Saint-Fred

100% this.

Bed wetter... #meltdown

I don't think the board can be criticized for investment since that initial exodus as I have never seen a team with so many 10 million pound plus players in it. Last years squad has to be the best we have ever had in terms of depth. I also agree that there is no way you can hold onto certain players if they really want to go, especially to the top 6 clubs...its frustrating but you are right if we can get some continuity in the upper reaches of the league then maybe one day, that day may come when we hold on to everyone. My frustration is that we sign players late in the window which may (or may not) contribute to the successive poor starts? Imagine if last year we had spent an extra 2 million on VVD to sign him three games earlier (I cant remember when he came in- it may have been before the third game but I thought it was Man Utd?) and in those games we picked up three points-enough to get us into the champions league? Easy to say in retrospect I know, frustrating all the same! I think the club are doing all they can with wages (extending contracts) which is a massive step forward from where we were and if we could nail signings earlier so that they had a full pre-season, I think we would be in a better position.. I also think the fans would be less vocal about there concerns if there wasn't such a gap between the selling of our stars and the replacements!

Too be fair if RK was two games from losing his job it's wasn't a too bad a prediction?

maybe.

^ I get where you are coming from. I suppose the debate is..did we buy those we bought two years ago or prior to that (Tadic, Wanyama, Pelle) by selling them the dream of selling them on? Or actually did that only really come around last summer where for the second season in a row we sold key players. Up to that point I don't think we ever planned it that way? Under Cortese it certainly wasn't the dream. The first exodus happened that summer after he left. Up to that point rumours of bids being dismissed were rife. Up to that point (Morgan aside-who we had agreed could go) we could not have made that deal with any player as it wasn't on the table. Mane and Wanyama obviously had it in their heads that we were a stepping stone but had we kept the team together last summer and possibly added to it..then potentially we could have done what Leiicester did and maybe staying an extra season might have looked more appealing? At present why would you look at staying bearing in mind some of your best team mates will be sold and you will start the season again behind others who hadn't had the turmoil or late purchases of players? I think we have just made it easy for players to expect to move on now and if we are now buying them telling them that then we have created a situation where we will struggle to ever break out of that cycle. Perhaps now we have done it (the first if those by accident) three seasons in a row the board won't ever want to? Will it always be successful- well we have seen that even buying 200 million pounds worth of players doesn't always work..so no it can't always be successful, that's life!

,l A lot of people are talking about having a go at the cups...but it's no coincidence that the best teams normally win the cups..it's the same as the league (there are always exceptions like Leicester last year) but last year Man U and Man city won them..and the team that got the furthest in Europe was Liverpool. The year before was it arsenal won the cup and someone won the league cup..can't remember who but likely to be a big club. When you weaken your team for the league campaign you also weaken it for the cups so dropping down to mid table means that we also have less chance of winning a cup- not a greater chance which seems to be some people's view?

That's a difficult one.. I , for one, was all for RK seeing out his contract but many others on here said that could not be allowed to happen...apparently every one of these professional footballers stop playing if the manager is in the last year of his contract. Apparently we offered a contract (bizarrely as in January we were going to sack him anyway) but we could never offer the six million Everton offered. So in reality the club couldn't win with the Koeman scenario..if he had stayed would people currently be on here saying the club were at fault as he was in the last year of his contract? Some (maybe not you) would be blaming Pelle, Wanyama and Mane leaving on RK being in his last year of his contract? We could have course paid him 6 million pound a year to stay...however what would have been said if we had a poor start then? (Beside the fact that it would be mental for a club our size to pay that sort of money!)

y Fair enough...the thing that really pee's me off is the airbrushing of history that happens.. Now I think Many of our deserters are grade a c*nts but the fabrication and masking of their achievements (which is all part of our rise) is just amazing. I assumed this was another of those... No matter what is said RK did a great job for us and cut those results differently- rather than take the ten worst in isolation- and it becomes a different view point. Two years, two record points haul..you can't get better and Puel is on a hiding to nothing due to that! It the same with Cortese..a total **** but he presided over four of the 7 years of improvement and again people are trying yo airbrush that out of history with incorrect "facts" and give all the credit to Les. It's early days...Puel has a reputation for his teams playing good footy so I look forward to that but ultimately it's his job not mine to deliver results and until he does he will be under increasing pressure. Apparently 8 bad games was enough for RK to be nearly sacked so he need something significant in the next 5 games!

