Southampton banter 2

16 May 2022 07:39:29
{Ed's Note - Ed001 has posted a new article entitled, Review Of The Day 15th May 2022

17 May 2022 07:01:14
Fraser Forster Saga.I personally believe that when Saints dropped a massive gooly was signing Forster to a long contract with outrageously high wages.This proved to be a great impediment to the Club as future signings could use these wages as a barometer.When Saints realised this blunder Hasenhuttl and the Club tried to persuade Forster to accept a revised contract with a wage cut which (.pennies from heaven) was promptly rejected.This angered Ralph which resulted (even although Forster was no.1 at the time) at him being benched for months to follow. The pleasant ending to this story with no new Contract Forster skips off into the sunset as a multi-millionaire! Note this is purely MY TAKE on this situation.

17 May 2022 10:49:56
But for Ralph not to play him because he didn’t like FF refusing a pay cut . well that sums up Ralph’s attitude. You pick your best players regardless of whether they’re in disagreement with the hierarchy.
FF wages are none of Ralph’s business .
Ralph, you should take a 95% pay cut for your fraudulent taking of 6 million a year!

17 May 2022 10:47:06
I’m sure one of the Ed’s can correct me if I’m wrong.
But it is too FF advantage to go on a free.
This means any potential new club can pay higher wages as he will have cost them nothing

{Ed002's Note - Yes.}

15 May 2022 07:39:28
{Ed's Note - Ed001 has posted a new article entitled, Review Of The Day 13th May 2022

14 May 2022 07:39:32
{Ed's Note - Ed001 has posted a new article entitled, Review Of The Day 13th May 2022

13 May 2022 07:39:25
{Ed's Note - Ed001 has posted a new article entitled, Review Of The Day 12th May 2022

12 May 2022 07:39:14
{Ed's Note - Ed001 has posted a new article entitled, Review Of The Day 10th May 2022

13 May 2022 07:32:10
Well it’s no secret that I don’t believe Ralph is up to Premier League standard but the early signs reported from the Hierachy to bring in the long awaited quality players (6/7 at least hopefully) should ease his current shortcomings and part shield him from too many glaring mistakes- (whilst he Carrie’s on learning weekly how to avoid more pitfalls.With more quality players followed by better results Ralph should survive next season until he retires avoiding little or no severance payout by the Club and everyone comes out unscathed.ps Requesting an assistant to help Ralph would not be the answer for him ( not unlike a Private giving advice to a Major). Finally I read that Saints defenders were ranked among the best in the Premier League by the ‘Super Computer’. Is this a Practical Joke or was the Super Computer Made In China?

13 May 2022 17:44:11
It’s interesting that they are prepared to risk another year of Ralph and with more money!
Perhaps you are right, they don’t want to pay him off; I hope that doesn’t back fire.
The only possible hope is that the new players, are clever enough to ignore Ralph tactical decisions! But we all know that won’t happen. Bertrand tried telling him what he thought and ended up benched!

I know it sounds very anti Saints, but I actually can not wait to get rid of Ralph!
I think the team is not behind him anymore, even Stu who runs around and puts in a huge shift, looks disinterested.
If the man management (or lack of) he displays in public interviews, is transferred to the training ground and dressing room. I would switch off from him.

Interesting the comment about an assistant.He does have a perfectly able and experienced assistant in Rich K, but he has been designated as ‘opponent analyst’ ; I have seen him many times trying to convey to Ralph what he sees/needs changing, and Ralph just giving him a quick glance/ear.

We also have the ex goalkeeper coach as the dead ball man? Who conveys to substitutes their role in corners etc . well that really works well . not!

I can’t wait for the end of the season . can’t ever remember feeling like this. Fed up with disjointed, non entertaining, poor tactically, bad football

17 May 2022 10:43:07
I called for Ralph's head before Christmas and nothing that I've seen since has made me change my mind. Still picking players out of position and making strange substitutions. He's tactically naive and has no idea how to change. Sorry Ralph, you're a lovely guy but Saints need someone who can take us forward and not someone who seems happy treading water in the bottom 5/6 every season.

11 May 2022 21:15:16
Well safety is now all but guaranteed. Can't see Leeds picking up another point let alone two wins and a 19 goal swing.

