Southampton fans must be loving this

[Jattdogg]

I dont have twitter but someone needs to start a preki to southampton tweetstorm

[sylofox]

4 minutes ago, ZeGuy said:

Mark Hughes as favourite.

Having looked on saints web last night if Hughes gets the gig I'm moving. After investing in rope and razor blades  

[katieakita]

Saints run in:

Swansea (A)

West Ham (H)

Arsenal (A)

Chelsea (H)

Foxes (A)

Bournemouth (H)

Everton (A)

Man City (H)

 

Ouch and Hughes favourite         

[Mark 'expert' Lawrenson]

7 minutes ago, katieakita said:

Saints run in:

Swansea (A)

West Ham (H)

Arsenal (A)

Chelsea (H)

Foxes (A)

Bournemouth (H)

Everton (A)

Man City (H)

 

Ouch and Hughes favourite         

I hope Hughes stays away from there, I mentioned Southampton’s run in the other day, only 3 Home games, 2 of which are Chelsea and Man City ?, 

[Guest TaggertvsWise]

6 hours ago, hackenbacker said:

Based on previous years' performances, I actually don't mind the Saints and their academy is probably the best in the land for young English talent (so hopefully this won't be affected should they go down) but you reap the seeds you sow and, really, to sack your manager after finishing 8th and being in a cup final is sheer madness in my view.

 

Hopefully, them going down will teach every one else that the grass is not always greener..........

 

Two clichés in two  sentences (albeit one is overly long) ..... priceless!

Agree about the academy. It could be good for English football if the get rid of underperforming ‘stars’ and promote their youth to stabilise their ship.

[Captain...]

1 hour ago, TaggertvsWise said:

Agree about the academy. It could be good for English football if the get rid of underperforming ‘stars’ and promote their youth to stabilise their ship.

But this is the problem with that model. Whether it is bringing through youth or unearthing hidden gems and selling them on, you end up with lots of money and a huge amount of pressure to spend that money but an inability to spend it well. Take Southampton, they have millions and millions from selling players. £75m for Van Dyke, how do you spend that? How do you replace the heart of your defence? They can’t buy a £75,60,50,40m defender maybe spend £30m on someone who is worth like £10m to satisfy the fans. Look at what we spent on Musa, Slimani etc.

 

You don’t spend it you get accused of having no ambition if you do spend it you end up with a bloated squad of overpaid players and stifle the progress of youth, one of the things that made them successful. It’s a vicious cycle and why being a selling club is not sustainable.

[shen]

2 hours ago, Mark 'expert' Lawrenson said:

I hope Hughes stays away from there, I mentioned Southampton’s run in the other day, only 3 Home games, 2 of which are Chelsea and Man City ?, 

Bournemouth is at home if the list above is accurate.

Either way, playing against Swansea, West Ham, Bournemouth, Everton and, dare I say, ourselves will give So'ton plenty of opportunities to get clear of relegation. Silva or Pearson wouldn't be a bad choice. After all, the latter has saved them before and done it with us in the Prem as well as with Carlisle years back...

[Mr Mister]

If they get Mark Hughes, then they are most definitely doomed. 

[gurru991]

Hard for clubs in the middle of the table to run an excellent recruitment program & then hang on to those players when the big boys come calling. Players want to play in Europe & will move on to get that regardless of contract length. The system supports the top six with the other clubs just making up the numbers. Southampton have paid the price for no plan B

[Beechey]

 

[Sol thewall Bamba]

LOVING IT! 

[Lionheart10]

I really don't like Hughes,be brilliant if he took them down.

[woznotwos]

Ouch , i'd be gutted if it was us

[Dan]

Embarrassing from them. They've firmly established themselves on the mediocre nobody club list.

 

Saying that I've no idea how Pellegrino did that badly. That squad shouldn't be close to the bottom.

 

Bet Hughes can't believe his luck.

[ZeGuy]

1 hour ago, Beechey said:

 

[Guest Col city fan]

What an era to be an ‘established Prem League manager’.

You can literally fook up one job, get a handsome pay-off, have three months holiday and get re-employed elsewhere.

Over and over and over again. 

In fact, financially could it be argued that its prudent to actually mess it up, get sacked and go elsewhere?

The likes of Big Sam, Hughes and Pardew must wake up every morning and think they are the luckiest people alive.

[Miquel The Work Geordie]

15 minutes ago, Col city fan said:

What an era to be an ‘established Prem League manager’.

You can literally fook up one job, get a handsome pay-off, have three months holiday and get re-employed elsewhere.

Over and over and over again. 

In fact, financially could it be argued that its prudent to actually mess it up, get sacked and go elsewhere?

The likes of Big Sam, Hughes and Pardew must wake up every morning and think they are the luckiest people alive.

 

To be fair to Allardyce (I really don't like him) the only job he really ****ed up was England and that wasn't a results based issue. 

