Nordic Saint

Professional sportsmen don't 'sulk'. That is a total fallacy used as an excuse for selling players who still have 3 years left on their contract. The number of times I saw that word used on here last season when Mane and Wanyama were clearly giving 100% and trying harder than anybody, was ridiculous. This is what I wrote in the transfer thread at the end of last season and I still stand by it: 12-05-2016, 08:49 AM #442 For the first time in years our main transfer targets this year should be the players who are already here. They are going to give us our best ever Premier League finish and possibly come within 2 points of a Champions League place. Without the injuries to Forster and Bertrand, we'd probably be 3rd now. We are not going to get players much better than that so let's spend the transfer budget on keeping them here.

Selling Redmond, Long, Clasie, Ward-Prowse and Hojbjerg.

Adam Lallana - 3 in 2, which shows even if you give many years' service to Saints, you can still go on to be great at a big club and that's the message our players need to get, instead of leaving or being sold just after breaking into the first team, like Oxlade-Chamberlain, Shaw and Chambers, and then seeing their careers stall elsewhere. Bale was a rare exception.

It's that time of year again: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/les-sacked-for-giving-turkeys-xmas-654543

Just a bit of clever editing by Les Reed's video PR team. Notice how it's cut back to repeat the ball being thrown against the wall in closeup. It could have just been done for fun or conspiracy theorists might think it was done deliberately to make a particular player look unpopular before he's sold. Either way Forster and Fonte, the clean sheet kings, are good team mates and playing as well together as ever

Les told us that he thinks Puel is a perfect fit. He also told us that this season we have the best midfield options in the Premier League and he saw Redmond as the ideal replacement for Mane. So, what's not to like? http://www.sportsmole.co.uk/football/southampton/news/reed-southampton-have-best-midfield-in-pl_276561.html

If Les were a manager, like he was at Charlton, and in many respects is here, we'd be saying, thanks for the memories, it's time for you to retire now. He made some good decisions in the past but his decision making this year has been very poor and at his age it's unlikely to improve. Football is a ruthless business at this level. Chelsea even said goodbye to Mourinho when things started to go wrong there. A combination of someone who can actually get on with players and managers, like Le Tissier and a young professional who knows the transfer market, like Paul Mitchell, the man who found us our best players and managers, would be ideal. Les has always said that the system is so perfect that anyone can be replaced seamlessly. Well it's time for him to prove it by retiring at 65.

Fonte is 3 years younger than Ibrahimovic and one of the fittest players in our squad. He is also a reigning European champion at the peak of his game. Most top clubs, even Real Madrid, have a centre back in his early 30s. Young centre backs, even expensive ones like Stones, are just too erratic. If Les plans to sell him in January, he'll have several top Premier League clubs making offers, including Man United, where Mourinho would see him filling the role that Terry had at Chelsea. I still don't understand why some Saints fans underrate Fonte so much. He's one of the best central defenders I've ever seen and if we cash in on him in January there goes our watertight defence. Do we really need the money that badly? If so, we should keep him because the number of league places we’re going to drop without him is going to cost us a lot. The idiots who don’t rate Fonte and want us to sell him are the same idiots who didn’t rate Mane, Wanyama and Pelle and wanted us to sell them too. Right now, owing to the sale of those three, the defensive pairing of Fonte and van Dijk is all that's keeping us from a relegation struggle.

Don't worry, you won't have to pay his wages, Nick. Meanwhile, the rest of us would prefer not to weaken the team any further.

Based on the previous sales of Shaw and Chambers, Kat and Les are probably hoping they can make a few bob on Sims and McQueen fairly quickly.

According to various paper reports today, van Dijk's said he'd prefer to go to Man City so he can play for Pep Guardiola and Saints have set the fee at £40 million. That's about £20 million less than we could have got for him.

"The greedy clubs". Let's face it if Kat & Les want to sell a player, nothing is going to stand in their way. They'll already be counting the money they're going to get from Man. Utd. whether we like it or not.

I had one of those mugs on the left. I preferred our traditional 3 roses badge to the modern one. But, I guess I'm in the minority now as younger fans have grown up only knowing the new badge so the traditional badge would mean little to them.

I think the away fans have quite a big influence on events on the pitch at their end, especially getting free-kicks for their team and yellow cards for ours, which is why away teams always seem more motivated kicking towards the Northam. Although the Chapel end is pretty quiet, at least it doesn't have away fans dominating it so our players obviously prefer attacking that end and so score more goals there.

Superb today, I thought: a class above the likes of Stones but probably on less than half his wages.

Yes, but we need someone to score goals.

Not forgetting the 90+ minutes of defensive genius from Fonte.

Juanmi scored the winning goal against Valencia today.

I don't know about personal friends but many seem to worship her like she's some infallible goddess almost on a par with the all powerful god Les Reed. in the past, we used to just support the players and managers and have no interest in who was on the board. I could reel of the Saints' teams and managers of the 60, 70s, 80s etc but can't even remember who was on the board of directors. Rupert Lowe was the first 'celebrity' director/owner I can recall. Nowadays, some fans seem more interested in them than the team.

Fair summary, Stan. The downgrading looks set to continue when Fonte and van Dijk are sold to be replaced by Kevin Wimmer (the defensive equivalent of Nathan Redmond). Factor in the fact that Puel is under orders to play Les's latest signings and players from the Academy as much as possible, then I'm not sure that any manager could do much more than he has. He's on a hiding to nothing.

And it sounds as though our best 2 defensive players, Fonte and van Dijk, are going to be sold next, which will leave our defence as weak as our attack.

Who is looking forward to the Middlesbrough game on Sunday? I'm a season ticket holder so I'll be there and I think I'll be happy if we scrape a 0-0 draw because without our one and only real striker now that Austin is injured that is about as much as we can realistically expect. At least it will be a point rather than getting knocked out of a competition. A 1-0 win and I'll be over the moon. I'm adjusting to our new level of expectations already. But, the next level, when Fonte and van Dijk are sold won't be so easy to swallow. I'll probably still keep turning up though.

Virgil made his own decision to become a striker tonight because he knew without Austin we didn't have one. He has a better footballing brain than Puel and Les Reed combined so he'll be off to another club next year and Les and Kat will already be counting the money they're going to get for him so at least they'll be happy.

You are joking? I've never seen him win a race for the ball with anyone. Have you? His lack of pace is one thing that has really held back our attack this season. When we attempt a swift counterattack, and look to play the ball through, he's still lagging behind the halfway line. As for a 5 yard sprint, defenders and goalies can give him a 2 yard start and still beat him to the ball easily.

I get the impression Les isn't that flexible when it comes to negotiations with players and managers. It was more likely a take it or leave it and the club offer.