Saint Without a Halo

Last year we brought in Lovren, Wanyama and Osvaldo without losing anyone key the year before that was Clyne Rodriques, Gaston and Mayuka again with no key losses. So far this year we have brought in Pelle and Tadic and lost three key players with maybe two more going and yet another key one out injured that makes us seven short compared to last season.( four replacements and three new) as well as factoring in the additional risks of failure given the number of proven key players lost we need to replace Hope there is a lot of activity to come

Losing five starters is losing the heart of the team! It will be extremely hard to recover. It is indeed incompetence by the board however you look at it. They should have anticipated this and sought to limit the damage months ago well before Mopo left. A team is not just about good players it is about motivation and team spirit as well. We had plenty of it over the last four years but now it looks like we will have to rebuild from scratch. It is possible to do, but very very risky. Getting good players on the transfer market that come off is risky enough without having to add the risk of getting a team to gel from scratch too. We did not need to be in this position and could have managed two or three exists far better than it appears we did without ripping the heart of the team out! I hope we get it right.

and be paid peanuts

Who all apparently were keen to play for us too!

When you move in the last year of your contract the club gets a lower fee but the player usually gets bigger wages. We probably don't want to meet his wage demands if they are significantly higher than what we have already

This was a natural reaction under the circumstances and we don't even know if he saw the incident himself. A bit mean therefore to blame his at the time reaction particularly as like all his team they were desperate to progress.

We are on the road to recovery of that there is little doubt. Need to try and keep Morgan and Dejan though! I hope Koeman is a good motivator/infuencer!

Good read a lot of it resonates with me too!

Hope it wasn't Tadic that upset him at Twente

Based on that spelling and it coming off it must mean Hinges to us then

http://www.skybet.com/football/transfer-specials/event/16646941?aff=10645&dcmp=ss_betlink_PAPERTALK

Couldn't agree more

Yet the board would like us to think we are kicking on!

A very sensible post

Very true although to be politically correct I would say an relatively uncommitted owner who finds herself here not by choice and therefore cannot really be blamed for a lack of commitment

I hope you are right but in the past we have not been to good at using money to strengthen well when selling a top asset or two and this time we have to replace anywhere between 3 to 6 players particularly as our team was significantly and noticeably weakened last year every time just one of them was missing! This is a concern as well as the time needed to create a good functioning team from whoever remains with however comes in. Further concerns resulting from how we are currently conducting our business in a panic up to the seasons start means players and clubs can and will hold us to ransom on fees and wages also many players will be asking themselves who they might be joining and what is happening given the current exodus meaning cash and not motivation to play for us will be an even bigger factor. The Premiere league it is a pretty unforgiving place one only has to look at how QPR did season before last with a large number of bought in expensive stars. As I supporter of course I hope we buy sensibly and quickly and our team gels ASAP which is of course very possible However there are great risks in the approach we are taking and I believe we did not need to be in the place we currently find ourselves in. For this the board must shoulder a fair degree of this responsibility rather than blame it all on the mercenary ambitions of the ex manager and a fair number of our key players. I would have liked the board to admit they are in a difficult place and be honest with the supporters rather than pass it all off with crass statements about having done their best to keep the ex manager and players, not needing to sell, and strengthening to kick on again whilst all the evidence to date continues to point to the contrary. To me seems clear a decision to cash in on a number of players took place some time ago and yet little attention seems to have been paid to managing the consequences and mitigating the resulting risks in a timely and well managed manner.

Sorry I am not struggling to convince myself! I am convinced, you are not, that is the beauty of debate and differing opinions how boring would it be if we all thought the same! Or maybe you prefer a dictatorship where all say the same whether they believe it or not. I believe it is not just remuneration and the attraction of the CL that has destabilised our ex manager and team and I believe the new board whether by choice or just Naivety have not dealt with the situation well and must shoulder some of the blame. Yes of course money and ambition has an influence on players but it is unlikely to be the sole prime cause in this case given how quickly it happened and the numbers of players allegedly thinking the same. That is my view and I respect yours!

I agree with the above I am also as much behind the new board as anyone as I am a 40 year plus saints supporter however they have been very Naïve to date and must be held accountable for the current mess. I just hope they get their act together in time.

