Premier League and Relegation

thecolourbox

Sesh said:

As a Southampton can I prefer to call it qualifying for the championship, not relegation.

It astounds me we are in this position. Money isn't a problem, our academy and scouting seem to work well. We have good players. But successive management choices have been dire. The board have sleep walked the club to nowhere. 

Could substitute West Brom in that post too, except for the "good scouting" bit...

Legionreturns

thecolourbox said:

Sesh said:

As a Southampton can I prefer to call it qualifying for the championship, not relegation.

It astounds me we are in this position. Money isn't a problem, our academy and scouting seem to work well. We have good players. But successive management choices have been dire. The board have sleep walked the club to nowhere. 

Could substitute West Brom in that post too, except for the "good scouting" bit...

West Brom got "Pardewed" ...I can't see him getting another job now. There must be a limit to failure!

EricTheWeary

proggy said:

Nitefly said:

Yes, yes, but...

ACCRINGTON STANLEY!!!

Promoted to League One for he first time ever!

Who are they?

I was going to answer that with a link to the ad but then realised you are about eight steps ahead of me! 

Flanging_Fred

Another Saints fan here - the damage was done a long time before Hughes got anywhere near taking over as manager. You could see Saints decline started well before the end of last season.

It's interesting to see which clubs now have Chinese interests/owners.

Man city
Saints
West Bromwich

Villa
Birmingham City
Wolves
Barnsley

Maybe it's coincidence, but high proportion of those clubs went from being stable to being basket cases in a pretty short period of time.

Maybe I've been wearing my tin foil hat too long but something smells a little fishy...

Nitefly

proggy said:

Nitefly said:

Yes, yes, but...

ACCRINGTON STANLEY!!!

Promoted to League One for he first time ever!

Who are they?

LOL I wondered who would be first!

thecolourbox

Legionreturns said:

thecolourbox said:

Sesh said:

As a Southampton can I prefer to call it qualifying for the championship, not relegation.

It astounds me we are in this position. Money isn't a problem, our academy and scouting seem to work well. We have good players. But successive management choices have been dire. The board have sleep walked the club to nowhere. 

Could substitute West Brom in that post too, except for the "good scouting" bit...

West Brom got "Pardewed" ...I can't see him getting another job now. There must be a limit to failure!

We've had a very Pardewous season yes but the rot set in last February while we were still being Pulised.

Wooooooop woooooop that's the sound of the Pulis

Heartfeltdawn

jellyroll said:

Hughton, Wagner & Benitez have all done great jobs.

Especially Benitez. I think he is fantastic as a man and a coach. Arsenal should be hammering his door down.

Thomas Tuchel must surely replace Wenger now that he's turned down the Bayern Munich gig. You don't say no to things like that unless there's something big waiting in the wings. 

Nunogilberto

joeyowen said:

Being Welsh, we are very close to having Cardiff and Swansea in the PL again which would be amazing

But at the same time, it is very plausible that neither will be.

Panic stations

Being both Welsh and a Cardiff fan, my only hope for Swansea is that they go bust  

fandango

Heartfeltdawn said:

jellyroll said:

Hughton, Wagner & Benitez have all done great jobs.

Especially Benitez. I think he is fantastic as a man and a coach. Arsenal should be hammering his door down.

Thomas Tuchel must surely replace Wenger now that he's turned down the Bayern Munich gig. You don't say no to things like that unless there's something big waiting in the wings. 

As a die-hard Arsenal supporter, I wouldn't say no to Tuchel, although wouldn't pass up Allegri either.

As for Benitez? You having a laugh? He has had his day, and Newcastle is the level he's now at. He won't be managing the top 6/7 again.

If the Arsenal board miss Tuchel or Allegri this summer (2018), we're in for yet more ennui next season with Wenger. Then next summer (2019) when Wenger's contract expires, it'll be a whole different raft of names, and they won't be of the quality of Tuchel or Allegri - one will have been snapped up by Chelski when they cast Conti adrift. And the other will easily find a Champions League club.

It's not pretty being an Arsenal fan, but I do take comfort from the fact the mighty Spuds haven't won the league for 57 years.

Legionreturns

fandango said:
As for Benitez? You having a laugh? He has had his day, and Newcastle is the level he's now at. He won't be managing the top 6/7 again.

Why is it that supporters of "Big" clubs seem to think that football outside the top six is somehow "less"? 

I just don't get it. 

Although I suppose as an arsenal fan you're about to learn about life outside the top six

underdog

Rafa is an excellent manager, gives his all to the club he is in charge of, and gets fantastic results with average players. An arsenal fan turning their nose up at him is quite unbelievable.

