Ralph - What Happens Now?

 

In a situation that you could never have foreseen before we played Aston Villa at Villa Park on 5^th March, major questions need to be asked about Ralph Hasenhuttl’s future as manager of Southampton FC.  In the period between Boxing Day and that March date at Villa Park, Saints had played 9 won 5, drawn 3 and lost just 1 in the Premier League and had got through to the Quarter Final of the FA Cup with 3 more wins including playing our reserves against West Ham’s first team and still winning.  Everything Ralph touch turned to gold and we were flying. Those 9 league games also included games against big boys Manchester United, Spurs (twice), Manchester City and West Ham, who were in the Champions League places at the time.  The manager was a genius and we were looking at a Top 10 finish and we already had 35 points.

Three months is a long time in football and since then, played 12, won 1, drawn 2, lost 9 and you could argue that all bar the home games against Liverpool and Chelsea were winnable.  In that run, Ralph has been bereft of any inspiration, and it seems, any idea of how to change things around.

These two runs are the heart of the debate… he is clearly capable of being a good manager and finding ways of getting good results for a short period of time but is it enough to have this, followed by the sort of run that followed?  When we are good, we are very, very good and when we are bad, we are shite.  The history of Southampton FC has been littered with this kind of thing, to be fair.

One of the clubs all-to-frequent PR gaffe’s was to eulogise the SFC Playbook which was Ralph’s blueprint for the entire club from the first team on down.  When things were going well and we are doing things exactly as the SFC Playbook says, we have a very defined a structured way of playing and other teams struggle to deal with it.  If they do manage to deal with it however or they do manage to catch us on an off day when all 11 players aren’t 100% at it, we seem to have no other way of winning games other than playing with what amounts to basically a back nine and leaving one striker isolated and hoping for the best. Regardless of the strength of your squad, this clearly isn’t acceptable.

Those last 12 games have been very much like the end of the season when Claude Puel was in charge where we seem to have no clue how to attack. This meant really boring negative football and when we inevitably go behind, you knew there was more than likely no way we were getting back into it, unless JWP scores a free kick like at Leeds and Brighton in that run. When the expectation of scoring a goal is so low, the game is just becomes a chore to watch and that is never good for the manager, especially if results are bad.

One of the things that saves him getting too much stick is that our squad is not good enough which is a result of under investment, really since 2016, thanks in large to the situation with Mr Gao. That was at the point where we started believing our own hype and thinking we had some magic formula that would always work – buy cheap, polish it, sell for lots, replace cheap, polish it, sell for lots, rinse, repeat etc etc - only things started to go a bit wrong….

There were a number of players signed to be first team starters that didn’t work out and there have also been players bought that just haven’t developed as we hoped.  We have also made bad decisions regarding extending contracts of players who were never going to be first-team regulars, which merely succeeded in bulking up the wage bill, blocking the pathway to the first team and taking money away from other areas.

The way you judge your manager is how well he has done with the resources that are available to him and this is where it’s difficult to judge Ralph because in the middle of the season, he was massively over performing in that regard, but at the end of it, you could argue that he had used up all his miracles, looked tired and jaded and that a change was needed for both parties. You cannot afford to be tired and jaded in management top level football because you are setting the tone for the players. If you get that way, then the decision making either becomes too safe or it becomes too random. To be honest, we have seen both recently.  Ralph of course, hinted that he was feeling the pressure in a mid-season interview when he said he thought he only had another two years left in management.  This was ironically just before our best performance of the season in the 3-2 away win at Spurs.

The perception inside the club was that the squad was better this year than last, so it will be a disappointment to have finished lower and with less points and we had last year. Ralph himself said he was happy with the squad though to be honest, I don’t have much time for managers who say the opposite because all you are doing is undermining the players that you have.  Player ego needs to managed these days, so a manager publicly saying his squad isn’t good enough is not a great thing.

Ralph has however, got to be honest with himself and with the club about whether he has the stomach to carry on anymore. Being manager of Southampton is not easy because you are always up against it, be it having less money that others, less good players, more than your share of bad refereeing decisions, further to travel etc and it will therefore take a lot out of you. 

The last two seasons of basically followed the same pattern where we have performed well up to a point and then completely fallen apart.  This is the whole Plan B thing as well because the players we have can’t maintain our high pressing style of football throughout an entire season.  In the season before the one just finished, it was put down to a lack of players in the squad and key injuries which disrupted things but it’s happened again this season so you have to think that it will happen next season as well unless there is something markedly different happening.  We tried to address the player tiredness this year with a ‘marginal gains’ approach by taking our time over long throws and generally shithousing with the energy drinks breaks and all that but we still had the same end of the season as the one before where we didn’t look like we knew where our next point was coming from. That’s not good and for the rumoured £6 - £7 million a year that we are paying Ralph, he should be coming up with an answer to that.

Ralph seems to have this stubborn belief that things will just magically change for the better.   There have been some real ‘definition of madness’ things going on and I have been absolutely mystified at times this season and wondered how he expected it to be any different to how it has eventually turned out.

The game against Chelsea at home was a classic example. Chelsea had two golden chances  because we were all over the place, with Timo Werner managing to hit the woodwork twice in the opening five minutes. Having got away with those two chances it was absolutely obvious that we should’ve changed the defensive system and gone to three at the back to match Chelsea up, right then, right now.  It was an obvious change that should have been ready to go but he didn’t do it and we didn’t make any changes until 10 minutes later when we were 2-0 down.   The indecision was final.  We were eventually 4-0 down by half-time and ended up losing by six. Next year we have five substitutes to use so the decision making has to be quicker.

