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Southampton V Hull City The Verdict
at 12:41:32

You can write as many post match reports as you like Nick and I don’t envy you in having to do so.

To me however our current troubles are down to the Owners and their Employees ( both Sports Republic and the Players ) who simply don’t want success.

The Owners through Sports Republic’s Mr Parsons who I believe admitted that they couldn’t compete if returned to The Premiership and the Players who know that they aren’t good enough to play in the top flight.

All of the above mentioned appear quite happy to muddle along managing and playing mid table “ easy street “ football in The Championship. As long as we avoid relegation it’s well done lads and doubles all round as far as they are all concerned.

I believe that the days of following The Saints because whilst they never won much at least they “gave it ago” are over for the foreseeable future.

As for Saturday’s game, I simply cannot be bothered to comment as everything wrong with the Club was there for all to see.
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Southampton V Hull City The Preview
at 09:26:15

underweststand, we have a playing formation ?
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Southampton V Hull City The Preview
at 17:09:10

IanRC, it’s not sabotage by Sports Republic but in my opinion just another page of their business playbook.

Their priorities are, again in my opinion, in order of importance :-

1. To be a Player Trading Business.

2. To be a Hospitality and Entertainment Business based at St Mary’s.

3. To be the day to day management of Southampton Football Club on behalf of the owners.

I personally suspect that they aren’t remotely interested as to in which league the football club competes, just as long as they have an ability to showcase their young prospects with a view to selling the odd successful one at a profit.

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Bazunu Leaves St Mary's ! Are Southampton Really Going To Gamble On An Inexperienced Keeper
at 17:48:00

“ if we truly have ambitions of promotion, then we need to improve on Bazunu. “

I’ll answer for you Nick :- Sports Republic don’t and they haven’t.

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West Ham Open To Offers For James Ward Prowse Will Southampton Pounce.
at 14:02:10

Why would we possibly need him ?

We’ve a team full of midfield players and actually require a half decent goal keeper, centre back and centre forward.

Expect Sports Republic to sign him shortly then.


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Southampton At Doncaster Rovers The Verdict
at 12:04:32

Nick, a couple of points if I may concerning the playoffs and Bazunu :-

1. Even if Sports Republic spend money ( they won’t ) in the current window we are not going to finish in the top six this season, nor do we deserve to.

2. Bazunu is by any metric a poor goal keeper. Sports Republic attempting to replace him with Peretz is equally poor but hardly surprising given their recruitment record.
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Southampton Still In For Italian Midfielder
at 13:54:04

If we buy the guy mentioned, can he play as a Centre Forward or Centre Half or perhaps in Goal ?

No, well there’s a surprise.
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Daily Echo Hint At Player Power Issues In Southampton Squad
at 12:28:53

I refer the honourable member ie yourself Nick, to point number 3.of my contribution to your latest match report. The comment was made before the Alfie House story broke.

I suggest that it’s been clear for weeks that certain players fancy drawing salaries us mere mortals can only dream about, whilst giving less than 100% playing “ easy street “ football in the middle of The Championship.

By not including them in his list of players the club need to keep House has identified who they are and if he is correct then frankly they should be ashamed of themselves.

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Southampton At Middlesbrough The Verdict
at 10:24:07

Fair, if somewhat short report Nick.

Yesterday was the epitome of what is wrong with Southampton Football Club in my opinion:-

I’ve posted much the same before but believe it’s worth repetition.

1.Our Owners possess no ambition whatsoever and have admitted the same through their appointed staff member at Sports Republic,(Mr Parsons if memory serves) saying the Club can’t compete in The Premiership.

2.Sports Republic’s employees ( presumably on the instructions of the Owners ) have been told to operate Southampton Football Club as a Player Trading Company with hospitality subsidiaries at St Mary’s.

3. Our current squad know full well that they are all well below Premiership standard so there is no point whatsoever for them to individually or collectively make any effort to get promoted to the top flight. It’s not in their interest to try, far better to pick up salaries most of us can only dream of by playing on “easy street” in The Championship.

Given the above, no amount of tactical changes by any number of different managers or coaches will make a blind bit of difference.

In summary.Our once modestly successful football club which has previously been a somewhat at times frustrating, but joy to watch and support no longer exists.
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Southampton V Millwall The Verdict
at 20:16:36

In my opinion.

Yesterday was evidence, if further evidence was actually needed, that our Owners and the people they employ ( Sports Republic ) together with the Players, haven’t the slightest desire to get back into The Premiership.

1. The Owners have got what they want. A Player Trading Business with subsidiaries in Hospitality venues at the stadium.

2 Sports Republic’s employees are being paid handsomely, delivering mediocrity without being in The Premiership spotlight.

3. The Players with the possible exception of Leo, wouldn’t last five minutes in the top flight and are increasing happy to fund their lavish life styles drawing salaries that most of us can only dream about whilst jogging along mid table in The Championship. No pressure to be promoted and little chance of relegation given the dross that occupies the lower reaches of the league.


