Southampton banter 2

02 Oct 2024 20:59:41
Reading reports that Rasmus Ankersen might be up for the sack. Thoughts?

Lavia, Alcaraz, Fernandes and Sugawara were great buys uncovered. Ramsdale, Downes and THB were obvious opportunities and there was some good negotiation. Apart from that, I can think of about 15 buys that failed to make an impact and the overloaded squads have cost us.

If I had spent over 100m on a 1 in 3 hit rate, I would be annoyed too.

03 Oct 2024 19:48:19
Wait SR want to sack Rasmus or have I read that wrong. If I have ignore this.

I mean is Rasmus does get the sack I don't know if our negotiation and players that we sign will automatically become ballers. I think it's just guessing and affordability, I didn't really believe in Diaz tbh and same for Archer I expected to go someone bing instead of those two players someone big from the the championship but we move.

I think the scouting team just needs to be improved that's what could help in finding cheap gems the likes of VVD Mane etc. Instead of selling them really quickly we could build on it and win something.

That's my opinion though, but will rasmus getting sacked help? Maybe?

03 Oct 2024 22:26:25
Yes that is right. There are reports/rumours that Solak is considering a double sacking of RM and Rasmus. Not sure how true they are.

The stategy seems to be a bit throw the dice, overload the squad and hope half turn out alright. We spent 50m on Stewart, Archer, Diaz and Onuachu. Was that well spent?

04 Oct 2024 12:47:46
Not really I guess, it's a shame we went for quantity instead of quality I rather would've spent 25 million for two really good premier league players instead of 3-4 good championship players.

It's a shame because we were involved in talks with really talented players however they went on to more 'big' clubs.

If I was the manager I would've looked at the free agency there are still some good players that could aid our survival also I'd probably invest scouting in the Americas as really talented players are in South America and some move to the MLS so investing in some scouting there could help us find some good players the likes of John Duran, Almiron came from the MLS so investing in the Americas is a good idea imo.

But I fully agree money isn't being spent properly here.

02 Oct 2024 13:07:34
Oh leslee you never cease to amaze me, according to you we will lose all of our next few fixtures because "the defeats against Arsenal and Man City compounded with our current form means it will be hard to get points from all the games around them" and then you go on to say a new manager should come in mid December and will have enough time to turn our club around. where is the logic in that?

A new manager NOW would lift the spirit of the team, the fans, the club as a whole. Our team is more than capable of producing better results, we just need better leadership and an injection of passion and belief. It's evident that it's not working under RM and he has to go, I'm grateful for his contributions and wish him all the best, he can enjoy his winter with a cup of cocoa by the fire and getting his ears warmed between Lucy Pinder's breasts. so no I don't feel sorry for him but it is a hard watch witnessing a man so clearly out of his depth in his role.

You've asked the moderator to dig up archives to find where you was questioning RM whilst we were on our 25 game unbeaten run, are you actually for real or are you just here for a wind up? I am in utter disbelief. according to your logic, we should be questioning our manager during arguably (which you probably will) our most dominant period of football EVER, a spectacular achievement at any level of the game but stick by him in this moment of time because he has shown 4 or 5 positives out of 600 negatives, please tell me you're not pinning our hopes on what ifs and maybes.

I am completely bamboozled and perplexed by your irrational and illogical opinions and I hope I'm not the only one.

I disagree that the easiest thing is to say sack him, the easiest thing is to stick and not twist because I guarantee one thing, it can only get better, it cannot get any worse. being slightly better than diabolical though is not an achievement and certainly not a positive. I think I finally understand your objective, you're clutching at the biggest straw imaginable just to get the opportunity to say 'I told you so'. how pathetic!


At the risk of making a bold assumption I truly believe you need to put the Stephen King novels down, you keep talking about taking heads off of everyone and witch hunts, no one else has said anything like that but you say it about 3 times every post, why can't it be that the fans have had enough and want an imminent change of leadership, why does it always have to be so barbaric and taking heads off and all that nonsense, I think you've watched too many horror movies. Obviously I understand that it's a figure of speech but you're saying it so much it's becoming a bit obsessive.

