The thing to remember is that Southampton were playing their kids and reserves. They still didn't look disjointed. If they played their first team it would have been a cricket score.

We knew we didn't have defensive cover in the window. Let's be honest, the reason we named Zeki and Kwesi Appiah are not in case we wanted to. We couldn't loan them or get rid so we had to name them in the 25 as you have to name every professional at the club. If we had got rid we would have tried to get in better cover on a free for sure.

I'm glad we are out of the cup, but blaming it on the changes is weak. Every club does that in the cup.

I also agree that we need to sort out the youth. We have all these players in the U23s playing week in week out or we sign people like Randall Williams or Keshi Anderson from non league and we eventually get rid of them and they never play, why? Boateng has played what once, and Kaikai 2 times? If the academy is not producing then why do we bother. It's a huge waste.

This is the academy that kept us solvent and got us promoted with our sales of young players.

At least it sounds like this year there will be money to go out and get an impact player (or 2) in January.
The strategy of loaning young players out to League 1, then the Championship to gets lots of games in, and learn to be a professional, makes lots of sense and is good long term planning.

Keeping good young players around to help us look better in the odd Cup game and sit on the bench otherwise? That makes no sense.

I doubt AP thought the squad would play as bad as they did. But with the number of rusty, barely fit, or just plain lower-tier players, I'm sure they're not surprised. We were away, so no pressure to put on a show, and we're better out of it.

I expect them to go out in January and buy someone who will be an upgrade, and who will push another starter to the bench --and a bench player to the squad, and a squad player out. I like this plan.

Now we can wait till we play our squad for the FA Cup, and have the same debates all over again

Edited by ThatPetrolRelation (23 Sep 2016 9.18pm)