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Comment | Sousa Heavily Backed
at 11:18:11
Watching from a distance as a geographically distant supporter so much seems awry.
1) The situation with Mark Hughes seems to be drifting to an end. Drift is dangerous - plunge the metaphorical dagger or announce he is being stuck with but end this perennial drift. I fear he may be a manager who has not changed sufficiently with the demands of the premier league. It had caught him out at Stoke and is doing so with Saints. The board needs to find some courage and sack him or back him and do so quickly.
2) The squad is not one currently equipped for a relegation fight. I sometimes think that chemistry between players and supporters can make such a difference. When a squad is technically less gifted (take Cardiff or Huddersfield) supporter know only encouragement will do. When a squad, as the Saints squad currently is, ought to have sufficient quality not to be in this mess unity can be replaced by discord. As a supporter from a distance with a few exceptions the squad seems to lack the collective sense of unity needed to battle relegation. Talent may be there but tenacity and grit less so. At least without something changing. This in turn means the supporters feel less affinity. Saints stayed up in the 90’s with supporters and players as one because the likes of Benali may not have been the greatest players but the fact they demonstrably cared for the club meant the supporters did too.
3) The club has lost its identity. We have sold the family silver and stocked up with Ratner standard replacements. We have stopped growing our own, or stopped giving our own a chance, and thus lost our sense of being a club that promotes and nurtures its in house talent.
4) Leadership at the top of the club seems to lack clarity or sense the urgency of the club’s current plight. I am not sure at this point in time it is a Sousa who is needed. The club needs an Allardyce type manager. What matters now is survival not another experiment. It is someone with a track record of getting clubs out of the mire they have got themselves in.
5) The board itself seems flawed. Minimal public comment, little clarity of vision and no sense that they see what is unravelling before their eyes. Indifference or lack of urgency in the boardroom filters down through the club.
I hope it doesn’t happen but the club has that feel of relegation around it. It need not happen but someone at the top needs to take their head out of the sand. If they do not that perhaps would imply that passivity from the top is to become the norm with dire consequences ensuing. Time for those at the top to smell the proverbial coffee! |
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Comment | Saints V Newcastle United The Verdict
at 10:28:29
I don’t get down To St. Mary’s often living away from the area. I also tend not to comment and just read. However, I just wonder if part of the current problem is that Saints have lost their distinct identity. I see youngsters like Reed, Sims, Hesketh and Gallagher out on loan at different times and wonder if in the past they might have been more involved in the first team squad. The Southampton way often seemed to be to have a core of players who came through the club and bonded with the supporters. In turn the supporters then had a connection with them. I think of the likes of Dodd, Benali, Le Tiss, Oakley in the time when I had a season ticket. Now we have a group of players many from abroad who perhaps supporters don’t have quite the same connection with. The balance between home grown and external signings seems out of kilter and I can’t help thinking some of those youngsters might have more to offer than some of our more recent signings. I hasten to add this is not just a Saints issue it is symptomatic of the premiership as a whole but would say Hesketh or Sims be any less effective than Elynnoussi? Hard to know if they never get a run. |
| | pete76
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