Nordic Saint

I've factored into it the fact that either you really are an idiot or you're being deliberatley obtuse: "Watford have turned down bids of £35 mill from Man United and £37.5 mill from Shanghai Ighalo."

Yes, Watford have turned down bids of £35 mill from Man United and £37.5 mill from Shanghai for Ighalo and £25 mill from Leicester for Deeney. But, they have all of that Premier League prize money coming in so they don’t need to sell their players. http://www.express.co.uk/sport/football/688014/Manchester-United-transfer-news-Louis-van-Gaal-Odion-Ighalo-bid http://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/leicester-city-transfer-news-25-million-bid-for-deeney-rejected/story-29418736-detail/story.html

"The breakdown due to winning the euros" 'ITK leak' is the message the club want to put out there just in case they get a big cash offer for Fonte. Then the fans can all blame the player and say the club sold him reluctantly. There have been similar 'ITK leaks' in the last few years criticising nearly all of our players and managers just before they have been sold.

But surely even Kat and Les must realize that they need the shop window of the Premier League in order to keep doing that and that if they sell too many of our best players this summer, they'll risk losing it. Why the hurry to rake in all the cash now? Is Kat planning to sell the club?

It bothers us because we are strengthening our rivals, which will potentially cost us points when we play them. Fonte is the rock on which our team is built. He would fill the same role for Mournho at Man United that Terry filled at Chelsea. I cannot believe how much some Saints fans underrate Fonte.

You're right it was van Dijk and Caulker in the Liverpool game. But, the key thing is in both games we missed Fonte. We cannot afford to sell him at any price.

I agree. Selling Clyne, Wanyama, Mane and Pelle was bad but cashing in on Fonte would be terrible. Where is all the money going???

We won't face easier opposition than that all season. Watford are understandably one of the relegation favourites and erratic keeping from Gomes gifted us a goal. But, when they waltzed through the centre of the defnece for the opening goal, I thought this looks very much like when van Dijk and Yoshida played together in our 6-1 home defeat to Liverpool in the League Cup. We were very fortunate that Watford lacked the self-belief of a top team like Liverpool to press home their advantage but sat back like the relegation strugglers they are and decided to hang on. Our defence and the whole team badly missed the leadership of Fonte. If he had started, I doubt Watford would have scored. We also missed conventional central striker. Why Puel left it so late to bring Austin on only he knows. But, it suggests he doesn't know the players very well yet. When we face better teams who have players who will run at us more than Watford did, the lack of an imposing defensive midfielder like Wanyama to stop them overrrunning us is going to be even more obvious than it was yesterday. The positives were that Hojbjerg made a very promising debut and looks like a classy player and Redmond although, especially in the fuirst half not really looking like a striker, also showed a lot of promise in the 2nd half and took his chance well. Pied is an unspectacular but steady replacement for Martina. But, with Fonte, Wanyama, Mane and Pelle, we would have won that game at least 2-0. That was a game against very easy opposition, who came here with no real belief that they could win an away game against a team which finished 6th last season. The Man United game will tell us a lot more.

As I recall, Koeman was very positively received and his appointment certainly lifted fans' spirits again after the losss of Pochettino. An equivalent appointment this summer would have been Frank de Boer.

Carlos Vela was on loan at West Brom but they didn't think he was good enough for them and he spent most of the time on the subs bench so let's hope it's not him.

The lack of appreciation for the quality of Fonte from some Saints fans for our captain puzzles me. He wasn't 'a bit crap' for Portugal in the European Championship finals, was he? We are lucky to have one of the best central defenders in Europe playing for us and he's one of the main reasons we've done so well in recent years. I can fully understand why Mourinho would consider him to lead the Man United defence the way that Terry led Chelsea's. There are few other players in the world who could do it so well.

Saints have done worse. A season ticket was denied to at least one administrator of a messageboard which published views contrary to the club's own. It also appears that the club uses a PR firm to post messages on fans' messageboards as well as the comments sections at the end of Saints articles, in the form of ITK leaks. I expect a lot of clubs do it. It is a strategy in the modern business world, as exemplified by the fake reviews on amazon and Tripadvisor.

"Originally Posted by OldNick View Post Yesterday in the press Lovren and wife were mentioned and it said that Lovren was earning 16k per week. Considering we have been told that the players leave for massive wages (in football terms) perhaps we are not paying high wages as I had assumed he would have been on 20-30k at Liverpool Saint86 Saint86 is offline Registered Use We had the 14th highest wages in the league last season. From that you can take it as we are not paying massive wages. I hope the wider fanbase take note of this." The players are sold because the club wants to make money out of them. That's the way the business operates. Generally, if they are sold to a bigger club and get higher wages, they don't complain. But, the view that club's PR spin promotes through its ITK leaks etc that all of the players and managers who leave are selfish and greedy, would refuse to play if we tried to keep them and the club is letting them go reluctantly is at least 50% bullsh!t. Mane was sold because the club wanted the cash more than the player. Van Dijk and Forster or Bertrand will be sold for the same reason next summer, as it is club policy to cash in on 1 or 2 of our most valuable players every summer.

