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Reply | Last chance for Juric
at 11:38 26 Feb 2025
Some managers have always had the ability to make the most of their playing staff and get them to put in decent performances.
Some managers are perhaps gifted and those rise to the top because they are able to see things in players or put them together in tactically astute formations and win games consistently enough to finish above the relegation places.
Some managers are stubbornly wedded to certain styles even when it's clear beyond reason that it does not suit league or squad. (Take a bow RM).
And then some managers were never good enough, will never be good enough and will be allowed to destroy what little morale exists and put our club back a minimum of five years. This seasons winner in that category is Ivan. |
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Reply | 5 Things About Chelsea
at 11:33 26 Feb 2025
When I was a young teenager, all the glory hunting kids at school supported Leeds or Chelsea.
Got their comeuppance when the school decided that the sports teams colours would be decided by a vote. I was part of a group led by the senior pupils who successfully got red voted in as the choice.
Never really liked Chelsea and especially as I can probably count on one hand the times I've seen us beat them. |
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Reply | Hate to say this
at 08:26 26 Feb 2025
Dibling needs to be withdrawn from the team for perhaps the rest of the season because otherwise his confidence will be destroyed, his form will follow and then his value in a sale will drop.
He cannot save us and he should not be risked. |
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Reply | Brixton Academy
at 15:27 24 Feb 2025
Glad to see it has reopened.
Last gig I saw there was Kasabian (before Tom Meighan left/was forced out). |
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Reply | Hate to say this
at 08:45 24 Feb 2025
The harsh truth is that Dibling is not yet ready for a midfield role, especially in a team that needs to dig in and at least try to make it hard for the opposition to score.
I don't recall him winning a tackle in a game and he is not a box to box diesel engine.
In an ideal world he would play as the most advanced midfield player and not on the wing, but we don't have that luxury and giving hm game minutes increases the price we can get in the summer. |
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Reply | Have Southampton Fans Finally Lost Faith With The Club
at 09:57 20 Feb 2025
I've not "lost faith" but I certainly wish this season would end and that we hear from the owners a sensible and sustainable plan to get us back to being something other than three points in the bag for the opposition.
Thee is a thought that those who got us into this mess with poor recruitment, hanging on to a clueless manager for too long and then replacing him with worse, trying to turn the stadium into a theme park and a failure to communicate with fans, are not those best placed to find a solution. If so, they should sell the club to somebody who not only cares but shows that they care.
I am resigned to a struggle next season to stay in the Champ and it being another five years before we are serious contenders for promotion. I think that by the time we are there will be a European super league which will dilute the quality of the PL and make it easier for promoted clubs to stay there.
It has been many years since I was a Milton Road chorus participant. However the fact that I choose not to be in the Northam End repeating inane songs does not mean that my support for the club is wavering. I support the club and the team and would do even if we were in the National League but it makes me by turns angry and sad to see where we are this season. |
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Reply | Next Season
at 16:43 17 Feb 2025
And lost to Burnley |
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Thread | PSR could be history - where does that leave us?
at 16:42 17 Feb 2025
Despite I think 16 clubs voting to keep in place the Premier League PSR rules, as amended following the Man City legal case, it seems that a committee has decided that City were correct. The PSR rules since perhaps 2022 are unenforceable.
Aside from this meaning that most of the financial irregularity charges against City will now be dropped, where is that going to leave the PL?
Whilst there is already a de facto split of the PL into three parts - top 6, next 8/9, bottom 5/6 - mainly being a reflection of the financial power behind the clubs (few exceptions each season perhaps) if clubs are essentially unfettered in how much money their owners can "invest", we will see an acceleration of that split becoming recognised.
I can see top 4 to 6 being in a Euro Super League inside five seasons.
I can see the PL being 18 teams.
I can see the PL being limited in how many teams might get to European cups.
Personally I would welcome that. I think it would make the PL more of a competition and less of a parade. However the PL will hate it because it means less influence and less money. I suspect therefore that this will get very messy.
If however it opens the door to clubs like ours being better able to compete if we ever get promoted again, I'm all for it. |
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Thread | Money triumphs over sporting integrity
at 14:31 17 Feb 2025
I'm not a tennis fan by any stretch but the stench coming off the Sinner situation reeks,
He admits that he was negligent and took a banned substance. WADA conveniently accepts that he did so unintentionally. The result is a three month ban in a period when there are no big tournaments.
I confess that aside from a couple of high profile cases, I'm unsure just how widespread drug taking and bans are in football, but the situation with Sinner is like asking a player to take a ban between April and July.
Tennis though cannot have their number one player (who people pay to watch) missing from tournaments.
Corrupt. |
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Reply | Next Season
at 13:42 17 Feb 2025
I think that there are some structural problems in the club all stemming from the ownership which sees us perhaps as a nursery for clubs in lower divisions in Europe who will have the ability to buy low and sell high.
The recruitment has been dire. The managers/coaches not much better and the result is a playing squad of generally insufficient quality and now totally drained of confidence.
Changing an entire first team squad in one season will almost certainly mean relegation as the juniors are called upon to fill gaps and certainly the top half of the Championship has some decent and settled teams.
Changing perhaps half the squad - selling the players who will give us most fees - and recruiting from the younger ranks of PL teams is sensible but will not get us promoted next season. Perhaps top half of the table.
