I have been patient in my comments in recent months about the club and some of the accusations levelled at it by some of it's supporters, but now it is time for some accountability.

Many Saints fans seemed happy to condemn Les Reed before he has actually done anything wrong, whilst Reed has his faults his CV would make good reading for any football club outside of the big six in English football, it has been one of constant improvement and success over a 7 year period at St Mary's since he arrived in 2010.

But perhaps his best work for the club is what has been achieved in rebuilding Staplewood and restructuring the academy and set up behind the first team, Reed should be applauded for this.

Last season might not have felt like it at times, but the statistics say it was in the top six succesful seasons in our history, although a section of the fanbase were not satisfied.

Reed might therefore be entitled to expect a little leeway this season when we hit stormy waters, but there was none of that as the fans took him to task even before the first month was over, he could do little right in their eyes, he was damned if he sold Van Dijk, damned if he didn't

I remained patient and although I was not happy that action was not taken in December regarding the manager, I understood some of the frustrations and the difficulty in replacing a manager and getting the right man without just jumping out f the frying pan into the fire.

As some raved and predicted that we would not spend the Van Dijk money I again was not prepared to condemn a man for his actions or at least lack of them until the transfer window was closed, now it is shut I am not a happy man.

I agree with many that given the Van Dijk situation we should have had his replacement lined up and ready to go at the start of the window, we should also have had some plan B's in place

Lets get this right though in terms of corporate governance before we start, Mauricio Pellegrino is in charge of the team, if he is not performing to the desired standard then it is Les Reed's job to sack him and identify a replacement as well as bringing in players.

If Reed is not doing his job then it is Ralph Kruegers role to sort the situation out and sack Reed, it is a very clear demarcation of roles within the club, ie Krueger should not be berated for not sacking Pellegrino, that should be Reed, if Reed is not doing his job then Krueger has to deal with him.

Some supporters don't grasp this concept and blame everybody.

But this January Les Reed had two specific tasks, bring in players and review the manager, he appears to have done little on either, the fact that with so much money in our coffers we landed only one player is nothing short of a disgrace and Les Reed should be accountable, likewise the manager, Pellegrino has won only one game in three months, again this is totally unnaceptable and Reed has allowed it to drag on and on to the point where the situation is now unrecoverable with Pellegrino due to the lack of faith in the fan base in him and indeed now Reed himself.

AS I say this is partly unfair, Reed has done much good work behind the scenes, but it seems that today bringing in players and sorting out an underperforming manager is a task that is beyond his capabilities and the question has to be asked if his role is too much for him and needs to be divided.

Losing Reed would be a blow in the organisational sense, much of the structure at Staplewood is down to him, but it cannot be ignored by Ralph Krueger the situation that has been allowed to develop with the first team and it's manager and the failings of Reed to deal with it.

To his credit and indeed Reed's they did not sack the manager at the first sign of stormy waters, they gave him time to show he could turn things round, Pellegrino has not done that, he has had every chance, he now needs to go.

So Ralph Krueger needs to show he is overseeing the club well, in any other department he would not let the director preside over such a decline and indeed in any other department that director would not let his head of department under perform so badly that things deterioated to this level.

Reed needs to start doing his job and Krueger his !

Results now are what matters, a month ago I wouldhave aid that just sacking the manager would be pointless unless a replacement was already lined up, now I would say different, last night I could not fault the effort of the players, they put in good performances individually, but they were not a team, they had no leadership and that has been clear for a while now, literally there is no point in Pellegrino being in charge, tactically he is naive and he can seemingly change nothing in a game, so we might as well let the crowd pick the team by poll and substitutions made by a vote on twitter, the team would have fared no better or worse last night if this had been the case and that tells you something.

So if Reed wants to keep his job he should be pro active now, with only one new signing in to the club, the playing squad is barely changed so something else has to and that is the manager, if the fans are to be rallied to get behind the team then there is only one thing left to do, sack Pellegrino and do it now.

I hate to demand something like this, but to be blunt there is not another club in the top four divisions of English Football, perhaps even further beyond that would allow a manager to win only once in 16 games and still be in a job !

Photo: Action Images

legineloc added 22:51 - Feb 1 At the end of last season the problem we had was we could score goals, so in preseason we brought 2xCB & DM & in fact weakened the attack by selling JRod, why when we sold VVD to liverhampton didn’t we take sturridge in part exchange loan or permanent he needs to play to go the World Cup & unlike guido has premier experience, so as head of recruitment is it job to get players, the board have to take it’s fair share of blame

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Jesus_02 added 23:55 - Feb 1 Never liked Reed, He was always playing Russian roulette with our club. His tac was always similar to Lowes... buy em cheap sell em high... the problem is when you fail to sell them you end up with loads of average midfielders on the payrole. We have always been playing 2 short of competitive side for too long, unfortunately this season the axe has fallen Swansea have just picked up 6 points because they have the ability to score and the opposition have had an off day. Even if the an average team has an off day we cant put the ball in the net. MP2 will leave a be a decent manager elsewhere , just as Puel has. Boufal, Tadic, Lamina, Gabi The new bloke, they will all leave because their wages will be unsustainable and to be frank they don't really care about saints. They are just part of a merry-go-round club and everyone of them came here as a stepping stone. We just presented them with a chance to play in the PL and they have done that now. What successful business do you know that has a staff turnover of the rate we have? How can you have team spirit in the environment that Les has created?

