Confirmed: Russell Martin has been sacked

Probably not, even I don’t think we will actually go down. But our form is definitely relegation form over the last 4 games and it’s a forum for taking about our form

 

And the four prior were promotion form

 

Continue this and we should be mid table then

Maybe we’re trying a 4 games on, 4 games off strategy

 

This forum is going to be like one massive speed comedown if that's the case.

 

I was thinking about RM's comments about Alcaraz and him not being up to speed with the language and that proving a problem on the pitch. It had me thinking, we all know Charlie did really well after joining in January, both under Nathan Jones and Ruben Selles. It's no co-incidence that Ruben was there for the whole of that period and is Spanish.

Perhaps RM should stop looking for excuses not to play his most talented players and instead look for solutions. One of our best managers in a generation couldn't speak English when he arrived and yet the club purchased a translator (who we all loved) and off we went on a great journey with a brand new style of play, earning plaudits across the football world.

Pull your finger out RM/Saints and do more to help our most talented player settle and develop!

 

Nathan Jones is also fluent in Spanish.

 

He's also very fluent in Twatish.

 

It's English Comprehension that he struggled with

 

We had 11 points after 10 games in our relegation to league one season.

So if we lose to Leeds & Stoke Martin will officially be worse than Jan Poortvliet

 

We had such a fantastic crop of young players coming through there. Poortvliet gets bad press but I wonder whether Lallana and Schneiderlin would have made such an impact so quickly if they hadn't played so much that year?

And that makes you think maybe this year will lead to great things as we have a similarly young squad - and sometimes you have to fail to grow.

 

A few years ago we used to sign a cheap player of the same nationality as a bigger signing presumably to help them settle in better, there was Chalá with Delgado from Ecuador and Bleidelis with Pahars ( who both once admired my Dad's snooker when they were playing on the next table!) from Latvia.

 

Agreed.

The more I think about the reasons for not playing him, the more angry I get.

All employers have a duty of care to the mental well-being of all their employees. We took him on knowing he didn't speak English. Ok, he may have agreed to learn, but that is no reason to freeze him out. It is all about inclusion.

Whatever you do, or whoever you work for, the company should not judge you on your race, ethnicity, religion, sexual preferences etc, but on what they employed you to do. He is not being given an opportunity to do so. It is not as if he is employed as a spokesperson. He is employed to kick a ball around a park - something he has a rather good natural talent for. FFS they say football breaks down cultural boundaries...clearly not in Southampton.

The solution to the 'issue' is also rather simple. Bring in an interpreter or a free agent who can speak Spanish. Yes I agree Charly hasn't done himself any favours by not learning a bit more English, but maybe he is genuinely finding it tough. How many here have tried to learn a different language? It aint easy.

 

There are plenty teams with all sorts of different nationalities and languages (not only language, but alphabets too - cyrillic, arabic etc) who play together just fine. Seems to me Charly doesn`t get what he is being asked to do. But does anyone?

 

You can try very hard to learn a new language but sometimes it just takes time.
I have tried to learn and improve my Spanish and I can string some sentences together (I recently got praised by my doctor for trying to converse with him in Spanish and making myself understood) but my biggest problem is processing what is said to me. I am more able to understand the written word than the spoken word so maybe that is something that could be considered for Charly, if the club doesn’t think investing in an interpreter is worth it.
I hope to start having conversational lessons soon, to help move me to the next level and I am forcing myself to engage with locals in shops, in Spanish, which is quite daunting for a shy introvert.
Charly definitely needs an arm around the shoulder to help him through this or we will lose him.
My Geordie neighbour sent me a link about Newcastle monitoring the situation.

 

I agree, though if English is his problem, he'll be even more confused with Geordie

 

In my view certain players are so slow at thinking their next move walking back to defensive positions. Being unaware where opposition players actually are. Tackling players after they receive the ball rather than being able to be in an annoying position immediately. Our interceptions are pretty poor

 

Plus it’s ****ing boring offensive football.

 

this is the point for me. Freezing out a player for not understanding when the English speakers are conceding 4/5 goals a game and looking like children. And they are supposedly the ones who understand what is required?..

 

This isn’t in the know stuff and probably just the way football operates, but was talking to a mate of mine today who knows family of Dean Smith. Said he was offered the Huddersfield job but turned it down as he would jump at the chance to manage Southampton.
Said he doesn’t know if this is because feelers have been put out to potential managers or if it was Smith waiting for a better opportunity, but he did mention Saints as being an ideal job??

 

Much better than Jones, Selles and possibly Martin (jury’s still out)