And of course new manager/coaches and preferably new owners. |
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Reply | Southampton V Bournemouth The Verdict
at 12:10 17 Feb 2025
Perhaps the extra money is minutes based rather than games started? I don't know - just guessing.
I very much get the sense that Juric does now watch other PL games. If he did, he might pick a team whose playing squad is similar and perhaps try to emulate their tactics.
Instead he wants to keep as close as he can the RM ways of playing (failed) but with the addition of a big CF (which is what you see in League 1 and below). At the same time the defensive organisation is full of holes which get exploited.
A few weeks back I thought we were 5 players short of a decent Championship side. I've revised that to perhaps 8 players short.
I'd keep Ramsdale, Fernadez and KWP (only if he will play at right back). The rest are presently short of the mark. I'd probably sell Dibling to give funds for replacements. |
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Reply | So, the World Cup in Saudi Arabia then...
at 11:40 14 Feb 2025
I'll be going to the USA edition but mainly because I have family and friends there and can save some money on accommodation.
The issue is the distances between venues.
Even the "Boston" venue which the New England Patriots ground is actually about an hour's drive from central Boston.
Trying to go between even those allegedly in the same group (Vancouver, Seattle, LA) are more than a days drive apart. |
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Reply | Weekend of August 9th
at 16:17 13 Feb 2025
If we keep going as we are, we'll be able to watch us in the Vanarama Conference in four seasons? |
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Reply | Weekend of August 9th
at 12:17 13 Feb 2025
Was there not a suggestion that the TV rights package might include 3pm Saturday games?
Was that next season or 26/27?
The World Cup starts on 11 June so presumably the season will end in early April? |
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Reply | Where are we today? And where will be be next year?
at 09:42 13 Feb 2025
I would say that most of us on this platform are not sulkers or bad influencers but rather realists and long standing fans who have endured all manner of highs and lows.
And make no mistake, this season has been a low.
Football fans go through phases. Up to the age of what, 14? 15? we can see no wrong in our team and we celebrate every victory as though we've won the league and every defeat as though we're about to be relegated. That's a childish reaction because we were children.
From then to whatever age we begin to settle down, the loyalty to the club deepens but we're either a bit more balanced about the results or - in some cases - even more invested and see defeat as a personal insult to be visited upon opposition fans or even families at home.
Most of us have a period when events in our lives are more important (or should be) than football. Marriage, kids, perhaps death of parents, etc. Football becomes a distraction and still important but is not in context as is not the all consuming passion it was.
Coming out of that phase, perhaps bringing your kids to matches means you arrive at the turnstiles with a sense of responsibility. (Didn't stop one Dad I watched swear every few seconds - with some decent creativity - watched by his 6 year old more interested in a bag of sweets).
Then when the kids are gone we are older and more in control of ourselves and we see victory and defeat for the charlatans they are and can accept and forgive both.
Here though we are in a different place.
Yes, the team is probably not good enough but most of us realise that is because of poor recruiting which is driven by a poor corporate plan. Managers have been indulged way beyond reason probably because of a lack of money.
Poor team, poor results even poor tactics we can stomach and deal with.
Poor ownership is though is often fatal. |
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Reply | Officials
at 09:06 11 Feb 2025
I'm always siding towards cock up rather than conspiracy simply because keeping that many people quiet for so long is almost impossible.
There is I think a statistical analysis that shows that home clubs are generally treated more favourably than away.
There is some statistical evidence that that the "big " clubs get decisions but it's not really significant.
The problem is that "significant" can mean one "wrong" decision in perhaps 30 made in a game and if that is to allow (or disallow) a goal, it is not statistically significant but it is determinative.
For so long as we have humans as refs, it will always be thus.
Having a robot who is always right will be sterile and boring. |
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Thread | Where are we today? And where will be be next year?
at 12:14 10 Feb 2025
I think we can all see that the 24/25 season will be one that is perhaps in the top (or should it be bottom?) three ever in the history of the club.
We have a squad that cannot compete at PL level.
That squad was forced to apply a style of football that actually made them look worse.
The new manager was acquired too late.
The new manager seems to be no better than the old manager.
We have failed to recruit well (or at all).
The ownership seems to want a theme park and not a football team.
Arguably we have become a feeder club for French and Turkish lower league sides.
We have now exited the Cup competition with a whimper.
My view is that even competing for mid table next year, we are - assuming nobody leaves - at least five players short.
We need - and have done for two seasons now - one or two strikers who can score a dozen goals each. We need a holding midfield player. We need at least one centre back, arguably two. A creative in midfield would be nice alongside a couple of water carriers.
Instead we show no signs of preparing for next season at all.
Couple of close prospects have probably already escaped us. Tyler Bindon formerly of Reading now signed to Forest (at Reading for the rest of the season) and Dean Huijsen of Bournemouth. Both young centre backs of recognised talent. Under our noses and now gone.
Instead we have Bednarek who is vocal about losing wages if relegated, THB who seems to have a crisis of confidence. Welington who I have not seen play and therefore have no view on. Captain Jack - nuff said.
The best holding mid we have has just been described as unprofessional. I suspect that has not done his playing form any favours.
Our striking options are woeful.
Where is the plan? |
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