Southampton banter 3

19 Jan 2026 21:58:52
I have been away for a while. Somehow we went from top table form playing fast, attacking football to rugby passes and Sheff Wed form.

What happened? Told to change style? Players got complacent, opposition figured us out?

Or all of above!

20 Jan 2026 21:36:36
Whatever happened between Still getting sacked and Eckert getting appointed full time is long gone. Which is so bizarre given nothing has changed in theory. Think we were one point off the play-offs. Now we’re five above the bottom three!

21 Jan 2026 13:12:25
I've said it before, I'll say it now and I'm sure I'll say it again.

Managerial bounce.

?〰️

21 Jan 2026 16:26:22
EVERYONE FROM SAINTS BOARD hasn't GOT A CLUE OF WHAT THEY ARE DOING. CHEAP AND USELESS IS NOT THE ANSWER. WE NEED A MANAGER THAT KNOWS EXACTLY WHAT HE IS DOING. JUST LOOK AT THE LAST LOT OF APPOINTMENTS, THEY ARE ALREADY WELL GONE. GOOD NEWS FOR US, BUT FOR GODS SAKE PUT SOMEONE WHO WILL SORT THINGS OUT. WITH OUR PLAYERS WE SHOULD BE RIGHT UP THERE.

22 Jan 2026 13:42:12
No need to shout!

23 Jan 2026 06:22:55
I am genuinely confused what caused the huge decline.

Of course some players motivation will drop after a new manager is in and teams will set up better against us but why stop the fast attacking football that was working?

Did somebody at the top say we want possession Football back?

It's old school but can we just try 4 4 2 with Wellington, Bree, Charles, Leo, Fellows, Azaz, Archer/Arma and Stewart.

Panic defences knowing Leo or Tom can cut in and shoot, thread a through ball to the top striker in the div or cross to big Ross.

Some speed and unpredictability. At least lose in style!

23 Jan 2026 12:15:55
“At least lose in style” - quote of the New Year and a measure of how low our expectations have dropped.

Whatever shape/formation it cannot include Downes or Stephens. Downes has become more and more regressive with each passing week. And Stephens needs to be put out to pasture.

If the unthinkable happens and we get thumped by the mob down the road on Sunday, then I think that will be Tonda’s hopping pot.

For me, that makes Sunday a win win scenario.

24 Jan 2026 16:22:36
It is where we are!

With our large squad we should have gained places over winter not lose them.

Nervous for tomorrow. In a weird way 0-0 is the worst result. If lose Tonda might go. If win maybe it will give a needed boost.

19 Jan 2026 09:48:50
{Ed's Note - Ed001 has posted a new article entitled, Liverpool v Burnley - A Quick Liverpool Perspective

19 Jan 2026 07:39:10
{Ed's Note - Shappy has posted a new article entitled, Manchester United's Dominance Over City Offers Hope

18 Jan 2026 08:45:25
After our giant killing performance against the mighty Doncaster Rovers, they've decided to focus on the FA Cup - it's been 50 years!

I think between us posters, we've said it all . Shambolic doesn't begin to describe our performance yesterday and the post match comments from the manager are frankly insulting our intelligence.

Talking of managers, Thomas Frank may be unemployed soon - he would be a better fit for us than Spuds. What he did at Brentford was very impressive.

18 Jan 2026 12:12:41
Sign of madness replying to your own post but that’s what watching Saints does to you.

Anyway, I was just musing that in terms of ambition and culture, we are polar opposite to Wrexham. The excitement generated by the Hollywood duo has been inspirational and under their stewardship they have turned water into wine.

In contrast at Southampton - well you know the rest…

18 Jan 2026 17:07:24
I know I'm not saying I necessarily want a Hollywood duo or big oil money but I just wish we had someone wants to run the club from the bottom up .not just as a business.

The signs were there early doors with the relentless sponsorhips of gambling companies.

We had a what I'm referring to with Wrexham in the Libeher/Cortese days and who knows if we will ever return there.

The only good thing about this board is that they do invest, they just get everything wrong.

Straight away I saw Wrexham would go on to do great things .thats why I put my money where my mouth is and put them done for promotion early doors.

17 Jan 2026 20:10:44
Eckert `We did enough to win the game`

Totally deluded.

We actually didn`t Tonda - they scored 2 clinical goals. We didn`t.

They played fast counter attacking football. We played ponderous sideways and backwards russball.

Just can`t see how we get out of this downward spiral.

17 Jan 2026 20:50:32
Solution is get rid of all ideology around it. Anyone who had that indoctrinated into them needs to go. All players, all coaches, chefs, coach drivers. And start again.