[winteriscoming]

I don't like hughes but to say he's rubbish is wrong. Ok this season hasn't gone well but last season they finished 13th and before that they finished 9th three times on the trot. I think he will keep them up. 

[AyewJoking]

What's up?

 Hughes will keep them up or get them up if they go down

[weller54]

30 minutes ago, winteriscoming said:

I don't like hughes but to say he's rubbish is wrong. Ok this season hasn't gone well but last season they finished 13th and before that they finished 9th three times on the trot. I think he will keep them up. 

...Hopefully at the cost of West Spam going down! 

[Gazza M]

Some managers doing decent jobs in the Championship and yet clubs go for tried and failed multiple times. 

[volpeazzurro]

On 13/03/2018 at 23:05, Captain... said:

But this is the problem with that model. Whether it is bringing through youth or unearthing hidden gems and selling them on, you end up with lots of money and a huge amount of pressure to spend that money but an inability to spend it well. Take Southampton, they have millions and millions from selling players. £75m for Van Dyke, how do you spend that? How do you replace the heart of your defence? They can’t buy a £75,60,50,40m defender maybe spend £30m on someone who is worth like £10m to satisfy the fans. Look at what we spent on Musa, Slimani etc.

 

You don’t spend it you get accused of having no ambition if you do spend it you end up with a bloated squad of overpaid players and stifle the progress of youth, one of the things that made them successful. It’s a vicious cycle and why being a selling club is not sustainable.

I absolutely agree with your post and believe it to be a big problem and a situation that we absolutely as a club fell into the trap of.

 

There are two standout players in the world in Messi and Ronaldo. Then the next tier of players like Suarez, DeBruyne, Neymar and  Aguero etc with a slightly lesser 3rd undertier. We have to accept that with the best will in the world, even if we had the money,  we're never going to attract this calibre of player.

 

The problem with the commercialism and utter hype in football these days with the flames of the fire being fanned by agents, players like Slimani and Silva for example, with no sell on value, who even at their age have had no history of a big club willing to take a risk on, are purchased by ambitious clubs like our for extortionate sums like 30m! Being honest and with hindsight,  neither are remotely worth that, we fell for the old Emperor's new clothes trick. The inferior smaller  leagues of Russia and Portugal are seemingly poor buying markets where it would appear easy to be seduced into buying a big fish from a little pond only to find that they can't adapt to the deeper and faster flow of our game.

 

Though French football is not currently in the pomp it used to be,  nevertheless we've found their bigger more bloated market a happier hunting ground even at a lower level e.g. Marhez and more recently even Diabate. At those prices you can afford to take more of a risk and mistakes can be moved on with much less of an overall financial impact. There also have to be more Vardys about out there but our markets are a bit more expensive in fairness. Southampton have consistently over a fair period of time shown that if ran efficiently, academies can be effective though young players do need to be given a chance by a brave manager with  club and supporters on his back.

 

This summer is a huge watershed for us I believe. We need to get rid of a number of our expensive overpriced players that bloat our squad with mediocrity. How many number 9s have we potentially got on our books yet no real number 10? Let's hope that lessons have been learned from this 'kid in a sweet shop with his pocket money' attitude we've adopted in recent times. Maguire and Diabate are great models to follow. It really isn't that long since we taught the whole footballing world a big lesson,  it's about assembing all the essential  parts of a team, not collecting the exotic individual, our winning team cost less than one Slimani! Ostriches need to pull their heads out of the sand and stop following the crowd, we of all clubs have proved that difference can pay dividends.

[murphy]

23 hours ago, volpeazzurro said:

I absolutely agree with your post and believe it to be a big problem and a situation that we absolutely as a club fell into the trap of.

 

There are two standout players in the world in Messi and Ronaldo. Then the next tier of players like Suarez, DeBruyne, Neymar and  Aguero etc with a slightly lesser 3rd undertier. We have to accept that with the best will in the world, even if we had the money,  we're never going to attract this calibre of player.

 

The problem with the commercialism and utter hype in football these days with the flames of the fire being fanned by agents, players like Slimani and Silva for example, with no sell on value, who even at their age have had no history of a big club willing to take a risk on, are purchased by ambitious clubs like our for extortionate sums like 30m! Being honest and with hindsight,  neither are remotely worth that, we fell for the old Emperor's new clothes trick. The inferior smaller  leagues of Russia and Portugal are seemingly poor buying markets where it would appear easy to be seduced into buying a big fish from a little pond only to find that they can't adapt to the deeper and faster flow of our game.

 

Though French football is not currently in the pomp it used to be,  nevertheless we've found their bigger more bloated market a happier hunting ground even at a lower level e.g. Marhez and more recently even Diabate. At those prices you can afford to take more of a risk and mistakes can be moved on with much less of an overall financial impact. There also have to be more Vardys about out there but our markets are a bit more expensive in fairness. Southampton have consistently over a fair period of time shown that if ran efficiently, academies can be effective though young players do need to be given a chance by a brave manager with  club and supporters on his back.

