Great to be a Saint !

[Shanghai Saint]

Reading this just reinforces the great progress our club is making!

Just like Barcelona!


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/foo...n-England.html

[Pilchards]

I rank that as my greatest Saints reading ever.
Whst puzzles me though is we lost against Pompey in the under 18's & the under 16's.
Unless someone tells me that we put the 16's in for the 18's then I would understand it better.

Keep it up Saints as this journey is amazing.

[saint michael]

what a great read. You know these things have been happening in the background but still good when you see it all written down. Would be great now to see these players stay with us and get the real benefit of this system on the pitch rather than through additional funding by selling these players.

[Greedyfly]

Uh.....Our Swiss Chairman Nicole Cortese? Bloody nora do a bit of cross checking hey. Stick that name into Google images and it'll show you quite clearly that 'he' isn't out chairmen. Or Swiss. Or indeed a 'he'.

Shoddy.

[Greedyfly]

*chairman.

Shut up.

[saintscottofthenortham]

Really good read.

[rooney]

Enjoyed that1

[chocco boxo]

Good way to start the day.

[slickmick]

Love this bit:

Southampton fans may be enjoying the moment. But behind the scenes, the future is dreamier still.

[um pahars]

Was an enjoyable read.

Investing in youth has served us well over the years and so it is pleasing to see that whatever happens over the next few years there will be a legacy that will help the Club long in to its future. We have always has a great reputation with regards bringing players through and this will only enhance that reputation ensuring that we will have at least have a chance of attracting the brightest talent.

[Made in Southampton]

Wow..... Just wow.

The way the media image has changed with saints in the last couple of months is outstanding. We are turning into the darlings of English football that can do no wrong. Love it!

[Avenue Saint]

Seriously good write up!

Can't believe this is happening to my club!

[niceandfriendly]

All together now... "We love Southampton, we do..."

[Colinjb]

Utterly fantastic.

Really, the contrast in how we are developing to grow and how the Skates squandered the money they had is just Hillarious.

[um pahars]

Utterly fantastic.

Really, the contrast in how we are developing to grow and how the Skates squandered the money they had is just Hillarious.

Indeed. Given they were raking in millions they would have been soooooooo much better off putting some of that in to a decent training/youth/academy set up, as opposed to in to some foreign mercenaries pocket. It's so short sighted that you just have to wonder what was going on down there. For the future of a football club I would have ringfenced a decent one off figure form the Sky money to upgrade behind the scenes facilities.

[trousers]

But this is the Daily Mail ergo it must be clap-trap. Surely?

[saintmatt]

Great read. Lowe deserves a lot of credit for this, shame he doesn't get a mention tbh.

[MongoNeil]

Happy Days!

[up and away]

Indeed. Given they were raking in millions they would have been soooooooo much better off putting some of that in to a decent training/youth/academy set up, as opposed to in to some foreign mercenaries pocket. It's so short sighted that you just have to wonder what was going on down there. For the future of a football club I would have ringfenced a decent one off figure form the Sky money to upgrade behind the scenes facilities.

This is the key, but you are ploughing in hell of a lot without seeing anything for maybe a decade. Even then if your recruitment has not been first class, there's no guarantee of value coming from this route. For the type of owners Pompey have had, it makes sense what they have done. As a fan it would really concern though.

Looking at the cost of the upgrades at Staplewood and the infrastructure already there, that would be about £25M for Pompey, with running costs of £2.5/year. You don't have to go so big, but success will be far more regular from that size of pool than smaller. You can never be 100% sure about Cortese, his long term plans and goals but the forward thinking put into all aspects at the club are reassuring. The Academy epitomises that spirit and it is ridiculous the amount of money being spent in this area by a Championship club. We are sacrificing a couple of super stars in the Championship by going this way, with our only chance of recovery being in the long term.

I can't believe any other Championship club would spend so much on the youth set up when you realise what could be bought into the first team to near guarantee promotion. With Adkins instructed to blood youth into the first team I don't know of any other club sacrificing so much of it's now for it's tomorrow, with the possible exception of Arsenal. Personally it would not surprise me if we have this investment tilted beyond the practical, but as a fan it's very reassuring that it's all for the long term, even if someone else comes in.

[Turkish]

Before everyone gets carried away remember we don't care what "the Daily Racist" says on here and all newspapers just make stuff up to sell papers. Or does this only apply when it's a negative article or one of our players linked with a move away?

[CB Fry]

Before everyone gets carried away remember we don't care what "the Daily Racist" says on here and all newspapers just make stuff up to sell papers. Or does this only apply when it's a negative article or one of our players linked with a move away?

Beat me to it. This article is clearly more evidence of evil lying journalist scum and of course the entire media having an anti-Saints agenda.

Funnily enough there was a thread on here only a couple of days ago of the usual betwetting divs saying we don't need a Sunday newspaper writing positive stories about us and quite frankly they can all leave us alone.

Why don't the Mail leave us alone then - it's a disgrace this has been published, surely?

[um pahars]

Great read. Lowe deserves a lot of credit for this, shame he doesn't get a mention tbh.