Your negative and defeatist attitude just looking for 'I told you so' doesn't resonate well with me, we should all be at one right now wanting what's best for our club and right now that is immediate change.

At the end of the day my blood only runs red and white so forgive my passion, all I want is what's best for our club at whatever cost that has to be.

03 Oct 2024 13:58:16
Your not making any sense Bants

Your making it sound like it's a given right to beat the likes of Man City and Arsenal .like any board can go into tesco and buy a top premiership team of shelf or go up to the clerk and say "I'll have one team better than Man City and Arsenal please" .if the will to win was all it takes than non league teams would be doing it??

Do you understand about form Bants .my point is trying to get a win, even if a team is doing all they can and everything right (I'm not saying we are right now) in the midst of losses is a hard ask. So that was/is my logic, that your going to compound misery on RM during a time when any manager would find it hard for results.

Yes Bants that's exactly what I'm saying about archives because that's called balance. The same way you call for sack because we're not winning is the same way you think our unbeaten run was something special, when the majority of those games we nearly lost or gifted opportunities/wins by the opposition.we rarely ever put teams to the sword last season and that was something I highlighted than and at the beginning of this season.

It's not pathetic to say I told you so if me saying sacking RM is not going to change anything (possibly make it worse) and then that's exactly what happens. because believe it or not "My blood only runs red and white " too and I only want want what's best for the club and listening to the fickle masses who always cry sack isn't always what's best.

If you can guarantee me Bants that the club will be on an upward trajectory if a new manager comes in (not including the initial managerial bounce) then you will have my support BUT (and this is the important part) you WILL have my "I told you so" if you we don't. Why? because I sincerely don't believe, this season at least, any manager can drastically change things, particularly none who our club could attract. Everything thinks we're sack RM and get someone like Potter (in his prime as well) .won't happen.

Thus, just like how RM is getting stick for not producing.you Bants and others have to take responsibility for when he does get sacked and there is no change/even worse results. Hence the "I told you so". It's about owning your choices

I don't have any allegiances to RM it's you Bants who said I'm delusional and loved him simply because I said don't sack him . yet.

Ps I don't I used Stephen King words but I'll stick with that narrative over your cliche football ones ✌️?

03 Oct 2024 17:33:22
You’re ploughing a lone furrow Lesleee!

I think you’re missing the point. Bants and others are NOT saying there’s a miracle cure out there but what they are saying is RM is taking us down a road of self destruction. RM is completely off his trolley.

I tend to agree that it is a massive challenge for any manager - and by the way, I’m not a fan of Potter - but RM is knocking the life out of our players day in, day out. Their confidence is shot - his post match rant after the Bournemouth game is evidence that he is unhinged.

Talking of which - most of the posts in relation to RM are balanced - some wanted to give him more time but have had to change their minds because of the horror show around the first team squad. Nobody has so far as I’ve seen said with a new manager we can beat City or Arsenal. They just feel, like I do, he’s lost the plot. If he was an animal the kind thing to do would be to put him down.

Leslee, I find most of your comments/observations lucid but when it comes to managers and especially RM your views are just plain illogical IMO.

Under RM it can get worse a lot worse.

03 Oct 2024 19:54:58
Firstly, a really good post and debate.

I totally agree a change is needed. But… if the owners want a certain type of style, as carp as it is, we will just get more of the same. I honestly think a moyes type manager, more route one to Stewart or tall pall could work.

Would be ugly but could also pick up some ugly wins. Didn’t we use to do that every season and survive.

Why would we wait until mid December?

04 Oct 2024 12:43:21
That's my point though Miller you guys ARE saying those things, just in a roundabout way. You want RM out because you say things can't get any worse but aren't willing to commit to anything past that point. The cliches being used are unwarranted because RM hasn't lost the dressing room. If anything he's spent the last year or so filling the squad with players/buddies that he likes that like and believe in him and those who don't have been marginalized. You could argue that's half the problem but saying things like low confidence ect is not the case.