To be fair, it's not "the Liebherrs". That whole family business empire is distinct from Katharina, whose father broke away from the family business, built by his own father. The smaller Mali group of businesses he owned and left to his daughter has now been sold off by her, and all that's left is this football club. Markus wanted to own a football club. His daughter just got left with it. I think she knows her father had an emotional attachment to it and he also referred to it in his will so it must be difficult for her to sell it. Another way of looking at it is it's the only business she's got left generating an annual income. However, it is generally assumed she must have billions in the bank from busineses that have already been sold. Whether she really does, nobody knows, as Swiss banks are fairly secretive. None of the hundreds of millions of Premier League income the club has received over the last couple of years appears to have been invested in new players or the stadium and only part of the money received from the sale of players has been spent on replacements. So, it does make you wonder where all the money goes. Quite a lot must go on wages but nowhere near that much.

David John is just Sporting Life's betting expert. He's from Leeds and, unlike one of the Daily Mail reporters, doesn't have any issues with Saints.

What a great buy. He's the stikrer I've wanted us to buy for the last couple of years. We could have got him for less than half that price last year too.

Fonte won't really want to go to Everton but the club might want the big money they get offered and cash in on him while they still can and if it's made clear to him he's not really wanted here, he'll go. Later the PR spin on it will be that the player was greedy and looking for a last big pay day. He will be a massive loss to the team this season if he is sold.

Spot on. It is ridiculous, when matches are sold out, that there is a swathe of empty seats on the halfway line. The number allocated to executive boxes should be reduced.

Watford seem to have been very active in the transfer market, signing a few internationals. "The Hornets have also rejected a £37.5m bid from Shanghai SIPG for Odion Ighalo". Would we reject a bid that big for any of our players? http://www.sportinglife.com/football/transfer-centre/article/168/10331106/watford-sign-isaac-success-from-granada-for-club-record-fee

I thought it was quite d ecent performance today, especially the 2nd half. Fonte's influence on the team is enormous. Everything seems to start from him at the back. I was pleasantly surprised by Pied. He looks a tidy player and I'd expect him to be an improvment on Martina. Hojbjerg is a very good passer. Some of his long, crossfield passes reminded me of Liam Brady. Tadic looked very uncomfortable in his new position. It jsut doean't suit him. Sadly, Rodriguez looks the same as he did at the end of last season. I really wonder if he is ever going to be the player he was before he got injured. Austin came close to scoring a couple of times, which is promising. But, we very clearly need a nother pacy striker and I'm sure Puel knows that. Let's hope we get a good one and not Zaza. Overall, better than expected so I'm feeling a bit more confident about the Watford game.

Transfer fees are rising rapidly. He'll be worth at least 80 million in future. Next year we could have got 50 million for him. I was expecting this year to be his breakthrough season but more importantly for him to help us win a trophy. He's going to keep improving for the next few years. He certainly looks a better porspect than Bale did when we sold him. A player as gifted as Mane is virtually irreplaceable. We'll be very lucky to see a player that good playing for Southampton in the next 20 years. Selling him so soon, when he still had 2 years left on his contract, was a huge mistake. For those who say he doesn't try, bullsh!t. He gave 100% effort every time he took the pitch for Southampton and he would have continued to do so if we hadn't sold him.

He's certainly one of the most exciting players I've seen play for Saints in more than 50 years of going to games. Who would you rather have in your team, Mané or Pogba? I'd take Mané. He reminds me a lot of Luis Suarez. I understand the argument that have to sell our best players to the big clubs but I always think we sell them a year too soon. Young players like Mané increase rapidly in value, so even with just one year left on his contract, we'd have got a lot more for him next summer than we did this one.

Clyne, Lovren, Lallana and Mané in a side beating Barcelona at Wembley. I think within 2 years Mané will go to Barcelona or Madrid for 100 million. He's iimproving all the time and I'd have expected 20+ goals from him this season if we'd kept him. He could one day rival Bale as the best player we ever sold.

No rational person could. It's all a bit like the Stepford Wives.

Good, then maybe you can finally stop posting pathetic insults at everyone who disagrees with you. I just clicked on your previous posts and they were all pretty much the same childish stuff. It's ironic that you posted this, isn't it? by Fan The Flames Replies 3,436 Views 535,708 I'm assuming from your user name and your mild aggression that you have a very small ****.