| News Comment | Southampton Announce New Shirt Sponsors at 20:17:08
In a sports world that's flush with cash, it nevertheless feels as if the financial frontiers everywhere are in online gambling. There's an "easy" way to get gambling companies' names off of clubs' shirts: just stop gambling. This approach makes sense of me—but my addictions are other than gambling, so it's an easy call. |
| News Comment | Saints May Have To Cash In On Star Defender at 19:03:56
Ideally we keep him. And/But, to survive in the Prem we need lots more steel in central defense. Sell him or keep him, we need to recruit someone else, preferably a Dean Richards type (Dean being doubly missed, having passed, and at such a young age). |
| News Comment | Southampton V West Bromwich Albion The Play Off 2nd Leg Verdict at 23:31:16
I can only comment on the second half after Smallbone's goal, as that's all I had time to see (was still in Friday meetings out here in California!). It was a bit surreal; from my post-50th-minute perspective it looked as if WBA had never even bothered to show up at all, and we dispatched them accordingly. But it was a playoff semifinal! So I can only surmise that Martin had got our tactics spot on. Credit to him and Saints for carrying out the second half game plan. We'll just have to see if he can, or needs to, pull a rabbit out of the hat against a more dynamic and inventive Leeds side. |
| News Comment | Southampton V Stoke City The Verdict at 16:12:52
Some weird results at the top of the Championship this weekend suggest that the top four have run out of gas and are just drowsily jockeying for position. Automatic promotion is still at stake for Leeds and Ipswich; but they seem as spent as we are. Meanwhile, Leicester won the league without even kicking a ball. I hope I'm right in surmising that the real football has yet to begin, and that we're just taking a power nap for the time being. Time will tell. If the trend continues it's obvious that RM has to go. If we gain promotion—_then_ what do we do with him? |
| News Comment | Southampton At Leicester The Debacle at 01:29:34
allsaint54 is spot on: "Tippy tappy sideways backwards football may work against the lesser sides but as soon as we play someone half decent we get stuffed." And we think we warrant being in the conversation about the Premier League ?! Nowhere close. If we want to go up, RM has to go out. |
| News Comment | Southampton Side Announced For Leicester Game at 21:58:12
This side was sufficiently talented to keep things nip-and-tuck at 5-0, and not let it get to 9-0. Perhaps that's progress. (Of course, I said the same thing the last time we were dismantled by Leicester, 1-4, in September.) |
| News Comment | Southampton At Cardiff City The Verdict at 21:08:28
I'm with clubless; we'd be toast in—definitely not the toast of—the Premier League. In the Championship we can afford to enjoy a few chuckles at Adams's and Brooks's bizarrely wayward finishing—Saturday it was as if someone had cast a spell on them that rendered them unable to see where the goal was!—and still finish near the top of the league. I'd go for Championship wins and laughs over Premier League fear and loathing any day. |
| News Comment | Southampton At Blackburn Rovers The Verdict at 15:27:20
The record unbeaten run up the table has got us where we are. But while the players took it in stride, the manager appears to feel it means he has the Midas Touch. He needs to get his head out of mid-season and sack up for season's end, when a very different kind of football is being played. He ultimately couldn't play that kind of football at Swansea (where he enjoyed a similar mid-season purple patch before Swans whimpered into the last few matches of the year) and he can't play it now at Saints. Will he learn to? Time will tell. |
| News Comment | Southampton V Sunderland The Verdict at 09:51:16
This is pretty spot on, Nick. We can score bags of goals, but we'll run ourselves into the ground if we don't shore up central defense and holding midfield. For a while I thought we were unlucky to concede so many long-range goals. But it's happening for a reason—we're not shutting down attacks high enough up the pitch in our defending third, and we're not clearing lines that lead to second-chance shots. It's nice to see that we can score goals. But there won't be enough gas in the tank for the season's final push if we don't learn to manage the game better and stop the ball well ahead of our 20-yard box. |
| News Comment | Southampton Praised For Keeping Faith With Russell Martin at 16:48:32
I'm glad to see the ship stabilized for the time being, and am enjoying the football. Dunno if i'd want us to be good enough to go back up to the Prem, though, because a gulf has opened up between the top 15 and the bottom 5, and i don't ever see us being good enough to bridge that gap. |
| News Comment | How Many Points Do Southampton Need For Promotion at 17:33:48
It sounds counterintuitive to take this stance, but I'm pleased with where we are in the division we're in. The bottom 5 in the EPL are off to historically poor starts, and we'd be among them were we there. I'd rather be playing flowing football in the Championship than worrying about each and every kick in trying to stay up in the Prem. Because, if we do reascend into the EPL, that's exactly what awaits us. |
| News Comment | Southampton Midfielder Shocked By Fans Booing At St Mary's at 15:58:15
I think that it was a matter of everyone just playing out the St. Mary's script these past two years: We play well, we don't convert, we concede late, we boo. Footballers need to sack up; it's part of the job. |
| News Comment | Southampton V Leeds United The Verdict at 19:36:16
Surgical finishing by AA; one wonders what might have been had he put some of those away last year. But, again, there's just more room to maneuver in the Championship; defenders are just nowhere near as tenacious as they are in the Prem (which helps explain why AA and CA knock in goals with ease in the Championship but get shut down in the EPL). |
| News Comment | Crucial Day For Russell Martin On Saturday at 05:42:43
Everything just seems particularly casual at Saints these days. Perhaps everything would fall into place if Martin just showed up to work Saturday in a suit and tie? |
| News Comment | Will Russell Martin Be The 7th Manager In A Row Hounded Out Of Southampton at 18:35:16
I have to say that we might not be having this conversation were it not for Sports Republic pursuing and hiring three straight baffling, anonymous gaffers (Jones, Selles, and now Martin) these past twelve months. In whatever they're doing, they're not seeing something. (Arguably, they're not seeing _anything_.) Of course, candidates (like Marsch) probably also see right through SR—which makes it even tougher for them to get someone of quality. To make matters worse, in is post-match commentary Martin sounds as if he just can't be bothered. Surely that's translating onto the field—which is perhaps why our performances have been so gutless of late. Disconnects like these warrant a new manager. Whether SR could and would pursue one is another story. |
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