All I can interpret from you guys is that you want to swap losing one way for losing another because you have no Plan B because that's exactly what will happen.

Saying things can't get any worse is another thing that doesn't fill me with confidence from people asking for his sacking. Jump in a time machine to the 2005-2010 era and ask the people then if they would swap places with what they have then to what we have now i.e. facing liquidation, Pompey being the main team in the South Coast ect. I'm old enough to remember the Le Tiss days when each season relegation survival felt like winning the league and yet these days people on forums lose it when relegation is by no means anywhere a relegation certainty.

It's bizarre saying he's lost the plot and unhinged, that's just playing into a narrative that you want to unfold. If you take a step back all there is a manager who's young, naive and stubborn/believes in his process.

Sure I'll put my hand up and say his process isn't working or hasn't worked so far and that he is/has been out of his depth. But unlike the rest of you I haven't thrown him under the bus because of it. I have seen changes/improvements. For example that loss at Bournemouth has nothing to do with mistakes playing out from the back of possession football. We simply weren't good enough. Sure he got the tactics wrong with no forward but also we don't actually have ANY good strikers.

I've been calling for Onouchua for a while now but even he hasn't proven himself in the premier league yet. I'm only calling for him because he seems like our only option left. The same with Bella Kotcha. He's always seemed a real talent to me yet every manager he's been under since being here has had a problem with him, even Ralph who brought him here.so something there tells you maybe it's Bella-Kotch himself.

Same with KWP everyone crying "Why isn't he playing him" for all we know it's our of his hands. He could most likely be off in January and the board wants to minimize risk of injury to maximize profit from sale. KWP has played every game for RM so far I think so putting him on the bench would have been his choice I don't think and yet fans go crazy at him.

Perspective is what is needed.

02 Oct 2024 07:39:18
{Ed's Note - Blueboy2410 has posted a new article entitled, Nil Satis Nisi Optimum

01 Oct 2024 18:47:22
There will be people who feel sorry for RM (I'm not clear why) but when he's sacked - and he will be - do you have any idea how many millions of pounds he will be given as a settlement?

And do you know where that money comes from?

He will be crying all the way to the bank.

02 Oct 2024 10:33:58
Literally, I felt a bit bad initially but he's getting paid a lot more than us and I still think ann average bloke could manage a game better than you

01 Oct 2024 16:18:26
So I've been trying to work out what we are trying to achieve at the moment. Clearly we haven't got the current set up to stay in the premier league. That's either the manager isn't prem quality, our players aren't prem quality or a bit of both.
Did the board go out and buy so many championship quality players in the window because that's the safest thing to do?
Our prem players could leave tomorrow and without much or little investment we have a squad large enough to compete down there.
Still no news of why KWP and ABK aren't getting played.
And when players play well we switch them to different positions the next game which disrupts them.
To me it's almost sabotage right now.
We can all see a prem team in our squad but it just isn't getting played so I'm now thinking the plan is to yo-yo from the prem to the championship, cash in on assets year on year and get the parachute payments plus the promotion payments the next year.
Yes that sounds far fetched but this season is starting to feel like a slow and painful death.
If results stay the same and RM is still on charge over the next month I'll start to believe myself more!

01 Oct 2024 14:24:54
Whoops my last post went on Rumours in error rather than Banter!

Not such a serious mistake as RM`s team selection. What on earth was he thinking? Why leave out Lallana when we need an experienced head ON THE PITCH? If KWP won`t sign a new contract and is off at the end of the season (who can blame him?) then at least use him this year

I have just read RM saying ` I just wanted an aggressive bench` on the BBC website Southampton page.

RM has clearly lost the plot.On what planet is he on?

AA/Onachu/Stewart/BBD/Archer (£65M of mediocrity admittedly) - surely one or two of them are better than no centre forward at all?

Dibling and Fernandes from their performances so far deserve better than having to play out of position.

