Verbal Kint

You hold them to their contracts which have 4 years remaining... Lallana is 26, what's he really going to do if we refuse to sell him? Sulk for 4 years and let his career end? He'll be disappointed for a couple of weeks, and then he'll get over it and prove to other clubs they were wrong not to meet our valuation of him. It's the only thing he can do

Very clever move from Ed to tell the world how much money they'll be throwing around... The transfer fees they get quoted will be insane as everybody knows they're desperate. I fear if we sell Shaw and Lallana we could be in a similar position

No I don't think so. We need a new Director of football who has some real experience of implementing a transfer strategy and allow Les Reed to go back to his role of Head of football Development. I have no belief in Reed to a) keep the current squad happy and b) negotiate transfers well, both incoming and outgoing. Adam Blackmore's tweets only confirms that belief

Comes across as naive in some of the statements he's made, but I don't believe he really has a great input into the things that matter to supporters. Les Reed is in charge of footballing matters, including transfer policy, and is the one who fans should be asking questions of. He should have been the one doing that interview the other day IMO, not Krueger

Reed is the one that concerns me with the new board.pretty clear he is the man solely responsible for football matters and I'm not sure if he's totally qualified for the job. Already we are hearing rumours from Blackmore that the players aren't impressed with him and if it's true he thinks Mayuka could be 'world class', as Derry just said on the Lambert thread, then you have to worry. I just hope we end up with an experienced manager very quickly who won't take any **** from him. But I doubt it. If things fall apart this summer it will be Reed who shoulders the responsibility for it, not Krueger.

In normal circumstances I'd want us to go down a similar path to MP, a young and forward thinking coach type. But these aren't normal circumstances. Unfortunately, and I don't like saying this, but I think we need a 'name'. We have what looks like a lot of unrest within the playing squad and we have a board who, at best, are very naive and we need a manager who will instantly have the respect of the players and can hopefully prevent what looks like being a pretty horrible summer otherwise. The good thing us that 1 week ago the front 3 in the betting were Petrescu, Lennon and Mackay. Now it's Yakin, Koeman and Laudrup. That's promising

What was it Fergie said about Real Madrid? "I wouldn't sell them a virus"

Not particularly. He's clearly been brought in to work on the commercial side of the business and Les Reed made a very deliberate point in his statement of stating he was responsible for football related matters at board room level. The fact RK isn't even in the country would tend to suggest he doesn't have a big role to play either. It will be LR and, far more importantly, KL who will convince MP to stay IMO

You mean Les Reed

They haven't got much of a clue. Blindly following betfair and betting it to massive margins to make sure they don't get stung. When it goes shorter than 1/5 on betfair then it's time to worry, until then take very little notice of the rest of them

I don't think anyone has a problem if that is his current position, nor would anyone begrudge him a move if a deal was done. He needs to respect the fact he signed a 5 year deal last year though and therefore the only way a deal is done is if Liverpool match our valuation, however high that valuation may be. And if we price him out of that move then he needs to remember his words when he signed that very big contract: "If someone was to say that I'd end my career playing for Southampton in the Premier League then I'd snap your hand off for it."

Yes. Absolutely. It's very naive to think the big clubs don't talk with agents before making approaches to the club. Very naive. It also explains why most journalists believe this deal is almost complete. We get the chance to see how tough our board is now when it comes to negotiating fees. Both Lallana and Shaw have 4 years left on their deals and the only benefit in handing out long term contracts to players is because of this exact scenario. We set the price and it better be a big one. Otherwise no deal and if Lalana has a problem with that then tough ****

Bale fee paid in 3 installments over a 3 year period. When they bought him they still owed Spurs money for the Luka Modric transfer

Six months ago, every big club in the country was being strongly linked with Shaw, but for the last month or so it's only really been United. And all of this despite no contact being made with the club. Similarly Lallana was being linked to Chelsea and United. Yet the last month it's only really been Liverpool. And yet again no contact has been made with the club (according to Les Reed anyway) They tap the players up, let the player decide which club he wants to join, the others step aside and the transfer "bidding war" never materialises because the player has decided where he's going already so what's the point in bidding. A nice arrangement for the big boys, in the long run it keeps the transfer fees down as they enter the world of FFP. Too far-fetched?

Or we structure any transfer deals we plan to make in exactly the same way

The woman inherited the club and despite it not really being her “project” has invested tens of millions of pounds to take us from league 1 to the Premier League and is now in the process of making sure we have a sustainable club that’s set up for decades (hopefully) of top flight football. Anyone that doesn’t support her is a bit of a **** IMO. NC’s ‘five year project’ would not have been possible without her signing the cheques. The board she has put in place does not strike me as a short term one. I think she’s here for the long haul and we’re damn lucky to have had her and her father as owners

I didn't say that. When NC was here he was in charge of everything. He couldn't have it any other way with his ego. The new board structure in place delegates and Les Reed, with his football experience, is now in charge of football related matters, as he said in his statement a few weeks ago

It won't be his job so don't see why it matters. It's Les Reed's job to handle any transfer negotiations. The same Les Reed who was NC's right hand man for 3 and half years

Since we were promoted we've spent a total of roughly 70 million on transfers. About half of that has been spent very poorly, and within that you would have to say the worst of all has been Osvaldo, who I think it's safe to assume was very much a MP signing considering they had worked together before. Considering this, why should KL and the board trust the transfer committee and MP to spend 60 million wisely when the evidence so far suggests it probably won't be? Equally, the assumption that we sell Lallana and Shaw and re-invest the funds in new signings is all well and good in theory but in reality I'm not sure I would trust them spend it well. No club has a 100% success rate with transfers, but of our 3 big money signings only 1 has shown he might have been worth it long term (even then i think it's up for debate with Wanyama). That isn't good enough for a club of our size

Have to say it's pretty incredible that MP appears to be holding the board at ransom for a big transfer kitty this summer having spunked away 15 million on probably the worst signing the club has ever made in it's history. With the exception of a great finish against City he was utterly woeful and has shown no signs of improving on that at Juventus

Talking about this with people and I asked why young players need to get first team football lower down the leagues? Why can't they get their experience playing in the Premier League? The response: "Because premier league clubs can't afford to gamble on young players." That right there is a massive part of the problem. The attitude that playing young players is a "gamble" has to change. I'd like to think Saints have started that change of mentality slightly. All this scheme will do is to encourage the Chelsea transfer policy. Hoover up as many young players with talent as possible for low fees due to EPPP, loan them out (put them in the B team), allow them to be nurtured by other people, see their transfer values rise, sell them for a profit. If they do this with another players they will be able to fund their next extravagant purchase and it will help them towards Uefa FFP. And they do all this knowing full well they will barely/never kick a ball for the first team. It stinks

People are talking like he's out of contract this summer and gets to just decide if and when he leaves. He has FOUR years left on his contract. He only goes if we get an acceptable offer. Considering Bournemouth's sell on clause I seriously doubt the 25 million fee being quoted in the press would be enough to tempt the board to sell the poster boy of the club. We need to hold out for 35, and if nobody pays it then he stays. If they do, he can go with everyone's blessing

Copy and paste job. Thanks for the advice though. Much appreciated

“It’s now very common to hear people say “I’m rather offended by that”, as if that gives them certain rights. It’s actually no more than a whine. “I find that offensive”. It has no meaning, it has no purpose, it has no reason to be respected as a phrase. “I’m offended by that”, well so ****ing what.”

"As you know I am member of the board and director of the club and my responsibility is football. Currently I am responsible for transfers, I’m responsible for contract negotiations and all of those board level football matters that the club is involved in."