The9

I'm only going because I want to add Morecambe's ground to my list and they're playing Newport the day before and I may as well watch Saints if I'm up there. Actually if I could drag it out til Tuesday I could go to Mansfield v Newport too. :/

The board are being "rinsed" for allowing the players to get their own way. In ALL the transfers. The Chambers deal, which seems unnecessary even though it's a good transfer financially for us, was the tipping point where people realised literally anyone could go, it wasn't just the best players, it was also the young "for the future" right back who wasn't even starting half the time. Then to draw the line in the sand prior to Rodriguez and Schneiderlin got people's backs up because it showed they could have done that previously for Lovren or Lallana. Damned if they do and damned if they don't now. Schneiderlin also became a bad guy because his response to being told to stay put was childish, egomaniacal, and also underlined that even the "nice" footballers who've been with you for ages are always looking at moving on if they get the chance. Had he not spouted off, I'm sure there would be plenty of people saying he's being harshly treated because we let X Y and Z go but not him. But he decided trying to force through a move was more important than any relationships he still had at Saints.

I'm pretty sure he hasn't and he won't, they just want to convey that he might, so that others who were interested are still interested, without losing the right to contractual bonus payments. Given that the club has to agree a sale and holds his registration, I think he's screwed and should just shut up and get on with it until January. But then I thought that for Lallana and Lovren as well.

Krueger made it pretty clear yesterday that the silence over player sales was to guarantee the best prices. It was also (not very) clear that despite this being the stated plan, there was apparently no desire to sell players until they started wanting to leave. It does sound like they were hoping to ride it out and keep everyone and then decided that after the players started geting itchy feet (without Cortese around to lie to them about how great they were and how much they'd make in bonuses) they would sell anyone they could get enough money for, before u-turning on possible Schneiderlin and Rodriguez sales after the frothiness of the response to selling Chambers (for Arsenal's 3rd highest fee of all time). There is definitely a question in there about how much needed to be raised (considering not only guaranteed tv money but also in worst case scenario Parachute Payments) and at what point the sell-off because their preferred course of action.

Because in one tweet, all of the 6 year journey with the fans has been DESTROYED? #saintsfc

I don't, I think it's pretty clear that there's a particular way of getting someone to be able to leave and the agent will be advising how best to perform the exit strategy once the decision to go is made. Whether that still works when the club has already sold a pile of players and is drawing a line in the sand with an explicit statement remains to be seen.

The gist of it seems to be "he has to get a lot fitter to play wing back in this system" actually. Van Gaal's slapping down the teenager with the big price tag is classic man management as well, eradicate the ego and make him fight for his place, showing that no-one's bigger than the club AND that slacking off won't get him in the team. Though as they've flogged Evra I'm not sure what his fall back position is.

God knows, I saw it on here. I know he didn't say anything about it on SSN, I transcribed that one, dunno about TalkShoite or Solent.

Is this the right place to say "it appears all football fans are the same", after yesterday's love/hate U-turn on various ex-players and someone on the Main Board actually invoking the need for the Fit and Proper Persons test to be applied to Katharina Liebherr...? .

No, you're wrong saying no-one will hate him. Quite a lot of people I know already hate him based on that one tweet alone.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/26813363 You mean "Southampton: New board says financial situation 'difficult'"? Ralph's comments yesterday suggest this "plan to progress the club" involved selling lots of players who they knew were likely to want to leave anyway, without actually asking them to leave.

How do you know this? Were there any others? And was that because of the link between Cortese and Stellar - rumoured to be asking all of the younger players to sign up with them?

I still can't work out if you're deliberately stupid or not.

No chance, they were definitely considering selling, Krueger even said he'd spoken to Spurs about it.

Especially when Cortese was in no position to deliver what he promised either without spending vast wodges of Katharina Liebherr's money, and also only managed to get the team to 8th whilst telling them they could win the League (see quotes above).

Oh, and re: the Transfer Request, well of COURSE it's not true, players don't want to lose loyalty bonuses so they no longer actually request transfers, they just get someone to leak the news that they've put in a transfer and then someone else to deny it, so it's out there, people question the player's intention without them being directly linked to the news, and are aware of his desire to leave without him actually having to do anything that would cost him money.

I was reading some of the old BBC articles from when Cortese left to see what portends of doom were hidden therein. The link below contains a lot of Cortese love, but also the sentences "A presentation to the players in April last year did not ask if Southampton can win the Premier League, but how can they win it?", "This was not an argument over transfer funds, wages or the need for investment. This was not a snap decision or a row that had flared up suddenly. Cortese was not tempted by offers from abroad or new challenges. No, the dispute that ended his five-year spell at Southampton was about the sale of the club. Nicola Cortese celebrated Southampton's promotion to the Championship in 2011 The problems began at the end of last season and although an uneasy truce was reached in May, by the time the season had begun, it was clear all was not well. Liebherr, who was left the club by her father Marcus following his sudden death in 2010, had no interest in Southampton and no knowledge of football - she wanted to sell the club. Cortese was open to that, but his preference for a sale in two or three years was at odds with Liebherr's desire for an immediate sale" and more worryingly re "player loyalty": "The players bought into his vision, wholeheartedly. So much so, that at least one leading Southampton player has a clause in his contract that links his own future to Cortese's. The worst case scenario for the club is that manager follows chairman and players follow manager" All in this one article from January... http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/25755711

Well given that there were only two options, and our Chairman actually responded to the question "was it to meet FFP" on Sky Sports News with an unequivocal "no" yesterday, I'm impressed that there's so much support for the board out there.

Well, yeah, but it's not just you that gets to post boring, sensible, obvious, logical stuff.

As opposed to joining a club where he only knows the manager?

Seems like a reasonable summary.

That's aiming pretty low, I thought we needed 5 new players before we even sold/released any. Now just to break even on league position I want the ones we've lost replaced, plus the ones to improve the side. Targett seems to be a reasonable shout for cover at LB and Reed in midfield, so maybe a couple can be struck off there. So my deluded "improved team" has GK: Boruc, [+New GK], Davis, (Gazzaniga, Cropper) LB: [+Shaw replacement], Targett CB: [+Lovren replacement], [+ New CB], Fonte, Yoshida, (Hooiveld, Turnbull, Stephens) RB: Clyne, [+Chambers replacement] DM: Scheiderlin, Cork, Wanyama AM: Tadic [Lallana replacement], [+ New AM], Davis, Ramirez, Ward-Prowse, Reed [Guly replacement] (Isgrove, McQueen) ST: Pelle [Lambert replacement], Rodriguez, [+New ST], [+Osvaldo replacement], Gallagher, (Mayuka, Sharp, Sinclair, Rowe etc) 8 new players from now, minus any academy players integrated that aren't Targett and Reed.

A fire sale is selling damaged goods in volume all at cut down prices to absolutely anyone, not (for instance) selling the antique back to its home for a significant sum. Lambert was the exception anyway, the rest of them went for loads of money (as they were not damaged goods) and all to top sides - I'm actually pleased he went first, imagine if we'd sold him after Lallana and Lovren, might not be looked upon so happily then. If we'd been flogging them all for a fraction of their value to the likes of West Brom and Swansea, THEN it would be a fire sale.

As a heinous pedant who isn't remotely bothered by that, I'd just like to say you're being an absolute ar5e.

Another one who DOESN'T KNOW WHAT A FIRE SALE IS, FFS.