Nordic Saint

I used to like the days when we could identify with our manager and players for a few years at least before being incited to turn against them. That's what being a fan was about. We used to have favourite players and managers and we felt part of a team. Les Reed has wrecked all that for me. It's now almost instant hatred for every player and manager who arrives because you know Les is going to drive them to a rival club very soon and tell you to view them as money-driven, selfish nobodies. Now it's all just about how great Les and Kat are and that's not what football is about for me.

How much would we have to pay Everton to take Les Reed away? I know he is revered by some on here almost as much as he wants to be but this Echo comment sums up my feelings about him: Reed is a Machiavellian character. That can drive him to personal success but it can also mean that everyone around him is dispensable. He's done a remarkable job of promoting his own image. Everything good that happens at the club is his doing and anything that goes wrong is other people's fault. Anyone who falls out with him, and in the end everyone does, is labeled selfish and money-grabbing. As long as he’s here, we’ll not keep our managers, players or staff. In the case of the managers, I’m not sure he even wants them to stay long as he begins to see them as a threat when they take some of the credit for the team’s success away from him.

There's no chance Everton will want Clasie. They might be interested in Mane, Wanyama, Van Dijk and Forster tough. To be fair to Pochettino, he didn't poach any of our players. Hopefully Koeman will be as honourable.

He'll have to be a pretty easy-going character as Les won't want another one who stands up to him. A few of the potential candidates will probably be aware of that.

Does anybody remember when a few ITK posters on here leaked that Les Reed wasn't happy with Koeman as he wasn't following his instructions to put more of the Academy players in the first team shop window? I guess it wasn't that tough a decision for Les to give Everton permission to speak to Ron then.

Even if they don't get Koeman, Everton will have caused a few problems for Southampton, a club which has recently taken their place in the pecking order. With their talk of 6 million a year contracts, they are forcing the club to spend more than it might otherwise have had to, and they are probably also unsettling one or two of our players with the speculation over the manager's future just before the transfer window opens. To be honest, if we can keep Koeman for another year, we'll have done better than most clubs. The average PL manager's tenure is just over one year and few Premier League managers stay at one club for more than 2. I don't buy this talk of it would be better to let him go now rather than let him see out the final year of a contract. No, it wouldn't. We want him here as long as possible. Fingers crossed that he rejects Everton.

Good point. At the very least, we should keep him until the January window and then take a look at our position. If we do sell him, it certainly should not be to a Premier League rival. Would Liverpool or Spurs sell key players to rival teams just above them? Better to sell him abroad even if it's for a bit less.

He wasn't just covering for Clyne. At the end of Chambers' time here, they were viewed as equals and Clyne was dropped for him on a couple of occasions. That was why it was felt we should sell one of them as it seemed unlikely we could keep them both happy here. As it turned out, we probably sold the wrong one, as Clyne wanted to go to Liverpool in the end anyway. Chambers already has 3 full England caps as well as A Toulon U21 tournament winner's medal, A Charity Shield winner's medal and an FA Cup winner's medal and 83 1st team appearances for Saints & Arsenal, including 10 Champions' League games. Not bad for a player who's only just 21. It would be great of we could get him back here, even for just one season, as next season is potentially the most crucial in our modern history, with Europa League group stage matches and a real chance to break into the top 4 and win a cup.

He's only just turned 21 and he has been superb at centre back for England U21s in winning the Toulon tournament. There can't be many better centre backs of his age out there right now.

He is a top class international striker. That's 5 goals in 12 games for Italy and 23 goals in 68 games for Saints. The top Italian clubs are all going to want him but it would be very hard for us to get a replacement as good. Fonte and Cedric both got their 10th caps for Portugal tonight too. Saints players could be some of the stars of the Euros this summer.

The team now is the best in that period so we really should consider current players. Best: Fonte Lambert Bertrand Van Dijk Mane Worst: Osvaldo Ramirez Delgado Hooiveld Fox

Yes, as history has shown us, any club can: Huddersfield, Preston, Burnley, Wolves, Nottingham Forest, even Portsmouth. In 50 years' time, the top clubs will be completely different from now. Last year the naysayers, were adamant that the only clubs that could possibly win the league this season were Chelsea and Man City and no other clubs' fans should even dream of trying to compete with them. Any that disagreed were called 'mongs'. There are some right, miserable pessimists about: fully paid up members of the ever so 'umble, I know my place, brigade. Some Chelsea and Man City fans were probably saying they had no chance of ever competing with Man Utd and Arsenal not so many years ago. I'm looking forward to seeing Saints take their turn as a top club. We very nearly did it in the 80s.

