SAINTS fan Geoffrey Smith has sent the Daily Echo a letter following the club's shock Europa League exit last night.

Here are his thoughts on the state of the side ahead of next Tuesday's transfer window closing.

'The writing was on the wall.

As an avid Saints fan for over 50 years, I was certainly NOT shocked by us going out of the Europa League last night.

But more depressing is the way we went out. We went back to the dreaded Branfoot days, of hoofing the ball up field, and we could not even do that well!

Over the last 12 months we were a very good and attractive team playing the type of football we have been yearning for.

This was playing out from the defence through midfield. It also helped that we seemed to have a very well balanced team.

Then we lost Morgan, Nathan, and Toby, plus losing Fraser Forster to a long term injury.

These are very good Premier League players. But look at what we have replaced them with.

A right back that does not seem up to the physical demands of this league , a centre half who did not set the Premier League alight with QPR, a goalkeeper that looks well below standard.

Now we are told we are after another Dutch player who may look very good in Scottish football, but will be found out in this league, though I hope this will not be the case.

In midfield we have Classie who we don’t really know if he can replace Morgan.

I hate to say this against Ronald Koeman, but buying players from the Netherlands and other unknown players who look out of place is not the answer.

We may have a bigger squad, but certainly not the quality.

With all the money we have bought into the club, where the hell are the TOP CLASS signings that we all know we need to push on from last year.

The lad from Chelsea (Romeu) looks ok, but where is the CLASS in midfield, someone that can create chances?

When was the last time we had a decent right and left sided midfielder?

Tadic looked so good when he first came here, but after a dozen games he was just not doing it.

The young lad James Ward-Prowse. All the talk about his free kicks, but when did he last score or set up goals from these? Sorry, but he does nothing for me.

Pelle is a good target man, but that’s all – he has no pace, cannot beat a man, and is not good in the air, which is surprising for his height.

 

Daily Echo:

Sadio Mane needs to have a free role.

He is great at chesting the ball down, but then what does he do with it? It doesn’t help when we have no one playing right alongside him.

Get someone like Bony, Lukaku, this type of centre forward (and please don’t say we could not afford these type of players.) Big, strong, full of running, they frighten defences.

Centre halves love to play against someone who is static, they are easy to mark out of the game.

We need Mane to have a free role across the front line, he is the only one who can frighten defences.

Also get a decent winger with pace.

We all thought that we could push on from last year’s league position, but even though it is early days we don’t seem to be anywhere near the team from last season.

Let’s just hope they will now look very hard at what is happening on the pitch and can use this money to buy a better standard of player than we have.

Always a true Saints supporter.'

Geoffrey Smith