This post lost all credibility due to it being factually incorrect. At no point did we have only one win in ten league games last season. That is a myth perpetuated by those with an agenda.

I thought we were different to clubs like Leeds who make snap (mental) decisions and pay the price for that...I suppose what you are saying is actually we are the same as everyone else- the Southampton way is 8 poor games and you are out (because we forget everything else you have done prior to that) but have a good run and we will forget that completely (as our memory is only about what happened recently) and give you a new contract with a pay rise. I really don't know what the inner sanctum at St Mary's is like so Fair enough it could be as you are describing......I still think that that is absolute madness if true... And in my job if I had two really poor months and then 4 good there is no way my boss would forget those 2 months and give me a pay rise just because of one good quarter. He would be looking at the whole year and saying to me "you are still lucky to have a job after those two months earlier this year so no pay rise for you sunshine!".

Despite the public perception of the exodus being a disaster, just before Koeman joined, RK was actually fortunate to have a squad cleared out and nearly 100m to spend on building a new one to play the way he wanted. Puel hasn't had that luxury, in fact, 20m was spent prior to his arrival and so the entire squad bar one (Pied is the exception) is not necessarily his choice and he is having to work with what was already here to impliment his own plan with players he might not actually chose if given the choice. I do feel he has been put in a really difficult position but ultimately it's his job to sort it! Either he needs to use a system that suits the players at his disposal or get them to play his system and get some results. Assuming it doesn't turn around enough over the break to beat Arsenal, Swansea is becoming a very big game already.

That's crazy..so 8 poor games and the manager is about to be sacked..with us no where near being in relegation trouble and no real benefit of sacking him before the end of the season? then a good few months and the club Offer him an extended deal and pay rise? That makes very little sense..especially for a club which is supposedly so advanced with their plans, next 4 managers etc etc... Or are we saying actually we make it up as we go along, swinging from sacking someone to offering a new contracts in the space of less than half a season? Or perhaps (much more likely) in reality he wasn't two games from the sack at all?

If he was two games from the sack why then did we offer him a new contract only 4 months later? I think the ITKs are contradicting themselves here somewhere?

We have one a proper cup once in 130 odd years..do you really think this year will be any different?

TBF the reason we look better in defence is that we have VVD this year and didn't for the start last year. Once he was in and settled we have been much better.

And the myths begin..how do you know he was two games from the sack? Quoting your opinion as fact again?

Can you show me evidence of this "fact" you have quoted please?

It's very early days..obviously believes in his system and I am hoping to see some of the fluent attacking displays I have heard his previous teams play. I hope the crowd do not turn on him but I also hope he demonstrates some flexibility in his tactics to get results. After all the result is more important than the formation. 10 games in IMO is too late to judge as a quarter of the season is a lot of catch up to do..he needs 3 points from one game of at least the next two games IMO. Also I don't think we did play a high press game under RK.

And the seventh the season before more luck? My point is we had a good manager and over achieved ...Puel is on a hiding to nothing..he won't match (or better) it no matter how good the Southampton way is!

If I have misunderstood what some of the alleged ITK's said about Saints not allowing him to see out the final year of his contract then I retract that bit.... By the way have you started stalking me again? My very own fanboy!!

Puel obviously disagrees about Jay Rod or he would be starting and wouldn't have the west broom manager talking about his signing!

Mainly he got it as everyone else was shocking!

TBF on Austin the formation means he has to pull out wide and he looks awkward there. The diamond might look better against a side which presses high up the pitch?

If he was watching he might be on the way up the motorway to Leicester! :-)