There aren't many clubs with season tickets as expensive as ours. The club sets the price to just fill the ground, and you could argue they've got their pricing exactly right as we have averaged more than 30,000 in all of our top flight seasons at St Mary's. It's not just about the money though, is it? If it were, we'd only need a capacity of 100 as long as we filled it with billionaires. Football is tribal and the big tribes ultimately prevail. It's all very well trying to stay a small, non-threatening tribe which never grows, but the trouble is, if we do that, some ambitious, expansionist tribe will one day take over our territory. It's what happened to us in the 1920s when Portsmouth built a much bigger stadium, while we stood still. We suffered from that lack of ambition for the next 50 years.

Hands up. Perhaps I did lay it on a bit thick with that post, but I get the impression, perhaps wrongly, that a few of our fans, by no means all, don't view Mane quite as fairly and objectively as they ought to, when he looks to me like one of the best players we've ever had. I'd be as gutted to lose him as I was when we lost Channon, Shearer and Keegan.

That's great news, especially with Koeman staying too. Really looking forward to next season more than any other I can ever recall.

Let's be blunt about this. If Mane had the physical appearance of Clasie, he would be being universally hailed by Saints fans as one of the best players ever to play for the club and NOBODY would want him sold for any amount of money. Conversely, if Clasie had the physical appearance of Mane, he would be getting called all the insulting names under the sun by just about every Saints fan and would be labelled as having a poor attitude.

He could be the next Jason Puncheon, showing occasional flashes of brilliance and making a point of scoring in games against us.

He's played centre back for Arsenal in the Champions League, he's the current England U21 centre back, selected by Gareth Southgate, and he already has 3 full England caps, including one game where he replaced Stones at centre back. That's pretty successful for a youngster, who's only just turned 21. But, you are right, he more often plays right-back and he alternated with Clyne at right-back for us, and also took his starting place in one England game. To be honest, not many centre backs from our Academy have played for England so he is fairly special. But, the fact he gets played in 2 positions may hinder his progress and like our other youngsters who've been sold to Arsenal, his progress seems to have stalled. There were media reports that Koeman tried to bring him back here on loan last season.

Looking at the online seating plan, I'd estimate around 22,000. http://tickets.saintsfc.co.uk/PagesPublic/ProductBrowse/VisualSeatSelection.aspx?stadium=SM&product=ST1617&campaign=&type=S&productsubtype=&productIsHomeAsAway=N

Although Jones is good, Middlesbrough's Acadamy has probably produced the best 2 young centre backs in the last year: Ben Gibson and Dael Fry. Either one of them could well play for England in the future. Pity we couldn't have got one of them in exchange for Ramirez.

Saints' current Young Player of the Year, Alfie Jones, is a centre back, and probably the best prospect currently in our Academy.

Fulham fans will be very happy he's not coming back to them. I'll be disappointed if we're stuck with him for another year. His long-term shoulder injuries mean he's nowhere near the player he once was. His kicking and positioning are still good but he can't make diving saves. He survives on his past reputation. I can't recall him making one good diving save for us, which is pretty poor for a Premier League goalkeeper. His spell in goal probably cost us a top 4 place last season.

I assume what he wants to hear from Les Reed is that he is not planning to sell a couple of our best players every year. Mane will be the real test as his contract runs until September 2018 and he seems happy enough to stay so there is no need to sell him this summer unless it's all about cashing in on him as soon as possible, and Koeman knows that.

Mane seems very happy at the club. The problem may be that the club is getting keen to cash in on him, as his transfer value has soared. They do seem to sell one or two of the most valuable players every year and maybe this is part of their financial plan, and also one of the reasons Koeman may not want to extend. However, even if they would prefer the money, they'd be better off waiting another year or two, as he is is improving fast and his value could double again. From a personal point of view, I think Mane is one of the most exciting players I've ever seen play for Southampton and I'll be very sad to see him sold to a rival club. Real Madrid for 40 million in 2 years' time, I could accept.

Rose is a reasonable attacking player but an awful defender. If he played for Stoke rather than Spurs, he'd be nowhere near the England team.