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larry12 added 09:06 - Feb 2 Sack Les Reed 2 years ago. Problem solved. Too late? Told you so 2 years ago and counting! Morons love Les Reed and his cronies running everything.
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petedoors1 added 09:56 - Feb 2 So this is why we didn't get any more players in Janurary. http://www.skysports.com/football/news/11700/11232694/southampton-were-priced-ou
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petedoors1 added 10:00 - Feb 2 What a Pathetic Football Club we have Become.
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SaintBrock added 11:00 - Feb 2 Funnily enough I have been mulling over in my head how it will feel not to be a Saints fan next year. It will be strange for sure having free weekend afternoons and not bothering to search for pirated sports channels and not staying up late to be insulted by MotD and not following forums on the internet and not giving a hoot about transfer windows and not having to look for a parking space on a freezing Wednesday night and not having to trudge up to SMS in all weathers 20 times a year and not having to duck past kids trying to sell me raffle tickets and.... Yep! I think I can handle that.

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underweststand added 11:33 - Feb 2 Having read all the above - so far, it's hard to deny that many of you have very strong viewpoints, but forget that we are living in fantasy world , where the "richest clubs" buy players with monopoly money and make them millionaires EVERY MONTH - with salaries that we wouldn't earn in a lifetime. The reality is that Saints, along with a dozen or more other Prem. sides, are trying to punch above their weight, and every season.. 3 of them don't make the cut in May. In the last 8 years Saints have made more progress than in the previous 50 years that I've been supporting them. We have achieved a period of success totally unknown in the club's history, and despite losing players (and managers) with greater ambition, we have struggled to replace them - not because we can't spot their talent, but sheer economic pressure decrees that we cannot afford to employ them at the current salary levels . Those of you who don't follow that ..should read all the small print in UEFA's many FFP rulings about club economy, sponsorship and " INCOME" whatever that is deemed to be. As for the current situation, Pellegrino wa employed at short notice, when the highly vocal angry minority forced the Board to sack Claude Puel, DESPITE our top half finish, and Cup Final that we might have won had VAR been in use a year ago. We will be able to access the success of that decision when we see where Leicester finish this season. When Koeman arrived he was allowed to bring in 7-8 players, most of whom were good /very good. Puel got a lot less, and Pellegrino has had to experiment with those he inherited which included a group of strikers who, almost to a man, are the worst (non-scoring) bunch, I can recall in over 4 decades. Hence the chopping and changing which has also been marred by frequent injuries to key players. We should also remember that most of those players have been tied down to long term contracts that stretch into the next decade.(!) Changing the manager isn't always the answer, as we now see that half the Prem.sides have changed their coach this season already, and for the most part it's the same dozen or so people who are playing musical chairs between clubs. Clearly not the answer. What do we expect from yet another new face ?...should he go into the dressing room with a magic wand ...or a baseball bat?. Finally, those who want to blame Les Reed should remember that he has presided over the club's rise in those 8 years , and had been responsible for many of the successes that the club has seen. If things have gone pear-shaped now it's not all his fault. Clearly (WE) are not the only people saddened by the lack of January signings as those who; own /control / and run the club on daily basis are equally upset that we didn't sign; Promes, Walcott, Sturridge, Lamela and half a dozen others whose names where bandied about in the FAKE NEWS sites that abound on the Net. As is we are, for better or worse, " stuck " with this squad to get us out of the mire. READ... FPP rules again. I recall the (then) Saints manager Dave Jones (20 years ago) joyfully celebrating the Saints last day survival in "The Great Escape " season... stating that from the club's side "we had won the Premier League" ..merely by managing to stay in it. One thing is for sure by May 13th , there will either be blood on the Boardroom floor, or several cases of vintage Champagne, as then is the time to talk about hiring and firing.

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bstokesaint added 12:19 - Feb 2 Agreed Weststand up until the point of sacking the manager. He wouldn't need to wave a "magic wand" if he was a better tactician. Plus sacking the manager at the right time can lift a team. Other teams around us have done that and pushed on. As I've said before I wanted Puel to stay. I don't think MP should ever have been brought in and has now set the worst record of any Saints' manager.

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Consigliere added 13:27 - Feb 2 This is from today's Guardian and I can't improve on it: There is a time and place for stability and Southampton right now is not it. Saints are the only club in the bottom half, apart from the promoted trio, who have not changed their manager since the start of the season and nor have they altered much else despite their chronic dreariness. Mauricio Pellegrino has persisted with pretty much the same blunt tactics and the club did little to improve his squad during the transfer window. In fairness, their only new signing, Guido Carrillo, might just give Southampton the forward fulcrum that they have lacked since the departure of Graziano Pellè in 2016. For too long Southampton’s attack has lacked variety and sharpness. If Pellegrino figures out how to address those failings at last and can also inspire more moxie from his team, then they may begin their climb towards safety by winning at West Brom on Saturday. But Alan Pardew’s side, for whom Daniel Sturridge could make his first start, look the more likely victors. They could push Southampton to the bottom and Pellegrino towards the exit.

