The Football Thread

[Streetwalker]

Indeed , they need a complete rebuild

[cromwell]

Swear away Cromwell . Liverpool are well and truly uncatchable even before today . Didn't win my bet but enjoyed the game and our defending even before our boy Wilf popped up on the left wing . Really don't know where we would be without him .



Good luck for the rest of the season

Well the dippers made them look like amateurs and I read delusional stuff that Ole will be winning the prem next year and the champions league ::  ::

[Streetwalker]

Oh bugger,never catch the dippers......anyone else than you and palace and I'd be swearing now :ZIP:  

Swear away Cromwell . Liverpool are well and truly uncatchable even before today . Didn't win my bet but enjoyed the game and our defending even before our boy Wilf popped up on the left wing . Really don't know where we would be without him .



Good luck for the rest of the season

[cromwell]

Here we go again Cromwell . Don't expect lightening to strike twice but have had a cheeky £5 on the mighty Eagles 1-0 @ 28/1 . :dsh:

Oh bugger,never catch the dippers......anyone else than you and palace and I'd be swearing now :ZIP:  

[Streetwalker]

Here we go again Cromwell . Don't expect lightening to strike twice but have had a cheeky £5 on the mighty Eagles 1-0 @ 28/1 . :dsh:

[Streetwalker]

Well at least Arsenal have decent bogs , the que for the beer is minimal and the hot dogs are decent .

[Cassie]

The other horror show that is Arsenal starts again tonight! I have no expectations.

[Cassie]

I agree with you on that Boggart. Our problems started when Kranky got on board.

[boggart]

Foreign managers..... At Saints, since our return to the PL.....



Adkins - English - top bloke, harshly sacked, did good for us.

Pochettino - foreign - did well

Koeman - foreign - did even better than Poch

Puel - foreign - charisma of a slug. Amazed that Leicester employed him

Pellegrino - foreign - owners were trying to sell so chose the cheapest. Utter garbage

Hughes - I guess we call him local! - saved us from relegation but then the next season was utter garbage.

Hasenhuttl - foreign - has a certain energy about him





Our problem has been with foreign owners. We were bought out of administration for a snip, by a Swiss-German. He did throw his full support behind the club and was a good owner. However, his health failed and he died, leaving the club to his daughter. She didn't have a long term interest in it, but did nurture it to maximise its value.Father bought for £14m, daughter sold 80% for £210m. Our big problem was that we were to be self sufficient and rather than be where Leicester are now, we sold our players to keep things turning over. So that, coupled with crap managers, was not a sustainable policy and we are where we are.



We now have Chinese owners who don't have a pot to piddle in. Actually I don't really mind any more. I look at football and am not the greatest fan of it. The greed. The uneven financial playing field, where the likes of Southampton have little to no chance of winning it. Nor in fact, at present, do 17 other premier league clubs. We have little chance of being in Champions League, where those in it, get fatter and fatter. Players' wages go up and up to ridiculous levels. Ticket prices go up and up. TV seem to be priority over the paying supporter who turns up at the ground.



A lack of local players, managers, owners is a big problem for me. Others seem not to care that the players who come to play for you couldn't give two hoots about the club, locale, history etc. Just the pay cheque. There is no connection or interaction with the locals, which I think is/was an important issue. People seem happy that their clubs are being franchised.



Now it is all so soulless with the nummamorous nature of the "sport" being so unappealing. I do like going as it gives me escape from the wife! A bit of respite from my disabled lad. A bit of bonding with another of my kids. And actually while I dislike the PL/CL/greed, I do still like Southampton (and yes, this is somewhat contradictory given that "we" are part of the PL/greed).



I also don't think we have to have the "best players in the world" to be "the best league in the world". Having been down to League 1 and back, I would question whether PL is the best league in this country, let alone the world. I think that the Championship is better. If the balance between quality of play and evenness of competition is right, then that to me makes it the best. The quality of Championship is good. Sure its not as good as PL, but it is far from bad. The evenness of competition is what makes it so great.

[Cassie]

To be honest I don't know what the fascination is with foreign managers . The only ones who have  won anything have done so with  multi million pound backing .  Wenger to be fair was an exception , he took Arsenal from a team that was struggling to win anything but the odd Cup playing at a low capacity stadium  to a team that looked like they could win the lot  playing at a modern stadium with a champions league ambitions .  You were really lucky to have him .



 Emery has failed to address the soft underbelly of the gooners defence that was Wengers downfall in the end , your centre backs are all over the place and your full backs are there for the taking . Im  hoping we can expose them for what they are on Sunday .

I think we've been exposed for what we are for a few years now, you can just capitalise on what we are. The new stadium was our downfall, we couldn't really afford it and we had to sell all of our best players, mostly to Man City for some reason. Wenger turned young players into great players in his early days and tried to emulate that when it clearly wasn't working and he became stubborn about it. He wouldn't offer our better players more than a one year deal once they hit 30, which also added to the destruction of the squad, kids playing without experienced players to support them.



Slowly, players who were mediocre were given contract extensions, players worth anything were sold. When we seemed to get money, Wenger or somebody bought in mediocre players then Ozil got a ridiculous contract that is a millstone round our neck. Now we seem to have a squad that can't put in a shift apart from a few players. Emery is no better than wenger as far as I can see, I was willing to give him a chance, but I can't see any improvement. Aubamayang and Lacazette are best players but are rarely in games, no service from the midfield. Our defence is rubbish and everyone knows it. How we failed to get top 4 last season with our run in is a mystery, we just didn't turn up for the last few matches.

[Streetwalker]

To be honest I don't know what the fascination is with foreign managers . The only ones who have  won anything have done so with  multi million pound backing .  Wenger to be fair was an exception , he took Arsenal from a team that was struggling to win anything but the odd Cup playing at a low capacity stadium  to a team that looked like they could win the lot  playing at a modern stadium with a champions league ambitions .  You were really lucky to have him .



 Emery has failed to address the soft underbelly of the gooners defence that was Wengers downfall in the end , your centre backs are all over the place and your full backs are there for the taking . Im  hoping we can expose them for what they are on Sunday .

[Cassie]

And there was me stupidly thinking that Wenger had left. Two minutes to go, one nil down and passing the ball about in our own half. Thanks for nothing Emery, now do one. We ain't hanging onto a manager for 22 years any more.

 We were :kikass:  by Sheffield United.

[Cassie]

Ah well, as expected, my team is just as rubbish as the Brexit process. 1-0 Sheff U

[Cassie]

They went up to 13th in the end. We had better win tonight!!!!

[Cassie]

they're up to 8th as it stands. Noooooo. Come on Pool