Football isn’t a hard game. We just like making it incredibly difficult. All United really did today was defend in a solid shape, press at the right times and counter attack clinically. When you do that against a team passing it around and not creating good chances, you will only lose if you make a bad error. They didn’t, Hull didn’t.

What’s really worrying is the years and years of people within the club saying ‘we did enough to win the game’, ‘we were the better side’, ‘we were unlucky’, ‘we just need to take our chances’. We’ve been told that for the best part of five years and know it’s absolute bulls**t.

We’ve haven’t been doing the basics right for a long time. Buying journeymen hasn’t done it, buying expensive primadonnas hasn’t done it, the best bet is to focus on the academy again and grow kids into what we want as Ralph was trying to do.

Fed up. Upset. Less than a decade ago we beat Inter Milan and were in a cup final. So sad.

17 Jan 2026 19:54:01
6 points above the bottom 3 after another dismal day. Absolute rubbish.

Almost done with this now. No joy since the covid interupted season where we finished ok but had Ings/Adams/Armstrong/JWP. Promotion under Martin was frustrating and probably not deserved.

Sports Republic have ruined us. Said despite 6 wins out of 7 start appointing Tonda was the wrong decision. He now looks like a rabbit staring at the headlights like every manager since Ralph.

We MUST stop russball at the back and start winning the ball between the penalty D and the centre circle.

A centre half and a centre forward are needed to stop the slide to League 1

17 Jan 2026 17:22:38
It doesn't not matter which manager it is, suicidal back passes, consistently poor man marking, atrocious tracking of a player, very poor positional play, poor reading of a game. are unforgivable for professional footballers.

Week in week out I see players with all these qualities. poor qualities .

It's a joke!

17 Jan 2026 16:34:05
Said all along .If Stewart stayed fit Will Still would still be here.

Fine margins.

Get Will back I say ??. Suck up your pride board/fans.

Put it down to a hiccup and let's go again I say.

17 Jan 2026 17:19:31
Your obsession with Still is similar to your obsession with Martin .
Simply out of depth while Martin was a clown - proved by his previous teams and the disaster at Rangers

17 Jan 2026 21:37:57
Your wrong and I was waiting for someone to call it an obession ? . Think I've only mentioned it a couple of times and he wasn't here long enough for him to be an obession of mine.

What is an obession, that I've stated fro day one, is the boardroom that everything happens from the top. Fans are starting to get disgruntled with Tonda and that's fine but you have to look at it realistically.that same Board are the people who bring in the next guy.

What process/thinking did they put into replacing still .none by the looks of it, basically their top targets were replaced by someone who started to string some wins together.

So for me I want them to get Will back, pretend like whatever this was didn't happen and get back to building something.

It's going to be another disastrous season regardless and they can barely identify a manager when they take time to do it.

The very thing that got us in this position in the first place was a knee jerk reaction with Ralph and they've been doing that ever since

17 Jan 2026 15:40:08
One goal from a corner. One from a defensive pass 20 yards out. Absolute disgrace. 8 points above the bottom three, I really think nothing is going to change unless we end up in League 1 again.

17 Jan 2026 14:14:36
Jalert and Stewart hopefully back to match fit and a new keeper if even marginally better than Bazuna is a positive direction.

I would have liked to see it happen under Still as I've always said fine margins. I think Still had/has more about him than Tonda.

Nonetheless Tonda is our man now so hopefully with these 3 in the team Tonda (if he is the right man) should be able to get us back the way he had us playing initially.

17 Jan 2026 15:53:48
Doesn't look like it lesleee. 0-2 @ half time. Will we see what Tonda is made of now or will he be out of a job soon?

17 Jan 2026 16:30:00
I agree. Part of me want to say any team/manager can go on a bad run .that it doesn't necessarily define you. But for me this form is more the realistic reality of what was to come .i.e. that the from that got Tonda his job was down to the managerial bounce.

My point about the 3 players above is that they're strong replacements to what we had even when we were on a great run. So I think by the end of January, with or without an additional signing we as supporters can at least expect to see some improvement/return to form.

Board should have judged him on his losses.

Alas for me this board has to grow up or go .cos it's looking like mid table obscurity like I predicted.

17 Jan 2026 18:01:57
It’s as if the board are trying to change the very dynamics of football in an attempt to procure the next level in the beautiful game. Problem is…. It will be a new level …. League two level.
Keep saying it… good players don’t all become worse …. tactics and lack of ambition drag them to it!