Professor

Good to see this reminder to intruders. To Forum members I suggest anyone irritated by them ignores those posts and stops responding. Always best not to feed the Trolls.

You wouldn't be disappointed if you hadn't logged onto our message board. I doubt if any Saints' fan invited Everton supporters to post on here, so the problem can easily be solved by you going away. Nothing said by Everton fans has any bearing on our discussions.

If you are the only one in step, you may need to do a reappraisal..... But with the club quiet on the matter, it can't be totally ruled out, although I can't see how he could survive this. Obviously, we aren't the whole fan base on here, but we must be reasonably representative of what the fans think. I have the impression that he's burnt his boats with the supporters who wouldn't want a lame duck manager hanging on to the end of his contract. More likely that the club is silent because they don't want to jeopardise maximum compensation.

Everton is no stepping stone for Koeman. It's more like a broken plank in the bridge and Koeman is a plank if he thinks this will lead to anywhere better. Southampton was exactly the right place to go forward with a splash in Europe next season. At least when he falls he'll be clutching a fistful of money and we all know that's what it is all about.

Agree with this absolutely Koeman's job as First Team Manager does not include responsibility for player sales and transfers which lies with the Les Reed, the Executive Director who deals with scouting and recruitment. Obviously, Reed consults with the First Team Manager but although the press like to personalise player transactions as being done by football club managers that is not the case here, or in many other clubs. That the system works at Southampton is evidenced by the seven years of progression whilst employing 4 different first team managers. I have every confidence that the club will appoint the best manager available as Koeman's replacement. European football and the quality of the squad make this a very attractive package for a top manager looking for a post or thinking about a move. I'd recommend the advice regularly given to Mr Mannering by Corporal Jones.

I do hope so. After his silence all day, it's difficult to see circumstances in which he could stay. The club won't sack unless they have to as they will want the compensation but if he announced tomorrow that he had turned Everton down, surely the club would sack him for disloyalty rather than have a lame duck at the helm. If he were to say he had turned Everton down and wants to extend his stay here for another two years or so, he wouldn't be believed because his credibility is blown. After this episode, surely the contract offer would be withdrawn and he would be sacked anyway. It's easy to argue that the success over the last two years is due to the quality of the squad, and to some extent, the luck of other teams doing unexpectedly poorly. It needed a competent manager, of which there are plenty around, but it didn't require any special ability of Koeman otherwise we would not have been down in mid-table in early January after a run of 8 games in which we won just once, drew one and lost six. That included the home draw with Aston Villa and the defeat against Norwich. Not the record of a super star.

Honest opinion is that Koeman is an uninspiring manager who benefited from Southampton's recruitment system, which did not come within his remit. Everton are welcome to him. He's likely to be a costly flop.

Eddie Howe looks to have a great future and although it's not important, it would be nice to have a real English speaker in the manager's chair. Think he'd be fine and could provide some stability in years to come, but have to agree that Emery is the stronger candidate of the two with his Europa experience. Both of them have flair, enthusiasm and an energy about them, which isn't something Koeman has ever brought to the job.

According to Transfermarkt.co the total value of transfer arrivals at Southampton last season was £51.94m with an average age of 23. If Everton trash their current squad by spending £20m - £30m more than that, there will inevitably be duds in the box. Team spirit counts for so much - how much did Chelsea's squad cost and look where they ended up. All through the Prem League there will be clubs spending the huge new income from the TV deal. For the team in 11th place to try to build a new team in that climate will be very difficult especially because all the teams above them will also be looking to improve. Koeman must know this, which convinces me it's not ambition but just a fatter pay cheque that he's after. He is very ill-advised if he takes this risk, but his adviser stands to make money out of so no surprise there. This could put the skids under any chance Koeman has of managing a genuinely big club because a failure at a different club will destroy his reputation - see David Moyes, Louis Van Gaal, etc. But it looks too late for him now. Boats are burned and Saints should regard themselves now as well shot of him. There are plenty of experienced top level managers as good or better than Koeman. Hopefully, the short list is already on Les Reed's desktop.

Can't really see the evidence for this and his move may still not happen. But many fans liked Koeman for his frank and honest approach and his statement that he would remain to end of his contract was quite clear without being a commitment to go on beyond that. For the club to have a year to replace him would obviously be more acceptable than breaking the contract only 2/3rds in. If he stays now, because it's his choice he could still keep the respect of the fans although whether the club would want him for an unenthusiastic last year is questionable. It would depend on what he had to say. If he does go, then Batman's comment would be in line with many fans who would be pleased to see the back of him because it would imply that he wasn't what we thought he was. But at the moment, isn't the ball still in Koeman's court until he speaks?