That Chelsea game, coming on the back of the 4-0 defeat at Villa, seemed to kill Ralph completely and after that we went all Claude Puel and risk averse and shocking to watch.  Risk averse boring football is a dangerous game to play because it’s only maintainable if you get results.  Fans will quickly lose patience is there’s the double whammy of no result and no entertainment.

We got a result playing that way against Arsenal but the next game was Burnley away, which was a completely different assignment in terms of style of football and standard of opposition we were facing and he went with the same team and tactics as the Arsenal game and we were dismal in a limp defeat.  It was almost as if he didn’t have the energy to think of what was needed for that particular game.

Other ridiculousness this season has included picking Shane Long to start a game in the Premier League in 2022 at the age of 35.  Maybe there was some justification for playing him in the last 10 minutes against tired defenders but never from the start.  What did he think was going to happen? What did he think was going to happen if he paired Bednarek with Stephens or played Nathan Redmond as a striker?  All these things are 99% proven not to work and they are highly unlikely to suddenly work.

Towards the end of the season we also had the absolutely bizarre selection of substitutes which included players who has been completely out of favour all season when the places on the bench could’ve been used to put a youngster on and give them some experience and therefore gain something for the future. Theo Walcott on the bench for the last game having hardly played all season. Do me a favour.  He would have had my full backing if he’d said, “we’re looking at the future and going to play some youngsters in these last games”.  We’ve ended up losing all these games, learning nothing.  “We win or we learn” – remember that! 

There are three things keeping Ralph in a job at the moment.  One is the length of contract he has got at the cost of getting rid of him.   Another is the perception / reality that the squad is very weak and no manager could really do better.  The third is that he has shown himself very capable in the very recent past.  He has to prove if he is going to stay, that he is not a busted flush, he still has the drive and energy for it and that he is worthy of being in charge if some money gets spent. Anyone can see that a lot of our current players aren’t good enough, but Ralph should in my opinion, have done slightly better with what he’s had. That’s what we pay him the big bucks for.  Of course, this season he’s also done a lot better at times with what he had but if you compare this season to last, the squad is slightly stronger and we have ended up with less points.

Martin Semmens has always been Ralph’s biggest supporter and was of course, championing him as “the best manager Southampton could have” as recently as March.  As I’ve said before, it’s not solely down to Semmens now because we have new owners.  It would be interesting to be a fly on the wall at the next board meeting – I guess it depends on what the expectations were.  Another complication is that of course if you replace a manager, you have to replace him with someone who is going to be better in some way. This is not a situation like with Puel, where we thought that just about anybody would’ve been better and no one could say that Pellegrino was an upgrade on Puel.  I know there are many fans out there who basically think we’re at the point where anyone can do better and just want the current incumbent to be sacked. That’s a dangerous mindset to have.  Martin Semmens talked in the past about how they have already done some planning for the day that Ralph eventually leaves. If the board do decide that it’s time for a change, we just have to hope that that is correct and that they get it right. Bruno Lage, the current Wolves boss, was apparently on that list once upon a time but with the style of football that Wolves play, I’m not sure that would have been a great fix for us.

For my own part, I like Ralph and really want him to succeed but there comes a point.  I can’t believe quite how bad we’ve been at the end of this season and that’s the players and the manager.  The main thing for me is that if the Board want him to carry on, Ralph himself has got to have the energy and drive to do it or else he’s letting down the Board and more importantly, the fans of Southampton FC.

I’m not going to say whether I think he should stay or go but I am going to say that right now, I wouldn’t exactly feel it was the end of the world if he went and this is a major shift from where I was before we embarked on this dreadful run of performances and results.  I used to think, like Martin Semmens said, that Ralph was the best manager than Saints could possibly have.  I am now severely questioning that.

And another thing....

Kelvin Leaves With a 100% Managerial Record Intact

PS – In the course of writing this, some significant events happened in that three of the first team coaching staff left the club.  Not only is this an indication that Ralph is staying, if he gets to choose his coaching stafff, it may also indicate his influence is increasing,   The three departing coaches, Craig Fleming, Dave Watson and Kelvin Davis were all at the club when Ralph arrived so they weren’t his choices, which is unusual on the face of it.

I think most people will see the departure of Kelvin Davis as a shame and it always is when someone who has been with the club 15 years leaves, but I would say that it’s about time that the club stopped acting sentimental with regard to keeping ex-players in key positions.  If you want to be sentimental and reward someone for long service or being valuable in the past, make them a Club Ambassador, not a first team coach or a player who never plays.

Ralph Interviewing Prospective New Coaching Staff

The Great League 1 Minus 10 Player Review 2021/22

Goalkeepers

(Alex McCarthy 6, Fraser Forster 7.5)

Alex Spots a Secret Contract as Fraser Waves Goodbye 

The season started with Alex McCarthy being given the nod as first choice goalkeeper, which was a bit of a surprise to many including me, who thought Fraser Forster had been the better of the two at the tail end of last season.  However, it was McCarthy from the start and in the main he did pretty well but as usual with goalkeepers you only really remember the horror shows and there were two of those. The first was away at Norwich, who at that point had hardly won a game and Alex, uncharacteristically it has to be said, threw in two horrendous goals by basically doing an impression of a falling tree.  The next shocker was in the home game against Brighton when, having just signed a new contract in secret (more on that later) he played on when injured, when we still had a substitution left to make and ultimately, couldn’t move to make any attempt at saving Neal Maupay‘s 94th minute equaliser.  Ralph went nuts and called him unprofessional which is not a great thing to start a new contract with.

