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Comment | Southampton V West Ham United The Verdict
at 16:13:18
Tall Paul did everything right apart from score a couple of those headers, one of which was a sitter.
It is almost certainly too late for us - we matched a (pretty average) mid-table side and if we had played like this from the start of the season we would still have been in with a chance. RM was sacked far too late and the other major SR blunder - lack of a decent goal scorer - is now banging those final nails into the coffin.
PS We are caught in one particular paradox/dilemma - the better we do from now until the end of the season the more the new manager will have his pick of Prem vacancies in the summer. If we do badly then they, and we, won't want him anyway. Yes he would stay if the miracle happens - but such things don't happen to the likes of us do they?? |
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Comment | Bella-Kotchap Speaks About Southampton Future
at 10:58:12
I'm not really bothered that he didn't want to play in the second division - but that's a strong clue as to his future with us - May at the latest, if someone will have him. And they are more likely to have him if he plays over the coming weeks and plays well. Unlike Wally I actually think he showed some promise.
We, of course, need to move on from RM but this story does confirm one of the idiocies at the heart of his regime. It was his job to get as many points as possible for our club. Instead he picked second-raters because he liked them. We see the result in the current league table. I am not saying we would have been doing an awful lot better without such lunacy but I reckon we would have more than 6 points. Sunday wasn't pretty but it was a point and how often have we been genuinely entertaining under RM this season???
Happy Christmas to Nick and to everyone on here. Let's hope 2025 is better than the latter half of 2024 - it couldn't be any worse ----- could it? |
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Comment | Southampton V Liverpool The Carabao Cup Verdict
at 20:01:35
Yes Pezza nice to see some crosses. I think it actually surprised the opposition - something that RM was totally unable to do.
Poor from the officials - to be fair the ref may not have seen it due to the angle but what about the fecken linesman?? Probably made no difference to the result but a definite red. Also it came from a long punt from the keeper!!! |
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Comment | Southampton V Tottenham Hotspur The Verdict
at 11:19:50
Excellent article Nick. I too am not really sure where we go now. What we have to do though is attempt to stay up. Yes we are as good as down but to give up would be madness. We are good enough to beat Derby's total and maybe get to 20 -25 points. Won't be enough but will restore some pride. Please SR make a decent appointment for once... |
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Comment | Southampton At Aston Villa The Verdict
at 23:35:32
I agree with the general consensus - 99% of us have had more than enough so I won't add more.
Just one little thing on Branfoot as Nick brings him up. He is the legendary hated manager and to know why you just had to watch the 'football'. He did however keep us up for 2 seasons and, who knows, may have done for the third one. He was, to a fault (to many faults) a total pragmatist who said 17th success and 18th failure and feck off if you hate the football. We didn't like it but I can't help feeling that we could do with just a tiny bit of that pragmatism now. |
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Comment | Russell Martin Turns On The Fans And Players
at 11:42:22
I think Blackmore's P45 comment is (hopefully) accurate. He will go now - for all the reasons stated by Nick and virtually everyone else.
Reading various opinions I see a split over whether the squad was good enough to have a fighting chance of staying up (past tense because it is surely too late now) and those who feel we were doomed anyway. Sadly we will never know - the next manager (assuming he is not another SR dud) will have the main task of gaining 'respectability' i.e. beating Derby's total and perhaps challenging Ipswich for 19th. The point is that if our squad was good enough to come 17th at the start of the season it now needs to be good enough to come 10-12th for the rest of the season (points per game now needed). I don't see that so we actually need a manager prepared to go down with us and get us up the top next season.
The anxiety of waiting for him to be sacked is about to be replaced by the anxiety about SR's choice of replacement. NB the loser of Wet Spam Wolves tomorrow will be looking very soon (if not already) so probably a good idea to ruin RM's Sunday - he's ruined enough of ours.... |
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Comment | Southampton At Aston Villa The Preview
at 11:59:27
Choosing between these two keepers is like do I go for the blind one or the other who has no arms (apologies to disabled people but couldn't resist the analogy).