OK lets see 1) Don't make unrealistic and untrue statements of policy We don't have to sell anyone (they did sell) This is all part of us kicking on to new levels (is it?) 2) Be truthful that we need to make savings on wages and cash in on some assets and that we need to punch our weight as a mid to lower table small provincial club. 3) Planned (2) above well in advance as to how they would deal with this transition once they were clear they could not meet Mopos or the players ambitions /financial demands some months ago 4) Decide clearly on an exit policy and make sure they managed the exits over say six months to a year leaving some till at least January and overlapping them with good new players so that potential new players are not left asking why they should join a club everyone else is leaving and sellers do not hold us to ransom and to ensure team disruption is minimised and managed well. 5) Ensuring we had identified and secured replacements early to provide a basis of a team to build around just six weeks before a season begins 6) Gave Cork and Fonte new contracts and appoint a popular new captain to try and re motivate the remaining players 7) Ensure good replacements for the youth teams coaches before sacking them and realising the effect changing academy coaches on our academy players was likely to have at this already uncertain juncture in the club. Surely Koeman could have changed these once he had got his feet under the table Trying not to drop the new manager into it by asking him to sign a whole new team and get them committed and working together for the cause so soon before kick off 9) Ensuring they fully understood the effect of their changes on destabilising the team spirit and the relationship between the players and management and tried their best to mitigate these risks before they all got out of control 10) Made good honest statements to fans about intentions and backed them up with actions. i.e introduced the changes they wanted in a managed manner that allowed change and minimised disruption. (Called change management in business parlance) Just 50% of the above would have been a good start.

At this rate we will need to play both Koemans, Sammy Lee and Dave Watson in the team come August! By the Way Everton and Spurs finished above us and Newcastle and Stoke just below how many players have they each lost without making any signings at all surely their players are not that much worse than ours given where they finished after 38 games. How ever you choose to dress it up the fact we have got to where we are in the state we are is poor management by the board made worse by their constant repetition of the mantra that this is both part of a continuous improvement plan and we do not have to sell anyone two statements not backed up by any evidence at all so far.

Maybe Koeman dosent think much of Reeds and the scouting teams list?

They forgot to mention the playing vacancies!

I am sorry but every team in the league has players who could star in the CL and I cant see any other team imploding like ours are. Yes players are selfish and ambitious but it was always so. This is not the only cause it is obvious there are a large number of players not happy to be at Saints for reasons not solely remuneration related. Both Lambert and Lalanna said they would be happy to finish their careers at Saints then changed their minds was it only money/ambition related? Other teams lose one or even two players with the remaining ones seeing it as a chance to step up this is not happening here. The board for whatever reason has chosen not to resolve the issues the players are not happy with moreover they continue to say they do not have to sell and that any sales will be used as a basis to improve the squad and progress further. This may will be the case but as of today nothing they have done has been in line with what they say. We are in the process of losing the heart of our team with only 6 weeks till kick off. We are on the face of it trying to buy players when the sellers and players know we have money and more over any prospective new purchases will be asking themselves why everyone else is leaving! We have players who don't want to be here! This is a far from ideal situation to be in and I am sorry the board have been complacent in allowing things to progress to this level. The reason is why? They have known for some time that Mopo was going and various players were unsettled yet seem to have done almost nothing to address it. I do not believe this is a transition and a moving forward phase I see it as both a cashing in on the clubs assets and a dumbing down on our ambitions which now seem to be (correctly in my view, for a small club of our size like a Stoke Leicester etc) a lower mid table surviving premiere club. I just wish the board was more open/truthful on this and that they really have got some plans to get in enough players and bed them into a team to achieve this ambition. We are six weeks away from a seasons start with a team made up of youth and a number of players not wanting to be here, This is not a good formula to attract others and we are short on time. Depending largely on the academy has been tried before as a cheap solution and led to our downfall we need to learn from history. bedding in a team in 6 weeks is far from easy! did we have to be here now? In any event whatever happens I will be behind anyone turning out in a Saints shirt as I have been for over 45 years.

My feelings in a nutshell

Your examples of good late players holding out or last minute gap fillers are exactly why I am concerned all of the above have hardly been either successful or fully committed to the cause and they all joined an already successful settled team! If we were to bring in a bunch of similar players to the above and add them to what we have left minus Morgan and Dejan and possibly others we would surely struggle! I await our deluge of good committed players who will take us to the next level with great anticipation!