 | News
Comment | Southampton Keeper Makes Move To North West
at 14:23:55
Can't we loan Bazuka joke to poopey (or any other championship team) that way there's one less team to worry about in terms of any potential relegation battle next season :) |
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Comment | The Ugly Inside Verdict On Southampton’s 2025/26 Shirt
at 09:12:10
I like the new shirt but I've got a decent quality Score Draw heavy cotton version so a horrible polyester the sponsor on the front (hello sailor) for £65 is a clear no go for me.
Regardless of the shirt design it's what's inside them that really counts.......the clock is ticking :)
COYRs |
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Comment | Southampton Target Ex Liverpool Midfielder
at 12:24:48
Sports Republic have got to convince us they are capable of making the correct managerial appointment and buy sufficient players who can play today rather than those which 'might' make them money in several years time. If they pursue the process they have done over the past few years we'll stagnate in the championship for a few years until the parachute money runs out. Best not speculate beyond that.
We've been sleepwalking into tragi-comedy since they took over. However, giving them the benefit of the doubt for now, they have at least put someone in charge of football matters now (how the hell did they leave this gap unfilled for most of last season) but it still feels like everything they do is still a speculative risk rather than a strategy led process.
I do not trust them to get things right due to the pigs ear they've made of recruitment so far and my expectation is low but that is part and parcel of being a Saints fan. When we succeed its a genuinely ecstatic feeling.
COYR's |
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Comment | Rangers Supporters Are Not Enthused By The Appointment Of Russell Martin
at 11:59:41
From memory the turning point was when Bazuna got injured and RM seemed to realise that McCarthy could not play the gratuitous passing game (to be honest neither could the others). It was weird then that he resorted to suicide football from day 1 in the prem.
To give him his due though he did bond a disparate and despondent team and got them promoted in his first season. |
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Comment | Southampton Happy To Let Aaron Ramsdale Leave St Mary's
at 09:30:08
Unfortunately saints are negotiating from a position weakness. Being realistic the talent will leave and the deadwood will stay. If West Ham really want Ramsdale and offer even half the asking price Saints will let him go as they can't afford to pay his wages and bring in the handful of improvements they need to.
The best outcome for Saints is to loan out the mediocrity (maybe to Rangers) and hope that Sports Republic don't make a pigs ear of recruitment again. It'll be an interesting season and I hope they support the new manager by providing him with the tools he needs rather than the ones they can profit from down the line - a system which hasn't exactly worked out well so far.
COYRs |
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Comment | Turkish Club Planning Raid On Southampton Front And Back
at 11:56:14
Bad news about 'Janny B' I was hoping to sign him for the Sunday morning veterans team I play for, although a bit worried it's above his level nowadays.
It's a shame there isn't a way of getting rid of the dead wood in the club via a VES scheme as most companies in the public and private sector can do for failing employees. Give our players 10% of their annual earnings based on how many seasons they have been with us or have left and then get rid of them. |
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Comment | Southampton V Bournemouth The Verdict
at 11:01:45
Sport Republics raison d'être is owning lower European leagues teams and using them to bring through young talent to sell off and make themselves profit. That is their idea of success. Being competitive isn't an objective but is a nice by-product before the calf is fatted up and sold off.
This club has a lot of potential as we have seen in the not too distant past. We just need ambitious owners whose measure of success is on the pitch not solely on making money from selling players. |
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Comment | Southampton V Liverpool The Carabao Cup Verdict
at 14:10:23
Agree with the above - impressive second half lost first half. It's so refreshing watching the team break quickly from our half rather than pass back and forth for 70 minutes. It may have been half of the Liverpool first team but they pressed at every opportunity in the first half under RM we would have been 5 down by HT.
So happy to have got rid of RM - should have done it after the Norwich game last season at St Mary's :)
COYRs |
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Comment | Southampton FC Sack Russell Martin
at 08:58:14
Hopefully Sports Republic will be next out of the door. They've got the majority of the footballing decisions wrong since they arrived ie. not funding Ralph a replacement for Ings, not buying an experienced CB, buying a load of speculative mediocrity at the beginning of the relegation season, sticking with poor shattered Ralph far too long, getting in Nathan Jones and then when we went down repeated the same process of buying mediocrity again and employing a mediocre manager and arguing with Swansea over £1 million compensation for the clown.
Sports Rep are lower league spivs in more ways than one.
The only downside of last night is that we were embarrassed by spuds - I'd have preferred that Fulham got the football genius the sack but he's gone - now we need to lose the other cancer in the club.