Agreeing with Saint-Armstrong's sensible assessment. The 'top' clubs have the financial muscle to pick off players (and managers) who perform well at any other Premier club so under the system as it operate, successful teams will lose personnel to the rich clubs. We've been successful so our people became targets and financially we are not able to keep them. We have to play the game our way by trying to be being more clever over our recruitment. It's not just Southampton, as shown by the Arsenal bid for Vardy. What it does show is that Financial Fair Play is written on paper that would be best flushed down the toilet. I don't actually mean that last comment because FFP does offer a solution to creating a fair and balanced competition but it won't happen as long as those with their snouts in the trough continue to benefit from the way things are. To do something about it, football fans would have to stop going to matches and stop buying Sky subscriptions at obscene costs, but that won't happen either.

Fish, Sea, plenty of. But some are better than others. If one gets away, carry on fishing. Next one might be better.

Premature discussion, no vacancy, although whether Koeman goes now or in a few years time, he will go at some point. When that time comes, sooner or later, it would be good to have a British manager.

Mané's goal drought was a reminder that, good player that he can be, he doesn't work miracles. Any player can have an 'off' period so at £40m, or even less, he should be replaceable with cash left over. But I'm not sure that replacing Wanyama would be particularly difficult, in fact he had to be replaced quite a few times during last season when he wasn't available because of suspensions. It would be a surprise if the Black Box doesn't have several names ready to target in the £12m-£15m price range.

Coming back to the subject of this thread, I liked Les Reed's comments. He clearly doesn't want to lose any players this close season and even if he knows that a couple might want away he wouldn't admit that if he plans to try to persuade them to stay. Quite a departure that the Pre-Season Training Camp is likely to be in the USA which would be in line with Ralph's objectives of a higher profile across the Atlantic. Les seemed to imply that agreement has been reached with Ronald extending his stay. He spoke about the ambition for Champions' League football within a 5-year plan and was positive about making a better start to the coming season as well as addressing the reasons why we fell short by 3 points this time round. He did say that to be at the top of the Premier League you do need a full team of international players, which we effectively have, but this makes pre-season more difficult when players are involved in international tournaments such as Euro 16. Not knowing when players will start their summer break means that Pre-Season will begin with largely a young squad. Thought he was very open and frank.

Agree. He only had brief flourish in the Championship. Given his failure with Saints, despite several first team opportunities, and his flop at Hull any Premier League club taking him on would be running a risk. He is now history here and not a particularly exciting few paragraphs but he will be remembered for the disappointment.

Don't disagree with your comment re stadium. We do know St Mary's is capable of being enlarged but that it won't be a priority as long as we only have a handful of full capacity matches. But gate money is not as important as it once was, now that the TV deal is bringing such massive revenue. Bournemouth surviving in the Prem with their small ground is pretty good evidence. The clubs I mentioned in the OP are in big cities and they also have long football pedigrees, mostly in the top flight, but Leicester have shown the status quo can be challenged. It isn't easy and success isn't certain, but its good that the club seem prepared to have a go.

Being recognised as one of the top clubs is by no means an easy task. It has been achieved by a few and is the ambition of many others. Even though Leicester brilliantly bucked the trend this season, and Saints finished on the fringe in 6th place, the usual clubs are still all around, even though the sequence changes from year to year. As a reminder of which teams we are talking about, it's Man City (4th), Man Utd (5th), Liverpool (8th), Arsenal (2nd) and Tottenham (3rd). Chelsea have to be included and 10th this year may just be a one-season aberration, while West Ham at 7th, like us, aren't regarded by many as part of the current 'elite' group. What makes a top club seems to be winning a trophies, primarily the Premier League, but also the FA Cup and less so, the League Cup. Obviously, going on to win a European competition carries high status and obviously, the Champions’ League is the peak. But achieving something in just one season isn’t necessarily enough. To be recognised as a ‘top club’ requires silverware, or close to it, over a consistent period. Take Arsenal for instance, some of whose fans are becoming restless over lack of recent Premier League titles, but in the last 20 years, Arsenal have won the League title 3 times and the FA Cup 6 times. Leicester’s performance last season was remarkable, but now they have to continue at the same level, or close to it for another season and probably several season if they want to be seen as having an equivalent standing with the other clubs mentioned. You have to be more than a one-season wonder to break through. This brings us to Southampton. While Arsenal were adding trophies to their cabinet in recent years, Saints had one FA Cup final appearance, two relegations and our climb out of L1,plus of course, the JPT. Since then, continual improvement year on year, a run that no other Premier League club is on, is quite an achievement but the club need to do all they can for it to be maintained. Some of the football public and media may see Southampton's last couple of years as just another team in the Stoke, Swansea mould, having some good results for a while but expecting Saints to sink to their position as a run-of-the-mill Premier League club. The challenge for the Board is to keep the improvement going. Les Reed’s comments show he needs no lectures about the fight ahead. An incremental approach has worked so far but if being a top club is what Ronald Koeman means when he says the club needs to show ambition then we do need to take another step up this year and the 5-year plan that Les Reed has mentioned is essential. It would make a start if we could have our name on a trophy in the coming year, and even then once is not enough. With the League and three cups to compete for, we need a strong squad up and ready to go before the season starts. Keeping these players together would be a tremendous step forward but we might need more than just fine tuning and there is no guarantee that we shan’t lose a couple of key players. The reality is that those ‘top clubs’ are looking at far more expensive and established internationals than we can currently aspire to ,in fact they are looking to us to strip players out again. Having a closely integrated group of players together with a tactically astute manager is all well and good but to send a powerful message, this is the time to resist any attempts by clubs to take players we don't want to lose. Being only 3 points off the top 4 last season shows how close we are to being good enough to move forward again. With two years left on his contract I hope we can resist offers for Mane and perhaps these new longer deals being offered might include wages sufficient to keep him and Victor at St Mary's. I'm not saying they are irreplaceable and even the most wealthy clubs do lose players they would prefer to keep but staying near the top long term isn't going to be easy or cheap.

