26 Sep 2023 07:59:51


SaintGGsy has written an article entitled, Are Southampton Now Stuck In The Lower Leagues?

1.) 26 Sep 2023
26 Sep 2023 15:16:34
Great article and agree with all your sentiments.

2.) 26 Sep 2023
26 Sep 2023 19:16:13
Spot on

3.) 26 Sep 2023
26 Sep 2023 22:50:03
Brilliant piece SaintGGsy. You should send it the Board undersigned by all of us!

Looking back, I was recalling the number of Saints fans who were heralding relegation claiming it would be the perfect opportunity to regroup and reset.

I argued with them at the time, because I never settle for second best but half thought they may have a point. As it transpires, it couldn’t have turned out worse. That’s not ‘I told you so’ - it just goes to show how utterly frustrated we all are.

We stick it on RM - rightly so - but the players should be ashamed of their lack of football intelligence and complete lack of courage. I wouldn’t want any of them in the trenches with me.

4.) 27 Sep 2023
27 Sep 2023 00:37:28
The one thing that shouts from
Your article is FRUSTRATION with a capital F . how is it that a few devoted fans on a forum, can see through the problems with so much ease.
I have never known a team so predictable, so easy to beat .
and yes, where did it all come from. Out last great manager was RK. Ralph arrived with hints of success, but once it was obvious that Plan A was his only plan, we still stuck with him, hoping that plan B would arrive .

So our frustration is born from the fact that the inadequacies of Saints is obvious to us laypeople…

So we have to ask, are SR deliberately destroying our club? Because they are doing a very good job of destroying us!
We have in Martin, one of the worst managers I’ve ever known in any sport.
His belief in himself is surreal! He has simply turned Southampton football club into Swansea, in a matter of weeks, to satisfy his desire to prove to the world that he is right!
We have to ask ourselves, why would SR want to destroy our club?
We signed some great players last year, but just like this season, we are satisfied in keeping them on the bench… What is that about, it makes no sense

I am this post with a Phew . it’s a real and bizarre situation…

Please, someone save Southampton

5.) 27 Sep 2023
27 Sep 2023 18:45:44
Thanks all, and thanks Ed’s for making that into a special article thingy, looks very cool!

What a sad spot we’re in. No hope for Saturday either, but at least it’ll be available to see live for the country to witness our embarrassment!

{Ed033's Note - Thanks, terrible period for Southampton supporters.

6.) 28 Sep 2023
28 Sep 2023 11:40:20
Ed’s
I love to hear your take on all this. I think it’s accepted that Martin has a rather higher opinion of himself than previous and current results suggest.
I am all for giving an up and coming manager a chance, but all of us can see that he isn’t anything like that. He plays his way and absolutely will not divert from that path, even not picking some of our best players, for what seems that they don’t fit in with his way.
Teams playing us have found us out, so much so that they all seem to be loving every bit about playing us.
I can’t imagine the team talk lasts long .
‘Get at them, they will lose the ball in their half and we’ll be in’ …

The whole of Swansea was warning us that he took them from a play off team to a middle table team .
So what are we doing? Why have we taken him on?
He is awful, and he has an excuse for everything .
It’s never his tactics

{Ed001's Note - it was clearly a mistake to appoint him, he is one of those that talks about himself so well in interviews it will impress business people. But that is a totally different environment from football and what works there is almost certainly not going to work in football. For starters football is about teamwork, so someone who is so full of their own self-importance and talks themselves up is absolutely the wrong choice to manage. The manager needs to be all about the team and not I but we. In business that is not the same. That is where they are going wrong, as are so many clubs.

The problem is that they are recruiting via an interview method and so will likely repeat the mistake again and again until they bin it. The way to move forward is to identify the guy who has the attributes you want and headhunt him at the top end. Interviewing is only going to get you a limited choice and almost entirely is going to leave you with the dregs to pick from rather than the cream.}

7.) 28 Sep 2023
28 Sep 2023 14:31:54
Thank you Ed for that insightful reply. It didn’t enter my head for one minute that any football club would use this interview process!
He certainly is an ‘I’ person. As you say, he must interview well, saying all the right things.

While I’m hugely grateful for the reply, it kind of makes things worse. Surely some research into his managerial history, statistics, media coverage, players opinions, would have meant he never even got an interview, let alone the job.

He can’t and won’t last, despite some ramblings today from the club saying they and the players fully support Martin …

Thank you again and thank you for putting up with our incessant moaning.

{Ed001's Note - no worries mate and it is common practice to use an interview practice to hire the head coach/manager/director of football but it makes little sense to me. Any club as high up as the EFL or EPL has a wealth of lower league and non-league staff to cherry pick. Why not head hunt the best person for the job, rather than limit your options to who is available to interview for the role?}