I think we're bound to go down under Gao at some point regardless, if it's not this year then it'll be next or the one after. I also don't believe he's going anywhere anytime soon either, and definitely not while we're a PL club.
If you look hard at all the top clubs (Other than Leicester perhaps) over the years they have really invested in their club and broadened their world wide name tags. Chelsea, Man City & Liverpool a good example of that. Not forgetting Man U. If you don't invest you are never going to improve. We do have a lot of Dead wood. I don't think any would deny that so until we get rid we won't have the money to improve. Sadly the hierarchy do not seem to remember that. If I may say as a long time supporter, Saints have suffered from since the 50s, a board that lacks vision.
My main concerns, with Ralph/the team, is that he doesn’t react quickly enough to what we are seeing on the pitch. WHU totally dominated the midfield for the first half by out numbering us in the middle. He doesn’t need to take a player off to correct the imbalance, just switch a wide player into a more central, advanced midfield role, to level up the numbers and to give the other midfielders a forward pass option instead of them always going sideways or backwards. The other issue is the Jekyll and Hyde performance in one match, where we either dominate the first half then lose our way, or start badly then turn it around and dominate in the second half. This lack of consistency is extremely baffling.
And your good point re sideways and backwards passing often ends up with no more than two touches by us and then the opposition just clean up from our dithering and confusion. Like many on here I just can’t come to any definitive offers of opinion but at some point in the next 3/4 matches (maybe less) something is going to have to seriously change or we’ll just have to face the unpalatable truth of certain relegation this season. Whilst I think I understand those who suggest a year or so in the Championship may be no bad thing, I strongly disagree, it’ll be like Leeds have painfully experienced all over again and I’m sure none of us want that.
I agree, the whole process of relegation is a miserable experience. Think about what it was like on the way down last time rather than on the way up.
Oh that’s what it’s called then, that feeling, shall I go and watch, stay at home and watch or keep an eye on the score or find things to do to try and forget that they’re playing? All backed up by a sub-conscious certainty that you know pretty well, it’ll be business as usual, one half of the game failing to overcome the total failure of the other half. That’s the excitement of watching Saints!!
Isn't Danso a defender, well meant to be anyway? We spent £15m on Adams who so far isn't the success we need. We are still trying to be the club we were 4-5 seasons ok by by buying talented players from abroad for relatively not that much, get them for a season and then sell them for a good profit. That isn't working at the moment, as we are paying over the odds for fairly average players. Although the summer before Koeman joined with us selling all that talent was bloody annoying, I would love us to be like that again. What a big part Cortese played for us then. He helped build a good squad, was able to attract young hungry good value players. We haven't had that since. I know he had his dissenters, but you can't deny that we punched above our weight then