Sorry, but RM has to go before it is too late. He is never going to change his way of playing. We need a more pragmatic manager who uses players for the abilities they have rather than trying to mould them into a system far beyond them.

All the ex-players/pundits are saying it. Trying to play like Man City without very, very good players is ridiculous. We just about got away with it in the Championship but it just won`t work in the Prem.

Wake up SR.Action required NOW,

01 Oct 2024 13:00:11
Don't have to say "Some people" Bants I'm pretty much the only one here right now NOT calling for his head.

It's the easiest thing in the world to say sack him. Not calling for it does not make me delusional, it makes me pragmatic.

Ask the moderator to dig up the archives and you'll find me one of the first to question RM. I was questioning him when we were on our unbeaten run and I also questioned the team/signings we had going into this season whilst many others were optimistic because we had "A busy transfer window". I said the team we had was a championship team and we were going to struggle and now that we are, people are going mental like it should never have been allowed ?

All I hear is sack sack sack with very little direction from the same voices for once that has happened. A few people pipe up with Graham Potter ect . Here's the rub though . People think wed actually get someone like potter and that even if he did come, he would do better . THAT'S the delusion.

Circumstance is as much a factor as skill/talent in any player/managers career and you'll find a lot of these names being called for have success because they were at a team for a long time, they built and grew the team ect. When you then try and ask that same manager to instantly replicate that same form at a new club it often doesn't happen because those same circumstances aren't there.

That's what will happen with the likes of potter ect. Obviously the initial 3 or so games from the managerial bounce but then we're be back down here with the same voices singing for the replacement of the replacement they asked for to be sacked.

I'm not asking for RMs head because I'm realistic and a lot of fans need a reality check. It's important to strive for success 100% but it's also good to have a reality check from time to time and that reality is that (and have been for a long while now) a championship team at best. We came up the hard way and very nearly didn't and haven't really improved on that team. Ramsdale, sugawara and fernandes maybe but ultimately we're asking the kids of the championship to give us success in the premier league and before you all go "Well that's RMs fault' loads of you were banging on about how excited you were to see these players in the premier league ^^ just scroll up if you don't believe me.

Ultimately success comes from the board and we haven't had a decent board since the poch days. Our current one is more naive than our management because whilst they do invest they do it badly. That's why I'm not calling for RM because currently nothing will change and I'd rather stick with a process and hope that it comes through rather than have a conveyor belt of managers come through that end up doing exactly the same thing.

01 Oct 2024 14:25:32
Seriously Lesleee - you wouldn’t sack him?

It’s like not changing the pilot who you know is going to crash into the mountains. RM is not going to change course - we know that and he’s pretty much said it.

I get that a new manager may not instantly get results but what he can instantly do is stop the lunacy across the back. We simply cannot allow RM to carry on with this kamikaze approach.

01 Oct 2024 14:26:46
Style of play would change, no other manager would subject his keeper, defenders, defensive midfield players to 90 minutes of Russian Roulette in and around our 18 yard box. If you wish to ignore or criticise the opinions of supporters then that is your prerogative. Can you explain the feedback from ex pro players, professional commentators, the press all of whom say RM style of play is not suitable in the premier league. Some are openly mocking the team calling them naive unprofessional inept, what effect do you think that will have on our younger players. Can you explain 5 strikers on the bench but not one on the field? Can you explain our best player being on the bench in the last 2 games? Can you explain the best central defender not even being in the match day squad? I have tried to be understanding of RM and his quirks but no more, he’s got to go for his and the sake of the club.

01 Oct 2024 14:38:36
Some excellent points leslee.

I was in the camp of give him 5 games, if we see improvements in picking the best 11, defending set pieces, building resilience etc. Things a new manager would do anyway. A win at Ipswich and a draw not loss, we would be 15th.

RM has been put in a tough position. Young manager in a top league with an inexperienced, new and over inflated squad with low confidence. Too much was expected of him and pressure off might help.