Around the time of this injury, Fraser Forster had also picked up an injury so the only other fit senior keeper we had at the club was Harry Lewis, who is one of those players who has somehow stolen a living as a professional footballer for a number of years, without actually playing any football.  Clearly not good enough, he’s already been moved on early.

The thought of Lewis playing a Premier League game or even, playing 5 minutes at the end of the Brighton game, seemed to concentrate everyone’s mind and so we brought in a third choice goalkeeper in the shape of Willy Caballero who had been playing for Chelsea and Manchester City for the last five or six years.  When I say that Caballero was playing for City and Chelsea, I use the term very loosely in that he was the reserve or third choice goalkeeper at both of these clubs.  At 40 years old, his contract with Chelsea had not been renewed for this season so he was training with AFC Wimbledon until he got a call from Saints. A couple of half decent performances later and he was signed on for the rest of the season, an ideal man for that role. When he was fit however, Fraser Forster resumed between the sticks and kept his place for the rest of the season.  There has been the odd bad moment.  An aimless wander from his line against Wolves and a shot against Crystal Palace going straight through him but there have been many highs as well including a ridiculous performance at home to Arsenal which ultimately won the three points that kept us up, as our end of season freefall meant that we were still looking over our shoulders with one game to go.  

I suspect that based on this season, if you asked the average Saints fan who they would like to keep, going for next year, Fraser Forster would be the man but here’s the thing. It looks like Saints jumped too early and gave a new contract to Alex McCarthy. For me, Fraser proved that we could possibly have waited another one or two years before we sign a new first choice goalkeeper and a situation where he was first choice next year and Caballero was second choice would’ve been ideal. The problem was, McCarthy signed a secret contract and it’s still a secret in that it hasn’t been announced by the club. Absolutely bizarre behaviour.  Who does it benefit by not announcing it?  Alex would find that slightly weird and it’s not as if it would be a secret from Fraser.

Basically, the club has fucked it.  It’s not as if Alex McCarthy needed to be tied down early to stop another club coming in and poaching him.  McCarthy’s season ended with Ralph calling him unprofessional and Fraser Forster would be one of the favourites if there was a ‘Player of the Second Half of the Season’ award.

Here Next Year?

Alex McCarthy - Whilst he is a decent goalkeeper, he is not first team starter level in the Premier League.  Needs a serious challenger for his place to be brought in.

Willy Caballero - There is an art of being a substitute goalkeeper at the main thing about it is that you’ve got to be happy to do it and Caballero has had a lot of experience of this over the last few years and he still looked decent when called upon. I would certainly keep Caballero on as a cheap, reliable No 2 or No 3.

Thank You and Goodbye?

Fraser Forster. I would have kept him as first choice next season because there are other areas of the team that need strengthening more than the goalkeeper position.  He’s gone though.

Harry Lewis. All the best at Bradford City.

Full-backs

(Kyle Walker-Peters 8, Tino Livramento 7.5, Romain Perraud 6.5)

Quite Possibly The Strongest Area of the Squad.

Tino Livramento arrived from Chelsea Academy at the start of the season and was immediately thrust into the first team, replacing Kyle Walker-Peters it right back. On the face of it, it seems slightly ridiculous but then Tino started to play and we began to realise that it might not have been such a far-fetched flight of fancy after all. His form remained superb until he picked up an injury as teams began to kick the shit out of him and he struggled a bit for form after that, before picking up a season-ending knee injury at Brighton which is going to keep him out for about the first five months of next season as well.  He of course has this buyback clause which be honest, I cannot see Chelsea invoking whilst they have Reece James who is only a year or so older than Tino. The surgery on his knee appears to have gone well so with modern sports medicine being what it is, I’m sure we can expect to see Tino again after the World Cup finishes in December.

Kyle Walker-Peters started off the season on the bench before he got his head down and decided to make a go of things as a left back. There have been many games where I thought his lack of left foot would be a problem, but he is obviously worked at it and improved and he got to a stage where the full-back he was running at didn’t know genuinely whether he was going to go left or right. He seems to have added magic feet to his game this year as well, slaloming through several challenges, never better illustrated than Leeds when he beat about six players before being chopped down on the edge of the box which led to JWP smashing in the free-kick. Got a deserved call up to the England national team as well and acquitted himself well in the two games. Unfortunately for him he is competing in a position where are England are incredibly well stocked so he is as it stands, unlikely to make the World Cup squad but he has had a brilliant season and probably came second in everyone’s player of the year vote.

Romain Perraud arrived from Brest in the summer as a replacement for Ryan Bertrand and has had an up-and-down acclimatisation season which is to be expected for a relatively young new arrival in the country. I have a feeling he’s really going to take off next year and his hammer of a left foot will be put to good effect going forward. Defensively, he is fine when he gets up close to whoever he is playing against but positionally he seems to struggle sometimes and gives the winger too much space. There have been a few games this season where there has been a steady stream of crosses coming in from his side because he just never gets close enough to block any and that something he really needs to improve on next season but an encouraging season nonetheless.

This area of the pitch wouldn’t be a priority at all this summer but for Tino’s injury which means we probably do have a to bring a player in to cover until he is fit again. It can probably be a young player from one of the big boys B teams and maybe it can be a player on loan. We seem reluctant to use Yan Valery as a full-back anymore so in effect, we only have two fit players for the two positions at the moment because Thierry Small doesn’t look like he’s ready as yet. There is a big opportunity for him though if he can show something in pre-season.