No amount of talk about changing tactics, methods of play or for that matter coaches is now going to change anything. Why should it when everyone within the club is happy ?

It’s doubles all round time chaps for everyone except us suffering fans. How long will it last ? Probably until there is a change of ownership, and I can’t see that happening any time soon.

As for the game yesterday ? Let’s face it, utterly boring from both sides from start to finish excepting a world class save from Bazunu.To coin an old expression “ they could still be playing now and neither team would have scored “.
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Two Key Areas That Southampton Need To Sort Out In The Transfer Window
at 13:36:30

We need :-

1. A proper Goalkeeper, Bazunu is bottom of the statistics of Championship keepers for a reason.

2. A proper Centre Half with some physical presence who can win headers.

3. A proper Centre Forward with some physical presence who can hold a ball up.

If we already had all of the above we would be challenging for automatic promotion.

If we already had two of the above we would be challenging for an automatic promotion playoff place.

We’ve currently got none of them and that’s why we are mid table and have taken two points from the last twelve available.
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Southampton V Oxford The Verdict
at 12:33:18

Saturday was the absolute pinnacle of a display that’s been years in the making.

Couldn’t even get a point against Oxford, whose players nobody outside of Oxford has ever heard of, played at a ground with only three sides.

For season after season the Owners and Sports Republic have done absolutely nothing to address any of the basic problem that exist :-

1. We need a centre forward who has physicality and can hold a ball up.

2. We need a centre half who has physicality and will win headers and defend as if his life depended on it.

3. We need a proper goalkeeper who commands his box and will play every game.

Given the above a manager can fill in the gaps around the spine, without it we can all look forward to an ever increasing number of “ Oxford” type results in the back waters of English football.
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Southampton At Oxford United The Preview
at 11:19:52

If Archer plays someone will need to constantly remind him where the Oxford goal is because from what I’ve seen of him, he thinks that professional football is just a question of running around aimlessly and avoiding injury.

underweststand is spot on with his comment. With or without Tonda, if our expensively assembled squad can’t motivate themselves to get a decisive win today then there’s something seriously amiss at Southampton Football Club.
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What Was Frank Lampard's Problem After Southampton Game
at 13:20:53

What’s his problem ?

He’s related to Harry Redknapp, end of.
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Southampton V Coventry City The Verdict
at 09:29:21

Probably a little off subject I appreciate.

But having seen the way Lampard had his players organised and the way they defended after the sending off, I couldn’t help but wonder how on earth with Ralph in charge, we managed to lose not one but two games 9-0 under similar circumstances. Totally mystifying.

Eckert appears to have got our home form stabilised.What needs to happen now is that we take a leaf out of Coventry’s book away from home. When you have a positive result on the horizon don’t throw it away as we did at Millwall and Norwich please.

Best seasonal wishes to you Nick and all long suffering Saints fans wherever you are in the World.
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Another Ex Southampton Hero Linked For Return To St Mary's
at 19:32:19

It’s been suggested that his wages at West Ham are £114,000 a week.

So a 50/50 loan deal would mean Sports Republic shelling out not only a loan fee but £57000 a week for his services.

I can’t see Sports Republic being remotely interested.

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Southampton Linked With Another Goalkeeper
at 07:39:34

saintpete01 correctly identifies Bazunu’s basic problems.

Whilst being an acceptable reaction keeper who can play with his feet, he is extremely poor if he has time to think about anything, such as to wether go for a cross or to get down quickly to save a shot from distance.

Last season Ramsdale was purchased because of the weaknesses of Bazunu (and McCarthy) not the other way around.

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Southampton At Norwich City The Verdict
at 17:55:03

Farlow, why didn’t Bazunu come out for the ball ?

Because he is a very poor keeper if he has time to think about anything and that is also the reason why he is repeatedly beaten by the opposing teams shots from miles away from his goal line.

Good reaction shot stopper and can play with his feet but those are the limits of his abilities in my opinion.
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Southampton At Norwich City The Verdict
at 14:25:06

Good objective report Nick apart from your comments concerning the penalty.

Armstrong hit the ball into the area that if the keeper guesses direction correctly, he’s in with a chance of saving it when if it’s hit two to three feet off the ground, which on Saturday it was.

Along the ground or high into the net,no chance of making a save whichever way he dives.
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Tonda Eckert Set To Get More Time But Are Saints Biding Their Time For Their Man To Be Available
at 10:21:26

If, and it’s a very big if Frank is sacked, will he want to give up what will undoubtedly be a massive contract termination package to come and manage a mid table Championship team such as we currently are ?

Sounds rather unlikely to me and in the meantime if we were to suffer another couple of defeats Eckert’s position will become increasingly untenable as the players will no doubt say “ he is only here on an interim basis so why put in any extra effort”.

In the circumstances as they stand, surely it’s best to give Eckert the job, settle the speculation and try and recover from our very poor start to this season caused by Sports Republic’s ineptitude in appointing Will Still in the first place ?
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