Last night was a step back not forward sadly. We can wait and hope he turns it around but with other managers close to the sack, we might get 2nd or 3rd choice. It's a risk.

A Potter or Moyes is no guarantee of success but the players may need that level of trust, strength of character and experience to get them to their best and enough time to re-learn and go on a run.

So, I am leaning towards a switch, provided it is a proven PL manager
I am grateful to RM for getting us back to the Prem and wish the best.

01 Oct 2024 16:38:59
Well said. Got to be a Prem manager with experience. Potter or Moysey sounds right to me. These young players need done experience to tell them how it is. The trust has gone in Russ for the players: Maybe Russ knows already the board are about to sack him and he’s thought May as well try something outlandish as nothing to lose. Who knows eh. Switch needs to be made in the next day or so

01 Oct 2024 20:00:06
Some actual balanced point of views there .SaintKick

I wouldn't sack him Miller no, not yet anyway. Personally I would give him till mid December to get some points on the board/show signs of even more/better progress.

This coming month is a write off, both Arsenal and Man city away are guaranteed losses (no matter who was in charge of this team) and those losses compounded with our current form means it will be hard to get points from the games around them. So you can't factor those games in. November for me would be the deciding factor. Then a new manager comes in mid December with the January transfer window, would still have time to turn things around and worked with the team a bit to see what new players are needed.

For me it's small tweaks and I think RM has a shot at turning the tide. He's starting to get there. Ross Stewart was an unknown factor but it's starting to see he's not premier but Tall Paul WAS at least on the bench. Maybe Bella-kotcha makes it onto the bench soon and then who knows.

I find it laughable and ironic when you look at the Bournemouth situation and what those fans on their forums would have been saying. I guarantee you all those that were calling for their coaches head have piped down now. I'm not saying that's what will happen with RM but football is about small margins and too quickly witch hunts happen when if a goal or result went this way things would have been different. Fans calling for the sack ALWAYS think it's greener on the other side and we learned the hard way with Nathan Jones and Selles that it simply isn't.

No one here can guarantee RM leaving would result in an upward trajectory of our club. If you can, then put your name to it and you'll have my vote .but likewise you'll most definitely have my "I told you so" if/when it doesn't.

02 Oct 2024 06:35:15
Thanks leslee and likewise.

As I say, SR have put RM in a very difficult position, without a proven PL striker and enough experience etc

We need people in the set up, who can pick the best 11, adapt play, defend set pieces and lift players.

RM is a young manager and not there. SR should have got new PL coaches around him. Hired better sports psychologists, offered a network of Saints legends to give wise words on team selection. Had Lambert and Le Tiss take a training on finishing.

If RM can be open and say, lads just like you need Lallana and Ramsdsle around for experience and leadership on the field, I need some of that off it. Maybe we can make the changes needed to plug the gap.

But if Moyes or Potter are available now, I still say go for the full package right away. The lads need trust in their manager and that's a lot easier with older managers, respected by pundits and seasons' experience.

01 Oct 2024 09:06:56
Give Russ a trophy a new one called the pass' on for cause he'd win.

01 Oct 2024 08:01:22
It's time to sing sacked in the morning I think right?

If ETH gets it Martin needs to hear it 10x as much. Yes he helped us in the championship and he was good maybe with a hint of luck in that final but now his incompetence is ruining the team. It's sad to see a club that delivered so many talented that won multiple trophies yet we ourselves can't get ourselves out the relegation zone let alone win a trophy.

So many players don't deserve to be in the relegation zone like sugarwara dibling lallana Ramsdale.

SR buying the club feels like a curse at the moment. I think if Gao waited for another potential buyer we could've got someone competent that knows how to invest in a club and not buy a load of players. We are not Chelsea even then Todd is investing and trying to get Chelsea to be winners.

If only a Saudi or Qatari company bought us we could've been like Newcastle

Well that went off topic I apologise for that

01 Oct 2024 07:39:15
{Ed's Note - DLIB has posted a new article entitled, What Do Ineos Do At Manchester United Now?