| News Comment | Southampton At Leicester The Debacle at 23:06:18
Your penultimate paragraph says it all Nick, you are 100% correct, there is no way forward with Russell Martin as manager. Everybody and their dog can see that the players have given up on him and his tippy tappy ineffectual method of play. He has no plan B, doesn’t know his best team, has no idea whatsoever how to use his substitutes proactively and can’t close matches out from winning positions. Swansea’s fans warned us that he was a stubborn one trick pony chancer and so it has proven. If by some fluke we were to win the playoffs, with him as our manager in the Premiership, our points total at the season end would be less than Derby’s all time record low. |
| News Comment | Southampton At Cardiff City The Verdict at 09:47:01
A very fair and reasonable report Nick with wholly justifiable criticisms of players and manager for what was a truly pathetic showing by all concerned. The question now is can we achieve promotion through the playoffs ? Despite one of if not the best squad in The Championship I just can’t see it because:- 1. Russell Martin is wedded to tipping tappy, sideways and backwards possession based football. 2. Russell Martin has no plan B when tippy tappy etc etc doesn’t work. 3. Russell Martin doesn’t know and hasn’t known all season long what his best starting team is. 4. Russell Martin only ever makes reactive substitutions during a match never proactive one’s 5. Russell Martin cannot game manage from winning positions. Put simply and as we told by numerous Swansea fans before a ball was kicked he just hasn’t got what it takes. |
| News Comment | Saints Announce New Season Ticket Details- Good For Some A Kick In The Teeth For Others at 13:24:44
What is it with the management of our Club in regard to ticketing? Isn’t there any body with any common sense in a position of authority? The current on line ticketing system is simply not fit for purpose and today the Club announce major changes to the pricing structure but appear only to give pricing details for the new all standing area. According to the Southampton Echo those who don’t want to stand will need to wait until the end of the season to find out the additional cost of renewing their seat. I freely admit I’m not particularly computer literate and if I’ve got the wrong end of the stick can anybody tell me what the cost of my O A P ticket in Block 11 will be please ? |
| News Comment | What Brought About Russell Martin U Turns Against Preston at 16:55:21
Come on Colburn give Nick a break. He doesn’t really mean it, he just needs a hate figure every season to up the site’s click bate. At the moment it’s Jack, next season rumour has it that The Saints Band are in his sights. |
| News Comment | Southampton V Watford The Verdict at 12:30:25
The Gods of Football smiled on Russell Martin yesterday, no last gasp winner and your report would have looked drastically different Nick. At 2-1 Martin’s substitutions ( as they have been all season long ) were utterly mind boggling, culminating In replacing Adams with Mara. Baz may be ideally suited to playing tippy tappy ( in the fashion of an old fashioned sweeper ) at the back but his actual keeping ability is almost non existent.He failed to come for the ball that resulted in Harwood Bellis kicking off the goal line and any half decent keeper would have saved Watford’s second goal. Win on Tuesday evening and who knows? The pressure of expectation can do strange things as Leicester, Leeds and Ipswich are currently finding. |
| News Comment | Can Southampton Expect Any Help from Elsewhere This Weekend at 22:41:17
If we win the last six games of the season we are in with an outside chance of automatic promotion purely because two of the games are against Leicester and Leeds. Anything less from us and it’s playoff time I’m afraid. |
| News Comment | Southampton At Blackburn Rovers The Verdict at 12:56:21
There is a saying in football “ Good players don’t become bad players overnight” and generally the same applies to managers. Unfortunately for us,Russ Martin was never a good manager in the first place. A fact pointed out by numerous Swansea fans before he ever put pen to paper. |
| News Comment | Southampton At Ipswich The Verdict at 13:29:54
WestSussexSaint, “ so RM has 8 games to work out how he wants to play for the playoffs and the players/tactics for that”. With respect to you that’s the whole problem with Russell Martin. He’s had 38 games already and with the best and most expensive squad in The Championship he has failed abysmally. Why give him the opportunity to fail again? As I posted earlier on the Forum section of Nick’s site, our owners should immediately take the opportunity of rolling the dice, sack Russell Martin and replace him with Steve Cooper. Cooper has successfully negotiated the playoffs and would install a different way of playing as well as invigorating and providing confidence to the players, some of which have clearly lost belief in Russell Martin. |
| News Comment | Southampton At Ipswich Town The Preview at 13:29:49