11 May 2022 22:13:00
I’m intrigued what you think of the post below this re all of us wanting Ralph sacked and his only problem
Is lack of money

I think I can guess what you think!
Why are people, even commentators, blindsided by Ralph’s appalling football management

12 May 2022 19:46:22
As is very Saints, it’s just quite bizarre. No-one I’ve spoken to who follows football and doesn’t support saints thinks he’s doing a bad job, but as a football club what even are we at the moment? Simultaneously thinking about the top half and just trying to survive.

Objectively, people have said we are not spending at the level of Brighton, Palace, even Brentford, due to our previous owners. Which lends me to believe if he is given backing this window and can make four or five quality signings in our price bracket of £12-18m, maybe we I’ll have a higher ceiling.

At the same time, he seems to lose the dressing room twice a season for about a month at a time in which we lose every game and play terribly. It’s just so weird. No other team can you tell the result within the first 4 minutes based on how up for it we look. We’ve had two spurts - in October (10 points in 4 games) and around Christmas (19 from 10 games) aside that we have one win in 22! That isn’t normal!

I love the bloke but his naivety does seem to be catching up to him. At the same time who reasonably is there we could bring in? He will be given the summer to recruit, that seems certain, but unless a good #2 is brought in, his mismanagement of players and tactical ineptitude will probably see us in the bottom 3 in November and firefighting with Dyche brought in to keep us safe.

Those that say survival is what we as a club should be aiming for - we were in Europe and challenging for the top four consistently less than 6 years ago and have only regressed since - we aren’t being greedy, we have been there and know we can do it. If Brighton and Wolves can be in the top half why can’t we?

12 May 2022 22:43:43
SaintG
I remember when Saints were looking at upping the capacity. Cortese was even looking at buying up areas around the ground to give us a ‘village’ similar to other top PL clubs. Even knowing that waterfront opposite the stadium is covered by long standing covenants, was not enough to stop Cortese! After all this was the man that Italian clubs had turned to, to negotiate with the mafia!
It’s interesting the comments about lack of money. Many of us thought we had the best squad in years!
Tino . Salisu . Perraud . kwp . Broja . Adams .
Diallo.
plus Forster and Mo returned from loans .
these were all added to the squad under Ralph’s watch!
It is what he has done with them that raises serious questions about his abilities!

But you are right, he has and does lose the dressing room at regular intervals!
Bertrand was dropped after calling him something!
I honestly believe something has been going on with Stu too. not picked for weeks but was picked by Scotland!
Ings was dropped at one point and was clearly not happy; I honestly believe he would
Still be here now, playing his best got all of his career .

Enough of that .

Facts : there is absolutely nothing in Ralph’s makeup that makes him the manager we need.

I always sit at least row 20 so I can oversee the game
. everyone around me is watching the game, the substitutions, the pattern of play . and looking at each other like… and

God knows which of the games it was, but at some point I shouted out loud … are we going to f**** mark their winger … the old guy next to me said, ‘don’t be silly … ‘!

Bring back Ronald K . he loved it here!
When that man watched a game, you knew he was watching a game from the perspective of one of the greatest players .

11 May 2022 14:42:53
All the fans on here and elsewhere calling for Ralph to be sacked don't know their ass from their ears and are what is wrong with football.

Our collection of players aren't and haven't been top premiership quality for a long time, yet you guys (same as other teams) think we have some divine right to be winning games and challenging higher up the league.

Ralph has been operating on a shoe strings budget pretty much since he got here and therefore hasn't had a decent shot at changing that group of players, instead he's had to work from within and secure deals where he can.

I'm not saying all his signings have paid off, what manager gets signings right 100% of the time (djenpo,Armstrong I'm looking at you) . But when he has got it right he's secured some top signings for next to nothing . Livramento, walker-peters, broja ect.

We've had a long run of managers before Ralph who were giving big backing from the board to spend what they want, Ralph however has been left to pickup the pieces of their riegn.

Ralph should only be judged when he has had decent money to go after the players and team/play style that he looks to employ.

Fans calling for his sack are the reason we end up with idiot managers such as puel, pellegrino, Hughes.

I banged on for a long time about Forster being the better keeper over McCarthy yet there was actually people in here disputing that and calling for McCarthy to for England. Now same fans are calling for Raplhs sack and are going to run our team into the ground.

Not everything is the managers fault. For example.salisu who Raplh signed for most of the season has been a rock, there were talks wether we were going to hold onto him. Now last few games he has a big drop in form and we don't have anyone to replace him. With his drop in form has also come the loss of games .now who's fault is that, Ralphs? No .it's combination of Salisu and the board not giving the funds to have decent cover for Salisu.

