Everton have done us a real favour.

It has been a long time since I have enjoyed watching the Saints as much I am doing this season. Puel has developed the squad, rotated the players brought in some of our academy players and we have been pleased to see the conveyor belt from there continue. We are more tactically aware and are playing some great football. Puel is proving to be a superb manager and coach without the need for a bloody great big ego. So much so that I feel Everton have done us a favour in taking Koeman and while I would have taken Pochettino back over Koeman any day I wouldn't want either of them back now.

 

Good call Godders on every point. Couldn't agree more.

 

Still very early days. But yeah, so far so good.

 

We've been playing good football for some years now. Puel has slotted right in and picked up where others have left off - and the players obviously believe in him.

Something - something much bigger than any one individual - is going very, very right with our club. That's been the case since summer 2009.

 

I tend to agree with your sentiments St G but feel we will really get to see whether the continued rotation Truely works as we get to January.
In previous season we have tended to crash and burn in Late Nov, December and early January where injuries really kick in and the core players are exhausted. A more consistent run of results during this period will prove one way or another

 

Crikey! I have never had so many likes in the whole of my not606 career. I must be doing something wrong.

 

If we can carry on this way and not have a Christmas slump then Puel is a genius. So far, Poch is still the best manager we've had in the PL era but I agree I'm liking Puel a lot at the moment. We've been blessed with very capable managers, and fair play to the board once again for pulling the rabbit out the hat.

 

Can you believe we're all thinking this? We were completely downtrodden once again this summer. You would have thought, surely we can't reinvent ourselves again but we've bloody gone and done it. Does it matter that we'll lose Puel in a few years? Of course I'd prefer to say, "ah, but he's different - quieter, unassuming, ambitious but loyal and will stay with us for a long time". Maybe it doesn't matter and revolution is key to our progression.

 

What a club it is. One of the most resilient clubs in Europe surely.

 

Smug rules. I love being a Saints fan.

 

Like x 10

 

Most resilient in England, but a lot of continental clubs go through what we do every season too.
Ironically, it's clubs like us that do it to other leagues. Sevilla, for example, get ripped to shreds almost every season - I suspect Les etc. are modeling us on successful clubs like them rather than any other British team - I've heard they have a huge football analytics department like we do from before we got our Black box.
There's a whole raft of other "second tier" clubs across Europe just below the Barcalonas, Bayerns etc. who happily play in the Europa every season after getting ripped apart time & time again - it's only English teams that seem to treat it as second rate. I think regular Europa football is our short term focus; becoming the English equivalent of Sevilla rather than trying to compete with the top 4 in the Premier League. Though given the falling standard of the top 4, and seeming break-through of Spurs & Liverpool into that bunch it means we'll have to put at least one of the traditional "big teams" out of Europe entirely every season to do it...

 

I agree with the sentiment and I'm enjoying our style of play a lot more than under Koeman, but that is my personal preference for a more possession based style.

Although I like the performances we're yet to have a great result under Puel, trips to Utd, Arsenal & Milan have all ended in defeat.

Ultimately a winning manager will always be looked upon more fondly than a stylish one

 

Draw away to the best team in the league, Man City?

 

Ahem, Koeman did that the previous week

 

I'll tell you what then StG, how about, did you really need to start a new thread to write that?

Otherwise, all OK. And I liked it too.

 

To my mind you have the big five with all the money - Man U, Man City, Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal. These teams are likely to be scrapping it out over the CL places in most seasons.

Just below them who could consistently challenge for the Europa League: Tottenham, Everton, us, West Ham and Leicester. These things aren't fixed in stone; Leicester can win the league. Tottenham can get CL football for a season, Everton can have a couple of bad seasons, but on the whole you'd expect these teams to come in around 6th-10th.

The genius of the board has been recruiting wisely and getting us firmly ensconced in this second tier of the Premiership, despite all the constant turmoil when the big clubs and our rivals poach all our best players. Teams below us should be coming to St Marys and thinking "well, if we get a draw, that's a good result", just as we do when we play away against one of the big five.

 

Except that the lads were actually properly disappointed that they didn't win against Man City.

Saints have a different setup to the big clubs of the Premier League because they are behind in terms of the historic acquisition of money, sponsors, reputation, etc... So they have this departmental, long term strategy model because the club can be as good as, or better than, other clubs, but do it much more efficiently with less money. But it is not meant to be operated so as to be second to any other club. The model that Saints use is intended to eventually make them regular members of the Champions League. Perhaps even to win the PL once in a while. We're only secondary in physical size, not in intention or expectation.

 

Ides posts a new thread at 10:30pm and Godders replies with a thread of his own at 4am........ There truly is a battle to be thread king, jonny shuttle must be contemplating a surprise eleventh hour attack

 

he is good manager saint
i think he do well for us
we can win more games so good
and get more points and stuff