Keegan, of course, it was an incredible shock to see that on the local TV news at 6.00pm but we always knew we were only a stepping stone before he went to Newcastle. Charlie George was an extremely exciting signing and despite coming to us injured we had high hopes of him. I had an 'I saw Charlie George Play' sticker in my car because I was at the FA cup replay at Highbury when Laurie brought him on as a sub against Arsenal. The response from the Arsenal crowd was fantastic, but we still lost the reply.... Laurie's system of bringing in top players towards the end of their careers often worked and the late 70s, early 80s were a great time for Saints' fans.

The Everton link looks more and more like speculation. For the manager of the 6th-placed club with European football guaranteed, to move to the 11th-placed club wouldn't seem very likely unless something very exceptional was on offer, which doesn't appear to have been the case, especially as several other names are being mentioned. If the information about a contract extension is right that would be great for the club, not only because of Koeman's performance in the job but also because it would imply that his terms for the club to demonstrate ambition had been met. He might be tempted to see out this last year and have these conversations this time next year when other opportunities might be open to him so getting him signed up now would be a good job well done by Les Reed.

Jack Stephens is the oddity for me. Made an early break through at Plymouth, I think at FB, and came to Southampton when he was 17. After converting to CB, has been on the fringe of the first team but regularly out on loan. Good enough to represent England at the various young age groups and now in the England u-21 starting line-up but failed to make an impression in his most recent loan at Middlesbrough. He was on a contract to April 2017 but I don't know if that has been extended. Jack is now 22 years old so if he hasn't made the grade yet to play in the Prem this season, maybe he will have to head off lower down the leagues but for an England u-21 player that just looks odd.

It does seem that Hodgson is reluctant to lose Rooney as England Captain. Obviously, he has his reasons but its not as if Rooney displays the leadership qualities of some past England Captains who perhaps gave more to the team than just their own performance. There is a danger that a better player will be left out to accommodate him and even that the playing system might be tinkered with to squeeze Rooney in. As for the cup final. I thought I heard the commentators remarking on Rooney's lack of involvement during the early part of the game and let's not forget that United needed the help of a shocking refereeing mistake in order to get to extra time.

I'm with you Cat. If they win, fine, but I usually expect them to lose. Can't blame the players as too many of them aren't playing top grade football week-in and week-out as England internationals used to do. Their places in the league teams are now taken by the foreign players that populate the Premier League but whom we fans enjoy watching. I did watch the whole game against Turkey, but it was less entertaining than the average game on Match of the Day. An unpromising performance by England, a missed penalty and let's not forget that the first England 'goal' was illegal and should not have counted. The only bright spot was that the lumbering Rooney wasn't playing so we didn't have to put up with the commentators screaming his name every time the ball might hit him.

On the financial side, a guaranteed fee of £2.4m for 6 games plus performance bonus' and share of gate money, should seem worth having but have we become so used to the multi-millions of pounds sloshing round in Premier League football, that just a few million here or there makes no difference any more? We could buy a player this summer for £12m - £15m who might flop (step forward Ramirez or Osvaldo) and we lose most of that fee but carry on regardless. I'm just not sure that this should make the club turn its nose up at 2 or 3 million.

Interesting thought but I don't really think they were over-rated. Theo came into the Saints' team under Redknapp who said he didn't want to play him regularly because he was so young but that he was just too good to leave out. Both he and Ox had the rule run over them by the England management and were deemed good enough to play at international level, so it does seem that something has happened to them as well as time out for injuries. Whether Mane would run into the same problems, who knows, but certainly Morgan hasn't featured as he should have at Man U, given the transfer fee. It makes you wonder if there is something about the Southampton set-up that can make players perform beyond what might be expected of them and that when that's taken away some of them drop down a notch or two. Mane has shown his brilliance at time, but also that he can be a disappointment at other times. Very much hope we keep him, at least for one more year, but I do wonder if he left whether he would be quite as good elsewhere. Have to admit I haven't followed his international appearances enough to tell how well he plays for Senegal.