All you plebs calling for his sack can screenshot this message, then if he does get replaced, come back to me in 1 one years time and we're see the difference.

Ralph builds teams, develops players .notice how JWP is becoming known as a great midfielder for is whole overall game.

Fans haven't got a f@#king clue these days, it's the same with city. Fans there calling for peps sacking .like, if he doesn't win the pinnacle of football titles, thing that there is nothing higher than in domestic football he's a failures.

Ffs, you people ?

11 May 2022 19:05:58
Now same fans are calling for Ralph’s sack and running our team into the ground?

Our team is run into the ground!
We have a manager with plan A and no other plan!
He is simply not good enough for the PL

11 May 2022 19:07:29
I’m guessing you don’t watch saints regularly or even at all?
If you think for one minute giving Ralph money to spend, will make him more successful, then you have no idea about football!
The only thing I agree with is Salisu’s drop in form not being Ralph’s fault. I’ll add to this : take one look at his Instagram account - he’s turned himself into a bling wearing ‘star’ . his private less is also less than professional with his love of partying. I might suggest the club look at his Uber account!

Anyway… the old chestnut of throwing money at a problem is something businesses do throughout the world, without sorting out the root problem.
Ralph has had some great additions to his squad since he joined : KWP/Perraud/Tino/Broja/Che Adams/Diallo/Lyanco/Salisu

Plus Ely and Forster back from loans spells .
Tella coming through the ranks .

It was very evident that some key players left with a single word of acknowledgement of Ralph .
Ings . Bertrand . Vestergard.

I am intrigued by what you think Ralph’s qualities are that means with more money, he’d do better?

His team selections are random and often bear no resemblance to player form. ie no matter how well or badly a player plays, if he is picked or dropped is anyone’s guess
His substitutions are bizarre and often have no football logic behind them
His substitutions are bizarre in that often the player he takes off is having a good game, leaving on someone who is playing badly .
His formations are bizarre : playing 5 across the back against teams in the bottom 4
His tactical changes are almost non existent
His changes due to an opponents changes are non existent
His man management is atrocious, often publicly criticising players.
His offering Redmond up for sale, followed shortly by picking him, and then the ultimate crime. taking Che off and moving Redmond up front
Throwing away 80 points from winning positions .

So suggesting it’s a lack of money that is hindering Ralph is, basically wrong!
He has not adapted the the PL, he has not improved his decision making, he is being out smarted by opposing managers every week .

Ralph needs to be removed from Southampton football club!

11 May 2022 07:39:22
{Ed's Note - Ed001 has posted a new article entitled, Review Of The Day 10th May 2022

10 may 2022 12:46:10
just wondering how long the board will let ralph carry on regardless. every year is the same we fall like a brick and just hope one of the others fail. we should be a comfortable middle of the table team and maybe have a cup run. the majority of the team now is of ralphs choosing so he has no more excuses. ralph should have the dignity to resign before its too late.if we go down we may not recover. shippie

10 May 2022 12:57:13
The problem is the aim of the board is and has been to remain in the premier league and to carry on producing talent. As long as Ralph hits those objectives he will be the manager. The board and senior management really like him.

That being said, with the new ownership that could change. I will imagine, Ralph will be given the summer and more money to be able to buy "better" and more players.

So long as our business model is to produce and grow young talent as a Premier League then as fans we won't see Ralph being sacked anytime soon.

10 May 2022 09:54:51
When Ralph is sacked, he will honestly have no clue as to why it's all gone wrong!
And there lies the problem.
His decision making, his substitutions, his team selection, his formations, his inability to react to change of play by opponents .

Let this sink in . we have lost over 80 points from winning positions since Frank A, oops I mean Ralph, has been in charge!

Including this season's 20+

I wonder how many of those dropped points were because, the opposing manager made changes . most I am guessing.
Ralph seems to have missed that chapter out in his 'book' . PLAN B
There is one called, KEEP PLAYING THE SAME REGARDLESS

I remember (I think)we were playing West Ham. We were all over them and they were struggling. Half time they come out, subtle changes : the wingers swapped wings, and they pushed up on us. second half we were destroyed while Ralph scratched his head and made no changes in team or tactics.

Ralph's decisions have no football logic whatsoever!
Throw any amount of money at him you like, he is simply not good enough for the PL
There are so many superb up and coming managers, and ones like Potter, who are not so new, but really are learning and improving their trade.

Frank Lampard is excluded from the list!