Southampton vs. Villa Post Match Thread

[oswald funkletrumpet]

We do make excuses for a lot of the signings and performances.

Bennett has potential.... no he doesn't he's 25/26 and been shit from day 1 and can't get in to the Bournemouth team.
Baker and Clark are kids learning their trade.... they have over 200 league games between them, theyre approaching mid 20's and still make the same errors they did when they started. They're rubbish.
Kozak, the longer he's out the better he gets. He's barely scored any goals in a top flight in his career, one Europa campaign and we buy him for £5m+, he's looked a carthorse, terrible signing.
Westwood, for years the ticking dynamo of the team, well that's exactly why our midfield have been soft as shit, slow and weak because we have players like him in it. 5 yard passes do fuck all, he hasn't kept us ticking over, he's helped hinder us. We've made excuses for him for years.
The list goes on, we've had some truly terrible players who have had the honour of playing for us the last few years and to be fair to them they haven't even given they're all on the field, they've folded, they've not competed and at times they've given up. It hasn't been acceptable but we've made numerous excuses for nearly all of them. Hopefully next summer we complete the clear out and chop the rest of the dross, the problem being that we will probably replace them with equal shite because our recruitment team are fucking crap.

Agree with nearly all that apart from the bit where you've blamed the recruitment team. The quality of players we sign is 100% down to the transfer/wage budget, and that is totally dictated by the chairman. No point in constantly blaming the symptoms but ignoring the root cause.

agree with some of that although leicester took a punt with vardy, watford are in the top ten and that ali from spuds was at mk dons

[Clampy]

Leicester are top of the table and playing teams off the park. It would be interesting to see what their wage bill is compared to ours.

[oswald funkletrumpet]

On Westwood I actually shouted loudly at the TV when he blazed that chance over.  A cultured player would have bought that down, thus wrong footing the defence and hit it in with his right foot.  A cultured player he isn't however.

And never will be. He has been a stain on this club since the day he signed.

but its all the stuff you dont see him do that makes him so invaluable

stuff like tackling, tracking back, scoring and delivering set pieces

[Chico Hamilton III]

Lucky draw, we could have been dead and buried at half time if Southampton had taken half their chances. Better than losing but not good. We may be improving under Garde but it's at a glacial pace and this won't keep us up.

[aj2k77]

Wage bills for 2014/15, teams we should be competing against

Newcastle £78.3m
Sunderland £69.5m
Everton £69.3m
Aston V £69.3m
West Brom £65.4m
West Ham £63.9m
Stoke £60.6m
Southampton £55.2m
Swansea £48.1m
Crystal P £45.7m
Leicester £36.6m

You looked at the team sheet yesterday and almost to a man Southampton had better players 1 for 1 yet they're wage bill is £15m smaller. Our recruitment policies have been shit.

[saunders_heroes]

On Westwood I actually shouted loudly at the TV when he blazed that chance over.  A cultured player would have bought that down, thus wrong footing the defence and hit it in with his right foot.  A cultured player he isn't however.

And never will be. He has been a stain on this club since the day he signed.

but its all the stuff you dont see him do that makes him so invaluable

stuff like tackling, tracking back, scoring and delivering set pieces

Those magnificent corners...

[dorsetvillian]

Very lucky not to be 3 down in 15 mins. After that I thought we matched them. I thought the midfield 3 did very well and looked a lot stronger and competitive than in most matches this season. I thought a pacey sub with 15 to go, could have potentially given us the win. Certainly signs of improvement

[Legion]

Don't forget the pointing.

[aj2k77]

Don't forget the pointing.

He's over --------> there, the bloke who's about to score, he's over there.

[saunders_heroes]

Wage bills for 2014/15, teams we should be competing against

Newcastle £78.3m
Sunderland £69.5m
Everton £69.3m
Aston V £69.3m
West Brom £65.4m
West Ham £63.9m
Stoke £60.6m
Southampton £55.2m
Swansea £48.1m
Crystal P £45.7m
Leicester £36.6m

You looked at the team sheet yesterday and almost to a man Southampton had better players 1 for 1 yet they're wage bill is £15m smaller. Our recruitment policies have been shit.

How much of a chunk of our wage bill (and pay offs) contain money to players on older contracts (when we paid big wages) who contribute next to nothing to the first team, i.e Bent, N'Zogbia etc (even Gabby these days).

[LeeB]

We do make excuses for a lot of the signings and performances.

Bennett has potential.... no he doesn't he's 25/26 and been shit from day 1 and can't get in to the Bournemouth team.
Baker and Clark are kids learning their trade.... they have over 200 league games between them, theyre approaching mid 20's and still make the same errors they did when they started. They're rubbish.
Kozak, the longer he's out the better he gets. He's barely scored any goals in a top flight in his career, one Europa campaign and we buy him for £5m+, he's looked a carthorse, terrible signing.
Westwood, for years the ticking dynamo of the team, well that's exactly why our midfield have been soft as shit, slow and weak because we have players like him in it. 5 yard passes do fuck all, he hasn't kept us ticking over, he's helped hinder us. We've made excuses for him for years.
The list goes on, we've had some truly terrible players who have had the honour of playing for us the last few years and to be fair to them they haven't even given they're all on the field, they've folded, they've not competed and at times they've given up. It hasn't been acceptable but we've made numerous excuses for nearly all of them. Hopefully next summer we complete the clear out and chop the rest of the dross, the problem being that we will probably replace them with equal shite because our recruitment team are fucking crap.

Agree with nearly all that apart from the bit where you've blamed the recruitment team. The quality of players we sign is 100% down to the transfer/wage budget, and that is totally dictated by the chairman. No point in constantly blaming the symptoms but ignoring the root cause.

Whilst true to extent, Leicester, Bournemouth, Watford and Norwich are chock full of cheap buys that can perform at this level, it can be done.

[Villa Lew]

After that start pleased with a point. Agree with comments made about Gestede nowhere near Prem standard, but after watching the Albion game, must say he would die for the type of cross Ferguson put over for McClean's headed equaliser. sadly with Amavi out for the season, he isn't going to get many, if any at all.

Disappointed Adama didn't get a run out, needs as much experience as possible. Still believe he can be a future match winner, and do we need one.

[aj2k77]

A fair portion. That would include Given on £50k+, Nzogbia £60k, Bent £70k, Gabby £50k. About £10m p/a wouldn't be far off I guess.

[Pat McMahon]

The game should have been over after 15 minutes as Saints squandered a handful of chances. We grew into the game and were more competitive after that, though a cock up always felt imminent.

Ayew impressed me with his work rate and showed skill too. Hats off to Hutton for his spirit - he must have blocked / deflected 3 goal bound shots. After an atrocious flap at a corner in the first few minutes Guzan had a good game - came and won a lot of centres. We also had a few good spells of pressing and keeping possession, particularly from 30-60 minutes.

Those little lapses are terrifying though- one unbelievable gift from each of Sanchez, Bacuna and Veretout, Bacuna trying to palm away a cross in our box. And conceding from a corner which bounces a few yards out is relegation level.

A better performance than most of late but I was really hoping we could hold out for a win. A draw down there is normally ok but with all the mess of this season to date we need to be winning games and holding on to leads.

[Rudy65]

Chelsea starting 11 cost £240m yesterday. Bournemouth £2m. It can be done. Bournemouth played better yesterday than we have done all season