I was going to mention that I enjoyed Crocker's references to an era that pre dates Lowe and where we were already recognised and established as a production line of talent. I thought it made a refreshing change to acknowledge what had happened in the past, unlike some revisionists of later years.

[um pahars]

Before everyone gets carried away remember we don't care what "the Daily Racist" says on here and all newspapers just make stuff up to sell papers. Or does this only apply when it's a negative article or one of our players linked with a move away?

LOL.

Go and do a cross reference to see if anyone who was advocating a "media silence/they're all lying scum/don't need them recently" is now posting on this thread.

[70's Mike]

Have noticed that the press are all starting to talk positive about us since we went 5 points clear, protecting their future sources and not wanting to fall out with NC when we get back in the top flight

[MarkSFC]

its all great what is happening in the academy and what has gone before. The thing that matters is that if we are going to continue to create good and excellent players we need to have the incentives in place to keep them here. This is the main thing lowe got completelx wrong. The first team needs to be accesible but more importantly being succesful in the upper echelons of the prem and over tge long term. At our height under lowe in summer 2003 wd didnt invest and the slide began. I doubt cortese will fail in thbt regard.
importantly being succesful in the upper echelons of the prem and over tge long term. At our height under lowe in summer 2003 wd didnt invest and the slide began. I doubt cortese will fail in thbt regard.

[alpine_saint]

I was going to mention that I enjoyed Reed's references to an era that pre dates Lowe and where we were already recognised and established as a production line of talent. I thought it made a refreshing change to acknowledge what had happened in the past, unlike some revisionists of later years.

This.

I despise the lie that Lowe invented "forward looking" and "investment in youth" at SFC.

[up and away]

Originally Posted by saintmatt

Great read. Lowe deserves a lot of credit for this, shame he doesn't get a mention tbh

I was going to mention that I enjoyed Reed's references to an era that pre dates Lowe and where we were already recognised and established as a production line of talent. I thought it made a refreshing change to acknowledge what had happened in the past, unlike some revisionists of later years.

We had plenty of succes prior to Lowe and I expect even greater to come post, But what a total shambles the youth set up was in when he arrived. What many others fail to realise is that when Lowe arrived, Souness as manager and Lawrie as DOF, the youth set up was at its lowest ebb within Saints. Mainly because it was starved of funds and priority. Lowe built that whole Academy from scratch by putting the right people in the right places and I can't remember another such turn around for a club in that respect. It was truly exceptional. I don't know how Lowe did it or who he took advice from, but he listened very well and acted equally well. Prost was the key footballing wise, someone recommended by Wenger. Others like Elias and Jennings were part of that great set up.

[alpine_saint]

Cant ignore just how ill Markus looks in the photo accompanying that article.

And Pardew looks like he knows.

[rocknrollman no2]

Great read. Lowe deserves a lot of credit for this, shame he doesn't get a mention tbh.

I dont see how Lowe deserves any praise?Unless of course you count getting us relegated twice a good thing?

[saintmatt]

I was going to mention that I enjoyed Reed's references to an era that pre dates Lowe and where we were already recognised and established as a production line of talent. I thought it made a refreshing change to acknowledge what had happened in the past, unlike some revisionists of later years.

This.

I despise the lie that Lowe invented "forward looking" and "investment in youth" at SFC.

I never said Lowe invented it, I said he deserves credit, which surely he does for carrying it on and, ARGUABLY, taking it to the next level? It's the stubborn refusal of some people to acknowledge that Lowe made any good decisions in his time at Saints that I despise (and I know you didn't say that, but such people exist). Lowe was the chairman that took us to St Mary's, a stadium that I believe stopped us sinking into obscurity following our relegation from the Prem and played a pivotal role in Markus buying us. This cannot be taken away from him. Yes, other people were involved in the move (and they deserve credit too), but Lowe was the one who green lighted it. I didn't see many Lowe Out banners at Cardiff either.

[saintmatt]

I dont see how Lowe deserves any praise?Unless of course you count getting us relegated twice a good thing?

Missing the point completely. I'm well aware Lowe made mistakes, I accept this and I'm glad we're under new ownership. I also recognise he made some good moves, though. People are far too simplistic in their assessment of Lowe; not everything is black and white.

[saintmatt]

We had plenty of succes prior to Lowe and I expect even greater to come post, But what a total shambles the youth set up was in when he arrived. What many others fail to realise is that when Lowe arrived, Souness as manager and Lawrie as DOF, the youth set up was at its lowest ebb within Saints. Mainly because it was starved of funds and priority. Lowe built that whole Academy from scratch by putting the right people in the right places and I can't remember another such turn around for a club in that respect. It was truly exceptional. I don't know how Lowe did it or who he took advice from, but he listened very well and acted equally well. Prost was the key footballing wise, someone recommended by Wenger. Others like Elias and Jennings were part of that great set up.

Also this

[shurlock]

Beat me to it. This article is clearly more evidence of evil lying journalist scum and of course the entire media having an anti-Saints agenda.

