Hey dopey - this will clearly come as a big shock to you, but how do you know that there were not lots of efforts to buy defenders, but the players involved said no (we are a newly promoted team after all)? Do you have intimate knowledge of the business that goes on behind closed doors? No? I thought not. Then your claim that Adkins lacks ambition is pretty stupid really isn't it? Or are you really that dumb that you think that we merely have to offer a player a contract and he will sign? And the fact that you have made zero comment about Gaston being back confirms yet again that you are nothing but a wum.
I believe I have made more than a few comments on him , and even refer to him in your nice highlighted post as a blue chip signing
Most neutrals I have spoken to think that Saints are certain to go down and have no chance of staying up. Watching man Utd play on MotD last night, you would be pushed to credit us with being in the same league as them and most other clubs (especially those performing in Europe) would see the Southampton figure as an unnecessary distraction. There have been positives from Saints this season but I can't ever recall a performance as dire as the one put in during the first half by any other Southampton side. I twas truly shocking. We need to avoid putting in any other performances as poor as that if we are to climb out of the relegation zone and I jyst don't think that this squad is good enough to do that. Most neautral fans I have spoken with over the last week believe we will be humiliated by WBA. The only people who realistic believe Saints can survive are our supporters. A successful season will be finishing fourth from bottom. At the moment, I feel we are on course to repeat the kind of performance than both Derby and Swindon managed to achieve during the course of the seasons they spent in the PL. My big worry is that we will end up being the worst ever team to have played in the PL - I think that this is a distinct possibility despite having players like Puncheon , Ramirez and Lallana who are all capable of performing at the highest level. This squad is nowhere near as resiliant as previous Southampton teams who fought tooth and nail for survival and who would never have turned out a performance quite as gutless as that against Spurs. There are no euqivalents of the likes of Monkou, Ostenstad, Case, Benali or Dodd in this team who will roll their sleeves up and get stuck in. The current team is simply not good enough, have insufficient depth in the quality of players in reserve and is managed by Adkins who is exceptional in the lower league but inadept in the PL where his kind of tactics will not work against players with the level of skill we face week in a week out. I think it is a shame, but we will get relegated with Reading and QPR this season. Perhaps promotion was 12 months too soon?
Very thoughtful comments Ian. With a five point gap between the bottom three and the 17th placed team, it looks odds-on that the three of us will drop. However I think Sunderland will soon embrace the relegation battle this season as they just cannot seem to score goals. When the January transfer comes I hope Saints do NOT bother with the likes of Dawson, Scott Dann as there is no guarantee they would keep us up. They would command considerable fees and contracts and we would not want to be saddled with players on huge wages in the Championship. I have said it before - if the defenders are not available here, we should scour Scandinavia for two or three youngish defenders with skill and pace as we have done in the past. Besides they wouldn't command the fees of the two I have highlighted.
Well there you go, 93 points still to play for - but we are already relegated. Let's just turn up our toes and give up shall we? Odd that most non-saints fans I speak to think the exact opposite, and that once we have got the initial games out of our heads and are back to full strength, we'll be fine. Most are wary of playing us because we play the game the right way and score goals. Lock down the defence more (and it is improving - no goals conceded in the second half v spurs, remember?) and we'll be a real threat again. I almost hanker back to the days of 606. With just a little more luck we could have taken 7 points from the first 4-5 games (remember that we stretched the two manchester teams to the limit), and had that happened people would have been saying what an exciting team we are. I sincerely hope we get something from the WBA game (and think we will), and can't wait what the "saints fans" on this site find to moan about if/when we do.
Yep in Jan that's sell all our better players Lallana, Lambert, Ramirez, Mayuka etc and get ready for the Championship.
As good as Ramirez is he won't be able to keep us up by himself. We do have some great talent in our squad but we have too many championship and league one level players who can't cut it in this division, particularly at the back. I'm sticking with YES for relegation but a big fat NO for sacking Adkins. Not that anyone on this forum has said anything but i'm also getting annoyed with people talking about Cortese like he is some kind of idiot. At the end of the day there are certain things he has to do to keep us competitive and to run us like a business, this is not going to happen if he lowers ticket prices to league one levels or doesn't consider a few extra charges here and there. I would rather Saints were in business then emulate what the fishes have done which is try to make everyone happy and miserably fail at it. Also why keep Adkins if he gets us relegated I hear you ask? I've never been a big fan of sacking managers like there is no tomorrow, I admit there are certain situations where this is necessary but often sacking your manager is a step backwards rather than forwards and we all know what Adkins is capable of, he just needs more time. The most successful teams in this country have one of two things in common, either they have spent so much money it would make Scrooge McDuck jelouse or they have stuck with a good manager, we can't do the former but we already have a great manager and should stick to it.
Sorry Jake didn't mean to be negative was just being matter of fact regarding the bookies. I still think we'll be alright.
Well, another very thoughtful post from Ian....and I don't agree with a word of it, again! I remember a time previously in the Premiership where we spent most of the season in the bottom 6 or 7 places and escaped by the skin of our teeth and MLTs brilliance. What is it, 30 games to play, a transfer window beckons and we are scoring goals which is what you need to do to climb out of trouble. If we weren't scoring, then it would be hard to see how we draw our way out of trouble. As it is, think back to Pompeys great escape and Fulhams a few seasons ago before deciding that we are down already. We ain't.
As long and as boring as Ians posts are, we should not read too much into them, as he is often totally wrong. Like the one in March that said we would fail to gain promotion. Nice, but dim.
