Southampton v Swansea

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Southampton v Swansea, Tuesday 26 Dec 15:00
It’s Boxing Day and we meet Southampton at St Mary’s Stadium in our first clash with them since relegation from the PL.
Our manager Russell Martin was lured to Southampton last June after two mediocre seasons with us, compensation still not agreed between the clubs. His entourage of backroom staff followed him, assistant manager Matt Gill. goalkeeper coach Dean Thornton, physical performance coach Matt Willmott, and performance analyst Ben Parker.
Left-back Ryan Manning, who’d purposely run his Swans contract down, also departed for the Saints and former Swan Flynn Downes went there on loan from West Ham.
They sold 7 players for £178m, loaned out 3 players for £5m, a further 8 players departed and 4 loanees returned to their clubs. They spent £22.5m on 2 players and brought in 5 loanees, 4 from PL clubs
Southampton are on a roll of eleven undefeated matches since late September and will be a tough nut to crack. They are not unbeatable though, losing at home to the top two in the division Leicester and Ipswich.
Swans manager Michael Duff was sacked after only six months in charge due to poor results which left us languishing near the bottom of the table.
First team coach Alan Sheehan has been placed in temporary charge since and has garnered two wins a draw and a defeat from his four games so far.
Meanwhile our newly appointed Chairman from the thrifty USA owners, a novice to British football, hesitates and takes his time appointing a new manager.
So a tough task ahead this afternoon, especially now with our club in disarray. A certain win for the Saints most would say, but football results are so unpredictable, especially during this festive period, when any team can beat the other on the day.
Let’s hope the Saints players have ate too much turkey!

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Swansea: Carl Rushworth, Jay Fulton, Ben Cabango, Matt Grimes (c), Jerry Yates, Jamal Lowe, Jamie Paterson, Josh Tymon, Liam Cullen, Nathan Wood, Bashir Humphreys
Subs: Andy Fisher, Harry Darling, Joe Allen, Yannick Bolasie, Charlie Patino, Mykola Kuharevich, Kyle Naughton, Liam Walsh, Ollie Cooper

Southampton: Gavin Bazunu, Kyle Walker-Peters, Ryan Manning, Flynn Downes, Jack Stephens (c), Joe Aribo, Adam Armstrong, Stuart Armstrong, Taylor Harwood-Bellis, Sam Edozie, Jan Bednarek.
Subs: Joe Lumley, Mason Holgate, Che Adams, Will Smallbone, Sekou Mara, Carlos Alcaraz, Ryan Fraser, Sam Amo-Ameyaw, Tyler Dibling

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Southampton 5 (Aribo 17’, Edozie 48’, Fraser 74’, 87’, Adams 93’) - Swansea 0
What a gutless, clueless, talentless bunch of players we’ve gathered together to play for this once proud club.
With cowboys in charge they have gradually shorn the team of any talent by cashing in and selling our best players every season and recruiting inferior ones. We are now seeing the end result, a team of losers, a team made up of inept journeymen and inexperienced youngsters on loan.
After a bright start we missed two golden chances to score then folded like a pack of cards and allowed Southampton to walk through us in the second-half without a fight. We defeated ourselves with elementary mistakes for each of the goals. It was a walk in the park for their players.
Where we go from here I don’t know. Time is of the essence.
Only relegation awaits unless we reset and recruit an experienced Championship manager who is allowed to bring in his own choice of players in the upcoming transfer window.

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Caretaker head coach Alan Sheehan apologised to Swansea City’s supporters for the “unacceptable” second-half performance in their 5-0 defeat at Southampton


https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Hltcvtmcp50

[Estoban]

Very upsetting watching that heavy defeat. Playing players out of position doesn’t help. We are playing with zero confidence.
Why weren’t the players not motivated for this match, playing against our ex-manager you’d think they’d want to impress.
I felt sorry for our fans who travelled so far to watch our highly paid players just go through the motions, not acceptable.

[Iolo]

Iola here, fresh from his holiday in the sun. I missed the shambles at Southampton but I’ve read all about it. It was coming so no surprise.
All our best players now play for other clubs, anybody any good has been sold on for profit, recruit on the cheap and the end result inevitable.