verlaine1979

Huh? Lovren and Toby were both full internationals who cost their previous clubs 9.5m and 7m euros back when that was proper money for a CB. To suggest we 'made' either of them is typical PL myopia.

Never a convincing finisher at the best of times. Good money, especially with his injury record and post-injury form. Hope we can still mug someone into over-paying for Shane Long's pace and hard work before the summer is out.

Most of time you'd need two Peter Crouches piggybacking to get on the end of them...

All I'm saying is that while he's a good player, he's not good enough for Barcelona, so I'm taking that rumour with a pinch of salt. He's a decent defender whose pace elevates him by helping him get out of trouble, but I completely stand by my comment about his final ball. His crossing is absolutely rubbish, and is probably actually better when he cuts back onto his weaker foot, which is says a lot about his general delivery.

Transfer rumours sound like guff. His final ball is nowhere near good enough for Barcelona or Juve to be interested in him.

JRod and Long are both ropey finishers, though the former is at least also capable of the occasional strike from distance (B'mouth last season, Fulham away many years ago). However, neither have ever filled you with confidence in a one-on-one with the keeper, and both have a tendency to scuff finishes more often than not. Probably not enough evidence to go on, but looking back at Gallagher's goals for us and a few for Blackburn, he at least strikes the ball more cleanly than either Long or JRod.

£5m now seems to be the going rate if you want to invest in youth internationals for the squad/future.

The appeal of managing an also-ran club in the PL really seems overstated with some of the names being bandied about. Nagelsmann's stock is so high he's probably only one further good league season + a pop at the early stages of the CL away from being offered a chance at a top ten European club. Same with Tuchel/Emery etc - you don't p*ss your career momentum away on moving back to a middle-of-the-table club when you're in the prime of your career - not unless your fortunes have taken an absolutely calamitous dip.

Is it more impressive to win the league with an unbeaten season than not? Unless you're going to argue that it makes no difference, I don't see how you can struggle to comprehend that not all league finishes are created equal.

Mhmm. Like us being a stepping stone after managing Dortmund. Modest recruitment outlay last summer, huge uncertainty over ownership and investment levels this summer - I'm not sure anyone will be looking at us as a stepping stone to a top job, so much as a nice fat premier league pay day.

Assuming that you're right that he'll have to prove himself elsewhere (though winning stuff at Dortmund and getting to the latter stages of both European competitions two years in a row seems like adequate proof already for somewhere like Arsenal) which is the lower-risk next step for him? Keeping a second tier European club like Roma or Inter or whoever pops up in need of a manager over the next 6 months in their place, or taking a no-rank club like Saints into European contention, which is what he'd have to do to stand even a sniff of progressing from us to a top four premier league job (assuming that's what he even wants). In terms of career planning, we make no sense at all for someone with Tuchel's CV, and that's why he probably gave us a straight no when we asked if he'd be interested in interviewing, as per the story that came out last week.

Like I said, we're a bit bigger and better resourced than those clubs, but would it be enough to make a comfortable and established manager switch to us? I suspect we'd have to sweeten the pot a great deal and that our history and standing would hardly factor into the decision at all.

Let's be honest, we're not a *much* bigger club than either of those. A bit bigger, sure, but if you're in a stable job at a club who are £95% funded by tv money, just like us, it's hardly a case of 'when Saints come calling...'

Mystery outsider/widely reported out-of-a-job-but-managed-a-recognisable-club-at-least-once candidate.

Yup, it's pretty obvious from what his agent said that he wouldn't ever consider us as his next move.

Based on what Tuchel's agent said about the importance of the history of the club and the pedigree of the managers and players who'd been there before, it doesn't sound like he's seriously considering a mid-table premier league team for his next move.

But presumably you see that there's a difference between choosing to take profit/money out of the club, and being obliged to in order to not default on a loan of a few hundred million?

But they saw the value in taking the brand global! I imagine whichever pompey fan fed the media that line is still laughing at how eager people were to believe that one of the founders of Microsoft believed Saints to be a sleeping giant ready for the global stage...

Isn't that coincidentally what ML is widely reported to have paid for the club originally?

It seems pretty clear that KL is selling in order to liquidate an asset that has unexpectedly turned into likely the single most valuable item in her estate. With that in mind, I suspect that the talk about finding a buyer with the money to push the club on is 100% appeasement and spin, as there's nothing to indicate that Lander have anything other than debt to bring to the table. I'm sure that if KL could've found a buyer who'd pay what she wants and has the resources to push the club on, she'd have happily sold to them, but it definitely looks like when choosing between risking the long-term stability of the club and doubling her cash net worth, she's understandably chosen the cash.

But he wasn't sacked because the club performed poorly - just a clash of managerial styles. Dortmund did well in the year's CL, won the German cup and qualified for next year's CL. He needs to prove himself about as much as Mourinho needed to prove himself after being sacked by Chelsea, albeit Tuchel is one rung lower than him on the managerial ladder, and so would be more likely to pick up a Roma/Napoli/Schalke/Spurs/Arsenal type position when it inevitably opens up within the next year.

Presumably, having signed a six year contract, VVD would be walking away from quite a large amount of money in annual loyalty bonuses etc if he handed in a transfer request.

Blimey, when you sum it up like that... abject.

We're linked with him because he's out of a job, and a lot of fans assume that jobs in the premier league are automatically the most desirable in world football outside of managing Bayern, Barca or Real. I'd love him to come here, but if he ends up taking the saints job, he ought to fire his agent - you don't cash in your chips from a top ten club in Europe to manage a middle ranking premier league team that hasn't won anything in four decades.

Interesting - now the Times are asserting that her inheritance was in the order of £300m, with Saints accounting for 2/3 of that. No wonder we never went out and tried to buy Robinho on deadline day...