My hopes are minimal: Simply please don't hand them a gift-wrapped early Christmas present. Make them earn the goals they score... |
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Comment | Southampton V Chelsea The Verdict
at 11:48:43
Hi Ripleys-revenge: " I don't buy the argument that the players simply aren't good enough" - you raise (and indeed answer) the other excellent question. We will only have a chance of knowing the answer (I am slightly less optimistic than you) when we stop the RM madness... |
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Comment | Southampton V Chelsea The Verdict
at 23:21:38
Nick poses the question: when is this madness going to end? I agree with the rest of what he says (expect I have zero sympathy for that the idiot Stephens) but that question is the only thing that really matters. SR and their manager RM are making us a laughing stock - the thing that every fan hates more than anything. I have seen worse players play for Saints in my many decades and I have seen worse performances but I have NEVER seen the like of what is happening this season. It really beggars belief.
The other pertinent question arising from the first is: What is entertaining about the way we are playing? Is anyone leaving the ground saying alright we lost but we were great to watch...Of course they're fecken not. I age another year every time I watch the inept and suicidal messing around at the back and I am too old to lose the time. Enough is enough - let's get a proper manager and go down with some dignity.
PS Why can't morons like the guy with the hair be booked for simulation when they over-react. Yes it is a red card but he deserved a yellow for cheating. |
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Comment | Southampton At Brighton The Verdict
at 10:39:47
The key for me on the disallowed goal is that Archer was given offside and as a line decision it was nothing to do with clear and obvious. He was onside so then you give the goal UNLESS the ref's overlooking of Armstrong being 'offside' is a clear and obvious error - which it obviously wasn't (they would have done it in 10 seconds if it was). If the ref had given Armstrong offside then fair enough - dispute the decision but it is clear cut. But he didn't so why is VAR re-refereeing it - just like they did at Wolves.
There are too many grey areas in rules/interpretations and VAR is simply worsening the situation and not helping but hindering. Interfering with play is an interpretation. Once you allow VAR 5 mins to 'interpret' then all is lost and inconsistencies reign. Arsenal's second goal against us??? That guy was 'interfering' less than Armstrong???? Those that quote Cloughy's nonsense about what are they doing on the pitch are talking rubbish - is the corner taker offside when the ball is headed in?, - any player crossing from the goal-line is 'offside' when the ball is put in...
The disgrace is that VAR hides behind its regulations to avoid blame when defending itself but here it totally ignored its regulations in order to find a way to disallow a perfectly good goal. It ISN'T bias - it is a system that isn't working properly. Yes - without VAR the linesman's error would have disallowed the goal but that cannot be used to excuse VAR - which is supposed to be ironing out those errors not committing more of its own. VAR (if it stays at all) needs to be cut back to REAL clear and obvious + line decisions.
That said we were a bit lucky that Downes didn't get a second yellow. We need at least three points from these next three. I doubt we will get them from Chelsea but at least this performance was BETTER!!
PS I am not a great fan of Martin but I thought his put down of the sh1t managing Brighton was spot on!! |
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Comment | Southampton Ready To Trim The Squad In January To Free Up Space For New Arrivals
at 17:50:14
Hope away sandywelsh. Even less likely than someone crossing towards Tall Paul in the penalty area!!
January will not matter in terms of us staying up - we will be gone by then. So it should be a "prepare for the second division month" - not more wasted money on a lost cause. So selling KWP would make sense. |
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Comment | Southampton V Brighton The Preview
at 17:44:57
Yes Boris that sentence sums it up well.
For me Liverpool proved that under RM we are not even able to take advantage of good sides having an off date. If Brighton play poorly tonight they are still likely too win. |
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Comment | Southampton V Liverpool The Verdict
at 18:50:20
JoeEgg - I am sure all 19 EPL managers will be encouraging RM to carry on just like he is and will be delighted to see him do so!!! I could manage the opposition at the moment - boot it up to McCarthy and just wait for the opportunities...
Off form Liverpool, difficult conditions - a recipe for a shock? Should have been but eccentric team selection and players in the wrong positions + the usual suicidal play at the back meant no. Russell has to go because THIS ISN'T WORKING. The fact so many said it wouldn't work, of course makes it worse. The large 'I told you so' brigade join with the disillusioned optimists and those shaking their heads at the craziness of this continuing 'experiment' - has there ever been a time in modern football when such self-destructive nonsense has been allowed to go on for so long?. Our squad is one of the weaker ones in the league (thanks SR, although perhaps that was inevitable) but is it really a 'tailed off' squad? We lost yesterday because of Russell Martin. Imagine the surge in confidence after beating (or even drawing) with Liverpool, instead a slide further down the doom slope.