Here Next Year?

KWP – great season and we’re lucky to have him.  Will move on to a bigger club at some point if he keeps improving but not yet.

Tino Livramento – get well soon – sky is still the limit.

Romain Perraud – solid first season and improvements expected for next

Thierry Small – Big chance for him with Tino’s injury if he can prove that he’s ready for the step up.  Could potentially go out on loan.

Centre Backs

(Mohammed Salisu 7, Jan Bednarek 5, Jack Stephens 5, Lyanco 5.5)

"Is That a Poland Game I See in the Distance?"

The main central defenders of the season have been Salisu and Bednarek and the pair of them, when fully switched on, made a good partnership. When they were both totally on their game, they defended aggressively and didn’t give forwards any space and it looked like we had found a really good partnership. Bednarek’s form in particular only came in fits and starts and he has in the main been dreadful in the second half of the season. I didn’t think much of it at the time but him basically requesting to miss the Manchester City FA Cup Quarter-Final so he could concentrate on playing Poland a few days later, is quite a damning thing for a player to do. We pay his wages at the end of the day and at the time he would certainly have been in the team. Since that moment his form has really gone off a cliff to the point where he got dropped the last two games of the season and deservedly so. He is one that I really wouldn’t be bothered if he moved on in the summer

Salisu has got everything in his game to make him a good central defender and his first half of the season was excellent. In January however there started to be a few stories about potential moves and whether it went to his head or whether he just got tired I don’t know but his form deteriorated and after one particular shocker he got dropped.  He made a bit of a fair recovery at the end of the season but never managed to regain the composure he showed in the first half of the season and was basically very erratic. Sali is crying out for a good solid experienced central defensive partner for next season, in the mould of José Fonte. Give him that and we will have a serious player on our hands again.

Jack Stephens had a Jack Stephens season.  No more, no less.  He got in the team at various points and had a few good games, then he had a shocker, then he got dropped and when he found himself out of the team, whenever he came back in he was terrible and the problems that he’s always had with dozing off and not marking players close enough resurfaced. Like Alex McCarthy, he’s another one that’s had the mysterious secret contract given to him and I guess if he’s on a salary level suitable for a player who is third or fourth choice and it’s not really a problem. His best moment of the season and one which I will always enjoy was him getting in Bruno Fernandes face when United came to St Mary‘s and telling him that he was not basically refereeing the fucking game. Quality.

Lyanco has become a bit of a cult hero with his attitude and his passion for the game, for the club and for defending in general. He does however only seem to put in really good performances or really dire ones. I think he still struggles with the physicality of some games because he struggled like hell against Burnley and playing against a striker much bigger than he was.  However, he played really well against Arsenal when the name of the game was concentration. We still don’t really know whether he will be good enough to ever be anything more than a back-up centre half or whether he will turn into a first team regular after being signed for not much initial outlay. He did end the season though with a complete clanger to gift Leicester a goal but he’ll still be around next season so all we can do is hope that he improves.  He is a lunatic and this is a good thing as the game needs more good characters.

Yan Valery - Is he a centre back, is he a right back? He’s had the majority of his appearances this season on the right-hand side of a three in defence and surprisingly, looked pretty decent in that role. Still has the tendency to drop one big howler a game though he’s young enough to get that out of his game. You do feel it’s a bit of a crossroads for Yan and it’s hard to be honest, to see him nailing down a place in a team with the preferred formation being four at the back. He is currently our third choice right back and our fifth-choice centre back in a back four.

The other centre half worth mentioning is Dynel Simeu who as well as being a Southampton lad, seems to have quite a lot about him and had a really successful loan spell at Carlisle in the second half of the season. It wouldn’t surprise me if we loan him out again next season to a League 1 or preferably a Championship side but if we clear out a couple of the other centre backs, I wouldn’t be averse to him being around the first team squad.

Here Next Year?

Mohamed Salisu – endless potential but needs a reliable, experienced partner to help him along.  22 is very young for a centre back.  Hasn’t shown enough to be tempted away by anyone else as yet.

Lyanco – not a bad first season.  We’ll be better placed to make a judgement this time next year.  Don’t think at the moment that he’s the man to partner Salisu to bring the best out of him however.

Dynel Simeu - maybe out on loan again but it depends on whether other centre backs get moved on.

Undecided?

Jack Stephens – same as every other season.  He is what he is – not good enough to be starter but a decent back up to have.  Would benefit greatly from playing B Team games to keep up to speed for when he gets a chance in the first team.

Yan Valery – with just one year left on his deal, we may cash in or we may extend his deal to protect what value there is.  Showed more promise this season that in previous ones.  May keep him as the cover for Tino’s injury to free up money elsewhere.

Thank You and Goodbye?

Jan Bednarek – a few good games but has gone backwards this season.  Requesting not to play in the FA Cup Quarter-Final kind of tells you where his mind is at.  What’s he going to be like in the build-up for the World Cup in November and do we want that?  I’d move him on if we can.

Number Six

(James Ward-Prowse 8.5, Oriol Romeu 7, Ibrahima Diallo 5)

Could Do With a 3rd Midfielder Really, Couldn't We Mate?

JWP has absolutely been our saviour this year and he has been our most important player by a long, long way. Real captain, leader, legend stuff.  The free kicks have of course become ridiculous and he’s now closing in on David Beckham‘s Premier League record.  Performances in general play probably haven’t been quite as good as in previous seasons but he still could be relied upon to put in a solid performance in every game. The people that matter of the England national team set up, seem to be noticing now so it looks like there is more chance of him making the World Cup squad in a few months’ time than there was before. He still plays for Southampton however, which could count against him because it usually does, so we have to hope that he doesn’t decide that he wants to move on this summer. To be honest, at his age and with the amount of service that he’s given the club, I would not begrudge with him moving on at all, if that’s what he decided he wanted to do, as long as we got proper money for him. The good news is that with three years on his contract, we can more or less ask for whatever we want.