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SaintBrock added 14:55 - Feb 2 I liked some of you common sense reasoning undertheweststand but if you are saying that we couldn't afford to keep Lallana (say) because of wage demands then it follows that anybody we bring in to replace him cannot possibly match his standard let alone improve on it simply because (a) we cannot afford or spend such transfer fees and (b) all people of similar quality will want similar wages. If that truly is the case then the Club absolutely know that their selling policy of the last 3 seasons has de facto has systematically degraded the on-pitch performance of our team because we could only afford to bring in lesser players. This was an absolutely wretched and dishonest policy as it has been coupled every year with the expressly stated notion from the board of the Club's high ambitions, which has turned out to be just a cheap pack of lies by management to appease fans whilst enriching the owner and themselves. We could just as easily have kept our good players, paid them what we needed to pay and become a truly big club ourselves. Interesting isn't it that Kreuger let slip recently that we are "now" suddenly a small club! Of course they knew this all along, their selling policy could have had no other outcome than to diminish us. That is the reality and the greedy dishonest sods have not finished their work yet believe you me. It is this clear breach of faith by board members and serious enough for fans never to trust them again. Keeping The Clown is all part of the systematic destruction of our club and do not rule out administration in a couple of years and I don't need to suggest why.

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dirk_doone added 14:59 - Feb 2 He's already a wealthy man, Les Reed should have done the honourable thing and retired on his 65th birthday last year. We need our brilliant head of recruitment, Paul Mitchell, and his black box back. We've missed him badly these last 2 years. He's still only 36 and full of new ideas.
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Jesus_02 added 15:02 - Feb 2 I would just like to point out that people that believe that the board sacked Puel because an "angry mob, demanded he be sacked despite top 8 and cup final" are delusional . If they listen to the fans t hat much then why have we persisted with playing a lone striker despite everyone I know being extremely vocal about how ineffective that tactic has been.
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SanMarco added 16:31 - Feb 2 I think the fans were a factor Jesus. I wonder what percentage of fans, over the years at all clubs, chanting "insert manager's name OUT" would have been doing so if they had known who the replacement was going to be. We'd have kept quiet last season for sure...
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underweststand added 16:55 - Feb 2 Having read much of what has been written above..we (collectively) have found 5 different reasons for our failure this season, when the fact is that our main excuse has been a lack of goals. The same as last season, but we're stuck with them. In a market where successful players move on to "bigger clubs and larger salaries ", we gave almost all players long term contracts in the vain hope of keeping them. Selling VvD was a no-brainer. The £75 million fee will remain our record fee for another decade, and if VvD turns out to be "another Lovren" then we'll be the winners. It can also be noted many of those who left for " greener pastures" have seen their careers decline. Shaw, Chambers, Schneiderlin, Wanyama, Lovren all look much worse than their time at SMS. Both Walcott and Alex Ox. are looking to kick start their careers. Our failures are a result of our success. We bought cheap..(very much so) in many cases, and lost out to clubs who pay £100K a week to their younger bench players. All of the above were "stand-out " players in their times with Sainmts, but fell foul of another club's formation and guess what ..a new manager who played another style. The point has been made ( by several managers) that we only buy players who can improve on what we have, and those we do have to "fit" the club. Our apparant "failure" to sign those we wanted shouldn't mean we should rush out at the eleventh hour and pay over the odds for a player no better than what we have now. I really am glad we didn't get Lamela ! We can argue and complain all we want, and unless we can pick up " a class player " who is out of contract, there is no more we can do before the end of the season, so we are all in it together for the duration. Those of you who don't like that idea ...can be first in the lifeboats.

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underweststand added 17:08 - Feb 2 to Saints Brock....I don't blame Lallana (as much as some others did) for wanting a move. YES, he (and Lambert) were a perfect combination and Brendan Rodgers lost his job partly because he failed to see that their partnership was the cornerstone of their (and our) success, when he consistantly failed to play them in a partnership. Lallana had a poor deal at SMS when successive managers kept trying Ramirez (perhaps to justify Cortese ridiculous purchase) when AL was clearly a more creative player. I'm sure he set his heart on playing for England, something that would have been most unlikely, had he stated with Saints. The figures I read about his salary at Liverpool were light years above anything Saints could have afforded to offer him., and such has been the case with many of those who have left since.

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BoondockSaint added 17:40 - Feb 2 Richer teams buying our players and paying them more while we whinge about being a "small club" is no excuse. How does that explain Burnley, Bournemouth, Brighton, and Huddersfield?
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Newdawn2014 added 11:08 - Feb 3 meanwhile in a smoke filled ruin somewhere a man plays a fiddle whilst gently rocking to & fro, mumbling incoherently about an overweight centre back ?? poor soul ! COYS COYS
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