Funnily enough there was a thread on here only a couple of days ago of the usual betwetting divs saying we don't need a Sunday newspaper writing positive stories about us and quite frankly they can all leave us alone.

Why don't the Mail leave us alone then - it's a disgrace this has been published, surely?

Mate, you're a bore.

If you're unable to distinguish between different type of articles: opinion pieces, unreferenced speculation, articles with directly attributable quotes and facts with which the journo/paper can hang himself if he gets it wrong (a la Sun), you're a helmet.

Some posters may bury their heads in the sand to bad press while creaming themselves when said paper prints something positive; but a good majority take each story on its merits -and see how far each article meets the gold standard of good, sourced, attributable journalism. It happens that this article ticks more of those boxes than others -and yeh, this article is a positive piece.

That's not to say this article is watertight: talk is cheap -and I take any reference to Barcelona with a pinch of salt; and saying that we invest £2.3m a year in the academy in itself is meaningless unless you have a sense what competitor clubs are doing/spending. But on the whole, its a tidy piece -it doesn't suck off Cortese -it rightly acknowledges the role of past regimes etc; and just as importantly, the journo has some skin in the game.

[um pahars]

I never said Lowe invented it, I said he deserves credit, which surely he does for carrying it on and, ARGUABLY, taking it to the next level? It's the stubborn refusal of some people to acknowledge that Lowe made any good decisions in his time at Saints that I despise

But Lowe used to say that LOL.

I have no problem giving Lowe praise for his work with the Academy and attracting young talent and decent coaches, no problem whatsoever. My problem was his (and others) revisionist tales of how they "invented" it. I wouldn't have singled out anyone for praise going backwards (as you did), otherwise the list would be quite long (McMenemy, Higgins, Merrington, etc).

I just enjoyed Crocker's acknowledgement of our great tradition in this area stretching back a fair few decades.

[Sour Mash]

Some massively over the top comments in that article. Great that we're aiming to be the best, but some of the comparisons are just ridiculous.

[LostBoys]

I would rather the Mail carried on ignoring us.

[um pahars]

Some massively over the top comments in that article. Great that we're aiming to be the best, but some of the comparisons are just ridiculous.

To be fair I didn't read them as direct comparisons (although I know some on here think we can compete with Bayern Munich & Barcelona!!), more a philospophy we are trying to emulate (an emphasis on youth as opposed to perhaps a philosophy of immediate impact through buying players).

[Sour Mash]

To be fair I didn't read them as direct comparisons (although I know some on here think we can compete with Bayern Munich & Barcelona!!), more a philospophy we are trying to emulate (an emphasis on youth as opposed to perhaps a philosophy of immediate impact through buying players).

'We believe we have the equivalent of Manchester United’s Scholes, Beckham and Co already within our system,’ he says. That is pretty direct and a pointless and ridiculous thing to come out with.

[um pahars]

'We believe we have the equivalent of Manchester United’s Scholes, Beckham and Co already within our system,’ he says. That is pretty direct and a pointless and ridiculous thing to come out with.

A little bit of embellishment maybe (you're right, in that I'm not overly sure we need to be coming up with direct comparisons).

[Mattio]

Other Saints academy alumni include Manchester City’s Wayne Bridge, Newcastle’s Leon Best, Fulham’s Chris Baird and Norwich City’s Andrew Surnam.

[Mattio]

Good write up though!

[Ohio Saint]

Bloody hell! That read almost filled that empty feeling left by not having a match this week!!

[eurosaint]

I would rather the Mail carried on ignoring us.

Don't you think that a very positive article such as this (or in any newspaper!) raises our profile and portrays us as a 'top class academy' which will surely help us attract the cream of the crop in the future ???

[SOTONS EAST SIDE]

This.

I despise the lie that Lowe invented "forward looking" and "investment in youth" at SFC.

+1 The Wallaces, Williams, Le Tiss ect, were before L*we, not because of him. FFS!!!!

[MongoNeil]

Who does their proof reading?

"Saviour: Markus Liebherr (right), pictured with former Soouthampton boss Alan Pardew in 2009"

[Pugwash]

Not really thought about it before, but I suppose the numbers add up:

126 kids coming through!

[70's Mike]

+1 The Wallaces, Williams, Le Tiss ect, were before L*we, not because of him. FFS!!!!

add Shearer and you could possibly argue that the players pre Lowe achieved more in the game than those post Lowe

[sperm_john]

love waking up on a sunday to texts from the arsenal supporting farther in law saying read the mail to be confronted with a double page spread like that ..golden!

[offix]

Great read. Thank you for posting that

[Wes Tender]

Missing the point completely. I'm well aware Lowe made mistakes, I accept this and I'm glad we're under new ownership. I also recognise he made some good moves, though. People are far too simplistic in their assessment of Lowe; not everything is black and white.

I agree that Lowe deserves credit. If he hadn't totally f*cked the club over, we wouldn't have got shot of him, Askham, Richardson and other hangers-on and replaced them with Markus Liebherr and Nicola Cortese. We're already ahead of where we were when that lot left us in the lurch and heading in the direction that will take us higher than we ever managed under Lowe's regime.