COYRs |
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Comment | Southampton V Wolverhampton Wanderers The Verdict
at 10:23:11
All roads lead back to Sports Republic. With decent stewardship (and I do not mean just chucking money around for fun) we have a brilliant set up at the club but their spread betting style of buying players (on the whole) who might turn a profit is a strategy with in built diminishing returns.
They got it wrong from day one in terms of recruitment (still need a striker and a trusted CB) but their 'clever' strategy married to RM's 'tactical genius' is playing out as it was always likely to.
COYRs'
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Comment | Southampton V Stoke City The Carabao Cup Verdict
at 09:56:39
Sports Directs strategy seems to be grind fans down to indifference and get a few big pay days from yo-yoing. It's working pretty well so far.
I'm still amazed that RM managed promotion regarding the brand of football he promotes but in part its a reflection of the gulf between the top flight and the rest. How can a team that concedes among the highest goals in a league also get promoted? It shouldn't make any sense but in the surreal world of the championship Saints and RM managed it due to the lack of quality in the Championship. Although this approach has come unstuck in the premiership as we do not have the players to outscore the opposition and unlike teams in the championship the majority of our defensive gifts are taken - although Man City helped us keep the GD down thankfully.
The question is can Sports Direct appoint a better manager than RM or will they repeat their previous track record on managerial appointments?
COYRs |
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Comment | Southampton At Bournemouth The Verdict
at 14:43:18
I'm firmly in the camp that SR own this due to both their managerial appointments and the spread betting of average players. There business model from day 1 seemed to be pack the team with loans and youngsters and see what happens but don't lose their money.
It makes sense to be watchful of spend and not breaking the bank of 2 or 3 players but spending 10 M plus on several unknown entities on the basis that they might come good doesn't make for a winning formula.
No-one can hold RM's limited ability against him, it's who he is, but he was incredibly lucky in getting Saints promoted. We regularly conceded 3,4 or 5 against the likes of Huddersfield, Norwich and Sunderland and ultimately went up because of a fortunate injury to the worst GK over the previous two seasons. Lets not forget when he also brought Stephens back into a record breaking winning team (for which he deserves credit - although again rode his luck in several of those games) which resulted in us almost dropping out of the promotion places - until the injury to the GK restored winning ways.
When RM leaves his report card will make for very odd reading but unless SR provide him with hundreds of millions of pounds he will leave the club very soon.
The issue then is what comes next?
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Comment | The Knives Are Out For Russell Martin In The Media But Do They Have Substance
at 15:46:02
The media have been vocal in their condemnation of the way Saints have played so far with the most mocking being the Sky commentator during the game v Brentford - have a listen if you haven't already. This is football, like life, in the social media era.
Despite my own average rating of RM he's not an idiot and he doesn't want the sack or to lose games. He will change from this weird obsession of playing into trouble from the back. With the support the board have provided him we do have a team which can compete within the mini division of the bottom 6 or 7 we're up against.
However the weirder thing is how he tweaked his approach once Bazuna got injured but he has not continued that into the new season. Rather he's gone back to the system which saw 4 conceded at home against the likes of Norwich - and other average championship sides.
The question is why has he done this when it cost us so many goals in a much more forgiving league? It is illogical. What he needed to do was get points on the board - I'm sure we'd be happy with 3 pts after three of the easier games we will play this season than a deflating 3 losses.
RM got us promoted but made it unnecessarily difficult in a league where we had a large strong squad which was on par with the other top 4 teams in that division. Two big calls which defined our season were his decision to jemmy Jack Stephens into a record setting winning team which saw results fall away and the injury to Bazuna (statistically the worst GK for two years running) which forced RM to change the style of play and saw us stop a run of results which saw us fall from 2nd to 6th.
The jury is out on RM - I think he's got what it takes to be a decent Saints manager and build something good. But he's also got a blinkered stubborn streak which could cost him his job. I really want the capable side of his personality to win out as it will provide stability and as a result some kind of success for Saints.
COYR's
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Comment | Southampton V Nottingham Forest The Verdict.
at 09:44:15
Fair report Nick and the way Forest scored is instructive of this league compared with the championship i.e. any small misjudgement will be punished.
Although not convinced by RM I want him to succeed as like others I'm fed up with the constant change of managers - it sets the club back and doesn't provide stability. However to succeed he is going to have to adjust his approach to games and utilise the large squad at his disposal and try a different approach if his preferred methods don't work.
Sports Rep also need to rationalise their approach if they are serious about making us an established top flight club again. Loading the club with young players, loans and sub standard players is what got us relegated from a very weak premiership a few seasons ago - we're in danger of going the same way. I'm sure the farcical financial fair play rules play a role in their thinking but the answer isn't to buy expensive mediocrity but to focus where the squad genuinely needs improving.
COYRs |
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