On the referee and VAR I didn't think we were hard done by. Our penalty was just outside (they were right not to overturn though, just like they were wrong to do so at Wolves - CLEAR AND OBVIOUS). Also My gut reaction when I saw the replay was that Lallana was off - he was lucky, he could have easily gone. And their penalty was one because that is the rule - if the officials enforce the rules then I don't complain. Football has an interpretation of 'deliberate' that you won't find in the dictionary but it was just bad luck. Perhaps if Sugarwara had have played from the start he would have judged the conditions better. Finally the two claims in the second half: Archer no way a pen. Armstrong definitely in the 'I have seen them given' category but was never going to be overturned. The two things that went FOR us came first so I am not surprised that the Armstrong one went the other way. I thought it happened at 2-2 but I saw someone say it would have made it 3-1. That would have probably guaranteed us a draw even under Russell...You can't blame luck when you hand the opposition goals like those though. |
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Comment | Southampton V Liverpool The Preview
at 11:15:45
Well done for finding another analogy Nick. The name The Fall alone is fairly suitable for this season. Was there ever a band called The Drop? Must have been a song called Relegation Blues...
In times past weather like this would have had the chatting football classes talking about it being a great leveller. Sadly RM is the least likely manager in history to adapt tactics for the conditions or even to give us the best chance of winning. If our chance of getting anything is 1 per cent then surely it is the manager's job to get that up to 2 or a heady 3 per cent. Not our Russ. Quarter of a per cent will do for him as long as we 'play the right way'.
Sorry Block 8 and saintpete - I am finding daring to dream difficult. It would be lovely if those dreams come true... |
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Comment | Saints Not Afraid Of Sacking Russell Martin Even If They Have To Pay
at 22:37:18
When I look at our next 6 games (including cup) I see that away at Brighton is the 'easiest'. It is distinctly possible that we will go to Fulham on 22 December with 4 points from 16 games - it will be too late to 'lose faith' then. Either sack him now or keep him for the season I would say. In other words if you are going to sack him you HAVE TO DO IT NOW.
That said I am terrified of who SR might think is an adequate replacement... |
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Comment | Southampton V Wolverhampton Wanderers The Verdict
at 11:45:28
Yes redwight 'mediocrity in depth'! It isn't all RM's fault - the transfer strategy has been abysmal.
These injustices with VAR should have been sorted by now. 'Clear and obvious error' is a relatively straightforward concept. Instead a novice ref is taken to the blackboard and teacher lectures him on the 'error' he has made, wasn't even an error at all in my view. Second should have been disallowed too.
That said, if the writing wasn't on the wall before it certainly is now. RM would 'normally' now go. Even an excellent, intelligent choice of replacement by SR would struggle to keep us up but SR don't do excellence or intelligence when it comes to these things. I expect Wayne Rooney to be spotted in the Southampton area any day.
We are unfortunate to only have 4 pts - with proper reffing and a bit more luck we could have had 7 or 8 but that's life. RM is trying a real-time experiment in getting a sophisticated system to work without the quality of players to do it. Even with all the luck in the world we would have struggled. Under him we will now be lucky to get more than 15 points. We now have a horrendous run of fixtures so this is SR's last chance to bring in a decent replacement - changing when we have 5 points from 17 games really will be deckchairs and Titanic territory. |
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Comment | Southampton V Everton The Verdict
at 11:01:37
Ah - that's the (second) best thing about wins, verdicts on Sunday morning!!
We were due a bit of luck. A neutral reviewing our first ten games would not begrudge us four points or even one or two more. I thought the Sugarwara pull back for the goal was brilliant. Of course it is just one result but I am going to be positive for a few days - who knows - we may not get many more chances to smile!!
Oh and well done to Ramsdale - after a dodgy start to his time here that was a match winning performance. |
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Comment | Southampton V Stoke City The Carabao Cup Verdict
at 09:57:56
At least we won I suppose but truly abysmal other than that. We were ultimately lucky not to lose against the poorest team we will play this season. It showcased the sterility of the football RM plays. No quality (until Bree at the end) and boring, ineffectual football. If Stoke aren't relegated this will be a second division game next season - and the signs are not good. This should have been 4 or 5 nil - the fact it wasn't says all you need to know about RM and SR. |
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Comment | Southampton V Leicester City The Verdict
at 21:39:19
I think you can make a point that we have been a bit unlucky this season. Looking at how we have performed in the eight games you could argue that having 4--7 points would have not been unfair. But its results that count Russell and you're not providing them. |
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