Oriol Romeu has had a very solid season until the last 10 games when he suddenly looked like he was running in treacle. Before Ralph came to the club, Romeu had problems sometimes with just hanging onto the ball too long and not passing quickly enough and he went back to that in the last few months of the season and found himself getting left out of the team.  However, he is still completely irreplaceable for us in the context of the squad we have and I don’t think we won a game this season when he wasn’t playing.

His replacement Ibrahima Diallo has now been here two years and still looks like he doesn’t really know what sort of player he is. He’s not a defensive midfield player really because he does get caught too far forward too often and players always seem to manage to run off the back of him.  He doesn’t have enough to the attacking side his game to play further forward either so what we have here I think it’s a player that just doesn’t suit the two-man central midfield which we play. He basically wants to play in the same position as JWP and of course, that’s not possible. When he partners the captain, all it does is means that we lose JWP’s influence further forward.

There needs to be a new arrival in the centre of midfield who is capable of playing as the number six in the way that Romeu does. Diallo is not that man so we need someone else, so Romeu doesn’t have to play every single game. We cannot afford to have JWP’s influence diminished by having to be the deepest lying midfielder.

Here Next Year?

JWP – have to keep him at all costs – he’s the main man and is the only player we have who can be relied upon to dig us out of the brown stuff on a regular basis.

Oriol Romeu – last year of his contract next season but can see him playing it out.  Still a force in a majority of games.

Ibrahima Diallo – still young but next season really needs to be the one where he gets in the team regularly in some capacity.  Would be better in a 3-man midfield but the way we play currently, he just doesn’t fit.

Number 10s

(Stuart Armstrong 7, Mohammed Elyounoussi 6.5, Theo Walcott 3, Nathan Tella 5, Nathan Redmond 6, Moussa Djenepo 3)

"We Don't Even Have to Be That Good - The Others Are Dreadful"

The next position in the playbook is the number 10 which for us means the wide midfield player. We have a lot of them and most of them are basically not good enough.

Stuart Armstrong is the best of a bad bunch but he struggled throughout the first half of the season for fitness and his eventual return to the team coincided with our best run of the season when we picked up the points that ultimately kept us in the Premier League at the end of the season. When fit he is the only 10 that plays with enough intelligence and ability to actually make things happen though he hasn’t contributed enough goals this season as he should be looking to get seven or eight instead of the two or three that he did yet.

This time last year, the thought of Moi Elyounoussi getting regular game time this year was horrifying (because he'd been so useless in his first spell) but to be fair, he came in back from Celtic and had some decent games, again with his best spell of the season, coinciding with our good middle third of the season.  After that though his form fell away and he went back to being the nonentity that he was in his first spell at Saints before he went out on-loan. Basically, there is a good footballer in there but too often the game is just passing him by and his lack of pace always becomes very evident in those games because he never beats anybody and his defensive work is mainly non-existent.

Talking of which, Nathan Redmond is what he is. He is half decent when he gets the ball in space and there’s no opposition player anywhere near him and he can get up to full speed (see goal v Liverpool last week). That’s it though. If he gets the ball in a tight area then forget it because he has absolutely zero physicality and will bottle it and basically hand possession over or he’ll pass it backwards. He is possibly the most frustrating player I have ever seen because he can definitely do it but he just chooses not to.  He'll do something great and you kid yourself that the penny might have dropped... but no.  I said last year it would be better for all parties if he moved on and the same applies this year and with one year left on his contract, I would say it’s probably quite likely. He is what he is and he’s been here for six years now and something needs to change.

Nathan Tella is a bit of a quandary. He is young (but not as young as you think), quick and enthusiastic but I think the maximum number of games in a row that he’s managed to start this season is two and that tells you everything you need to know. It’s partly fitness and partly that he can’t put a couple of decent performances in a row together.  He's 23 in a month and he really should’ve progressed more than he has in the last couple of years. I feel that next year is a now or never time for him. Oh.. and all that “Star Boy” shit doesn’t help either – he’s not 18.

Will Smallbone is another who like Tella, never seems to say fit enough to give himself a chance of having a run in the team. I was somewhat disappointed when he came back from his injury layoff looking as skinny and lightweight as he was before. He clearly needs to build himself up to have any chance of surviving the rigours of regular Premier League football. In another similarity with Tella, I feel next season is now or never, though he would probably be a good candidate to go out on loan somewhere.

Theo Walcott made a really good impression when on loan and he was obviously only doing that to earn himself a two year contract, which has so far been a complete and utter waste of money. To go from being in England international three years ago to struggling to make a nine-man bench at Southampton, tells you all you need to know about his fall from grace. There are rumours that he might be off to the MLS in the summer and that would be a fantastic solution all round. It’s impossible to dislike Theo but there has to be more than that I’m afraid and paying him just to be a mascot for the young players is absolutely fucking ridiculous. We got sentimental about him returning to Southampton and it’s come back and bit us on the arse.

Moussa Djenepo has been around this year but you wouldn’t know it.  I think that Ralph just got fed up of waiting.  Like Sofiane Boufal before him, a player signed because he had unpredictable brilliance but that appears to have been coached out of him.  Boufal was slightly different because he just refused to conform.  It couldn’t have worked but it hasn’t and with just one year left on his deal, we have to write this one off.