Nick, I appreciate that the clocks were adjusted overnight which may have caused a problem for some but we didn’t play Middlesbrough on Saturday, we threw two points away on Good Friday. Secondly, it wasn’t Jack Stephen’s fault that our automatic promotion prospects were all but ended on that day. It was down to our forwards being unable to convert numerous chances together with Russell Martin’s now regularly inability to use our substitutes properly. |
| News Comment | Southampton V Middlesbrough The Verdict at 12:16:15
Boris 1977, “ we’ve not had a solid reliable old hard at the back for several seasons” ? Would have been a great line in a Carry On Film. |
| News Comment | Southampton V Middlesbrough The Verdict at 19:37:35
A performance lacking in desire to win. As others have suggested on the Forum part of Nick’s site, yesterday to me it looked as though some of our players aren’t that interested in being promoted. They looked to be in “ let’s just do enough to get by mode”. Alternatively perhaps some of the more senior pros have seen that Martin’s tippy tappy method of play without a plan B simply isn’t worth putting the effort in any more. |
| News Comment | No Room For Error In Southampton Promotion Push at 11:45:18
Hope springs eternal Nick but realistically the two consecutive home defeats against Hull and Millwall have killed off our chances of automatic promotion. If we don’t make the playoffs from here it will be one of the biggest chokes in the Club’s history. |
| News Comment | Russell Martin Should Not Face Selection Dilemma as Walker Peters Returns at 17:13:30
Spot on JoeEgg. The Hull and Millwall results absolutely killed us, not Jack Stephens. Both were self inflicted wounds. The first caused by Martins ridiculous decision to play a light weight forward line of Mara, Armstrong and Edosie. The second by our keeper’s decision to leave his line to try and catch a ball he should have at best punched. One win and a draw would have done us. Even a couple of draws would have kept us in contention. |
| News Comment | Russell Martin Should Not Face Selection Dilemma as Walker Peters Returns at 09:37:46
For goodness sake Nick please change the record. We are not on the cusp of missing automatic promotion because of the efforts of Jack Stephens. I appreciate that we are in the middle of a three week period without a game but honestly can’t you find anything more constructive to post ? If the answer is “ no “ then perhaps it would be better not to post anything ? |
| News Comment | Southampton Still Not Responding To Chris Nicholl Snub at 10:28:38
As I posted three days ago on the Forum section Nick:- “ I doubt that the pimply faced 12 year olds running the Club’s P R have any idea who Chris was.Hence no tribute”. What should they do now to retrieve the situation ? Perhaps inviting Chris’s widow and family to the next home game to make an appearance in the Directors Box to be applauded. |
| News Comment | Southampton V Sunderland The Verdict at 12:32:28
Bazunu does what the manager tells him. I doubt very much that he looks forward to having the ball passed to him every five seconds when the opposition forwards are rushing toward him. That aspect of our tactics won’t change until Russell Martin changes and it’s pretty evident that he has no intention of doing so. Yesterday we got lucky with our two second half goals, on another day Armstrong having missed the initial opportunities the ball wouldn’t have rebounded so favourably for Rothwell. |
| News Comment | St Mary's To Be Assessed For Smoke Damage Before Sunderland Game at 18:46:03
Surely S F C would not be daft enough to sell tickets on the ticket exchange a mere 48 hours before the game and then postpone ? Even those running the ticketing office must see that there will be some very disgruntled fans should that be the case. |
| News Comment | Southampton At Liverpool The FA Cup Verdict at 10:03:47
Nick, leaving aside my views on the game itself, which I have expressed in the Players Rating section I don’t understand your viewpoint concerning progression to the next round. Had we beaten Liverpool, a financially very beneficial trip to Man United would have occurred.Unlike league football where the home club retain all of the gate money it appears that in the cup the proceeds are split between the clubs. 45% each with 10% to the competition pool. In addition, being Man United the game would have been broadcast live with further revenue coming to the club. As it stands, we put out a weakened team on Wednesday, lost to Liverpool schoolboys, still managed to get K W P injured, and will receive no further monies whatsoever. The club sends me endless emails about buying additional tickets for friends and hospitality but appears happy to avoid obtaining revenue from actually playing football.A very strange way to run a business in my opinion. |
Please log in to use all the site's facilities | | saintmark1976
|
Site ScoresForum Votes: | 67 | Comment Votes: | 2907 | Prediction League: | 0 | TOTAL: | 2974 |
|