the Prem yet. Needs a year in a weaker league. Perraud would be fantastic in the Champ. We would be attacking teams much more than we do in the Prem, and his attacking play, crossing, and shooting would all be really big assets.
Hopefully the brakes will be loosened off a bit and we won't be 'safety first don't concede at all costs' particularly when we don't need to be. It will depend on who the manager is and the tactics, or playbook, as much as anything you would think.
Yeah Watford were the team I thought of in particular for keeping hold of their decent players. They’ve not had a great season though. Keeping ABK would be massive, and maybe not impossible, but I think his Germany call ups probably see him leave.
I like this format Out (regretfully) Lavia KWP ABK Out (probably) Sulemana Adams Salisu Walcott DDC McCarthy Tella Perraud Out (Gladly) Ely JWP Aribo Orsic S Armstrong -------------------------------------------------------------------- Keep (hopefully) Alcaraz Diallo Livramento Edozie Bazunu Mara Larios Smallbone Keep (perhaps reluctantly) Lycano A. Armstrong Bree Djenepo
Well now begins the battle to bring Tella back...... Looking at him in the middle of the celebrations I think its going to take a bit of convincing!
Yes. Diallo is decent when played in the right way. JWP is part of the problem in the club. Mr Southampton, it’s embarrassing and sums up what neutrals think about the club. King of the sideways pass and hiding in games, gutless leader who only excels at being really fit and taking a good free kick. Very rarely takes a game by the scruff of the neck, not really his fault as he isn’t good enough to do that, but he’s lauded as some top player solely because of his free kick ability. If you try and look at it objectively and think of his game outside of free kicks what is he good at? Sounds quite ranty and as if I hate him reading that back I don’t, he comes across well in interviews and seems like a decent guy. I just don’t understand the love for him from a footballing perspective from the fan base. I get he came through the academy but I just find him a very negative player to watch and it’s frustrating.
No way Tella is coming back here, Can't blame the kid either. I hope he tears it up for Burnley next year.
Yeah the interviewer clearer didn’t realise he was on loan. Tella couldn’t really say he was when he asked about playing at the Etihad Emirates etc next season. Would’ve been funny if he said “nah I’ll be at Saints playing at Rotherham”
