Matthew Le God

https://southamptonfc.com/news/2017-02-16/announcement-southampton-sign-martin-caceres

Today was the last match of his suspension. http://www.thefa.com/football-rules-governance/discipline/suspensions

No team with a smaller annual income than Southampton, has more points in the Premier League this season than Southampton.

Why is it woeful? Middlesbrough didn't have a game in midweek, Saints did. Saints also have another game in 4 days time. It appears many modern football fans aren't aware of recovery times of athletes and think they all recover instantly at the same rate as each other.

Since he signed in 2014, only 3 players at any club in the Premier League have more assists than Tadic.

Would you prefer him to lie when asked a question by a journalist?

Out of the 92 clubs in the country 2016/17 Southampton 10th out of 92 - with Puel 2008/09 Southampton 44th out of 92 - admin & points deduction and... 2016/17 Portsmouth 69th out of 92 - cue mass celebrations from the Skates

I doubt the club sees things like that. With new TV deal, the difference in prize money between 8th and 16th is significant.

Puel has listed him a number of times in recent pre-match press conferences as injured.

Lovren replaced by Alderweireld, Alderweireld replaced by van Dijk Does that not suggest we know what we are doing when it comes to signing centre backs?

By who? Randoms on this forum?

Can you imagine Forster trying to do this...? https://streamable.com/39w7k

Caceres isn't on loan, he is a contracted Southampton player.

Why would you think that? Cortese hired Reed in the first place. Why do you think he'd want rid of him?

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2013/feb/06/virgin-media-takeover-john-malone-liberty-global

:mcinnes: Why are you making up things I said? Are you that delusional that you've repeated this nonsense so many times that you've actually convinced yourself that I actually said it?

??? Why is it an "embarrassment" for a club with an income of £120m to sell players to a club with an income of £300m? Liverpool can blow us out of the water for wages. It is delusional to think we can stop our players heads being turned. What do you suggest we do as a viable alternative? Keep the player until the end of their contracts and then lose them for £0 on a Bosman? That is daft.

:mcinnes: Spurs have a significantly bigger income than us, and are about to pull further ahead in income with a new 60k stadium. Plus in any case, they didn't keep... Bale or Modric That is what happens in transfer pecking orders... - Real Madrid have a bigger income than Spurs, so but their players. - Spurs have a bigger income than Saints, so buy their players. - Saints have a bigger income than Celtic, so buy their players. This appears to be a concept you haven't been able to grasp! You may not like it, but this is the case in football worldwide, it has a pecking order and it is largely based on money. ............ Interesting you yet again fail and/or refuse to answer all my questions! Almost as if you don't take on board rebuttals to your nonsense and like to repeat all the same nonsense a few days later for eternity! (that is my 3rd & last post of the day, so I won't be responding after this)

The only alternative is we sign players that the top clubs won't ever want. Is that really going to be good for the club? They'd be worse in quality, but we get keep them for 8 years! You want us to be treading water in the Championship for ever, not getting promoted to the Premier League and not getting relegated to League One? How is that better? Some people strangely look down of being mid table or upper mid table in the Premier League as a bad or boring thing. I'm puzzled as to why fans claim they'd prefer us to be in a perpetual state of treading water in the Championship vs mid table in the world's highest profile league. We have circa 20+ current or recent internationals in the squad (many for decent countries), wouldn't be remotely near that in the Championship. The quality of football on offer would be significantly worse than it is currently.

Do we really need to go through this with you again? We are competing against clubs with significantly bigger incomes than us, offering huge wages to players. Can you please outline what Les Reed should have done differently, because if it involves holding Mane, Wanyama, Schneiderlin etc to their contracts... then we would have ended up with £0 for them when they refuse to sign a new deal and leave on a Bosman. That is a terrible way to run a business. The only way anything can change in terms of player recruitment is... 1) We stop signing players the top clubs will want a few years later. Resulting in a decrease in quality in our squad... hey but at least we get to keep them for 8 years! Are you suggesting we should do that? 2) The club has a takeover by and extremely rich person/company who are willing to invest. But due to FFP rules, they'd be restricted what they could spend. Any infrastructure investment is exempt so that along with increasing commercial revenue is the only way to raise income and therefore spending on transfers/wages through FFP. Do you want them to do that then? Well first we need that kind of takeover, so how about you don't post until that happens, because your relentless negative nonsense is beyond irritating on these forums. ............ To blame Reed and/or Krueger for "lacking ambition" is daft. Of course they have ambition for the club to reach the Champions League, but it isn't exactly easy vs clubs with significantly bigger incomes and an owner in Liebherr who wants to sell and is no longer investing in the club. You don't ever listen to the rebuttals to your nonsense and roll out the same nonsense time after time even when it has been shown to be nonsense.

Puel has for a long time been saying Hesketh is injured when he is asked in pre-match press conferences to list injured players. Which is why he isn't playing for the under 22s, or training/making the squad of the first team.

Of course it is down to more than just the keeper... but much maligned Fraser Forster is 4th in running for PL golden glove award in 2016/17.... I'm not going to deny he has had his bad moments this season, every keeper does and being the last line of defence their mistakes are magnified. But he really isn't any where near as bad as some people on this forum make out. I see little reason to get rid of him this summer.

Of course it is down to more than just the keeper... but much maligned Fraser Forster is 4th in running for PL golden glove award in 2016/17.... I'm not going to deny he has had his bad moments this season, every keeper does and being the last line of defence their mistakes are magnified. But he really isn't any where near as bad as some people on this forum make out. I see little reason to get rid of him this summer.

Why? Everything in the opening post of this thread is still the case.

Yes, of course today was pretty dreadful, but... - We are 9th in the Premier League (with games in hand) - We reached a cup final - Only ONE team above us has a smaller income - Who apart from West Brom (and perhaps Everton) are you realistically disappointed we are below int he table? He isn't going to be sacked whilst that remains the case!