Southampton V Tottenham Hotspur The Verdict
Monday, 16th Dec 2024 09:07
The straw that finally broke the camel's back, for most Saints supporters the worst 45 minutes they have ever endured at St Mary's when the team finally stuck two fingers up at their manager.
When Saints suffered their two record Premier League defeats a few years ago, there were some good excuses for those debacles, both games saw a player sent off early and they also featured injury issues and poor decisions by VAR, but this debacle had none of those.
We were 1-0 down after only 37 seconds when Spurs virtually walked through our midfield and defence and then 2 goals in a matter of minutes saw us 3-0 down with only 13 minutes on the clock.
We were a shambles, there was no spirit on the pitch & no leadership, it was a side that was clearly baffled by the tactics it was being asked to play and sick to death of being beaten most weeks because of them, this was a vote of no confidence in Russell Martin from his own squad and to be honest no one could accuse them of that before this game.
It was simply a step too far for the players and before the evening was out, for the Southampton board as well.
Once again the team news saw Russell Martin make a couple of baffling selections, Kameldeen Sulemana was one of them and he was clearly irate after 15 minutes when he was hauled off as Martin brought on another defender, he squared up to the manager and he did have a point, whatever you think of Sulemana and personally I wonder why he is in the team given how little he has done for the club in two years, but he was paying the price for Martin once again getting team and tactics so badly wrong, so he had a right to be livid.
But things didn't improve on 25 minutes it was 4-0 and the game was dead aside from how many Spurs would score.
Bizarrely Russell Martin didn't even see the 5th goal go in, he had headed down the tunnel a couple of minutes earlier, for what reason I am not sure.
When we couldn't even hold out for half time and gave Maddison all the time and room he needed to get the ball in from a tight angle, you honestly feared for double figures.
In fairness we dug in for the second half, although Spurs had definitely taken their foot off the gas and we even had the ball in the net, but of course VAR was there to prove it offside and in this case rightly so.
The crowd turned on the manager for the first time this season in open demands for him to be sacked, at least those not heading for the exits.
It was no surprise that within an hour of this game Russell Martin had been sacked by the club, truthfully it should have been 4 games ago, but we cannot turn back time now.
I take no pleasure in Russell Martin being sacked, whenever a manager arrives at the club, I want them to succeed, why would I want them to fail ! I support Southampton FC to see them win games of football and hopefully have a rare chance of glory every now and then.
But I find it hard to feel sorry for Russell Martin, his stubbornness to adapt and change one iota meant that he lived and died by his sword, he cannot claim that this sacking is unfair in any way shape or form, it is of his own making, although I strongly suspect that he won't quite see it that way himself.
Where we go from here is not yet clear, but it does give us the chance of putting this behind us and moving forward, perhaps it is too late to save us from relegation, but hopefully we can now win a few more games and without the pressure on, you never know.
We play Liverpool now on Wednesday and their focus is firstly on the Premier League, then the Champions League, thirdly the FA Cup and finally the league Cup, with the shackles taken off them there will hopefully a revived spirit in the dressing room and whoever is in charge will free the squad from having to pass and pass again.
So we have a great chance of getting to a semi final and you never know we might sneak a trip to Wembley.
So time for a revived spirit in the stands, the change has happened, we need a positive mood going forward, certainly at least until we have given Martin's successor a chance.
Against Liverpool lets go out there and play with freedom and in the stands support with passion, lets talk ourselves up as a football club, not add to the negativity of the last 4 months.
All Photos Via Reuters
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