trousers

# conspiracy theory klaxon # Maybe (in a far fetched kinda way), Reed discovered that Koeman was about to do a u-turn on his contract talks with Saints due to having his head turned by the Everton offer. So, the club came up with the idea of Reed doing a "contract talks going well" YouTube video so that the outside world (including us fans) will see that Koeman is the 'villain' in all this and that the club have done nothing wrong. Without Reed's video, would we have known how far down the line the contract talks were between Saints and Koeman? So, rather than the Reed video being an embarrassment to the club, it could be viewed as designed to show Koeman in a bad light.... No? Ok, perhaps not. I think I'll have to trade these tablets in for something more powerful

Irony and/or self-awareness was never one of their strong points

-3.7/10

0.6/10

As much as I would love to claim ITK status, I posted that on behalf of another poster (keithmorg98) who was having a spot of bother posting images.

That's one of my theories too. Wouldn't surprise me if both clubs see the eventual outcome as a win-win.

A cynic might suggest that the announcement has been rushed out in order to make it 'timely'. Good job that I'm not a cynic though...

http://www.saintsfc.co.uk/news/article/2016-17/20160608-southampton-virgin-media-announce-shirt-partnership-3138459.aspx

Any update on who our new manager is going to be, please sir?!

Southampton FC ‏@SouthamptonFC #SaintsFC is delighted to announce @virginmedia as its new main club sponsor

Apologies for not being on this thread for a few days. I've been distracted by some posters from another club on the main board who seem even more delusional than Pompey fans. I think I've got it out of my system now though so time to get back to some proper nutjobbery. One thing is for sure though, Everton will never be able to compete with Pompey's "we're the biggest and bestest" levels of delusion... http://www.portsmouth.co.uk/sport/football/pompey/catlin-airs-doubts-over-league-shake-up-1-7420137

I think the simple difference people are highlighting is that 'we' (Saints fans and local journos, in the main) don't/wouldn't spend days gloating about it on other fans football forums and in opinion pieces in national newspapers. I don't recall 'us' rubbing Palace's noses in it when we snapped up Fonte, for example. Ok, yes, that's a lower key example than Koeman going to Everton but I'd like to think 'we' wouldn't start banging on about it as much as the Everton fans/journos have if we were to find ourselves in a similar position. (but who knows, maybe that's just me being naive..."Saints tinted glasses, blah, blah, etc") In the words of Fun Boy Three and Bananarama...."It Ain't What You Do, It's The Way That You Do It" Btw, I don't see many people on here denying that Everton are historically a "bigger" club than us. To me, talking about club size is a red herring though. It's more important to me as a fan whether we are "better" at any moment in time, rather than "bigger".

Nah, can't be. Not a single mention of corner flags or dugouts... But, yes, it does appear that Merseyside's answer to Factless Allen has been scouring this forum to source much of that diatribe. So, a big SWF 'Hello' to Chris. Sadly, it's only a 3.4/10 from me though.

There might be a train of thought (Devil's Advocated, granted) which says that our subsequent success in the last 2 years could make us less attractive to prospective managers as the chances of them being able to 'take the team to the next level' are less than it was for Koeman (and Pochettino before him)...."Glass Ceiling, blah, blah, etc". In other words, there's perhaps a greater risk to a manager's reputation if he takes over us now than if he had done so two years ago. Anything less than top 6 would be seen by some (rightly or wrongly) as a failure.

1.7/10

The difference I was attempting to highlight is that having a release clause takes away our choice on the matter. Without such clauses we could/would/should tell the bidding club to sod off (something we'd particular want to do if Koeman and Everton came calling), regardless of what the player's value is deemed to be.

I had exactly the same thoughts yesterday. On reflection, Moyes would make sense for a club such as ours who are looking to consolidate their achievements over the last few years. Would be a 'solid' and relatively risk-free appointment IMO.

"Philosophy" "But that's normal" "That is disappointed"

A conspiracy theory has just occurred to me... I just re-watched the club's recent 'Koeman contract talks' YouTube video (the one below) and in it Reed states that Koeman was closely involved in the decisions as to who to offer new contracts to. Perhaps Koeman singled out the players that he thought he might want to take to Everton with him (i.e. VvD, Forster and Ward-Prowse) in the knowledge that the new contracts would have release clauses inserted which would then make it easier for Everton to buy them if they stumped up enough cash to trigger said clauses. (I'm making an assumption that the original contracts didn't have release clauses and the new ones do) Just me thinking out loud as per usual. I'll keep taking the tablets.... [video=youtube;_yVFjq1Sw-Q]

Interesting to watch that again. As you allude to, it could almost have been recorded 'today' and still be relevant. I then watched Koeman's first interview. Interesting the number of times he mentions that how impressed he is with the club's policy to fast track players from the academy and how this philosophy was one of the main things that attracted him to the club.... I wonder how that panned out....

Is this how they would/should be categorised? Stepping Stone = De Boer & Emery Longer Term = Howe, Moyes, Villas-Boas, Flores Wild Card = Pellegrini

Hmm, fair point. Although 'The Saints' is only referring to one team, so 's might still be acceptable in the context of the thread title. At least talking about grammar is a slight distraction from the Evertonian clowns that have posted recently.

As 'Saints" is singular, I would also add another s... Saints's

2.7/10