Here Next Year?

Stuart Armstrong – if he stays fit then he starts.  A vital player in the context of the current squad.

Nathan Tella – it’s next year or never.  There has to be more end product and not just flashes.  There has to be more appearances.

Maybe Out On Loan?

Will Smallbone – I would look to put him out on loan in the Championship to toughen him up.  Should be looking to one day take over from Stuart Armstrong but needs to show more.

Thank You and Goodbye?

Moi Elyounoussi – Better than expected this season but with just a year on his contract, not good enough to offer another one.

Nathan Redmond – is what he is, infuriating and frustrating in equal measure.  Can do it but most often won’t.  Nothing’s going to change at this stage of his career so with one year left, move him on if we can.

Moussa Djenepo – One year left, time to go – see if we can get a few million back.  Never going to do it I’m afraid.  Hasn’t developed as he should have done and a gamble that didn’t work.

Theo Walcott – lovely bloke, not good enough anymore.  If we can move him on then we should but otherwise, it’s an expensive mentor to have around the place for the young players.

Strikers

(Che Adams 7, Armando Broja 7, Adam Armstrong 5, Shane Long 4)

Back When They Were Flying

There was always going to be a lot of focus on the strikers this season with Danny Ings departing just before the season started which threw things up in the air somewhat.  To replace him we moved to the transfer market to recruit Adam Armstrong permanently from Blackburn and youngster Armando Broja from the Chelsea talent factory. It was hoped that these two new signings along with Che Adams would provide enough goals for us to not miss Danny Ings this season. Though Adam Armstrong struggled to make an impact, it looked as if Che and Armando would score enough goals but around February time it all stopped and neither of them scored until the end of the season. It wasn’t totally their fault of course because the supply wasn’t there, but they both went right off the boil.

Che Adams seems to be a striker who is judged more harshly by Ralph than others are, and I get the impression that Ralph got fed up with Che’s habit of missing chances by basically smashing the ball straight at the goalkeeper in any situation, be it from 20 yards or from two. Che’s hold up play and passing has improved massively and he now looks like he’s a really good footballer but he still needs to add more goals to his game because it’s three seasons in the Premier League now and he hasn’t reached double figures in any of them.

Armando Broja has shown that he’s an absolute beast when the ball is in front of him and he’s running at defenders or has space to run into.  He wasn’t that great with his hold up play and doesn’t play like the 6 foot 4 striker that he is. Armando certainly has something though but there were some games where he looked lazy and there were others where he just didn’t have the impact he should’ve done.

Adam Armstrong just had a sort of season that Che Adams had when he first played in the Premier League. It appears that we have bought in a player that does not fit our style of attacking play and he has therefore struggled. He really should be used as a partner for either Adams or Broja but it never seems to work out that way after the initial few games. He was used in wide areas a couple of times and used up front on his own but never looked remotely convincing in either of those roles. He quite simply, has to do better next year when given the opportunity to do so.

It is staggering that in 2022, Shane Long was still getting minutes in the Premier League and this alone was a damning indictment of our forward options this year and also of the clubs failings when it comes to buying players and rewarding players with new contracts over the last few years. He should never have been given a new contract two years ago but he was and here we are and there are even whispers of him getting another year. All Shane had was his hard work and his running and this year he looks to have lost his legs a bit in terms of pace and he doesn’t look as fit as he has done before which is maybe not surprising considering he doesn’t play that often and he’s 35. I like Shane a lot for his hard work and effort but there is no way that we should show any sentimentality an award him another contract. Absolutely no way.

Adams and Armstrong will both be here next season and both Broja and Long will need to be replaced.  Captain Obvious here states that we absolutely need a striker to stick the ball in the net.  Rumour has it that Danny Ings may be available again and if so, we should swallow our pride and get him back. Failing that, we should certainly be looking to spend a large chunk of whatever budget we have on a striker who we think is going to be able to reach 15 goals for this season.

Here Next Year?

Che Adams – not enough goals.  He’s close to being a really good striker at this level but next year he absolutely has to get double figures.

Adam Armstrong – a struggle and has looked limited.  Could go either way but deserves another season to try and make a mark, which of course he will get.

Thank you and Goodbye?

Armando Broja – endless potential which he will hopefully realise, even though it won’t be at Southampton.  Got criticized by the manager a few times but took it on board and got on with it.  Would love him to stay here despite disappointing end to the season but it isn’t happening.

Shane Long – Thanks for your service but it’s time to go.  Was good in a good Saints side in 2016 (6 seasons ago, aged 29) but has struggled since.  Hasn’t been good enough for about 4 years and there’s no room for sentimentality around first team football in the Premier League.  If he gets a new contract we may as well all go home.

Premier League Match 38 - Leicester City 4 Southampton 1

 

Ralph Thanks Moss for Taking the Heat Off Him

Last game of the season and thank Christ for that. Just one more game to endure and it’s a visit to the King Power Stadium in Leicester. Leicester have had a strange season under the smug twat Brendan Rodgers, failing and getting knocked out of two European competitions and failing to mount any sort of challenge to get back into Europe this season. In their defence, they have had a lot of injuries and are on course to finish in the top half thanks to a decent run-of results at the tail end of the season.  Mind you, the fixture list has been somewhat kind to them in that regard in that they have had two wins recently against already relegated opposition in Watford and Norwich. Regardless of who they’ve played against however, they are in better form than we are. Mind you, so is everyone.