 

This summer is a huge watershed for us I believe. We need to get rid of a number of our expensive overpriced players that bloat our squad with mediocrity. How many number 9s have we potentially got on our books yet no real number 10? Let's hope that lessons have been learned from this 'kid in a sweet shop with his pocket money' attitude we've adopted in recent times. Maguire and Diabate are great models to follow. It really isn't that long since we taught the whole footballing world a big lesson,  it's about assembing all the essential  parts of a team, not collecting the exotic individual, our winning team cost less than one Slimani! Ostriches need to pull their heads out of the sand and stop following the crowd, we of all clubs have proved that difference can pay dividends.

I keep hearing this, that the Portugese league is poor.

 

So how do their teams compete in Europe year on year without getting embarrassed?  Do you really think that if we played Benfica, Porto or Sporting we would brush them aside?  I think we would lose.

 

Lots of players have come from Portugal and thrived in the PL - Ronaldo (OK, he was a bit special), Carvalho, Ferreira, Mereiles, Boa Morte, Abel Xavier...

 

Yes, we over paid for Slimani, but he is worth £20m.  Although he looks ungainly his goal scoring record in the premiership is good.  THe issue with him is not that he can't adapt to the physical demands of the premiership from Portugal but that he doesn't suit our style.  If he plays, he scores.

 

I am still hopeful for Silva.  As an international, a European champion, captain of a household name European club and their player of the year 2013 I thought he was a bit of a bargain for £22m.  He shouldn't be written off just because he came from Portugal.  I still think he is going to make it.

Edited 17 March 2018 by murphy

[volpeazzurro]

34 minutes ago, murphy said:

I keep hearing this, that the Portugese league is poor.

 

So how do their teams compete in Europe year on year without getting embarrassed?  Do you really think that if we played Benfica, Porto or Sporting we would brush them aside?  I think we would lose.

 

Lots of players have come from Portugal and thrived in the PL - Ronaldo (OK, he was a bit special), Carvalho, Ferreira, Mereiles, Boa Morte, Abel Xavier...

 

Yes, we over paid for Slimani, but he is worth £20m.  Although he looks ungainly his goal scoring record in the premiership is good.  THe issue with him is not that he can't adapt to the physical demands of the premiership from Portugal but that he doesn't suit our style.  If he plays, he scores.

 

I am still hopeful for Silva.  As an international, a European champion, captain of a household name European club and their player of the year 2013 I thought he was a bit of a bargain for £22m.  He shouldn't be written off just because he came from Portugal.  I still think he is going to make it.

Qualification for Europe is hardly a yardstick even that pub team from Scotland get there every year ?. Outside of Benfica and Sporting however who is there? I maintain it's a poor league outside of the top two and those two are no longer the force of old. Not their fault as I think money comes into it.

 

As for the players you mentioned, Ronaldo and Carvalho accepted of course, but would you have wanted any of the others at Leicester. Just because you've played in the Premiership doesn't mean you thrived and were a huge success. 

 

As for Silva, I too wish him well but as for his record,  have a look at it as an international, don't think he played when they won the Euros though he was there and in the next competition they flopped badly. Technical ability he clearly has but ,for one excellent pass he seems to complete he gives the ball away twice. He doesn't appear to see let alone track players and he's brushed aside far too easily. I suspect this is why he's not playing sadly. For the price paid you'd perhaps expect better. Strange that at his age no one else of note has taken a punt on him by now, perhaps there's a reason.

 

Slimani I do have a lot more sympathy for  as he's an out and out number 9 and we've rarely played him there. I think he's got lots of goals in him though in the right team with the right service.

[1972 Fox]

13 minutes ago, volpeazzurro said:

Qualification for Europe is hardly a yardstick even that pub team from Scotland get there every year ?. Outside of Benfica and Sporting however who is there? I maintain it's a poor league outside of the top two and those two are no longer the force of old. Not their fault as I think money comes into it.

 

As for the players you mentioned, Ronaldo and Carvalho accepted of course, but would you have wanted any of the others at Leicester. Just because you've played in the Premiership doesn't mean you thrived and were a huge success. 

 

As for Silva, I too wish him well but as for his record,  have a look at it as an international, don't think he played when they won the Euros though he was there and in the next competition they flopped badly. Technical ability he clearly has but ,for one excellent pass he seems to complete he gives the ball away twice. He doesn't appear to see let alone track players and he's brushed aside far too easily. I suspect this is why he's not playing sadly. For the price paid you'd perhaps expect better. Strange that at his age no one else of note has taken a punt on him by now, perhaps there's a reason.

 

Slimani I do have a lot more sympathy for  as he's an out and out number 9 and we've rarely played him there. I think he's got lots of goals in him though in the right team with the right service.

When was this? 2017 Confederations Cup?