TTony

fandango said:

It's not pretty being an Arsenal fan, but I do take comfort from the fact the mighty Spuds haven't won the league for 57 years.

That's odd.

In a parallel universe, where I'm an Arsenal fan, I hope I'd be celebrating what "my" team had achieved, rather than celebrating what some other team had not achieved.

?

fandango

Legionreturns said:

fandango said:
As for Benitez? You having a laugh? He has had his day, and Newcastle is the level he's now at. He won't be managing the top 6/7 again.

Why is it that supporters of "Big" clubs seem to think that football outside the top six is somehow "less"? 

I just don't get it. 

Although I suppose as an arsenal fan you're about to learn about life outside the top six

Yes. And you know what, I've so lowered my expectations, that finishing 6th/7th isn't the disappointment it might seem.

Just bored with the football Wenger dishes out. Even the home wins against Milan and CSKA were just a bit ... yawn.

I'd love to see Dyche and Howe shake out the perennial failures (such as Pardew, Moyes, Allardyce).

Wazmeister

TheBigDipper said:

As a QPR fan, the amount of bile I reserve for Mark Hughes and the way he took advantage of my club and the well-meaning but naive owners cannot be overestimated. 

Im a Q.P.R. fan too mate, and agree 100%... Hughes arrogance is amazing

Rocker

Allardyce a failure? Come on! He is the only England manager with a 100% record. 

Philly_Q

Roysterdoyster said:

Could be?....although my favourite potential stat for this year is that it looks like Mark Hughes is going to take two teams down...Stoke and Southampton.  Has that happened before?

I think it's fair enough to blame Hughes for Stoke, but on the same basis surely Pellegrino has to take the blame for Southampton?  Although Hughes isn't helping....

I hope they both go down....

Nunogilberto said:

joeyowen said:

Being Welsh, we are very close to having Cardiff and Swansea in the PL again which would be amazing

But at the same time, it is very plausible that neither will be.

Panic stations

Being both Welsh and a Cardiff fan, my only hope for Swansea is that they go bust  

As a Swansea fan I've never really got the Swansea/Cardiff hatred, but I have now lived in London for 35 years so maybe perspectives change - personally I'd be glad to see two Welsh clubs in the Premier League (again).

You may get your wish next year.  If we do manage to stay up I'm sure someone (probably fucking Everton) will poach Carvalhal, we'll get another twat like Brad Bobley or Paul Clement and next season, in Sunderland style, we'll finally lose the relegation battle.

RobDavies

Sesh said:

As a Southampton can I prefer to call it qualifying for the championship, not relegation.

It astounds me we are in this position. Money isn't a problem, our academy and scouting seem to work well. We have good players. But successive management choices have been dire. The board have sleep walked the club to nowhere. 

To sack a manager who got Saints punching above their weight, finishing eighth in the Premiership, and reaching a cup final was 'dire'.  
Looking forward to Brentford continuing their unbeaten run at St Mary's next season.....assuming we don't leapfrog you, that is.  

Neil

As a West Ham fan I am still sweating although Andy Carroll popped in on Monday on one of his rare appearances and scored - yay!

I think we'll be OK. 

Flanging_Fred

RobDavies said:

Sesh said:

As a Southampton can I prefer to call it qualifying for the championship, not relegation.

It astounds me we are in this position. Money isn't a problem, our academy and scouting seem to work well. We have good players. But successive management choices have been dire. The board have sleep walked the club to nowhere. 

To sack a manager who got Saints punching above their weight, finishing eighth in the Premiership, and reaching a cup final was 'dire'.  
Looking forward to Brentford continuing their unbeaten run at St Mary's next season.....assuming we don't leapfrog you, that is.  

It did seem odd to sack someone who got to a cup final and got to 8th I the league but it was clear that the rot had set in a long time before Puel got the boot.

The football in the last few months post league cup final was terrible. The pathetic exit from a super easy group stage of the Europa league also looked really bad.

In hindsight it seems the problems at the club ran a lot deeper than just the ability of the first team manager. Puel is clearly a competent manager and  I bet he's delighted to be away from the mess at saints.

axisus

Legionreturns said:

thecolourbox said:

Sesh said:

As a Southampton can I prefer to call it qualifying for the championship, not relegation.

It astounds me we are in this position. Money isn't a problem, our academy and scouting seem to work well. We have good players. But successive management choices have been dire. The board have sleep walked the club to nowhere. 

Could substitute West Brom in that post too, except for the "good scouting" bit...

West Brom got "Pardewed" ...I can't see him getting another job now. There must be a limit to failure!

He has had some good runs in the past with unfancied Prem teams. To be honest, if you start with a can of worms it's hard to make a gourmet meal.