It was somewhat amusing at the start of the season when Leicester signed two of the regular members of our record breaking bad defence from last season with both Ryan Bertrand and Janick Vestergaard making the move to the King Power.  Neither have had any sort of positive impact at all with Bertrand basically having been injured all season and Vestergaard even struggling to get a game when every other central defender was injured.  Neither are expected to feature this afternoon. On the positive side for Leicester, Jamie Vardy, good old Rat Bastard himself, is back fit again when he’s not hanging round in a court room listening to two vacuous wastes of space arguing  the toss about who leaked what to the newspapers, when the newspapers probably all found out on their own.  James Maddison has been showing the form that will still see him get ignored by Gareth Southgate and Harvey Barnes is back fit again and playing well and these three will no doubt be the biggest threat to us this afternoon, apart from ourselves of course.

The only real news for us during the week was Theo Walcott being linked to a move to the MLS in America.  Due to it bring a Mickey Mouse league, I kind of forget that that’s a possible destination for has-been players that we have given contracts to on too much money. Theo would certainly fit the bill for a swansong over there as someone with a bit of a reputation who will put some bums on seats and I’m sure that with the standard of soccerball over there, he will probably do pretty well.

The team today is showing three changes from the Liverpool game and it looks like three straight swaps with Adam Armstrong coming in for Armando Broja, Stuart Armstrong for Nathan Tella and Oriol Romeu for Ibrahima Diallo.  Consequently, it looks like it’s going to be the same formation as last week, so I’ll be interesting to see if we try and play Adam Armstrong passes in the channels or whether we just smash the ball up to him from 60 yards like we did for Broja against Liverpool.  Broja isn’t even on the bench, suggesting that Putin has recalled him to his club.

Here goes nothing… oh hang on, we’re playing 4-2-2-2 with Salisu at left back and Nathan Redmond up front.  Two players who have never been anything other than dreadful in those positions.  Saints get lucky as Maddison’s corner gets half cleared out the far side and then back to Maddison, who turns Stuart Armstrong inside out before crossing it with his left foot and it’s perfectly onto the head of Castagne about 6 yards out and dead central but he manages to head out of the bar.  Bad miss but I’m sure they’ll score in a minute.

In reality, nothing much happens in the first half hour as neither side looks like it can really be arsed.  I have a feeling that the opening goal will be huge because the team that goes behind will have to raise their game and I can’t see either doing it, especially if it’s us. Evans plays a ball from the back into our penalty area, Lyanco misses it and Rat Bastard runs across him, sees he’s in the penalty area dives. It’s pathetic. It’s one of those ‘click your heels together’ efforts and it looks like he’s diving into a swimming pool.  Fucking Rat Bastard wanker. Jon Moss in his last game clearly can’t be fucking bothered to do anything about it and the fat pudding just waves play on.

We get away with some more shoddy defending on our left hand side as Maddison eventually finds Castagne on the wing in acres of space, unbothered by Salisu, and his cross into the middle his met on the stretch by Rat Bastard, in behind the ball watching Stephens but he can’t get enough on it and the ball goes as wide as his wife’s desire for fame.

Half time, shit game, matter of time before we concede.  In terms of not being behind it’s one of our better half time situations recently so there’s won’t be any changes.  What could possibly go wrong?

What follows now is the inevitable Leicester goal but it’s remarkable that we find a new way of being shit and going behind and at the same time, Jon Moss finds a way to remind everyone one more time, how incompetent he always is.  We win a throw on the left-hand side of the start of a half and Elyounoussi throws it back to Salisu and Rat Bastard brushes past Romeu and hits the deck complaining that he’s got a head injury.  Fat Jon stops the game while we have the ball and when he restarts it, he gives it to Leicester because we had the ball.   Whilst this is annoying it is absolutely no excuse for what happens next which is Schmeichel launching a ball down the field Lyanco heading it straight up in the air and when it comes down, heading it off his nose about a quarter of the distance he needed to head it, which allows Rat Bastard, now running at full throttle after his fake injury that pole-axed him, to shoot, McCarthy to save and Maddison to run in the rebound into an empty net. Fuck off everyone.  Embarrassingly, after much argument, Saints seem to think Leicester are going to allow them to walk a goal in but unsurprisingly they don’t.

Saints try and get back into it in the only way we know how, by overcommitting and a  pass forward from Romeu is miscontrolled by Adam Armstrong and one pass later we have seven men in front of the ball and Lyanco ends up defending on his own against Barnes and Rat Bastard and it’s a good bit of defending to force Barnes wide and force him to butcher it.

There is then a genuine head injury for Rat Bastard to appreciate as Adam Armstrong heads the ball and Jonny Evans heads Arma’s head and both end up on the deck covered in blood. It’s interesting in there if it had been a challenge on the floor and Adam Armstrong nicked it round Evans and then Evans wiped him out, Evans would be the one getting booked but because it’s a header, for some reason it’s given as a drop-ball.

Adam Armstrong is wandering around like Charlie Austin at closing time and after another demonstration of the shambles that is the concussion protocols, he sits down and has to leave the pitch to be replaced by Che Adams. Adams is involved on the left hand side as he and Elyounoussi, without really knowing what they were doing, bundle past a few challenges and Elyounoussi makes his one creatinve contribution of the day and puts over a decent cross which is met on roughly the penalty spot by Redmond’s head and it produces the finish that you would expect of Nathan Redmond with his head and Schmeichel catches it comfortably.

