Would have loved him when we were relegated in 2005. A real winner and would take no ****e from any player
Think you are quite optimistic that all those players will be bought bar the obvious ones. I would keep Jack and make him captain, he has a bit of presence and would be extremely good in the champ
Id take stephens now over Bednarek & other CBs. Was mad loaning him out then bringing in Lyanco, DCC & Bednarek. He’s clear of all of them plus a natural leader
Reluctantly I agree, had to force my finger down to admit that the game's up for us after today. Hoping for an indication of a fight back but the players don't want that it seems. My thoughts are that for a very long time, pre, during and since RH, there is something going on within the Club that is creating this apathy on the pitch. Perhaps this summer, the skies will be clearer and we'll all have a better idea, but to think this so long a run of rubbish football is down to managers only, whatever their qualities doesn't give me a satisfactory answer. This is worse by a country mile than 04/05 and even the Branfoot years, never did I think I'd ever write that sentence!!
Although Bournemouth look like they have a budget now, I think they’ll buy Stephens. As per the reluctantly keep pile of players from other posters, I think players like Bednarek, Lyanco, Diallo, Aribo & Onuachu won’t have a market. The Armstrongs might be tough to shift, but I think we will compromise or use the loan market to cut big earners
My liking your comment is in sympathy rather than the usual enjoyment. I've been supporting since 1956 and you're absolutely right, unfortunately.
Posted this rant in the match day thread but I feel it’s more relevant here - We’ve been on a downward slope ever since we replaced Koeman with Claude ****ing Puel. Our golden era of the PL Adkins/Poch/Koeman run showed us as fans, and the wider footballing world what we are all about. Buy cheap, sell for high profit and **** trying to actually build a consistently challenging squad. Sell players as soon as a high bid comes in and don’t try and actually keep the players and push on. How many times during that era did pundits come out the woodwork and say that you can’t keep selling your best players and expect to keep competing in the PL? And how many times did people on here and fans in general laugh at such a notion. The fallout of that kind of tactic was never going to be visible in a season or two. We have been a ticking clock ever since Koeman left because we showed we are not a serious club and have no intention of competing. Just selling for profit. And so naturally, every time a player or a manager left, it got replaced with a slightly worse replica of what came before. And season after season that built and built and built into the utter ****show we have now. Every time we had even a sniff of a good player we got rid of them and then used that money to buy 2 or 3 players who weren’t as good. It’s how you go from Sadie Mane to Nathan Redmond to Moussa Djenepo. It’s how you from Graziano Pelle to Gabbiadini to Carrillo. From Tadic to Ellyonoussi. From Van Dijk to Bednarak. And there’s examples like that all over the ****ing pitch. We were a stepping stone club on a timer and that timer has ticked all the way down to today. Yes there are variables like Gao and SR but we just became a club that was exciting and that enticed managers like Koeman/Poch, brought in players like Tadic/Mane/Wanyama/Alderweireld and now get a ****ing second string manger and the best we can do is get Maitland Niles…. On loan. It’s been a loooong time coming and it’s not just the fault of SR, it’s years and years of this club being surgically dismantled for profit and catastrophically mishandled by whoever has touched it. The Championship was always on the horizon and if we didn’t have Ralph the last couple of seasons or hell even Mark ****ing Hughes when we did, this would have happened even earlier. We are the product of the modern day premier league where it is profit over performance every day of the week. Mark my words, this will be Brighton in a few years. This will be Brentford in a few years.
That applies, sure.. but in terms of enjoyment this is the lowest I’ve felt. With all our other **** teams there have been mitigating circumstances - sales, lack of money etc. There was at least passion and belief and players got stuck in. This season has been soul destroying as we have spent money but we are just run by utter idiots. The passion of the club is fizzling out. Today people didn’t even boo or show any sort of emotion at the fact we’ve just lost a massive game. The players simply don’t care. There’s no passion. We are a nothing club. I don’t even know what there is to support about Southampton FC right now
Yeah I can’t see how Selles gets the job really unless we somehow stay up As I said before I think we will go down the young upcoming manager route again. Another Jones type who has done well somewhere else and hope they are a good fit. Wouldn’t be overly shocked if we got a coach from City and gave him a crack at management
The gradual decline is nothing to do with SR, but this season and relegation is 100% at their door. They didn’t have to spunk money on Larios, AMN, Orsic, DCC, Onuachu. We didn’t have to bring bednarek back. We didn’t have to let Romeu leave and not replace. We didn’t have to rely on a 16 year old goalkeeper. We didn’t have to persist with Ralph when he needed to go, then replace him with one of the worst managers we have ever seen. Then hire Ralph’s assistant who had been there all along, when it was too late. I could go on, but they have taken a club in decline and made us nosedive spectacularly.
No, no, no. We need someone to come in and get a hold of things and be able to reassure people (internal and external, across a breadth of roles) that things are going to calm down and get sorted out. (Another reason my ideal appt is Cooper... sorry to keep banging on) Not another dice roll on a lamb to the slaughter. (sorry SM, I know you weren't suggesting we should do that)
Exactly. I wouldn’t be against a boring, moderately experienced manager. We need to steady the ship, stop the rot.
I feel what has really done for us this season is simply the lack of heart in the squad. We have too many ‘stepping stone’ players in the starting 11. I just don’t feel like any of them have come here because we are Southampton and there are too many just in debut season. bazunu, ABK, AMN, Lavia (amazing!) Sulemana, Alcaraz, Aribo, Onuachu, only KWP, JWP, Walcott on the pitch who haven’t been at the club more than a week. Bednarek couldn’t care less IMO, wanted out and will get it. there’s something in that and a lesson to be learned. Next season will be telling as we won’t be a stepping stone to anywhere good. We need to attract the players we need for the right reasons.
Essentially I agree with you, but... Firstly, I think it's a tad harsh to criticise the attitude of those in bold, especially with the 'stepping stone' assumption. For several of them; Bazunu, Aribo, Onuachu, we are likely the pinnacle for them. Onuachu and Aribo are in their late twenties already. Now, AMN's attitude IS shocking, I'll give you that, and Sulemana seems to care more about showing off his tricks than anything else, but Lavia, Alcaraz, and ABK have probably been the three shining lights from this atrocious season. For me the problem is simply that there are very few long termers at the club. It is only through playing for a club for a few seasons that a proper affiliation to it can grow, and yet we discarded so many of these. Even getting rid of Kelvin Davis as a coach has probably had a detrimental effect on the feel among the squad. The more long-term personalities who care for the club, the less likely that a 'stepping stone' environment will exist. Secondly, it is very hard to turn around a losing team at this level. This isn't the first time we've seen it. We saw it under Ralph at the end of 20/21 and end of 21/22. Both seasons when the team lost confidence, that was it. Problem this season is that we didn't have the run of positive results that we did in those seasons. Once we start winning games (I don't honestly know where and when it will be), it will fire the players up, and those same individuals who seemingly lack passion, will all of a sudden appear to be full of it. I know it sounds stupidly obvious, but winning games is important. By that I mean we are at the point now where we must start winning whatever it takes. That might mean abandoning Sports Republic's buy-young policy for a while; it might mean giving up the prettier styles of football that our fans prefer to watch. Hopefully not, but beggars can't be choosers.