Having done something for the first time of the match, Elyounoussi of course get substituted and we bring on Djenepo for the last twenty and the only reason I can think of for doing this is for a laugh.  Moussa smashes a ball into Redmond that no one could control and a couple of passes later and we’ve overcommitted again with 8 players in front of the ball. Barnes streaks away and finds Rat Bastard and he gets away from Lyanco and then cuts in and beats him before scoring at the near post. Game over. Fuck off everyone again.

We do actually produce a decent bit of play after that as Stuart Armstrong plays a couple of passes before playing a one-two with Redmond and sprinting into the box where he goes past Tielemans who dangles a leg and takes him down.  Even Fat John Moss can’t not give that one and up steps JWP to bury it past Schmeichel, who then acts like a complete prick and doesn’t let us have the ball back.  Does Jon Moss book him for time wasting? Of course he fucking doesn’t.

All the delay means is that it takes slightly more time for us to concede again.  Straight from the kick-off Leicester win a throw off of KWP on our right-hand side and KWP just had a little wander around in a daze as they take the throw and a couple of passes later, Maddison curls it over with his right foot and Ayoze Pérez, who never scores against anybody apart from Saints, is totally unmarked by Salisu in the box and knocks it easily into the net. 3-1, fuck off everyone.

The head injury to Armstrong means that there are eight minutes of injury time for everyone to enjoy and all that happens in that is that Shane Long comes on for what has to be his swansong and we allow Pereira to get down the right hand side and pull it back and Perez again is stood in acres of fucking space with the defenders making a nice wide circle around him and he buries it to make it 4-1. Beyond belief really.

To say that today’s half arsed capitulation was expected, is a bit of an understatement. The only thing that surprised me about it is that we weren’t 2-0 down in the first half but that we delayed that inevitability until deep into the second.  You always go into the game with a bit of optimism but the way we lined up killed that stone dead.

Redmond and Adam Armstrong up front. That’s a strike partnership to strike fear into any defence with them having the grand total of three league goals between them this season. Unsurprisingly, neither of them ever really looked like scoring.   Arma struggled like he has all season and Redmond is never a forward in a million years.  What a surprise it didn’t work.

The midfield pairing of JWP and Romeu was constantly outnumbered as usual and got very little help and Stuart Armstrong as always was the best of the wide players and created our goal. None of this is a surprise. Nor is it a surprise that we fucked up defensively with all of the defenders being culpable at some point and in Alex McCarthy, we had a goalkeeper who was going for the Stekelenburg award for not actually making a save of any description. That’s probably a bit harsh because he did make a decent save in the build up to the first goal.

A few weeks ago we were the lucky team who were treated to Mike Dean refereeing his last FA Cup game and today we were treated to Jon Moss for his last ever game as a referee. Predictably, he was fucking dreadful. The opening goal sums everything up about him.  Rat Bastard Vardy decides to roll around on the ground because of nothing and then Moss absolutely fucks us. It wouldn’t be Moss‘ final game without him finding some way to fuck Southampton over as he has done consistently over the years. Of course we should’ve been switched on and defended it better but of course, the whole situation wouldn’t have arisen if Jon Moss knew what the fuck he was doing.  Again, no surprise.  The guy is a fucking fat joke, he always was and he always will be and I can’t wait till next year when we get fucked over by him again when he sat in a VAR room eating his fucking dinner, watching replays whilst spitting food down his front.  He’ll be the first referee ever to fail the fitness test to watch a game on television. Useless twat.

Rat Bastard’s contribution on the first goal just confirms what a shit he is and to make matters even worse, the Rat of course managed to score the second goal and get away with that horrific dive in the first half.  Moss sent Rat Bastard off for diving a few years ago which probably helps him get away with it now.

Moss When He Actually Sent Rat Bastard Off for Diving

All Friends Now Though... Wankers.

We did give everyone a bit of false hope when we got one back from the penalty spot after some decent play by Stuart Armstrong but it was ultimately amusing that we had to fight to get the ball back off of Schmeichel in order that we could let a goal in really quickly.  It was really down to dreadful play from both full backs. By KWP for not reacting when the throw was given against him and against Salisu who was playing centre back when he should’ve been left back and totally losing fucking Ayoze Perez who now has about 40 career goals against us and about three against everyone else combined.  The fourth goal was the icing on the cake in terms of our shit defending as we had four players within 5 yards of Perez but no one actually marking him when he scored. Maybe not icing on the cake as much of a fly on top of the turd.

Talking of turds, it was overall another shit performance to go with the diet of constant shit we’ve had to endure for the last 12 games. The only game we’ve won in that time was against Arsenal and we were pretty shit in that one as well and the only reason we won was down to a masterclass from Fraser Forster, who has now played his last game for the club. Those were the three points that kept us up.

Thank fuck the season is over. I don’t think there’s been a rebuilding job needing as badly in the summer, since the summer of 2009, when the club very nearly went out of business. There are so many squad issues that need addressing and after the finish of the season that we have had, there is the issue of the manager that needs addressing also. Ralph certainly appears to have lost his momentum and at the moment appears to be acting like the whole thing is getting him down. We’ve got this playbook allegedly which is all about enterprising pressing football and we’re not doing any of that at the moment. If we are not going to play that way or if the man who wrote it has decided that this is not the way to go forward then what's the point of it? Football changes of course but it doesn’t change that fast. The shite first goal was of course the talking point after the game and it gave Ralph a convenient thing to talk about rather than anyone focusing on his shit team selection, lack of plan and crap substitutions.

Big summer ahead and I fully expect things to look very different in terms of personnel around the first team, come the first game of the season in August.

Up the fucking Saints.